2017.04.07. Superb. Upgraded because of the fabulous production show tonight.
2017.04.05: Excellent. Upgraded because of the breakfast burrito in La Veranda.
2017.04.03: Very good. Downgraded because of Chartreuse.
2017.03.31: Too awesome. Initial rating.
Trip images, video, and files here: , and yes I know there was crud on my sensor so a lot of the images are out of focus in the lower-left.)
Our Category E cabin is certainly one of the prettiest and best organized staterooms that we have ever had. It's significantly better than our last PH on Crystal Serenity, and our last PH on Oceania Riviera, as examples. (So kind of crazy to pay more on those lines, when for the same price you can get a nicer cabin on Regent with included business class air and shore excursions.) The bathroom is perfectly laid out, with a wide shower, and sliding door. The floor is textured, so it feels safe when wet. There are two sinks and a lot of storage. (Oddly, though, the best bath we ever had was in a suite on Norwegian Jade.) There's a generous walk-in closet. The multi-purpose unit that has the TV, fridge, glassware and drawers is of good quality. (Compare that to the particle board furniture on Riviera, and the horrible metal extensions to retrofit modern televisions on Mariner.) There is a vanity/desk and a chest of eight drawers. (I would have preferred a real desk, but this works okay.) There is so much storage overall, that we have at least ten empty drawers between the bath, closet, and main room. And there's a comfortable king-size bed with no rounded corners as they do when the cabin is too small.
And, oh yeah, our balcony is really deep, with two chairs, a table and a full-size chaise lounge.
Theater
The Constellation Theater is poorly designed. There are obstructing columns in the main level, although 97.5% of the sight lines are good. The balcony, which I love on Mariner and Voyager, is just awful on Explorer - 97.5% of those sight lines are bad. Also, I saw many people trip over the aisles with stairs. All they have to do is change the carpet at the edge of the stair from blue to red and this would not happen as often.
Lounges
The Observation Lounge is the nicest with a forward view on Deck 11. There's also the Explorer Lounge outside Compass Rose, and the Meridian Lounge one deck up, which are good for pre-dinner cocktails. There's nothing exceptional about them; they are perfectly okay. The recently updated lounges on Mariner, I think, are better.
I've had better hors d'oeuvres on other ships. They weren't very creative on Explorer - pretzels and chips mostly - although sometimes you do want the salt.
The cocktails are consistently well-made from good quality liquors. I tried a lot of new things on board. The short-haired blonde from Serbia in the Meridian at night makes a wonderful, frothy White Russian.
Our first few dinners were in the Compass Rose. (I'm writing this on Day 6.) There are a set of "always available" appetizers, salads and entrees, which are so good that I almost don't need Prime 7 and Chartreuse. I could eat an escargot appetizer and a surf and turf entree, filet mignon and lobster, every day if I want. And I kind of want to, but there is a good choice of new items every day too.
We had breakfast in Compass Rose about half the time. On Mariner, for comparison, we use the waiter-served breakfast 90% of the time. But the alternative, La Veranda, on Explorer is much better than on Mariner (and many times better than the Terrace on Oceania).
Compass Rose was open for lunch sometimes, and when it was not, you could still get waiter-service lunch in Chartreuse and/or Prime 7. Today is Friday, March 31, and we could not get into Prime 7 for lunch. We ate at Chartreuse instead, and I had my first bad meal there, an inedible fatty veal. (I had a pizza at the pool grill to tide me over.)
2017.04.03: I had a second bad lunch today, this time in Prime 7. The pulled-pork sliders were fairly tasteless. However, we had an astonishingly funny exchange with the waiter. We shared the table with another couple, so there were four of us. The desserts were served on a carousel of six different small containers of delicious. The lady, whom I'll call Jacksonville (because I only remember were people are from), asked the waiter what if we all want the same thing. And the waiter responded, "then you all go to Hell."
There was a Gala Brunch in Compass Rose on our only Sunday at sea day. It was excellent, but I'm trying not to eat too much and I stayed with the sashimi. There was a line for made-to-order crepes, so you gotta figure those are good. (I stood in line, but I gave the crepe to Penny.)
Pacific Rim
Pacific Rim, in addition to serving delicious food, is particularly beautiful. We dined there on our third night on board, and it was clear that we had to eat there again. So I begged the restaurant concierge (across from reception, in her own office, and I think there is no equivalent on the other Regent ships), and we get to dine there again in a few days. The tempura lobster was awesome, but I intend to try something else next time. (Penny already stated that she would get the tempura lobster again.)
Chartreuse
Although it won't much affect my overall impression of Explorer, I am very dissatisfied with Chartreuse.
The waitress made sure we knew that this was not true French food. Like Pacific Rim to Asian food, Chartreuse is a modern fusion to French food. But while Pacific Rim is wonderful, Chartreuse is not. It was amusing that the waitress also warned us about the veal, which I found inedible during lunch the other day.
I started with the escargot, which is not the same as the snails on Compass Rose "always available" menu. This is a Bourguignon preparation. It was okay, but, you know, not enough garlic, and not good with bread. The artichoke soup was not hot enough. And for my entree, I had scallops with chorizo - kind of blah and I love chorizo. The truffle chocolates were good, as was the Napoleon for dessert.
So this is very disappointing because my understanding is that Regent is replacing Signatures with Chartreuse on their other ships. Bad news because we always liked Signatures. There's no need to fuse French because un-fused French is so good as is.
I would not even bother to reserve Chartreuse on our next Regent cruise. That's how bad it is, or another way of looking at it, that's how good Compass Rose is.
Prime 7
My first impression of Prime 7 on Explorer was that I loved the reception area. There is a full bar there, and there are comfortable chairs to use when there is a wait. Of course, there is a story about why this is important to me.
In 2012, on Voyager, we had a terrible meal at Prime 7. I wrote about it on the mid-cruise comment form: We had to wait a long time to be seated, and once we were seated, it was unpleasantly noisy and the service was frantic. Regent contacted us the next day. They were very sorry and wanted us to give them another chance. But then they couldn't find another opening at Prime 7 for the remainder of that cruise. (No wonder nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.)
In my comments, I also mentioned that there was plenty of room in front of Prime 7 for several chairs, or even a couch, for people who have to wait to be seated in the restaurant. So I was pleased the next day to see this in front of Prime 7 on Voyager:
The next day was even better. My fellow passengers were using my chairs!
Then the next day, the chairs were gone! But I like to think that I planted a seed that time when I completed the mid-cruise comment form. And today, there's a beautiful bar and sitting area on Seven Seas Explorer. You're welcome, Regent passengers.
We had a wonderful meal at Prime 7 on Explorer. I had the prime rib with incredibly potent horsey sauce, and Penny had a surf and turf. Service was very attentive, and it was reasonably quiet - so quiet we could hear a neighboring table discussing that time there were chairs outside Prime 7 on Seven Seas Voyager.
Sette Mari
Sette Mari is very good Italian fare, much the same as on Voyager and Mariner, except Explorer is prettier and the area is more spacious. It should be better, Explorer is the only ship where the birth of Sette Mari was planned. This is often the case with the third child.
My only complaint, and this is the same on all ships with Italian restaurants - enough already with the olive oil instead of butter!
La Veranda
The main new feature in La Veranda that makes it better on Explorer than the other ships, is that it is more spacious - more spacious between tables, inside and outside, and more spacious in the self-serve area. We've eaten about 50% of our breakfasts there. (The best day, they had cooked-to-order huevos rancheros.) They also had excellent quality sashimi there for lunch, which is where it came in handy that I could serve myself because the amount of ahi I can consume is embarrassing.
Performers
Cory Kahaney is a comedian. She did one full set, and then a half set with lounge singer Tony B doing the other half. (Both performers left the ship in Bermuda.) Kahaney was COL funny. (Cluck Out Loud - that's a chicken joke!) But she told this one particular joke that bothered me. Her son wanted a cat, but his father was allergic. So the son asks if Mommy would kill Daddy so he could get a cat. Here's the thing ... I'm allergic to cats, and my son once asked if I died, could he get a cat. (Long version below.) Maybe that's a coincidence, but on the other hand, I have seen jokes I've written online before wind up on the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. And I've told the cat story online too. So?
Tony B sang Rat Pack standards, and was very good if you like that sort of thing. (I do, from my days on Lotta Living.) He also did one set and a half.drib's fotki journal wrote:Mikey was four years old or so, when he asked if he could have a cat. I had a cat when I was a kid, but somewhere along the way, I became allergic. So I went to a pet store to play with some cats and determine if I was still allergic. I was. I returned home and explained to Mikey why we could not have a cat. He accepted my explanation. Sometime later, after Mikey had time to think and figure things out, Mikey asked me: "Daddy, if you die, can I have a cat?"
Laszlo and Claudia are violin virtuosos. I've seen them before. They do a lot of cutesy shtick about Claudia being hot, and both not speaking English too well. They're entertaining enough, on a scale of 1 to 10, a 7.5.
David Brooks and the Piano Man Xperience. The song selection was okay, but not a great entertainer - only a 6. And tonight I noticed that they use the three video screens very poorly. If you show the same image left, right and center all the time, don't even bother with left and right. And the center image is the one that should be proportional, but it's not - they try to match the left and right, but because the center is so much bigger, a head, for example, is misshapen, like in a fun house mirror. If Regent wants to see how to use the video screens right, they need look no further than Oceania Riviera.
Peter Wardell is a magician/comedian. This is a common mix nowadays, but still good stuff. A solid 9.
Helen Wilding - vocal virtuosity at its best. Helen started with a Sound of Music medley, and she lost me, but she won me back with some more interesting and less sugary selections the rest of the way. Then Penny started singing Edelweiss on the way back to the cabin. So I rate her 7.5 out of 10, and Penny probably rates her higher.
And also, John Barron, the Cruise Director did his own show. John is entertaining; he can sing, he can tell jokes, and he can dance. (Fact check: No, he can't dance. ) He's a Brit with Irish parents. Here's what I don't get - why is it that people with accents can sing with no accent? It always make me feel like the butt of some inside joke. Stop that people with accents!
Production shows
The first night, there was a British Invasion show. Overall, I thought it awful. I didn't like the costumes, nor the staging. In the case of the "Dusty Springfield" singer, I didn't like the choice of song,"Son of a Preacher Man," which is late 60s and borderline country. Much better would be "I Only Want to Be With You," which is upbeat and more representative. I liked that they did Procol Harum's "Whiter Shade of Pale" as an instrumental, and the Joe Cocker impersonator was good. I think the show could have been much better with fewer dancers - in fact, I would give all the male dancers the night off. (There were no male dancers in the 60s!) I would also put all the female dancers in go-go cages, and let them go topless.
The second production show, though, was very good - all Broadway tunes. It opened poorly - six singers doing "Something's Coming" from West Side Story. Someone should have soloed that. The second arrangement was fantastic - the three female singers, each doing an Andrew Lloyd Webber hit song, "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar, "Memory" from Cats, and "Evita," which they sang both separately and concurrently. (Someone mis-introduced ALW as Mr, when he should be Sir.) The Joe Cocker imitator from the other night sang "Maybe This Time" from Cabaret, changing pronouns, and I thought this was very brave, very original, and a highlight. Then, for reasons I'll never understand, they closed with an obscure song from an obscure musical. You should always close on a high note, in this case, the three ALW songs would have been a better choice, even if it only included half the cast. If you want to close with a whole cast, then maybe something like "Chorus Line."
The third and final production show was called "Paradis." It was quirky, jazzy, sexy, unexpected, and fabulous! The production values were much higher than the first two shows, with a real working set, beautiful and sexy costumes, great lighting, and a few times they even used the video backgrounds well. There were only three songs that I knew, "The Beat Goes On," "Two for One," from Cabaret, and "La Vie en Rose," which just shows to go me that a show does not have to have popular songs when the production is good.
Did I mention that it was sexy? It was not just because of the Las Vegas showgirl outfits that started the show. One sequence had three girls in short robes turn into three girls in lingerie. There was an athletic dancer swinging around the stage wrapping herself in a sheet - which I've seen before, but this had a few new twists to it. There was a couple dancing, and then suddenly, they're rolling around on the floor. All the dancers, male and female, got to strut their stuff. The guys did some tap, and then there was one number where the guys danced in a deliberately stiff, stilted way, and that was very well done.
So again, quirky, jazzy, sexy, unexpected, and fabulous; what a great way to end the cruise.
Lectures
There are two Smithsonian lecturers on board, Professor Carol Reynolds, a music and art historian, and Ronald Bowers, an Los Angeles forensics expert. Each has lectured every at sea day, so that's a lot of lectures! (We have nine at sea days.) Both are interesting, and I've taken to watching the replay of their lecturers in the gym while on the treadmill each morning.
Professor Carol is a polished speaker, informative and well-prepared.
Bowers worked in the LA District Attorneys office for over 40 years during many high profile cases - from the death of Marilyn Monroe to the OJ Simpson trial. So his content is excellent. Unfortunately, he is not a polished speaker. He speaks with a lot of fragments and non-sequitur.
In-room movies
While we were on board, five of the nine recent Academy Award nominees were available on-demand.
- Moonlight
- Fences
- Hacksaw Ridge
- La La Land
- Lion
Krew Kapers
We expected superior service and we were not disappointed. Our cabin stewards, James and Cecil, quickly learned our preferences, and then became efficiently stealthy starting on day two. (James and Cecil, an acronym for Sad Jam Licence.) We were greeted everywhere warmly, and frequently had conversations with Ukrainians about our surname. I'm writing this on day nine, and I can only recall one small service glitch at the pool grill. I feel badly for even mentioning it.
Bermuda
No offense intended, Bermuda, but I'll never book a cruise that includes you again! We were here for three days last year, but out of Hamilton. We did three Regent tours then, and knowing that we were going to return, we decided to save the Crystal Caves tour for next year. But Regent did not offer the Crystal Caves tour next year, and when I asked why, Regent said it was too far away from the Royal Naval Dockyard. (The Explorer cannot dock in Hamilton because it is too big.) NEWSFLASH: there is a tour from the Dockyard to St Georges and the Crystal Caves are on the way.
The sail-in and sail-away, to and from, Bermuda are very nice, though.
(Hydrants: D-)
Madeira
In one word ... scenic.
(Hydrants: A+)
Gibraltar
I've been here before but Penny had not, and she just wanted to see the monkeys (yes I know they are not monkeys), so we took a short two hour tour, which Destination Services cleverly named "The Rock of Gibraltar." The tour guide was excellent, and therefore so was the tour.
(Hydrants: B)
The infinity pool is, in fact, finite.
Whatever happened to fresh ground pepper from pepper mills?
In several restaurants, the water glasses are shaped like Kong Balls! (Dog owners know what I'm talking about.)
The ice bucket in our cabin fits in the mini-fridge. It was replaced twice daily, and we were never without ice.
Shout out to Oleksandra and Ivan in Compass Rose who are the best! (Regent, please make the font bigger on the crew name tags so that I will know more names. And on the second line of their name tags, please replace their position with their nationality. I already know that they work in the restaurant!)
Contrary to unpopular opinions on that other cruise message board, Internet speed is very good, often exceeding 30 mpbs download, but generally around 20 mbps. Connectivity was sometimes an issue, but for the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, I'd say it was pretty good. I did all my Fare Compare uploads and emails in about the same time as at home. And, as always, my photos and videos are all uploaded and notated on the same day they are taken.
2017.04.01: Will whomever took the large glass-door refrigerator from the gym please return it. Thank you.