be a nice place to store your vehicle documents in your car's glove compartment but I'm sure you could find other uses. I have taken a picture of the documents -- not a very good one, I'm afraid, since basically I am really good at many things but photography is not one of them! Maybe I just need a better camera!Saturday, December 27, 2008
SPOILER ALERT!!!
Yesterday's trip to the Post Office brought some welcome news in the form of a package from my Travel Agent. Let me just say to all new cruisers (and perhaps even experienced ones as well), there is something intangible yet excitingly special about getting your cruise documents. In fact, on one of the internet chat boards (luxurycruisetalk.com) people even put posts up titled "Doc Dancing" and then other board/community members pipe in offering their congratulations. These are seasoned luxury cruise veterans for the most part on this board -- so if they are "doc dancing" surely us mere mortals can be expected to have an anticipatory tingle or two at the arrival of the cruise document package!! Anyway, getting back to my cruise documents...as those of you who have read my blog already know, I have cruised a few times in the past so have some knowledge of what to expect when the cruise docs arrive. Generally, you get a folder (about the size of the old airplane tickets before they had E-Tickets) which contains about 20 pages stapled together telling you things you probably already know like your name, your address, your cabin #, your itinerary, your guest contract, etc. etc. etc. The document itself isn't the part that is exciting -- it's what it represents! So let's go back now to the package I received yesterday. First of all, it was a little bigger than a standard #10 envelope but I thought maybe my TA had included some brochures or something. Then when I opened it up I was more than a little impressed!!!! Regent has put together some fine little document presentation package! There is a gray chamois drawstring outside pouch/holder embroidered with their logo. Inside you will find a lovely embossed faux leather portfolio (also gray) which contains your cruise tickets and information, standard baggage tags indicating your deck#, two attractive permanent luggage tags made of the same embossed faux leather , a beautifully prepared booklet giving suggestions for each of the ports you will be visiting and a note card "signed" by the employee who reviewed your package before it was sent out to make sure it was complete. This portfolio can be re-used for other things in the future as it has pockets and a zippered pouch -- off the top of my head, I'm thinking it would 
be a nice place to store your vehicle documents in your car's glove compartment but I'm sure you could find other uses. I have taken a picture of the documents -- not a very good one, I'm afraid, since basically I am really good at many things but photography is not one of them! Maybe I just need a better camera!
be a nice place to store your vehicle documents in your car's glove compartment but I'm sure you could find other uses. I have taken a picture of the documents -- not a very good one, I'm afraid, since basically I am really good at many things but photography is not one of them! Maybe I just need a better camera!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Open Letter from the President Of RSSC
I have hijacked & reprinted this letter that the President of Regent posted on Cruise Critic in response to a number of posters having negative feedback. I think it really shows that Regent is committed to providing a quality product. I am more convinced than ever that I made the right decision in choosing Regent when we decided to do luxury rather than mainstream cruising this time around --
Dear RSSC Guests and Cruise Critic Readers,
I’ve been an avid reader of Cruise Critic for many years and have always found it, along with direct feedback from our guests, to be an invaluable feedback tool and a great way for us to keep our finger on the pulse of our company and our product.
After reading some of the most recent threads, I wanted to take a few moments to provide you all with some insights, address some of the concerns that you have voiced, and provide you with my personal reassurance that Regent Seven Seas Cruises is still the same luxury experience that so many of you have come to know and love.
There has been a great deal of discussion about changes and I will be frank, yes, there have been changes. And while we all know that change can be unsettling, I want to assure you that any changes we have made or are in the process of making, are based upon feedback from our guests, travel agent partners and team members aboard the ships and here in Fort Lauderdale. Feedback and insight from you is something that has been critical to our success and has been our proverbial guiding light.
In the interest of providing you with some keener insight, I want to step back to earlier this year when there was a change in ownership. This change allowed us as a company to change from one that was a very small part of a large corporation to one that was part of a smaller and very focused organization. With that change, we as a company saw tremendous opportunities to not only undertake initiatives that we would not have in the past, but to also challenge ourselves to find new ways to make the experience better and shine brighter. The $40 million dollar renovation and refurbishment of the Voyager and Mariner are probably the most obvious examples of our new mindset and our commitment to the Regent Experience.
And the investments don’t stop at the way the ships look and feel, we’re raising the bar in every conceivable area - the culinary experience, onboard amenities and entertainment, crew recruitment, crew training and most importantly, crew retention. It’s the stellar group of officers, staff and crew that have made RSSC the cruise line it is today and we will never lose sight of that. We’ve made some great enhancements to our training and benefits for the crew in the way of increased benefits, enhanced health coverage, overtime pay and dedicated Crew Resource Managers. We’ve also brought greater consistency to our crew scheduling and the vacation time they spend ashore. Ultimately, we want every crew member to leave the ship at the end of their contract with an assignment letter to return for a new contact. That’s not to say that you won’t see some new faces as we will continue to recruit and add new staff aboard ship and in the shore side operations.
We’ve been very fortunate to be able to welcome some new members to our family this past year, some of them returning RSSC veterans. Robin Lindsay and Franco Semeraro, who head up the Vessel and Hotel Operations, are both veterans of the luxury cruise and worked with me when in RSSC was just a small fledgling line with only the Radisson Diamond and Song of Flower. They were instrumental in establishing RSSC as a premier luxury brand and then went on to spend a good number of years at Silversea. Michael Coghlan, the General Manager of the Voyager, also hails from Silversea and has an admirable resume of accomplishments.
There are also plenty of familiar faces amongst the new. Steph Armegol and Bernhard Klotz, whom many of you may have met, still lead our Hotel and Culinary operations teams. Of course, Captains Dag and McNeill, General Managers Engelbert, Guiseppe and Philippe, just to name a few, all happily remain.
With the Voyager refit behind us, and the completion of Mariner’s refit only a few short weeks away, we’re in the home stretch. With that, the majority of changes and enhancements in the product will be complete and we can focus on fine-tuning our product and its delivery. The fine-tuning aspect is one that will be ongoing and once again, we’ll be counting on you, our guests to provide us feedback on what you like and what needs attention, just as you have always done.
That’s not to say that in the midst of these changes that we will not have hiccups. We’ve had a few and while some companies might like to think they are perfect, we know we are not. But we try hard to be as close to it as possible, we give it our all and pour our hearts into it. And if something is not right, we will do everything we can to set things right.
For those of you sailing in the coming months, I encourage you to judge any of the changes on their own merits, I’m confident that you will see that they have been made for the better. And if something is not quite right, please make sure to let any of the staff or department heads know so they can take corrective actions.
I’ll be out and about on the ships a great deal in the coming year, as I am sure Frank, Robin, Franco and Ken will be as well, and look forward to hearing your thoughts. In between, I’ll be reading Cruise Critic and be chiming in on occasion, as time permits.
I wish you all a safe and joyous Holiday Season and a great New Year.
Sincerely,
Mark
Mark Conroy
President, Regent Seven Seas Cruises
I’ve been an avid reader of Cruise Critic for many years and have always found it, along with direct feedback from our guests, to be an invaluable feedback tool and a great way for us to keep our finger on the pulse of our company and our product.
After reading some of the most recent threads, I wanted to take a few moments to provide you all with some insights, address some of the concerns that you have voiced, and provide you with my personal reassurance that Regent Seven Seas Cruises is still the same luxury experience that so many of you have come to know and love.
There has been a great deal of discussion about changes and I will be frank, yes, there have been changes. And while we all know that change can be unsettling, I want to assure you that any changes we have made or are in the process of making, are based upon feedback from our guests, travel agent partners and team members aboard the ships and here in Fort Lauderdale. Feedback and insight from you is something that has been critical to our success and has been our proverbial guiding light.
In the interest of providing you with some keener insight, I want to step back to earlier this year when there was a change in ownership. This change allowed us as a company to change from one that was a very small part of a large corporation to one that was part of a smaller and very focused organization. With that change, we as a company saw tremendous opportunities to not only undertake initiatives that we would not have in the past, but to also challenge ourselves to find new ways to make the experience better and shine brighter. The $40 million dollar renovation and refurbishment of the Voyager and Mariner are probably the most obvious examples of our new mindset and our commitment to the Regent Experience.
And the investments don’t stop at the way the ships look and feel, we’re raising the bar in every conceivable area - the culinary experience, onboard amenities and entertainment, crew recruitment, crew training and most importantly, crew retention. It’s the stellar group of officers, staff and crew that have made RSSC the cruise line it is today and we will never lose sight of that. We’ve made some great enhancements to our training and benefits for the crew in the way of increased benefits, enhanced health coverage, overtime pay and dedicated Crew Resource Managers. We’ve also brought greater consistency to our crew scheduling and the vacation time they spend ashore. Ultimately, we want every crew member to leave the ship at the end of their contract with an assignment letter to return for a new contact. That’s not to say that you won’t see some new faces as we will continue to recruit and add new staff aboard ship and in the shore side operations.
We’ve been very fortunate to be able to welcome some new members to our family this past year, some of them returning RSSC veterans. Robin Lindsay and Franco Semeraro, who head up the Vessel and Hotel Operations, are both veterans of the luxury cruise and worked with me when in RSSC was just a small fledgling line with only the Radisson Diamond and Song of Flower. They were instrumental in establishing RSSC as a premier luxury brand and then went on to spend a good number of years at Silversea. Michael Coghlan, the General Manager of the Voyager, also hails from Silversea and has an admirable resume of accomplishments.
There are also plenty of familiar faces amongst the new. Steph Armegol and Bernhard Klotz, whom many of you may have met, still lead our Hotel and Culinary operations teams. Of course, Captains Dag and McNeill, General Managers Engelbert, Guiseppe and Philippe, just to name a few, all happily remain.
With the Voyager refit behind us, and the completion of Mariner’s refit only a few short weeks away, we’re in the home stretch. With that, the majority of changes and enhancements in the product will be complete and we can focus on fine-tuning our product and its delivery. The fine-tuning aspect is one that will be ongoing and once again, we’ll be counting on you, our guests to provide us feedback on what you like and what needs attention, just as you have always done.
That’s not to say that in the midst of these changes that we will not have hiccups. We’ve had a few and while some companies might like to think they are perfect, we know we are not. But we try hard to be as close to it as possible, we give it our all and pour our hearts into it. And if something is not right, we will do everything we can to set things right.
For those of you sailing in the coming months, I encourage you to judge any of the changes on their own merits, I’m confident that you will see that they have been made for the better. And if something is not quite right, please make sure to let any of the staff or department heads know so they can take corrective actions.
I’ll be out and about on the ships a great deal in the coming year, as I am sure Frank, Robin, Franco and Ken will be as well, and look forward to hearing your thoughts. In between, I’ll be reading Cruise Critic and be chiming in on occasion, as time permits.
I wish you all a safe and joyous Holiday Season and a great New Year.
Sincerely,
Mark
Mark Conroy
President, Regent Seven Seas Cruises
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Exactly One Month To Departure!
I called Regent's Main Office today to make sure that they had received cruise payment in full. I had read some articles recently about an online travel agency going out of business (not mine!) and absconding with passengers' final payments; guess I just wanted the reassurance that my travel agency was fully above-board. In fact, my wonderful travel agent IS fully above-board and on top of everything. He has been awesome and helpful and I want to give him a shout out here in case anyone is looking for a recommendation for a good TA. His name is Joe Mastromauro with Chic Luxury Cruises (even the name is great!) and his website is www.ChicLuxuryCruises.com
I have been avidly following Geoff Edwards' cruise blog -- he is on the Mariner right now with his wife Michael -- and I only hope that my little blog can bring even 1/5 of the smiles to a reader that his blog has brought to me. If I ever figure out how to put a link in here, I'll definitely link his blog. Although, first I'm going to have to figure out how to link my blog to the Luxury Cruise Travel website or else nobody is ever going to have a chance to read my blog at all! Except me, of course.
Once again I am going to try to attach a picture of the wonderful ship I am sailing on -- or on which I am sailing (if there ends up being any English teachers in my audience). And I am going to put it right HERE.
Okay, well I'm quite pleased to see that that worked out pretty well. And in case you are wondering, that is a picture of our bed. Or at least the bed that I anticipate we will be sleeping in. Why do I even have a picture of the bed? Good question -- I guess because in the first place it just looks so darn comfy and in the second place I love to sleep!
My packing list is almost complete and I have all the evening dresses I plan to bring hanging in my closet in plastic bags. Mike is going to be sporting his spiffy new black Chaps suit -- and I hate to say just how darn handsome he looks in it -- plus I made him spring for new dress shirts and ties. I hate to brag but I think we will cut a most dashing figure on the dance floor......hahahahahaha...... as if! I have already checked with Regent to make sure I am "allowed" to borrow the "spare" gentlemen dancers on board given the fact that I brought my own gentleman along with me (albeit one who DOESN'T dance) and they have assured me that it won't be a problem. The only real problem I can foresee is what the heck we (Mike and I) are supposed to do with all of our time together -- uninterrupted -- for 12 straight days. Yikes!
One last thing left and that is to attempt to post this so that it shows up in the same section as my first Mariner post and becomes "page 2"
Added later: now that I'm getting to be an "old pro" at this..... here is the link to Geoff's blog www.avidcruiser.com/geoff and if the thing where you just click on it doesn't work you'll have to do an old fashioned cut and paste into the browser. I didn't ask Geoff if he'd mind if I linked his blog but I think these things are kind of public domain anyway so he probably doesn't care.
I have been avidly following Geoff Edwards' cruise blog -- he is on the Mariner right now with his wife Michael -- and I only hope that my little blog can bring even 1/5 of the smiles to a reader that his blog has brought to me. If I ever figure out how to put a link in here, I'll definitely link his blog. Although, first I'm going to have to figure out how to link my blog to the Luxury Cruise Travel website or else nobody is ever going to have a chance to read my blog at all! Except me, of course.
Once again I am going to try to attach a picture of the wonderful ship I am sailing on -- or on which I am sailing (if there ends up being any English teachers in my audience). And I am going to put it right HERE.
Okay, well I'm quite pleased to see that that worked out pretty well. And in case you are wondering, that is a picture of our bed. Or at least the bed that I anticipate we will be sleeping in. Why do I even have a picture of the bed? Good question -- I guess because in the first place it just looks so darn comfy and in the second place I love to sleep!
My packing list is almost complete and I have all the evening dresses I plan to bring hanging in my closet in plastic bags. Mike is going to be sporting his spiffy new black Chaps suit -- and I hate to say just how darn handsome he looks in it -- plus I made him spring for new dress shirts and ties. I hate to brag but I think we will cut a most dashing figure on the dance floor......hahahahahaha...... as if! I have already checked with Regent to make sure I am "allowed" to borrow the "spare" gentlemen dancers on board given the fact that I brought my own gentleman along with me (albeit one who DOESN'T dance) and they have assured me that it won't be a problem. The only real problem I can foresee is what the heck we (Mike and I) are supposed to do with all of our time together -- uninterrupted -- for 12 straight days. Yikes!
One last thing left and that is to attempt to post this so that it shows up in the same section as my first Mariner post and becomes "page 2"
Added later: now that I'm getting to be an "old pro" at this..... here is the link to Geoff's blog www.avidcruiser.com/geoff and if the thing where you just click on it doesn't work you'll have to do an old fashioned cut and paste into the browser. I didn't ask Geoff if he'd mind if I linked his blog but I think these things are kind of public domain anyway so he probably doesn't care.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
December 2008 - Pre Cruise Planning
A little over a month until our BIG anniversary cruise on the Regent Seven Seas Mariner. Before I get all bogged down with Christmas stuff, I decided to spend a little time working on my cruise blog so I'd have it down pat by the time our ship sets sail.
A little background about me/us: My wonderful hubby Mike and I have taken three previous cruises together -- all on Carnival, all to the Caribbean (He is very very predictable!). In addition, I have taken 4 others without him -- one as a child on the now-defunct Oceanic, one to Canada/New England with a group of friends, and two to the Bahamas with "just us girls". We have had 25 years of wedded bliss -- well, maybe not 25 years of BLISS, but definitely 25 years of WEDDEDNESS -- and we decided to do something really special to commemorate the occasion. Hence we're going to be like big shots (as Ralph Kramden would say) for a couple of weeks and see how the other half lives. The hardest part about the whole thing might be getting Mike out of town and away from our grandson for that long of a time!
I'm sure we're going to have an amazing time and I've been doing all kinds of research on the various ports we'll be visiting for the first time (some of them we've already visited). I'm not really an insane "must plan everything out in advance" kind of person....no matter what you might hear from everyone who knows me..... but I do like to have some sort of "direction" when I get up in the morning. Even on vacation. We're going to play golf on St. Kitt's, Aruba and Curacao. We're doing a snorkel catamaran party boat off Bonaire. And I have beach activities planned for St. Lucia and Grand Turk. San Juan is a gambling destination! Actually so is Aruba and it will be fun to see how much it's changed since we were last there over a dozen years ago.
I have more to say but I am going to try to post this now. Then I will see if I can edit it later or if not I will just do a Part Deux. It's a good experiment to see if I can edit a posted blog -- just in case I have to recant something. Also, I'm going to attempt to put a picture in here somewhere -- I think it might be my cabin or it might be the ship's pool at night -- it won't need a caption; if you can't figure out which it is you have bigger problems than can be solved by blog reading.
Oh, look, there it seems to be at the top of my paragraph....I guess my next lesson will be in learning how to put the pictures where EXACTLY I want them to be.
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