Subliminal

We’re sitting in our hotel room in Monte Carlo eagerly awaiting boarding Explorer tomorrow. Out the window we see the her pulling into port here in Monte Carlo a day early.

We’re you unable to launch the tenders in Saint-Tropez today so the captain made the decision to head to Monte Carlo early?

Thanks to anyone who replies. No big deal either way, just curious. We hope you had a great trip!

I didn't go to the shows of magician and ventriloquist w great enthusiasm but was surprised that the former was good and the latter,

Quite good.

 

Beverly has a soft delivery style in Observation....Boogie and Kasia more upbeat in the Explorer Lounger and guitarist Alex in the Meridien where it is easy to chat w friends.

One of the singers from the Constellation, Dan Middleditch, performed an Irish guitar/singing set in Meridien one night on our cruise a couple weeks ago. It was fantastic! If you see it coming up I highly recommend you check it out.

Interesting. BTW, we have the only female Captain in the fleet.

Oops, wrong pronoun then. Enjoy the rest of your trip!

We didn’t hear it if he did.

Hello to everyone currently aboard the Mariner.

We are currently onboard the Explorer and just got to see the Mariner sailing by. We are off the northeast coast of the Dominican Republic.

Out captain blew the horn a couple times to say hello and it near scared everybody at the pool half to death. It was neat to see another Regent ship while at sea though.

We are currently onboard Explorer on deck 7 aft. There has been no vibration.

My wife and I sailed a 7 night Vancouver R/T on Seven Seas Mariner at the end of August. It was our first time on Regent, but we are well travelled and have cruised several times previously (most recently on Paul Gauguin). It was an overall positive experience, with a couple things that could be improved. Here goes:

Embarkation

One other ship (Holland America Volendam) was departing Vancouver the same day as we were. We had read that the suites would not be available until 2:30pm, so we didn’t head over to Canada Place until 1:30pm. We didn’t have bags to drop as our hotel concierge took care of that for us. The Regent portion of embarkation was incredibly fast as there was no line at all. The US customs portion (combined cruise lines passengers) also went quite quickly, as we had read to bring our Global Entry cards with us. The cards sent us to the front of the line and we got right though. Total time from arriving at Canada Place to being onboard was 24 minutes.

Cabin

We had a PH and really enjoyed the layout and size. Based on other reviews we chose one that was shower only and liked that a lot. We were on deck 11 forward, and the couple times that the ship encountered some decent sized swell, we could really feel the movement in that location. Neither one of us have ever been affected by motion sickness on any previous cruises, but we were both feeling it enough one day to leave the room and go sit in the Mariner Lounge on deck 5 for a couple hours until we felt better. It wasn’t enough motion that would keep us from booking that section of the ship again, but it was more than either of us expected.

Our butler was very attentive and personable. However, there was some confusion on the first day. The online request form that we filled out (6 weeks prior and rechecked a couple days before the cruise) for food and drink preferences in the suite was not communicated to the ship. Nothing that we had requested on the form was in our suite. We talked to our butler about it and he remedied the situation and made sure that we were fully stocked for the remainder of the cruise. It really wasn’t a big deal, but it was a bad first impression by Regent.

Dining

La Veranda – We are not big on buffets, so we tried to eat breakfast and lunch in Compass Rose as much as possible. The few times we did eat breakfast or lunch here it was adequate. I don’t recall any dishes that really stood out in any way.

Compass Rose Breakfast – Similar to the items offered in La Veranda, only made to order. They did have an Asian salmon plate on the breakfast menu, which was a nice change of pace from traditional breakfast items.

Compass Rose Lunch – Mixed on this one. On one hand we really enjoyed the offerings from Pacific Rim and Chartreuse. In fact, I will say that just about everything we got here for lunch we enjoyed.

The issue was, for 7 days the base menu never changed. Sure, there was a rotating appetizer, soup, pasta, fish and main course daily, but these were the same items being served upstairs in La Veranda each day. The quality of the “daily specials” was more in line with buffet food than the other lunch items. This was especially disappointing as the Regent website had multiple Compass Rose sample lunch menus prior to our cruise (the new website currently has the lunch and dinner tabs swapped and does not show multiple menus). We would have liked to try additional dishes at lunch. I know 7 nights is a short cruise, but if they had changed up the lunch menu even once it would have been much better.

Compass Rose Dinner – No complaints about the quality or the offerings for dinner in Compass Rose. We enjoyed the selection of the menu items from both the “Design your Entrée” as well as the “Executive Chef’s Daily Specials.”

I must preface this next part by saying the wait staff were all great. They work their tails off and everyone we encountered was personable and had a great attitude. That said, this has to be the most understaffed place on the entire ship. Our dinners ranged from 1.5 to over 2.5 hours each time. We do like to enjoy our food and wine, but this was taking it to another level. Sometimes 5 minutes between courses. Sometimes 30 minutes between courses. Sometimes our dirty plates would be taken away promptly. Sometimes dirty plates would linger on the table an excessive amount of time. Sometimes other guests seated after us would get their second or third courses before we got our first. Sometimes we would get our first course when a table seated at the same time as us hadn’t had their order taken yet. There was no consistency from night to night other than the staff was working very hard, yet clearly overworked. One night we were seated at 7:00pm and missed the start of the 9:30pm show. I might be off base here, but it seems unreasonable to have to allot 2.5+ hours for a 3-course dinner that took 1.5 hours the previous night. Don’t get me wrong; we have had multi-course degustation menus in some restaurants that have encroached on 3 hours. The problem here was there was no consistency from night to night.

Prime 7 – This was the most efficient dinner in terms oftime we had the entire week. The food was good and the flow of the meal was perfect. We had time to savor the food and drink, and courses came at a steady, even pace.

Signatures – We enjoyed the food, especially since some reviews on CC were negative towards Signatures. We had an 8:30pm reservation and were seated promptly. We were quickly poured wine and given bread. Then…nothing. At 9:00pm I went to the front to ask the Maître D’ if he could send someone to our table to take our order. The server came over, apologized,and took our order shortly after that. We were later told that the server had been seated with two large tables and two small tables at just about the same exact time. I’m not sure why that would happen in a restaurant that only takes reservations, but it did. Once the service started, it was good for the rest of the meal.

Activities

On this sailing the Calgary Opera were onboard, and performed several times. We went to a couple of performances and thought they did a great job. The Regent shows put on by their entertainment staff were great as well. Between the bands, pianist, karaoke, trivia, etc., we felt there was plenty onboard to do.

We didn’t end up doing any of the Regent excursions, so I cannot comment on those. We had one Regent Choice excursion booked, but it got cancelled due to weather. We were not told about the cancellation until we got to the pier to meet for it. They offered a refund or a couple of other excursions, but the weather was poor and most things were full at that point, so we opted just towalk around town. No big deal, these things happen. We booked two tours in other ports outside of Regent that were not offered through the ship.

Debarkation

Our final port day was in Prince Rupert, Canada, and Regent had us fill out declaration forms prior to that. Because of this, when we got back to Vancouver there was no customs to go through. Getting off the ship was a non-event. We got off when our color was called and our luggage was waiting for us. The taxi line at Canada Place was pretty long (3 ships in port that morning) so we walked across the street to the Fairmont Waterfront and got a taxi without waiting.

Overall

We really did enjoy our first time on Regent and we will become repeat customers. Most everything met or exceeded our expectations, but there are a couple of things (mainly inconsistency in Compass Rose) that could be improved for next time.

Bonus tip - We had OBC left over at the end. They would not let us apply it directly to the crew welfare fund, but we discovered that we could buy a bunch of candy and goodies in the boutique and donate those to the crew welfare fund, so we did that.

We sail our on our first Regent cruise with butler service in August, so I can't speak from first hand experience. I did however find this cruisecritic article that was helpful.

I'll do that. Thanks WesW

Hello,

Does anyone know a good contact email for Regent Seven Seas? Without getting into details, I have a policy clarification question that is easier to ask with documentation via email rather than over the phone.

Their facebook page lists: information@rssc.com

However, I sent an email to that address last Tuesday and I got zero response.

Thanks for your help!

Gorgeous, gorgeous video! I know this is a little off point, but now you have me thinking about bringing my Phantom 3 along. Which program do you use to process your footage?

Thank you. Everything in those two videos was edited in iMovie. This is all pretty new to me, but my wife is "fluent" in Adobe CS. I'll probably try to learn Adobe Premiere in the future.

Great tip, but Air Tahiti Nui does depart out of TBIT. We departed from there in May. The tunnels work for both AF & TN. Also, the entire south complex connects now. United terminals 7, 8 plus American & Delta 4, 5 & 6 can all stay inside security to TBIT.

Map

These videos are amazing!! Thank you for posting!! Getting super excited to leave this week for our own trip - hope our weather is as good as yours, I see it is raining all week before we leave, hopefully this is just pop up showers ....

Thank you! As far as the weather goes, I wouldn't trust any of the US weather forecasts. The only one that seems to be close is meteo.pf, which is based in French Polynesia. The videos make it look like the weather was always great, but in each of those places we also got some fairly heavy rain. I just flew the drone when it was nice out. Have a great trip!

We are thinking about looking at using points to get a bungalow for the overnight in Bora Bora. How much are taxis to and from resort to ship?

Taxis at the tender pier to/from IC Le Moana are $20 each way.

We are booked WAY far in advance (next September) but are so excited watching your videos! Just had a question re your stay at a hotel while in Bora Bora - did many passengers do that? Would you recommend doing so? Was the process of leaving the ship/getting to the hotel easy? Do you feel it was worth the extra expense?

 

 

Thank you!

On our last PG cruise in 2013 we did this as well. On that one, there was one other couple that we talked to that also stayed at the Intercontental overnight while the ship was anchored in Bora Bora. They booked the shore excursion that PG offers to stay in an overwater bungalow. We were able to use a free award night, so we did not book through PG.

Getting to the Intercontinental Thalasso is pretty easy. It involves taking a taxi/shuttle from the tender dock in Vaitape to the Intercontinental Le Moana. From there, a free shuttle boat connects the two hotels at set departure times. If you book the excursion through PG, transportation is included, however it is the same method I just described. Getting back to the ship on the second day is the same but in reverse.

On this most recent cruise I don't believe anyone else from the ship overnighted at the Thalasso. The resort was having problems with their air conditioning, so PG didn't offer the overnight excursion. Again, we booked outside the ship so it wasn't a problem. There were other guests from the ship that booked the day excursion to the Thalasso, however.

As far as a recommendation or if others feel it is worth the expense is highly subjective. Different people on this board will have very different opinions on this. Here is a thread where I asked for some advice on this subject from 2013 and I got varied replies. We enjoyed it enough the first time to do it again.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Here's part 2, Moorea & Bora Bora. We stayed at the Intercontinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa while in port at Bora Bora.

[YOUTUBE]KpCY_n8myzo[/YOUTUBE]

That video is AMAZING!!! It really makes me want to get a drone before my PG cruise next year (assuming I can spare the space in my suitcase! lol) Did anyone at the beach mind that you were flying your drone while they were there? Since you can't help but get the other people on film when you do that? I'd also be worried about the buzzing of the drone bothering people who are enjoying the quiet sound of the ocean. Did anyone comment to you about that? And did PG care that you had the drone flying so close to the ship (like for safety/security concerns)? I can tell you did it while the ship wasn't moving and was anchored... I imagine it wouldn't go over well if you used it while the ship was moving! Just curious :)

Other than takeoff and landing, the drone stays fairly high, and it's not that loud. Honestly, the tenders, Seadoos, and other boats are significantly louder than the drone. I made sure to find a place off to the side near the vendors at the motu to takeoff and land. As far as getting people on film, isn't it the same as anyone with a GoPro or any other camera on the beach? The only comments we got about it were from other guests asking questions about where they could get one, cost, etc. Several people wanted my contact info so they could see the videos when I posted them.

I only flew it near the ship twice, and both times the ship was anchored. No one from PG said anything to me about it.

How do you know in advance which night of the cruise has the Tahitian Dinner? We are doing the 10-night itinerary... is the Tahitian Dinner always at a specific port day?

We haven't done the 10-night, but I'm sure someone else on the board would have first hand knowledge. The Tahitian dinner was also on Thursday night the last time we did the 7 night cruise. To be sure, I asked the maître d' when making the reservations and he confirmed that it was Thursday. Just ask when you get on board.

I am surprised to see that even the ship appears virtually deserted. Was this shot of the ship taken at a time when most guests were ashore? Or where was everybody?

The ship footage was taken at lunchtime on the Motu Mahana day. Just about everyone from the ship was on the motu enjoying the beach BBQ. I have some more footage of the ship from day 2 in Moorea and there are significantly more people on the ship. I'm still editing that footage, but I'll try to include it in the next video.

Fantastic! How times were you able to eat in the reservation only restaurant?

Short answer: 2

We made reservations first thing after we were settled in our room on the first day. We were allowed to make a confirmed reservation at both of the reservation restaurants. We opted for La Veranda the first night (Saturday) and made a reservation at Le Grill for Wednesday. For us, Tuesday was not an option as we were not on the ship for dinner that night (this is the reason I don't have a night 4 menu). We wanted to eat at the reservation restaurants when they had their normal menus, so Thursday was not an option either.

After eating at La Veranda on Saturday, and remembering how good it was, we asked to be put on the waitlist for Friday. Had everything gone according to plan, we would have eaten in the reservation restaurants 3 times. Friday night opened up and the Head Waiter called to let us know he had availability for us at La Veranda. The problem was, Le Grill was cancelled on Wednesday night due to inclement weather. We were offered a confirmed reservation at Le Grill either of the two remaining nights. We chose Friday to experience the normal menu.

We had the confirmed reservation at Le Grill and were offered the waitlist reservation at La Veranda on Friday night. We chose Le Grill because we had already been to La Veranda once on this cruise.

We took our DJI Phantom 4 drone with us this time on the Paul Gauguin. The weather was agreeable long enough to get some footage of the ship from Motu Mahana. Here is the first part of our trip (it looks best in full screen):

[YOUTUBE]oGwp88mrQPU[/YOUTUBE]

If you're getting playback errors, here's the

Le Grill

La Verandah

Breakfast

We just returned from the 7-night Tahiti & the Society Islands cruise. I took some pictures of the menus along the way and thought I would post them here. I am missing the supplemental lunch menu as well as the dinner menu from night 4.

L'Etoile

Night 1

Night 2

Night 3

Night 5

Night 6 - Same menu in all 3 restaurants

Night 7

Does anyone who has been onboard recently know who the current pianist is? Our last PG cruise was three years ago, and Dan was the pianist. We enjoyed going to his show before dinner, and are wondering if he will be aboard for our cruise in a couple weeks. If it's someone else, is the format similar in that they will take requests and have a very wide array of songs to play? Thanks.

My mistake. We were looking at Poe Charter and thought it might be the same one that PG uses. Thanks for clearing that up Emdee.