Gold Member Priority for Dining Reservations

[JDRMYS]

In November we are going to be on our first RSSC cruise since the Seven Seas Society tiers came into effect. As gold members (with approximately 100 days on RSSC) we are supposed to have priority for reservations in Signatures and Latitudes. Does anyone have experience with how this works?

[mrlevin]

I am still not sure how it works. Everyone has access to dinner reservations 30 days out. They (supposedly) only give out so many reservations at this time. Then, upon boarding, one would think that Gold and Platinum Members have next crack. Finally, there is the stand in line group. Unfortunately, it didn't work this smoothly on my recent Mariner cruise. All that we received (besides the free phone, free internet, and free pressing) was my worst dining experience ever on Regent.

 

Marc

[JDRMYS]

Marc, Your response is quite disheartening. What were the problems with your dining experiences on the Mariner?

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Yeh Marc, give! Was it the food, the service, what? Did it have anything to do with being part of a large group?

[ridolphi]

WOW Marc - didn't know you had had problems on MUSH with dining. What were the problems - we thought the food was great and the service was great and had no issues or problems at all, except for our Signature's reservation not being there - but they gave us another night and it worked out just fine.

JoAnn

[Island Cruiser]

I was on MUSH and thought the food and service were generaly outstanding. There was a little slippage in lunch service in Compass Rose on a couple of days. They were breaking in some new wait staff. But the rest of the time we thought the lunch service was perfection. Both Fred and I thought the quality of the food served in Latitudes was weak compared to the Lattitudes food we enjoyed on the Voyager in June and it was exactly the same menu. Overall, we'd rate the dining experience on MUSH A+. (I'll let Marc speak for himself, but I recall he was quite disappointed in the special dinner offered to the Gold or Platnum folks up in La Veranda.) Pat

[petlover]

We were on the same cruise with Marc and IMO, the food quality was outstanding, some of the best we've had on any of our RSSC cruises! For the most part our dining service was fine too...just a couple very small mishaps but nothing serious.

[petlover]

I forgot to mention that I did attend a Platinum tier dinner in the Connossiur Club one evening on MUSH which was wonderful, very intimate, first class in every way! There was also a combination platinum/gold dinner in the normally closed 1/2 of LaVeranda one night that I did not attend. I bet this is what Marc is referring to.

[mrlevin]

The food on the Mariner was FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

My problem was with the Gold/Platinum Dinner that was our special event. I had never seen anything executed so poorly in all my days on Regent. I still haven't sent a letter off to Regent but I am going to do so in hopes of having the Hotel Director reprimanded.

 

Marc

[jhp]

Marc, while I was invited to the Gold/Platinum event on this cruise, I did not attend. It was a night I had planned being with my family who were first time cruisers. We were in CR, and it was great! I had heard this event was nothing "special", but not so bad as you described it. Guess you had to "be there" with certain expectations. I agree that Regent should strive to make these events "special" for people with over 75 nights. Just not sure I will always partake of them unless they seem special in the future. It would be nice for me if they would offer something on shore instead, of the likes of a Virtuoso event that is included with most cruises. Those are the best free events I have ever received. Even though I no longer uses a Virtuoso agent (I get same or better pricing here with B&K) I think Regent can take a lesson from them.

 

For me, a dinner in CR with friends is the best on any cruise~

[OrpingtonT]

Sorry if this is an ignorant, baby question but what is "MUSH" mentioned a couple of times in earlier posts? Presumably an acronym for something, but what?

[mrlevin]

We had a group of around 70 people recently on the Mariner. We have a tendency to name our cruises; usually a short and apropos name. Going to Alaska, the name chosen was MUSH; an acronym for Mariner Under Starry Heavens.

 

Marc

[JDRMYS]

Marc, In your first post in this thread, you imply that you had problems with getting priority reservations in Signatures and/or Lattidudes. Please elaborate, if you can.

 

Unlike some RSSC cruisers, we like Signatures more than any other dining venue on board. We like to have dinner there as often as we are allowed to. On some cruises, that has meant only once a week. On others, such as the first segment of the Mariner's world cruise in 2003 when Signatures was half empty most nights, we were able to dine there every night.

 

Now that there are tiers for frequent cruisers, we were wondering how the priority reservations for gold members (which we are) work. Any information about this would be most appreciated. Our next RSSC cruise is the transatlantic crossing from Madeira to Ft Lauderdale on the Voyager in November.

[OrpingtonT]

We had a group of around 70 people recently on the Mariner. We have a tendency to name our cruises; usually a short and apropos name. Going to Alaska, the name chosen was MUSH; an acronym for Mariner Under Starry Heavens.

 

Marc

 

Ah! A secret society.

 

Thank you, Marc.

[petlover]

Ah! A secret society.

 

OrpingtonT, not at all. It was a very inclusive group that just kept growing larger and larger and better and better! I think cruisecritic has a policy about being able to mention "group" cruises so this is probably why it wasn't discussed on this board before the cruise. It was a fantastic trip!

[mrlevin]

Marc, In your first post in this thread, you imply that you had problems with getting priority reservations in Signatures and/or Lattidudes. Please elaborate, if you can.

 

Unlike some RSSC cruisers, we like Signatures more than any other dining venue on board. We like to have dinner there as often as we are allowed to. On some cruises, that has meant only once a week. On others, such as the first segment of the Mariner's world cruise in 2003 when Signatures was half empty most nights, we were able to dine there every night.

 

Now that there are tiers for frequent cruisers, we were wondering how the priority reservations for gold members (which we are) work. Any information about this would be most appreciated. Our next RSSC cruise is the transatlantic crossing from Madeira to Ft Lauderdale on the Voyager in November.

 

The problem was with the pre-reservation system. Many reservations were lost and were not able to be honored. As we didn't take advantage of the Gold reservation priority once on board, we don't know how that would have worked. For someone that likes Signatures, I would just recommend stopping there when they first open to see if there were any cancellations for the night; I think you will be surprised how often you can get in.

 

Marc

[coolcat15]

where is every body at I am on cruise critic this eddie ready for another cruise in 2015 can 't wait wow.

[Travelcat2]

Really think you should start a new thread (Regent isn't owned by the same company as it was in 2006:-) This one is years old and the same rules do not apply. Suggest ignoring above comments regarding booking reservations.

 

It has been my experience that Gold (we are Platinum) Seven Seas Society Members do not receive priority reservations other than what "concierge level" passengers receive in terms of being able to book online before non-concierge level passengers.

Edited February 23, 2014 by Travelcat2

[DrHemlock]

Speaking as Gold just back from Mariner, TC2 is absolutely correct.

 

We got no special reservation priority other than the one on-line advance reservation in each specialty restaurant available to all concierge-level cruisers. Once onboard, it was supply-and-demand, luck of the draw for snagging a second reservation at Prime 7 or Signatures. Neither gold nor concierge carried any extra weight.

 

Not complaining; just relating our experience. We were able to get second reservations at both although not necessarily on the exact days or at the exact times we wanted. It's easier if you're willing to join a larger table.

 

And yes, this 2006 thread is totally outdated.