Suites

[westmount]

Hi everyone,

its been a long time since we’ve travelled on Regent and looking forward to it this Christmas. We are planning a rather large group, so picking suites for everyone is quite the challenge. I can use some help, as it looks like the Explorer has either changed the designation of some suites, or the guys making videos have been drinking, I’m. It sure which . 

  Is it possible that some Seven seas suites became Explorer suites and others got moved around, as I can tell of what is being shown as a seven seas room is more Penthouse than palace and if some Explorer suites are old Seven Seas suites with new labels. 

  Not a major issue exactly, but the deck plans don’t match , so if anyone’s can help, please do. 

Regards

 

[Travelcat2]

Everything that you posted is true.  This happened at least 1 1/2 years ago.  I feel that it is better to simply book the category that you want. Hopefully you have a TA that regularly books Regent.  They can let you know what “used to be” vs. “what is now”.  

 

in my opinion, Christmas cruises are challenging and we avoid them but there are others that think that they are great.  The main reason why we don’t care for Christmas cruises Is the number of children on board and there is little to do for them.  Also, some people gift a cruise to other family members who know little about Regent and therefore cannot appreciate it.  

[westmount]

We choose Regent because the Explorer is beautiful, its all inclusive, and while there will be many family members, none who are coming are under 25. . As for the suites, all the rooms look great, some just look better for entertaining the troops than others and its hard to know what is what. The trip starts on the 27th, so i presume most of the other kids will be going Disney. 

   I was concerned more that the "new" explorer suite wouldn't hold a big group, but I guess Eddie and Aunt Edna will figure out Free is Free and behave themselves in the lounge if need be. 

[Travelcat2]

in my opinion, the Explorer suites are not a good size for a large group.   The master suite is better but has two bedrooms - could be a good thing.

 

 

[Silver Sweethearts]

12 hours ago, westmount said:

I was concerned more that the "new" explorer suite wouldn't hold a big group, but I guess Eddie and Aunt Edna will figure out Free is Free and behave themselves in the lounge if need be. 

 

We have stayed in an Explorer Suite and have to agree with TC that it is not (at least in our opinion) meant for entertaining that many people.  What size "big group" do you have in mind? 

[westmount]

We just found a Grand Suite, which I gather will be just fine. I don't want the room  to be too comfortable, no one will leave the room and go to their own. 

Tks

 

[morneau]

A Grand Suite will be perfect.  Enough interior room and having the second full bathroom is really nice.  Depending upon which suite selected, there is often a good sized balcony as well!

[JMARINER]

23 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

In my opinion, Christmas cruises are challenging and we avoid them but there are others that think that they are great.  The main reason why we don’t care for Christmas cruises Is the number of children on board and there is little to do for them.  Also, some people gift a cruise to other family members who know little about Regent and therefore cannot appreciate it.  

Not my experience all. I have done at least 4 Regent Christmas cruises over the years. At most maybe 3-4 kids under 16. Going to Alaska in the summer is another matter.

J

[Travelcat2]

Our one Christmas cruise (Singapore to Sydney) had 20 children -  mostly between the ages of 12 - 17.  The first few days everything was great.  But then, understandably, they became bored and became a mini gang.  Thankfully we were far away from the noise but there were multiple complaints daily about the children running and up and down stairs and yelling.  The reason that I do blame the children is because, during the holiday cruises (unless it changed in 2018) there are no children program and no area where children can be children without disrupting other passengers.  

 

Back to the Grand Suite issue on Explorer, I believe that the forward Grand suites maybe smaller than at.  We had 3 in our suite for a party -finding seating for 8 (including us) was veery difficult.  Having said that, Explorer will e refurbished in October and it is possible that they will change out the overly large furniture in the Grand. And make it more comfortable as I believe that it should be able to accommodate 8 people comfortably.  We received an Unsell offer for the cruise that we are currently.  We turned  down the Grand suite and took the Master Suite.  As mentioned above, there could be a savings booking a Master Suite since there are 2 bedrooms and 1 3/4 bathrooms.

 

Not trying t be negative - Explorer is our favorite ship by far but some of the upper suites are simply not as spacious as Mariner or Voyager.

[SWFLAOK]

10 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

Our one Christmas cruise (Singapore to Sydney) had 20 children -  mostly between the ages of 12 - 17.  The first few days everything was great.  But then, understandably, they became bored and became a mini gang.

Oh no...this is my worst nightmare. We're booked on the 2019-2020 32 night Singapore to Sydney "back to back" cruise on Voyager. We've already seen one of these mini gangs on our first Regent cruise lastt summer. It was made up of the kids from a large family group, and any other teens on board that would join them. Alcohol was involved, as was lewd behavior in the pool. If this happens again on the most expensive cruise we'll probably ever go on, I will not like it at all.

[daetchief]

My LW and I truly enjoyed the New Years Cruise on Voyager last month.   However, in regards to the PARENTS aboard during the cruise: 1. Why would they choose Regent Seven Seas to bring their children on a cruise and 2. Where the heck did they leave their parenting skills/responsibilities?  At Home?   

I had a high tolerance for the youngsters on the pool deck during the day.   I had no animus about them scurrying around La Veranda during the meals.  It was when they were brought into Prime 7 or Compass Rose for dinner (Read: New Years Eve/Day!) and they are running between the tables, playing with their toys, and causing a ruckus that I thought:  What the $%^&?    God Love the Little Children!  Parents: Do Your Job!

[briar14]

11 hours ago, SWFLAOK said:

Oh no...this is my worst nightmare. We're booked on the 2019-2020 32 night Singapore to Sydney "back to back" cruise on Voyager. We've already seen one of these mini gangs on our first Regent cruise lastt summer. It was made up of the kids from a large family group, and any other teens on board that would join them. Alcohol was involved, as was lewd behavior in the pool. If this happens again on the most expensive cruise we'll probably ever go on, I will not like it at all.

On the Mariner, Circle Australia Dec. 15-Jan. 20, I met one little boy. I believe he was the son of a crew member. We saw no other children. 

[Travelcat2]

15 hours ago, SWFLAOK said:

Oh no...this is my worst nightmare. We're booked on the 2019-2020 32 night Singapore to Sydney "back to back" cruise on Voyager. We've already seen one of these mini gangs on our first Regent cruise lastt summer. It was made up of the kids from a large family group, and any other teens on board that would join them. Alcohol was involved, as was lewd behavior in the pool. If this happens again on the most expensive cruise we'll probably ever go on, I will not like it at all.

 

Hopefully our experience is not typical.  I don't recall when I cruise began but it ended around the 3rd or 4th of January so it encompassed the entire school break in the U.S.   Your cruise last summer sounds much worse than ours.

 

Agree with those that say that it is the parents responsibility but there is little that anyone can do about it.  There are rules but they are not always followed.  I "get" that Regent does not want to upset their guests by telling them to control their children, but they need to "get" that unruly children are upsetting a whole lot of other passengers. 

 

Also want to say that I have heard from some posters that say the children were all wonderful and almost invisible on the ship, later told us in person that some of the children must have been practicing for juvenile detention in a few years. 

 

It actually does not take many children to disrupt a cruise.  There were a couple of children on this cruise (children of a lecturer) that could not have been more polite.  John Barron's boys are reportedly very polite and well mannered (have not yet sailed with him but this is the feedback that we get).  We have sailed with people whose children were wonderful - we had to stop by their table at the end of the to tell their parents what a great job they were doing.  OTOH, you can have only two families on board that can create chaos.

 

P.S.  The argument that adults can act badly doesn't hold water.  Regent will ask an unruly guests to calm down, will escort them to their suite if they have to much to drink and - if they try to fight, they will be put off of the ship at the next port. 

[Travelcat2]

On 2/25/2019 at 9:53 PM, JMARINER said:

Not my experience all. I have done at least 4 Regent Christmas cruises over the years. At most maybe 3-4 kids under 16. Going to Alaska in the summer is another matter.

J

 

Were those cruises long?  From what I have heard, the issues with children (and chair-hog adults) at Christmas is on Caribbean cruises.  Agree 100% about Alaska.  We try to avoid summer cruises as much as we can.  In our opinion, the only summer cruises worth doing is the Baltics and Norway.  Typically, 3-4 kids under 16 would not be a problem. 

[UUNetBill]

49 minutes ago, Travelcat2 said:

Agree with those that say that it is the parents responsibility but there is little that anyone can do about it.  There are rules but they are not always followed.  I "get" that Regent does not want to upset their guests by telling them to control their children, but they need to "get" that unruly children are upsetting a whole lot of other passengers. 

My take on this has always been that if one family is causing havoc for everyone else and the crew tells them to either bag it or be put ashore, you've pissed off one family.  If you turn the other cheek and let the young'uns run amok, you're going to piss off dozens of other families.  It's simple math - address the problem and keep many others happy.

 

In all of our previous cruises, we've had a few kids that were a bit noisy but were taken care of quickly and quietly by the crew.  We've had other kids (often staff member families) who were incredibly well-behaved and just a joy to have around.  On one cruise, though, we had the one family that was causing so much trouble on board that I was seriously thinking about shopping for baseball bats at our next port (my lawyer advised me to also buy a glove if I went down that road  ).  So statistically we've done pretty well on the kid front - but we also look at dates and destinations when we book so as to avoid potentially kid-saturated itineraries.

[JMARINER]

5 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

Were those cruises long?  From what I have heard, the issues with children (and chair-hog adults) at Christmas is on Caribbean cruises.....

Christmas? Short ones , like 10 days:  I did one or two in the Caribbean. One (or two) in Mexico Riviera. Longer like 14+ days One in Australia. And I think one  in Tahiti. I am not at my desktop and cannot access my record from my phone to be sure. But in all my 18 years with Regent (48 segment/voyages) I do not ever recall kids being a problem, or for that matter ever remember having more that 4 or 5 onboard at any one time.

 

J

 

 

 

 

Edited February 27, 2019 by JMARINER

[SWFLAOK]

Thank you to those who have made me feel better about it being unlikely that we will have the teen gang onboard our 32 night Singapore to Sydney cruise next December. We see so many kids everywhere at anytime that we aren't surprised to see school age kids on vacation anywhere or anytime we go. We've often been told that they are being home schooled. I wish I had been schooled like that.

Our local schools were off for 3 weeks for last year's winter break, and had a few half days prior to that. That's plenty of time to take a cruise with their parents, grandparents, and every other relative that can take a long time off at Christmas, so only being on a short cruise is no longer a restriction. I think it's different than it was years ago when there was no home schooling by people who took cruises, and when Christmas break was about 10 days.

[sanne]

On our Med cruise a couple of years ago there were over 70 children on board. Not a problem, all well behaved. Nice to see young people around the ship. They and their parents dressed up more at night than many of the older passengers. Normally we don’t see children since we take long cruises but these Med cruises were 7 nights. 

[flyers]

Suggest that you have a look at this posting https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2626591-ode-to-an-explorer-suite/   also have a look on page 10 re Suites which discusses the changes that Regent has made from changing  Seven Seas Suites to Explorer Suites.

Re Grand Suites if you are sensitive to noise beware suites under the Pool Deck!

Edited February 28, 2019 by flyers

[geronimo007]

Do suites near the elevators and atrium get a lot of noise?

[Wendy The Wanderer]

20 hours ago, geronimo007 said:

Do suites near the elevators and atrium get a lot of noise?

 

Not in my experience.  I've been across from a dumb-waiter used for transporting luggage, and I've been one suite in from the atrium and elevators, both on Navigator I believe. On Mariner we were also just at the edge of the atrium, nothing.

[UUNetBill]

20 hours ago, geronimo007 said:

Do suites near the elevators and atrium get a lot of noise?

None that I've ever noticed, no.  But it may depend on your noise sensitivity - I can sleep through storms, rough seas, yelling kids, etc...but my wife is a light sleeper and she's only been bothered by noise from being directly below the pool deck on one cruise.  I think the cabins you're asking about are pretty well insulated...

[poss]

Oh, some of what's said on this thread is making me sad.    Our 50th anniversary is late December 2020, and it'd be lovely to be aboard a Regent cruise to celebrate.   The only one we can really do (because can't manage long flights anymore) is the 14 day Caribbean cruise on Splendor.   I guess we'll just have to cross fingers about not having too much disturbance  (about being able by then as well).

[Maxmann65]

We cruised Voyager on a Caribbean/Cuba last Christmas. There was a large family group from Japan with many under 10 children and about 12 teens. We had no problems at all. The younger ones had nannies that where with them at all times and the children were very well supervised. Unless you wanted to play ping pong in the afternoon and even then they were courteous and would set down between games to see if anyone else wanted to play before resuming. The group ate together which made for awkward seating at times but I was glad to see they took their time together seriously. No issues.

Edited April 6, 2019 by Maxmann65
Clarified where the cruise was