Disappointing Experience

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 29

Review summary

We had traveled RSSC several times before and were always satisfied. On April 17, 2022 my wife, daughter and I left for Barcelona to spend 2 nights in a hotel that was booked through the cruise line. Following the hotel stay, we boarded Regent Seven Seas Cruise ship SS Splendor for a seven-night cruise. The total cost of our fares was about $30,000. This included a two-night stay upon disembarkation in Venice. Regent charged us $1,018 per night for a room there. Our daughter booked the same size room at the same hotel for herself for the same time for $250 per night. We never did stay at that hotel because all three of us tested positive for COVID while on the ship. We were never compensated by RSSC for this. After being quarantined in our cabin for 5 days, upon arrival in Trieste we (there was a total of 11 infected passengers) waited at the port for several hours before being taken by ambulances and escorted to a seedy hotel with trash in the hallways to spend the next 8 days in quarantine, as mandated by Italian authorities. I refused to have my family live under such conditions and immediately called a decent nearby hotel which had no problem quarantining COVID infected guests in accordance with Italian guidelines. I later checked and found that the rate for the original seedy hotel was $65 per night. Regent and their contractor insisted that we had to stay in the original hotel and even claimed to have alerted the Italian authorities when we left for the second hotel. RSSC continues to state that we had to stay at the seedy hotel, which is preposterous. Another couple also made the move to the second hotel. RSSC ended up not having to pay for our stay at the more acceptable hotel since this was covered by our trip insurance. We assume they also did not have to pay for our room at the seedy hotel since we never stayed there. After the hotel quarantine, we also had to get our own transportation from Trieste to Venice which was supposed to have been provided as part of our RSSC package. The entire cruise was a disaster. Due to the weather, which obviously RSSC could not control, and the COVID quarantine situation we were only able leave the ship on one occasion. Stops at several of the planned ports were either cancelled or diverted to less desirable ports. During this entire process, RSSC has consistently claimed their “concern” and desire to “remain fair and equitable” but never once offered any accommodation whatsoever for what we had been through. It makes one question their business acumen. They have lost forever a family that typically spends between $25,000- 40,000 a year on cruises simply because they refused to listen to and accommodate the frustrations of these historically loyal customers. We do not believe we would have been treated this way by our other favored cruise lines Silver Sea and Crystal. Having taken over 40 cruises over the years, we have never seen a need to publicly criticize a cruise line or ship but this experience was beyond the pale.

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Barcelona, Spain

Monte Carlo, Monaco Did not visit port

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy Did not visit port

Sorrento, Italy Did not visit port

Messina, Sicily Did not visit port

Zadar, Croatia Did not visit port

Trieste, Italy

Disembarkation