Today we embarked on our next cruise adventure and we are trying out Regent Cruises. Lesley had found a very good deal and a week before we left we were offered an upgrade from a Verandah to a Penthouse for £ 60,– a night, so we took it. A Penthouse is the lowest catagory of the suites and the first level that comes with a butler so it will be interesting to see how this compares to Silver Seas, Azamara, Cunard, MSC Yachtclub and Scenic.
Regent does not have cruises leaving from the UK until 2027 so we had to fly to Rome to join the ship. Flights and transfers are included in the cruise price and it looked like Regent had arranged everything well. We even got the replacement luggage lables with the new cabin numbers on time. Regent had their own hiccup as they had booked all guests joining today in a brand new hotel but it turned out that this hotel was only to be completed next year, so we were moved to an old (but luxurious) hotel in downtown Rome, a five minute walk from the Trevi fountain. Very nice for guests who arrived early and still wanted to wander into downtown Rome.
09 Oct. travelling.
So we flew from Norwich via Amsterdam to Rome and arrived there just before lunch time. Regent had advised in their paperwork that there would be a representative waiting for us on arrival at the Airport but when we came out of the baggage area, there was nobody. We saw reps for Costa, Celebrity, and MSC but nobody from the most poshest of these company’s to be present. The paper work had phone details for emergencies (English number) but nothing local (apart from the terminals in Civitavecchia). But while we were on the phone to England to get something sorted, a sheepish looking driver showed up with a tablet with our name and of somebody else on it. That worked but not as we had been advised. He found another couple while roving around with his tablet, from Texas, and so with 4 in the van we set off. The Texas couple were longtime Regent cruisers but had also never experienced not having a representative at the airport. So we will inform Guest Relations on board to advise the office to get the discrepancy changed.
But is was a nice shuttle bus with a long ride through down town Rome as most of downtown is one way traffic, so the shuttle bus had to weave around the main tourist areas. And they were choc-a-block with tourists. I think a lot of tourists had decided to postpone their vacation to later in the year as this summer Rome was unbearably hot. Long waiting lines for getting into the Vatican Museum and it almost looked as if China or Japan had taken over Vatican City.
Once impressive now a bit of faded glory. (Photo courtesy Hotel website)
The hotel, Grand Hotel Plaza Rome, announced as a very luxurious happening, turned out to be an old Palace from the 18th. century turned into a hotel in the late 1860’s. It had a very big waiting room, no doubt a grand ballroom from the old days. If the glass ceiling and the ceiling fresco’s had had a good restoration and cleaned it would have been breath taking. Now it was just impressive in a sort of faded way. We were too early for check in, so we left the suitcases and went into the next side street for lunch. The hotel is surrounded by expensive shops and also the restaurants mainly thrive on tourists. The pizza’s were good and the service typical Rome/Italian, friendly, abrupt and a bit chaotic. But then the whole city is chaotic with the tempo driven by all the motorists with a total lack of respect for Rules of the Road, and the very creative car parking.——- If there is a gap, then we park———– sign or no sign.
In the hotel was a lady representing Regent, and she offered 3 departures to the ship. 09.30, 10.30 and 11.30. We took the last one, as we wanted to sleep in. Leaving from Norwich airport at 06.00 in the morning makes one tired. The procedure is supposed to be that we are picked up with a small van from the front door, and then driven to the “end of the road” to join the coach for an 1 hour journey to Civitavecchia.
At 3 pm the hotel room was ready and the first impression of the room, was quite impressive. High ceilings, big bathroom lots of space. Much bigger than was indicated in the paperwork. However the promised bathrobes were nowhere in sight, and the shower had been replaced by a much too deep bath tub. But there was a bidet in case you wanted to wash your socks. We called twice for the advised bathrobes (1600 and 1700 hrs) but apart from the front desk remark, “we will look into it”, we never heard anything back and never saw the bathrobes. Now we just have to make sure that they do not charge bathrobes to our account when they make up the room.
The room. The only outstanding thing was the 60 inch TV., with approx. 250 channels.
For the rest the hotel was not what you would expect for the guests of Regent and I wonder how the Americans managed. There was only one two pin socket for which most travellers would have an adaptor. So a challenge for most Americans who would want to charge their cell phone. We could manage with one plug, but not what you would expect from a Grand Hotel, as they thought they were. The next interesting thing was the mini bar. The minibar was not filled accordance to what was on the paper listing (no pringles) so we have to make sure that we do not get charged for that as well. As there was no ice bucket in the room either, I went to the bar to get two colas and 2 glasses of ice, and that set me back 24 euro’s. This is the first hotel where we stayed where the mini bar is cheaper than the regular hotel bar. (8 euro for a cola in the minibar)
10 October.
Breakfast was included and was very good and served in yet another old room with fresco and gold rimmed ceiling. Nice to sit and look at. When we came back to the room, the room next door was open so we poked our nose inside. This was a much smaller room but it had a kettle. And that is an important thing for the English so it set Lesley of in tangent, as we did not have one in our room, and hence she had to forgo her early morning cup of tea. At the Front Desk she enquired why there were no bathrobes and no kettle in our room and the brilliant answer from the front desk was:
Those 2 things are not part of the Regent package under which you are staying.
As if Regent would go through the contract and negotiated a kettle and bathrobes out of the program. So we will pass it all on to Regent and maybe they can arrange that future guests have it better.
The Via Corso. In the far distance is the San Anglo castle just visible and in the street the shuttle buses for our transport.
Getting to the ship was an interesting experience, as the street, the Via Corso. is too small to allow normal coaches in, so we were first transported in groups of 6 with luggage to outside the walls of the City and there transferred to a coach for the 1 hour journey to Civitavecchia. The forecasted rain did not materialize and it was a pleasant ride. When coming down the hill, we saw that apart from the Regent Voyager there was in port, the Costa Toscana, the Mariella Explorer and the Norwegian Viva. The last one dwarfed the other ships and did not look much look like a cruise ship at all, more like an Electric Power Station, with all those slides and other amenities sticking out above and behind the funnel. They even have a water slide that goes down from about 14 decks from the top to where normally promenade deck is. In the corner behind all these large ship was ours, the small Seven Seas Voyager.
Seven Seas cruises is a subsidiary of Norwegian Cruise Line together with Oceana Cruises which operates in the same luxury market segment but is not All Inclusive. We have high hopes for this cruise as Seven Seas has just been voted the best Small Cruise Line in the world, from a poll of over 800.000 cruise travellers.
The Seven Seas Voyager. The ship was built in 2003 but extensively refurbished in 2026, so inside she almost looks like new. With 42000 tons and 206 meters she is for nowadays standards a very small ship. She can handle 706 – 777 guests and that gives the very high passenger ratio of 63. There are 443 crew listed so a ratio of just over 2 to 1 to the guests.
As we came by coach, with about 35 on the coach, check in was a breeze and the check in ladies were very cheerful. I think they were happy to deal with small groups instead of processing 4000 NCL cruisers. In the terminal the Executive Concierge was supervising it all and on the gangway the General Hotelmanager and the Assistant Cruise Director wer there to say hello with Champagne. I still have not figured out if I like that when stepping on board, as you only have two hands and those are full with hand luggage. But the champagne was good. As the ship is “small”, it is a breeze to find everything on board so we did not have to embark on an expedition to find everything.
Cabin or suite 764. It has a sitting area separated by a curtain from the bed area. Desk with fridge and a make up table with a Bose speaker. Then there is a bathroom with a very large shower and a coffee machine. (We had that one changed for a kettle for tea)
We have cabin 764 on Deck 7 near the aft staircase, which is a suite with butler service. (That was the result of paying for an upgrade. Deck 8 was another £400 dearer and the only perk is that the cabin was located a deck higher). The cruise comes with $500 on board spending, so in a way Seven Seas are paying for the upgrade. Lesley is planning to spend the On Board Credit in the Beauty Salon as for the rest everything is included, so no further expenses. Even a number of tours are included.
While waiting for the luggage, the butler showed up, Mr. Savananan from Madras, India. His real name is about 30 letters long as is normal for that area, hence the short first name being used. He had been with Seven Seas for over 10 years and before that 10 years with Oceana so the crew must like the company to work for as change over in the hotel industry can be very high, and with the still expanding cruise fleet there is ample opportunity. A butler is basically there to do everything you want, including escorting you to restaurants if you do not know the way. That was handy on MSC Virtuosa some time ago but here less of an issue. He was followed by Nicolai and his assistant who will look after the cabin. He was from the Philipinnes and it took them less than 3 minutes to find out what was my background so the regular discussion followed, “have you been to my home country etc.”.
To avoid to make this first day blog very long, here is the cruise that we will make, and the rest will come tomorrow, when we visit Naples.
Our planned cruise. Going around Italy to Venice / Fusina (Diagram courtesy of Cruisemapper)
