flossie009

Some pictures of the decorations around the ship

First Formal Optional night on Mariner last night and many were much dressier than a normal evening. Men’s attire ranged from dinner suits, jackets, bow ties, straight ties, a couple of kaftans and a kilt. Being a Christmas/New Year cruise more guests tend to bring their finery.

Why not just take the air credit and organise the flights yourself ………. if you think you can do better than Regent is offering 🤔

Boarded Mariner yesterday; good to be back on one of our favourite ships. Suite in good order. No toilet issues thus far (touching wood as I post this) Xmas decorations around the ship are beautiful. Starlink seems to be working OK. Speed tests from last night and this morning below:

BA207 (A380) scheduled departure 10:00, but delayed by about 1 hour due to a technical issue* Made up time and arrived Miami just after 15:00. Surprisingly swift through immigration, but quite a wait for baggage. Arrived at Biltmore around 16:30. We arranged our own flight but Regent also used BA207 plus the Virgin flight which I think arrived about an hour earlier. Coming back to the U.K. we are staying a night in Miami and then catching BA206, which is an overnight flight, as are most going from Miami to U.K. Again we arranged our own flight, using Avios. * The pilot told us that the technical issue had been fixed overnight but they had to wait for Airbus in France to sign off the repair. (Personally I don’t think they should have fixed the wing back on with duct tape, but what do I know 🤣)

If you are not assigned prior, then just write GTY on your luggage tag. As long as your name is clear, then your bags will find you.

This is the situation for those booking in North America, but U.K. Travel Regulations do not allow Regent to abrogate their responsibilities. This is a Regent(UK) issue that we have complained about previously ……… to no avail 🤨 You could always keep checking to see how many seat assignments remain before choosing to pay. However, I agree that BA’s policy of charging for Business Class seat assignments is appalling.

We stayed at the Biltmore, Coral Gables last night after our BA flight from Heathrow. We were given a large comfortable room with a nice outlook onto the golf course. Plenty of storage space in the room if on a longer stay. The Biltmore is an iconic building in a lovely neighbourhood, with lots of facilities However, for a hotel of this quality we were very surprised that there was no glassware in the room; only paper cups. However two wine glasses were delivered to our room promptly on request. This morning a breakfast buffet was served for Regent guests in a galleried events room past the swimming pool. Luggage has been collected and we will make our way to Mariner soon 😎

….,.. unless you have exec club status with BA Bronze can book 7 days before; Silver from time of booking

Good to hear the issues are being acknowledged & addressed. Not sure what the CD has to apologise for? It would seem more appropriate for the GM to acknowledge the problems & explain what caused the system blockage & failure.

Since the article is from October, the new regulations will no doubt be in place before Grandeur arrives in California in early January. ……. but still not sure why the itinerary change was required to finalise the commissioning of the relevant equipment on the ship 🤔 Hopefully those on the cruise will have a wonderful time; with the added bonus of a generous compensation package.

We were last on Mariner in March and October 2022 and do not recall major plumbing issues. We will report back from our Holiday cruise starting next week 🤞 😎

I hope not 😧

If you are not happy, have you informed Regent(UK) that you wish to cancel for a full refund on the basis of a "significant change" (Clause 11(1)(c) of the UK Ts&Cs) I hope you have a fabulous time on the latest ship .......... with the added bonus of some compensation (FCC & OBC) Based on our previous experience, Regent will allow you to apply the FCC to an already booked cruise prior to final payment date

?? You will still be on board Grandeur for the last day of the cruise ………… just moored at the LA cruise terminal.

Very annoying for those affected and I do not understand Regent’s “explanation” “As part of this effort, we are in the final stages of commissioning shore power technology on Seven Seas Grandeur ………………. To facilitate this, we will be modifying your upcoming cruise” Why does the commissioning of this new bit of kit on Grandeur require the cancellation of three Mexican ports? 🤔 Very strange. Hope you all have a fabulous time cruising through the Panama Canal, despite the revised latter part of your itinerary. At least Regent have upped their initial offer of compensation. Fortunately we are not affected by these changes as we are looking forward to a cruise on Mariner this Christmas.

I have never heard of that facility being available. However, the Compass Rose menu is very extensive with the popular “always available” dishes plus daily specials.

As far as I am aware it is a simple matter of supply & demand. Longer cruises will have more availability. Guests flexibility on dates/times and/or willingness to share will affect what is available to them. With reservations on-line prior to the cruise (one reservation per speciality restaurant per cruise segment) earlier bookings will obviously have more choice available.

644 is a Concierge E. As with all D, E & F suites on Explorer, Splendor & Grandeur the bathroom is equipped with tub, separate shower, twin hand basin & toilet. It also appears that 644 has an angled balcony which improves visibility forwards. but eats into the deeper balcony floor area slightly. Some suites on deck 6 can experience noise from the winches directly under but it looks like 644 is not positioned above a tender.

Terminal check-in and boarding for all guests normally starts at midday; sometimes earlier from 11:30. If you arrive earlier then you can still hand over your luggage and there is a seating area to wait in the terminal until check-in & boarding commences. Coffee & soft drinks are sometimes provided. During the on-line check-in process, guests choose a terminal arrival time not a boarding time. For those with Regent transfers to the ship then that choice is superfluous.

On the face of it, $5000 cash off your final payment in exchange for $600 loss of benefits sounds like a good deal. If the change was processed by cancelling the old booking and making a new booking at the better price then Regent could theoretically have clawed back the original on-board booking OBC by deduction from the new price. On the other hand, the on board booking comes with the Regent "Best Price Guarantee" which means that the new price should have been applied to the original booking with no loss of the other benefits given when you made the original booking. (Best Price Guarantee applies when another applicable public promotion offers a better price on the cruise guest has selected. Guest will be able to take advantage of this new promotion plus the added benefit of the applicable Onboard Savings by having their travel agent call Regent Seven Seas Cruises to have the new promotion added to their reservation) As regards the shareholder OBC, can you not just re-apply for the NCLH shareholder benefit to be applied to the new booking?

Thanks for all the reports from the new ship. No experience of Grandeur but on Splendor and Explorer we like the excellent lunch menus in both Chartreuse and Prime 7, with a slight preference for the regular offerings in Chartreuse. I believe the lunchtime daily specials are the same in Chartreuse, P7 and La Veranda.

You are certainly entitled to your opinions based on your experience, and I am sorry that the service on board did not meet your expectations ............ but that it is a long stretch to conclude that the Regent product on all ships on all cruises is inferior to what was offered pre pandemic.

Curious to know in what ways you feel the Regent product differs? Better or worse? We have found our Regent cruises in 2022/2023 to be as good as, and sometimes better than, those we took in 2018/2019. Yes, we experienced the occasional glitch (pre & post pandemic) but always corrected after bringing the issue to the attention of the relevant member of staff.