Crosspost

We were actually on the Maud on 21 December 2023 when the wave hit. The captain had just changed course to turn us into waves and had suggested everyone stayed sitting down or laid on their bed. The first sign that something was not right, as we did not feel the wave break, was a long continuous fog horn - we realised it was us and when I was just googling 'what does a long continuous fog horn mean' the seven short blasts and one long one went off. Your mouth goes completely dry and you think 'this must be a mistake' but when you get to your life boat station and they are handing out survival suits and life jackets you realise it is not a mistake. All I can say is pay very careful attention to the safety drill, how to put on the survival suit and where you need to go and be confident that the Captain, officers and crew are simply outstanding. Once the Captain had got control of the ship after about 5 hours (at one stage the rocking was so bad that all of the furniture went from one side of the room to the other, with us under it unless you found something secure to hold on to) - the Captain came to every life boat station to explain in person what would happen. This told us he was in charge and that he cared. We were allowed back to our cabin on the basis we took our survival suits and life jackets with us. The survival suits do what it says on the tin and were very hot - especially as I had two coats on! After 5 hours the crew came round with cookies and fruit, then sandwiches, breakfast was brought to our room the next morning and by lunchtime the crew had managed to prepare a buffet - despite the whole ship being trashed. Hurtigruten arranged flights for us back to the UK and almost all of us got back for Christmas - and within a week they offered a free cruise to the value of the last one, which they did not have to do as it was simply an act of God! We have already booked ours - but to West Africa where it will hopefully be warmer! There were some inexperienced travellers on the ship who have never sailed before who were asking 'why were we there' but the answer is, it was December and the North Sea, we knew there was a storm coming and some passengers even got off at our last stop to avoid crossing the North Sea. The Maud is an expedition ship which sails in Antarctica and so it is built for these conditions. We were just unlucky a 30m wave hit us, but very lucky to have such amazing leadership and crew to ensure we were safe.

Yes, in the show Lorraine is Cruise Director on the Splendor but the show seems fairly focused on the social hostess Lizzie

Is anyone watching season two of 'The World's Most Expensive Cruise Ship' about Regent Splendor? Available on You Tube and broadcast on a Friday night in the UK on channel 5. We would never dream of telling anyone we know socially that we have been on the Splendor once they started using this tag line - all they talk about is how much things cost and give completely the wrong idea about the type of people travelling. What was Regent thinking when they agreed to do it without the charm and down to earth approach of John Barron to water it down? This week an unshaven General Manager Franck managed to mess up the renewal of wedding vows for a couple on board - he said that he does not like public speaking and clearly no-one had told him how to pronounce 'spouse' - so what was he doing in the limelight in the first place! Regent needs to play to their strengths and not to the aspirations of their staff. Lorraine was lovely as ever.

We were on this cruise, it was a complete nightmare. We had booked a lovely 17 day cruise and were told it was sold out, then Regent suddenly split it at the last minute and suddenly there was availability for the first 10 day leg... . When we complained to the General Manager about the fact our trip had been ruined by these people he said 'why did you book a 7 day cruise' which we interpreted to mean that everyone knows that these kind of corporate events take place on 7 days cruises - well we did not and we also booked a 17 day cruise! The insurance sales people were an absolute disgrace, clogging up the kitchen by each cabin ordering everything off the room service menu 'because they could'. Permanently drunk (including through the safety drill) and half naked most of the time and chatting through the shows like they were sitting in their front rooms watching the TV. Jason Montague promised it would never happen again, which is why we continued to travel with Regent, but now he has stepped down as CEO...

Having sailed with John many times we have never, ever found him to be crude in any way and to say so gives a completely wrong impression of a kind, gentle, hard working, family man who gives up time with his wife and two boys to work tirelessly to try and make our experiences on board as good as he can. As a Brit, perhaps has a different kind of humour than some cruisers are used to as the majority of cruise directors are from the USA. I think we need to remember we are dealing with human beings here, not a product without feelings who is not offended by critical posts. He gives 100% every time he sails and one person is never going to please all of the people all of the time - but for us he comes pretty close to doing so - I know it is all personal opinion. But if he did not, we would not post a critical comment, we just would not comment. The TV show was the product of editing of hours of footage taken by the film crew and John would have had no idea what was in the final version until it was aired. As someone else has said, we need to remember to be kind, especially given everything else that is going on in the world.