Our friends Gene & Linda just got off of the Mariner this morning in Ft Lauderdale. They had to call us right away to let us know that they were told No on the Mariner which has never happened in the 5 cruises that they have taken. The fact that whenever asked something the staff on all of the RSSC ships have always said it might be difficult but they have always tried and usually have come up with what they have been asked. They were at lunch in LaVeranda and Gene wanted a club sandwich and was told he couldnt have one and the only way he could have it was to order it from room service. I know that La Veranda is buffet but any other time when we would have asked any staff member they would have and have gone and gotten the sandwich and brought to him. I know this is very petty but one of the reasons that we cruise with RSSC is that they dont have NO in their volcabulary.
I am hoping that this staff member was just having a bad day and our next cruise on the Voyager in Oct if he asks for a sandwich he will be able to get it.
Penny

I like BLT sandwiches.
"Roy" who is in Compass Rose on the Mariner told me I could have one anytime I wanted. In fact I could get anything on room service at Compass Rose.
I can see where it might be difficult to get one at LaVeranda since they are set up for a buffet but am surprise they said no.

When we got off the Mariner our first call to home was to tell our son and daughter what a great cruise we had and that we had booked again for next April.

I never heard the word no. One day at the pool bar we mentioned to people next to us how good the Chicken wings looked. Adam the bartender over heard us and next thing I knew we had a plate full of Chicken Wings.

billp1, we had similar experience - after Tom became ill he had to follow a limited diet and when we returned to Compass Rose for meals they would bring him what ever he requested, but as someone else mentioned perhaps the limits of La Verandah made a "yes" more difficult.

I admit we never really push the envelop - always guessing that anything within reason is possible - and a club sandwich doesn't sound too demanding, even if someone has to go down to the kitchen to get it!

Penny: Was this their only hiccup?? Did they comment, when calling you, about rest of the trip?? Gosh a club sandwich??? How easy is that request - maybe a newbie waiter???

billp1 we have always bragged to everyone how you could ask for the moon on RSSC and they might say it might be difficult but they will try hard to make it happen, that is why our friends called us from the airport to report this. We are hoping that it was just a bad day for the waiter and that was an isolated incident.
Penny

joannapv
I think everything else went well didnt have much time to talk as they were boarding plan for home but said had a nice time and I hope that was an isolated incident.
Penny

Being in the restaurant business sometimes it a worker is sick or you or short handed for some other reason. It is better to say no if you can not fill an order rather than have you wait 30 to 45 mins. for a club that is not up to par by the time you receive it. They may have done you a favor.

Carolyn

My hope is the club sandwich is tiny blip in entire cruise??

Even the most perfect cruiseline can have some inexperienced waiters. Once, on the Diamond, we had a waiter who was very rude to one of our LCT pals. She mentioned something was amiss with a steak and he was not agreeable. I don't remember the specifics, but I remembered his attitude irritated her. On another occasion, we ate with the HOTEL director and they kept messing up HIS order and our table received very poor service. He was angry and embarrassed. So, these situations do occur, but they are often isolated, in my opinion.

Andi: Soooo rare - a rude waiter??? Should have been reported - poor service??? Report it - did you????

We had a pretty funny situation on MUSH. The waiter was new. Olivia, Freddie and Pat and Frank and I were having lunch in CR. He kept bringing us plates of food hoping that we would take what he brought us. We were waiting and waiting for our lunch,. After about 1/2 an hour into the plate fiasco, I had to go, I had a spa appointment so I ate only bread for lunch. He lost our order and did not know what to do. If he'd only told us, we'd have been happy to tell him what we wanted. These things are funny - after the fact. But it was like something from a Marx Brothers movie.

They called "right away" about a club sandwich??? Are they just looking for something about which to complain? Frankly, I am astonished that someone would make a call from an airport on the way home to report such a trivial incident. We all are quite accustomed to Regent's "never-saying-no" and love that aspect of the experience; but when an occasional breach of that policy occurs, why not just deal with it??!!

Some friends of ours to whom we recommended RSSC recently took a 14-day PG cruise and complained that there was no alarm clock in the room. I pointed out to them that nowhere in RSSC's literature or on the website is it suggested that there are alarm clocks in the cabins. And anyway, who cares??

Are we all getting so spoiled that we just look for things about which to complain? (Not to mention the fact that club sandwiches are quite unhealthy and contrary to both low-carb and low-fat diets...of course, neither of those factors would keep me from eating one of the yummy things...)

Cheers, Fred

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :cool: :cool: :app: :) Yes Fred!!!!!!!!

If it's the incident I think Andi is referring to, it would be something that happened to me, personally. If this is the case, it involved the Maitre'D, not a waiter. He was downright rude and condescending to me and flatly refused to give me a new entree, after I told both the waiter and this gentleman that my prime rib was unacceptable, as it was almost all fat and hardly any meat. The Maitre 'D laughed at my request for another cut of meat and offered to "cut my meat for me" rather than replace the cut served. It was witnessed by a Diamond officer, whom Alan and I have sailed with before and have gotten quite friendly with. We had invited her to dine with us that evening. She was appalled at this man's behavior towards me, firmly ordered him to bring me another entree and had words with him after dinner, privately.

This was the only time we've ever had a crew/waitstaff problem on Regent. Quite frankly, if this was the worst experience we've had on Regent, I wouldn't make a fuss over it. The great experiences far out-number this one incident.

Denise,

Your experience was appalling! Certainly this would merit complaining about and reporting it. Hopefully that Maitre D' is not with Regent anymore.

OTOH, I can't get too excited about the club sandwich "problem".

You ae all missing the point I was trying to make. I guess unlike the rest of you we have only been on 6 RSSC cruises and we have really been impressed by the service that we have always received and it did warrant a call while waiting for a plane to let us know of the astonishment that they had when told No by this cruise line staffer. Yes the waiter could have been new or just having a bad day. I guess there reason that I dont post very often on this site is the responses that I just got from some of you. Sorry for sharing.

Joanna, I didn't need to report it...the Hotel director took them all aside. Service was wonderful from that point on. Imagine, screwing up with the hotel director!!!

Yes, Denise..I didn't remember the incident exactly as you could see, but I had never seen that behavior before. It was surely a "Christina" moment! ;)

I am pleased to say that these two negative dining instances were the only dining issues I can remember over 8 cruises. I still remember Franco, the wonderful maitre d on the PG. He was absolutely the best. Penny, I think many of us are saying that the blip in service your friends had is probably not something that indicates a drop in service of the line, but probably due to a single incident that happens from time to time. I have always found RSSC responsive to service issues when they do occur, but as Joanna pointed out, you should mention them so that they are corrected. I hope your friends did that.

Penny: I felt really sad when I read your last response. Please don't stop posting. I've always found everyone on this board tries to be positive and helpful but you just have to roll with the punches if someone doesn't agree with everything you say or if no-one bothers to answers your questions. I completely get where you're coming from and I'm sure you'll get sympathetic responses when everyone reads your comment. Lee

Penny - I hope you won't stop posting. It's important that we get input from all cruisers and we share our love of cruising. I have even less experience than you with RSSC (only 3 so far!) and while we've loved our experiences, I probably wouldn't have gone as far as to have called them perfect (though they're closer than any other cruise line we've done!). Sometimes these incidents happen. Hope that your RSSC experiences and your friends' experiences continue to be good and to improve.

Masaki

Penny - I must also ask you to please not stop posting!

I understood exactly that you were just surpised that they had heard the word "no". Maybe some of the others just didn't catch your subtle meaning exactly. On the other had, I too, have seen what were in my opinion "petty" complaints on occasion and in those cases, I felt the same way... that the person should realize that some things are just small blips, rather than the huge problem they thought it was. Like the others, I don't like seeing Regent blasted over small things that are blown out of proportion, when I think they all try so hard to make our cruises so special.

Penny....I think some of our remarks were a bit like a "no" on Regent - not an example of our generally pleasant clan....but like a family that loves to fight - but beware the one that criticizes!

I remember this kind of discussion on "the other board" and always regretted that the tone of each remark appeared to be misunderstood by the responder. It's hard to make a keyboard imply jest or surprise.

I sincerely hope you'll keep posting - we're a better community with everyone's input!

Penny,

I certainly hope that you will continue to post often and contribute to LCT.

My response on this thread was to clarify Andi's post as well as share an experience I had on Regent that I found quite upsetting and very uncharictaristic of Regent crew. Believe me, I was angered by this gentleman's behavior and response. We each have expectations of what our Regent cruising experiences will be. When someone drops the ball, it's disappointing and surprising when your point of reference has been nothing short of excellent. However, this unfortunate situation did not deter us from booking Regent cruises, as the overall experiences we've had, and hope to continue to have, were stellar. We will be sailing on CROSS in November. CROSS will be our 5th Regent cruise.

I encourage you to please be an important and contributing member of the LCT community.

I (We) dont intent to stop using RSSC as we believe that they are the best around and I was only posting our surprise as "NO" has never been heard while we have crusied on this line as it has been on the many other lines that we had taken. As a matter of fact our friends booked another cruise while onboard. Again this was just a note to mention our surprise not to bash RSSC.
Penny

Penny you should feel free to post comments on Regent both pro and con and I hope that you will continue to participate in this forum. The only glitches that we experienced on our Mariner cruise in Asia last fall took place during lunch in La Verandah. A couple of times the staff just seemed a bit overwhelmed when they had large crowds arrive at the same time and the service was not up to par. Overall though we loved the Mariner and had a wonderful cruise.

Penny, we pride ourselves on being able to speak your mind here without feeling like you are getting blasted for your opinions. Reading back over this post, I can now see why your feelings were hurt but I don't think that is what anyone intended. Please don't stop posting! In the future, if you feel this way again, feel free to contact me right away and we can try to remedy the situation.

Our credo here is "Keep your posts nice" and if anyone feels this policy has been broken, I will fix it!

Keeping our posts nice doesn't mean that you cannot express your opinions here but it must be done in courteous manner.

I must say I am getting a little apprehensive about our upcoming trip to Alaska on Mariner(May 23). I have read a couple of reviews on CC that have reported less than stellar service and food on the Mariner. Having NEVER had a food issue or less than outstanding service on the PG, is the there something about the Mariner??

Egret, I think you are worried about nothing. My last cruise on the Mariner was this past August and our food was better than any of my past RSSC cruises. Unless something drastic has happened in the past few months, I don't think you will have a problem. I was also on the Navigator in December and once again, the food was outstanding.

I was with Karen on the Alaska cruise. Food was excellent. Had no service issues.

:eek: When I'm on a Regent ship, the last thing I want to worry about the d@mn alarm clock!! It's the things I want to precisely get away from!!!

Besides, if you need ot make sure you don't miss an excursion or appointment, just place a wake up call!!

We were on the Mariner for 30 days in November--never had a problem. The service and the food were both fantastic. We seldom have a need to special order anything because the regular menu has so many things we like--it's already hard enough to choose.

We too were on the Mariner with Karen in August and thought the service was flawless and food was outstanding, in every restaurant. We even special ordered one night in CR, I ordered filet of sole, my husband special ordered a ribeye steak. I know of lots of people on that cruise who special ordered king crab legs one night.

And Mariner has just been refurbished and Margo on this board posted her pictures under "picture links".

Just came off the Mariner March 23rd and the food was excellent. Chef Mike was was awesome.

Margo,

Thank you for posting your pictures of the Mariner's renovated interior! The beds look so comfortable and the coffee corner is a welcome addition. Did you happen to notice if the gym or spa have any changes to them, for example new equipment or redecorated space? Was the food as and service as good as you've remembered it?

Best wishes,
Goodmorning2U

Margo,

Just found that you had answered the aforementioned questions in another post! Thank you again for the valuable information. Glad to hear you had such a wonderful time.