zak477

Loved your comment. And we recycle and have a mulch pile in the back of the garden too. 

Just got back from our first Grandeur cruise. F1 category, suite 732. Yes, we heard our neighbors  and also on one side the wake-up phone call at 6:00 a.m.  But the ship is still beautiful, so much marble and alabaster. And artwork. 

Just did a 10 day Grandeur in suite 732. We have also done 732/733 on the Explorer and the Splendor. The F1 category is very nice. Much larger than the Veranda category. And they are the same size at the Concierge suites. These two suites are near the forward elevators too. 

To answer your question:  Our cabin upon arrival was nice. But when getting settled we noticed the bathroom sink with a large crack and piece of porcelain missing. When I took my first shower that evening, the handle bar holding the hand-held shower fell off, the bottom was rusted out. On day 12 we  woke to our cabin completely flooded. The wet vacs outside in the hall woke us up. 9 cabins completely flooded, we all had to be relocated. No problem as so many cabins were empty.

We obviously never starved but the buffet was your best bet as you helped yourself. Setti Mari was fine but Prime and Compass Rose was hit or miss. We returned only 2 meals as they made an issue of the server, then the waiter, then the maitre d, then on the first occasion the chef came out all wanting to know what was wrong. We stopped returning anything and just ate more bread. LOL

Salas served on hot plates, dinner served on cold plates, steak tough as leather, way to much sauce on everything, we asked for sauce on the side and twice never got sauce at all. 

Oh and we never had flowers on any of the tables. It became a joke that the cost was too high, even with the comedian.  

flossie009:  Thanks for your comments. So glad you are enjoying your cruise.  We began in 2008 with Regent and we too have enjoyed many wonderful sailings all over the world.  Sadly, our dissatisfaction came to a boil on our Navigator cruise in November ending Dec. 1st. If you read the roll call comments about this specific cruise you might understand our frustrations.  And, for us, this was originally (from he itinerary) a cruise of a lifetime that we would enjoy during our 50th anniversary. 

Hopefully enjoying the Grandeur in January will help to bring back the Regent wow we so enjoyed in the past. 

Safe and happy sailing.

It seems from your post your expectations of Regent are low. You are easily entertained and you don’t need the luxury that Regent has given us before Covid. Jason is no longer president and his replacement seems to be missing in action and/or senior management sits back and does nothing.  Read the threads about our Navigator cruise through the war zone last month. Horrible experience for $42,000+ and a compensation of 25% off the basic cruise price only.  The Splendor and Mariner were definitely short staffed.

Regent was always our goto for cruises. We hope the new management gets their act together and soon as we have paid in full for the Grandeur next month.

Got off the Navigator December 1st and now we have been on the Splendor, Explorer and the Mariner since covid.  The quality of the food is mediocre at best. Except Pacific Rim venue, the food is consistently wonderful.  So why can one restaurant get it but the rest do not?

The good chefs probably have never returned and they only have sous chefs !  If them. 

The overall service on all ships is also mediocre at best. It is so obvious that they are understaffed.

If the dining venues were here at home, we would never go back a second time. The dining rooms are a perfect example of poor staffing. The pool areas too. 

Sadly, the work LUXURY in Regents adverts is misleading. What has happened to the cruise line we loved and are just one sailing away from Titanium members?

Everyone has different tastes but I am one of those that truly can not stand these two. In the lounge every night at 6:00 p.m. while the lounge is crowded and everyone is enjoying chatting and meeting people, these two start in and she is just plain screeching into the mike.  We even asked the GM to have the sound techs lower the volume on the speakers but they never did. 

To get a drink at the bar you had to almost scream at the bartender. Conversations were either screaming to be heard or you wanted for her to stop for a minute.  They might be great after dinner at 10:00 pm but not at 6.

I read that it was offered to those that got onboard.

Back in 2017 we were doing a Hong Kong to Beijing cruise on the Voyager. My TA got a call from Regent offering us an upgrade, abc and and our suite would be the same for both segments,  if we would continue on the next segment, Beijing to Bangkok at a cost of $2500 each. Beyond cheap !! And we were upgraded to concierge. Oh and an additional $500 ship board credit. We never got to Xi'an to see the clay warriors or the river cruise we had planned but boy did we enjoy the second segment. As it ended in Bangkok, the Regent post overland was to Angkor Wat.  A wow of a cruise and so many places from our bucket list. 

Sadly, we have not been offered anything since so if offered take it.

Our cruise cost (not pre or post or overland) is $42,300 for the Navigator sailing on Nov. 10th. A lot of money if we cancel and at this writing no comment  about FCC. Every day we hear on the news of escalations, last night alone the riots in Istanbul. 

I just did our on-line check in, as we are still planning to fly early via Regent air to Istanbul on November 5th, to enjoy Istanbul, one of our favorite cities.  Regent got us our desired direct flight from JFK to Istanbul on Turkish air. It was on their list, so no additional costs to us.   We wanted to do this itinerary last year but with so many using their covid FCCs, it was waitlisted early. So as soon as we say the 2023 itinerary we booked.  Sad to see the Holy Land removed and we do not care for the Greek Island additions (been to them all more than once). But we are looking forward to the Luxor overland and Dubai overland tours. 

Sadly the war seems to be escalating but let us hope and pray the conflict is resolved quickly. 

mrlevin, But my only point was that all categories were "waitlisted" a month ago. Now even guarantees are open for purchase. So yes, there are 7 categories that are available to purchase. At this late date, opening are rare.

Oh I do hope we still can enjoy this long awaited cruise. Thanks. 

Papaflamingo & all others too: All valid points. I also agree with all the comments. I agree that cancelled ports can be the norm when sailing. Over the years we have had many cancellations and added sea days.  Yes, I understand my contract with Regent. But this time, I think that maybe, just maybe, the itinerary cancellation is a bit different that a single port cancellation due to high winds &/or rough seas.  As of this writing, I looked up the Navigator on the Regent website and they now post 7 different categories available or guaranteed ! Last month the availability was all waitlisted !  Seems as if many are cancelling even after full payment. 

That is truly disheartening. We are still planning to go of course but not with as much enthusiasm was before.  Let us hope and pray that the region deescalating quickly and not intensify. 

We too got the revised itinerary for our November 10th cruise on the Navigator. So many Greek Islands  added. We Never would have booked this cruise due to the abundance of Greek ports. After at least 4 cruises to the various Greek Islands over the years, we are always told due to rough seas we will have a sea day.  Now, the rest of the itinerary currently is unchanged. 

With my TA and his behind the scenes contact at Regent we had a three way conversation with my TA asking my questions: 1. Regent never mentioned the refunds for the overland tours, why? We are working on it but nothing in writing as of yet, when. 2. Is Egypt going to be cancelled? They are currently just talking about it and waiting if the was escalates. 3. Can we be offered a full FCC to be added to another Regent Cruise booked within a short period of time? We are platinum members and use Regent now almost exclusively several times a yr. The response to this question was yes it has been discussed but no action or offers will be made until closer to the sail date. 

Oh and if you look at this sailing offer on the Regent website, more and more suite categories are opening up and their "waitlist" has been removed !! Why so many available suites at this late day?!

Also some sloppy IT cleanup. They removed Israel from the itinerary but they still show the overland tours of Israel being offered!!  Is anyone minding the ship? No pun intended.

Go to the Regent boards and check out the stories of Oceania's sister company and what they are doing or not doing. 

The Oct. 15 on the Regent Voyager looks and reads like a horror story for many. It seems that the Regent Customer Service Dept. is anything but Service. 

With the time difference between here and Istanbul, I hope all of you embarking today have now gotten on board and sent directly to your suites.  Also I do hope that arrangements were made to have all the luggage picked up from the hotel in the a.m. so you have your luggage in your suite upon arrival.  I would think that now Regent would have made arrangements to see to every detail to insure you have that Luxury cruise they advertise.  

Maybe they learned their mistakes with this cruise and the NCL & Oceania cruises so the changes being made for our November Navigator sailing proceeds smoothly. 

We too love a few sea days to enjoy the ship. Sadly your itinerary now has none. Look at a port that you have already visited and don’t need to see again. Do as we do and stay onboard, while most others are touring. The ship is quiet and relaxing and the crew are even more attentive than usual.

As I have stated in a prior comment, a Regent supervisor (Cruise Critic doesn't want names used) told me yesterday that the Israel ports of call have all been cancelled for the balance of 2023. Our November 10th sailing still shows Israel and he stated that Regent is currently working on the October sailing only. When those guests have all be rerouted, they will work on changing the itineraries for the November 10th sailing. He said by the end of the month all of us on the November sailing will be given the new itinerary. 

Sadly, we only booked this cruise because of the amazing ports of call, pre & post offerings and overland tours.  Let us hope that the itinerary is not just sea days !!

Sadly it sure does !!

After reading so many comments and opinions on this board, I finally called the Regent customer service number, today,  to ask specifically "When will you tell all of us paid guests for the Nov. 10th out of Istanbul that the 3 days in Israel are Cancelled"? 

Now I have been told by Cruise Critic, in the past that I cannot use names. So here was my experience with Regent Customer Service:

The woman that finally picked up (7 minutes wait), informed me that we "are at war" !!!!!

and my inquiry was not a priority for Regent. She then told me that they are 3 companies, not one. NCL, Oceania and Regent are the same, according to her. And they are very busy with the current cruises, all of them not just Regent still mentioning the Oct. 15th sailing as "in the works". I stated that I called Regent customer service not the conglomerate customer service.  Where does Regent get these untrained incompetent persons calling themselves Customer Service reps?

From her snarky comments I demanded, yes demanded a supervisor. Finally got one and he was a true Regent rep. He verbally stated that our sailing will Not be going to Israel but no itinerary changes have even been made yet. I asked about cancelling Egypt, is it on the table? He honestly stated that no talks were at his level yet. He asked me to be patient and give it another week to see if more details concerning my cruise will be finalized.  

I asked about offering FCC or refunds and he stated that he was told, at this time, to have the guests look at their contracts. Then he said, "sorry that is all I can say at this time". 

We too will be on the Navigator for the November 10th sailing out of Istanbul. We booked this cruise only because of the itinerary with overlands in Egypt and Israel. And also overlands in Turkey and Dubai.  No way will we want to travel to Israel now and even if Regent does not cancel this port of call, we will not leave the ship. And now Egypt is questionable. So is this cruise going to be just another Mediterranean cruise ending in Dubai?  No way would we have spent so much money for the altered itinerary. Sadly, looking at our Allianz travel insurance, most, if not all of our expenses are Not covered due to the act of war being declared in Israel. I already called them in anticipation. 

We have had 16 cruises with Regent and with those I booked my own air and got the air credit. Also we arrive at least 2 days (sometimes more) prior to enjoy some of the new countries we are arriving in. But our cruise next month, Istanbul to Dubai, I researched the business class direct flight pricing and the round trip for us was more than our cruise costs with the added pre & post & overland tours too.  So this will be our first time using Regent air. So far, with the help of our TA, I found my preferred direct flight to and from, the TA requested our itinerary and Regent accepted it. We now have our eTickets for the flights we want. Oh and as Platinum members no deviation fee was charged.  So far all is good. My TA is the best and with his years of experience he knows who to call and when and makes sure is clients get the best service from Regent and all the other cruise lines we have traveled.

No we did not pay for the visas, Regent paid for them as part of our package. I have the page right here that $99 per visa was paid via Regent. 

We love the Navigator and have had both balconies and windows. Depending on the itinerary we have found that Deck 6 is wonderful for the window or the balcony side.  Although not cabins 600/601 we ha enjoyed 3 sailing on deck 6 and enjoyed it completely.