Has Regent gone downhill post COVID? Oceania better?

[Pies4u]

I can only base it on 1 cruise but I’d agree that the choices and variety of menu in CR are very good. The daily options and “always available” selections offer a terrific choice.
 

However, the MDR on Marina, which we used 3 or 4 times served food that was every bit as tasty and were better presented than CR on our last Regent cruise tbh. They also serve food hot/warm & not tepid or cold as Regent frequently do. When a MD has to say “…you only have to ask if you want it warmer and we’ll heat up for you…” you do begin wonder if they actually know what they are doing at times. Of course people want to be served food that is at least warm - if it’s supposed to be hot!

 

I like CR as a restaurant, the layouts and service are generally fine but food quality has varied, greatly, in recent times.

Edited June 10 by Pies4u

[GMIAC]

Hey, it's not a contest, and everyone's not going to agree on a consensus. The fact is that each is great, and each can experience glitches. I relax and take things as they come. 

 

We can't control what happens to us. We can only control how we choose to react and how much we let it affect or bother us. 

Edited June 10 by GMIAC

[Pies4u]

Not sure what’s adversarial about it tbh, I’m just passing on my observations based on recent cruises. It is an interesting debate and opinions will differ. I don’t believe it’s as simple as saying 1 is “better” than the other, there are pro’s & con’s in both cases.
 

Each person’s experiences and views will vary with those of others. I believe that we do have a consensus on that.

[2SailingNomads]

One thing that puzzles me is, and this had been true on Regent, Seabourn, Ponant and our one Crystal why food is at best warm. At many good local restaurants it is served HOT. Burn your tongue hot.  And please don't tell me the head waiter has to inspect it, our food is delivered as ordered hot or if an issue we get the waiters attention.

[ChucktownSteve]

On 6/10/2024 at 6:39 AM, Pies4u said:

Our experience on 1 Oceania cruise, Marina 2022, was that the variety of restaurants and general food quality was as good as Regent and, frequently, superior. Jacques and the Italian (name escapes me) on Marina provided food of a higher quality than we have ever experienced on almost 100 nights on Regent.

 

Sette Mari & Chartreuse are not in the same class, by a long distance, in our view.

 

There are other aspects of Regent that make it better vfm for us, including excursions, size of ship, Prime 7 and overall quality of service levels but there is little between the 2 on that latter point tbh.

I have sailed Marina and three different Regent ships. IMO, while Oceania restaurants were better than other cruise lines I have sailed, overall the totality of Regent's restaurants quality is far superior to my Oceania experience...even "down" to Compass Rose which I feel is better than any other cruise line's MD.

 

However, obviously food opinions are subjective.

Edited June 12 by ChucktownSteve

[JPR]

We were on Explorer from Singapore to Hong Kong this past February. Food was generally quite good, though Red Ginger was not as consistently excellent as before.
 

Overall excellent service (except for several significant screwups on the port area shuttle information we received). Ship was in fine shape. Glad to see a real sauna instead of the poor original infrared version.

Edited June 17 by JPR

[Kwaj girl]

5 minutes ago, JPR said:

We were on Explorer from Singapore to Hong Kong this past February. Food was generally quite good, though Red Ginger was not as consistently excellent as before.
 

Overall excellent service (except for several significant screwups on the port area shuttle information we received). Ship was in fine shape. Glad to see a real sauna instead of the poor original infrared version.

 

Red Ginger is not on Explorer - did you mean Pacific Rim?

Edited June 17 by Kwaj girl

[JPR]

Obviously Pacific Rim.

[coljack]

On 5/11/2024 at 11:35 AM, caribdvr said:

I am looking at an 18day Japan trip on the Regent Explorer (actually the Seven Seas Explorer) and the reviews on this site are fairly bleak.  I'd always thought that Regent was a very good line, but these reviews have me concerned.  There seems to be a lot of people in this section so I wanted to ask if you think that complainers are the only ones who posted there or what's going on.  There seems to be a big reduction in service post COVID but it also seems that many are just disappointed that it costs so much.  

 

I usually sail on Viking, which I enjoy, but their itinerary and sail date is not as good.  The other consideration is Oceania and I'd be happy to get a comparison.

 

The complaints I'm seeing are, in order of importance to me:

• excursions--I'm going for the ports.  If they don't do a good job with the excursions, this is a Big Deal.  I'm fine with booking some independently (any suggestions?) but I'd like to be able to do some of the included excursions--this is the hardest thing for me to overlook
• food is horrible and often cold (horrible is not okay, but less than fantastic is okay as long as much of it is very good)
• internet very bad  
• entertainment (how bad can it be?  this is a cruise)
• transfers/flights, etc, don't bother me bc I will make my own travel arrangements

 

Thanks for any insight you can offer.

 

I have sailed twice with Viking recently after many Regent cruises.  I am going back to Regent.  The main reason is the food is SO much better.  Also, Regent Ofers a variety of included excursions--many more than Viking.  Oceania is advertising itself as thew foodie cruise line.  I have sailed on both and believe Regent is better.  Internet is set to improve on Regent if not already done.  They have purchased more bandwidth.