Concerned over Bad Reviews re Voyager

[scottie99]

My wife and I are experienced cruisers with almost 70 under our belts.

 

We have mostly done mid market, RCCL, P&O, NCL, HA, etc, but also 4 Azamara and one Regent about 12 years ago ( sorry, can’t remember which ship, I suspect Voyager but not sure) which we enjoyed.

 

On 1st November, we celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary and are looking for something special. We have been offered a great deal on Voyager out of Istanbul on 27 October which I am very tempted to book . That is until I started reading reviews on Voyager.

 

I realise most posts will be the unhappy sailors. Not so many will post to say everything was perfect.

 

I accept she is a slightly older ship but so many negative posts.  One of the repeated criticisms I read of ( apart from the food) is lack of entertainment. It seems on several occasions only a movie is available in the theatre.  My wife doesn’t drink. She  doesn’t like sitting in a bar of an evening , so entertainment is important to us on a cruise.

 

The itinerary on this cruise is reasonable, the dates work.   Have Regent gone downhill so much?   Is Voyager really past it’s prime?

 

Thanks in advance 

[Nachosdelux]

Voyager is one of Regent's older ships but still in fine shape with excellent food and service.

 

Evening Entertainment is not Regent's strong point - it is comparable to other luxury lines or small ships (Azamara etc).  It is not in the same league as NCL or RCCL.

 

That said, there will be an evening show every night (9:30pm or so) as well as music in various venues.  

 

Regent has not gone downhill, and Voyager is not past her prime, IMHO.

 

I think you will have an enjoyable time.

[Balian65]

We were on Voyager in April and will be again in 4 weeks time. I can only support the view of Nachosdelux. Cabin, food and service were fine and the entertainment as expected. Only on the first and last evening of the cruise they only showed movies in the theatre,

 

Many of the bad reviews are related to an incident on our last cruise when the ship spent an extra day at Cadiz due to technical problems and arrived one and a half day later for disembarkation in Barcelona.

 

For us and those on the ship it was a challenge to change flights and hotel reservations and so far these costs have not been reimbursed as promised in the letter of the captain. But we have received FCC and the rest of the cruise was fine.

 

For those on the next cruise this incident was much worse. They lost more than one day and missed three ports. Not to speak of all the changes in excursions and dinner reservations. That’s where most of the bad reviews come from and I definitely can understand the frustration and disappointment. But the technical incident seems to be one off experience.

 

We are confident that our July sailing will be a good experience without any major hassles.

[Gilly]

@scottie99 we spent three weeks on board Voyager earlier in the year and will return to sail from Trieste to Lisbon in September.  We had a wonderful cruise, can't wait for the next one and wouldn't hesitate to jump at any opportunity to sail on one of our favourite ships.  Yes, I don't need to repeat the comments above, but would encourage you to look beyond the reviews of that particular event to find a great deal of positive experience reported by myself and others.

[cAPS lOCK oN]

We're are on Voyager, currently in lovely Bordeaux. We are having an excellent time, with the only problem being the cloudy weather. The high seas cost us our tour of San Sebastian, which I was really excited about. But the port was closed so Regent had no options.

 

While the ship isn't as glamorous as it's younger sisters, the service can't be faulted. The food has been uniformly good, and all the specialty restaurants have been especially good. Chartreuse has been our favorite this time.

 

We'd be happy to take this ship again.

[Scout16]

I was on the Voyager this past January/February and the nights when the entertainment was just a movie tended to be on long segments when we were away from everything.  The other thing that may hinder the performances is the health of the performers, at least one night was cancelled since both of the special performers were sick. 

[welshfamily]

I would book if I were you.

We are going in August for 17 days. Really looking forward to the Voyager. We are not bothered if the ship is on the Old side. We are interested in unusual ports, good food and excellent service. A decent wine and cocktail list  also help. We are counting the days (38).
As long as someone does our laundry, make our beds ( plus necessary cleaning of suite)  and feed us whilst making sure we do not get dehydrated we will be fine. 

 

[DeepFreeze63]

17 minutes ago, welshfamily said:

I would book if I were you.

We are going in August for 17 days. Really looking forward to the Voyager. We are not bothered if the ship is on the Old side. We are interested in unusual ports, good food and excellent service. A decent wine and cocktail list  also help. We are counting the days (38).
As long as someone does our laundry, make our beds ( plus necessary cleaning of suite)  and feed us whilst making sure we do not get dehydrated we will be fine. 

 

Amen! Also, OP said that they "have been offered a great deal".

[GMIAC]

You pretty much answered your own questions in your original post. You’re only going to hear from those who had some beefs about one or two things in particular that were Simply Unacceptable. Clearly, there are lots of people who have perfectly good times, so go and enjoy. 

[mj_holiday]

We were on Voyager (Cape Town to Cape Town) Dec 2022.  The ship is great, really a favorite of ours.  The suite rooms are great size, it is easy to get every where.  We are not night owls, so can't speak to the after dinner entertainment. The staff, service, food and ship are very nice..

[Smitty A]

We were recently on the Voyager for a month and loved every minute.   The food and service were excellent.    I would not hesitate to book her again.

 

[asnaleah]

I agree with those who say “go”. We love Voyager, and wouldn’t hesitate to book again. 

[flossie009]

Dates 👍

Itinerary 👍

Price 👍

Ship 👍

 

You just need to check suite availability & flights and if all OK then it is worth booking before possible price increases at the beginning of July.

Also make sure you inform your TA & Regent of your Anniversary date.

 

Hope you have a fabulous cruise and anniversary 😎

 

[AZNative2000]

Glad I found this thread and "Thanks" to all who've posted.  Our first Regent cruise will be aboard Voyager in October and it looks like we made a good choice. 

[vino123]

Hi

We booked the Voyager October 27th cruise. It really is a fantastic price and we can fly out of our regional airport at no extra cost. We also have been on many mainstream cruises but only one with Regent on the Navigator in 2019 which was wonderful so I had no hesitation to book this cruise when I saw it last week. 

I started a roll call here 

 

[vistaman]

i will join the Voyager in my hometown  Antwerp on 12 th July .

I am said to be a very strict guy concerning F&B operations :  so far my 3 Splendor and my one and only Grandeur were very good. 

it is off the tread however last week 2 youngsters  climbed  up to the 123 meter high tower of the Cathedral and even were hanging on the top cross 

just go to youtube : antwerp cathedral   - the police is looking for those 2

[scottie99]

Thanks for all the very helpful replies.

 

We have decided to book.

 

Best deal is Cat H suite.  Is it worth paying about £400 more for Cat G suite?

[GMIAC]

1 hour ago, scottie99 said:

 

 

Best deal is Cat H suite.  Is it worth paying about £400 more for Cat G suite?

Is that a more mid-ship location? Are you sensitive to motion? 

Edited Tuesday at 11:26 PM by GMIAC

[DaveFr]

2 hours ago, scottie99 said:

Thanks for all the very helpful replies.

 

We have decided to book.

 

Best deal is Cat H suite.  Is it worth paying about £400 more for Cat G suite?

I just checked the cruise and both categories G and H are guarantee only. So you may get a really good suite or you may get a terrible suite. The cruise is one of the Regent cruises with a number of overnights in ports. What I don’t like about the cruise is that the final overnight is in Barcelona the night before you disembark. However the Voyager does not get into Barcelona until 8 PM so, in effect, you would not have any time in Barcelona unless you stay after you disembark. 
 

Dave

[scottie99]

4 hours ago, DaveFr said:

I just checked the cruise and both categories G and H are guarantee only. So you may get a really good suite or you may get a terrible suite. The cruise is one of the Regent cruises with a number of overnights in ports. What I don’t like about the cruise is that the final overnight is in Barcelona the night before you disembark. However the Voyager does not get into Barcelona until 8 PM so, in effect, you would not have any time in Barcelona unless you stay after you disembark. 
 

Dave

We have been to Barcelona many times, so for us , this is not am issue.

[flossie009]

5 hours ago, DaveFr said:

So you may get a really good suite or you may get a terrible suite

Not sure that there are any “terrible” suites on Voyager 🤔
SuiteGuru might assist in the decision.

[mj_holiday]

I had to go look at the deck plans, had not really paid attention to Voyager Veranda suites on Voyager being categorized F, G and H.  They are all the same size.  In fact they are the same size as the Concierge suites. 

[scottie99]

We have booked Cat G guarantee 

[Balian65]

That‘s exactly what we would do on Voyager 

[DaveFr]

5 hours ago, scottie99 said:

We have booked Cat G guarantee 

Hope the cat G guarantee works for you. We usually book a cat G between 641 and 655. I got an email from Regent today noting that your cruise has a program called Spotlight on Ancestry. For information about the program go to the cruise website and select “Ship Details.“ Then select “Enrichment Series“ for details.

 

Dave