To Mariner…or not.

[mnocket]

2 hours ago, Smitty A said:

We boarded toady and found the ship to be in excellent condition.   Dinner tonight was fabulous.  No issues for us at all.    Two very happy cruisers here 

Glad you had no problems.  Returned from dinner and toilet working. Fingers crossed that there are no more problems. 

[GOARMY]

Constantly monitoring this Site. 

 

Extra attention because luggage tags arrived today for next month's Mariner cruise. 

 

Have begun noting current, and recent-past cruisers' location on Mariner, as to Suite site(s) experiencing a flushing problem. This brought to mind when last on Mariner.   

 

October-November '22.  As noted above:  on one or two occasions, first attempt hitting the flush button did not work.  Second attempt did not work.  So--shut door; repaired to Suite contemplating a call to Reception.  

 

Magically, maybe ten or so minutes later, heard that delightful flushing sound.  Magical. Another form of relief.  

 

This scenario was replicated two or three more times over the next two weeks.  No rhyme or reason for timing.  Never needed to call for assistance, as the situation "cleared up" on its own.  

 

Still----

 

GOARMY!

 

 

 

  

[RELS]

30 minutes ago, GOARMY said:

This scenario was replicated two or three more times over the next two weeks.  No rhyme or reason for timing.  Never needed to call for assistance, as the situation "cleared up" on its own.  

 

We had this same thing happen occasionally on the Splendor in Dec '22. It has something to do with how the the suction system works. Googling "How do cruise ship toilets work" will get you much more information than you want or need on the topic

[CDR Benson]

4 hours ago, GOARMY said:

October-November '22.  As noted above:  on one or two occasions, first attempt hitting the flush button did not work.  Second attempt did not work.  So--shut door; repaired to Suite contemplating a call to Reception.  

 

Magically, maybe ten or so minutes later, heard that delightful flushing sound.  Magical. Another form of relief.  

 

This scenario was replicated two or three more times over the next two weeks.  No rhyme or reason for timing.  Never needed to call for assistance, as the situation "cleared up" on its own. 

 

 

The same thing occurred with us, maybe four or five times, during our 25 November-02 December 2023 cruise.  Eventually, I figured out that the delayed flush---because it always did flush, eventually---was due to the peculiarities of air pressure and amount of ship-wide usage at any given moment.  As it always flushed, even if it took a few minutes, I.never worried about it.

 

 

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Similar experiences with ships toilets, many times. Not just Regent. Always has been rectified quickly.

[flossie009]

Boarded Mariner yesterday; good to be back on one of our favourite ships.

Suite in good order.

No toilet issues thus far (touching wood as I post this)

 

Xmas decorations around the ship are beautiful.

 

Starlink seems to be working OK. Speed tests from last night and this morning below:

 

 

 

 

[Pcardad]

3 hours ago, flossie009 said:

Boarded Mariner yesterday; good to be back on one of our favourite ships.

Suite in good order.

No toilet issues thus far (touching wood as I post this)

 

Xmas decorations around the ship are beautiful.

 

Starlink seems to be working OK. Speed tests from last night and this morning below:

 

 

 

 

Thank you for this. I have a collection of Speedtests from guests/friends/crew and it seems to be capped at 4mbps....which is about 4 times faster than before.

[CJANDH]

We boarded Mariner yesterday. So far no toilet issue although the plumbing is a bit noisy (gurgles in the tub when running water in the vanity).

 

First impressions:

Staff are great. Meals so far have been excellent. Ship is looking a bit dated and needs wiring updates to get USB connections in the suites. We had to beg an adapter from our butler to connect chargers for our phones.

 

Looks like we are in for a couple of rough and windy days at sea to kick of the cruise. But no complaints. We are at sea again!!!!

[ON cruiser]

Glad all seems well for those who boarded when we left on December 12. It appears that, other than some “transient toilet issues”, which we also occasionally experienced (and, on other ships and lines, too), the more serious problem was  resolved with the maintenance work done last week. At least, I hope so!

 

Even with an occasional toilet issue, we would readily return to the Mariner. Our cruises were just great, albeit I noted when putting on a pair of pants today that they shrunk whilst we were away. I hate it when that happens! 😀

 

Anyway, hope those currently on board keep us updated; and that they also enjoy their Amazon cruise!
 

 

[papaflamingo]

We just got off Mariner on Tues. (Dec. 12).  We were in cabin 1020.  The only toilet issue, as previously mentioned, was one morning in port.  Toilets, presumably ship wide and likely for repair, stopped just as we were leaving on our shore excursion. Arrived back and all was well.  They did announce, also mentioned earlier, that the system would be shut down from midnight to 2 am for repairs one night.  Other than that, absolutely no problems.  

Is the ship "dated?"  Yup.  My wife felt that it had areas that smelled like they'd had a water issue that went deep into the carpet.  I didn't smell it, but I can't hear well either so.....🤷‍♂️.  But the ship does need refurbishing.  No big deal for me, I loved the cruise.  The service was generally excellent, an occasional "blip" that could be understaffing or sick crew members.  But all in all, everyone was more than cheerful, running hard, and absolutely eager to please.  We had one "hiccup" when our Prime 7 reservation wasn't in the system.  Not a big deal at all, we simply went to Compass Rose and had a great steak, etc.  Anyway, my wife jokingly mentioned it to our waiter, Monica, that we were "doing our own Prime 7."  She said she'd get us in the next night, and with in 5 minutes the Restaurant GM showed up also saying we'd get in!  We were actually ok with not going as we're on Granduer in 3 or so weeks. Anyway, we had a nice Prime 7 dinner and a wonderful time.  The crew, as usual, fell all over themselves trying to please. 

As for shore excursions.  We enjoyed them all.  Did one "bus" tour in Puerto Plata that I thought was an interesting overview of the history of the island.  Then did a Rainforest visit in San Juan, Catamaran sail and swim in St. Barts, River tubing in Dominican Republic (very fun), Sting Ray City in Antigua, and a visit and hike through the boulders at the Baths in Virgin Gorda.  All were great tours and we really had a great time. 

So, if you know that the ship is a bit worn, and the issues that they may have then I think anyone would enjoy the ship.  

Having said that, we are booked in Oct. 2025, the last cruise BEFORE the dry dock (or so it looks looking at the schedule).  We are a bit apprehensive as we know she'll be more "worn," and they won't be doing a lot of touch ups, etc. since she'll be going immediately into a major 3 week dry dock period.  Problem is, this is a "make up" cruise for the "ill fated" Israel/Egypt cruise on Voyager.  "Luckily" I woke up with Covid on the day we were leaving for Athens, so obviously cancelled.  Fortunately I had the cruise insured.   We booked Mariner in Oct. 2025 from Barcelona to Barcelona for 32 nights as the "makeup" cruise. Now knowing that it'll be her last cruise before dry dock, we may reconsider.  But if it's the only way we can go to Israel and Egypt then we'll simply go with reasonable expectations and have a fabulous time.  Otherwise we may push it to 2026.

Edited December 14, 2023 by papaflamingo

[Horatio Snowblower]

Just one more Mariner cruiser reporting no toilet issues since we boarded Tuesday evening. Though the shower drains a bit more slowly than either of us are comfortable with, no water has escaped the shower stall yet. If my memory wasn't so bad I'd remember to mention it to one of the staff. 

 

Currently bounding across the bounding main north of the Dominican Republic. We brought plenty of USB chargers, a power strip, and a Europe-to-North American plug adapter. Other than having cables strewn all about the suite, we're enjoying everything in spite of the somewhat rough seas we've had since departure.

[Horatio Snowblower]

Finally remembered to ask for someone to look into our shower problem. One of the engineers arrived, pulled a serious collective hairball out of the drain, and all is well. I did hold my breath for a moment when he flushed that glop down the toilet, but I figured he knew what he was doing. No repercussions so far as I'm aware. 

[Cenerus]

First time Regent passenger on the infamous Dec 2nd cruise.  We really enjoyed the cruise and the ship despite the issue with the toilets.  The toilet issue was annoying and unexpected.  We've been on older ships before and never had this one happen.  But Regent gave us a 20% refund as a future cruise credit, so no complaints from us on how the company responded to the issue and did right by us.

 

I think that people need to understand that this is a very old ship and be realistic about what to expect from roughly 21 year old vessel.  Old ships have issues and usually lots of little signs of wear and tear.  If you want perfect, go on Grandeur now before it's too late.

 

We ran into two designers working for Regent who are part of the refurbishment that will happen when the ship goes into dry dock in 2026.  They were part of the design team for Splendor, Granduer and other cruise ships such as the Oasis of the seas for Royal.  They told us to take lots of pictures as the interior was getting a complete redo.  So if you love the look of the ship, make sure you get on her before the end of 2025.  Then book another sailing in 2026 to see the before and after.  We also learned from the head chef that all of the galleys will be completely gutted and redone with all new equipment and a new layout.  It sounds like this refresh will be extensive and not superficial.

 

I have some other observations about the ship and the staff:

 

The ship looks great on the inside.  If you had told me it was only 6 or 7 years old I would have believed you.  The outside is where the ship really shows its age.  They really need to dip the whole ship in paint stripper and then sand, fill and repaint the outside.  But everything seemed to work fine, so no complaints.

 

Our concierge suite was quite small, and it stretches credulity a bit to call it a suite.  It's smaller than a JR suite on a mainstream cruise line.  But it was very comfortable, looked nice and everything (toilet excluded) worked fine.

 

We were struck by how the ship never felt crowded.  There were only two times we found ourselves in a long line, boarding and disembarking.  Otherwise it was amazingly relaxed and uncrowded.  The ship easily absorbed the 650 people on this particular cruise.  This alone was worth the price of the cruise.

 

The crew on the ship were very nice, but not unusually special. They were the same as crews on mainstream cruise ships from NCL and Royal or Carnival.  Mostly super friendly people from the Philippines, Indonesia, India and Eastern Europe.  I learned that quite a few came over from other mainstream NCL ships, and are just doing what they did on the big NCL ships with little additional training that was Regent specific. We found that some of the crew didn't really know what to do at times and this led to mistakes being made.  Hopefully that improves over time as these crew members learn the ship and the in's and out's of their job.

 

The food was fantastic at times, and less than great a few times.  Almost all of our meals were excellent.  The lone exception was at Seti Mari.  The appetizers were fantastic, but the entrees were actually bad.  All of the other restaurants had good to excellent food.  Compass Rose was the most consistently great food for us.

 

Service at the restaurants was always very good.  We were never left waiting for anything very long.  In fact service everywhere on the ship was generally very good.  At the pool, in the lounges or in the theater, we never had to wait long to be served and asked if we wanted another drink.

 

Entertainment on the ship was good given the size of the ship.  We really enjoyed the singing duo Kashia and Boogie.  They have limitless energy.  

 

In summary, we had a great time and have booked two more cruises on Splendor and Grandeur next year.

 

 

[flossie009]

On 12/13/2023 at 1:01 PM, Pcardad said:

Thank you for this. I have a collection of Speedtests from guests/friends/crew and it seems to be capped at 4mbps....which is about 4 times faster than before.

Much slower today but still perfectly usable 

 

[Cenerus]

2 hours ago, flossie009 said:

Much slower today but still perfectly usable 

 

I found that the speeds were fine for doing things up to having zoom calls with work on the ship.  I had to work one day, so I looked for a good place to camp out and go online.  The wifi reception in my suite wasn't reliable enough, so I looked for a better spot.  I found that the observation lounge on deck 12 was th perfect place to camp out.  There are power outlets (220 so you need an adapter) and a nice relaxing space with music and a bar tender.  And the view is amazing.

[Pcardad]

3 hours ago, Cenerus said:

First time Regent passenger on the infamous Dec 2nd cruise.  We really enjoyed the cruise and the ship despite the issue with the toilets.  The toilet issue was annoying and unexpected.  We've been on older ships before and never had this one happen.  But Regent gave us a 20% refund as a future cruise credit, so no complaints from us on how the company responded to the issue and did right by us.

 

I think that people need to understand that this is a very old ship and be realistic about what to expect from roughly 21 year old vessel.  Old ships have issues and usually lots of little signs of wear and tear.  If you want perfect, go on Grandeur now before it's too late.

 

We ran into two designers working for Regent who are part of the refurbishment that will happen when the ship goes into dry dock in 2026.  They were part of the design team for Splendor, Granduer and other cruise ships such as the Oasis of the seas for Royal.  They told us to take lots of pictures as the interior was getting a complete redo.  So if you love the look of the ship, make sure you get on her before the end of 2025.  Then book another sailing in 2026 to see the before and after.  We also learned from the head chef that all of the galleys will be completely gutted and redone with all new equipment and a new layout.  It sounds like this refresh will be extensive and not superficial.

 

I have some other observations about the ship and the staff:

 

The ship looks great on the inside.  If you had told me it was only 6 or 7 years old I would have believed you.  The outside is where the ship really shows its age.  They really need to dip the whole ship in paint stripper and then sand, fill and repaint the outside.  But everything seemed to work fine, so no complaints.

 

Our concierge suite was quite small, and it stretches credulity a bit to call it a suite.  It's smaller than a JR suite on a mainstream cruise line.  But it was very comfortable, looked nice and everything (toilet excluded) worked fine.

 

We were struck by how the ship never felt crowded.  There were only two times we found ourselves in a long line, boarding and disembarking.  Otherwise it was amazingly relaxed and uncrowded.  The ship easily absorbed the 650 people on this particular cruise.  This alone was worth the price of the cruise.

 

The crew on the ship were very nice, but not unusually special. They were the same as crews on mainstream cruise ships from NCL and Royal or Carnival.  Mostly super friendly people from the Philippines, Indonesia, India and Eastern Europe.  I learned that quite a few came over from other mainstream NCL ships, and are just doing what they did on the big NCL ships with little additional training that was Regent specific. We found that some of the crew didn't really know what to do at times and this led to mistakes being made.  Hopefully that improves over time as these crew members learn the ship and the in's and out's of their job.

 

The food was fantastic at times, and less than great a few times.  Almost all of our meals were excellent.  The lone exception was at Seti Mari.  The appetizers were fantastic, but the entrees were actually bad.  All of the other restaurants had good to excellent food.  Compass Rose was the most consistently great food for us.

 

Service at the restaurants was always very good.  We were never left waiting for anything very long.  In fact service everywhere on the ship was generally very good.  At the pool, in the lounges or in the theater, we never had to wait long to be served and asked if we wanted another drink.

 

Entertainment on the ship was good given the size of the ship.  We really enjoyed the singing duo Kashia and Boogie.  They have limitless energy.  

 

In summary, we had a great time and have booked two more cruises on Splendor and Grandeur next year.

 

 

Mariner goes in for 20 days in November of 2025...based on current plans.

[cruise_loverinlaval]

On 12/13/2023 at 2:30 PM, CJANDH said:

We boarded Mariner yesterday. So far no toilet issue although the plumbing is a bit noisy (gurgles in the tub when running water in the vanity).

 

First impressions:

Staff are great. Meals so far have been excellent. Ship is looking a bit dated and needs wiring updates to get USB connections in the suites. We had to beg an adapter from our butler to connect chargers for our phones.

 

Looks like we are in for a couple of rough and windy days at sea to kick of the cruise. But no complaints. We are at sea again!!!!

Hello, how is it going?  I wonder if the Mariner has fixed its toilet problem? Hopefully, every thing is o.k. and you all enjoy your cruise.

[CJANDH]

3 hours ago, cruise_loverinlaval said:

Hello, how is it going?  I wonder if the Mariner has fixed its toilet problem? Hopefully, every thing is o.k. and you all enjoy your cruise.

I have not heard any toilet complaints so far. Cruise is going well but a bit too many sea days for me.

[Kwaj girl]

@Cenerus

 

Could you explain "actually bad?"  I will be boarding Mariner next month.

 

Almost all of our meals were excellent.  The lone exception was at Seti Mari.  The appetizers were fantastic, but the entrees were actually bad.

[CJANDH]

On 12/15/2023 at 4:30 PM, Pcardad said:

Mariner goes in for 20 days in November of 2025...based on current plans.

She needs to go in sooner than that. The toilet issue has returned today. Much of deck 11 was without the ability to flush for several hours this morning as the vacuum system failed. It is working again now; but for how long?

[Pcardad]

1 hour ago, CJANDH said:

She needs to go in sooner than that. The toilet issue has returned today. Much of deck 11 was without the ability to flush for several hours this morning as the vacuum system failed. It is working again now; but for how long?

What did the GM say when you asked about it?

[Horatio Snowblower]

I realize "much of deck 11" isn't the same thing as "all of deck 11", but we're in 1105. We've  been in our stateroom much of the morning due to the schedule delays beyond Regent's control, but we've had no toilet issues. Perhaps we're just plumb lucky today. 

 

That said, I do agree with @CJANDH. This ship is definitely overdue for an overhaul. 

[Cenerus]

On 12/19/2023 at 8:27 PM, Kwaj girl said:

@Cenerus

 

Could you explain "actually bad?"  I will be boarding Mariner next month.

 

Almost all of our meals were excellent.  The lone exception was at Seti Mari.  The appetizers were fantastic, but the entrees were actually bad.

Sure thing. 

The sauces our pasta course came in has very little flavor. My lasagna was in a bland brown gravy of sorts that didn’t even look tomato based.  The pasta was mushy and there seemed to be no cheese in the layers of the lasagna. I’ve had better from a weight watchers frozen lasagna. 
 

We both had the cioppino as our entree. The seafood ingredients like mussels and fish etc were great. But the broth was very bland with almost no flavor.  It was like orange water.
 

Everything else about the restaurant was great. The appetizer bar is amazing, and the service was excellent.  I had a chat with the food and beverage director and told him that something seems to be off with the Setti Marie food. He said he’d look into it. 

 

[CJANDH]

2 hours ago, Horatio Snowblower said:

I realize "much of deck 11" isn't the same thing as "all of deck 11", but we're in 1105. We've  been in our stateroom much of the morning due to the schedule delays beyond Regent's control, but we've had no toilet issues. Perhaps we're just plumb lucky today. 

 

That said, I do agree with @CJANDH. This ship is definitely overdue for an overhaul. 

Interesting. 1101 and 1103 were both "out" this morning and the engineer said it was that whole row of suites down the starboard side. Maybe he exaggerated. Anyway, fingers crossed that it is fixed and was a one off problem with an aging ship. Still having fun 😄.

[Cenerus]

6 hours ago, CJANDH said:

Interesting. 1101 and 1103 were both "out" this morning and the engineer said it was that whole row of suites down the starboard side. Maybe he exaggerated. Anyway, fingers crossed that it is fixed and was a one off problem with an aging ship. Still having fun 😄.

Too bad it’s still happening.  When we were on the 12/2 cruise the engineer I talked to when our whole deck went non-flush was that the pipes are leaking air and the negative pressure keeps failing due to all the leaks that keep opening up in the pipes and gaskets on the valves. Even though it was annoying, we still enjoyed the cruise and the ship is beautiful inside.  We’ve booked the Grandeur for next year. We’ll stick with the three Explorer class ships for now.