Mediterranean Schedule Manipulation

Received another brochure from Regent today for next summer's Med cruises. I was surprised by the number of cruises that said "New Itinerary." So, I got out an old brochure and noticed that most of the cruises to Venice no longer go to Venice or anywhere in Eastern Med. So, I went online and searched Regent website.

In 2017, there are only five stops in Venice:

Explorer 04/19 and 10/14

Voyager 06/01, 07/08, and 10/08

There are only three stops in Athens:

Navigator (world cruise) 04/21

Voyager (returning from Asia) 05/22 and 10/15

There are only four stops in Santorini:

Navigator (world cruise) Abu Dhabi - Athens

Voyager (returning from Asia) Abu Dhabi - Athens 05/02; Athens - Venice 05/22; and Venice - Athens 10/08

Obviously Turkish ports and Cairo are gone; but I was really surprised with the lack of Greek ports whether Athens or the Islands. If Regent shies away from risky ports it seems like it is regressing towards mainstream itineraries.

What I would really like to see is the end of the Voyager Med - Asia every year stopping in India each way; those cruises aren't selling well. Why don't they return to GAP with even more interesting ports (e.g, Saipan, Fiji, New Guinea, Vanuatu, etc) and let Voyager winter in Africa. It would be nice to get something different.

Just my two cents;

Marc

Love your idea of the Voyager in the South Pacific - even though I would prefer being on the Paul Gauguin in that part of the world. I do wonder what new itineraries will come up if/when Regent backs off from the Med.

OTOH, the first of our two November cruises has 5 Greek stops (Athens, Rhodes, Patmos, Mykonos and Volos), 2 Malta stops (Valletta and Gozo), and three Italy stops (Palermo, Naples and Rome). Our second November cruise has mainly stops in Spain.

In terms of Santorini (a port that almost everyone loves), I wonder if Regent and their passengers have become tired of thousands of people arriving at this port at the same time. As beautiful as Santorini is, having wall-to-wall people isn't pleasurable. A few years ago a Captain made the decision to change itineraries so that we would not arrive in Santorini with 9 other cruise ships (instead there were 4 on the day we arrived). He said ships get larger and larger - there are more ships being built but the island is not able to get larger to accommodate everyone.

IMO, I would rather see the Mariner transferred to another area than the Voyager since the Voyager's Asian itineraries are extremely popular.