First time on a luxury cruise

[The Lurker]

Hi everyone my wife Valerie and I are travelling on the Regent Seven Seas Voyager in July around the Baltic countries for 7 days.

We have been on 10 or so cruises with many different lines in the past but this is our first foray into the luxury bracket.

With the time scale being so short we would hate to miss out on any of the facilities /features available to us.

What would you say would be a must do while on the Voyager and is there anything that doesn't live up to expectations.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks Alec

[dfb]

Alec, you realize that you will probably get a lot more answers to questions about RSSC's Voyager on the Regent Seven Seas Cruise message board as opposed to this generic luxury board, right? I would suggest posting your question there as well. In fact, there was a previous, very similar thread recently. Ah, here it is.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=744744&highlight=steam

 

I have spent over 4 months on Voyager and I am not sure she has a lot of secrets though. First, I would avoid any cabins aft of the laundry rooms because of the ship's vibration. On a 7 day Baltic trip, I think it will be pretty port-intensive meaning not a lot of time to do shipboard things, but there are men's and women's steam rooms, sauna for all passengers' use, but you have to walk through the hair salon and spa to get to them so not many people use them. You can get to them without permission anytime the spa is open by walking towards Carita's reception desk, turn left and enter the equipment room, walk through forward and turn right and enter the hallway to find entrance to the men's and women's. There are gender specific restrooms, lockers, showers, along with the steam and sauna rooms. They are very small, almost personal or double-sized, but as I mentioned hardly anyone knows where they are so they don't usually get much traffic.

 

Eggs Benedict is always available in Compass Rose for breakfast. Also, if you want 2 eggs, you better specify that up front or else they'll only bring you one! On Sunday mornings, they usually put caviar or salmon or crab on special Eggs Benedict and offer champagne or mimosas, look for the signs at the entrances. Note that you can ask for regular Eggs Benedict though. You can always get cappucinos in the restaurants even though they may only walk around with a pot and offer it. Bottom line, anywhere on the ship, if you want something and don't see it, ask for it, all they can say is no and maybe you will get want you want instead.

 

Last one is that in a standard suite, the cabin stewardess will bring you 2 standard bottles of alcohol or 1 premium bottle on request. Once upon a time there were forms in the room, but now you have to ask your cabin stewardess to get it. Not that you'll need it with all inclusive and beer and sparkling wine in your cabin when you arrive, but just so you know if you want it.

 

As to what does not live up to expectations, I would say without doubt the spa. The laundry rooms can be crowded and I have seen laundry turn into a blood sport, but again with 7 days you probably will not experience that. The fact that a large percentage of the time when you are offered champagne, it is Cremant de Loire sparkling wine (though recently it is reported that if you ask for real champagne nicely you can get Heidseick Monopole instead, so check before accepting any if it is important to you). My only other disappointments have been at the Tour Desk/Travel Concierge Desk (or whatever they are calling these days). I have not been onboard since they started including excursions, so not sure how that has changed things either.

 

Enjoy your Voyager cruise!

 

Debbie

[jsroh]

Hi everyone my wife Valerie and I are travelling on the Regent Seven Seas Voyager in July around the Baltic countries for 7 days.

We have been on 10 or so cruises with many different lines in the past but this is our first foray into the luxury bracket.

With the time scale being so short we would hate to miss out on any of the facilities /features available to us.

What would you say would be a must do while on the Voyager and is there anything that doesn't live up to expectations.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks Alec

 

For specialty restaurants, make sure to book as early as possible (right after embarkation would be good), don't give up if they say they are all booked, just drop by when you go to dinner and ask them if there is any table available, usually they will find a table for you. Based on my experiece (we have cruised with Crystal Serenity, Symphony, Regent Voyager, Navigator, Paul Gaugin, will be on Silversea Shadow in 8/09), somehow they like you to try their specialty restaurants only once for 7 days cruise. Don't be affraid to ask any food not on the menu, they are not as flexible as Crystal but you may be able to get what you want.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Don't forget liqueurs after dinner, or the cheese tray with port instead of dessert!

[Travelcat2]

Actually, you really should make dining reservations online 30 days prior to the day of embarkation. Prime 7 books up in advance of the cruise. Also, tea and trivia in the afternoon is much more fun than it sounds. Forget the tea -- have a drink and enjoy the delightful food offerings. Trivia is quite competitive, but lots of fun:)

[The Lurker]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions . We have already made our reservations online for the bookable restaurants but dropping by to see in there is a table available sounds like a good idea.

We like a good trivia quiz so we will probably get involved in that as well.

Cheers Alec