regent prices are highest because of bundling more, which can also cause tours to be even more crowded

crystal did add 31 cabin espirit

curious to see their announced residences

We are Regent cruisers and have 2 coming up in the Med. One in September and one in May both on their new ship Explorer. We sailed on her back in November and really loved the ship and, of course, the crew.

Can you reveal what brings you back to Regent? Have you tried any of the other luxury lines, and if so, why does Regent stand out? Thanks.

I found Regent too stuffy.
We have used Azamara as we like booking independent tours.

Our first two cruises were on Seabourne (Caribbean on the Legend - no longer part of the fleet - and the Sojourn in the Baltic). We loved the Sojourn. Nice size, good service and Seabourne Square was a nice space for "hanging out". Our next two cruises were on the Silversea Spirit. Friends we met on our first Seabourne cruise told us that the food is better on Silversea. We agree, but food is very subjective. We have two more cruises booked on the Silversea Spirit - Athens round trip this September and Venice to Athens next April. Obviously, we are big fans of Silversea. We have friends who are loyal to Regent. We haven't booked with them due to the price - as another post mentioned they bundle excursions into the fare - and we don't wish to pay for excursions we are not interested in. Basically, we look at both Seabourne and Silversea when planning cruises. Whichever one has the route and price we're comfortable with is the one we book.

I find Regent very unstuffy JMO of course. We have sailed on Crystal, Silversea and QMII. We liked Crystal but it is larger and more formal. QMII was too big for us and Silversea was a disaster. We sailed Silver Spirit and didn't care for it at all. They had big service problems.

We sailed Crystal including a 108 day world cruise in 2015. We are under 66 years old. It was a great experience. In the past 2 years Crystal has become less formal with only a suggested black tie optional night. That said people do dress nicely. You won't see tee shirts and shorts at dinner. There also aren't hairy teeshirt contests nor gold by the inch sales. There are almost no loud speaker announcements. We didn't find it too formal. Rather it is very well organized. Dinners tend to be fixed tables but you can dine by reservation. The ships are old but very comfortable.

Children are allowed and present especially during summer and school holidays. If you want child-free think about Viking Ocean Cruises.

That's a shame about Silversea. Unfortunately all one has to do is catch that one cruise where the service is off or the ship has mechanical problems or whatever and you never want to try them again. We've cruised some 72 days on Silversea in the past five years and generally have had excellent to superior service. In 2015 we were on the Spirit on a 16-day back-to-back cruise (a 9-day and 7-day) out of Venice ending in Athens. Service in LaTerrazza, their Italian restaurant, was marginal and disappointing. Our midway was Istanbul and an assistant maitre d' who had been on vacation rejoined the ship. He was assigned to La Terrazza and the difference was night and day. Very quietly but very obviously he got the wait staff back in line and within a day or two service was back. We actually talked to him close to the end of the cruise and thanked him for obviously getting service rolling again. He apologized for the poor service during our first leg and acknowledged they knew things had slipped. It's not their reputation but stuff happens.

on silversea it seemed to me that training and supervision emphasized fake (not real) formality and certain procedures. a while before, seabourn at least seemed more straight forward (some thought too casual) and flexible. good service requires some flexibility.

i did not find silversea stuffy at all in any way, but i ran into one waiter who seemed to dislike when we did not play the fake formality game.

butler operations also have some gaps. dedicated but days off etc.

a few silversea staff delivered solid service. an officer actually delivered on formality when being polite.

The only genuine first class cruise experience available is Hapag LLoyd, all the rest are business class offerings masquerading as first class…...

Oh, HL is really business class:

https://www.hapag-lloyd.com/en/home.html

possibly if referring to original europa, but only original europa

Just FWIW YMMV- since September 2016

Viking Sea- Venice to Athens- Excellent trip, the answer to any request was "we were told to always say yes". We were not in a suite but had a balcony. This was MUCH better than Regent (see below). The excursions were great. We had a PhD in Anthropology tour guide do the included tour at Santorini Akrotiri, and this was a highlight. We did a private 8 hour tour of Athens, also fantastic. Food Great, no limits on wine/beer at lunch and dinner. I would suggest you put this in your premium Sea Cruise list. We have another scheduled next year.

Did Lindblad Explorer to Antarctica in December. Not a luxury or premium ship, but it was a feast for the mind if you like to be educated.

Oceania Marina to Central America but not the Cuba stop. TL;DR- Food was very good but not the best at sea. Excursions ok but not great. We are giving them a chance in November in a suite.

Regent Mariner- The all inclusive reminded me of a slighly improved all inclusive at a Cozumel beach resort for diving. The food was ok but the scrum to get to the dining options left much to be desired. We will not be back unless they have an itinerary that we really want.

Leaving for a Silversea tomorrow.

Oceania Marina TA repositioning in November.

All of this is research for a World Cruise in 2020. So far Viking has the edge followed by Oceania. We will see about Silversea.

Some people "get" Silversea boerne, and some don't..
The appointments have joined the race to the bottom , but the crews, for the most part are a memorable bunch who achieve a lot of loyalty for the brand.

This link has something to do with this thread?