Regent Seven Seas Cruises
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I also went on the Hollywood cruise…
I also went on the Hollywood cruise from Los Angeles, October 2022, having done a Rome to Venice one earlier in the year (April 2022). The Hollywood one was terrible - but I will come to that later. Firstly, earlier in the year I did a Rome to Venice Regent cruise that didn't go to Venice! At the last minute they told us it would go to Trieste due to problems with ships going through the grand canal. This Venice issue has been in place for two years (I found out after the event) - and yet they took our money and left it to the last minute to tell us of the change. You would like to think that they would do something to apologise - an onboard credit, upgrade? NO. Silversea moor their ships very close to the Grand Canal, not two hours away in Trieste. Totally outrageous as I only booked the cruise as I wanted to see Venice! To take a 2 hour coach to Venice airport on the last day, knowing how close I was to my favourite city was so annoying. Incredibly poor customer service. That said, the Explorer was a beautiful ship, the food was good, staff excellent and I really enjoyed the cruise - but this is not really the point. No apology what so ever from Regent for the massive change to itinerary. I WANTED TO GO TO VENICE! Not the 6 star customer service you would expect from a 6 star cruise line. Had I not already booked the second cruise later that year, they would not have had my return business. However, we had booked the October Los Angeles one and certainly regretted it. Firstly, this ship is far from 6 star. It is extremely old and tired, we had a Penthouse suite, the same as earlier in the year on the Explorer - the difference in quality between the two penthouse suites was incredible. Like comparing a Bentley to a Honda! How can the same suite on two ships be so different in terms of quality? In terms of the two ships - no comparison what so ever - from the suite, to the food, and I agree with the other review about the wine - exactly the same with us. Food wasn't great and very poor wine - not what you would expect from this high end cruise line. I love to have a bath and this is why we booked a Penthouse suite with extra space, I thought we would have both a bath and shower as advertised (Silversea have excellent baths in all suites). The bath in my suite was no more than 4 ft long - it really couldn't be classed as a bath. When asked if we could change suite to another Penthouse suite as the bath was not worth having so I would have preferred a stand alone shower with space - the answer was 'no'. We also did a Silversea cruise last year and couldn't fault it. The comparison between the Regent and Silversea experience was huge. Regent need to up their game as they will be losing loyal customers to other cruise lines. In today's climate it is important to not only meet customer expectation but to try and go above and beyond. In the past we have loved our Regent cruises. What has gone wrong? Today I received some offers from Regent but can't say I was at all tempted after our Los Angeles cruise experience (lots of other guests felt the same way, whilst queuing to disembark I overheard several stating how disappointed they had been). Instead, I have just booked my next Silversea cruise. Better by far in my mind... Sorry Regent, I would have liked to have said you were both equal but different - this is no longer the case. Advice to anyone booking a cruise - look at individual ships - do not imagine that all ships will be the same quality if they are all from a high end cruise line. This is simply not the case. The Mariner (Los Angeles ship) is well beyond its sell by date and yet the Explorer was stunning - but a shame it didn't take me to the place it promised it would and left it until a couple of weeks before to tell me!