| If you search around there are some notes about Regency Cruise line,
even though not too many.
I been on 2 cruises with Regency Cruise line and 5 other cruises.
I went on the Regent Star and the Regent Sea, not the Sun. My
other cruises where 3 on RCCL (Sovereign twice, Song of America),
1 on NCL (SS Norway), Disney cruise.
Regency leases all 3 of it's ships from a Greek shipping company.
They are all older ships but all are kept up well, I assume the Sun
is similar. The Star held up to 1000 passengers, the Sea holds
about 700, I think the Sun holds about 700 also.
We went on Regency mainly because we got a really good deal. Both
our cruises were enjoyable. They are definitely not in the same
league as RCCL but they put on a good cruise. Our food was always
good, very similar to the others. Entertainment is not as good and
ports are not always the best selection. There air/sea package has
a tendency to give you less desirable flights than others, especially
RCCL.
If your cruise goes out of Jamaica then that is a definite minus.
The immigration, airport handling etc. stinks down there. Since it is
a 14 day cruise that makes it nice. One of our cruises started in
Tampa Fla. and ended in San Juan. The other departed and returned
to Jamaica. Jamaica is definitely not the place to go in and out
of. On the other hand if I got a good deal on a 14 day cruise and
it went out of Jamaica I would still take it.
Another thing about the Sun (I believe) and the Star. The cheapest
rooms have bunk beds, that is not that great. We did it once on the
Norway.
Typically Regency Cruises are not usually fully booked. That is why
the good deals. They also load up a lot of last minute old folks
from Florida who get on real cheap. Because the ships are usually
not full you typically get upgraded a lot for no cost. Our
first cruise in Dec 90, I believe, cost $1456 for 2 with air for 7
days which included all taxes, port charges etc. We booked the cheapest
inside cabine and ended up moving to outside to a larger and nicer
cabin.
If you get a good deal then Regency is good. There normal book
rates would not be a good deal.
Some of these comments are negative but believe me we enjoyed both
of our Cruises with Regency. We are going on our 8th cruise
starting Nov 28 on Sovereign of the Seas (our third trip). The
main reason is it was a really good deal. $1956 for 2 with
air for 7 days and Outside cabin including all port charges, air
port departure taxes etc. We actually considered going
on one of the long Regency Cruises (probably same as yours)
14 days because the price was so good. We did not do it mainly
because of the amount of time away from our daughter and we
wanted to go before xmas and it was too hard to schedule it.
Good luck on your cruise.
If you want to talk to me directly about our experiences send
me mail to MAY30::CULLISON.
Harold C.
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Well, I ended up booking the Regency cruise. I felt I got a pretty
good price at $2300 considering I am traveling single and that usually
means 150% over the double occupancy price also this is over Christmas
and New Years which usually means higher prices.
The itinarey looks good. 14 days out of San Jaun
At sea
St Lucia
Trinidad
At sea
Aruba
Bonaire
La Guaira, Venezuela
At sea
Barbados
Martinique
At sea
St. Maarten
St. Thomas
and back to San Jaun
I have been on 4 other cruises, but this will be my first as a
single. Should be an interesting adventure.
Thanks for all the help.
MikeR
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| Recently, my significant other and I had occasion to take Regency's "Land
of the Maya's" cruise on the Regent Sea with tours to various Mayan ruins
near ports of call. While the food and entertainment were fine and the service
and tours were superb (although, there was inadequet capacity for the
passengers who wanted to participate in several of the excursions), the cruise
turned out to be one of the poorest we have ever been on. It seems that a
basic courtesy that one would expect of a cruise line would be to notify
travel agents of changes in what has been advertised or what a customer would
be likely to expect. Regency failed twice in this with respect to this cruise.
First, the published itinerary included Guatemala as a port of call. Late in
March, the State Department issued an advisory recommending that Americans
avoid travel in Guatemala and we appreciate the fact that Regency heeded this
advisory and substituted Grand Camen as a port instead. However, they did not
contact my travel agent and advise her of the change. Secondly, we signed up
for the air/sea package as most people do. Our tickets were delivered just
three days before the departure date and much to our surprise, we were
required to spend a night prior to and after the cruise in New Jersey as part
of our airline arrangements with no prior notification. Luckily, this didn't
conflict with any outstanding plans we had. But, needless to say, giving
up two additional unplanned nights of vacation with no opportunity to plan
for activities on those nights not to mention the additional costs of having
to pay for additional meals and porters to get our luggage from and to the
airport was an unwanted surprise.
Next, when we arrived on board, we were greeted with "special cruise news"
advising us that the ship's air conditioning was broken. "Technicians were
on board attempting to correct the problem." We assumed that this had just
occurred and at worst, it would be corrected post haste so while we were
unhappy, we were willing to give Regency the benefit of the doubt on this
as well. Naturally, our packing had anticipated an air conditioned ship
and was inappropriate for one without it so this added to the discomfort.
Later in the week, we found out that the air conditioning had failed at
least a week before our cruise and while Regency did compensate us for
the inconvenience and changes in shipboard lifestyle (try to have formal
evenings without air conditioning) by giving everyone the opportunity to
obtain a voucher for a free cruise on an equivalent itinerary in the future,
the way the whole matter was handled, i.e., the complete lack of concern for
customers comfort and lack of options other than simply packing up and
going home at an individual's expense forgoing the cruise all together (some
folks opted to do exactly that), probably convinced me never to cruise with
Regency again.
Finally, given the above experiences, one would expect that the staff would
have been as accommodating as possible to hopefully lessen the negative
feelings generated by the overall situation. However, that was not even the
case. Several times during the cruise while in port, maintenance was being
done on the water system. As people were normally off the ship, this was in
general at most a small inconvenience. However, upon arriving back at our
stateroom on one of these days, turning on the facet obtained mud. As my
significant other had a serious medical condition which required clean water
to deal with, this was very distressing and we immediately tried to get
someone to remedy the situation or at least make available a supply of clean
water. I actually had a member of the purser's office staff say to me "you
should expect it. Cruising [on a Regency Cruises ship] is like visiting a South
American country." I added the phrase "on a Regency Cruises ship" to the
previous sentence because I've never been told anything like that on any of my
20+ previous cruises. My first thought was then I shouldn't be eating salads,
unpealed vegetables, drinking the drinks, or even brushing my teeth.
I'm not recommending that anyone avoid Regency but any line can show you a
great time when everything is working. You get to see their true colors when
something goes wrong, goes wrong, goes wrong, ...
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