Why do you sail Regent over other lux lines?

[cruiseej]

I was introduced to cruising on Regent (Radisson) when my parents took my wife and I on a cruise to the South Pacific. We loved everything about that trip, from the destination to the ship, the food, and the crew. We've cruised on Regent six additional times since then, including the now-departed Diamond, the Mariner and the Voyager. We never had a cruise we didn't enjoy tremendously.

 

But... the last two times we were on Regent, while nothing was terribly wrong, I thought things had slipped in a number of areas versus our earlier experiences on Regent. The staff, especially in the dining venues, seemed more hurried and harried. The food was never bad, but wasn't as consistently great as it had been. The waiters and servers rarely learned our names or preferences, as we had experienced on earlier cruises. And, as many other have remarked, the prices increased dramatically. (Regent is the only company whose marketing goes to great lengths to tell me prices are going up, four times a year, which is incredibly off-putting.)

 

So when we set about to plan a cruise for this summer -- celebrating my mother's 85th birthday, and that she and my father are still in great shape to travel -- we compared a Regent cruise to one on Seabourn. We had zeroed in on Norway, and in the end, decided to try Seabourn. The itinerary was the deciding factor (Regent's trip was just too long for my wife and I to be away from work), but we were intrigued by Seabourn the more we read. They tout similar high levels of service, the ship -- newer than Regent's -- holds 450 versus 700 passengers, and aside from one issue (smoking... more on that in a minute), I couldn't find anyone saying negative things about the Seabourn experience. (For those of you who hang out on this CC forum, as I did for many years, you would be amazed at the CC Seabourn forum, where there is no bitterness, no sniping, and almost never a negative comment. It almost seemed too good to be true -- and certainly a big contrast to what I've experienced on this forum.)

 

The only negative I had read about Seabourn was that their smoking policy allows smoking on balconies, unlike Regent. And that was, indeed, some cause for concern. But based on this being an itinerary where we didn't expect to spend long periods of time lounging on the balcony, we decided to hope it wouldn't be an issue and give Seabourn a try. and I'm happy to say that on our cruise, I never smelled a cigarette while on our balcony, and only one smelled someone smoking, outside in the one spot where it's permitted. (Of course, your milage may vary.)

 

I recently had my review of our Seabourn cruise posted on Cruise Critic, and I devoted part of it to comparing to our previous experiences on Regent, so for anyone who is interested in reading it, here is the link:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=508064&et_cid=2232003&et_rid=85296663

 

In short, we found our Seabourn experience to be excellent in all aspects. The ship is excellent, the smaller size is a plus, the suites very comparable to Regent's, and the staff performed at a noticeably higher level than our most recent Regent experiences. (I remarked that the staff friendliness, can-do attitude, and learning our names and preferences reminded me very much of our first two Regent cruises in 2000 and 2003.) I won't say that we won't return to Regent (I did miss my free Internet!), but Seabourn sure did a good job winning us over.

[josephone]

Thank you for your great comments and review of Seabourn. We left regent for Silversea and are considering trying Seabourn again. We had wonderful memories of our trip to the artic renewed with your review.

 

Now where do we go next? Tough to decide!

 

Happy trails all!

[cruiseej]

Thank you for your great comments and review of Seabourn. We left regent for Silversea and are considering trying Seabourn again. We had wonderful memories of our trip to the artic renewed with your review.

 

Now where do we go next? Tough to decide!

 

If you enjoyed the Arctic, and you enjoy luxury-style cruising, and you're considering Seabourn, you night consider one of their Antarctica trips. It looks spectacular, and we're pretty sold on it -- just don't know which year we can do it. (Antarctica is a destination Regent can't get to with its ships, but Seabourn can.)

 

Eric

[Travelcat2]

Since Seabourn has been introduced to this thread, I am reminded how happy we are that Regent is mostly non-smoking. There have been recent threads on the Seabourn board discussing smoking. Some people won't book Seabourn because there is a risk that they will be next to someone that smokes a lot on their balcony (this has happened to some passengers and it ruined their cruise). On the other hand, smokers need a place where they can smoke and not be vilified for it and Seabourn seems to meet that need. Once upon a time Seabourn would have fit my needs perfectly.

 

We also like Regent because it includes airfare and either included Business Class air (PH and above) or a relatively low cost to upgrade to Business Class. This is a big deal for us as my DH will not fly coach.

[Winner]

Since Seabourn has been introduced to this thread, I am reminded how happy we are that Regent is mostly non-smoking. There have been recent threads on the Seabourn board discussing smoking. Some people won't book Seabourn because there is a risk that they will be next to someone that smokes a lot on their balcony (this has happened to some passengers and it ruined their cruise). On the other hand, smokers need a place where they can smoke and not be vilified for it and Seabourn seems to meet that need. Once upon a time Seabourn would have fit my needs perfectly.

 

We also like Regent because it includes airfare and either included Business Class air (PH and above) or a relatively low cost to upgrade to Business Class. This is a big deal for us as my DH will not fly coach.

 

Since you (again) brought up Seabourn's smoking policy I finally have to respond. I have sailed Seabourn for 15 yeas and have never been bothered by smokers. Areas on the smaller (Pride, Legend and Spirit) ships were quite limited and passengers followed the rules. On the current ships I have not had any problem with veranda smoking; prevailing winds seem to solve any perceived problem and Seabourn sailors will accommodate neighbors' requests if need be.

 

(By the way, "Lux" is a brand of laundry soap; "luxe" is an abbreviation of luxury)

Edited July 22, 2015 by Winner

[cruiseej]

I brought up the smoking on Seabourn in my comment above to note that it was a complete non-issue on our recent 14-day cruise. I did not notice smoke smells on the Seabourn Quest any more than I ever did on a Regent ship. Obviously, everyone may have different experiences; a smoker on the balcony next to yours would obviously produce different results.

 

On this cruise, I just didn't notice many smokers at all. Maybe if this cruise had been in a more summer-like climate, more people would have been hanging out on their balances more and smoke might have been more noticeable. All I can say is that the Seabourn smoking issue gave us significant hesitation about trying that line -- and now having tried it once, I wouldn't hesitate to go back. (And there are plenty of posters on the Seabourn forum who advocate for Seabourn to change its smoking policy to be in line with Regent and others; whether that will happen or whether they se a niche in going against the grain is yet to be seen.)

 

Eric