Sand, Surf & Rum Cruise on the Regent Grandeur
1/24/25 to 2/3/25

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Page 1 – Embarkation, Ship
Page 2 – Ship Continued
Page 3 - Ports of Call: Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Gustavia, St. Barts
Page 4 - Ports of Call: Roseau, Dominca; St. Johns, Antigua; Tortola, BVI

Preface

We originally booked a Viking Nile River cruise for January 2025 with a pre-trip in Israel and post-trip in Jordan. When the Gaza war broke out and didn’t appear to have an end in sight, we canceled the cruise, since we really wanted to be able to visit Israel. We will have to book it again later. As a result, we had a five-month period with no major vacations, so we decided to try out a cruise line that I have wanted to try for some time, Regent Seven Seas. Their newest ship, the Grandeur, was supposed to be a wonderful experience. With us having been to the Caribbean many times before, the ship was our primary destination. It is still nice to visit the southern Caribbean and Regent had some very nice included excursions that would make it a fun cruise.

Embarkation

We don’t enjoy driving to Miami, since the traffic can be horrid. With this only being a 10-day cruise, we decided to drive to the Port of Miami and park there rather than taking a Brightline train or hiring a driver like we normally do. By leaving our home, which is about 60 miles from the port, we could be there in around 90 minutes. The traffic would be better by leaving around 10:00 AM. There was some highway construction in Miami that slowed the traffic way down, but Google Maps rerouted us where we were able to get to the parking lot across the street from Terminal J in around an hour and a half.

Check in was a breeze and we were soon able to board the beautiful Grandeur. We were on board by 11:45 AM. As soon as we boarded, we could see that this was one special cruise ship.

Ship

We couldn’t have been more impressed with this beautiful, elegant ship. The 55,500-ton ship has a double occupancy capacity of 744 passengers. But even better than the ship itself, the service provided was the best we have experienced. We are normally very pleased with service on cruise ships. The staff on most of the lines we have been on work very hard to make your trip enjoyable by greeting and smiling at you while spoiling you. On Regent, service is at a much higher level with a higher staff to passenger ratio than other lines we have cruised with. I can’t imagine better service, but since this is our first cruise on a true luxury cruise line, we will have to try others find out the best line for us. Right now, Regent is our favorite line.

The various public rooms are shown below by category.

Restaurants (Link to Menus)

I have included copies of the menus for the main dining room along with photos of some of the food items at the Menus link just above and at the top of each page of the review.

A frequent question about Regent is the dinner dress code for the restaurants. It is called elegant casual. The definition for this is: Skirt or slacks with blouse or sweater, pant suit or dress for ladies; slacks and collared shirt for gentlemen, sport jackets are optional. Jeans are not permitted. One of our friends said that a man came in with jeans. After they were seated, he was asked to change into slacks. We were glad that Regent enforces their dress code. It is a pretty easy one to comply with.

Compass Rose – The main dining room for the ship is located on deck 4 at the back of the ship. We only ate there four of the ten nights, since we went to the specialty restaurants the other nights. The food was very good as was expected. What we really appreciated was an extensive menu of items that were available every day that I have included in the menu section of the review. My only disappointment with the menu was that they didn’t have French onion soup available every day. It is one of my favorites. We never did visit Compass Rose for breakfast, but we will when we are back on the ship next year. Lunch is not served in Compass Rose. Instead, it is served in both Chartreuse and Prime 7 specialty restaurants.

It is a truly elegant room. There is a dramatic entrance to the dining room with a metallic waterfall type decoration as you enter. Theres also very nice wall decoration and sculpture on the side of the entrance.

As we entered the room, we were greeted by what has been said to resemble a magical forest. It is impressive.

I took photos from all around the room.

The place settings were most attractive. We were particularly impressed with the Versace chargers.

On the last day of the cruise, a very extensive brunch was held in the restaurant. It was very well done.

La Veranda / Seti Mari – This is the buffet at the back of the ship on deck 11. The restaurant is in the shape of a U, with food in the middle and tables on the sides. This was the only restaurant where the tables were too close together. As a result, there wasn’t enough room between chairs when occupied to be able to pass between them to get to your table or back to the buffet. We always did find a way though.

At the back of the room there was an al fresco area that was very popular with the great weather we had for the cruise.

There is also seating available when needed in the Pool Grill area where there are lots of tables and chairs. We had breakfast every day at the buffet. A couple mornings they offered caviar at breakfast. A nice touch!

In the evening La Veranda turns into the Seti Mari Italian specialty restaurant. Reservations are not required, but if you want to eat early, you need to get in line at least 10-15 before the 6:30 PM opening time. Only one side of the buffet seating area is used in the evening, so seating is limited. The menu changes every two days but does have many of the same items every day. The ones that do change are some of the items that are on the Compass Rose menu for the day. We thoroughly loved Seti Mari and wish we could have eaten there again but we ran out of nights.

We did like that there was a nice salad/appetizer area where we could get up and select items rather than ordering from the menu. It is also where desserts were located.

Chartreuse – This is the ship’s French restaurant that is located at the back of the ship on the deck 10 port side. The food was good, but it was different from what the descriptions were in some cases. For some reason, the French restaurant didn’t have French onion soup. Heresy! They did have a crispy escargot dish, but it was more like a fritter, not escargot with garlic butter. It was our least favorite dining room on the ship. Talking with others, it was there least favorite also. With Regent, we were able to make one booking for each of the three specialty restaurants in advance of the cruise. I knew that we wanted to make an additional booking at the Asian restaurant, but that needed to be done after boarding. When we boarded, the first thing I did was to go to the restaurant reservation desk. They said that we couldn’t make additional reservations until a couple days into the cruise to allow those who didn’t pre-book to make some reservations. She did say that they had room available that night at Chartreuse if we wanted it, so we took it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t make a second booking. Lunch is served every day in both this restaurant and Prime 7. I believe those menus change daily. They also have some of the items that are served at the La Veranda buffet.

I read that the restaurant’s design is inspired by the Parisian metro’s art nouveau stations and Coco Chanel’s designs. At the entrance there is a waiting area with a small bar.

The restaurant is a long room with angled windows at back of the restaurant looking out to the ship’s wake.

They also had nice place settings with a Versace charger.

Prime 7 – This is the ship’s steak house that is located at the back of the ship on the deck 10 starboard side. The food was very good. I wish we had gotten a second booking there. Surprisingly, the steak house had great onion soup.

The restaurant’s design is supposed to be influenced by New York City’s classic 20th century steakhouses. They also had a nice small waiting area and bar.

Just like with Chartreuse, the restaurant is a long room with angled windows at back of the restaurant looking out to the ship’s wake.

Being a steak house, the place setting wasn’t as elegant as the other restaurants.

Pacific Rim - This pan-Asian specialty restaurant is located on deck 5 at the back of the ship on the port side. It is the smallest and most popular of the specialty restaurants. Unlike the other two specialty restaurants that go all the way to the back of the ship, Pacific Rim is limited because the spa, which is on the starboard side of deck 5 and spa deck take up a large area behind the restaurant. We thoroughly enjoyed the nice selection of tasty offerings on the menu. On our first visit we sat with a couple who had eaten there on several cruises and knew that the portion size was very small. This is a good thing, so that you can try several items at each visit. They even ordered two main courses. When my main course of a wonderful miso black cod came out, I also ordered an additional main course. I was so glad we were able to get a second booking at our favorite restaurant on the ship.

At the entrance to the restaurant is an incredible piece of artwork, a glass cherry blossom tree. It looks so real! When you get close to it, you can see that it is made of glass. I took close ups of the flower petals to show the detail.

The entrance to the dining room is quite long. I am surprised they didn’t use the room for more tables.

The place settings were a nice Asian style.

The Study – This is a dining room located on deck 10 between Chartreuse and Prime 7. It is a dining room most will never see, since it is out of the way, and you must know where it is to find it. It is an exclusive private dining room accessible to a select group of guests. It seats up to twelve guests and must be reserved by your butler. Food can be ordered from either of the two specialty restaurants on either side of it. There is also the below option as shown on the Regent website:

For those who prefer to create their own personalized experience, guests of The Study can also request that any off-menu dishes be prepared by the Senior Executive Chef. Savor a regional dish from one of the ports of call visited that day, such as Sicilian squid-ink pasta, or a traditional homecooked-style meal, like slow-roasted lamb with seasonal vegetables.

It is a very attractive room that would be great for an intimate dinner for a small group.

Pool Grill – This very large venue is located in front of the buffet on deck 11. They have a large cooking area where they make burgers, hotdogs, etc. as well as another area across from it that serves salads and many other food items. It is also a popular breakfast venue. Ice cream is available at one side of the cooking area. This is handy if the buffet ice cream area is too busy. We only ate here for a couple lunches. The burgers were outstanding. We would have liked to try something else, but we ran out of time.

There was lots of dining space on both sides of the grill. As previously mentioned, it is also used for those dining in the buffet.

One section on the starboard side just had comfortable chairs and not tables.

Lounges (Link to Menus)-

I have included copies of the menus for all the lounges at the Menus link just above and at the top of each page of the review.

Grandeur Lounge – This lounge is located on deck 4 just in front of the Compass Rose dining room. It is a very convenient restaurant with its proximity to the main dining room. You can get a drink and go next door for dinner. It is a very attractive room with a small stage where the Power of Two Duo played each night. They were very good and attracted a large crowd before dinner, so seating was at a premium.

This lounge officially opened at 6:00 PM, but they were serving before then. The dress code was the same as for the restaurants after 6:00 PM, elegant casual. After 6:00 PM the lounges serve canapes. They were quite good. We had to refuse a lot of them to not spoil our dinners.

Meridian Lounge – This lounge is located on the starboard side of deck 5 behind the reception area. It was probably the least used of the lounges on this cruise. The bartender told us that is a craft bar that curates unique drinks. He was preparing some of the drinks utilizing smoke.

This bar also had a small stage where members of the Regent orchestra played several times a night.

Observation Lounge – The largest lounge is in the front of the ship on deck 11. With the large expanse of glass, it is a great place to relax and watch the sea. There were lots of different types of chairs and nooks to sit in.

I liked the light decoration on the ceiling. It was interesting to just watch the lights slowly blinking. It doesn't take much to catch my attention.

Several times an evening a very good piano player/singer, Kelly, would perform. We really enjoyed her voice and her song selection.

Connoisseur Club – This is the lounge for smokers. It is located on the port side of deck 11 along the hall leading to the Observation Lounge. I have never understood why the most comfortable furniture is in the ship’s smoking lounges. They look like very cozy rooms that would be great for many activities, but the smoke would keep most people away from the room.

Coffee Connection – This coffee bar is located on the port side of deck 5 behind the reception area. It is a wonderful place with great coffee and lots of food for a light meal. The food selection changes with the time of day. With hours from 6:30 AM to 6:00 PM it is available most of the day if you are thirsty or hungry.

The self-serve coffee machines that were available all the time were quite popular.

Entertainment

Constellation Theater – The main theater is in the front of the ship on deck 4, with the balcony on deck 5. There is an attractive entrance hall on deck 4.

It is a very nice theater with excellent video capabilities providing interesting backgrounds for the different parts of the shows.

On the main level there are two types of seating. There are individual chairs with small round tables between them. The tables can’t be moved, but the chairs can be. Every other row is a bench seat also with unmovable tables. There was very little room to be able to move between the chairs and benches due to the tables. It was a real problem, since people moved their chairs to get more legroom in the narrow aisles, making it almost impossible to pass through on either side of the table.

Also, if you are sitting on a bench seat, the people in the chairs in front of you can obstruct your view because they are higher than the benches. It wasn’t a good design for the seating.

The balcony only had bench seats that worked out much better, but they didn’t have tables for drinks. We still normally sat up there, since it was more convenient when the show was over to get to the back elevators where our cabin was located. The four forward elevators went to decks 3 through 14. The two rear elevators only went from decks 5 through 11. There was normally a large crowd waiting to go up the front elevators, but not the back ones.

In the back of the main floor, they normally had coffee and snacks available for those that wanted a bite during the shows or other presentations during the day.

Casino – The casino is on deck 4 at the back of the ship in front of Compass Rose. It is a small one and I rarely saw anyone in there when it was open. Of course, we didn’t check it out after the show when it might have gotten busier. I felt sorry for the dealers that were sitting there most of the time just looking around. We could see them from the Grandeur Lounge and they just killed time.

Outer Decks

Pool – The pool on deck 11 was a nice size for this ship.

There were loungers all around it with many shaded by deck 12. There were rarely loungers available due to the popularity of those wanting to be in the warm air. Also, chair hogs that leave something on the loungers while they do something else tied up a lot of chairs for those that wanted to use them. A common problem on cruise ships. Since we live in south Florida, being in the sun isn’t important to us.

There were two large hot tubs at the rear part of the pool deck.

There was a good size stage in the forward part of the pool area.

Upper Deck – There were lots of loungers on deck 12 in the direct sun. They weren’t as popular as those on deck 11.

Sports Deck – The rear section of deck 12 is called the Sports Deck. It has several sport features on it including a jogging track. There were no signs indicating the length, but I did find some info that said it was a quarter mile long.

Golf Net – On the port side of the Sports Deck is a golf net for swing practice.

Bocce Court / Corn Hole– On the starboard side of the Sports Deck is the bocce court. One of the bocce courts was set up for Corn Hole.

Shuffleboard – On the port side of the Sports Deck behind the golf net is the shuffleboard court.

Paddle Tennis – In the back of the Sports Deck is a paddle tennis or pickleball court.

Putting Green – Surrounding the Paddle Tennis court on the Sports Deck is a cute putting green. It is set up to represent famous golf holes around the world.

Ping Pong Table – A ping pong table is occasionally set up on deck 12 just above the pool on the starboard side.

Sand, Surf & Rum Cruise on the Regent Grandeur 1/24/25 to 2/3/25