Last Sea Day

January 4, 2024 – Our last Sea Day of the Cruise

We really don’t have many photos of the last day at sea – here are a few below. This seems like a good time to reflect on the cruise as a whole. Overall it was a fantastic cruise – we loved experiencing this with our friends David and Cindy, and we met a lot of really wonderful people and experienced interesting and exotic locations!

Our overall impression of Regent was mixed this time around. Although we don’t want to turn this into a big complaint section, we think it merits mentioning a few of the things they did right, and the things that need improvement. (Susan: this is my opinion – but I think my companions would agree with me).

Things they did right:

1. The ship was beautiful – decorated so nicely for the holidays. Lovely Christmas trees, gingerbread villages, and a menorah for folks of the Jewish faith. Holiday cookies were a nice touch.
2. The crew was friendly, and eager to please. We had wonderful encounters with many of the staff and crew. Among our favorites were folks who worked in the main dining room, The Compass Rose – I don’t know how they do it cruise after cruise, but they quickly remembered us, our preferences and worked hard to accommodate our needs. They threw in some appropriate playfulness as well.
3. The daily updates from the Captain were appreciated – he was informative and when you saw him around the ship he was friendly and approachable.
4. On disembarkation, the cruise line tries to give folks with late flights a final tour instead of having them sit in the airport for hours – we really appreciate this and often tell other people about it.

Things that needed improvement:

1. The itinerary. We should not have arrived in Manaus on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day – there were other close-by ports that could have been swapped out so that passengers could have experienced the larger selection of things to do in Manaus. Most tours were cancelled on Christmas and Christmas Eve by the tour companies – their staff understandably wanted to be with their families on those days.
2. The Food. There was both good and bad with the food. As you can see from our photos (and I only posted a subset of the many meals we took photos of) the menus were creative and interesting – and the ‘every day selections’ were generous and good, that said, we had some big disappointments. Example: for me, scallops was a big disappointment – it was as though no one on the ship knew how to cook them – they weren’t just not great – they were not edible – and I tried a few times. The first time we ate in the Prime 7 steakhouse was a disappointment – and that experience should be ‘chef’s kiss!’ The servers were amazing – the food was not good (except the dessert). This was a theme throughout the cruise – we felt like the food was just not that great, which was not what we expected from an elevated cruise line. What we think might have been the problem is that the cruise right after ours was the “World Cruise” and we may have had the ‘B’ staff as they were preparing for that cruise?
3. Room steward – I don’t want to call them out by name – and in the grand scheme they kept our room clean and were friendly and accommodating – however – small requests went ignored, like what we wanted in our refrigerator – and they got a bit standoffish with us when we wanted to open the door between our balcony and our next door neighbor’s balcony. They clearly were designed for this – there is a door that opens – our steward seemed to just not want to be bothered. Our neighbor had a run in with them as well when he wanted to get some ice from the ‘pantry’ on our floor that is NOT marked ‘staff only.’
4. New Year’s Eve Party – Although the entertainment staff tried very hard to pivot and move the party when the weather did not cooperate – they should have known that two small lounges would not accommodate most of the ship’s population – perhaps the theatre would have been a better choice? I know there was no obvious choice but the one they made was uncomfortable.
5. Bar-tenders. We were surprised and perplexed that the bar-tenders didn’t seem familiar with popular drinks, and we were also disappointed in the wide range of quality when ordering the same drink – the results were all over the map. Perhaps they need some refresher courses?

Okay – now for a few photos…

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Next up is our last port: Nassau, Bahamas.