Regent Seven Seas Cruises Reviews 88

RS Slendor Caribbean Cruise Feb / March 2024

The check in at the Hilton Hotel in Barbados was chaotic. This was the hotel booked by Regent.

It took 95 minutes standing in a queue, in hot weather, to check in. The check in process then took about 15 minyes as all information was entered manually on paper.

The rooms were OK but not up to the expected Hilton nor Regent booked hotels standard.

The docking at a lot of ports necessitated a long walk from the ship to the buses. My disabled wife had to cancel several of her booked tours because that distance was too far for her to walk in the heat. On one occasion, we witnessed a man almost collapse on the walk to the bus and when I spoke to him in the terminal, he said he had to sit for a time to recover and would then try and walk back to the bus, forgetting about his booked tour.

I and my wife appreciated the care and attention given to my wife in the Compass Rose restaurant each evening. We had the same table, waitress and sommelier the whole time. Although my diet sheet said mashed potatoes and such like only, as with my cancer I had difficulty in swallowing we quickly came to an agreement on the small amount that I could eat.

My only “gripe” was that it always consisted of mashed potato only, never mashed potato and cheese pie, or mashed potato and corned beef hash.

I shall email Regent before my next cruise in May 2024 to the Rocky Mountain train and the Alaska cruise to mention that additional ingredients mashed in with the potato would be very acceptable. Like wise with my cruise in November from Barcelona to Miami.

On most past Regent cruises our cabin steward has been very helpful. This steward performed his duties well, but there was little dialogue between us. With respect due to him, though, when we asked for something ,it was done.

I have been cruising for 40 years primarily on expensive lines such as Windstar, Seaborn and Crystal. I was very excited to try Regent. What a disappointment! The food was arguably ok. I was expecting it to fantastic. In discussing with other passengers that were underwhelmed we collectively came to the conclusion that the line just does not have a personality. Beyond that I had a very unfortunate issue in the casino where they took tax money that was not due to them. I on a number of occasions proved to them they were wrong by showing them the actual tax code. I brought this to many people on the ship including the Captain. They would not deal with it and told me I had to deal with it off the ship with headquarters. I tried that route and they totally blew me off. So in conclusion, very underwhelming particularly when you look at the value to cost. Customer service dealing with an issue I give them a big fat F One and done for this cruiser!

Our first foray into cruising so took advice to get what I understood to be a Tier 1 cruise line - who provide “unlimited shore excursions”. I now learn (after putting a deposit down) that not only do I have to book these shore trips as part of a crowd rush 10 months n advance, but also have come to understand that in one location on a ten night cruise, there is only one “free” excursion and the wait list is closed. That, my friends, is not Tier 1 to me - very much praying that things improve!! They may not be seeing me again!

It is also concerning that Regent clearly do not respond to comments/criticisms on Trustpilot - that is not a customer centric organisation that are concerned about reputation.

We are actually on a Regent cruise as I write. We booked this cruise (Rio De Janeiro to Santiago, Chile - a 24-day cruise), because we’d had a great experience with Regent on an Athens to Istanbul cruise many years ago. What a difference a few years make! It’s like a totally different company, and in fact it is since now Regent is owned by NCL. They’ve ruined what had been a great cruise line.

Regent sets us up to believe we booked a luxury, high-end cruise. But our experience has been far from it. Each disappointment may seem like a small thing, not worth complaining about, but we’ve had so many mistakes, they are quickly adding up to a cumulative effect of huge disappointment and an experience of let-down at every turn.

Regent planned our flights which were ATROCIOUS! Part of their marketing is that they include First/Business Class travel. But they gave us the most tortured itinerary - in no way was this a “first class” experience! Instead, over 30-hours traveling on three different flights which included a NINE HOUR LAY OVER, left us exhausted, worn out and unable to enjoy our first day in Rio De Janeiro. We flew from San Francisco to Atlanta on a Tuesday night, had a NINE HOUR layover, then flew from Atlanta to Lima, Peru, had a few hours layover there, then flew from Lima to Rio De Janeiro,Brazil, where we arrived at 6:10AM Thursday morning. There were direct flights from Atlanta, and other routes that would have made much more sense. There is simply NO justification for such terrible flights, when other much more direct flights were available.

My husband, along with many others, contracted the Norovirus on this cruise. He was violently ill and required IV hydration. Best practices recommend having had me (or him) moved to a separate room. But no. We both were literally locked in our cabin together for 2.5 days, putting me at high risk of contacting the virus too. We missed the ports of call I was most eager to explore.

A shore excursion we were able to take in Santos before he got sick had a tour-guide with a weak grasp on English, and English pronunciation. She had trouble understanding and answering questions. She had a lovely and enthusiastic demeanor, and was clearly so proud of her city, but I could have learned more about Santos with 5-minutes of Google. It was a cookie-pan deep tour. I was surprised Regent allowed such a sub-par provider to lead an excursion.

The service on this particular cruise is seriously lacking. The crew try hard, and are very nice, but they continually make way too many mistakes. It feels like this is a training cruise! We have not had a room service order that is correct yet - missing items, items we didn’t order, cold food, long wait times for delivery...

At the restaurants service is friendly, but erratic and unreliable. One meal at Prime 7 took over 3-hours! We sat there 2 hours before we got our entrees. We’ve had to send food back frequently because the meat wasn’t cooked right - if it’s in the ballpark, I can deal with it, but I’m simply not going to eat beef ordered medium rare, that is so raw it looks gelatinous. Don’t they know what a meat thermometer is??? Same thing with the salmon. Ordering a coke has become a nightly joke with my husband. It has never come with just one ask. He always has to ask at least twice (usually giving them 10-minutes after the first ask), and even then that is no guarantee a coke will ever be delivered. We have not had a flawless meal yet. Also many of the servers barely speak English, so I suspect lots of mistakes are the result of this.

Our Captain has cancelled several ports-of-call resulting in way too many “Days at Sea”, including an EIGHT DAY stretch that was supposed to be five. Now we are having another 3 Days at Sea that was supposed to be 2. We are getting cabin fever! We are terribly disappointed at missing key highlights of this cruise. The Captain claims poor weather, and he should know, but it’s hard to believe when you look outside and it’s clear and calm, and hear from other guests who have friends on another ship essentially on this same itinerary that they are making the stops that we bypassed. We chose this cruise based on the fabulous itinerary, yet due to being quarantined, and then the Captain bypassing scheduled ports of call, we are not getting the cruise we thought we were.

The ship decor seems tired. The artwork in the halls on our floor is pale and anemic. There is little to no visual “wow” factor - I thought we were on this exact ship many years ago, and it was beautiful! Now it just seems tired - looks like a mid range Marriott, not a luxury cruise.

The one positive is that the guest lecturers specializing in Antarctica are fabulous! Their presentations are fascinating and educational. Thank goodness for them!

Massive decline in standards.
We were somewhat apprehensive about this Cruise having experienced a poor one last year. This took us to over 200 plus nights with this company. Since NCL took it over it has become a shadow of its former self, and quite frankly, for UK passengers is a complete rip off.
Dire excursions, even worse entertainment, and dreadful wait times for orders and below par food in the Compass Rose if you don’t strike lucky with an experienced waiter. Fortunately, ours was a star, but even he could not get hot food on hot plates until almost the last night.
People were waiting 45 minutes to order once sat, waiters and servers dashing everywhere to catch up. Meanwhile, up in the Setti Mare, there were waiters standing around for the first hour.

It resembled a training restaurant at times, new waiters were learning on the job. Quite frankly, we were glad to eat and leave.

There was no outside simple food at night, another cut back, which meant that unless you got in early to the Compass Rose, you were out of luck, and had a long wait. There are simply not enough seats with half the upstairs Buffet being closed at night, and no outside food.

Prices are simply astronomical. We were quoted £20,000 for 10 days around Iceland! Americans seem to get all the perks, and we were absolutely disgusted at the claim 2 for one on pricing. It is not. Look at it carefully. It is not BOGOF as we might interpret it.
For us, that ship has sailed. We have just cancelled and lost a considerable deposit, looking on it as saving money by not forking out the hefty balance.

As an aside, the Captain was completely unintelligible over the PA, the Cruise Director almost invisible. The Food and Beverages Manager was an absolute star, visible , chatty, and a fantastic asset.
Regent as we knew it, has vanished. The Accountants have taken over. Six Star cruises, no, two at best for the money paid.

Prior to starting a cruise with Regent seven seas, to South Africa, i called the London office and asked whether or not i needed a Yellow Fever Jab, i was told that the only stop on the trip that required a Yellow fever Jab would be Mozambique, we decided that rather than have the jab we would give back our tour tickets and stay on board the ship.
We flew 11.5 hours to Cape Town, stayed overnight then went to board the ship, it was chaos.
About 20 people including ourselves were denied boarding and were told we had to sit and wait to see if the ship would allow us on board because we had not gotten the Yellow fever jab. We all had evidence that we had sought advice from Regent and we had all been given the same advice. We were told that if the ship refused to allow us to board we would be turned away!!
We had booked an expensive suite, travelled for 11.5 hours, and spent over £40000.00 for this cruise and now we were made to basically sit in a corner and wait to see if we would be allowed to travel!! it was embarrassing and demeaning, they way we were treated was appalling.
when we were finally allowed to board we were all very distressed and frankly our trip had been spoilt.
So here is the joke, once on board and halfway through the trip we were then told that we actually DID NOT need the Yellow Fever Jab, not even for Mozambique!!
We experienced disgusting customer service, especially from the destination staff, including the obnoxious manager, rude, unhelpful, condescending, i could go on.
This was our first cruise with Regent, after 20 years with Silver Seas, needless to say we will be going back to Silver Seas, we even booked our summer Cruise with them while still on board Regent, we could not wait to get of!!! complete waste of money.

Awful cruise. No Wow factor. Not inspired. Food awful. No duty of care to ensure vehicles used for excursions were actually roadworthy. Parked the ship in a coal merchant for Christmas Eve and Day. All we saw was mounds of coal. 15 days in total, 9 at sea. 6 days in port, but sailing early evening meant we had a lot of sea time. Never sailing with them again.

7 Day Alaskan Tour to Alaska - No pre-screening on their ship. I got Covid on the second to last day. I needed emergency care (78 yr old) and they charged me $4315 for 1 day's worth of care. They were horrible. Stay away from this cruise line. The food was good, but not even very good. A totally over-priced cruise.

Paid for cabin with priority booking for excursions - have been waitlisted for nearly a year on 4 excursions with no progres despite regular follow ups by our travel agent. Not sure why we paid extra for priority for excursions when we can’t get on them! Regent please help as have no other means of getting help on this. Interesting that unlike some other tour operators Regent don’t seem to reply or show any interest in addressing any of their reviews here. Speaks volumes…

It pains me to write this review, however, when you take the time to complete their post cruise customer service form and NO ONE connects with you as promised, there is no other recourse but a public complainit. We saved 20 years to go on this cruise. Regent booked our flights to and from the cruise. When we were provided our flights. I called our Travel Agent and told her I was very concerned with the returned flights (Rome to Munich, Munich to Montreal, Montreal to Orlando), between the very short layovers (one was only 40 mins) to not liking the three flights. She informed us that we were not allowed to change these flights. I tried to call Regent directly but noone every called us back. My husband said it would be fine.... We had wonderful flights to Athens, met immediately and whisked away to our hotel, absolutely perfection. We had four lovely days on the cruise, then it all went south. My husband contracted food poisoning from their pool side grill (tuna burger) on the evening of Day 4. It was the middle of the night, so I did what I could to clean up the bathroom and get him to finally rest. When I contacted the staff and informed them of the situation and to also request, our restroom to be santifized, they had no concern for where he may have contracted the food poisoning nor did they follow up on his condition after informing them of his illness. They did clean the restroom. We did report the incident on our survey. The survey link they provide you is only good while on board. That's where customer service ends, at the point of swiping your card. Debarkation is of no relevance to them. They must know they have debarkation issues. Here is our nightmare debarkation in Rome. We have never sailed with Regent before and it had been 20 years since our last cruise. Once we scanned our card we were ushered off the ship. I asked, "where do we go?" I was yelled at to go the tent. Upon entering the tent, I asked, "what do we do?" Again, yelled at to get my luggage and to move. I will admit, I wasn't very nice, now. I gestered to this Italian women, to signal my frustration with her. Finally, another person directed us to look for our group number then to take our luggage and find our bus. We found our luggage, I then asked another rep, what bus am I looking for? She yelled at me again, to get out of the tent and go to your bus! I stopped and I did raise my voice, WHAT BUS??? A man came up (non-Regent personnel) and told us to go to the bus number of our luggage. As we were hauling three pieces of luggage, we were continually yelled at to hurry up! Once at the bus, my husband was told to load our luggage under the bus. There was no room, he was told to go the other side of the bus. The side parked in the oncoming traffic. The driver was there and he told my husband to load the luggage. Once on the bus, we were driven to the Rome Airport. The driver parked the bus in the median and told us to exit if we were in terminal 1 or 2. Upon exiting, my husband, again, had to stand in oncoming traffic to unload our bags. We got to the sidewalk with about 12 other passengers and we all looked at each other. Where do we go. I verified by our tickets Terminal 1. I said we need to go here for terminal 1. All 12 people followed me. 2/3 of the way to the door. A man dressed in Regent shirt came running up to us, "Hey, why you in a hurry! Wait, wait. I lead you." He walked us to the ticket counter and immediately left. My initial concern about the short layovers between flights was spot on. In Munich, we had to do an OJ Simpson between two terminals, we arrived at the gate, as our group was being called. We were late leaving, the gate. This made our connection in Montreal even shorter. Upon existing the plane, we were met by a US Customs officer, who was going to escort us down to US Customs as quickly as possible because we had minutes to get to the gate. Again, we raced through Customs only to discover we had another hike to our gate. This time, we got there with moments to spare. Upon arriving in Orlando, we discovered our luggage never made it out of Munich. We waited three days for our luggage and only to discover when we opened our large suitcase, TSA had opened the suitcase and every valuable we had in the case was GONE. Can I blame Regent for that, no wholely, but they did put on these flights..... My husband explained to our family this way about Regent, we could have taken FOUR cruises on another cruiseline for this one cruise. So was our experience 4X better than our previous cruise. The answer is an absolute NO! Add to that, they have never, ever responded to our survey or to our post cruise report we made on their website. They jsut don't care!

Terrible service ethos at considerable expense.
most port visits cancelled at short notice.
Airport pickup a shambles.

Wonders of Antiquity Istanbul to Dubai goes from bad to worse. All but 2 of the original ports have been cancelled. No Rhodes, Cyprus, Israel, Jordan or Oman -- instead we cruised the cool, rainy Adriatic coast where nearly everything was closed as it was after the season. We are now sailing from Egypt to Dubai. From sunset to sunup all curtains must be closed. Black plastic has been put over all the doors and windows in public places. We had a code red drill a few days ago to prepare us to take cover in the hallways. Six burley security guards circle the decks. Is this a vacation? NO. This is nothing like the brochure description. It's a disappointing and very stressful situation. Did Regent ever mention any of this before we boarded? NO. Once the war broke out on Oct. 7, we requested a refund or future cruise credit, both of which were denied.
My husband and I looked forward to the warmer evenings once we left the cold northern ports. During past cruises, we enjoyed dining and dancing under the stars. Not this time, we are imprisoned in a luxurious box. A crew member told us that usually it's only 2 days of blackout, but this time due to the war, the entire passage from Egypt to Dubai would be under blackout conditions.
Regent does not deserve even one star. And we deserve a 100% future cruise credit or refund. No holiday onboard Regent!

We were also booked Istanbul to Dubai. Other comments describe the itinerary changes which we think completely gutted the original cruise itinerary. And why ? We were told that it was for safety considerations. Really ? What made Rhodes (an original port) unsafe ? Or Santorini? Etc. If Luxor is unsafe for two days, why is it safe for one day ? And why is it safe to cruise around in the Red Sea for 6 uninterrupted days ? No refund given; No credit offered; No response to two letters. One star is too many.

We have been booked on cruise starting in Istanbul to Dubai.The cruise begins November 10-December 1 2023. With the crisis in the Middle East, we understand the plight of those people. They raped our cruise. First we lost Israel, then Egypt. They tried to replace those ports with Greek islands. They explained that those replacements were culturally as significant as Israel. As of today, November 4, on a 21 day cruise, we have 3 original ports. Changes to the cruise have been changed three times. Yes we have insurance but my husband would have to die. We just want our money back or credit towards another cruise. Now we are being forced on a high dollar cruise to sail to countries and islands of little to no historical value. After we leave the Suez Canal we will sail for 10 days on the Red Sea to Dubai. Regent owes the consumer their money back. I know I’m only a small fish in the cruise industry but I did not select this cruise to sail and eat their food.

My call center experience with Regent Seven Seas Cruises was a personal nightmare. Their initial enthusiasm for selling the cruise package was convincing. However, once they secured my deposit, their attitude shifted dramatically. I remember a specific instance when I called to inquire about an upcoming shore excursion. The representative on the other end couldn't provide me with any details and seemed utterly disinterested in my concerns.

This lack of transparency extended to the availability of meal services. I had booked this cruise with high expectations, only to find that the reality was far from their promises. The experience was made worse by their aggressive deposit terms, which became painfully evident when I tried to make necessary changes to my booking. I was left feeling stuck and frustrated.

My confidence in Regent Seven Seas Cruises was shattered by these personal experiences. I felt like a mere transaction to them, and I would strongly advise others to think twice before booking with them

My recent experience with Regent Cruises left me feeling utterly deceived and thoroughly disappointed. The advertised promise of "unlimited shore excursions" turned out to be nothing short of a scam, with limited availability and a sneaky push towards paid alternatives.

The illusion of unlimited exploration quickly shattered as I attempted to book these supposedly inclusive shore excursions. Most options were fully booked, and the few that weren't came with a steep price tag. What was meant to be a carefree adventure turned into a frustrating scramble for a spot on excursions that were supposed to be part of the package.

Adding to the frustration was the customer service provided by Regent's call center. Instead of addressing the concerns and frustrations of passengers, the responses felt templated and lacked genuine understanding. It was disheartening to see a lack of accountability and empathy from a company that prides itself on delivering a luxury experience.

The marketing tactics employed by Regent Cruises are, in my opinion, deceptive. The term "unlimited shore excursions" should come with an asterisk, clarifying the severely limited availability and the high likelihood that passengers will end up paying extra for the experiences they were led to believe were included.

While I understand that no cruise experience is perfect, it's the blatant misrepresentation and lackluster customer service that truly sour my impression of Regent Cruises. Travelers should be wary of falling for the glossy promises and carefully crafted marketing without scrutinizing the fine print.

In conclusion, my advice to potential Regent Cruises customers is to approach the promise of "unlimited shore excursions" with skepticism. Be prepared for limited availability, potential additional costs, and a customer service experience that falls far short of the luxury standards they claim to uphold. Buyer beware: the allure of a dream cruise can quickly turn into a disappointing reality with Regent Cruises.

Recent trip itinerary changed at last minute which has negatively effected the overall wanted experience. Last minute change which takes us to ports not desired. Furthermore, certain ports are in locations that are being impacted by the Isreali conflict/war thereby putting us in harms way. Regent indicated no refunds, no future cruise credits. On the hook for $25K+ Poor customer service

I wish I could leave zero stars!
This company are a disgrace I’ve been trying to get my deposit refunded for more than 2 weeks ! I have been in contact too many times to remember and get spurious excuses each time but no refund!
I WANT MY MONEY BACK ,

We are going on The Navigator in December. Before paying the balance ( within the cancellation period) we wanted to know what would be the replacement docking for the 3 days that we should have had in Myanmar.
2 phone calls later and we still have not had an answer. We are being fobbed off ,due to the delay in RSS response we are now in the penalty period ( deliberate ruse by RSS to avoid us cancelling ?) if we don’t pay the balance , we will lose our money but if we pay it then we can’t change anything ! This is not a good start to our cruise … it is already leaving us with a bad feeling about the rest of the holiday , when we should be looking forward to it , we are worried it will be a disappointment . First contact was 10 days ago .. they remain silent !!

Older boat, guest age mainly over 70, entertainment was more like an escort agency....trips, food, all aimed at the older guest.