Mariner Review from Regent Newbies

[Subliminal]

My wife and I sailed a 7 night Vancouver R/T on Seven Seas Mariner at the end of August. It was our first time on Regent, but we are well travelled and have cruised several times previously (most recently on Paul Gauguin). It was an overall positive experience, with a couple things that could be improved. Here goes:

Embarkation

 

One other ship (Holland America Volendam) was departing Vancouver the same day as we were. We had read that the suites would not be available until 2:30pm, so we didn’t head over to Canada Place until 1:30pm. We didn’t have bags to drop as our hotel concierge took care of that for us. The Regent portion of embarkation was incredibly fast as there was no line at all. The US customs portion (combined cruise lines passengers) also went quite quickly, as we had read to bring our Global Entry cards with us. The cards sent us to the front of the line and we got right though. Total time from arriving at Canada Place to being onboard was 24 minutes.

 

Cabin

 

We had a PH and really enjoyed the layout and size. Based on other reviews we chose one that was shower only and liked that a lot. We were on deck 11 forward, and the couple times that the ship encountered some decent sized swell, we could really feel the movement in that location. Neither one of us have ever been affected by motion sickness on any previous cruises, but we were both feeling it enough one day to leave the room and go sit in the Mariner Lounge on deck 5 for a couple hours until we felt better. It wasn’t enough motion that would keep us from booking that section of the ship again, but it was more than either of us expected.

 

Our butler was very attentive and personable. However, there was some confusion on the first day. The online request form that we filled out (6 weeks prior and rechecked a couple days before the cruise) for food and drink preferences in the suite was not communicated to the ship. Nothing that we had requested on the form was in our suite. We talked to our butler about it and he remedied the situation and made sure that we were fully stocked for the remainder of the cruise. It really wasn’t a big deal, but it was a bad first impression by Regent.

 

Dining

 

La Veranda – We are not big on buffets, so we tried to eat breakfast and lunch in Compass Rose as much as possible. The few times we did eat breakfast or lunch here it was adequate. I don’t recall any dishes that really stood out in any way.

 

Compass Rose Breakfast – Similar to the items offered in La Veranda, only made to order. They did have an Asian salmon plate on the breakfast menu, which was a nice change of pace from traditional breakfast items.

 

Compass Rose Lunch – Mixed on this one. On one hand we really enjoyed the offerings from Pacific Rim and Chartreuse. In fact, I will say that just about everything we got here for lunch we enjoyed.

 

The issue was, for 7 days the base menu never changed. Sure, there was a rotating appetizer, soup, pasta, fish and main course daily, but these were the same items being served upstairs in La Veranda each day. The quality of the “daily specials” was more in line with buffet food than the other lunch items. This was especially disappointing as the Regent website had multiple Compass Rose sample lunch menus prior to our cruise (the new website currently has the lunch and dinner tabs swapped and does not show multiple menus). We would have liked to try additional dishes at lunch. I know 7 nights is a short cruise, but if they had changed up the lunch menu even once it would have been much better.

 

Compass Rose Dinner – No complaints about the quality or the offerings for dinner in Compass Rose. We enjoyed the selection of the menu items from both the “Design your Entrée” as well as the “Executive Chef’s Daily Specials.”

 

I must preface this next part by saying the wait staff were all great. They work their tails off and everyone we encountered was personable and had a great attitude. That said, this has to be the most understaffed place on the entire ship. Our dinners ranged from 1.5 to over 2.5 hours each time. We do like to enjoy our food and wine, but this was taking it to another level. Sometimes 5 minutes between courses. Sometimes 30 minutes between courses. Sometimes our dirty plates would be taken away promptly. Sometimes dirty plates would linger on the table an excessive amount of time. Sometimes other guests seated after us would get their second or third courses before we got our first. Sometimes we would get our first course when a table seated at the same time as us hadn’t had their order taken yet. There was no consistency from night to night other than the staff was working very hard, yet clearly overworked. One night we were seated at 7:00pm and missed the start of the 9:30pm show. I might be off base here, but it seems unreasonable to have to allot 2.5+ hours for a 3-course dinner that took 1.5 hours the previous night. Don’t get me wrong; we have had multi-course degustation menus in some restaurants that have encroached on 3 hours. The problem here was there was no consistency from night to night.

 

Prime 7 – This was the most efficient dinner in terms oftime we had the entire week. The food was good and the flow of the meal was perfect. We had time to savor the food and drink, and courses came at a steady, even pace.

 

Signatures – We enjoyed the food, especially since some reviews on CC were negative towards Signatures. We had an 8:30pm reservation and were seated promptly. We were quickly poured wine and given bread. Then…nothing. At 9:00pm I went to the front to ask the Maître D’ if he could send someone to our table to take our order. The server came over, apologized,and took our order shortly after that. We were later told that the server had been seated with two large tables and two small tables at just about the same exact time. I’m not sure why that would happen in a restaurant that only takes reservations, but it did. Once the service started, it was good for the rest of the meal.

 

Activities

 

On this sailing the Calgary Opera were onboard, and performed several times. We went to a couple of performances and thought they did a great job. The Regent shows put on by their entertainment staff were great as well. Between the bands, pianist, karaoke, trivia, etc., we felt there was plenty onboard to do.

 

We didn’t end up doing any of the Regent excursions, so I cannot comment on those. We had one Regent Choice excursion booked, but it got cancelled due to weather. We were not told about the cancellation until we got to the pier to meet for it. They offered a refund or a couple of other excursions, but the weather was poor and most things were full at that point, so we opted just towalk around town. No big deal, these things happen. We booked two tours in other ports outside of Regent that were not offered through the ship.

 

Debarkation

 

Our final port day was in Prince Rupert, Canada, and Regent had us fill out declaration forms prior to that. Because of this, when we got back to Vancouver there was no customs to go through. Getting off the ship was a non-event. We got off when our color was called and our luggage was waiting for us. The taxi line at Canada Place was pretty long (3 ships in port that morning) so we walked across the street to the Fairmont Waterfront and got a taxi without waiting.

 

Overall

 

We really did enjoy our first time on Regent and we will become repeat customers. Most everything met or exceeded our expectations, but there are a couple of things (mainly inconsistency in Compass Rose) that could be improved for next time.

 

 

Bonus tip - We had OBC left over at the end. They would not let us apply it directly to the crew welfare fund, but we discovered that we could buy a bunch of candy and goodies in the boutique and donate those to the crew welfare fund, so we did that.

Edited September 11, 2017 by Subliminal

[Mudhen]

Great review! Very happy to hear you had a good time! Nice gesture on your behalf with the OBC. Last time we were on the Mariner we had a few dollars left, bought Ferro Rochers (few boxes) and gave them to the folks at reception. They were so pleased, as they said no one ever does anything special for them!

[wishIweretravelling]

Thank you for the excellent review.

 

I didn't realize they still had the online request form on the site. I tried filling it out a couple of times in the past, but it never got communicated to the ship, so I gave it up and just work things out with the stewardess the first day.

[PaulaJK]

I appreciated your balanced review and am glad that

You enjoyed your cruise.

[UUNetBill]

Thank you for the excellent review.

 

I didn't realize they still had the online request form on the site. I tried filling it out a couple of times in the past' date=' but it never got communicated to the ship, so I gave it up and just work things out with the stewardess the first day.[/quote']

Agreed. This ties in with the prevailing opinion that once onboard, the experience is fine. It's the communication between the mothership in Miami and the actual ships that causes problems.

 

OP, glad you enjoyed your cruise. Thanks for taking the time to post!

[BarbarianPaul]

Yes, great review!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[flossie009]

Thanks for comprehensive review, Subliminal. Good to hear the views of someone new to Regent

[RJ2002]

Subliminal, thanks very much for the detailed and balanced review. We have our first Regent cruise coming up soon, on the Mariner as well, so your thoughts about your experience were much appreciated!