My favorite things: mornings in the observation room as we sailed. I would not recommend this cruise as a way to see Australia and New Zealand. My trip of a lifetime was one major disappointment on Regent. I will not be traveling on any Regent organized trip in the future.
Embarkation
2 out of 5
Very disorganized.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Same food day after day. Wasn’t bad, but it was great either. Except for the Compass Rose and Prime 7.
Prime7
5 out of 5
The best dining experience we had on this trip. Be sure to book reservations well in advance. The closer it gets to departure, the more difficult it becomes to get reservations.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Nothing special about any of the activities except for the cooking classes offered. This is another thing to get reservations early. The classes fill up really quickly.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
The dancers were very good but they didn’t have enough performances. The comedian was not worth it at all. Nothing else appealed to me.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
The service and staff worked very hard to make the experience a good one. It was difficult understanding them, however. Very, very few staff/ship personnel spoke English very well. The captain would give announcements frequently which left most of the passengers asking each other what he said. The activities director would follow up a few minutes later to “clarify” what the captain had just said. I found this to be frustrating.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Loved the cabin. Very clean. Plenty of space and lots of storage. Step up into bathroom was a challenge in the middle of the night during rough sea experience, however.
Ship tip
Think again …. While it is a beautiful ship and the staff tries to make it an enjoyable experience for everyone the planning by Regent, itself, leaves a lot to be desired. We ended up spending 3 EXTRA “at sea” days while the hull of the ship was being cleaned of some kind of debris the New Zealand authorities did not want in their waterways, which Regent knew of in advance but failed to prepare for. This led to us missing half of the ports of call that were scheduled. The internet onboard was spotty to non existent all the time. Various shore excursions were dropped without much warning, or the times were changed with little to no reason given and the replacements were not organized well, or did not meet expectations. One tour bus had to endure off color jokes from the tour guide while driving around the New Zealand countryside while another bus got lucky with a tour guide that decided to forget the designated itinerary and took the bus to an alternative destination which was much more interesting. The tour guides that led the shore excursions were mediocre, at best. Throughout the entire cruise we felt as if the captain and cruise director were not being honest with us, at all. Personally, I felt trapped. We were given shipboard credit as a compensation for missed tours which had to be spent on board before the end of the cruise. The main problem with that was that there was very little to spend it on. The merchandise in the boutique was limited, both in quantity and in sizes. The merchandise was dated. I resented the entire experience. The passengers were buying things they didn’t want, or need, just to make sure the shipboard credit wasn’t just handed back to Regent. The credit was $1000.00 per couple! I overheard one passenger comment - “ How often are we given $1000.00 to spend with nothing to spend it on?” I was angry throughout the entire experience and could not wait to get off 5he ship.
Industrial port.
The excursion we took was a bus tour of Wellington with stops along the way. The tour guide was terrible. He would point things out to us either too far in advance so that we did not know what we were looking at, or after we had already passed the point of interest. The time allotted for the various stops was too short. 5 minutes at times, 10 at other times. I would have preferred fewer stops with more time allotted. By the time everyone got off the bus there was barely enough time to get a quick picture and then back on the bus.
It was an industrial port.
We did the HOBBITON excursion, which was as expected. The bus driver was good at giving us some of the history of Auckland during the hour + drive to the movie set. The tour guide that took us through HOBBITON was full of information but seemed a bit condescending at times.
Industrial port.
This was one of the better tours we experienced. It was another bus tour of the area but this guide was excellent. He pointed things of interest out in a manner that made it easy to follow and he gave us plenty of time at the various stops.
We were rushed at Melbourne because we were trying to make up time. We were at yet another industrial port. I don’t feel as if I really experienced Melbourne.
FINALLY, the cruise ended and we could get off the ship. We opted for the extend3d 3 days in Sydney, which was wonderful. If we hadn’t done that, I would have left Australia/New Zealand feeling as if I missed the entire th8ng.
Did not anchor in Dunedin as scheduled because we were off schedule due to extra days at sea. Originally we were to anchor at 5he port at Dunedin which would give us the opportunity to explore Dunedin on foot from the boat. We end3d up at another industrial port and needed to be bussed 30 minutes into Dunedin to a train ride to see the countryside. While the train ride was enjoyable, I don’t feel as if I saw Dunedin.
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