Definitely NOT First Class. (Ours was the 7-day cruise not the 19-day trip)

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 7

Review summary

Note that I am not new to cruising and have cruised dozens of times including the Atlantic, several times in the Mediterranean, Black Sea, Southeast Asia, Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, West Coast USA and several times to Alaska. This was a memorial cruise following the deaths of both of our parents. I went with my sister, brother and his wife: two cabins with balconies, Concierge Class Level Deck 7. We paid $40,000 for the two cabins on the Regent SS Voyager for the trip from Barcelona to Lisbon. June 25 to July 2, 2023. It was not the top quality we had paid for. It was quite disappointing. 1. Lack of communications and zero organization regarding flight check ins and luggage outbound from Texas to Canada to Spain. Zero assistance at airports. 2. Zero directions at Barcelona airport. Could not easily find Regent agents. 3. It would have been nice to be provided with a bottle of water on arrival at the bus and information as to how long to the hotel. Nothing. 4. Tours were inconsistent in quality. Some guides had microphones and headsets for us such as in Granada who was good; others did not. Problem with the Granada tour was that it was misleading. The places that we toured were not all of what was presented. Many were skipped. 5. The tour in Malaga all of the churches and stores were closed. A few bars and tourist shops were open. Not good planning. 6. One guide at Cadiz carried a water bottle instead of a flag. He also spent 40 minutes talking about the slaughter of bulls in the bull ring. When asked to stop, he did not. He also provided insufficient information about the architecture of the old city… which was the main focus of the tour. 7. The mess up in Morocco due to the Eid al-Adha holiday was in excusable. Everything was closed due to the holiday. As this is one of the most holy of Moslem holidays, it is not acceptable to schedule tours to places where all of the buildings that we were scheduled to go see were closed. The entire country was shut down. Regent should have known this, moved to a different country or something of value. But to take our money and spend 8 hours driving around and not able to see what we had requested to visit is not acceptable. 8. The tour guide in Portugal spent more time chatting with the driver and did not talk much about the architecture or the history of the area. She took us to places where we had to pay for the rest rooms and clearly received commissions for purchases. She would let us off the bus with no information and say you have “5 or 10 minutes to take a picture.” She was not a good guide. 9. The French restaurant Chartreuse on the first night had good tasting food. But the service was so poor and so slow that the food was cold. The food was terribly salty, and not suitable. I tried to order fish without alcohol in the sauce, and it was already premade. The non-alcoholic sauces were very salty. While the ice cream was good, the crème Brule desert was room temperature as if it had been sitting out on the shelf. Not acceptable. 10. Water was never chilled on board ship. When we asked for cold water, it was not cold. Water in La Veranda restaurant tasted fishy. I eventually broke down and just used ice only board ship. I ended up with diarrhea which I suffered for 4 days. 11. We attempted to book another night in the French restaurant, but they never permitted us the opportunity. Not decent service or support. 12. We were able to book one night in Prime 7. The last night July 1. This was a disaster. We were booked for 8:30pm. We were placed at 9:20pm. The place was loud like a bar filled will drunks at a football game. There were 3 other empty tables when we were finally sat at our table. The servers tried to help but service was lousy. Food was salty. Salad not edible. Seafood (King Crab) was freezer burned and dry, 1 scallop completely covered with salt and not possible to be eaten. The lobster was the only thing edible. Food was sent back and the chef alerted to the poor quality of the food. It did not improve. Servers often did not know if food had alcohol or meat in it or not. I had to ask each time. I can buy fresher sea food from my local grocery store. 13. Coffee on board ship was consistently bad. It was weak, bitter and of poor quality. At all locations. Trust us, we tried every location. They were all the same. 14. Compass Rose food was salty and of poor quality. Not served hot when supposed to be hot, and not cold when supposed to be cold. Not wide selections for non-meat eaters and non-alcohol drinkers. 15. Pool side juice bar service was nice – but the vegetables and fruits were room temperature. This made the juice not worth drinking. They should have been kept chilled. 16. Shops on board had limited items. Not much of a selection of clothing. Very limited health items. 17. Only one small pool. It was salt and chorine with heavy on the chemicals. I broke out in hives from being in the water for 5 minutes. And yes, I had showered immediately after being in the pool water. 18. Medical Center was extremely overpriced for on ship visits. Decision to not go. 19. Wi-fi was inconsistent and unstable. Additionally, only one free account per cabin. I had to pay $175 for my service. 20. Spa service was extremely overpriced. $284 for a 50-minute massage was very high for mediocre treatment. 21. I did not attend any evening events as they started at 9:30pm. Which I felt there should have been other options. 22. Cigarette and cigar smoking on the pool deck was horrible. There were people eating and children there as well. Terrible. Nasty. 23. Disembarking procedure was very disorganized. Regent was calling groups and they just kept piling up at the area. No lines, true chaos. No instructions as to where to go. No instructions on the need to pick up our own luggage. We had been told that our luggage was to be delivered to our hotel. 24. We had a post-cruise package with transfers and hotel included. The lack of support was abysmal. No signage as to where our bus was to be located. No stewards with information as to where to go. When we did find our bus, they did not have our bags. We had to go back in through customs into the Lisbon Terminal to get clearance to go back down to retrieve our luggage. Not nice. 25. The Lisbon Marriott Hotel was another disaster. Not able to check in until 4pm. This was beyond stupid. We had arrived at 10:00am. One family member was sick and was expected to sit in their ugly little lobby for 6 hours. I was very angry with the Regent’s lack of support and poor planning of not having guest able to check in on arrival. All of our bags were placed in a room with no luggage tags. We were told that Regent did not pay for the luggage tag service. CHEAP. 26. The next morning, again there were no signs as to who was in charge of the Regent guests. We had to guess. We eventually found a man with no ID or signage that would call and track down our car. It showed up 40 minutes late. As we had plenty of time to get to the airport, it was not a problem. but the entire situation should not have happened. The car and driver should have been on time at 8:00am. And should have been identified. 27. Since the end of the cruise, I have been attempting to get the Regent Customer Service staff to provide restitution for the poor service. It was made clear that ship’s credit on a future cruise was not acceptable as Regent’s service was not acceptable. All that was offered was $300 credit per person. This is not acceptable. 28. What was supposed to be guaranteed as a luxury, 5-star cruise with pre-cruise and post-cruise hotel packages was mediocre. The ship’s management was careless and many of the staff untrained. The management's excuse was that their people were new. The shore staff were incompetent. I am writing to let people know that they should not take a Regent cruise. It is not worth the money. This cruise was at least 3 times the cost of a regular cruise and Regent did not deliver half of the services as promised.

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Children's Programs

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

TARRAGONA (BARCELONA), SPAIN

Ibiza, Balearic Islands

Almeria, Spain

Malaga, Spain

Casablanca, Morocco

Cadiz (Seville), Spain

Portimao, Portugal

Lisbon, Portugal

Disembarkation