Excursion Postings

Although you should be able to call Regent directly and get prompt, straightforward, and most of all correct answers from their phone agents, this is not always (okay, actually rarely) the case. I can't help you with booking excursions on the 'flip' day on a B2B as I've never done one - but I can agree with TC that 99% of the time it's better to let your TA find the answers for you as the phone reps are less than knowledgeable when it comes to things like this.

 

I know my TA has been able to get answers for me in an hour after I've spent 3 or more phone calls trying to figure stuff out. But the bottom line is that even if Regent sells cruises directly to consumers, the level of service you'll receive is a complete crapshoot.

 

I've had phone agents tell me that Navigator is in drydock when their own website showed her as being refurbished and sailing with passengers on board. I've had phone agents tell me that certain excursions are available when I knew for certain they weren't. The only consistently good experience I've had calling Regent directly was to fix dinner reservations - and the reason I had to call was because their website wouldn't let me set things up.

 

Regardless of how good your TA is, I'd let them deal with Regent - because no matter how good the on-board experience is, the home office staff usually leaves a lot to be desired.

 

Just my opinion, of course.

I appreciate your post UUNetBill. One correction is that as I believe I've stated before this cruise is not technically a B2B, it is sold as one itinerary, so Lisbon should be a bookable port regardless of how many people are embarking or disembarking.

This whole experience has me unhappy before I even set foot on the ship which should not be the case. From a bad experience with a customer service rep who seemed to only be able to read from a script, to actual available excursions only being viewable on first day of booking, to an important (IMO) tour option that wasn't even available for booking at 240 days being sold out at 237 days, this has tarnished Regent in my eyes. And yes I like to handle most things on my own. In my experience I've found many other passengers who do the same. Let's face it, most guests are knowledgeable and well travelled. Regent needs to understand that their clients' overall experience starts with good customer service to its clients, not just it's TA's, in all it's forms - shore excursions, dining reservations. No matter how pleased I am with my onboard experience I will always be annoyed with this situation.

Bill and Dave, agree with you completely. And, while all of us can handle things ourselves, we do not have the expertise of a TA and do not have the access to Regent management that they do.

Dave, your comment about the Lisbon excursions not being finalized is an important one -- "Sold Out" does not mean what it sounds like it means. If it was truly sold out, a person could call Regent and get added to the Waitlist. Perhaps Regent's website should have a different designation for excursions that are not ready to be booked or are to finalized.

Loon Call,

 

Am I missing something? As I read the website description of the Lisbon excursions, it does not list the excursions available for Lisbon on your cruise. Instead, it notes that excursions are not finalized for Lisbon. It then lists previous Lisbon excursions. There is no guarantee that all of the previous excursions will be available on your cruise. The excursions to be offered to the in-transit passengers in Lisbon cannot be determined at 180 or 240 days before the cruise since exact transit passenger counts are not known until much later. Passengers embarking or disembarking in Lisbon are not entitled to take excursions on that day.

 

The Alhambra excursion may not be sold out. In Regent website speak, "sold out" may mean that the excursion is truly sold out or that the excusion is not yet available for booking. Keep checking the status of the excursion. It may become available for booking.

 

Hope this helps.

Thanks for your response, Dave.

There is no option of selecting any tour for Lisbon in my account. To clarify, the booking I purchased is under one booking number, itinerary whatever you want to call it - one 16 day offering, which is also offered as two separate segments. I would think that Regent can estimate the number of people on the 16 day cruise the same as any other cruise that is offered. From my standpoint this port day is no different than any other port. If I they can estimate how many people are onboard on Day 2 for example, they know how many are onboard Day 8 of those who purchased the 16 day cruise.

Re: Alhambra I've received further information. As you suggest it is not sold out but is not available for booking because of some difficulties contracting with operators and what sounds like ticket rations. This presents a conundrum of whether to book on my own or wait it our and see what Regent comes up with anything.

LoonCall-

the excursions for the turnaround day (Lisbon in your case) are never available before the cruise. We are currently on a 60 day cruise, under one booking number, but the cruise is actually also sold in 5 segments. Several days before we get to the port with embarking/disembarking passengers (Lisbon will also be one of those for us), there will be a flyer in your cabin with excursion selections for that port. You then just fill it out and drop it off at Destination Services. We have always gotten our choice of excursions.

I will be happy to give a short synopsis of what excursions are available in Lisbon once we receive the information in a couple of weeks.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Wanted to add another thought. There has to be a minimum number of people for Regent to offer tours in the embarkation city. If there are only a few of you, it is unlikely that anything will be offered. In our case, there are 100+ people on the 60 day itinerary, so there are always several options.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I will be happy to give a short synopsis of what excursions are available in Lisbon once we receive the information in a couple of weeks.

In August we did a B2B (two bookings) with the 'changeover' port being Lisbon.

The only excursion offered for continuing guests was the Lisbon HO-HO bus tour which we signed up for. In the event the excursion was cancelled due to lack of take-up.

Hope you have a better experience.

On a positive note, the ship docks fairly near the town centre in Lisbon and public transport (metro, tram, bus) is excellent if you need to make your own arrangements.

Thank you, BBWC. I appreciate that offer. Enjoy your trip.

Thanks for your response, Dave.

There is no option of selecting any tour for Lisbon in my account. To clarify, the booking I purchased is under one booking number, itinerary whatever you want to call it - one 16 day offering, which is also offered as two separate segments. I would think that Regent can estimate the number of people on the 16 day cruise the same as any other cruise that is offered. From my standpoint this port day is no different than any other port. If I they can estimate how many people are onboard on Day 2 for example, they know how many are onboard Day 8 of those who purchased the 16 day cruise.

 

Re: Alhambra I've received further information. As you suggest it is not sold out but is not available for booking because of some difficulties contracting with operators and what sounds like ticket rations. This presents a conundrum of whether to book on my own or wait it our and see what Regent comes up with anything.

Alhambra tour not offered on the Rome to Lisbon sailing Nov 12, 2017. Same issues as stated above. Not sure if they will offer again.

Good to know paratrooper69. Are you on this upcoming sailing? If so, what did you do?

As I understand it, the TS/OP has not combined back-to-back voyages to create a longer cruise, but booked a single cruise as marketed and sold by Regent.

In Looncall's case the phrase that you have quoted would only apply to Barcelona (first day) and London (last day), not to the intermediate port of Lisbon.

Loon Call,

 

Am I missing something? As I read the website description of the Lisbon excursions, it does not list the excursions available for Lisbon on your cruise. Instead, it notes that excursions are not finalized for Lisbon. It then lists previous Lisbon excursions. There is no guarantee that all of the previous excursions will be available on your cruise. The excursions to be offered to the in-transit passengers in Lisbon cannot be determined at 180 or 240 days before the cruise since exact transit passenger counts are not known until much later. Passengers embarking or disembarking in Lisbon are not entitled to take excursions on that day.

 

The Alhambra excursion may not be sold out. In Regent website speak, "sold out" may mean that the excursion is truly sold out or that the excusion is not yet available for booking. Keep checking the status of the excursion. It may become available for booking.

 

Hope this helps.

I would like to clarify that this is in fact a combination cruise or also known as a letter cruise where two segments are combined. Lisbon is the turnaround port or the in-transit port during this combo voyage. Thank you DaveFr for articulating this further. We are aware of this issue and due to technology challenges have not yet completed a solution to allow the shore ex information to be only shared with guests on the combination voyages. I will also acknowledge that the combination cruise messaging needs to be updated. The terms will be clarified further and until a permanent fix is able to be completed. We continue to actively pursue a resolution to this as we recognize the guest counts on our combination voyages continue to rise, so there is a need to update this permanently.

The terminology of Sold-out vs. Waitlist has been in our review. The functionality currently allows for only a open or closed status for each individual tour. Therefore, we've chosen to retain the term Sold-out for the time being and continue to allow Waitlists on a request basis for each of these. As we continue to develop further enhancements to our shore excursion booking functionality in the near future this will be updated.

Our team continues to monitor your suggestions. Please continue to keep them coming.

Jason,

Thanks for responding to the conundrums regarding excursion booking on 'B2B' and 'combination' cruises.

Can I just ask for further explanation on a couple of points:

I would like to clarify that this is in fact a combination cruise or also known as a letter cruise where two segments are combined. Lisbon is the turnaround port or the in-transit port during this combo voyage. Thank you DaveFr for articulating this further. We are aware of this issue and due to technology challenges have not yet completed a solution to allow the shore ex information to be only shared with guests on the combination voyages. I will also acknowledge that the combination cruise messaging needs to be updated. The terms will be clarified further and until a permanent fix is able to be completed. We continue to actively pursue a resolution to this as we recognize the guest counts on our combination voyages continue to rise, so there is a need to update this permanently.

1. Are you saying that even if a guest has booked a combination cruise (letter suffix cruise) it is not possible to pre-book excursions for any changeover ports? i.e. both those with separate B2B bookings and those with a single combination booking must wait until a few days before the changeover port is reached before any excursions for that port will be offered?
   
2. When excursions are finally offered for the changeover port, will there be the normal range of excursions or, as we experienced this August, will only one option be made available?
   

Further clarification on the website would be useful.

The terminology of Sold-out vs. Waitlist has been in our review. The functionality currently allows for only a open or closed status for each individual tour. Therefore, we've chosen to retain the term Sold-out for the time being and continue to allow Waitlists on a request basis for each of these. As we continue to develop further enhancements to our shore excursion booking functionality in the near future this will be updated.

Can I suggest that four designations for on-line excursion booking entries would be useful, if the technology allows:

• Pending
  (i.e. excursion details not finalised and therefore not yet available for booking)
  
  
• Open for booking
  
  
• Waitlist
  (i.e. excursion is presently full, but guests may join a waitlist)
  
  
• Sold-out
  (i.e. excursion and waitlist are both full)
  
  

As previously discussed, it would help if guests could add themselves to waitlists on-line rather than having to contact their local Regent office as required at present. Many new to Regent are unaware that there are waitlists available for excursions.

Thanks again for your help

Appreciate Jason's response and certainly understand why there is not something in place for excursions during turnover day (whether it is a "letter" cruise or not.) I'm trying to get my head around why this is such a big deal. This has been done the same way for years and has never been an issue before.

In terms of indicating whether an excursion is waitlisted or not yet available, this is something that hopefully will be an easy programming fix. I have no doubt that Mike Moore has a handle on what needs to be done. I did suggest last year that it would be nice if passengers could change excursions (as they can with dining reservations), waitlist themselves, etc. It would be nice if it happened some day but isn't a deal breaker.

IMO, the one thing that would improve the customer experience before they board the ship is to have Customer Service personnel that can answer questions accurately. I really hate slamming C.S. all of the time but there is no way I could support the way that they respond to customers. It seems that they are not up to date on what is going on. While I cannot imagine how difficult this would be given what is going on right now with hurricanes, etc., if they were given daily updates of anything that is out of the ordinary, it would help. I forget which thread it is on but "rssc" (my name for the unnamed person that I'm so happy is responding to posts) they indicated that we will learn more about changes in Caribbean itineraries within a couple of weeks. I assume that this information will be sent to those of us that will be sailing in the Caribbean this year and early next year first.

In any case, I personally appreciate the feedback from Regent and believe that they "hear" our issues and handle them in the order of importance and in the best way that they can.

Jason, thank you for posting on this thread.

As I said to you before there really should be no reason that even a few tours can't be offered on the turn port. At some point you have a guest count for the full 16 days, otherwise Regent would not be able to book and sell for the Lisbon to London segment.

When I booked this cruise there was no indication that there may be no excursions in Lisbon, as happened to flossie in August. Lisbon is a primary stop on this itinerary and not being able to plan ahead is exasperating. If I arrange a private tour, which I shouldn't have to do given Regent's all inclusive marketing, will I be allowed off the ship or will I be detained until all passengers disembark? The inability to plan ahead and the additional cost makes me question why I'm booking with Regent in the first place if I'm arranging and paying for excursions in a basic port. And to be clear, I have no problem paying for Choice excursions when they are necessary but that's not the case here.

Granada presents a similar issue. I understand there are some restrictions but I'm troubled by paratrooper's post that was no Alhambra offering for November. I contacted a recommended tour company and ship's arrival time does not allow enough time for the ship to clear

and disembark. So I'm trapped.

If Regent can't provide some of these options they shouldn't be advertising that they can.

Yes, flossie that's correct, if you are booked on a "combination" cruise you cannot book excursions for a turn port in advance.

You make good suggestions regarding designations and online capabilities.

As I said to you before there really should be no reason that even a few tours can't be offered on the turn port. At some point you have a guest count for the full 16 days, otherwise Regent would not be able to book and sell for the Lisbon to London segment.

When I booked this cruise there was no indication that there may be no excursions in Lisbon, as happened to flossie in August. Lisbon is a primary stop on this itinerary and not being able to plan ahead is exasperating. If I arrange a private tour, which I shouldn't have to do given Regent's all inclusive marketing, will I be allowed off the ship or will I be detained until all passengers disembark? If I arrange a private tour, which I shouldn't have to do given Regent's all inclusive marketing, will I be allowed off the ship or will I be detained until all passengers disembark? And to be clear, I have no problem paying for Choice excursions when they are necessary but that's not the case here.

Granada presents a similar issue. I understand there are some restrictions but I'm troubled by paratrooper's post that was no Alhambra offering for November. I contacted a recommended tour company and ship's arrival time does not allow enough time for the ship to clear

and disembark. So I'm trapped.

If Regent can't provide some of these options they shouldn't be advertising that they can.

.

As I said to you before there really should be no reason that even a few tours can't be offered on the turn port. At some point you have a guest count for the full 16 days, otherwise Regent would not be able to book and sell for the Lisbon to London segment. I believe that Jason and other posters have explained that there will be tours offered in Lisbon but you need to wait until you get onboard.

If I arrange a private tour, which I shouldn't have to do given Regent's all inclusive marketing, will I be allowed off the ship or will I be detained until all passengers disembark? Once the ship is cleared you can walk off of the ship.

The inability to plan ahead and the additional cost makes me question why I'm booking with Regent in the first place if I'm arranging and paying for excursions in a basic port. In our experience, the excursions offered by Regent in turnaround ports have no cost associated with them.

In terms of Alhambra, if there is an issue with the tour operator, everyone that wanted to go to the Alhambra on all cruises will be affected. There could be so many reasons for this including one that you mentioned ........ the inability of tour operators to get the guests back to the ship on time. OTOH, you mentioned Granada. Typically Regent runs Alhambra tours from Malaga which is considerably further away. Suggest that you do more research on private tours. I found one quickly that is only 2 1/2 hours (pick-up from Granada). It is a private tour from a worldwide reputable company (Viator) and is $81.55/person.

P.S. Just checked your itinerary and the ship will be docked in Malaga - not Granada (although Granada is shown in parenthesis on the itinerary). The same company offers a 6 hour small group tour (10-15 people) for $146.06/person. The ship is in port 14 hours so time should not be an issue. And, even if Regent settles things with a tour operator, this will likely be a much better excursion than being on a bus and it is a Regent Choice excursion so you will have to pay for it anyway.

Good to know paratrooper69. Are you on this upcoming sailing? If so, what did you do?

Am on the Explorer from Rome to Miami. I booked a different tour. Since Malaga is a long drive to Alhambra, I decided if I ever wish to see it I will wait until the next time we go to Spain.

Pardon the aside, but I want to apologize to LoonCall: you may have found some of my responses to you and with reference to your postings to be a bit confusing. That is because I have been operating under the assumption that you are someone else entirely. Some elements of your itinerary, as well as a thing related to your screen name, made me think you are a friend of mine who also posts on CC. While I'm sure we would be friends if we met :) it would appear we have not. So, sorry for any confusion.

Am on the Explorer from Rome to Miami. I booked a different tour. Since Malaga is a long drive to Alhambra, I decided if I ever wish to see it I will wait until the next time we go to Spain.

I just discovered something interesting/enlightening. It seems that Malaga (Granada) is not on more than a couple of itineraries through April, 2020. It is a shame because Malaga is one of our favorite Spanish ports -- a group of us did a "tapas crawl" there last year -- it reminds me of a smaller and much safer Barcelona. Given the fact that Regent will rarely be calling into that port, I suspect (but obviously do not know) that Regent has little negotiating power with tour operators there and may not offer Alhambra. As an aside, we have booked and cancelled Alhambra three times. Rather than doing it a fourth time, we didn't bother to book it last year. IMO, there is too much driving involved and think that your idea of doing it when you return to Spain again is a great idea.

"I believe that Jason and other posters have explained that there will be tours offered in Lisbon but you need to wait until you get onboard."

Unless there are none offered other than the HOHO as was Flossie's experience.

"Once the ship is cleared you can walk off of the ship."

As I'm sure you know timing clearance can be difficult and without going into a long story here I know of guests who were not allowed off the ship to meet a privately arranged guide and were required to wait until the ship repositioned.

"P.S. Just checked your itinerary and the ship will be docked in Malaga - not Granada (although Granada is shown in parenthesis on the itinerary"

Malaga is the port town Granada is much further inland. Same with Seville; Cadiz is the port roughly 90 minutes away and London where the port is actually Southampton.

Thank you for the tour suggestions I will continue to research further.

Your comments about customer service are in agreement with what I said in a prior post, they should be able to respond to customers with accurate information and without repeated queries or needing to call in the pros.

Pardon the aside' date=' but I want to apologize to LoonCall: you may have found some of my responses to you and with reference to your postings to be a bit confusing. That is because I have been operating under the assumption that you are someone else entirely. Some elements of your itinerary, as well as a thing related to your screen name, made me think you are a friend of mine who also posts on CC. While I'm sure we would be friends if we met :) it would appear we have not. So, sorry for any confusion.[/quote']

That's funny, no apology necessary :) I enjoy your posts

Originally posted byJason OKeefe

Everyone knows I love RSSC. My first sailing was 25 years ago on the Raddison Diamond. And I hope I will be sailing with them for many more years.

For me, this is my main issue with Regent, and I feel that Jason's statement has not satisfied my frustration

A very important question for him:

Will we ever get back to the old system whereby we can print a list of the available excursions for our cruise, for our review and decisions, before the date when we can make our selections?

It's that simple.

I think that's what most of us want.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My last post has not been addressed so here goes again----

HELP!

To Jason O'Keefe --Ok. So this thread has been entirely off topic in the last page or so--- back to the problem-- today, my husband and I tried to review excursions for one of our upcoming cruises. It was so difficult that he gave up and told me to pick whatever I wanted. I can do that because I have more patience with the website. But he may not be too happy with some of my tour selections. You may have created a monster for Regent. For us, Regent is the total experience. However, if he isn't happy on the excursion selections I chose, I will remind him it's because of Regent's new selection process.

Regent might then be unhappy when he decides to try another cruise line and we go back to using private guides and tours. Our TA is very good at recommending private guides. But, we really don't want to go that route. This is the only major problem we have with Regent.

Please help us stay with Regent. Please correct the excursion selection process so our upcoming cruises will be excellent, as usual.

Sincerely,

Sheila and Herb

Sheila,

Have you asked your TA to get a complete list and email it to you? That might work.

Peggy

Suggestion: Next time they have a new website rollout, they should have a group of experienced Regent cruisers test it for a month.

Suggestion: Next time they have a new website rollout, they should have a group of experienced Regent cruisers test it for a month.

Good idea but Cruise Critic did that. Still, when the new website rolled out they were blasted for a couple of months despite their testing. What is important to some people simply isn't for others. We are experienced Regent cruisers (375 nights) and would not print all excursions if we had the ability to do so. We did that once and it was a major waste of paper.

What I do (for my DH) is read through the excursions. I know which ones (generally 1 or 2) we would be most interested in and I cut and paste them into a Word document. At the end, rather than having pages and pages of excursions that we don't want, we have a few pages to read and make decisions on. If necessary, I can refer back to the website.

IMO, the main website issue has been accuracy of the information. If that is incorrect, it doesn't matter how many niceties are available. While I miss the "proper" list view of available cruises, I'm learning to live with it (just as I have with a couple of things that I still don't care for on CC's newish site).

In order to improve Regent's website it is helpful for everyone to provide feedback, noting any aspects that they think can be improved, as well as aspects of the website that they think are good as they are. Errors should definitely be reported.

As J O'K said in his post #60 above: "Our team continues to monitor your suggestions. Please continue to keep them coming"

As someone suggested previously it would be useful if there was an easy reporting link on the website that could be used to report errors/issues/suggestions to the webmaster

in order to improve regent's website it is helpful for everyone to provide feedback, noting any aspects that they think can be improved, as well as aspects of the website that they think are good as they are. Errors should definitely be reported.

 

As j o'k said in his post #60 above: "our team continues to monitor your suggestions. Please continue to keep them coming"

 

as someone suggested previously it would be useful if there was an easy reporting link on the website that could be used to report errors/issues/suggestions to the webmaster

agree!!!!