Dear Regent Seven Seas Cruises

[Hearthosesteeldrumsplayin]

26 minutes ago, kirtihk said:

Actually, these days we should always expect great services and great experiences with some other non-luxury cruise lines (like Celebrity) for the same reason (after business class air credit and included excursions (say $150 per person per tour) the Reagent cruise fare is similar to others - $500- $700 per day for most itineraries).

I have been comparison shopping for 2024 cruise that includes Rome and Istanbul.  NCL Haven cheaper than RSSC (understandably), but to my surprise, Celebrity was actually $10K MORE than RSSC.  Looking at 2 staterooms for RSSC, a 2 bedroom HAVEN suite for NCL, and an Edge Villa in the Retreat for X, since there will be 4 of us.  (Note that the NCL and X cruise were 1 day longer than RSSC.)  It is certainly in your best interest to look around!

[kirtihk]

19 minutes ago, Hearthosesteeldrumsplayin said:

I have been comparison shopping for 2024 cruise that includes Rome and Istanbul.  NCL Haven cheaper than RSSC (understandably), but to my surprise, Celebrity was actually $10K MORE than RSSC.  Looking at 2 staterooms for RSSC, a 2 bedroom HAVEN suite for NCL, and an Edge Villa in the Retreat for X, since there will be 4 of us.  (Note that the NCL and X cruise were 1 day longer than RSSC.)  It is certainly in your best interest to look around!

That's why I mentioned Celebrity, and my statement was even in regard of a regular Suite, not Edge Villa.  Also, I always compare per day fare (that way it's more accurate and easier evolution of a cruise line selection).

[ysolde]

47 minutes ago, pag111 said:

After a few not so stellar Regent cruises we decided to try the NCL Prima.  Have to say I was more impressed with the Prima (than recent Regent cruises). 

 

Interesting.  We are doing a TA that starts out as a Med cruise on NCL Viva at the end of 2024.  It is an interesting itinerary (with stops in Europe, North Africa and the Canary Islands before crossing and then stops on the Caribbean).  We are in a Junior Suite, but it seems spacious.  And this new Prima class seems different.

[makai 7]

I wanted to provide a follow up for those who are interested.  Haters can skip….

 

We had a very pleasant conversation with Jennifer Teegan (on the phone) a few weeks after she offered to speak with us.  It was very interesting for the following reasons:

- she mentioned that other passengers had approached her during the cruise and raised some of the same issues 

- she brought up several issues she experienced first hand that she contacted home office to address (one was related to shabby damaged menu covers in Prime 7, and she learned that they were not able to get new ones due to some communication difficulties)

- she also experienced some of our same observations and had informed home office.

 

Staffing for food related services (galley, servers, etc.) is now all outsourced to a third party, none of the staff are employed directly by RSSC.

 

Jennifer said that she was going to share our concerns/negative experiences with senior management at a meeting.

 

We felt listened to, and were satisfied with the conversation.  

It did not change our current thoughts about cruising with Regent in the future.  Perhaps if the overall experiences posted on this board improve, we may reconsider in the future, for the right itinerary.

[pappy1022]

Thank you for the update. I hope that Regent isn’t using the excuse that they can’t control or influence the galley, servers, etc. because they are outsourced to a 3rd party. I’ve heard that reasoning when it comes to air, excursions, etc. If that’s their position then what do they have direct control of? 

[Pcardad]

27 minutes ago, makai 7 said:

I wanted to provide a follow up for those who are interested.  Haters can skip….

 

We had a very pleasant conversation with Jennifer Teegan (on the phone) a few weeks after she offered to speak with us.  It was very interesting for the following reasons:

- she mentioned that other passengers had approached her during the cruise and raised some of the same issues 

- she brought up several issues she experienced first hand that she contacted home office to address (one was related to shabby damaged menu covers in Prime 7, and she learned that they were not able to get new ones due to some communication difficulties)

- she also experienced some of our same observations and had informed home office.

 

Staffing for food related services (galley, servers, etc.) is now all outsourced to a third party, none of the staff are employed directly by RSSC.

 

Jennifer said that she was going to share our concerns/negative experiences with senior management at a meeting.

 

We felt listened to, and were satisfied with the conversation.  

It did not change our current thoughts about cruising with Regent in the future.  Perhaps if the overall experiences posted on this board improve, we may reconsider in the future, for the right itinerary.

95% of the crew onboard have been hired by Apollo for many years now -this is not new. Pretty much every crew member up to and including the F&B is Apollo, not Regent.

[mnocket]

19 hours ago, Pcardad said:

95% of the crew onboard have been hired by Apollo for many years now -this is not new. Pretty much every crew member up to and including the F&B is Apollo, not Regent.

Wow.  I had no idea this was the case.  My experience with outsourcing has been that quality almost always suffers in exchange for lower costs.  Although I guess the fact that they have been doing it for many years runs contrary to my experience as the decline in service seems to be a recent phenomenon. 

[Pcardad]

2 minutes ago, mnocket said:

Wow.  I had no idea this was the case.  My experience with outsourcing has been that quality almost always suffers in exchange for lower costs.  Although I guess the fact that they have been doing it for many years runs contrary to my experience as the decline in service seems to be a recent phenomenon. 

Decline in service is because they lost so many staff over COVID - the people simply could not stay with Regent and not get paid so they took jobs at home. Now they have to re-hire and re-train hundreds of people and then replace those that can't learn the Regent way. Its going to take time.