Thoughts from Navigator (Day 3)

[doncarlos]

3 hours ago, rcandkc said:

Regent does not promise you can eat at any restaurant you want at the time you want….that is what they will do with room service.  

You are correct in that Regent does not promise . However they do create an expectation which the " customer " " buys into " and  expects . When the provider then can not deliver to that expectation the buyer is disappointed . I was taught that this was not  the best marketing plan if one wanted long term success

[Gilly]

1 hour ago, doncarlos said:

You are correct in that Regent does not promise . However they do create an expectation which the " customer " " buys into " and  expects . When the provider then can not deliver to that expectation the buyer is disappointed . I was taught that this was not  the best marketing plan if one wanted long term success

 

We have never been disappointed, have had the occasional longer than average wait but understand that there are times when life is slightly less than perfect.  

[SWFLAOK]

We haven't had a problem getting reservations at the specialty restaurants in the past by making one reservation ahead of time (or 2 if we were doing back to backs) and then asking for another from the restaurant concierge, butler (when we had one), or maitre d' at the restaurant. However, we have not been on Navigator before, where there is only 1 specialty restaurant. We have 3 cabins booked for the 4 of us on Navigator, and are gold members, and they would only give us 1 reservation for 4 at Prime 7. We're not Sette Mari fans, so I doubt we'll even try to eat there. We would not want to wait for a table at a restaurant that we didn't enjoy in the past.

We have never had to wait for a table at Compass Rose, but we have never been on Navigator. If we have to wait for a table on our upcoming cruise, we will need to decide whether to cancel our cruise on Navigator next year.

[Dr. Cocktail]

8 hours ago, rcandkc said:

Regent does not promise you can eat at any restaurant you want at the time you want….that is what they will do with room service.  

 

4 hours ago, doncarlos said:

You are correct in that Regent does not promise . However they do create an expectation which the " customer " " buys into " and  expects . When the provider then can not deliver to that expectation the buyer is disappointed . I was taught that this was not  the best marketing plan if one wanted long term success

Actually, Regent's latest brochure says: "Dining is always whenever, wherever and with whomever you choose".....

 

It does imply that you can just walk into the restaurant of your choice.

Edited March 13, 2023 by Dr. Cocktail

[red1head]

On Navigator in June, we were part of an ad hoc group of 4 or 5 couples who had connected on the pre cruise tour. We were usually a group of 8 ( at least one couple or another would be at Prime 7 or Sette Mare) and Compass Rose was always able to seat us without waiting. Enjoy your cruise. 

[carolina cruisin]

To date, have only sailed on Splendor and Mariner - twice each.  Have never had an issue getting into any of the dining venues.  The only time I have seen a line is when a line forms waiting for Compass Rose to open.  That line is quickly taken care of.  Flexibility to times can help.

[rcandkc]

20 minutes ago, Dr. Cocktail said:

 

Actually, Regent's latest brochure says: "Dining is always whenever, wherever and with whomever you choose".....

 

It does imply that you can just walk into the restaurant of your choice.

Well, I did not see that.  I agree that does imply more than can be achieved in reality.  There’s only so many tables….

[Dr. Cocktail]

19 minutes ago, rcandkc said:

Well, I did not see that.  I agree that does imply more than can be achieved in reality.  There’s only so many tables….

One hundred percent agree!   Statements like that create absolutely unreal expectations for those who have never sailed before.  

 

I wish that marketing departments would actually consult with the people who have to deliver the product!  It IS an excellent product but change the brochure to "Dine in our complimentary, award winning (there's ALWAYS an award for something)  myriad of restaurants with your special someone and new found friends".

 

Just don't fill in the details!

 

 

[rcandkc]

29 minutes ago, Dr. Cocktail said:

One hundred percent agree!   Statements like that create absolutely unreal expectations for those who have never sailed before.  

 

I wish that marketing departments would actually consult with the people who have to deliver the product!  It IS an excellent product but change the brochure to "Dine in our complimentary, award winning (there's ALWAYS an award for something)  myriad of restaurants with your special someone and new found friends".

 

Just don't fill in the details!

 

I think they were trying to differentiate from fixed time dining at your preset table.  This was how it was with our first 3 cruises…all mainline.  However, I still see how you were misled by the statement you quoted.  

 

[Techno123]

8 hours ago, SWFLAOK said:

We have never had to wait for a table at Compass Rose, but we have never been on Navigator. If we have to wait for a table on our upcoming cruise, we will need to decide whether to cancel our cruise on Navigator next year.

On our Navigator cruise before Christmas we did have to wait but that was because we wanted a table for 2 - larger, shared tables were available. We eat at 8pm so used to pop to Compass Rose on the way to pre dinner cocktails, tell the maitre'd where we were and a member of staff would come to fetch us when a table was available 😁 was turned away from Sette Mari a couple of times so did the same here and again we were collected from Galileo's

[papaflamingo]

11 hours ago, SWFLAOK said:

...we have never been on Navigator. If we have to wait for a table on our upcoming cruise, we will need to decide whether to cancel our cruise on Navigator next year.

We were on Navigator this past summer for 40 nights. Didn't wait for Compass Rose except for a couple of minutes once or twice.  We did get turned away from Sette Mari on our first try so went up and got in line about 15-20 minutes before opening and no problem.  But like you, we aren't really Sette Mari fans so it didn't bother us.  

[peribit]

What is usually on the room service menu?  How is the room service on the Navigator at dinner time?

[DaveFr]

2 hours ago, peribit said:

What is usually on the room service menu?  How is the room service on the Navigator at dinner time?

Here you go: https://www.rssc.com/experience/cuisine/room-service. There is a sample room service menu to open. You may also order off the Compass Rose menu at dinner time.

 

Dave

[slidebite]

I did not know the Compass Rose menu was available for room service during dinner - is that fleet wide?

 

Good to know.

[DaveFr]

1 hour ago, slidebite said:

I did not know the Compass Rose menu was available for room service during dinner - is that fleet wide?

 

Good to know.

The ability to order from the Compass Rose menu at dinner is fleet wide. You may also be able to order from the Compass Rose menu at lunchtime, although I’m not sure about that. I intend to check that out on my cruise in a couple of weeks.

[peribit]

2 hours ago, DaveFr said:

Here you go: https://www.rssc.com/experience/cuisine/room-service. There is a sample room service menu to open. You may also order off the Compass Rose menu at dinner time.

 

Dave

Thanks for the info.

Pat

[LewiLewi]

On 3/9/2023 at 8:56 AM, LewiLewi said:

I am also on the Navigator now. After cruising on the Explorer and the Splendor this past year, I am also enjoying the Navigator. It is not as “glitzy” as the other two ships, but still nicely decorated and comfortable. The service has been wonderful, much more attentive than on the Splendor. Pool deck stewards are forever bringing cold drinks around, I had a difficult time getting one’s attention on the Splendor.

After day one, I have not had any problems obtaining a lounger on the pool deck, actually, many have been available at all times. 

I have dined in Compass Rose and Prime 7, and will dine in Setta Mari tonight. The food in CR was very good and my lobster in Prime 7 was delicious. Also, I found the service much better in the Navigator dining rooms than on either the Explorer or the Splendor. 
I miss Chartreuse and especially Pacific Rim, but other than that, I am really enjoying the Navigator.

I have just completed my cruise on the Navigator and enjoyed every minute of it. We dined in all of the restaurants, and food was consistently good in all of them. We spoke in advance with the Maitre’D at Setta Mari and he reserved a table for 6 that evening for dinner. We were accommodated quickly in Compass Rose every evening. We dined in Prime 7 once and although we enjoyed it, we were just as happy dining in CR. Looking forward to sailing on the Navigator again.

[mrlevin]

19 hours ago, DaveFr said:

The ability to order from the Compass Rose menu at dinner is fleet wide. You may also be able to order from the Compass Rose menu at lunchtime, although I’m not sure about that. I intend to check that out on my cruise in a couple of weeks.

The ability to order from Compass Rose menu has been fleet wide for at least last twenty years.  You can also ask for it to be delivered course by course (though we do not take advantage of this).   

[Arlopop]

On 3/11/2023 at 5:38 PM, SWFLAOK said:

We're on the same cruise, and I was also wondering about an engine issue. Our TA called us last week about the changes, which always delayed our arrival port later. We have an excursion in Grenada that starts at 2:30, and that's when we're now scheduled to arrive. I think most of the excursions were 2:30 or 3:00, and ours still was listed at 2:30 when I looked yesterday.

Based on our last Regent back to back cruises on Splendor starting last September, during the Queen's funeral, I don't expect destination services to make any plans with the tour providers to adjust the times. Just as on those Splendor cruises, I expect them to tell us that they're cancelled, with an envelope in our cabin, when we board. There will be big lines at destination services after that, and they will have nothing other than a map, and possibly a shuttle bus, to replace our excursions. And if we're even more unlucky, we won't find out until we look for our excursion bus to find that it's not there, or that it's going to someplace other than we expected it to go. We experienced all of that on Splendor and gave Regent our feedback on the poor service provided by destination services. We had many great cruises on Regent pre-Covid, without this type of problem. I hope they get they're act together since we travel to experience the destinations, and not to stay in a floating hotel.

I’m sorry they haven’t adjusted your excursion time.  I checked ours as soon as I got the port arrival changes and the only conflict with an excursion of ours was one originally scheduled at 11 am, and it had been changed to 2 pm. So I assumed all the excursions were being adjusted. 

 

[SWFLAOK]

3 hours ago, Arlopop said:

I’m sorry they haven’t adjusted your excursion time.  I checked ours as soon as I got the port arrival changes and the only conflict with an excursion of ours was one originally scheduled at 11 am, and it had been changed to 2 pm. So I assumed all the excursions were being adjusted. 

 

We received our cruise documents, and they show that we arrive in St. Georges Grenada at 2:30 pm, and our excursion is still scheduled for 2:30 pm. Maybe they'll just have us ready to go ashore as soon as we're cleared. I'm not going to worry about it since we've never been to Grenada, and just being able to go ashore in town would still be something new to us.

[cwn]

The change will be noted in your ticket   that you get when on board. That could change again so be sure an check Passages the day of the tour for meeting time.