18 Nights Scandinavian Serenade Cruise

Mariner Was Great!

A few days ago we finished a 17 night cruise on the Mariner from Miami to Rio, which actually was the first leg of the 2025 World Cruise. We did this as a "test drive" of the Mariner since we had never been on her and are planning to do the 2026 World Cruise with Regent. As a quick summary, she passed with flying colors and we're excited to do our first World Cruise on her next year! For background on us, we love to cruise and over the last two years have done cruises across many of the major cruise lines - Regent (5), Silversea (2), Seabourn (2), Oceania (1), Explora Journeys (1), Atlas (2 expeditions - Antarctica and the Arctic), HAL (2), Celebrity (2), Royal (1) and NCL (1). Just giving that context to say that we feel we know cruise ships and feel comfortable sharing our opinion. And while we've been on some of the newest ships lately (Grandeur and Silver Ray) we actually like the older ships like Mariner and Navigator (our favorite). To us it's more about the feel you get from the crew and what we call the "vibe" on the ship and Mariner had a great one. We had some concerns going in given some of the recent reviews on Mariner and comments we've read on this board but our experience was really good. I'll highlight our thoughts below: We were in a Category E Concierge Suite on the 8th deck What we felt Mariner did well: The crew - Rivy, our room steward was better than any butler we've ever had always anticipating our every need and supplying it; Dennis, our waiter at Compass Rose most nights was so friendly and efficient; Luis the Executive Concierge answered all the questions I had about our upcoming world cruise as well as other items; Andrew Galler was the cruise director and was funny and talented and did his own show one night which was very good; the various bar tenders, waiters, sommeliers, reception desk, destination services and others were always cheerful and willing to help and provide great customer service. They all provided that great vibe we like. Food - We never had a bad meal; Compass Rose with its changing menu and everyday lobster and filet mignon option is in our opinion the finest main dining room at sea; Prime 7 for us was excellent; Sette Mari was also good; the fresh fish option at La Veranda for lunch every day was nice along with all their other options; the pool grill was good for a quick burger or hot dog; the afternoon tea was always tasty with nice music; the room service always came on time and hot (even the soup). Entertainment - We felt they really shined here; We enjoyed every show and thought they brought in some great talent; the MidAtlantic Men were three male singers who were funny and talented; Levent a comedian/magician was good; Lisa-Marie Holmes was a female singer with an amazing voice singing Streisand and other Icons; her significant other, Josh Henderson did a Queen tribute and nailed it and also did a Rock Legends show that was good; the two of them also performed together and did a great show; Mark Palmer a comedian was very funny; Greg Rodman, a guitarist, did two shows and made that guitar sing; the RSSC orchestra always accompanied the shows and also did evening shows in the Horizon Lounge and were really tight; the Regent singers and dancers were all very talented and performed well; the Krew Kapers show put on by the crew was excellent as always; one of the enrichment speakers was Terry Bishop and he was so funny and probably the best speaker we've had on our journeys; they did Karaoke several nights and that was fun and really packed. What we felt Mariner could improve on: - The enrichment speakers talks can't be viewed on demand on your TV and there's no schedule to know when they're on; so if you miss one, you just have to be lucky to find it while it's playing on your cabin TV - The music selection on the TV is not the greatest; there are many genres to pick from but many of them don't align to the music that's played - The piano player in the Mariners Lounge was a great pianist but we felt his singing was not as strong - The Duo in the Stars Lounge was not strong and most nights very few people were there after dinner - While we were excited to visit Devil's Island off French Guiana (think the movie Papillion), we felt Regent should have provided a map of the island to help navigate it - We feel the end of cruise survey should be able to be done post cruise after you get home, not taking time up during your cruise to provide feedback; as a positive, I must say they personally responded to us when we gave feedback on the mid cruise survey so that was nice - None of the above were major and would prevent us from sailing Mariner again Bottom-line is we loved the Mariner and can't wait to take her around the world next year for 154 days! If anyone would like to read my daily summary of this cruise (as well as all our other cruises) with pictures of food, menus, ports, etc. go to my travel blog at:the wandering italian dot com Happy Sailing!

As Good As It Gets!

Best line with the best crew we have been on. We took a 24 day cruise and enjoyed every minute of it. The service was fantastic and the food was excellent with many choices at every meal. The suites were very much like Seabourn, Silver Seas etc. so all very good. We would give our highest recommendation to Regent and the Mariner. From the start, embarkation was very efficient and very organized. The size of the ship was perfect as it was big enough that they had very good entertainment but small enough (700 guests) that it was never crowded in any area of the ship. You could always find lounges around the pool area and was never crowded exiting and returning to the boat after excursions. The excursions were, for the most part, very well defined and well orchestrated. We have already picked another Regent cruise, made a reservation for next year and cannot wait until it gets here!

Regents is great - Amsterdam, not so much

We loved every aspect of our Mariner cruise, and we highly recommend this vessel, crew and itinerary were all great. Butler service was excellent as was all the wait-staff in the lounges & restaurants. Regents had lots of things marked down in their shops - the prices were very low. Bourdeaux, Porto and Ferrol were our favorite ports of call. Clean streets and great shopping & food. Unfortunately, our embarkment port of Amsterdam has morphed into an unappealing place to visit. Garbage piled up everywhere and blowing around your feet as we walked 8 miles around the city. The disgusting smell of urine and pot is everywhere, and we stepped over condoms on the sidewalk. Anti cruise industry protestors chained themselves to a bridge and almost delayed our ability to leave the port on-time. As far as we are concerned - they can have this city all to themselves - we won't go back to Amsterdam.