countflorida

I'm 6'2" and getting along in years, leading to balance/stability issues which would definitely cause major problems with the tubs on the Mariner today. On a 43 day cruise from San Francisco around Cape Horn to Rio de Janeiro about a dozen years ago (before they started converting many of the tub-only baths to shower-only) I learned to "shower while crouching".

Even worse, the bottom of the tub itself is a little higher than the floor of the bath; perhaps 2" (never measured it). Not bad getting into the tub, but getting out was a real challenge even back then; today I wouldn't even try! One day a lady showed up at breakfast with a black eye and badly bruised face; it looked like she had been mugged. Turned out she had fallen getting out of the tub. I think this and similar incidents convinced Radisson to begin the tub-to-shower conversion process. We really like the large walk-in showers; they are a great improvement! But because there is no guarantee you can get a shower suite, we can't take a guarantee on the Mariner.

The Mariner and Voyager are not really "sister ships", in fact they are quite different. As was explained during a town-hall meeting on the about-to-be-christened Voyager, the Mariner was built from the inside out, which is why it has dual corridors. It has standard propellers at the rear of the hull. The Voyager was built just the opposite, from the hull in, has just one central corridor and is propelled by pods extending down from the hull.

The Mariner, built by the French company Chantiers de l'Atlantique at Saint-Nazaire, was under construction, but something happened to the company that had ordered it and Radisson took it over; it was launched in 2001. Mark Conroy (who is pretty tall) said he never tried the tub on the Mariner; he had trusted that task to the much shorter Christian Sauleau. Thus, he joked, it was all Sauleau's fault.

The Voyager was built in Italy by T. Mariotti of Genoa and launched in 2003. My wife and I were fortunate to have gotten in on its (FREE!) shakedown cruise from Nice around the western Med to Monaco, where the Voyager was christened. It was the first ship to call at the then-new (actually, still under construction) Monte Carlo cruise terminal. After a 45 minute "invocation" by the Archbishop of Monaco, in French(!) and very brief remarks by several others in English, Pat and I were privileged to have a truly delightful lunch with Prince Albert II of Monaco, and also about 300 of our soon-to-be close friends, as we stayed on for the ship's maiden cruise, to the Eastern Med, Aegean and Ionian seas, disembarking in Venice. A truly memorable experience; Voyager has always been our favorite of the three Regent ships, and we look forward to cruising on her again this coming fall. However, the Mariner is the steadiest of the three, and has many other good features as well.

As TedC can testify, getting a wheelchair and an attendant to push it in Charlotte is a sometimes thing.

Two years ago coming back from Rio on a late early morning US Air flight, Ted C and I were scheduled for wheelchairs to catch tight connections from Charlotte, but there was only one attendant available at the arrival gate. Without my wife's help (she pushed Ted) we wouldn't have made it. And I recall it is a very long way to immigration, baggage pickup, customs and then to the departing gates in Charlotte. Were it me, I'd call the travel agent, Regent, and US (American) Air, in that order, to resolve this, and I'd do it tomorrow.

TedC is absolutely right, having a good, competent travel agent is an absolute essential. And passing up $499 business air upgrade to Europe is penny wise and thousand pound foolish, IMnsHO!

The key to these questions, and many other unsettled issues, is a good agent with lots of Regent experience. If you have one, ask them. If not, ask when you get on board and if you don't like what you hear, cancel and go ashore and make your own arrangements, which can often be done at a reasonable cost.

If your agent can't (or won't) help get the answer, call Regent directly and ask. The detailed itineraries you get when you are on board mostly come out of Miami, although accessing them isn't always easy, or sometimes even possible. Booking through a great, very knowledgeable agent makes all the difference in almost all cases though.

Well, there are a few other things to consider:

If you take a guarantee on the Mariner, you can't be sure to get a bath with tub or one with the newer showers. The tubs can be tough, as the floor of the tub is higher than the floor of the bath, making for a potentially dangerous situation getting out with wet feet particularly. The other two ships have both a tub and a separate shower. In the Mariner, the standard suites are only 301 sq.ft., slightly smaller than the standard suite size on Voyager and Navigator (356 sq.ft.)

On the Navigator, the Penthouse suites (A, B and C) are the same size as the Concierge (D) and Deluxe (E and F) suites - all 356 sq.ft. The Penthouses are located on the higher decks (9-10 and 11) and the Concierge suites on 8, all are mid-ships or forward where the ship's vibration isn't as noticeable. The F suites are aft, where the vibration is most noticeable (at least was - they grafted on a new stern a few years ago but I don't know if it helped or hurt; I've heard both)

In addition to the higher included excursions (most of which we can't use because I am unable to keep up), and the extremely limited number of seated and 1-walker excursions on many cruises, the higher business air charges ($1299 vs. $999) and the rumored $500 and higher surcharges for nearly all desirable (to us) airlines have caused us to cut back on cruising with Regent. Where we used to cruise 2-3 times a year, 50 or more nights, recently it has been once and not more than 12 to 16 nights.

Understand why: Apollo/PCH has announced an Initial Public Offering and is doing everything they can to make the company look better. In the process, they are discouraging quite a few of their long-term, loyal clients, as is evident from this and other threads on this site. I believe (don't know for sure) that attracting new clients is harder and more expensive than keeping existing ones, so this may become a big burden on the newly public company, a factor I don't think was clearly disclosed in the (draft?) SEC document I saw. In any event, it certainly seems they are spending a lot more on advertising these days, but the ships seems to be full more of the time too, so maybe it pays off.

The guides they provided were fine. We had a different guide each of the days in St. Petersburg, but both were flexible, pleasant, knowledgeable and spoke English very well, as did the guide in Moscow, incidentally. She was a bit aloof, distant, not too friendly, but otherwise fine. In fact, she was the one who suggested taking the Metro, which unexpectedly became one of the highlights of the Moscow excursion. If I have a complaint with AllTravelRussia, it is with their plan and its execution (more later).

I had requested emphasis on World War II (in Russia, the Great Patriotic War) sites and info. In scheduling us, they weren't careful about dates and a couple of the sites we wanted to see were scheduled on the third day, after we'd been to Moscow. But both sites were closed that day of the week, and that info was readily available, right on web sites describing them. Also, the included meals (lunches in St. Pete, dinner in Moscow) were not what we asked for: light meals with some choices, so we could avoid things we didn't like and choose things we did like. My request was ignored; we were given full Russian meals with a fixed menu, no choice. On the first day, a fish dish was the entre, but I am allergic to fish. Fortunately, I had the e-mail I'd sent with me and showed it to the guide, and she was able to change my entre to chicken, which was very good actually. But we didn't want a 3-4 course lunches or dinner (in Moscow). We had the guide drop the lunch the third day, although we never got any credit or refund. But, particularly in contrast to the ship's tours, the prices were so reasonable we didn't worry too much about it.

The people who were on the ship's tour to Moscow saw us boarding the same train for which they were forced to queue up and wait on the way back, and asked us what we had done. I was candid and open so they were not happy when I explained what we had arranged and particularly what it had cost. Also, when we returned to the ship, we found they had laid on a late supper for those who had gone to Moscow, so up we went and had something. Well, it turns out the late supper was supposed to be just for those on the ship's tour, but we and others on 'independent' tours, there were a dozen or more of us, crashed the party, actually got there first, and they didn't realize it until the larger group arrived and there weren't enough tables/places set. By that time, the 'independents' had all gotten served and were eating; what could they do?

A couple from the larger group sat down with us and asked us about our tour, and they were the ones I told about our arrangement and its cost. They turned to others who’d been with them and announced the details, loudly enough so the whole room heard, which started a lot of bitching and complaining. I gathered they weren't very happy with the ship's tour to begin with, and this was the straw that broke the camel's back. We finished up and beat it out of there, but overheard later that one of the excursion staff came to check on something and ran into a real mess. I caught a cold on the trip, which forced me to bed the second day following in Tallinn, so by the time we reappeared we heard about the contretemps' but apparently no one recalled who started it, thankfully.

Because of what happened to us, I would probably not use AllTravelRussia if I were to go again, or if I did, I would be sure to get confirmation of every detail of the tour. They do have good reviews generally, and we were certainly helped by their visa department and liked the guides and drivers. Their weakness, I say now with full 20:20 hindsight, is that once the sales person who plans the tour, sells it to you and collects your money, he (or she) transfers the plan to their Russia office for implementation; there is no follow-up to make sure it gets done right. And that is where our problems arose; we paid for a custom tour but got a standard package with a few destinations switched, and no one checked them out, even to see when they were open the day we were scheduled to go. If you check every detail that’s important to you, it should be OK, but that’s a hell of a way to have to do business, in my opinion.

We toured to Moscow from St. Petersburg via the hi-speed SAPSAN train last September, from a Baltic cruise on the Oceania Marina. You need to have a two-night, three day port call in St. Petersburg to take this tour because the tour typically leaves the ship around 5:00 - 5:30 AM and doesn't return until after midnight the next day. We didn't take the ship's tour; we made private arrangements with TravelAllRussia for three days of touring, the first and third days in St. Petersburg and the second day the tour to Moscow by train. Our cost for the private tour for three days was about the same as what the ship charged for the excursion to Moscow alone. There are a number of private tour agencies that operate in St. Petersburg and offer the Moscow train tours; we would strongly recommend them over the ship's tours.

All three days had private guides with car and driver. The second day, the driver picked us up at the ship and took us to the train, but we were alone on the train, and met in Moscow by the guide on the station platform. After our tour and dinner, we were brought back to the train and after the return train trip met by the driver and taken back to the ship. Because you are alone on the train you must have your own Russian visas.

If this is your first visit to St. Petersburg, I would agree there is much more to see there. We found Moscow somewhat a disappointment, particularly Red Square. The Kremlin and the cathedral in Red Square were also worth seeing. But the best thing we saw was the Moscow subway! I worked for the Washington Metro system back in the 1980s as it grew from 40 to 80 miles and although I was in the computer area, I learned a lot about the challenges of running a subway system. We used the Moscow system to get across the city from where we had dinner to the train station, and I was amazed at the cleanliness', speed of operation, the short headways maintained, and the courtesy of everyone involved. A very impressive experience!

We had been to St. Petersburg before, and so had the time to take a day and go to Moscow. Also, I really like trains, and the SAPSAN is a German train set running on Russian rails. Seats are like first class domestic air, spacious but not too plush or comfortable, but with enough room. Not too much recline, and almost 8 hours on the train in two shots is a lot for an old man. They come through and sell drinks, candy, etc. but the sellers don't speak English and no one around us helped, so we had just poor coffee once coming, and brought stuff with us for the trip back. Not too much to see from the train either, particularly on the return when it is night the whole way.

If you decide to go, take a private tour and avoid the overly expensive ship's tour. I'm glad we did it, but wouldn't bother to repeat the tour; we've seen Moscow.

We were forced to take middle seats together on the trip back from Rio in November '12, and it was fine!. In our latest flight on US Air in an A330, from London to Charlotte at the end of September, we choose the window seats one behind the other, also fine, but different. I think it comes down to whether the window(s) or togetherness is more important to you. You could (assuming availability) reserve one window seat and the adjacent seat across the aisle, and get (half) the best of both worlds.

Frankly, I haven't discussed our preference with my better half, but on an upcoming domestic trip on a regional jet in 1st class (1-2 seating) we're taking seats across the aisle from each other, which is what we usually do on, for example Southwest Air, where 1st class isn't an option. Southwest has one non-stop flight a day each way from Tampa, near where we live now, to Albany where we grew up and used to live, which we regularly use to go and visit family and friends, and we always try and get aisle seats across from each other.

Here is a picture and brief note on the quality of US Air's business class from "The Points Guy":

The link http://screen.yahoo.com/broken-news-daily/tourists-charged-135-coffee-013833439.html will take you to a clip about a gigantic swindle - not unusual, in our personal experience - in Venice. The Voyager's 2003 maiden cruise from Monte Carlo ended in Venice, and we disembarked there and stayed a couple of days, experiencing a similar (in our case, attempted) rip-off. But nothing like $130. I refused to pay the music fee and was able to flag down a passing policeman. I was fortunate; the music was actually at the next restaurant over, and I hadn't been warned about the fee (although the waiter claimed his assistant had done so, but that notable fellow didn’t speak any English, it turned out!), so we just had to pay for the coffee and a "service charge".

I will say that, although we had wanted to see Venice, it was one of the most disappointing places we've ever visited or spent time in. A shame; it is an interesting place, but everyone there seems to be trying to surpass the (original) Merchant of Venice in avarice.

We've flown home twice in relative new US Air Airbus 330, business class, and it was very nice. The first was from Rio a year ago, we were seated together in the last row of the middle section, next to each other, loved it, and got a good sleep (±11 hours Rio to Charlotte if I recall correctly, leaving at midnight. My only complaint is that Regent evicted us from the Mariner at 8:30 AM for an 11:55 PM flight, and left us basically on our own such that we felt compelled to make our own arrangements.

At the last moment almost they did come up with some half-baked transfer/tour thing, but people who took it still waited 5 or 6 hours at the airport. After we finally got to board the plane, it taxied back and forth up and down that long runway as the wind shifted, I guess. More than 40 minutes from gate to rotate, and we were first in line the whole time; the only plane on the field moving I think.

We had good seats, plenty of storage space, didn't check the entertainment system, decent food, even at 1 AM, and we made our Charlotte connection after Pat pushed Ted from Rochester through the Charlotte airport, while the one US Air attendant available pushed me and the luggage. The only lounge we got into, in Rio, was kind of crummy.

In September, we flew home from London on US Air, same type of plane, with us in fore and aft window seats (the business cabin setup is 1-2-1). This was a day flight, much nicer, about 8 hours, I didn't like the food choices but at that point I snacked on a few of the accompaniments and likely benefited from skipping the lunch after the full cooked English I scarfed down at breakfast. The London lounge was nice, but charged for drinks I think. I guess they all do now? I know my 'usual' Delta does.

The amenities kits are fine. We have so many we give them to the nieces and cousins as cosmetic bags. I'm a big tall man, and I can lay out flat, roll up on my side (can't sleep flat on my back; old injury) and get several hours uninterrupted sleep, so I think the US Air Airbus 330s are just fine! Unless you just ahve to ahve a window, if you're traveling with someone, take two in the middle.

Haven't gotten to try the newly advertised Delta business seats yet, but the US Air are better than the old Delta and even better than Air Frances' 747 and 380 business seats (spring 2012) which were flat but at about a 25-30 degree angle, and seemed narrower than the US Air seats. There sure is a lot of room around the 380 seats, so expect an extra row or column to appear one of these days if it hasn't done so already.

US Air has a better frequent flyer rewards program, too, but I doubt its favorable rewards structure will survive the merger with American. Too bad, the miles required to fly to Asia or 'down under' were so much lower than the others.

Enjoy your flight!

I don't read these boards with the regularity I once did, but I'm certainly glad I looked tonight. We're off to Stockholm Tuesday to join the Oceania Marina for a 14 night Baltic cruise ending in London.

We've sailed with Oceania just once before, the spring 2011 Miami-Amazon-Manaus-Miami 24 day near-ordeal on the Regatta I think. We found the Amazon less than thrilling, so while the trip up the river was OK, coming back down was a total loss, during which I learned one of my sisters had a relapse with negative prognosis. All in all, a bad trip, and no dope either!

I've heard so many good things about the new Oceania ships I thought we should give them another try. Your comprehensive comparative review gave us a timely heads-up on what to expect and where to eat for sure. We were going to take the liquor package, but the need for an extended antibiotic treatment put the kibosh on that, and in retrospect, we don't really drink that much any more, so we'll save a few bucks to spend on laundry, another thing we won't get for free on Oceania.

I think you worry about some things some people say, too much. Just ignore the off-the-wall stuff. You know, some people do it just to see if they can get a rise out of others. Thanks for all the tips.

One thing to consider is the deck you're booked on. Seven Seas suites aft and nearby suites including the Horizon View suites on Deck 7 are directly above the Horizon Lounge. Some people have complained that noise from the Lounge continues well into the night, so if you retire early or are sensitive to noise, you might want to choose a comparable suite higher up. Even though those same suites on Deck 10 are directly below the new Setti Mari restaurant, I don't recall any complaints about them.

A general consideration about most suites on the Mariner is that they have either the original tub, a deep French-style monster the bottom of which is a couple of inches above the marble (= slippery when wet) floor of the bathroom, or the tub has been removed and converted to a nice walk-in shower, which we much prefer. The tubs were a real hazard getting in and out of, and the overhead above the tub was lowered, leaving just over 6' of headroom. We sailed in one with a tub for 43 days back in 2003 before they started converting the tubs to showers; I'm 6'2" and learned to shower while crouching. The Mariner's deck plans indicate the Seven Seas suites aft baths have a tub Port side and a shower Starboard.

Another consideration applicable to standard Mariner suites, which although generous by cruise ship standards, are 55 sq.ft. smaller than standard veranda suites on either of the other two ships (301 vs. 356). Navigator's window suites are the same size as the Mariner's standard suites, all of which have verandas, but the space is all in the suite itself as they don't have a veranda. We find the Mariner standard suites a bit tight, and prefer the veranda suites on Voyager and Navigator. We think that for those who usually book standard suites, the best upgrade value in the fleet, if you can afford it, are the Mariner's Penthouse suites, which we find delightful in both size and location.

Undoubtedly the best review on Cruise Critic in many a year! BRAVO! Even the pictures were spectacular.

...as are WC11’s and PaulaJK’s earlier – all have hit the nail right on the head, it seems to me.

We never had the pleasure of sailing on the Song of Flower, but did get to meet Captain Dag on the shakedown, christening and maiden cruises of the Voyager. He was special - going behind that island coming out of Dubrovnik, blowing the foghorn and having the nuns come running from their convent, ringing their bells was just one example.

We sailed with him on the first two segments of the Voyager's first World Cruise, and will not soon forget his maneuvering the ship into the tiny cove in Milford Sound NZ, putting it's bow under the waterfall one afternoon, soaking several of the waitresses up forward on the bow in the crew rec area, with the local pilot raving about how no one had ever done that with such a large ship or so precisely. Dag was personal with us, even though we hadn't sailed extensively in Voyager. We think he was a phenomenal Captain and host!

Regent has changed, IMHO not for the better, and the loss of Captain Dag is just another step, not even a huge one, probably. When a company is bought, you have to expect change. But I wonder if anyone has really thought through the implications of re-titling the 'Hotel Director' as "General Manager"? To me, and I think to may who worked in large organizations, Hotel Director seems to emphasize the HOSPITALITY aspects of the job, while General Manager de-emphasizes that aspect, instead placing the emphasis on MANAGING (and conserving) THE RESOURCES.

But having sailed with a couple of their prime luxury competitors, with their Seven Seas Society benefits and total all-inclusion, Regent is still the best deal. Unfortunately, when Captain Dag was in charge of the Voyager, and the name was different, things were even better!

...as are WC11’s and PaulaJK’s earlier – all have hit the nail right on the head, it seems to me.

We never had the pleasure of sailing on the Song of Flower, but did get to meet Captain Dag on the shakedown, christening and maiden cruises of the Voyager. He was special - going behind that island coming out of Dubrovnik, blowing the foghorn and having the nuns come running from their convent, ringing their bells was just one example.

We booked the first two segments of the Voyager's first World Cruise, and will not soon forget his maneuvering the ship into the cove in Milford Sound NZ, putting it's bow under the waterfall one afternoon, soaking several of the waitresses up forward on the bow in the crew rec area, with the local pilot raving about how no one had ever done that with such a large ship or so precisely. Dag was personal with us, even though we hadn't sailed extensively in Voyager. We think he was a phenomenal Captain and host!

Regent has changed, IMHO not for the better, and the loss of Captain Dag is just another step, not even a huge one, probably. When a company is bought, you have to expect change. But I wonder if anyone has really thought through the implications of re-titling the 'Hotel Director' as "General Manager"? To me, and I think to may who worked in large organizations, Hotel Director seems to emphasize the HOSPITALITY aspects of the job, while General Manager de-emphasizes that aspect, instead placing the emphasis on MANAGING (and conserving) THE RESOURCES.

But having sailed with a couple of their prime luxury competitors, with their Seven Seas Society benefits and total all-inclusion, Regent is still the best deal. Unfortunately, when Captain Dag was in charge of the Voyager, and the name was different, things were even better!

and think WC11 and PaulaJK have hit the nail right on the head too.

We never had the pleasure of sailing on the Song of Flower, but did meet Captain Dag on the shakedown, christening and maiden cruises of the Voyager. He was special - going behind that island coming out of Dubrovnik, blowing the foghorn and having the nuns come running, ringing their bells was just one example. We booked the first two segments of the Voyager's first World Cruise, and will never forget him maneuvering the ship into the cove in Milford Sound, NZ and putting it's bow under the waterfall, with the local pilot raving about how no one had ever done that with such a large ship. And he was very personal with us, even though we hadn't sailed extensively in Voyager. I think he was a phenomenal Captain and host!

Regent has changed, IMHO not for the better, and the loss of Captain Dag is just another step, not even a huge one, probably. Has anyone thought about the implications of re-titling the 'Hotel Director' as "General Manager"? To me, Hotel Director seems to emphasize the HOSPITALITY aspects of the job, while General Manager de-emphasizes that aspect, instead placing the emphasis on MANAGING (and conserving) THE RESOURCES. But having sailed with a couple of their prime luxury competitors, with their Seven Seas Society benefits and total all-inclusion, Regent is still the best deal. Unfortunately, when Captain Dag was truely in charge of the Voyager, and the line's name was different, things were even better!