mborchgardt

We spent several days in Victoria and Vancouver before our cruise last year and thoroughly enjoyed both. However, we also did one day post as well. We used this time to take a Kenai Fjords wildlife cruise out of Seward with Major Marine. It was incredible. We saw more wildlife on this cruise than we had seen all week on excursions -- multiple breaching whales, orca and humpback whales, a nursing whale with its mom, dolphins, sea otters and many different birds. Definitely turned out to be an unexpected highlight of our entire trip. We then overnighted in fairly unremarkable Anchorage before flying out the next morning.

Thank you for the review, mborchgardt.

We are looking forward to our cruise. I do hope that it will feel special for us- this is a pretty pricey trip for a family of 4.

We have a reservation in Signatures for the 4 of us. I wonder if it would be ok for our kids to dine in Compass Rose by themselves? They are teens and are used to dining in nice restaurants. Do they have kids club dinners? While we actually want to eat with our kids sometimes they just want to chill.

I too am sensitive to smells, particularly cigarette smoke.

I am getting wary about this so hoping all goes well next month!

Lynn

LynnRuns - We had a great trip and several unforgettable (in a good way) experiences. The trip is pricey, but when I priced out our trip before booking last year it came out nearly equivalent to a Celebrity cruise (although that would have been a larger suite) once you added in all of the extras. It was a no-brainer for me to go with Regent because of the smaller ship, better food and overall feel onboard. I am still confident of that particular assessment post-cruise. We saw many different ships in port and I was never wishing that I was on another one -- except maybe the small National Geographic ship which I'm sure would have been an awesome, but totally different experience. (We did not see a Seabourne ship -- maybe I would have felt differently.) I think you'll find plenty to like and enjoy on Regent. I'm not sure that I felt there was as much value for the price as in the past, but still an overall good experience.

My son's favorite excursion was the Helicopter & Glacier Trek in Juneau. He and I did this one together. They outfit you will crampons, helmets and ice picks and you go for a 2-hour hike on the glacier. Very neat experience.

My daughter's favorite (although it sounds like she is younger than your children) was the 4x4 Excursion on Kruzof Island from Sitka. This provided our only bear sighting -- and that was at quite a distance. She really had fun although it was a little loud and bumpy for me.

I don't recall seeing any teens sitting by themselves in CR at night, but I don't know why that wouldn't work. They can definitely get a table for two. (BTW, the two-tops have the best views in CR.) They could also get room service (same menu as CR) if they would rather eat in the suite. I know they offered pizza for the younger kids at least a couple of nights in Club Mariner, but I don't know if that was available for the youth or not or how many might have been there for that. Any why would you pass up a great dinner option for pizza??

Regarding smoke smells, we did not notice this throughout the ship, but there we several usual spots were it was pretty obvious because of the smoking areas and then an occasional spot where it seemed like it shouldn't be. It was not pervasive. My wife is also very sensitive and it did not come anywhere close to ruining her cruise -- just something we noticed and wished would disappear. I smelled it twice on our balcony while in port, but only for short periods and it could have been drifting from one of the smoking areas with the wind or something. If I had seen it coming from another balcony, I would have called the front desk. I personally wish there could be a no-smoking ship altogether, but understand why that's not practical when your cruising.

. . . Nice to hear of your splendid experience at Kenai. I'd love to do that trip, but I've always been hesitant because I tend to get sea-sick and I've read (repeatedly) that Kenai can be not-so-great in that sense. . . .

 

I'm sorry that you didn't get to enjoy Signatures. Not everyone is real high on the restaurant, but we certainly are. There's such a variety of goodies on that menu, I'm kinda surprised that your kids wouldn't find enough appealing. It interests me, too (NOT a criticism), that you'd not want, at least on occasion, to dine alone with your spouse; I'd think that dividing up once on the cruise would be fun for the kids as well. I wish, too, that you'd ordered one or two dishes from Signatures to have in CR. . . .

 

And may you and you family have many, many more delightful cruises. Thanks again for reporting.

Poss: Thanks for your kind wishes. I so much enjoyed reading your reviews even though I didn't chime in.

We were a little wary of sea-sickness on the Kenai boat trip as well. They do warn you because you have to go into the Gulf of Alaska to get from Resurrection Bay to the fjords. The Park Ranger narrating our cruise said we were lucky to have smooth water, but several people still suffered on the open water. We all took Dramamine (never took it for the main cruise or excursions) before the Kenai trip. I also prefer to sit on the open decks as much as possible which helps. Even with the potential for queasiness, I would say this one was worth it.

Re: Signatures, my son could have found something as he is quite an adventurous eater. My daughter, however, sticks to the basics and they have a pretty clear disclaimer on the Signatures menu that they will not alter dishes in any way. Not sure if that's true or not, but she would inevitably needed pasta for an appetizer or some sauce on the side or something -- so we decided to stick to CR. I did request the escargot from Signatures to accompany our chateaubriand in CR, so I got a taste. If the trip had been any longer, we probably would have done a romantic dinner for just DW and me; but 7 nights is so short and we did enjoy the family dinner time together since schedules are so hectic back home.

Wishing you wonderful future trips as well.

Bummer about the excursion cancellations. The weather is often an issue in Ketchikan..

Glad the kids had a good time, and that you got up close to Hubbard glacier, though it makes me wonder even more why we were not able to on a perfectly sunny day. Maybe someone took my complaints to heart.

RachelG - they may have very well taken your feedback into account. Not only did we get fairly close, but the captain herself offered a very detailed explanation of why we could not get closer (currents, sea ice, etc.) and a literal apology over the PA for the fact that we had to stay 1 mile away from the face.

Tracy Arm, on the other hand, seemed more like a foregone conclusion that we would not go. Only a quick explanation was offered and by the time most folks woke up we had already passed it by. I did get up for our quick spin into Endicott Arm (I think), but it wasn't very impressive. The special Tracy Arm excursion that you loved was initially offered on board (I did not see it online), but unfortunately it was cancelled.

Thanks for your detailed review. We board Mariner next month. We always enjoy a few meals at Sette Marie for Italian food, but have not been on board for the French evening there. Did you go to Signatures during the cruise ?

Liptastic - We did not go to Signatures. We had made reservations in advance, but when we looked at the menus on board, we were concerned that the kids would not find as many choices as they could in CR or P7. I was a bit disappointed and did have escargot the same night we ordered chateaubriand in CR, which softened the blow a bit.

Many posters have had such great things to say about Sette Mari that I hope our experience was an anomaly. Besides the long wait for our mains, I had the sea bass and it was not bad but not great.

The French Bistro was offered only one night -- the day in Juneau when the ship was in port late. Many passengers (including ourselves) returned in the late afternoon/early evening from excursions and upon reboarding they informed us that we could go to the French Bistro in LV "as is" -- that is, with casual attire. We did, although I would have preferred to clean up before dinner. But couldn't convince DW and kids. The French Bistro is all from the buffet, unlike Sette Mari. I am not a fan of the desserts on the buffet at lunch or Sette Mari or French Bistro, so I missed out on those for two nights.

Hope you have a great cruise! Happy to answer any additional questions you may think of.

Just returned yesterday from our Alaska cruise on Mariner. Others like RachelG and Poss have done such a great job with their blogs and reviews that I won’t go into a lot of detail about each port other than to address some of the concerns I had going into the cruise and to highlight a few of the high points and low points for us. Before I go on, thank you to all of those posters who shared information about their experiences and tips. Very helpful for planning.

After two previous cruises on Regent with just DW and me, we decided to bring the kids along for this summer cruise. They are 11 and 14 and are well traveled and used to quiet surroundings and longer dinner meals, so we weren’t concerned that they would adapt to the Regent style.

We started our trip with 2 days in Victoria and then 1 day in Vancouver. Very fun. Highly recommend the Magnolia Hotel in Victoria. We stayed at the Pan Pacific in Vancouver. It is a bit dated, but so ultra-convenient that it was well worth it. They took our luggage straight from our room to the ship. Never touched it until it was in our suite on the ship.

We had a Penthouse B forward on Deck 10. The room was wonderful and while some of the furnishings were showing some age, it was still a great suite. And very clean. We had plenty of room. Our daughter slept on the sleeper sofa and our son slept on a rollaway bed. Our steward would remove the rollaway every morning and set it up during turndown. Loved that they give you both Hermes and L’Occitane products in these suites. I prefer the Hermes and DW and daughter prefer the L’Occitane. We also had a shower which is our strong preference for any hotel or ship, and I don’t believe there were many Penthouse B’s with both a sleeper sofa and a shower. The room did have a very slight musty smell when we boarded, but we had brought a small diffuser jar so we did not notice the smell after our diffuser oil wafted around a bit. Our steward kept the room in great shape during the cruise, although we only saw him 2 or 3 times. Our butler was very friendly and served us room service a couple mornings for breakfast and daily canapes. He was very kind to our kids and they enjoyed him. We didn’t use him for any other services.

Based on recent reviews/blogs, we were concerned about service with some experienced staff being pulled away to Explorer. Our service in CR was good to very good each night we ate there. The sommeliers were great and always remembered our drink preferences. The waiters were efficient but not as outgoing. We never requested a particular waiter, but did try to sit in the same general area in CR. We special ordered once because we really wanted chateaubriand and it was not on the menu (at least that we saw). They happily accommodated this request. Our best meal and service was the first night in Prime 7. Our least favorite meal was the French Bistro night in La Veranda. I was also a little disappointed with Sette Mari. There was a VERY long wait for our main course (to the point that our waiter apologized). The pastas were good, but our mains were not as well prepared as the entrees in CR or P7. Maybe we just ordered the wrong thing or maybe they were training new staff. We did have the perfect table at the back of LV looking out to the aft of the ship – just beautiful. Not a bad place to wait, if you have to wait.

We had selected a number of Regent Choice excursions. For the excursions that we went on, they were very good. Two of our excursions were canceled: float plane in Ketchikan (understandable due to the weather) and a boat ride in Sitka. We really didn’t get a good explanation as to why the boat ride was canceled. I found the Destination Services folks to be less-than-helpful. There has to be a better way to let you know that excursions have been canceled other than a VM on your suite phone 1-3 hours before the excursion. We were obviously not sitting around waiting for their call. They were also very unhelpful with trying to arrange any alternative. One the up side, we did come home with a wallet full of cash from our excursion refunds (since it was x4 for each).

We had not paid much attention to the youth program (Mariners Club) prior to the cruise and were not expecting our kids to participate. They perked up once onboard when they heard about it. Our younger daughter went to several of the sessions. They had two coordinators working with the kids. They played games and did some crafts. She would usually stay about half of each session and then come back to the suite. Our son was in the older group. They really did not have a coordinator and while their sessions had themes on the schedule, he said they usually just talked or played cards. He seemed to enjoy it and made some friends that he shared contact information with.

We have not been huge fans of the shows in the past – just not our thing – but the Cirque Rock-n-Roll show was very good. The aerialists were excellent. I could watch that for hours. Our daughter sings and dances and she enjoyed both shows that we attended.

The ship seldom felt crowded. Really the only time was in La Veranda for breakfast when there was usually a brief wait for a clean table. During the day and evenings, the public areas usually seemed deserted.

Other than the rainy day in Ketchikan, the weather was wonderful. We were able to get within 1 mile of the Hubbard Glacier and the captain apologized that we were not able to get closer due to the current – I thought it was wonderful. We had a very relaxed amount of time there. We watched from our balcony as we approached and first turned to face the glacier and then got ourselves ready and went to breakfast in LV – where we still had a great view of the glacier throughout our meal. Lots of spectacular calving.

Overall, we definitely enjoyed our cruise. Our suite was very nice and butler/steward were very friendly and efficient. Mariner penthouses are our new favorite suite. Food and service in CR and P7 were good to very good. Food and service in LV and its variations were fair to good. Personal taste, I know. That said, I don’t think I felt as good about the cost:value ratio this time. Just didn’t feel as much specialness as we’ve felt before. Can’t put my finger on a specific thing – maybe the service was a bit more mechanical than personal, maybe the food wasn’t quite as spectacular, maybe there was a bit more wafting scent of cigarette smoke here and there, maybe I didn’t feel that anyone went particularly out of their way to make our cruise special. Not sure, but I’ll have to ponder that before we plan our next cruise.

As one additional note, we decided to stay an extra day post-cruise. With that time, we did a Kenai Fjords cruise in Seward. It was 6 hours and I was a little concerned that we would be bored after week of cruising and excursions. However, it was incredible, non-stop action. We saw humpback whales twice, include 4 spectacular breaches. We saw a pod of orcas, including a mom with her baby. They swam under our boat and the water was so clear that you could see their white bellies. Amazing. Also, lots of sea birds, seals, eagles and even a pair of mountain goats. We also approached the Aialik Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park and were able to get very, very close to the face. It was more wildlife than we had seen the whole week. I’m so glad we ended our trip with that experience.

Happy to answer any questions.

TC2-- sorry for throwing out that 800 number. That was just a mis-recollection on my part about Mariner's capacity. There are quite a few kids on board, so I would guess quite a few cabins have 3 or 4 as opposed to the normal two. But I have know idea what the total is on board this cruise.

Lynnruns--this is the first R cruise that we've brought our kids along for, although they have done other cruises with us on X (Med and Galapagos) and, of course, one obligatory Disney cruise when they were younger. We did 2 cabins in the Galapagos but one suite on the other cruises. Both have their pros/cons but either arrangement would work for us.

It seems like the teen activities so far are mostly just an opportunity to gather rather than anything organized although our son doesn't seem to mind that.

Thanks, all!

 

mborchgardt, is your cruise fully booked? Or is it feeling empty because it is not a full sailing? .

Could you post some updates on what your kids like as you go? My kids are just a little bit older but it will give me a better perspective.:)

LynnRuns: happy to post some updates as the cruise progresses particularly as it relates to the kids. I am not sure about how full this particular cruise is, although it doesn't feel different than our previous two R cruises. The public space ratio is pretty high so generally you don't feel like there are 800 on board.

Our family of 4 is in a Penthouse B which has been working great so far. However, we did book very early and my recollection is that there were limited Penthouse suites that had a sleeper sofa and a shower -- which were both requirements for us. They also bring in a rollaway bed at night during turndown and remove it in the morning. The suite is quite roomy -- it seems like the Penthouses on Mariner are some of the most beloved R suites -- but your kids may prefer the privacy of a separate suite.

I will also say that we did not book R for the kids programs, so we didn't expect or require a lot in that regard. We booked for the smaller ship size and passenger count along with fine dining and other "luxury" touches.

We have our first excursions tomorrow in Ketchikan so we are looking forward to that.

We are onboard Mariner now with 2 kids - 11 and 14. Just sailed from Vancouver yesterday. Our daughter is in the younger Mariners club. They are supervised by 2, I think, youth hosts. We are at sea today. She went down for an hour or two this morning and they did crafts. This after is a sporting themed "event" and she wanted to go for that. Our son is in the older group. This morning was basically just an opportunity to gather with other teens -- nothing organized. This afternoon is a board game tournament. I think the teens are pretty much on their own to keep things moving.

So far, our kids (and DW and I) have been enjoying things. As our previous experience, the ship does not feel crowded at all. No problem today finding a blanket and lounger on deck. Some of the public areas seem almost deserted (that's a good thing from my perspective) even though we are at sea. May feel more crowded tomorrow as we all try to get off for excursions.

Only one day in but most of the kids seem well behaved/controlled. Last night for dinner, quite a few boys/teens including our son were wearing sports coats which was nice (we were dining in Prime 7).

We are doing a couple of included excursions, bust most of our choices require additional payment. But that was ok with us since we wanted our kids to experience some of same things we've done in the past.

Thanks IsanThom and TC2. I appreciate the info.

Dwhe, we are not high maintenance people and will take who we get the first night. We have never requested a specific server in the past. However, if we find service lacking at that point, why wouldn't we ask to be seated in a section with a waiter known for providing solid service? It was Regent's decision to impact service by pulling experienced staff to the Explorer. I just want to do what I reasonably can to have an experience consistent with our prior Regent cruises.

We will board Mariner next week. Given the recent reports of variable and spotty service with trainees, can any recent Alaska cruisers offer recommendations about particular MDR waiters that seemed to have it together?

I have adjusted my expectations but still hoping for the best.

Thanks!

Thanks for the reply. At least we'll be prepared to wait. I'll pack some snacks. :)

We too will board in Vancouver on a "two ship" day shared with HAL. Any chance there are any expedited immigration options (Global Entry, SENTRI, Mobile Passport Control, etc.)? I searched the Port of Vancouver website but did not see anything. Thanks!

I was hesitant to post since it has been some time since we were in St. Petersburg with Regent, but our experience with private tours was seamless. We used Red October. They sent us a letter and tickets to use when we went through Russian immigration at the port. Our guide and driver were waiting for us when we disembarked.

We had two amazing days. Some of the most memorable moments included:

-Arriving at Catherine Palace before it opened to the public. Our guide took us into the gardens through a side gate and we strolled through the amazing gardens for about an hour with not a single other visitor in site. It was quite an experience.

-We wanted to attend a ballet performance one evening, so RO arranged tickets and dinner reservations. Our guide and driver waited outside (I suppose they waited outside) during both so we had a great evening with just my wife and I. (As a side note, we did have lunch with our guide and driver during the day.)

-Our guide studied art history in college so she was able to provide a lot of interesting information about the most important works in the Hermitage.

-We bypassed ALL lines at EVERY place we visited. In fact, a couple of times our driver practically pulled up onto the sidewalk so that we could go directly inside whatever venue we were visiting.

As I said, this was some time ago so not sure if the current experience would be the same.

RO offered a discount for paying in cash USD, so we took that with us, as well as a tip for both guide and driver.

The only difficulty we have had with Regent and private tours was in tender ports. On a different cruise, they gave preference to guests on their tours for the tenders, so if you were doing your own thing or a private tour they expected you to wait until all of the tour participants had tendered over. We managed to squeeze into an earlier tender so that we wouldn't be late for our private tour and miss part of our day. I don't think the Regent people were happy with us for doing that and we were not happy with them for making it so difficult.

Quick rabbit trail regarding Seward: We are renting a car from Hertz in Seward when we disembark our cruise. Is it practical to walk from the cruise ship to Hertz with our luggage? It looks like a short distance, but I didn't know if it would be difficult to get out of the port on foot or to be able to roll large suitcases. Thanks!

Thanks for this helpful information. I had not thought about doing a day cruise when we disembark in Seward after our Regent cruise, but it sounds like it would a great opportunity to see more wildlife.

We are renting a car in Seward and overnighting in Anchorage before our flight home the next day, so this might be the best way to spend our time.

Specific to the port in Seward, it looks like we could easily walk from the ship (with our luggage) to the Hertz rental car office. Does that sound reasonable to those who have been before? If not, is there a better way to get from the ship to Hertz?

I'm hoping that we can pick up our car, visit the Alaska Sealife Center and then do an afternoon cruise excursion before driving to Anchorage.

Don't want to minimize the challenges that some folks have noted with pricing or checking cabin availability on the website, but I have been very impressed with the experience on the website post-booking. It has been five years since our last Regent cruise and the experience feels like it has come light years to me. We just recently completed the dining reservations for our upcoming cruise this summer and it was seamless. Same experience when we booked excursions last fall. Everything available at 12:01 EST on the promised date. I really like the online itinerary by day that shows the time(s) of your booked excursions and dining reservations each day.

Attempting to attach a Word document with the list of choices from the online request form for PH and above. Hopefully this works. It's quite a long list or I would have just pasted the choice directly in.

Regent Bar List.docx

I know there was a post several months ago about whether there would be an up charge for a specific brand of premium scotch (I think), but has anyone had experience with requesting common liqueurs for the in room set-up in lieu of the liquors. There are none listed on the online request form, but we would prefer Baileys or Frangelico or similar to vodka, gin, etc.

Thank you.

My email had this fine print at the bottom. The last sentence seems to indicate that all loyalty program members will receive two log ins per suite. Unless they inadvertently omitted Gold from that sentence in error. Right?

FREE Unlimited WiFi applies to all suite categories beginning with Seven Seas Navigator® 3/17/16, Seven Seas Voyager® 5/2/16, Seven Seas Mariner® 5/8/16, and Seven Seas Explorer® 7/20/16. FREE Unlimited WiFi is valid for one unique log-in. Seven Seas Society members enjoy two unique log-ins per suite beginning with the FREE Unlimited WiFi launch.

Thanks for the responses. Helpful info. Sounds like staying over in Anchorage is the best option. And I think we'll probably do our own air. They're are 4 of us so the deviation fees start to add up. And we're planning to head into Vancouver 2-3 days early so we should have a good cushion at the beginning.

We did the same route about 15 years ago but I couldn't remember anything about disembarking in Seward. We probably flew overnight and just didn't mind since it was just the two of us and we were younger.

Booked on Mariner for Akaska next summer. Flight schedules just now becoming available and I'm evaluating options. We disembark in Seward.

If we do Regent flights, any thoughts on the earliest time the flight could leave out of Anchorage. If we can't make the 11:30 departure, we have to use an overnight connection which we'd prefer not to do.

If we do flights on our own, we'll probably stay over one night in Anchorage and leave the following morning. I guess we would be on our own to get from Seward to Anchorage? Any experience on the best way to make that transfer? Is it possible that Regent would offer a complimentary transfer from Seward to Anchorage even if we're not using Regent air?

Thanks for any info.

So good to hear that there was a County Fair -- the crew do such a great job with costumes, games and booths and the passengers enjoy it so much! We were on the Voyager on the 4th last year and really enjoyed the celebration (we'll be on the Mariner this year for Thanksgiving).

 

Thank you again for taking us with you on this lovely cruise.

 

P.S. To answer another poster question:

 

Interesting to hear about special activities for the 4th of July. We will be on Mariner next year in Alaska over the 4th. Any addition info on 4th of July celebrations on board would be appreciated. I wondered if there would be any chance to see fireworks on shore from the ship. The ship will be at Sitka.

Mborchgardt - there is plenty of room in a Mariner Penthouse suite for a roll away bed. There's a lot of empty space at the end of the bed for it.

mborchgardt (interesting screen name) - Your kids will be fine. Alaska is a wonderful place for them to see. The cruise will include almost daily port visits and excursions so they certainly won't be bored, at all. Regards.

Thanks so much for the information. Glad to know there should be room in the suite and for the reassurances about the kids.

cAPS lOCK oN, hope you enjoy the rest of your cruise. Look forward to hearing more about your experiences.

Looking forward to your reports. We will be on Mariner exactly one year from now in Alaska and are booked in a PH Suite on deck 10, also with a shower. Would love to hear about any details on the furnishings, balcony, etc. especially since the refresh. Have been in a standard suite on Mariner and Voyager for our previous Regent cruises.

I'm a little hesitant to mention that our two kids (11, 13) will be sharing our suite this time around so I hope we won't be too crowded. Our suite has a sofa bed and they can also bring in a rollaway, although we may bring a twin inflatable mattress since that might take up less space than a rollaway. (Hopefully this mention won't take the thread off topic -- I know some folks would say that Regent is best left to adults. Our kids are fairly well traveled and know how to act in environments that are mostly inhabited by adults.)