georg0

no!

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This whole thread is much ado about very little. For what is important see Mr. Rumor's or Gilly's recent threads. Both heartwarming!

I followed Gilly's blog daily, and appreciated the good nature expressed, despite obvious difficulties. I have travelled code red on other cruise lines, and Gilly's description was disheartening. Code red although reasonably necessary does remove a lot of enjoyment of the cruise. Most disappointing in all of this is the lack of apparent extra good will by management. We are scheduled on the mariner in April and hope the situation improves. In any event, thanks Gilly for a well written, entertaining and illuminative blog. We have traveled in argentina and antarctica, but have not traveled the west coast of south america, so dwelled on every word. thank you.

We, too, have sailed on many cruise lines. We have generally found our state of mind more pleasant on Regent ships. To us they provide a wonderful feeling of comfort, elegance, service and relaxation, which we have not found combined to the same extent on other cruise lines. The spaciousness of the restaurants, suites, and public areas, coupled with a non-frenetic atmosphere, attentive staff, and a cultured, non-snobberish, ambience appeals to us. For example, we enjoy Regent’s champagne and caviar with Sunday breakfasts, although other cruise lines pride themselves on furnishing them whenever. It is difficult to point to a specific restaurant, entertainment, service, event, or whatever that is individually specifically better than any other cruise line and must be experienced on a Regent Cruise. We do feel the state of mind, atmosphere and ambience lead to wonderful interaction with other guests, which we always enjoy. Finding and enjoying such refinement in Alaska with so much extravagant scenery and fascinating wild life and nature activities should be a treat, but may not be as apparent or appreciated in the shorter more packed time periods.

We liked Paul Reynolds. We liked Willie Ames. We will miss them both. We haven't met others, but generally find Cruise directors all individuals and different. I suspect liking people is more individualized than liking food.

With the statement that we prefer Regent do its best not to lose good people, but if they do, replace them with good people, I suggest we wish those that have left well, hope to see them again, and do our best to successful enjoy and interact with those Regent cruise directors on our next cruse. Cruise directors are important to enjoyable cruising, and I hate to see us impair them, by bemoaning the lack of past favorites or stooping to criticizing current Cruise directors. We have the cruise questionnaires to comment on current staff, and don't need to do so publicly. Every time I go to a party I enjoy the party, even though I enjoy some people more than others. I feel the same way cruising. Thanks.

True, the Society Islands and the south pacific are different. The Paul Gauguin does an excellent job visiting them, and providing a great experience, with a degree of pampering. I agree Air Nui (steerage class) is miserable, but I disagree that better experiences than the paul Gauguin are found in hotels or one of the luxury lines. Probably similar to antarctica, the best visits are in small ships with many landing and the ability enjoy the raw quality of the locality. As my friends keep telling me, true luxury is found only in the best hotels. We prefer not to dilute the locale with the highest luxury or pampering. Our best cruising experience is still our first when my wife and two daughters were upgraded from an interior 4 bunk room to two first class cabins in the princess grill on he QE2 (Salvador Dali was in the Queens Grill). But our best travel experiences were the Trans siberian in a 4 bunk cabin before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Antarctica in the Grigori Mhekeev, an older russian research vessel on a Sierra Club trip, New Zealand in a Newman's camper, europe with two kids and a volkswagen van, and a small boat on the upper tributaries of the Amazon.. It is also true, we love pampering in the Connaught or the Four Seasons, but they aren't in antarctica, Russia, the south Pacific, or the Amazon tributaries. Lastly, why is this thread on Seabourn. We are currently enjoying a great Seabourn cruise visiting canada, but a much different experience than Moorea or Bora Bora.

We had a wonderful cruise on Paul Gauguin when it was a Regent Ship. We returned last year, and had another wonderful cruise. The staff was great, the stops are breathtaking, the Food was excellent and we enjoyed it very much. As a Regent, Seabourn, and other cruiser, I notice many comments which seem to be either eye of the beholder, or a bad experience, or a good time. We have no hesitation taking the Paul Gauguin again, and hope to experience the new sister ship. I guess I am a little surprised that this thread showed up on a Seabourn thread. We are currently on the Montreal- Fort Lauderdale Quest trip and having a great time (but in fairness miss the south pacific) .

Here is present schedule. I don't know how often this is updated

http://www.portquebec.ca/en/cruises/vessel-schedules/seasonal-schedule

We board the Quest soon, and we are looking forward to a great time. We have sailed on many cruise lines, most recently on Regent. We understand different people have different experiences and experience things differently. We have heard a lot of good reports on seaborne, as well as some not so good, same as Regent which we greatly enjoy. My only concern is the change to Per se and French Laundry guy is after our cruise. We hope we won't be just emptying the pantry and food staff morale is good.

We have been to Glacier Bay on both HAL and cruise west. IMHO, Glacier bay is most interesting to me, not just by observing glaciers, but because the glaciers at one time filled the bay. Traveling up the bay to the glaciers is a gorgeous tapestry of the environment over time of glacier recession (larger growth at the beginning and then regressing). The glaciers are impressive, but glaciers can be observed elsewhere. I believe, with out sufficient backup, that the entire bay is a national park and maybe requires naturalists on board. I do think Glacier bay is restricted and does require access permission, but don't know the details.

The descriptions of the excursions to Cairo reminded me of our trip to Luxor in 1997. We were part of a Renaissance Cruise group which included a 7 day cruise in the Seychelles and 7 day stops in Nairobi, for a safari, and Luxor. Rennaisance had chartered a plane and had rotating groups spend 1/3 of their time in each place all sharing the same plane on the same plane. We had the same seats for each stage.

Unfortunately 2 weeks prior to our arrival in Luxor , the Queen Hatshepsut tomb terrorist massacre of 67 people occurred. Luxor and all adjacent sites were closed. However Renaissance accommodated the half of our group (about 20-30 people) that were willing to get off the Plane in Luxor, apparently in conjunction with the government at the time.

We travelled in one bus, which was allowed through the roadblocks and was accompanied both front and back by an armed motorcycle, a van of troops, and some sort of armor. We had the run of Luxor, with our accompaniment, and had the rare privilege of being the only tourists in the Valley of Kings and Queens, so had no trouble seeing all tombs. Armed soldiers were everywhere in the hills surrounding us.

We also attended a "no on terrorism" rally put on by the Government at the Queen Hatshepsut memorial, which was a moving experience. I obtained a No on terrorism in english on front, and Egyptian on back (or vise verse) of a T shirt, which I wore for years ( best Egyptian cotton). I understand it took quite a while for tourism generally in that area to recover. As you can imagine, a great travel experience and we were pleased with Renaissance cruises, which I think is a predecessor of Regent.

We are booked on a Seabourn Cruise leaving shortly. We are looking forward to it, and will enjoy the cruise thoroughly. I don’t know if it would have made any difference in our decision, but I am shocked that passenger health is at risk, by allowing smoking in proximity to passengers. Smoking kill. and I know far too many people who have suffered from it. I will certainly change locations to the extent possibly away from any adjacent smoker. What possible justification in this day and age could allow smoking in public areas on ships?

Very disappointing. We leave on a Seabourn cruise in October. We have enjoyed Regent cruises and fresh food recently. We have been on several Holland America cruises. Last time we went to Alaska, we were disappointed when we visited lots of Fresh Salmon sites, only to be informed that Holland America must only use fish it loaded in Seattle for some unfathomable reason. Sigh!

We are considering a Seabourn cruise. We have been on several Regent cruises, and have been delighted with the block parties. We met several interesting neighbors and meeting them early significantly enhanced our cruise experience.

We do get spoiled. My goodness. we got home and nobody cleared up our cocktail mess during our dinner. self sufficiency is a tough burden.

Macmillan dictionary on the web defines gratuity: "a small amount of money that you give to someone to thank them for doing something for you." Another web definition: T"he definition of gratuity is a sum of money given to someone who provides service or a favor as a way to show graciousness or thankfulness" Other definitions include simply additional money for services. Regent has taken care of the additional money for services, but not, necessarily, for what we want to give as graciousness or thankfulness for being especially helpful to us individually.

Anyone who travels on Regent has the ability to show such thankfulness or graciousness, (whether directly or to the crew fund) and need not search for reasons not do do so. As pointed out above, the crew can certainly use such money.

"For those who enjoy ocean cruising, the last debacle like this (taking the money way ahead of the actual cruise) was Rennasiance Cruises. Gee I wonder where they are now, that's right all 8 ships were seized and sold off in a liquidation bankruptcy."

I believe some Renaissance ships were purchased by what is now Oceana and formed the initial Oceana fleet.

Although I prefer to avoid detail and concentrate on the big picture, I can't help but point out that four of us dining tonight at signatures (Tuna, Scallops, Duck, and Beef) each came to the conclusion that it was one of the best meals of each of our lives. The spectacular day at Lanzarote, and the wonderful staff of Regent, and the great look and feel of the Mariner probably helped us to those conclusions.

Although ground level views of detail can be instructive, I enjoy higher views. From 30,000 feet up this is a wonderful cruise. Staff is extraordinarily friendly and helpful, Brazil has been fascinating, food and drink have been excellent, and the Mariner is a very comfortable elegant ship without presuming to be ostentatious. I understand of the 700 current cruisers, over 500 are prior Regent cruisers and everyone is friendly and seems happy. What could be better than this?

I am mystified by the continual comparing of Oceana and Regent. Both were owned by the same company and now owned as parts of a much larger company. I doubt they are competing with each other for the same customer, but will emphasize different things to attract new customers from elsewhere. I am sure some will have better xy or z and the other will have better a b or c. However the bottom lines will still need to pencil out for each.

For what its worth, we always use the laundry services in hotels or cruise ships, finding it better than hauling dirty clothes. we were delighted with the free service on PG and Holland America Neptune suites. But we were delighted with the self washing facilities on the Voyager for non iron stuff on our Istanbul- Dubai trip last year. I was surprised that several young men were also ironing in the laundry room. This year on our trip from Rio we will use both the self washing facilities for non iron stuff, and may send out for some freshly laundered and ironed shirts, blouses and dresses. I'm glad I don't have to decide how to divide up expense dollars in a competitive market. Probably good to support what is important to any of us to help management decide. Thanks,

Will Regent Mariner do laundry at rack rates?

Everybody experiences events and places differently. We loved this Suite! Great Deck. Room large, airy and light. We won't go again unless in cabin on stern of ship. Wake mesmerizing. Enjoy, if you can get it.

Jan and I look forward to Regent's caviar on sunday morning. To us caviar is emblematic of the good old days of yore. On our first cruise long ago we had booked steerage (internal cabin for four) on the last leg (ny to southhampton) of the premier world cruse of the QE2. We were upgraded to two first class cabins and the first class dining room. a Stewardess fed our two kids and put them down, while Jan and i enjoyed caviar and all the fixings with other great food every night. We never thought life could be that good again.

we have loved our Regent cruises and are taking another one from Rio soon. On our last cruise from Istanbul to Dubai, we learned a number of people from England had great buys. We learned Regent is trying to expand its market. What was more concerning however, was when we learned that travel agents are not simply advisors and our agent, they are flow throughs for rebates, from 5-10% of a defined commission base, plus on board credits. I had learned that i can usually do better at planning a trip, but I had not realized until learning from others, that i have given up substantial rebates. For doing a better job, I have lost money because travel agents get such big commissions. I suggest Regent simply give half the travel agent discount to those that book directly.