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Back from RSSC Mariner POST Dry Dock - VERY DISAPPOINTED


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We just returned from a 7-night Alaska sailing on RSSC Mariner after her dry dock. I won't be posting a formal review. We were very disappointed for the most part. Let me preface my comments by the following. Brand loyalty is usually built on brand consistency, experience and quality. For example, if you are in a Starbucks in Seattle or a Starbucks in New York you know you are in a Starbucks and there is brand consistency and quality which leads to the experience. This was my fifth Regent cruise. Having been on Explorer and wowed AND read about refurbishments of other ships in the fleet it was insinuated by Regent that they would be "Explorerizing" their other ships. Wrong!!!! I was on Mariner pre dry dock as well. The public areas are beautiful and redone quite nicely. However, epic failure with the staterooms. We chose one of the most expensive suites on the ship and were extremely underwhelmed and disappointed. The torn wallpaper and rusted door hinges were shocking. Sure there was the new bed and furniture, but certainly not well done. Lighting remained old, dark, uninviting and uninspiring. The biggest disappointment - bathrooms were untouched! Bathrooms should have been ripped and replaced. Instead they were left moldy and untouched - almost 20 years old! Unconscionable given the press release and claims made by Regent. Very much a bait and switch. We paid over $18k for one week and in addition to itinerary chose this cruise because of (1) our experience on Explorer and (2) the understanding that the Mariner would be (2) "Explorerized". Getting back to Starbucks. With any brand, but especially cruise lines and hotels there SHOULD be brand consistency. Regent has NO brand consistency when it comes to accommodations. So if you are going on any ship other than Explorer or Splendor and are familiar with Explorer - buyer beware! If you don't care about old moldy bathrooms and redone, but dated cabins go for it. If you expect consistency on par with Explorer you will be very disappointed. Food was outstanding. Internet speed impressive. Entertainment the worst I've seen. No vibe on the ship. Senior crew members were over the top wonderful! However, the rest of the crew was for the most part extremely disappointing, not well trained and frankly unfriendly if not flippant and rude. On all five Regent cruises I've found the crew members to be indifferent and often getting a return "hello" or a smile to be painful for these robotic and unhappy employees. A big issue - sorry if you need a safe space after I say this - is that Regent and Oceania have been hiring gobs of crew members not proficient in the English language and on these lines where English is the primary language this creates a huge service issue. Nonetheless, we had a fabulous time with great friends and seeing wonderful sites. Always make the most of any trip. My take away - in the true luxury cruise market Seabourn and Crystal win hands down. As a last aside, for fascinating reasons I can't figure out certain brands attract certain personality types. I find Regent passengers to be reserved, unfriendly, stuffy and not the fun loving type. By comparison Seabourn and Crystal seem to attract a crowd that is fun, young at heart and vibrant - regardless of age. In summary, Regent is not true luxury - more like true all-inclusive.

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What a terrifically detailed report — thanks for taking the time to write it.

 

And I'm glad that you enjoyed your cruise despite the many disappointments.

 

We like Mariner very much and have a cruise booked on Explorer, which I'm looking forward to less than any of the dozen or so Voyager/Mariner cruises we've taken: Pretty sure we'll be turned off by all the razzmatazz and showiness.

Btw, we're very much the "reserved" types that you speak of — though not unfriendly, I don't think.

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As someone with their first Regent Cruise coming up and the amount of money this costs vs other lines I am sad to hear this. Besides the cabin, which I know you are disappointed with, getting past that are there any positives you can give. I saw you like the food and the internet connection was solid. We don’t care for shows in general. How were the excursions and the overall experience. Sometimes the initial disappointment can spin the vacation negative. I saw you make the best of it, give me the good news! What did you like?

 

 

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I want to address two things about your disappointing cruise.

 

1. You mentioned that you stayed in one of the top suites. Unfortunately, they were not refurbished (as has been stated by another poster that sailed Mariner post-refurbishment). They were refurbished more recently than the rest of the suites. Having witnessed the state of the Grand Suite pre-refurbishment (that is the same post-refurbishment), I can attest to the fact that the suites should have had (at a minimum), new carpeting and reupholstered furniture. "Some" of the bathrooms have been redone and others have not been. So, I agree with you in terms of how the refurbishment of the Mariner was advertised.

 

2. You stated that "Regent has NO brand consistency when it comes to accommodations". As you likely know, the ships were built from 1998 through 2017 - most of them were not built by the present owners (or even the last owners). When the ships were purchased, multi-millions of dollars went into fixing them up but they really couldn't discard the ships and start over. There are some consistencies between the Voyager and Navigator (same size regular suites but when you go to the PH level and above, they are not the same at all). Mariner was built in France and is quite different than the other ships (and more stable at sea in our opinion but have the smallest regular suites).

 

The Explorer is the first of the "Explorer Class" ships that was built by NCLH and Splendor will be the second. You would see brand consistency there. As with luxury cruise lines such as Silversea, they have different size and class ships so you would not find "brand consistency when it comes to accommodations". Seabourn also did not have brand consistency until they sold their smaller ships. Crystal ships are old and from what I hear are well kept although they cannot do anything about the small cabins. I suspect that when their new owner finally builds a new ship for them, it will not resemble the current two but will be a new class.

 

In terms of your other comments, your experience is your experience and I cannot argue that. I can only say that in our 31 Regent cruises, we have found the crew friendly and efficient (even those going through training that may make a mistake or two). We appreciate how Regent hires crew members from all over the world - giving them a chance to make their lives and the lives of their families better. And, we are traveling the world and one would expect to hear accents.

 

The passengers......... this can be a mixed bag. Typically (in our experience) Regent passengers are open, fun loving and not stuffy. However, there have been a couple of cruises where the passengers were grumpy and complained about everything.

 

Agree also that each cruise line attracts a certain type of passenger. Regent and Silversea are the only luxury cruise lines that have attracted us and we are very happy with our choices.

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I’m sorry the cruise didn’t meet your expectations - for what these vacations cost it’s tough when they don’t push all the right buttons.

 

We’ve been on 8 or 9 Regent cruises and have pretty much loved them all - but I agree that some cruises can have a different feel or vibe. Our first Baltic cruise made me feel like I was sailing into a zombie apocalypse movie - just a sad, motley collection of passengers. But out of 700 passengers, we can always find at least a few we enjoy hanging with.

 

 

I think that’s one of the things that keeps me sailing on Regent - it’s a known quantity for us. I’ve looked at Seabourn and Crystal but we haven’t found one that grabs us yet...and frankly I’m afraid to come back from one feeling like you do about this last one.

 

 

I don’t know where the future of the cruise industry is going but I’m glad that have options. And pretty good ones at that.

 

 

I hope you have better luck on your next one.

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We were on the same cruise and though it is hard to put a finger on the exact cause it was not up to the standard we experienced on our prior Regent cruise. Service seemed perfunctory and forced. Everything was just kinda of OK and for the $ things should just be OK. It was enough for us to switch our upcoming Alaska cruise to Seabourn, which we will be on for the second time.

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I find Regent passengers to be reserved, unfriendly, stuffy and not the fun loving type. By comparison Seabourn and Crystal seem to attract a crowd that is fun, young at heart and vibrant - regardless of age.

I, too, am sorry that your cruise did not meet your expectations. And in no way would I question your experiences in regard to service, entertainment, and anything else that was not up to standards. But with respect, I must take exception to the quoted statement. Perhaps your encounters with your fellow passengers were as you described, but I don't think it is fair to generalize. In my 8 Regent cruises, with few exceptions, I found my fellow passengers to be friendly, engaging, well traveled, and pleasant to interact with- exactly as I have encountered on Crystal (I have not been on Seabourn). I am not a fan of generalizations.

Bob

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I, too, am sorry that your cruise did not meet your expectations. And in no way would I question your experiences in regard to service, entertainment, and anything else that was not up to standards. But with respect, I must take exception to the quoted statement. Perhaps your encounters with your fellow passengers were as you described, but I don't think it is fair to generalize. In my 8 Regent cruises, with few exceptions, I found my fellow passengers to be friendly, engaging, well traveled, and pleasant to interact with- exactly as I have encountered on Crystal (I have not been on Seabourn). I am not a fan of generalizations.

 

Bob

 

 

 

+1

Z and TB

 

 

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Out of curiosity, does anyone know the breakdown of loyalty levels and new to Regent guests?

 

In my experience Regent past passenger repeat generally run about 65%-75%. The longer the cruise the higher the repeat passengers.

 

J

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Sorry for your disappointment.

We cruised on the Mariner in May in a category Penthouse A.

Room/bathroom were great. Out cabin stewards great. Our butler,Kumar, was outstanding.

Loved the food and all the free excursions we took.

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We did the Voyager less than a year ago. It was definitely "old". Had old oak type cabinets. It had new carpet, but the bathrooms had not been upgraded.

 

I feel that for what Regent charges they should get it done!

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I think the original poster's remarks about brand consistency are appropriate. Starbucks, McDonald's, Hilton Hotels, etc. all work very hard at it and generally succeed. I don't know why cruises seem to have some difficulty with it. I've experienced wide variations in quality on the same ship but at different times. I'm sure upper-management knows about these problems, but don't know how to solve it.

 

 

One corollary of this is one should be cautious about forming a general opinion based on just one cruise. For example, I once did a cruise on my all-time favourite ship (which I will not mention here) that was excrable. If it had been my first cruise on that ship I would still be shouting far and wide about how everybody should avoid it at all costs.

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I may be in the minority, but brand consistently is good in the "soft" parts of a cruise such as food, service, etc. But I enjoy the variety in having really different ships in the same line. Navigator for instance, is very different from Explorer. Same with Voyager and Mariner. Each ship is a unique experience. All of us have our favorite ship for different reasons.

 

It seems the trend however is to make the ships cookie-cutter, like McDonalds or Starbucks or any other chain establishment. So it will make very little difference if I am on Explorer, or Splendor or whatever the next ship will be after that. It will all feel the same.

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Maybe that helps explain why so many people love Navigator.

 

Keeping in mind that this was an Alaskan cruise it’s especially odd to me that the passengers weren’t more outgoing. Granted, we’ve only done one Alaskan itinerary on Regent but we found the passengers to be very outgoing and friendly. Of course, that may just be a generalization on MY part as we only did the one Alaska cruise. :D

 

 

But fellow passengers aside, there’s no excuse for mold in a bathroom - in a new or old bathroom. I’m sure a call to housekeeping would have had that taken care of, but as we’ve said before - that stuff just plain shouldn’t happen on a ‘6-star’ line.

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Bill, Alaska cruises tend to have less Regent repeat customers and more newbies (trying not to generalize but this is how our three Alaska cruises have been). When you have a different mix of people - especially when there are larger families involved, they tend to be so involved with their friends/family that they are less social. When you have the average number of repeat cruisers, the passengers are indeed friendlier and more laid back.

 

In terms of mold - agree that this should not happen. However, we live in a very damp part of the country where mold in the bathroom can be an issue. We dry off our shower every time we use it but occasionally - outside of the shower door we will see mold starting (which I immediately take care of). All this means is that I/we forgot to dry off am area well enough.

 

Again, not sticking up for Regent but do understand the difficulty of keeping bathrooms mold free in certain climates. The steward/stewardesses need to spend an extra minute or two to double check mold and perhaps put something in the shower that will prevent further growth (I would do that but everything I have found can be harmful to animals so I can't use it).

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Again, not sticking up for Regent but do understand the difficulty of keeping bathrooms mold free in certain climates. The steward/stewardesses need to spend an extra minute or two to double check mold and perhaps put something in the shower that will prevent further growth (I would do that but everything I have found can be harmful to animals so I can't use it).

 

Interesting take. I tend to see that the interior of a cruise ship is a relatively controlled environment, with most entry/exit points being primarily closed. Yes, balcony doors get opened for short periods, as well as doors to the open decks. But by and large, it's sealed off and humidity and temperature are well monitored (and controlled) from Engineering.

 

By your own admission, it requires effort to prevent mold from occurring. Perhaps it's the effort that is lacking, rather than it being due to the "certain climate".

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The smell of bleach (not too strong) is something that many frequent travelers feel comfortable with as it tends to indicate that the area has been disinfected rather than just surface wiped. I know some do not like the smell and can certainly understand that but I do like knowing an area has been cleaned. Having said that, I was under the impression that Regent, and some other cruise lines, did not use or minimally used bleach as it was viewed an environmentally "bad". However, bleach is great at cleaning/preventing mold.

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Interesting take. I tend to see that the interior of a cruise ship is a relatively controlled environment, with most entry/exit points being primarily closed. Yes, balcony doors get opened for short periods, as well as doors to the open decks. But by and large, it's sealed off and humidity and temperature are well monitored (and controlled) from Engineering.

 

By your own admission, it requires effort to prevent mold from occurring. Perhaps it's the effort that is lacking, rather than it being due to the "certain climate".

 

I agree, it’s usualy very dry humidity on the ship and should not promote mildew or mold growth unless one is leaving the sliding glass door open in humid hot climates and the mirrors fog up. Now you have humidity.

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TC2 - that may explain the very strong bleach smell in our Navigator bathroom after our suite was cleaned each morning on our recent WC.

 

That is likely the case. I do use bleach and/or peroxide (which is just now proving to be an amazing cleaner and a peroxide based product has been proven to work against norovirus but that is a subject for another thread). Agree with John that bleach is a great product for cleaning/disinfecting.

 

A bathroom tends to be a very moist environment and if the temperature in the suite is not warm enough to quickly dry the water, it can cause mold. When we are on a Regent ship, it is wonderful to be able to take a shower and not wipe down the shower!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I read this thread right after returning from Alaska on the RSSC Mariner (5/30 - 6/6/18) and appreciate the candid commentary. I wanted to share our experience as well. I think our trip was one or two voyages after californiacruiseluvrs' trip, so perhaps a few kinks were worked out over that time. I actually noticed things improving as our own cruise went on. I have to assume that putting a ship in service after a lengthy dry dock is a pretty extensive process.







First I want to disclose that this was only our second cruise (we sailed Oceania's Regatta on a Mediterranean cruise a few years back), but we have traveled extensively over several decades and so have a lot of travel experience to compare this to.





We stayed in a Concierge Suite D, which was fine for 7 days but we'd probably go with the Penthouse on this ship for a longer trip. Loved the bathroom, especially the shower (we had no tub by choice). Compared to the Regatta, this was a far superior stateroom at the Concierge level. The balcony was a little small but we weren't out there much as it was understandably quite chilly. The public areas were clearly renovated and looked beautiful. Internet service was spotty...not sure why this was the case.





We found the crew to be friendly and competent for the most part. I'd say 85% we interacted with were very good, 10% were average and 5% were rude. They mostly had accents as most were from eastern Europe, but I agree with Travelcat2 that this is to be expected and even appreciated, given that Regent hires people from around the world.





We had VERY high expectations for the culinary experience and have to say the food may have fallen a notch below what we'd hoped. Compass Rose got progressively better as the cruise went on and by the last couple of days I was absolutely loving their offerings. Prime 7 was a total disappointment. Not only were our steaks sub-par (as in, if I got this steak at an Outback I'd be highly disappointed), but the server actually challenged me when I politely told him it clearly didn't seem to be "prime" quality. Sette Mari was a wonderful surprise. EVERYONE wanted into this place! They don't take reservations so you had to wait in a long line to get a table. Loved Chartreuse...would have liked to have gone there twice. We went to Veranda for most breakfasts and lunches, and while I am not a buffet fan, it was a better daytime atmosphere than CR. (I wish CR had a better breakfast menu.) The pool restaurant food was pretty lousy -- no other way to put it. House wines were also a disappointment. Seriously, a company with Regent's buying power surely can find better wines to pour by the glass! We ended up using most of our shipboard credit on bottled wines, which we found were very fairly priced.





We didn't do the spa so I can't comment on that. We did do several excursions and very much enjoyed them. One of the reasons we chose Regent is because everything is included (although we did pay a little extra for a couple of the excursions). Oceania, on the other hand, nickels and dimes for everything. If you want the drink package and excursions, you'll end up paying as much as you would on Regent, in my estimation, and you'd be settling for inferior rooms by comparison. (We also chose Regent because we wanted a luxury cruise but not one requiring formal dinner attire. We appreciate a "casual elegant" dress code but can't think of anything much more impractical than taking gowns and tuxedos on a cruise.)





Passengers were generally friendly although we certainly ran into a few grumpy ones. We tend to socialize on excursions and during post-dinner entertainment (not looking to meet people to have dinner with, in other words), so we found lots of fun people with similar interests.





I thought the entertainment as a whole was fine, albeit a bit inferior to Regatta's in my opinion. Then again, I wasn't expecting a Broadway show. I thought the performances were creative and fun, and that the Regent Orchestra was outstanding.





All said and done, we both left the Mariner satisfied, and we will definitely travel on Regent again. We will continue to look to this forum for input and suggestions -- all of you have been so helpful! We plan to take many more cruises and are already planning our next one, this time on Explorer.

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