Live from Mariner - July 9th Civitavecchia to Venice

[Sunprince]

I think that if passengers enjoy spending time dining and socializing with the officers then that is their choice and cannot judge that by saying it is right or wrong...its a matter of personal preference. My point really is that they should be doing that in the main dining room and the officers should not be taking away seats in the specialty restaurants which are limitied in the number of reservations... and in some cases passengers are unable to experience the specialty restaurants because it is already booked up or the times available are too late in the evening for some passengers.

[marinaro44]

I think that if passengers enjoy spending time dining and socializing with the officers then that is their choice and cannot judge that by saying it is right or wrong...its a matter of personal preference. My point really is that they should be doing that in the main dining room and the officers should not be taking away seats in the specialty restaurants which are limitied in the number of reservations... and in some cases passengers are unable to experience the specialty restaurants because it is already booked up or the times available are too late in the evening for some passengers.

Agree.

 

On Azamara, dinners with senior officers are held in the main dining room while one or two "Best of the Best" dinners, generally for guests in the large suites or for very frequent guests, are held at a very private table specially set up in the ship's beautiful library.

[Linda VH]

We have been on 2 Regent cruises and hope to go again. Some of our group were asked to dine with the Captain and that was very nice. As to interacting with senior officers - we had a number of conversations while on board, especially with the F&B person. I met the Captain on RCL Liberty of the Seas, attended a cocktail party for suite guests (class system lol) on Crystal and CD and F&B at meet and greet on HA. Not so surprising to me!

[forevertravel]

I must be weird somehow. We have cruised with Regent multiple times and I couldn't care less whether the officers interact with us. I'm there to enjoy myself not to socialize or have dinner/lunch with officers. We see them in the hall, say hello and I couldn't be happier. Same for GM. We have gotten to know the waiters, Maitre'D, sommeliers, etc. Those people we love interacting with because we see them every day. We also enjoy knowing the CD since we have traveled with same ones for several cruises. I don't expect officers, captain, or GM to be seeking out passengers. They are there to do a job and they do it well. Again, my purpose is to enjoy the cruise and that we do.

[kennicott]

I have to agree with comments made herein regarding the importance of meeting any of the ships officers, e.g. Captain of ship's seafarers and other seamanship officers, Staff manager, e.g. Staff Captain, Hotel Captain, General Manager, Purser, etc., and the Cruise Director, we make no effort to contact these ship management personnel but find them extremely accommodating and anxious to meet us, particularly on Regent. Same holds true, but to a lesser extent, on HAL and Princess.

 

Now, we have cruised hundreds of days with each of the three but certainly are not cruiser elitists. Today we enjoy having a patio and one of the better mini-suites but have never tried a super deluxe suite or whatever. We had butler service once which was good but I disliked so much attention.

 

During all this, and without even trying, we have been invited to the so called "Captain's Table" for dinner a number of times, which I prefer to avoid, as I like to relax at dinner and not worry about spilling my wine or making a good impression on anybody else. Having said that I really love the Regent "Block Parties". A fast and quick meet with the captain and your adjacent stateroom mates, where excellent hors-devours and fine wine are served in the corridor. I really appreciate the Captain taking time to fraternize with just about all board during those occasions.

 

So, if I really wanted to communicate with a senior officer I'm sure it would not entail much difficulty. What I do enjoy, is the experience we had on the Voyager, about 9 months ago where members of the seafaring officers staff gave presentations then answered questions, like engine room/propulsion nitty-gritty. We have had Captains address us like that before as well, not only on Regent but on Princess (one time on Princess the Captain gave us over a half dozen excellent talks). As for HAL, more than once the Staff Captain has met with us C.C.ers and pretty much bared his soul, probably more than he should have.

[Travelcat2]

At the risk of sounding like I'm defending Regent again (which perhaps I am), the second segment of our cruise was 16 nights and included overnight stops. There were many nights when even Compass Rose was empty until 8:00 p.m. On the last night, we were able to get into Signatures at 6:30 p.m. and only saw two other tables occupied until 7:30 p.m. The nights that we dined with an officer were not busy nights. Availability is so much easier on the longer itineraries.

 

Sometimes when I mention "officers" one thinks of the Captain, G.M., etc. We had dinner with the Cruise Consultant, Executive Concierge and Head of Housekeeping as well as upper officers. If we could have dined with the crew that work in the restaurants who we have known for years, we certainly would have. When it was not busy (port days when we stayed on board for a few hours), we spent quite a bit of time chatting two members of Reception (one is going to school to be a Captain and speaks 5 or 6 languages), with the bartender that works in the Coffee Connection during the day and the most incredible bartender we have met on Regent.

 

As posted previously, people cruise for different reasons (besides the ports) -- some like to stay to themselves -- others are very social with other guests -- we like to learn about the life of the officers and crew we well as keeping to ourselves and others do a combination of all of these things. No matter why you sail on Regent, IMO, the most important thing is to enjoy yourselves:)

[RachelG]

We were once on a cruise on regent where the female lead singer was a girl from tulsa. Our oldest son and she are the same age, and they actually had met. We got to know her, and we wanted to invite her and one of her friends to dinner one night. We were told that this was fine as long as it was in compass rose or la veranda, but not in signatures or prime 7. Fine with us. We had a lovely dinner in compass rose.

I actually have never seen someone who worked on the ship dining in prime 7 or signatures if either of those venues was very busy. So I think the worry that passengers dining with ship personnel to the exclusion of other passengers not being able to get a reservation is not an issue.

[Patti22]

I agree with RachelG,

In our eight Regent cruises, I have never seen officers entertaining in the specialty restaurants. Of course, I am not dining in them every night! I do know that there is usually a large table for 10-12 in the MDR where the Captain or other officers can hosts guests. We have received several invitations and accepted some but some nights, after a long tour, we decline.

[KathyPet]

The entire concept of holding 50 people on board a ship almost a hour after their scheduled departure time because two passengers in that departure group had not "checked in" is beyond my comprehension.

[Patti22]

Easy to solve, get a taxi.

[kennicott]

The entire concept of holding 50 people on board a ship almost a hour after their scheduled departure time because two passengers in that departure group had not "checked in" is beyond my comprehension.

 

I agree with you, having to wait for two tardy passengers would be terribly irritating.

 

Hate to hear about your misfortune with Regent during disembarkation. Up to now I have always said Regent is a breath of fresh air when it comes to disembarkations. Obviously, the different and unanticipated port assignment threws everything off kilter, but the management team should have been proactive.

 

Worst disembarkation we ever encountered began with a similar snafu. It was on Princess, although they had the correct and assigned pier something happened with their port service contractors wherein buses were terrible delayed. We were on a Princess air package so all was arranged. Since we had a lot of time that day before our flight departure for Anchorage we were given a disembarkation number that was pretty late. As it turned out, so late that we missed our flight by an hour. I recall standing in a very long line of people waiting for the next airport bus. Near us were passengers that had flight departure times much later than ours but disembarkation numbers ahead of us. I talked to the Princess' contractor personnel about our predicament but they were inept. I finally, using the Cell phone, got in contact with Princess Air and told them we were going to miss our flight unless we got on a bus right now. They suggested we go to the head of the line and push our way through. Now you all know how that would come across with already irritated passengers ahead of you in line. I would have needed brass knuckles and maybe my SW 44 mag to make it.

 

Whatever, I would certainly hate to be among the party of two that delayed the departure you mentioned unless I had a very, very good reason. A popularity contest aboard the bus, enter they should not.

[kennicott]

The entire concept of holding 50 people on board a ship almost a hour after their scheduled departure time because two passengers in that departure group had not "checked in" is beyond my comprehension.

 

I agree with you, having to wait for two tardy passengers would be terribly irritating.

 

Hate to hear about this misfortune with Regent during disembarkation. Up to now I have always said Regent is a breath of fresh air when it comes to disembarkations. Obviously, the different and unanticipated port assignment threw everything off kilter, but the management team should have been proactive.

 

Worst disembarkation we ever encountered began with a similar snafu. It was on Princess, although they had the correct and assigned pier something happened with their port service contractors wherein buses were terribly delayed. We were on a Princess air package so all was arranged. Since we had a lot of time that day before our flight departure for Anchorage we were given a disembarkation number that was pretty late. As it turned out, so late that we missed our flight by an hour. I recall standing in a very long line of people waiting for the next airport bus. Near us were passengers that had flight departure times much later than ours but disembarkation numbers ahead of us. I talked to the Princess' contractor personnel about our predicament but they were inept. I finally, using the Cell phone, got in contact with Princess Air and told them we were going to miss our flight unless we got on a bus right now. They suggested we go to the head of the line and push our way through. Now you all know how that would come across with already irritated passengers ahead of you in line. I would have needed brass knuckles and maybe my SW 44 mag to make it.

 

Whatever, I would certainly hate to be among the party of two that delayed the departure mentioned unless I had a very, very good reason. A popularity contest aboard the bus, enter they should not.

Edited July 28, 2014 by kennicott

[trvlrs]

Easy to solve, get a taxi.

 

Unfortunately not an option!! We were in an industrial port with no access to public or private transport. The only way out was via Regent shuttle

[trvlrs]

I agree with you, having to wait for two tardy passengers would be terribly irritating.

 

Hate to hear about this misfortune with Regent during disembarkation. Up to now I have always said Regent is a breath of fresh air when it comes to disembarkations. Obviously, the different and unanticipated port assignment threw everything off kilter, but the management team should have been proactive..[/Quote

 

True, things can happen which are out of Regent control, computer breakdown, port assignment.... bur the way it was handled was the sad part.

Sorry, this brought back bad memories of your princess disembarkation