What should I expect?

[McGarrett]

I'm fed up with Celebrity. The quality has gone to hell and my wife and I can only go so far when it comes to loyalty. After five cruises in a row with Celebrity, we have had enough. The bar can only be lowered so far.

 

We have now made up our minds that our next cruise will be on Regent. Has anyone been in the same shoes? What level of pampering should we expect?

 

Thank you.

[cruzndiz]

McGarrett: I was in the same "boat" as you (pun intended) but with Carnival rather than Celebrity. Unfortunately, I just took a mini-weekend cruise on the Norwegian Sky as an invited casino guest and wow!!! talk about pampering. Regent is going to have quite a lot to live up to now:eek:

[tombo]

The larger, mainstream cruise lines operate their own casinos across their fleets. Regent, being much smaller, contracts its casino operations out to a third party. On the larger lines, I've usually been able to arrange "credit" in advance of sailing. (It's not really credit, it just allows you to sign markers for your play and if you're a net loser at the end of the cruise, they'll accept your personal check to settle up). When I inquired with Regent, I was referred to a number in Miami where they say to write them a check for as much credit as you'd like, they'll cash it and give you an onboard casino credit. If you don't lose it all, they'll send you a refund when you get home!

[travelbug924]

I have never been a fan of Celebrity so I may not be the best person to answer this. We sailed them twice and in 15+ cruises, I would say they were my least favorite cruises. I never understood the fuss over Celebrity among the mainstream lines. I have been on Regent 3 times and we really love them. I will say our last sailing on Regent, just this past September, was a bit of a letdown. It didn't seem to meet the high standards of the past two sailings. It wasn't one big thing, just a lot of little things, but still it was among the best times we had by far and doesn't even begin to compare to the mainstream lines.

 

Beyond being truly all inclusive now that they do include alcohol, because the ships are so much smaller, you rarely have lines. If you do take the ship's excursions, they are always kept small and they often do special things, like when we were in Cairo, they kept the Egyptian Museum open after hours for just us so we had the whole place open to ourselves. One example of service I love to tell people because it's just a nice detail, my friend forgot her reading glasses at dinner and the waiter noticed I was reader her the menu. Next thing you know, he's bringing over a box of glasses for her to choose from! So it's just little details of service like that. Oh, and you can go to dinner anytime you want and get any size table any time you want. Food is significantly better. And there's no nickel and diming, people aren't trying to sell you the drink of the day or a tattoo or gold by the inch everywhere you turn.

[Cattravel10]

I'm alittle surprised more people haven't chimed in on this one. I generally wait for more postings and lurk in the background if I can add anything at all. But anyway, I've done 7 or 8 Regent cruises and cannot say enough good things about the "Regent Experience". I guess what I love the most is the relaxed atmosphere with a luxury feel. No signing for drinks, etc. No party hardy atmosphere. No cheesy hairy chest or sexy legs contests. My first cruise was on NCL and never again!!!!! Everyone treats you as a special somebody and I appreciate many of the crew members remembering your name. The service is exceptional, as well as the food. You cannot EVEN compare a mass market line to Regent. It is truly another world!! Enjoy your cruise!

[chuckw]

I agree with Cattravel, the laid back atmosphere on Regent can't be beat. Some people expect the imposible but we have never had a reasonable request denied. We've been on over 40 cruises and our half dozen on Radison/Regent have been far superior to Holland America or Celebrity, in larger suites. Crystal is nice but the price points for simular cabins, in my opinion, makes Regent a better value. We also use Royal Caribibean, so we're not snobs.

[McGarrett]

This is great to hear. Sounds like the quality and attention to detail we are looking for. :)

[Prada Cowboy]

We are most propably doing our last Main Stream cruise in 2 weeks on the Eurodam, which will be ok, but if you go with friends to say we go on a luxury cruise and the price tag with it makes it harder for them. I sailed on all of the main stream lines, except Carnival...where I entered the lobby and asked to disembark immidiately! I cruised in the high no's on NCL and can not belve that people still cruise with them...always in the best suites! YES the service was good on NCL, but those days are gone and we will not talk about the food and the nickel and diming!

I also sailed SeaDream, Silversea and Seabourn...while I like them! SeaDream is a bit too small of a Yacht and the other 2 are too stiff.

 

Now I can not wait to sail Regent and to be done with the big ugly ships!

[RMS Olympic]

Being pampered can mean different things to different people. Not to many lines I have not sailed on...heaven knows my credit card has felt the pain ove rthe years.

I find Regent different than all the other......class without being pretentious.

Its not so much the things that you can point out that are far superior than other lines...its what you dont find. Such as crew trying to make money pushing drinks to make tips or hustling souveniers or gifts to buy. Its always a smile, and help when you need it. Not having lines, no regimented schedules, just gracious service thats there when you need it. Its also the passengers that you find on board. People from all walks of life, all different financial levels, all there to have a great time. The crew is polite, your fellow passengers are polite, the officers are polite, all served up in a clean undersated ship with great food, great bar service and some of the best cabins at sea. So its more of the whats not there in the way of negatives that makes it all positive. Nov 2009 I will sail my 6th with Regent......and will try to sail them every year until they give me reason to stop. Been on the PG twice, Voyager twice, and Navigator once. Still have not made the mariner...maybe 2010. I did get to touch her hull in Bora Bora. I was on my kayack off the PG and worked my way over to the Mariner that had pulled in after us. I gave her a loving pat and promised myself I would sail her yet.

Celebrity.....I am sailing on the Solstice maiden voyage next month......what I experience will determine if I sail that line again. ALl the mass market lines in my opinion have cut corners way too much except one..Royal Caribbean. They remain pretty darn consistant..my hats off to them. Every line owned by Ccarnival Corp in my opinion has dropped in quality...especially Princess which I have alwyas liked.

As for bigships...just the size waters down service in my opinion. I hope and pray Regent does not build bigger ships in the future.

[Travelcat2]

Just a comment about large ships. We were unable to visit Santorini on the scheduled day last week (Captain's decision -- good one). When he announced this to the passengers, he said that cruise ships continue to be built -- they get larger and larger. However, the size of the ports do not change.

 

Example: Two weeks ago, the Voyager docked in Santorini with 6 other ships. The 11,000 people on this small island caused some Regent passengers (probably others as well) to wait up to 2 hours to get into town. Once there, it was too crowded to walk.

 

The day we were schedule to dock, there were 11 ships in port (I don't even want to do the math). Regent does everything it can to avoid crowded ports.

[travelbug924]

Wow! That's a shame. We were there in early September on the Navigator and it sounds now like we were very lucky. The only other ship in port was a Costa ship that left by mid afternoon (we were there till late evening). I am so glad we didn't miss it as other than seeing the pyramids, Santorini was my most favorite stop on our itinerary. But I can't even imagine what nightmare it would have been with 6 or worse 11 ships in port. It certainly wouldn't have been my favorite then :(

 

Did you go somewhere instead, an at sea day or do one of your planned stops earlier?