Regent Seven Seas Voyager Asian Cruise Blog #4

We've had a couple of sea days with Thursday Island thrown in as a port for good measure and it's such a sleepy little place that you could almost count that as a sea day as well. We've had a few requests to see some photos of the Voyager and here they are … so far everything has been as expected and perhaps even a little better than we'd experienced on previous Regent cruises. The last time we were on the Voyager was in the Med in 2007 and she was looking a little tired and in need of TLC and it's not really surprising given the beating these ships take especially on the quick turnarounds in Europe.

Anyway Voyager is looking really good these days - all the public areas have had a big makeover and she has the look and feel of a new ship with a nice balance of traditional styling and contemporary modern. We're in a penthouse suite at the back of ship and it's immaculate (I'm waiting for a good weather day to get a nice photo of it) and from what we've seen it's pretty much the same throughout the ship.

Probably the biggest difference so far has been the service levels all around … Regent were always good at this and they seemed to have improved on a lot of levels. They've built a fully fledged cafe called Coffee Connection on Deck 5 with fully trained baristas who know their stuff and other guests have been commenting how just a few years ago it was difficult getting a good coffee on board.

Other things also stand out … last night a couple was celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary and were booked into the French-inspired restaurant Signatures and they were escorted to dinner by a phalanx of butlers and given a bunch of red roses for good measure. Of course this is an all-inclusive cruise covering drinks including wines and spirits, gratuities and they've even thrown in most shore excursions which really sets Regent apart. We've booked tours in most ports and they've been included but there a few which do cost and they're usually the expensive ones.

Anyway into Darwin tomorrow and we're doing a "Jumping Crocodiles" tour which should be a laugh. I know a few people have posted comments and they've not gone up yet - that's because the internet has been really slow at times because most of the World Cruisers on board are Seven Seas Society members which means they have unlimited internet and they're online a lot which slows the satellite bandwidth down to a crawl.

We'll report back from Darwin….

We're here to offer you holiday competitions and other free stuff to win as the only competition magazine in Australia. Our free competitions will also feature as Facebook competitions and we'll also provide you with travel guides and travel advice as a hotel advisor and we'll be reviewing spa day packages, food and gourmet reviews, reviews of cruises and check out spa day hotels. Keep checking back for our regular travel reviews for first-hand accounts and photography from some great destinations, hotels, cruises and airlines, along with our reviews on must-have travel accessories.