We are four-star Mariners with a couple of hundred days with HAL. Like many others here we’ve thought that HAL might be slipping a bit from its “Premium” cruise line reputation to that of a mass-market line. We’ve talked about trying other lines but have always come back to HAL. We were looking for a quick getaway cruise for this fall and felt that this would be a great time to try another cruise line. We looked at Azamara, Oceania, Seabourn, Crystal and Regent Seven Seas. Long story short, we settled on an eleven day Caribbean cruise with Regent Seven Seas on their ship the Navigator (490 PAX). Our TA said that we would be spoiled after this luxury all-inclusive experience. The cruise fare included air, transfer to a pre-night five-star hotel, transfers to the ship, tips, shore excursions and all beverages. We booked our own air so we were given a slight discount.
We’ve been back home since the 29th and in case any of you are thinking about doing the same thing, I would like to share with you our venture into the luxury cruise market and make comparisons to HAL where I can.
Transfer to hotel and embarkation.
Since we had booked our own air, the trip to the hotel was our responsibility. It was a quick 15minute cab ride from MIA to the Hyatt Regency Coral Gables. There were about 100 folks staying in the hotel that were sailing with RSSC. The rooms were just fine but nothing special. There was a restaurant inside that served breakfast & lunch and would provide dinner for anyone sitting at the bar. We ended up eating dinner seated at the bar, and while there a few local restaurants nearby we heard a couple of complaints about the lack of sit-down meal service at dinnertime. We had a pretty good time chatting with others who would be boarding with us the next day. Our RSSC pre-cruise hotel deal included breakfast the next morning. The breakfast buffet was mediocre at the best, with little variety. There was no bacon or pork sausage, which in our experience was a little unusual for a breakfast buffet.
As is the case with HAL pre-cruise hotels we were asked to have our luggage labeled and ready in our room by 9:00 AM. Our instructions were to check out of the hotel by noon and assemble in the lobby at 1:00 PM for transfer to the ship. After being bussed to the terminal we were asked to fill out medical forms and wait to get our room keys. This process was extremely fast and efficient. Were on the ship by 2:00 PM and the announcement that the cabins were ready came at 2:30 PM.
Summing up, we felt that the hotel and accommodations were similar to a HAL hotel. HAL definitely gets their guests to the ship earlier in the day, but the embarkation process in the terminal was much faster with RSSC – we recognized that this could be that either they are super-efficient or because HAL is dealing with four times as many passengers.
The Ship – Seven Seas Navigator.
This is a small ship when compared to any in the HAL fleet. It is beautiful and impeccably maintained. We never saw a spot of rust or a shred of threadbare carpeting. The furniture in the cabins and all public areas were perfect. Our cabin was similar to a Verandah on a Vista or a Verandah Suite on an R/S class. It was a little bit larger which allowed for two-way travel at the end of the bed. The veranda was smaller - only able to accommodate a small table & two chairs. The storage space was surprisingly large. We arrived with two large suitcases and four carry-ons and the room swallowed up anything we could throw at it – we even had several drawers left. There was a large walk-in closet with plenty of hanging space and many additional drawers. The bathroom was large and beautiful – all marble and the shower was larger than we’ve experienced with HAL. With the exception of the veranda size, RSSC wins the aforementioned areas. There are a couple of drawbacks though that tend to even the score here when comparing this ship and the HAL ships we’ve been on. Their equivalent to the Crow’s Nest, the Lido Buffet and the Showroom are all located on the aft end of this ship, and the rear of this ship has a significant vibration problem. Not just when maneuvering but ALL the time – docked or underway. There were times when we became so annoyed with it we left for other areas. We took a couple of short videos to show you:
https://plus.google.com/photos/11570...06754102638673
Due to the size of this ship it pitches and rolls quite a bit. We encountered some moderate seas the first day out and while this kind of thing has never bothered us, several of our new friends reported getting seasick. Very often when getting bounced back and forth against the walls in the hallways, we would notice that the seas were in a state that would have no effect on a Vista ship. We do believe also that due to the size and instability of this ship, it is more likely to miss a tendering port of call than a larger ship. We missed our call in Cayo Levantado, Dominican Republic due to rough seas and they didn’t look rough at all to us. To be fair we’ve had shore excursions canceled on HAL too and we certainly would not second guess the Captain’s decision here – that’s just part of cruising. However if you’re prone to motion sickness consider this vessel very carefully.
We felt that an advantage to this size of ship is a social one – with only 490 passengers, if you take a shore excursion or share a table with others during a meal, you will almost certainly run into them again. Remembering names was more important to us on this cruise and by the end we had made very many friends. Eight of us ate our Thanksgiving dinner together in the dining room having a wonderful time.
Activities and enrichment programs were similar to HAL. There was Trivia, Bingo, Bridge and other assorted supervised games. Guest speakers were available to provide information about the ports and their histories etc – all on a par with HAL. There was a Casino and a Boutique Shop, both understandably a bit smaller due of the size of the ship.
The entertainment in the showroom was done as well as could be expected for such a small company of players. We enjoyed a few shows.
The pool lounge chairs are the most comfortable I’ve ever been in – real cushy things with a terry cover.
It’s difficult to compare apples and oranges in this category other than to say we prefer the R/S class size over this one. I’m sure others would disagree.
Our Culinary Experience
There is an all open-seating dining room (Compass Rose), a buffet (La Veranda), A Pool Grill similar to HAL’s Terrace Grill and a Pinnacle Grill equivalent called Prime 7. Each evening La Veranda is transformed into Sette Mari at La Veranda, an Italian restaurant. With the exception of the Pool Grill all of these eateries have tables set with white tablecloths for every meal. We are of the opinion that the quality of HAL food has gone down a wee bit over the years, and we were expecting to be wowed in this area. We realize that food taste is very subjective and will offer our humble opinion - however food service can be very objective here in a nutshell is our opinion.
There are two areas where this this ship outshines HAL: The Italian restaurant is so much better than the Canaletto both in menu variety and taste. The Hotel Director, Food Service Manager and Head Chef were all Italian, and it shows in this venue. The Room Service menu is at least three times as large as HAL and is available 24 hours a day. Room service presentation is fabulous. They put a fake table top on the little table by the couch, cover it with a white tablecloth and set the table, just as if you were eating in one of their dining rooms – it’s just too bad they never got our orders right (more about this later).
We had an excellent meal in Prime 7 on day two. Other than that we were disappointed with the taste in most venues – we considered the food bland and under-seasoned. On another day we had a horrible experience with Prime 7 where we had to send our food back twice – by this time our tablemates had already finished their dinner. We don’t consider ourselves to be picky at all – if we order meat medium, we’ll take medium-rare or medium well – not a problem. They couldn’t get it right, so after two hours and three tries we left without eating. Since reservations are required at Prime 7 they knew our stateroom number but there was never any follow up by management.
The buffet area for lunch is a bit limited and does not include a sandwich station or Asian station as we were fond of on HAL. For lunch you could not get someone to make you a sandwich to your order. If one was not fond of what was being served in the buffet, the Pool Grill was a poor alternative because they always had the exact same menu with the exception of hot dogs & hamburgers. DW loves a good hot dog (and she claims RSSC dogs are better than HAL’s) but like everywhere else on the ship they either weren’t listening to what people were ordering or they just didn’t care. She orders a hot dog with a piece of bacon, and cheese, that’s all, nothing else. The hot dog arrives with no cheese, no bacon with onion, relish and tomatoes. We lost count how many times this happened. Twice she complained and what she got back was a cold hot dog with a cold piece of cheese and they just scraped all the condiments off. After that she quit complaining and asked to fix it herself.
Because the buffet is transformed into an Italian restaurant for dinner, there is no buffet option for dinner – it’s either room service or one of the restaurants.
We ordered room service several times and not once did it arrive correctly – it was either completely wrong, not prepared correctly or something was missing. Sometimes it’s the little things that are frustrating; a salt shaker with no salt, two pepper shakers and no salt, no spoon to eat your soup with – things like that. We complained once – by the time the correction was our food was cold.
This was the overriding theme for our culinary experience for the bulk of the cruise. For the first few days it was frustrating but by the end of the cruise it was downright comical. They. Just. Couldn’t. Get. It. Right.
The Staff
Around 4:00 – 5:00 PM each day we would go to the same bar for a drink before dinner. We usually saw the same bartenders and servers there each day. If we had been on a HAL ship, by the second day the bartenders and servers would have known our names, known what we liked to drink and they would have been asking us what we did during the day. Not once did anyone ask us where we were from, what our names were or anything else. Same for our room stewards – they smiled and said hello and they did their jobs, but beyond that everyone on the crew was a bit stiff. They were polite but they certainly weren’t personable.
Conclusion
It was been our experience that we’ve never had a bad cruise, some were just better than others – and this was no exception. We had a nice time. We belly-laughed with a bunch of new friends, swam in the blue Caribbean waters, went on some new shore excursions and ate some decent food. Most of the time we try to make our own fun and we don’t sweat the small stuff.
I’m not sure what the issue was with this cruise – maybe we heard too many times, “Once you go to Regent Seven Seas You’ll never go back”. Maybe our expectations were too high going into this “Luxury Five-Star Experience”. There was nothing Five-Star about this cruise except for the price.
The all-inclusive nature was very nice. It was pretty cool getting your drinks and shore excursions for free, and only owing $4.43 at the end of the cruise – but I think we paid for all that stuff and then some up front.
We spoke to several fellow passengers who were RSSC first-timers and they felt pretty much the same as we did. We also spoke with several seasoned RRSC travelers who said that the RSS Mariner and Voyager had better service. A couple even indicated they would never sail on this particular ship again.
I hope this has been helpful to anyone considering the same move we just made.
We’ve got a nice long HAL cruise coming up in the spring and we can’t wait to back to comfy confines of the blue hull (even if you can’t bring any wine on board).
Bruce & Pat