Just got off voyager

[Eager2Travel]

We had a troubling experience on the Navigator last January. We were returning to the ship from an excursion in San Juan. There was a great deal of traffic due to a celebration in town. It was 7:30 and already completely dark. The bus driver let us off the bus almost a mile from the cruise terminal. The rest of the group got ahead of us crossing four lanes of traffic. We were by ourselves walking the entire way. We would be considered senior citizens. There was no one from the ship on the excursion with us as always used to be the case with Regent. It was not a pleasant experience!

 

What troubled us most is that we never heard from Regent regarding this troubling experience even though we wrote it up on the evaluation form and discussed it while still on board with the past passenger liason and the excursion desk.

 

We continue to sail Regent for now but in the past we certainly would have gotten a response to our concern. I can deal with crowded excursions but I do expect safety from a Regent excursion.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

We were also let off an excursion in San Juan some distance from the ship. But it was optional, the driver of the (smallish) minibus offered to take anyone who wanted to go back to the ship. We chose to get off and walk, since old San Juan is such a lovely spot. But not to have the choice is just plain wrong and a big mistake on their part, for sure.

[cruiseluv]

an hour before trip will begin,,,if 8am tour,,,do I have to line up at 7,,,if so,,may just find private and pay...sounds like too much hurrying up and waiting...seems like a better way,,anyone ever complain ???maybe they ll change it somehow...

 

Then a full bus load wandering around...wow...sounds confusing....even last river cruise broke groups up....not AS bad....

 

:eek:

 

On the excursion ticket they will give you the time for meeting at the lounge, it's also posted on the daily paper. We never had a long line there for check in, maybe 5-6 people in front. You were then given a ticket. I think the most we waited for our number to be called was around 20 mins. The "line" to go from the lounge to disembarkation deck kept moving, maybe it took an extra 5 mins.

 

In many places after giving us the guided tour we had free time and , of course, everybody went their own way and met at the appointed time/place.

[Eager2Travel]

Wendy, thanks for your response. I appreciate it.

 

I think I would have long ago forgotten this happening if just one person from Regent would have sent an acknowledgement of concern for our experience. I didn't realize that until I wrote my above response. We agree that San Juan is charming and have always enjoyed strolling its streets but in the dark with celebrating crowds it did not feel as safe.

Have fun on your December cruise.

Ann

[forevertravel]

My husband and I cruised on The Voyager August 4-11. I was astounded by the negative comments on the return trip (Stockholm to Copenhagen) since our experience was wonderful. The service was excellent at all restaurants (Verandah, CR, Signatures, and Prime 7) and even when waiters were busy at CR the were attentive. I asked for lamb chops on our last morning and had no problem getting them along with eggs benedict. This was our first experience with Regent 7 Seas and we were very impressed. So much so, that we have booked a cruise next May.

 

Our AC worked fine. Temperatures in St. Petersburg were in the 90's and humid, however, our cabin was always nice and cool. We were on deck 6.

[OrpingtonT]

This was our first experience with Regent 7 Seas and we were very impressed. So much so, that we have booked a cruise next May.

 

Our AC worked fine. Temperatures in St. Petersburg were in the 90's and humid, however, our cabin was always nice and cool. We were on deck 6.

 

Excellent news. Thank you for that.

[JPR]

We were on that cruise and agree with everything posted above except the stated itinerary. August 4-11 on the Voyager was Copenhagen to Stockholm, not vice versa.

[OrpingtonT]

We were on that cruise and agree with everything posted above except the stated itinerary. August 4-11 on the Voyager was Copenhagen to Stockholm, not vice versa.

 

I think there is a slight misunderstanding. The OP sailed Stockholm to Copenhagen and had some negative comments, which she elaborated on early in the thread. "forevertavel" sailed on Voyager's return leg, Copenhagen to Stockholm, and posted to say all was wonderful and she couldn't understand the negative comments made about the outward leg.

 

Both perfectly valid but I am so pleased to read of your and "forevertravel" views.

[watergal]

Hi - we got off Voyager a couple of days ago and I am currently sitting in Copenhagen airport. On the whole a good cruise - not a great cruise.

 

There seems to be a big difference in service levels from this year to last. Not sure we will cruise Regent again.

 

I willmpost a full report when I get some time later this week.

 

Denise

 

DH and I were trying to decide whether to try Regent or a competitor. After cruising with Seabourn in January - which was a fabulous experience despite the awful weather, the staff was incredible! Don't think I'll take my chances and will look at another line.:(

Thanks so much for your input.

[Suite Travels]

Watergal, I think you are making the right decision. Although we have not yet cruised Seabourn, friends of ours who have sailed with them say it is truly a six star line. We have five Regent cruises under our belt and 17 Crystal cruises. Now that Seabourn has two larger ships we are going to give them a try.

 

What ever cruise line you pick......enjoy!!!!

[judyfssw]

I know that this is not about this ship (exactly) but we are looking at sailing Regent in February and are wondering about the smoking policy. To be specific, can you smoke in your room and balcony?

[WesW]

Here is what the RSSC current smoking policy is, according to the RSSC website:

 

Q: What is your smoking policy?

A: In light of continuing legislative changes in smoking policies around the world as well as the comfort, health and safety of our guests and crew, both in terms of the proven dangers of second hand smoke and the fire hazard that smoking presents, smoking is prohibited in all suites, staterooms and balconies fleet-wide.

 

In addition, cigarette smoking is not permitted in any enclosed dining areas, whether it be the ships' main dining rooms or the alternate dining venues. Cigarette smoking is only permitted in designated areas of the outdoor Pool Grills. Other than open deck areas, the following are the only public rooms or areas where cigarette smoking is now permitted:

Seven Seas Voyager: Connoisseur Club, Casino, Voyager Lounge (designated area), Horizon Lounge (outside area only), Pool Bar

Seven Seas Mariner: Connoisseur Club, Casino, Horizon Lounge (outside area only), Stars Nightclub (designated area), Pool Bar

Seven Seas Navigator: Connoisseur Club, Casino, Stars Lounge (designated area), Galileo's (outside area only), Pool Bar

 

Pipe smoking is only permitted in the Connoisseur Club. Pipe smoking in open deck areas is considered an extreme fire hazard and is not permitted. Cigar smoking is only permitted in the Connoisseur Club, and in the designated area of the Pool Bar area.

 

Failure to comply with this ban will result in guests being asked to leave the ship at their expense, without refund or credit for the unused portion of their cruise.

[Goofyisme]

I know that this is not about this ship (exactly) but we are looking at sailing Regent in February and are wondering about the smoking policy. To be specific, can you smoke in your room and balcony?

 

Nope not allowed on Regent

[judyfssw]

Thank you all for quick replies. Really appreciated it.

[Balliett]

On Navigator now. Smoking in casino is not at the tables, just at the bar. Even so, a blackjack player next to me left the table when a fellow at the nearby bar lit up

[bearsfolks]

I had posted on another thread my negative (and positive) experience on the July 28 Stockholm to Copenhagen cruise on the Voyager in some detail. That was my first cruise on Voyager, and will also be my last one.

 

I will not repeat my comments from that thread (if interested, look under the "New to Regent" thread), but will share my post-cruise experience to date.

 

A few days after we got back, the agent at Regent through whom we had directly booked our trip called us to find out if we had had a wonderful trip. She spoke to my wife, who told her the good points, but then enumerated all the negatives that we had encountered. The agent was not at all defensive--in fact, she said that she was not surprised with what my wife had said, as she had encountered similar comments from many of the other passengers that she had called. She felt that this was very unusual, and that something must have gone wrong with this sailing---which is possible.

 

She asked us if we had communicated this to the ship management, and we informed us that we had both provided detailed reviews on the two response forms on the ship--in fact, I had put my comments on a flashdrive and given it to the General Manager as my writing is bad. We know that he read it, as my wife subsequently saw him and he referred to the comments. However, there was no reaction or response whatsoever to our complaints.

 

The Regent agent asked us if we would put this in writing and send it to the line's guest relations, and gave us their e-mail address. We had been planning to do so, so my wife sent a detailed letter to guest relations, as well as to the CEO, the EVP of Operations, the EVP Vessel Operations and the Director of Consumer and Marketing Loyalty (you should know that both my wife and I had individually worked with companies in the area of customer service and satisfaction at one stage of our careers). We also attached my original comments from the flashdrive.

 

We got back a form reply stating that Regent would review our comments and get back to us with a response in 3 weeks.

 

My wife's e-mail was dated August 29th.

 

We have not heard one word from Regent. This is incredible given the fact that the e-mail was sent to all those corporate officers who were supposedly responsible for the areas we had complained about!

 

Given the prices that Regent charges, I had certain expectations, which were not met. Further, any company that hopes to get their customers to pay a premium needs to pay close attention to any complaints that they have, acknowledge the complaint, and make a strong effort to fix the problem. My expectation in this regard have not been met either.

 

You can draw your own conclusions regarding Regent's commitment to service based on your own experiences as well as what you read on CC.

 

I am curious about one thing, though. Does anyone from Regent read this bb? Have any of you who have complained on CC about some experience ever been contacted directly by anyone from Regent? Any company that I had worked with would consider this bb a free goldmine of information as to what they are doing right and what needs to be fixed.

[Suite Travels]

I know on the Crystal board management reads the postings and responds to any issues that might arise. Quality starts from the top down.

[mariners]

bearsfolks, I had to go back and reread the first thread and, after doing so, am not sure what you now want from Regent. Are you hoping for money back? Information that the menus have been changed? or ?

I know that you were unhappy that you had to pay for the internet but Regent does not advertise included internet. It states that it is available - as is caviar, select champagnes, etc.

You were unhappy with the meals and the menu selection. As someone else replied on the other thread, everyone has different palates. The most frequent complaint that I read on CC is that there is too much salt used in the food preparation. To me, it's perfect but I'm quite prepared to add my own salt as it is impossible for those who do not like the salt to remove it from the food. If the seasoning is not to your liking, there is always the option of requesting extra spice, specific condiments, etc. at the table.

You went to another venue or ordered room service when the menu in Compass Rose was not to your liking. As with all cruise lines, Regent continuously tweaks the menus and it is impossible to please everyone.

You would have liked if the dress code was less formal. Regent specifies the dress code in all brochures and on the website.

It is unfortunate that the cruise was such a disappointment to you and not what you were expecting. I hope that you have found an excellent travel agent.

Suite Travels, My experiences with Regent top management have been excellent.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

My experience with top management has also been excellent. Response is, sometimes, slow, and I agree if they say 3 weeks they should at least acknowledge this. But as Mariners said, I'm not sure what you exactly want from Regent--an apology? You have made it clear that you don't really want to cruise Regent again, so you can't be seeking a future cruise credit!

[Suite Travels]

Wendy, I don't think he is asking for anything. He will just choose another line. On our last Voyager cruise we did have some valid complaints and we wrote to Regent and never heard anything back. We were not looking for anything from Regent.

[bearsfolks]

To answer your question about what I would like:

 

1. An acknowledgement of our complaints from the Regent management would be the minimal amount of response.
   
2. Regret that we had not had a good experience.
   
3. An explanation as to what went wrong on this cruise (as the Regent agent said, she had heard similar comments from several of the people she had called).
   
4. Actions that they have taken to correct this on future cruises.
   

Those are the minimal responses that I would expect as an unhappy customer. Anything beyond that is up to them, and, as I would have advised them if they were my clients, how far they go would be a function of their business model and how they want the customers to see them.

 

To date, all that we have experienced is to be ignored by them. As the OP stated, they put out those two evaluation forms during the cruise, and she never heard back from them---what's the point of doing that if they won't even do you the basic courtesy of ackowledgement, let alone taking action? As Suite Travels said, quality starts from the top down. So far, we have not heard a word from the top.

[Travelcat2]

Have to agree with Mariners. The first thing I notice is that you booked directly with Regent. Had you booked with a TA, they could have discussed the Regent experience with you to insure that the environment would be to your liking. It sounds as if you may not have booked the cruise at all had you done more research.

 

I, too, have had excellent experiences with Regent top management. Being able to discuss your cruise on CruiseCritic may help others determine if Regent is right for them. In terms of someone in top management responding to you. . . . since you are not asking for anything (and, from what you described, there is nothing Regent could do to correct the situation), there is nothing to respond to.

[PaulaJK]

TC, Do you r-e-a-l-l-y think that a letter of complaint should not be responded to? Or that only letters demanding something deserve a response? Paula

[bearsfolks]

I'm sorry, travelcat2, but I do have to defend mildly the relevance of my comments.

 

Having top management not even acknowledge a detailed complaint (particularly when an employee tells me that she has heard similar complaints from others on the same cruise) is certainly what I would have wanted to know about a premier cruise line when checking it out, as my professional experience is that such companies do not fix their problems. You have every right to dismiss this, but to me, such non-response would be a criterion I would use to evaluate a company. And frankly, a 3-week expected response time is what I would expect from K-Mart, not a premier cruise line.

 

Further, I was aware of the dress code, and accepted it, except to say on this board that I find it onerous, and that I ate in my room, as it was not worth changing for another, at best, unremarkable dining experience.

 

I will confess my error in expecting the internet service to be free, and not just available--I based it on my on-land experience where it is free at every La Quinta or European equivalent--my mistake.

 

I will freely acknowledge that most of the posts about Regent on CC have been positive--even glowingly so. However, as someone else on this thread observed, most of the negative or critical comments seem to come from people who have sailed multiple times on the ship--again, something that I encountered when consulting to companies that were declining.

[Travelcat2]

TC, Do you r-e-a-l-l-y think that a letter of complaint should not be responded to? Or that only letters demanding something deserve a response? Paula

 

Well. . . . . when you put it that way, I suppose a fairly standard response from a lower level of management would have been in order. I'm going to read the original review again. IMO, unless there is something you can do to remedy a situation, there is little to say. I could write a list of things that have not been the way I would have liked on our cruises (have mentioned them in reviews), but would not write to Regent about them. There has been one occasion that I contacted Regent regarding a very poor, mismanaged, excursion (prior to the "free" excursions). Although I did not ask for anything in my letter, Regent felt that the situation required not only a response, but a future cruise credit. I also know from speaking with with a top executive at Prestige Cruise Holdings that they will go above and beyond what would be expected of them when the situation warrants it.

 

I feel that the response should have come from the General Manager (or Food and Beverage Manager) of the Voyager on that particular cruise. He should have sat down with this couple and discussed the issues with them. Issues of food certainly could have been remedied by pre-ordering the night before.

 

P.S. Finally found post. I'm going to paste it here for others to refer to (can't resist making a couple of comments)

 

Regent's Voyager was a huge disappointment

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I'm sorry to be a wet blanket, but we just got back from a Baltic cruise on Regent's Seven Seas Voyager, and we would never go on a Regent ship again. We had picked this cruise because it was the only one we could find that spent 3 days in St. Petersberg, plus it did all the sailing at night. We were willing to pay a premium for this cruise, despite the fact that neither one of us drinks at all. We did expect a premium experience.

 

The cabins are magnificent, and very spacious, compared to our prior (few) cruises. And the service was, almost without exception, flawless

 

Note: Good to hear that the service was almost flawless and the suites were to your liking!

 

What got us at the start was having to pay for internet service. In today's world, any experience that describes itself as being all-inclusive, would, in my opinion, have to include internet service. If Regent wanted to, they could charge me (even) more up front, but I resent being charged separately for this. To jump to the end of the cruise, you have to buy packages of time, and we had supposedly exceeded our time by 2 minutes. So, our last memory of the ship was getting a bill in which they had charged us an extra $0.70! Maybe it's just me, but that is just tacky, particularly for a supposedly premium experience.

 

Note: All luxury cruise ships charge for internet. Again, this was an issue of research prior to the cruise

 

However, what we were truly disappointed with was the food. Maybe it was the location of the cruise, but, in general, I would have to describe the food (including at the Prime 7 and supposedly cordon-blue Signature Room, where you have to make reservations) as being tasteless. In many cases, we would take a couple of bites, and then stop eating. The surf-and-turf that we ordered had tasteless lobster, and my wife's filet was initially not done to spec, then they took it back and remade it, and the new piece of meat was tough--she ended up sharing my filet.

 

Most of the desserts were either bland, or even bad, with a couple of exceptions.

 

Also, there were times when one of us had finished eating his/her entree before the other was served.

 

The Compass Rose was a joke. The quick lunches there usually did not have anything that even sounded appetizing. The one time we did eat there, my wife ordered a turkey club, and was given, essentially, a bread sandwich, where each slice of bread was about twice as thick as the piece of meat enclosed. In fact, we ended up going to the Verandah.

 

We ate several meals at the Verandah restaurant which had the huge advantage that if you took something from the buffet to your table and did not like it, you could go back and get something else right away, which was particularly useful for the desserts. The other main "restaurant" we ate at was in our cabin with room service. Given that we did not think that the food in the restaurants was enticing, and also because, despite the supposedly relaxed dress code, to me, it is still business casual (not what I want to do when I am on vacation--yes, I know all the ships insist on this or worse--when will they learn?) and not worth the effort of changing from my shorts after a long day of tours, we just ate in our room.

 

The rest of this comments, IMO, are regarding the subjective topic of food (except the dress code -- Regent has the most casual dress code of any luxury line -- except the small yacht experience).

 

We had hoped for a great experience, particularly as we are planning a cruise next year in New Zealand, but, we will be looking at other lines.

 

I feel badly when anyone spends good money on something that they end up feeling that it was not worth it, this shows how very important it is to do research (and have a TA that could have assisted in choosing the right fit for a cruise)