I'm still jetlagged but thought I would share some quick thoughts while they are fresh in my mind. We arrived home last night on a flight from Rome via Air Canada. They were amazing in helping us get home.

The stress of the last few days in trying to get home in no way changes our opinion that this was one of the best cruises we have taken. It neared perfection in so many ways. We had "cruise depression" upon disembarkation (not experienced on our last cruise) - I took this to be a positive sign. JHP explained these symptoms to me post one of our last cruises together.....:-)

As some of you know I have been critical of some of the changes/lack of service we experienced on the Navigator post drydock in December. Well, those concerns are no longer present. I had a great experience and felt that we got real value for our money. The mood on the ship was positive and upbeat. We met some great folks and had plenty of enjoyable dinners and conversations.

Food and Wine - This was an area that really shined. The service and quality of food on this cruise was exceptional. Chef Cornell's menu selections were superb incorporating many old favorites (soft shelled crab, dover sole, beef wellington) as well as more local flavor (Greek poolside buffet, for example). We had many poolside buffets and they were all very good quality (Pasta buffet with an amazing large Tiramisu prepared in the largest paella pan I have ever seen; Indian curry, Greek, Mexican, etc). The wine selection was exceptional. We met a wine steward named Emmanuel early on in the cruise - he was fantastic. We loved every wine he suggested and he is a very pleasant individual - a great asset for Regent. Lots of “new world” wines onboard.

La Veranda, Compass Rose, Prime 7 and Signatures were all superb. I would have to give the edge to Signatures over Prime 7 although we enjoyed our meals very much in both venues. Service in all the venues was prompt and pleasant even though we had a full ship. Most notably, great service from all Compass Rose staff, Prime 7 (Kerti, Chimi, Dinur(sp?)), La Veranda (Sylvester - Thank you). The F & B Manager (Davor) was very visible asking passengers for feedback and checking in with them regarding their food. Pool Grill service was great as well. I love the PG menu on the Mariner and we ate there several times post excursion.

We had two “special” dinners with our new CC friends – One was a curry dinner organized by Hambagahle and another one that arose during conversation at the Indian Curry dinner – we had an Indonesian menu for the second dinner (gado gado, soup, rending curry and nasi goring). We had dinner with Elsa (social hostess) and the Captain on the Captain’s Farewell evening. Met some new friends that we have since been in touch with. Captain Felice is a very charming man.

Cabin - Our cabin steward Marte was fantastic.

Excursions/Destination Desk - This was a port intensive itinerary and we grew tired quickly. We skipped one port (Olympia) and just enjoyed the ship that day. I am of mixed mind regarding the new included excursions policy. Some of the excursions were very, very good, others so so and still others were really bad so it is a bit of a mixed bag and this would likely vary with people’s preferences as well. I had two minor suggestions in this area – 1) the timings for many tours were off by 1-1.5 hours so it was not possible to do two tours in a day in many stops. 2) Please have the disembarkation transportation fare options in line with local rates. For example, shuttle by coach bus to the airport was listed at $139 pp while local taxi rates for up to 4 persons was more in the range of 50-70 Euros.

Most of the Destination staff were really lovely (Thank you Alejandro) but a couple of times they were not – likely due to a really full ship and many demands for changes, etc.

Ports/Tours – I am happy to provide more detailed info on the tours we did – just ask.

Livorno – We did Highlights of Lucca – You could do this one easily on your own.
Sorrento – We did Capri on the Lighter Side – Mixed review. We were left on our own from 11:30-3. It would have been nice to have a “return at your leisure” option for this tour.
Would also like to see a shopping tour (gastronomic or fashion) for this port.
Rome – We did the Rome Panorama – it was very good
Taormina – We just took the shuttle in and wandered around.
Corfu – We did the Panoramic here as well. It rained this day a lot and my recollection is that we spent a lot of time waiting for the bus to depart from different stops
Olympia – skipped this one
Montenegro – Great bus tour – 25 hair pin turns – Good tour company – loved the sail in/out of this port – timing was off for this tour
Sarande, Albania – We skipped this one. Many folks said it was quite depressing.
Dubrovnik – We did Dubrovnik Riviera – really well done tour but the timing was quite off
Venice – Unfortunate we encountered dense fog upon entry into the Grand Canal so we missed this. We did the St. Mark’s Square tour and we missed most of it trying to visit hotels to make arrangements for the next couple of days.

Reception – Great attitude, very helpful. Alastair is a very good Executive Concierge and went out of his way to help us make our final disembarkation arrangements. Brian, the Cruise Consultant is a very nice man.

Coffee Corner – This is a really great spot. Marcelino and Kerti were exceptional and we met lots of great folks just hanging out here. Best espresso machine on the ship is behind the bar in this area.

Tea Time – Very well done.

Entertainment/Daily Activities - Won at trivia a few times. Dione and Chris (CD and Asst CD) were fantastic on this cruise. We only went to a couple of shows and these were fairly mixed. This is one area that still needs work in my opinion. Again, people’s personal preferences would likely drive their satisfaction in this area. We were also fairly tired so ended up skipping several shows. Ballroom Bravo was great but the Broadway was not. One exception is a new singer to the Regent lineup named Melanie – she can really sing and I enjoyed her performances a great deal. My suggestion would be to start the shows a bit earlier during port intensive itineraries. I also missed the Block Party.

Other suggestions/lessons learned – Book Regent’s Air. Pay the deviation to select your own carrier and change of plans. They really did take care of stranded people on Regent Air and did so very well. I only wish they had provided a stronger message to folks early that they would be looked after. It would have also been great to have had a sheet of available hotels/options for folks that were “on their own” and not really Regent’s responsibility. As others posted, we received an hour of free phone time at about 11 pm on Friday night (a nice gesture) but the Destinations Desk was essentially closed (empty) on that last night and the line in front of Alastair’s desk was quite long. We made our own arrangements and it was tough going for the last couple of days.

Thank you to Regent for providing us with a memorable holiday.

Welcome home Tina and thanks for posting the review. Having cruised several times with Chef Cornell, I have to say he is my favorite!

Thanks, Karen. The food was superb on this trip, so was the service.

Thanks Tina, for your great Mariner review! I'm so glad you had such a good time.

I'm pretty sure Chef Cornel Ruhland was on our Voyager Baltics cruise (08/09) before he went on the Mariner for the S. American cruises. He was outstanding on both ships. Our best and most consistent food on Regent.

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Eugene

Tina - I am SOOO glad to read all this. Ken and I had visions of you and your mother still in Venice. Well done!

E mail me soon! Gerry

Great review Tina! I'm so glad this one was such a different experience from your last! I had no doubt it would be, having left the Mariner a month before you left.

And good to know you made it home on your own, probably quicker than you would have with Regent Air! (but not without the hassle of getting to Rome)

I really loved the Mariner. Wish I had done Alaska on her. The Observation Lounge is a fabulous spot.

Thank you for posting your well written review. We are booked on the Mariner in May and looking forward to sailing on her again. It is nice to hear that the food quality met your expectations. I have been very curious about the included shore excursions and I'm sure that will be a very mixed bag depending on the tour operator and location. It is nice that you made it home and I hope that the volcano behaves itself so we can get to our cruise!

Sue -

we only took two excursions since I was not well throughout the cruise (I had a sinus infection that is taking time to shoo away!) But both met our expectations.

One was a visit to Capri, where lots of free time was planned into the tour for shopping, coffeees and lunch. This is why we took this tour and we were very happy with it. And we had a lovely lunch right in the middle of Capri town.

The second was a tour in Kotor. We erally loved the guide, and learned a huge amount about this little town, its bay, and Montenegro. Since we knew next to nothing about the place before the tour we were really pleased!

In Venice we did our own thing, since we know Venice well...went out to Torcello and had lunch at the Locanda Cipriani. if you are ever in Venice this is a wonderful thing to do!!

Gerry

Thank you Gerry! I'm glad to hear that you were pleased with your shore excursions. We start out our trip in Venice so I will have to try your recommendation.

Hi Sue -
You will need to reserve at Tocello. The Locanda belongs to the Cipriani hotel and the food is wonderful. Not cheap - but what is, in Venice?? At least you know for sure you will get a terrific meal in a beautiful setting. IF raspberries are in season they will have a "crostata alla lamponi" for dessert. Don't miss this!! it is "to die for". And don't miss the mosaics in the basilica. they are stunning...

You need to allow an hour to get there from the Fondamente Novo quai. Take a boat to Burano and connect to Torcello. The cost is included in the EUR16 per day tourist ticket, which considering the length of the trip is a bargain!!

Buon appetito!
Gerry

Gerry I appreciate the information and I enjoyed the review you posted on Cruise Critic.