I don't know if I'm allowed to do this but there is an interesting thread on CC regarding changes in management etc at Regent.

Title is Something is going on.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=763214

The thread on CC leads to a posting on Seatrade (which is a register-to-get-access site generally limited to cruise industry "insiders") reporting that Christian Sauleau, who was Executive Vice President - Operations at Regent for 10 years has resigned. It credited Sauleau with guiding construction of all three Seven Seas ships as well as Regent's partnerships with Le Cordon Bleu and with Jean Michel Cousteau. The CC thread goes on to speculate about possible changes as the result of the Apollo purchase, for example, merger of Regent and Oceania, etc. Quite interesting and worth a read for those concerned about the impact of the Apollo/Prestige Cruise changes from Carlson ownership.

I'm registered at Seatrade and I'm certainly not a cuise industry "insider"....just an ordinary passenger like the rest of you. As far as I know anyone can register there and get access.

Pat

We, too, are registered at Seatrade and are not connected with the travel industry in any way. At the moment, it appears that no one knows exactly what is going on with this resignation. Seamail from the Voyager (yesterday I think) it was mentioned that many Apollo employees were on board -- they were on the Mariner the previous day (with Mark Conroy). Hope we find the answers to this mystery soon.
Jackie

Personally, I am glad the Apollo folks and Mark have made visits to both Mariner and Voyager. Execs learn by "walking around" -- talking to crew, officers and passenger. On the CC website some posters see this as "sinister" or "worrisome" -- I see it as positive.

Definitely agree with you!

Hmmm, is it just me, or did this (rather interesting) thread disappear? I'm sorry I missed the final posts! On the other hand, my computer has been acting really whacky lately, not "refreshing" etc., so perhaps the thread is still there and I just can't access it.

It's not you or your computer. When I logged in at around 8:15 a.m., the thread seemed to be there; but when I clicked on it, I got an "invalid thread" message. Ten minutes later, it was gone. As often happens on CC, and as I've never seen here, people started making nasty personal comments about each other. When that happens, the CC administrators remove the thread.

Too bad: it was interesting.

Regarding the thread -- it wasn't me (this time). Last night there was a post with specific information that was refuting information posted by the TA that began the thread. I also noticed that the "Ngaire" thread was deleted -- someone was asking where she was since she is a Regent expert.... guess CC didn't like hearing this.....

LCT is so refreshing . . . need to visit it often to keep a positive attitude.

Travelcat (Jackie)

Thanks JoanandJoe and Jackie for the updates, I know now it wasn't just my computer. And Jackie, I loved the "it wasn't me (this time)". Very funny.

It was an interesting read, one of the better "threads" of late. I'm sorry somebody messed it up, so it had to be removed.

Charlene

That is too bad as it was pretty interesting. I hope they will just clean it up and put it back again....like they did before.
Pat

The only raeson they may not put it back is because the person being challenged is the one who started the thread. At the time it was pulled, there were no "personal" attacks going on. It sounded like one professional challenging statements made by the other.

Sometimes the "rules" on CC get a bit fuzzy. I try to stay within guidelines and don't have my posts deleted very often.

Hopefully, when there is more information on the recent Apollo/Mark Conroy visits on the Voyager and Mariner, a new thread will be started. The information posted, from those who really could see what was going on, were great!

Oh darn! I logged on at around 5:30 this morning and read what was on the board then and figured that the person being challenged would not be too thrilled and was hoping to see the rebuttal later on today. Thanks for filling in the empty spaces Jackie.
Also, just a thought.....perhaps CC doesn't like the speculative statements either that were in that post. I'm glad I printed off a copy of the improovements to the Mariner and Voyager that the person wrote about who had dinner with the CD. Those improovements listed really brightened my day so it will be interesting to see if another post starts up later on about the corporate walk-about on both ships.
Pat

Sorry if it was me.

I "challenged" the TA that was quoting the Seatrade article by saying that in my read of the short article I thought the Regent spokesman gave a reasonable response to a news query regarading an executive's resignation. I didn't see it as a "slap in the face."

There are many reasons why people leave companies, and I just felt one needed more information before castigating the spokesman or Regent.

I thought my response was quite bland, but maybe mine was the offending post or maybe someone else responded to mine in a more reactionary manner. Sorry.

Larry, no need to be sorry. I enjoyed all of the posts in that thread.....including yours. You are as entitled to your opinion as the rest of us and I really didn't see anything wrong as of 5:30 this morning. Who knows what was posted later on though!
Pat

Just so we don't go down the wrong road, let's stick to the topic of that post instead of the posters :)

A little off topic, Jackie; but you'll be on the Mariner cruise immediately before ours, getting off as we get on for our 5/27 cruise. Will you be posting sea mail? We'd love to read it.

Since we're not yet in the "free internet" class, we probably won't post sea mail.

Joan and Joe,

We are also on the cruise with TravelCat (Jackie). I'll have my laptop with me so we'll be posting some pictures and some seamail. We can't wait! Only 2 more weeks.

John & Tonya

Larry, Larry, Larry...LOL. Just kidding, I don't think "it was you". Your posts were very informative. Karen, you're so right, what I'd like to see, is that conversation carried on, here, in safety, where no-one is going to attack each other.

It was of incredible interest to me. Those in the know, please, what do you know? Keep us in the loop, we all care. And you KNOW we're not judgemental, we're LCT. Fill us in.

Larry - I didn't think it was you either. Your post was a contribution. I get deleted over there often. I've just come to accept it.

I volunteered on CC's sister boards (in other words, not CC itself) for 15 years. They do have strict rules, but they are more strict on CC than they ever were anywhere else. They should be deleting only specific posts, not a whole thread unnless it gets totally out of hand. Anything they see as advertising or personal attacks or breaking copyrights is usually what is out. Perhaps their issue was with the Seatrade references. If there is a doubt and one was removed, you have the right to email them and ask why you were removed.

It sounds like there was some useful info there that I would have loved to read had I not been on the road.

Debbie, CC does seem to yank the entire thread instead of deleting the "damaging" post. Some threads are interesting and informative. Too bad they pull the needed information, too.

Questions/quickie comments. . . and back to topic

Debbie -- in the signature box of CC there is a specific point made that there can be no advertising. A few (not many) posters have the name of their agencies in their signatures. Just don't understand why some can and other cannot.

John and Tonya -- so glad to hear that you'll be dong Seamail and pictures -- I'll do a few -- I do tend to find everything "wonderful" -- so my posts aren't so interesting.

Larry -- your post was very professional . . . asked good questions. It expanded on information posted earlier in the thread.

I really do not know anything about the doom and gloom predicted on CC for Regent. The fact that a top executive from Regent resigned is sad -- but not necessarily negative. This does happen all the time after a company has been purchased. As I mentioned on CC, I worked on take-overs in major companies (my role was in H.R.) -- management changes always occurred sooner or later.

When I read about Mark Conroy and Apollo executives being on board the Voyager -- I took it as being great news. The upgrades we've read about sound really good. No matter how much I think about it -- I can't find any negatives.

Jackie

I confess....guilty as charged of challenging the obnoxious poster on CC who was a know it all and being extremely rude to everyone else, especially Jackie. I did not think my post would cause the thread to be removed.
Cheers, Pam

Oh well! We have our own post going here sort of along the same lines so I hope Jackie and the rest of the cruisers get more info on their upcoming cruise and post here and perhaps start another clean thread too over on CC.
Pat

Yeh, well they took one of threads down for a while, vacuumed it, then put it back up. So we'll see. The levels of contention over there are pretty high, I must say. I've lately seen the same kind of bickering over on the Oceania board as well. Can't understand it.

To clarify things, I made two posts on the thread on CC. The first was in response to the subject matter- "Something is going on". The second post was to respond and defend those that were being attacked as wannabes and uninformed. My second post was the day before the thread was removed and two people commented in a positive way to what I had written. So....only the host knows why the thread disappeared.

Just got home friom WC and I posted one post from the Voyager Monday on cruisecritic regarding Mark Conroy being on board, my opinions of any changes etc. I thought it was a very nice post but BOOM....deleted. I'm to the point where why bother, I spend time trying to give info only to see it zapped over and over again. I was posting up to the minute info too!!! I think I'm done with cc.......

Marcie -- your post on CC gave hope to many of us. There had been claims that people on the "inside" had negative information as to why Mark Conroy was on board. I felt your imput was very important to the thread. Actually, your post was the only one with up to the minute info.

Is there a 10 step program to learn how to stay off of cc. . .? Some of you have done it successfully. . . . there must be a way!

Jackie

CruiserPk, don't worry about it! I'm sure it wasn't your posts either that made the thread disappear. You had me thinking that perhaps you posted something later on that morning when you said you thought it was your posts that were responsible. Glad you clarified that. I remember both of your posts and there was nothing flaming or bad in them so I'm sure you are not responsible either. If anything the host read the thread and found the whole subject objectionable. After all.... lots of it was just pure speculation. Who knows why things disappear over on CC and why they find things objectionable. There are good people over there too and a much wider reader base that contributes their info so I'm not about to give up on CC yet. I refuse to let the argumentative, bossy, few chase away all of the majority of good posters and members on CC. Yes, thanks Marcie for your post on that thread. Both yours and the post from the fellow from CA were a beacon of light for us that were worried. That's why I'm counting on those of you that are embarking soon to try and get some more up to date "real" information.
Pat

As many of you know, currently, I have only cruised on Crystal and hope to try Regent one day. I am a frequent participant on the Crystal CC board and the tone and majority of the regular posters is so different than the Regent CC board, one which I regularly lurk on. From time to time on the Crystal CC board, there are posters who post once or twice in order to stir up trouble. I'm so glad that LCT was formed several years ago. I really don't like the overall tone of the Regent CC board and several of the posters.

Just my two cents, Nancy

Marcie --

Welcome home...glad you had a great time.

I found your post on the CC thread and very informative...and in fact said so, while telling the person who frequently stirs up trouble that he didn't know much how the media works. The next morning the thread was gone.

So a couple of us think we were the culprits!

Marcie, glad to have you back in LCT-land, though it's hard to give up CC.

I was also one of the posters on the thread, and was on the Mariner at the time the team was onboard in Bermuda. (I am also continuing on to San Francisco)
I watched the Regent/Apollo team doing the inspection of the ship and they seemed to inspect everything.
I first saw them up on the pool deck and they were talking about what they wanted to do during dry dock (scheduled for January). Items included adding a staircase into the pool, like that in private pools. This would allow passengers to enter the pool without having to back down the ladders. They also talked about adding either a mural or other artwork to the area behind the pool bar, and adding some sort of flags/decorations to the lightpoles on the 12th deck to add some color.
It was great to see that they were talking with the crew members who were in charge of their areas, asking for their input.
An example of this was in the computer room. They said they wanted to go back to nicer rolling chairs. Theresa, the computer tech, stated that if they did that, they needed to add carpeting or else the passengers will be getting to know each other very quickly when the ship rocks and everyone rolls to one side. They also talked about adding laptops into the computer room and again Theresa told them that they might consider locking them down to the tables. The team said that the passengers would not steal them. She agreed, but said that the passengers might take them to their cabins for the entire cruise, leaving none for the other passengers.
The team also mentioned adding paneling to the computer room to match that of the coffee area.
In talking with John, the cruise director, he told me that Apollo plans on spending $15 million per ship in improvements.
They were very open to comments that psssengers had. I mentioned to one Regent official that in the "shower only" rooms, there is no hand hold in the section where a person can sit. I told him it was like they did not think of the elderly passenger or even those who may have trouble in rocky seas.
He agreed and put it on his list.
I felt that they were doing all of this with the intention of improving the looks of the ship.
I know that things took a bad turn on the other board when comments like "they need to improve the passenger services" were made.
I don't know how much they looked into that area, just the ones that I personally saw/heard.

Bill

Bill,
They were doing similar things on the Voyager. They had the architects with them trying to configure the coffee bar area which will be added like on the Mariner as well as other areas needing improvement. It was all very positive and we look forward to the "facelift" on both ships.

We came on the Mariner in Bermuda. Maybe you came to the Bloody Mary party we had on the Voyager ?? It was nice having the 2 ships together and being able to visit back and forth. We're friends with John Barron and so enjoyed getting to see him! Quite a few from the WC got off the Voyager in FLL and onto the Mariner to cruise back to the west coast. It sure beats flying home!

A propos of the discussion of what I call the "critical board", I thought you guys and gals would appreciate the following parody of the discussions on that board. The post, which I read about six months ago, was not intended as an insult to the memory of people who perished in one of cruising's worst tragedies.

"Just back from Celebrity's Titanic TA by: Celebrity CC'er

Hi: - just got back from a wonderful transatlantic cruise on the Titanic. After seeing a lot of negative comments from those who really don’t belong on a cruise or these boards, and all the whining about 1,500 people who didn’t make it back alive, I felt I needed to set the record straight on what a great cruising experience for those of us who know how to “make lemonade when life gives you lemons” and “not let one or two negative experiences ruin a cruise”. I mean – things happen at sea – if you can’t deal with that then don’t cruise.

First off, the entertainment was fabulous!!!! The band continued to play even as the ship slid beneath the waves. A lot of folks on deck were so busy whining and complaining about the lack of lifeboats that they probably didn’t even get a chance to enjoy the music. If only some people would just relax and not expect so much. Besides anyone who came onboard could clearly see there weren’t enough lifeboats so why act surprised when it is obvious that only a third of the passengers can survive? My DH and I chose to be more positive about it and done had done our research prior to the cruise. Those folks in steerage class should have read their cruise contract more closely – they would have that there’s no guarantee about lifeboats. Of course, DH and I were cruising in CC. so we had priority lifeboat tickets. While some people chose not to have a good time on the cruise, we – being far superior to those who expect that their ship will NEVER sink – decided that any cruise is better than none at all, no matter what happens! It was the ultimate “at sea day!!” Thanks to our positive attitude and the ability to “roll with punches” we turned what could have been a negative experience into a positive one. I did notice that the original postings on this cruise were very negative, so let me give you some of the positives so it all balances out:

· While sitting in the lifeboats we were treated to a free fireworks display as the Titanic sent up rockets to alert nearby ships that we were sinking!
· The blankets on the life boats were soft and fluffy!!
· We got an onboard ship credit as soon as the “Abandon Ship” alarm was sounded and were able to get a couple of drinks and play a round of Texas Hold’em before we had to get in our lifeboats!
· We have a credit for a future cruise on the Lusitania!!
· With the delays in the rescue effort we actually got an additional day at sea – with no additional cost!!

Anyway, I hope I’ve set the record straight. A cruise is what you make it. If you go expecting to be fed, expecting to go to the stated ports and destination, expecting that the engines will work, or expecting anything at all you probably won’t have a good time, and probably aren’t good enough to cruise. But if you go with a no expectations and don’t expect any service, you’ll have a much better time. DH and I choose to be happy no matter what happens to us – or to anyone else for that matter. If any of you other survivors out there have any negative comments to make just remember that two people can go on the same cruise and have two different experiences, but the important thing is to ignore any problems and show contempt for your fellow cruisers who go around saying bad things about X. As I always say, “My Celebrity – Right or Wrong!”
_____________________________________

This great parody was sent to me and the author is unknown. This is a parody seemed to fit, so well, the many folks who worship Celebrity on the critical board and is not meant to demean, in any way, the Titanic tragedy. It will no doubt hit a little too close to home for some of the “regular” Celebrity posters.

BBfrom CA, you are the fellow I was referring to who had the other post full of positive current information, besides Marcie's. Sorry, I couldn't remember your name. Thanks for posting that info on CC and re-posting it here again.
JoanandJoe, that was very cute and has a ring of truth to it....even though it's meant as tongue in cheek.
Pat

Marcie,

I did not make the Bloody Mary party as I was on an excursion (to the Crystal Caves) at the time. I did, however, go aboard the day before to meet up with Louise Ross.
It was nice to see the crew's uplifted spirits as they met friends/former crewmates while in Bermuda.A lot of visiting between the ships.
Oh..and thanks for the music as we were heading out of port.
I knew the Apollo/Regent team was going onto Voyager for the "look-see" there. One or two remained onboard Mariner to Ft. Lauderdale to continue their discussions.

No one seems to have mentioned that Frank del Rio, the CEO/President (?) of Prestige Cruise Holdings, the NEW company set up by Apollo to handle the Oceania/Regent affair was also on board for several days.