Regent Splendor Review 

Very informative. Great to hear the good and the bad. I am considering a Regent's cruise. Just now considering luxury cruises. I have a May 2024 cruise on the SilverSea Nova as my first luxury line cruise.

Appreciate your candidness

Appreciate your objective, realistic reviews of the not-so-good along with the good❤ So many other reviews feel like soft marketing they’re just not helpful.

We were on the Splendor in May and luckily we did not have the same experience as you in the specialty restaurants. Service, food etc. was over the top exceptional. Guess we were just lucky.

You both seem very kind and honest without being mean spirited ! Great review 🙂

Thanks very much, I enjoyed the review and your observations seem to match with my limited experience. I have had only one Regent cruise on the Explorer and are scheduled for one on the Voyager in '24.

My wife and I tried Regent twice before COVID. Our experience was very much the same as yours. There was a certain blandness to the whole experience. However, this may have been a cultural thing as we found Regent to be less cosmopolitan than the other ultra luxury lines we’ve tried.

Traveled on Regent Explorer May 2024…..everything was excellent! Loved Chartruese!

A good review. I sailed Splendor in late 2021 and thoroughly enjoyed Chartreuse. Sounds like staffing has changed perhaps. Found I liked Compass Rose most of all, funnily enough, as the changing menu meant new options and service was always first class. Will be on Grandeur later this year, so I'll get to see how things are in general.

In the Spa, did you report your issues so they could correct it? And also report service issues on Chartreuse to F&B Manager? Hopefully they can make adjustments. Will be on Splendor in 2 weeks. Thanks for your review.

I hope this was just a glitch! We have great service and food at all restaurants onboard Voyager in September and are due on Splendour this summer. I really hope they’ve sorted out what sounds like staff shortages maybe

Our impressions of Splendor match yours (we sailed her on a Christmas & NY Eve Panama Canal cruise Dec 22/Jan 23). We LOVE Pac Rim, and have done exactly what y’all (yes, we’re from Texas - Austin area - also) did with the appetizers; likewise, we’ve experienced Pac Rim on Explorer as well, and the all-female staff service in that venue on both ships … from the Maitre d’ to the bus staff … outshines all other venues by a long margin. Agree with the comments on Prime 7 - not so much as a Texan, but as a steak eater … in our 60’s, we’ve eaten a lot of steaks around the world in some of the best restaurants AND we’re not too shabby at cooking them ourselves at home; so, it takes a bit of an edge for a steak joint to really stand out, and IMHO Prime 7’s only “standout” is the caramel popcorn sundae dessert. The best steak I’ve had on a Regent ship has been in Sette Mari. Similarly, there’s nothing about Chartreuse on either ship which really is a “must” … and that includes the service which we feel is the worst among all dining venues. Example, we sat for a half hour with no wine service once before catching the eye of the smartly attired Head Sommelier who was just meandering among the tables “looking important,” so we asked him for wine; rather than promptly serve us himself to rectify the oversight, he merely told one of his overworked (already inattentive to us) wine servers to attend to us when time permitted … and we continued to wait not receiving wine with our appetizers, only finally getting attention when our entrees were served. I know, “first world problem” - but when you pay six star money to a line priding itself on service excellence, this is unacceptable. Like y’all, we’re not snooty folks who look for shortcomings at every turn, but having sailed Regent many times, we recognize when service and food quality fails to match their much-heralded standards on which they (in their advertising) clearly pride themselves. The spa is overpriced for the quality … DO NOT get a haircut there😮. Excursions do need some work … post-COVID “excuses” are getting tiresome and should be rectified by now. Finally, all of those specialty dining shortcomings aside, Splendor was a gem. Exceptional cleanliness throughout (shoot, even the tenders were beautifully clean & well-maintained), great outdoor spaces, comfortable lounges, exceptional entertainment (David Nevin was CD when we sailed her - he’s on Grandeur now, plus as you observed how the entertainers are “ambassadors,” two actually asked us to dine with them one evening), enrichment lectures really complemented the ports of call far beyond our expectations, the Culinary Arts Kitchen is remarkably informing & educational at a modest upcharge which we felt was well worth the cost, and our suite was an outstanding living space rivaled only by the service received from our butler and attendants.

The past year my wife and I have done three cruises. Two on Regent and one on Royal Caribbean. After factoring in the cost of onboard WiFi, shore excursions, beverage packages and laundry service the Royal Caribbean cruise ended up costing about as much as the Regent cruise wherein all those perks were included. Not only are the alcoholic beverages included in the bars and restaurants on Regent you also get a bottle of your preferred spirit in your room and if you empty it they bring you another ! Additionally there were several times on the Royal Caribbean cruise that we had to wait to be allowed to enter the buffet as it was at capacity. I will admit however that the Royal Caribbean cruise had far better nightlife.

How did you get that deal?

Many other commentators say the same thing about Prime 7. Sette Mare and Chrartreuse.

As usual it is the crew makes the cruise enjoyable doubt that there are many Americans in charge of various sections of the ship this is why Asian Hotels usually have more stars than others.

Chartreuse was my least favorite restaurant as well. Liked Prime 7 and Pacific Rim though. Enjoyed the breakfast buffet at La Veranda though.

I’m qualified to review this ship as I just spent 16 days on it in a very large suite, with butler. We were ver y very disappointed. It was out 3 rd Regent cruise. We will not cruise them again. The quality of the produce in the dishes had deteriorated so much, that I was prompted to make an appointment with the F & B manager to address it. For example, the tomatoes in the salad bowl at La Veranda were white, not ripe and totally tasteless. I they claim to be “ Luxery perfected” they should buy and supply the first quality produce. Barely any herbs were used, no interesting salads, just cheap bowls to build your own. After speaking to the F & B manager I did begging to see a few interesting salads, such as beans, or quinoa with tiny amounts of herbs. But alas they were so over salted they were inedible. All of the chefs are Indian, I just don’t think they can do French food or western style salads. ENTERTAINERS ok the duo we had in the bar lounge were shocking. Two Philippine men on an iPad, one was off key in every single song. I ran away it was impossible to listen to him. The pianist was very young and didn’t sing, he was boring and didn’t know who Charles Aznavour was, after I asked him if he knew any songs and he admitted he’d never heard of him, I expected that a few nights later he’d surprise me with one or tow tunes, no not a chance. All he had to do was download the music and play the tunes, he can read music, but he just didn’t care. The signature Orchestra were very good we enjoyed them but they almost or never played at the pool deck. Our butler was unable to every bring us anything in a timely manner. After a few tries, I had a meeting with him and said what’s going on? Why does it take 25 minutes to get anything? He suggested we book a regular time for our canapés and drinks. I said look when I work I have a regular time I’m on holiday and I want to be free to do as I choose when I feel like it and as the whim takes us. But eventually to get a French orange juice we did come to an arrangement that he’d leave it outside our door at the same time each day. This allowed us to wake up at times that suited us. The French champagne they serve is a no name brand cheap bottle worth about $35 to $40 USD . Hardly Krug or Moët or V.C , so much for Luxery perfected. On disembarkation day the butler brought back all our laundered clothes. What a joke, thye had tissue wrapped our silk dresses , shirts and worst of all dinner jackets with shoulder pads into packages the smaller than a shoe box. I undid one of these packages and the item was ruined. I’d have to get them dry cleaned to get the creases out if they’d ever come out. I immediately sent it all back to be steamed. I had managed to travel for 3 months with exquisite dresses and clothes that I could just whip out of the bag hang up and go to dinner, yet this butler and laundry service nearly ruined all our clothes. The WI FI was a joke. I upgraded and paid and it still could not stream any utube video without buffering or stalling. The spa was SO expensive and they add on a 20% tip. My masseuse was junior, inexperienced and it cost about 280 USD for 50 minutes, not worth it. Compass Rose food and service was good. But no one knew our names anywhere except for our butler. We were in a very expensive 2 room suite with 2 bathrooms. TOURS omg church after church after church. We did book every tour months in advance to get what we wanted. One or tow were great but that was due to the guide and the small group. Frankly we never want to have included tours again. We want to do our own thing. I realise in some remote places this isn’t a wise idea, so yes I’d stick with the ship tours, but a few times we abandoned the tour in a small town and walked around ourselves and had a far better time. We did discovered unique, shops selling hand made knitted items of gloves and unique drinks like the Mandarin juice in on tiny town in Europe. COCKTAILS, all badly mixed too much sugar in everything, the free wines are average. I have lived in France I know a good Haut Medoc when I taste one and I kept trying every wine. I just never really found one I liked. Over all, we describe the cruise and our experience as STERILE, boring and unexciting. It has definitely put us off Regent for good and it has maybe put us off cruising for good. Once we hit land we revived ourselves and had a great final month in Switzerland. Cruise ships you are on your last legs. STOP using COVID as an excuse for everything that doesn’t work. The world recovered after WW2 which was worse than Covid, get over it. Give us that Luxery perfected My advise if you are considering REGENT is try and other line and definitely do not pay for a fancy large suite. The extras are not worth it and they don’t exist. We just feel ripped off and taken advantage of.

When you pay that much for a cruise you should expect more not less! I would not be happy at lack of service!

Why would I care for The Service tô bê personal? wouldn"t it bê better tô bê IMpersonal?

for the money you pay you should be able to into any restaurants that you want.with only 700 people aboard how could that not be.on other lines with up to 3500 people on board we always got into every restaurants that we wanted to.so sad for all the money that you put out for this.just saying

I can’t fault the crew members for not knowing your names. You each have bisexual names - could be male could be female. How are they supposed to know who’s who ? 😂