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Live from Explorer...


M&PGermany
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If you have time please post some of your on-board experiences both the good and maybe not so good. it is interesting to hear what is happening.

thanks for your time.

Have a super cruise.

 

Me too...would like to hear what your thinking is about the cruise. After all your the one cruising, not us-it's your opinion that counts. Thanks and have a great cruise. Rick

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Of course I will be posting a review very soon. All I can say right now is that the Explorer is the most luxurious ship I have ever sailed on! ...with some serious service issues (for a luxury cruise line) and a major design flaw.

 

:cool:

 

Greetings from sunny Barcelona.

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Of course I will be posting a review very soon. All I can say right now is that the Explorer is the most luxurious ship I have ever sailed on! ...with some serious service issues (for a luxury cruise line) and a major design flaw.

 

:cool:

 

Greetings from sunny Barcelona.

 

I can think of more than a single design flaw; waiting to hear the flaw that you consider so flagrant.

 

Marc

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Of course I will be posting a review very soon. All I can say right now is that the Explorer is the most luxurious ship I have ever sailed on! ...with some serious service issues (for a luxury cruise line) and a major design flaw.

 

:cool:

 

Greetings from sunny Barcelona.

 

Great, will be looking forward to this as we'll be on the Explorer next month----if you find serious service issues (Regent really has no excuse for that-I hope Corp is reading) let us know what "YOU" think as it is happening to you. The design flaws I like to know, but really can't do anything about that. Rick

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Hi M&PGermany - really appreciate your posting from the beautiful Explorer (our favorite ship by far). I hope that you read this soon because whatever service issues you are having can be corrected if you contact Daniella, F&B Director. You can contact her through Reception or perhaps you'll notice her when she walks by (she seems to be everywhere on the ship - insuring that everything is running smoothly (She is a tall blond that wears her hair up -- she is a lovely young woman). Daniella definitely wants to know when something is not right. You both will be glad that you spoke with her.

 

In terms of design flaws. The two major ones have been discussed on the board many times -- the stairway to nowhere and the sight lines in the theater. I'll be interested in learning what design flaw you are referring to. These flaws will be corrected when the next Regent class ship is launched in 2020.

Continue enjoying your cruise.

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Hi M&PGermany - really appreciate your posting from the beautiful Explorer (our favorite ship by far). I hope that you read this soon because whatever service issues you are having can be corrected if you contact Daniella, F&B Director. .

 

I'm sorry, but if their are problems with service and big ones at that. Then Daniella isn't doing her job--you shouldn't have to be telling people whats wrong in service on a cruise. That is their job, that is why they are on the ship. It's a job of the manager to know what is going on at all times and correct before a customer see's it. It is as simple as that. If the service problems are as bad as cruisers are posting, then the manager isn't doing what they are paid to do. If the service problems are happening and aren't solved then Corp needs to step in. Cruisers shouldnds't be managing service, they should be enjoying the moment while on the ship. Let's stop making excuses for what needs to be done. Rick

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ronrick - Totally agree with you. A ship that claims to be "6 stars" should mean top tier service as well, and Regent is certainly lacking in this way. Having to speak to a F&B director to get something fixed should not be the normal answer to passengers. I'm really surprised that Regent veterans find this acceptable. The total viewers/ contributors on this board are a small segment of the overall amount of passengers on Regent cruises. So i wonder how big the constant service issues actually are! Sounds like they need to turn over the top officers on their boats if they aren't able to provide the service that Regent advertises.

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Rick, IMO, you are way off base. No one should sit back and live through difficulties without speaking up. You also seem to think that I'm defending Regent when my intent is to make the TS's experience onboard the ship better. General Managers and other officers on the ship want to know if something is wrong when the passenger(s) are still on the ship as there is nothing they can do once the person leaves the ship. We have been told this numerous times.

 

If no one speaks up, and if no one fills out the mid-cruise comment card and final questionnaire, there is no way for onboard crew to know that there is a problem and also no way for Corporate to know (they read the comment cards).

 

When you are on your first Regent cruise next month -- if an issue comes up that you would like fixed, are you going to say nothing?

 

All of us would love a perfect cruise but I wonder if such a thing really exists. Bad mouthing Daniela isn't going to help (particularly since she one of the top F&B Directors at Regent). So, while I am not sticking up for Regent, I don't have much compassion for passengers that do not speak up and then complain on CC or to Corporate after they get off of the ship.

 

I don't know. Other members of my group complained, and it made the rest of us pretty uncomfortable. When there's one particular issue it's something the manager can deal with but when it's poor / insufficient training and general incompetence, they just get defensive. I felt that some of the restaurant managers were looking at me sideways the rest of the cruise even though I didn't say anything. I thought putting my comments on the mid and post cruise cards would be a more effective way of making sure that the corporate office knew of my concerns.

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I don't know. Other members of my group complained, and it made the rest of us pretty uncomfortable. When there's one particular issue it's something the manager can deal with but when it's poor / insufficient training and general incompetence, they just get defensive. I felt that some of the restaurant managers were looking at me sideways the rest of the cruise even though I didn't say anything. I thought putting my comments on the mid and post cruise cards would be a more effective way of making sure that the corporate office knew of my concerns.

 

CoolFool: If this is all true as you say and we have no reason to doubt what your saying because you are on the ship and experiencing it first hand----this is why I say Corporate needs to get involved if the ship's management isn't doing their job. People should be able to expect good service while on the ship. Unfortunately we're reading a few to many reports about this on CC, let's hope this is taken care of soon. If Regent does read these reports and they should it's in their best interest to solve this problem. We have 3 cruises coming up on Regent, the first being in November and we're looking forward to a great cruise and we plan to book the fourth while on the ship-we won't be looking for problems, but if we don't enjoy this cruise as we expect we'll be cancelling - not booking. When you spend this kind of money you do expect good service, not perfect service all the time but near perfect. I truly do hope you have better days ahead on the ship and I'm sure you will have a great cruise when you look back-let's hope these were just few hiccups along the way. Rick

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We are also currently on the Explorer. We have been on seven of twenty two days. As always, opinions are subjective. The Explorer is the most beautiful ship we have been on. Yes, a couple of design hiccups, but nothing that would change my opinion of the ship. The service has been outstanding. The best of any Regent cruise we have been on. The staff have been receptive and eager to help. A few issues with the wine selection in Compass Rose, but we are working around that.

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Just got off the Explorer today, totally agree with M&PGermany.

The ship is absolutely beautiful and our stateroom wonderful but the service and food was inconsistent. The staff was nice and overall friendly but service varied from excellent to poor, even on the same day. I know we were not the only ones to notice the problems because we heard many others talking.

Most the problems had to do with food preparation and service. Order medium rare meat and get it well done, order over easy eggs and get them over hard (numerous times), wrong food delivered, mix up on food orders, ordered food not delivered, no drink orders taken throughout an entire meal, & plates stacking up on tables.

The onboard shows were very good, tours enjoyable and ship extremely clean.

Room attendants did a good job, except they kept delivering other peoples laundry and letters to our room. Got tired of calling room steward to correct mistakes and just ended up delivering the wrongly delivered items to the correct cabins myself.

We are not demanding individuals, we really try to be friendly, considerate and nice to staff and servers. So when we get to the point where we just say service was inconsistent then it really was.

Regent really needs to correct these problems because if you are going to advertise as a 5 or 6 star cruise then it needs to be more than just a beautiful ship.

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WOW - we will be on Explorer next July and reading this surprises me. Never on my 10+ cruises ( all with larger lines) have I or anyone in my party had these kinds of experiences. Food and service can be spotty at times, people are human. However, multiple times on a luxury line like Regent truly shocks me. I hope someone from Regent is taking notes and it is addressed sooner rather than later.

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Just got off the Explorer today, totally agree with M&PGermany.

The ship is absolutely beautiful and our stateroom wonderful but the service and food was inconsistent. The staff was nice and overall friendly but service varied from excellent to poor, even on the same day. I know we were not the only ones to notice the problems because we heard many others talking.

Most the problems had to do with food preparation and service. Order medium rare meat and get it well done, order over easy eggs and get them over hard (numerous times), wrong food delivered, mix up on food orders, ordered food not delivered, no drink orders taken throughout an entire meal, & plates stacking up on tables.

Room attendants did a good job, except they kept delivering other peoples laundry and letters to our room. Got tired of calling room steward to correct mistakes and just ended up delivering the wrongly delivered items to the correct cabins myself.

We are not demanding individuals, we really try to be friendly, considerate and nice to staff and servers. So when we get to the point where we just say service was inconsistent then it really was.

Regent really needs to correct these problems because if you are going to advertise as a 5 or 6 star cruise then it needs to be more than just a beautiful ship.[/quot

 

Really sorry to hear this, we'll be on the Explorer in 27 days out of Lisbon. These problems you experience are wrong, if a on board Manager/Maitre'd can't see soiled dishes stacking on a table (that doesn't even happen at coffee shops) they should be fired. I really hope Regent Corp is reading this-because we're reading to much of about this on CC. So let's hope it is corrected, like I said before people don't go on cruises to manage these problems-they should never happen if the Manager/Maitre'd are doing the job they were hired to do. Rick

Edited by ronrick1943
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We never experienced any of this on our Explorer cruise! Still being relatively new to cruising, my wife and I have since tried other lines, and are still in the process of doing so, but all this talk got us talking about our Regent dining experience.

 

The food was delicious, and every night in the Compass Rose was sensational. But there were a few issues, and I wonder if they’re systemic as opposed to one time problems.

First, we’re not completely anti-social, but we do like to eat by ourselves. Available tables for two are limited, and there were a few nights where we were shunted off to one of the back rooms on either side, where on each occasion the waiters were more focused on the larger tables and our service suffered. We kind of felt like we were at the kids table at a large wedding. And no offer was ever made to save for us a table at a better location. It was always the luck of the draw.

 

This other issue is a little more subjective, but we felt the staff, from the Maitre D’ to the waiters, were a little more professional than either genuinely friendly or warm. Not a huge deal, but frankly it suffered in comparison to how we were treated in the Aqua Class dining room in BLU on the Celebrity Millenium several months later. To be fair, the food was not on the level of Regent, but it was still fresh and delicious. Believe it or not, the service was far superior. Each night we were greeted warmly at the front podium, by name, by a staff who were both happy to be there and seemed genuinely happy to see us. They learned where we liked to sit, and each night went the extra mile to sit us there. And the wait staff were as professional as expected, but they were more amiable and their attitude better.

 

So many Regent cruisers have sailed with them many times, and are identifiable faces and names to the cruise staff. I don’t think they have those issues. As first time cruisers with them, we didn’t really “feel the love.” That said, the food was indeed amazing, and the service elsewhere fine, if not particularly memorable.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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Just curious why you would take a cruise dreading the ports.

 

Good question. My DH and I just had our 38th anniversary. As you likely know, in any relationship there has to be compromise. My husband wanted to go to India for 30 years but I felt strongly about not going there (due to heat). I spent years coming up with ports that he might be more interested in. Eventually (3 or 4 years ago) I decided that he should have the experience that he wanted so we booked India. The most important thing for us when we do something that the other person doesn't want to do is that we do it with a "good heart" (i.e. that we aren't mopey, in a bad mood or sulky). Looking back at India, we had the best food that we've had anywhere in the world and it was an amazing experience (one that I probably would not want to repeat due to the heat).

 

My feelings about the Amazon were even stronger than India. But, I was the one that picked the itinerary last year because my greatest happiness is making my DH happy. It will be HOT and buggy and I have yet to get my "good heart" ready for the cruise but I'm working on it. I've purchased everything and anything on the market that might keep me cool (including the device that I posted a picture of on our Alaska cruise). The best part of our upcoming cruise is that we will be cruising with a couple that we met on Regent and have sailed with twice before. This time they will have one of their friends with them so I know that we'll enjoy our cocktails at night and will have Thanksgiving together. That is a huge plus.

 

Omg - this is taking this thread so off topic. Hopefully others will find my thoughts on compromise of interest because it really works and I highly recommend it for people that travel together. To bring the topic back to the Explorer - I can say with 100% certainty that my DH and I would rather be on the Explorer - no matter where in the world she is - instead of any other ship on any cruise line.

 

P.S. While I will be positive, happy and good company on the Mariner, my outlet will be CC. I will post exactly what I am thinking about the cruise - both positive and negative. Hopefully, CC friends have taught me how to post successfully and I'll include photos of all interesting things that we encounter (which will not include the ship).

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Travelcat2,

 

My wife and I are looking forward to your review of South America! We both have been curious about SA. From Machu Picchu to Angel Falls, so much beauty within the jungle! Wow! I'm am looking at Regent's website now and looking at the excursions available and they are truly exciting!!! By the way, my wife Judy smiled when she read your response! Like you, she knows how a happy marriage is blessed by one's commitment to each other.

 

On a Regent luxury cruise what more could anyone want!!!!

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Hi everyone! I'm the friend Rachel referred to earlier. This is my 19th Regent cruise, first time on the Explorer.

 

Even though it's only the morning of Day 2, I have been impressed already with some things that I usually find lacking with Regent.

 

We dined in Prime 7 last and had great service from a bar waiter who was assisting the sommelier with wines. My husband finds the included wines too warm (since they open several bottles at a time when they are prepping for dinner service around 6:15pm or so), and when he mentioned this (after we tried the already opened bottle) the waiter opened a new bottle for us. Husband was very happy. We'll see if we get that sort of service in the CR.

 

This morning we ate in La Veranda. Typically I don't go there in the morning because I've always felt ignored as the staff seems to concentrate on cleaning and resetting the tables after the morning rush. I either timed it perfectly this morning, perhaps because so many people had early excursions, or their training has been better.

 

I'll note right know I won't be able to give any insight on excursions on this trip. I've been to most of the ports before so I know what I like to do, and that doesn't include being on a bus with 25-30 people.

 

I'll find out who the Executive Chef is too.

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