empty cruise

Does Regent have a minimum number of guests that must sail? Just wondering if they cancel sailings if some minimum not met.

I do not believe this has ever happened. Usually Regent ships sail full. Sometimes the ships are oversold and Regent offers passengers incentives to change cruises (note: they never "bump" anyone..... they keep making offers until they get acceptance).

some of us would love to sign up and have a really good time!

What do you say, Jackie!

I have never been on a Regent cruise that was anywhere even close to empty. And they have to get the ships positioned for the following cruise and pay the crew, so it would not make sense to cancel a cruise due to a low number of passengers.

Ships didn't used to be full all the time. Especially for several years after 9/11, they had trouble persuading people to travel. So they just lowered the fares via special deals. Those were the days when Radisson did not always offer the 50% off as a standard--but many were 50% in the early 2000's, and even 60% off at times.

These days if a cruise isn't selling, they offer OBCs, low-priced Business air add-ons, sometimes free post or pre-cruise trips.

But if no one wanted to buy their cruises, they'd go out of business.

some of us would love to sign up and have a really good time!

 

What do you say, Jackie!

I'm with you:D

Ships didn't used to be full all the time. Especially for several years after 9/11, they had trouble persuading people to travel. So they just lowered the fares via special deals. Those were the days when Radisson did not always offer the 50% off as a standard--but many were 50% in the early 2000's, and even 60% off at times.

 

These days if a cruise isn't selling, they offer OBCs, low-priced Business air add-ons, sometimes free post or pre-cruise trips.

 

But if no one wanted to buy their cruises, they'd go out of business.

Or they sell the cabins cheaper in the UK

Or they sell the cabins cheaper in the UK

Good point. I've definitely seen that happen.

We were on the Mariner a long time ago (2002 or '03) and sailed a segment from Ft. Amador, Panama to Lima with just 73 paying guests. These days they more often over-book than sail with many empty cabins.

Although I wouldn't call our cruise "empty", there are A LOT of available cabins. I'm guessing the Russian situation isn't doing much to foster confidence for the Baltics this summer.There are still a couple of months yet to go. Maybe this means I can get a lounger at the pool !

so we are on the same cruise i believe and thus the question. All the other posters are correct the price has been plummeting which is great for us:D

so we are on the same cruise i believe and thus the question. All the other posters are correct the price has been plummeting which is great for us:D

Which cruise are you referring to? We are on the same cruise as Mudhen plus the one after that.

Although I wouldn't call our cruise "empty", there are A LOT of available cabins. I'm guessing the Russian situation isn't doing much to foster confidence for the Baltics this summer.There are still a couple of months yet to go. Maybe this means I can get a lounger at the pool !

Mudhen: One easy way to tell vacant cabins from the full, take a walk along the corridors in the early am when the postings are being stuffed in the mail boxes. I've done this each time I've used Regent - mainly on decks 9 and 10, and I have always found most of the cabins occupied. My next trip in November on deck 9, I will walk a deck below and see if my observations hold up. Jack

so we are on the same cruise i believe and thus the question. All the other posters are correct the price has been plummeting which is great for us:D

Are you from the U.K.? Just curious because the prices are not being lowered -- at least not on our cruise. I believe they did lower the cost to upgrade to Business Class which is a great thing.

2oldforthis: What ship are you referring to that usually is usually full on deck 10? On the Voyager we avoid most of that deck since it's under the swimming pool. It does seem that Regent loves to entice people to take them with upsells. On our first Voyager cruise we took an upsell to deck 10. While it was lovely to have a penthouse suite, it taught us where we do not want to be:)

One cruise we sailed our TA got a whole floor of cabins to sell off with short notice we availed ourselves of on the Navigator in the Carribbean. The per diem was $200 ....and there were perks with that like Amex OBC

One cruise we sailed our TA got a whole floor of cabins to sell off with short notice we availed ourselves of on the Navigator in the Carribbean. The per diem was $200 ....and there were perks with that like Amex OBC

Did this occur under current ownership?

of course not

I didn't think so -- just wanted to clarify for others reading this thread. Since Regent was purchased around 6 years ago, the ships seem to be sailing much fuller. While we also enjoyed a couple of cruises that weren't full, we realize that this was the past and hopefully (not for us but for the cruise line), this will not happen again. Cruise ships can't afford to sail empty. Plus, Regent needs money to continue upgrading their ships and building the new one.

Regent has shunned a whole segment of formerly loyal cruisers many who have moved to Oceania, Azamara, Seaborne and Crystal so they have made room for the HAL, Celebrity and Princess market.

Not sure what this has to do with ships running empty. There are plenty of passengers from the same cruise lines you mentioned that have moved to Regent. People switch for different reasons. Many return to Regent or sail Regent in addition to other lines like we do. The point is that Regent doesn't run anywhere near close to empty. Our upcoming cruise, which includes Russia, has less people than we have sailed with in years..... but they still are sailing with approximately 550 guests (out of 700). Other cruise lines are also having difficulty selling Baltic cruises.

P.S. I don't feel that there is anything wrong with Princess and HAL passengers moving up to Regent. Most of us started with non-luxury cruising.

 

 

 

P.S. I don't feel that there is anything wrong with Princess and HAL passengers moving up to Regent. Most of us started with non-luxury cruising.

That we did! That we did!

... Our upcoming cruise, which includes Russia, has less people than we have sailed with in years..... but they still are sailing with approximately 550 guests (out of 700). ...

Just wondering how you obtained this figure please TC? - I suspect our upcoming cruise isn't sold out but it would be interesting to be able to get a clearer picture :)

Just wondering how you obtained this figure please TC? - I suspect our upcoming cruise isn't sold out but it would be interesting to be able to get a clearer picture :)

Wish I could post it on CC but it is on a TA website and, as you know, we can't post that here. Unlike Regent's website that only shows up to 6 available cabins per category, this one shows all (I cannot verify it's accuracy but it did list some cabins that I already knew were available from checking the Regent website). It would be nice if there were more places where this information was available.

Regent has shunned a whole segment of formerly loyal cruisers many who have moved to Oceania, Azamara, Seaborne and Crystal so they have made room for the HAL, Celebrity and Princess market.

Why do you say that? Any particular reason? Anything we need to know? or is it a personal opinion?

We personally started with Celebrity to Alaska and swore never to cruise again. It wasn't because of the ship nor the service. We realized later that it had to do with the choice of ports. A few years later, we decided to give cruising another try and we selected our ports carefully. It led us to the Voyager (Baltic cruise). It was amazing mainly because of the ports and no days at sea (Having a great suite, wonderful service, smaller ship were of course the add on bonus). Couple of years later, we decided to cruise the mediteranean but Regents offered no good itinerary and Celebrity did. We were worried because of our past experience but decided to take the cruise anyway. The destinations were amazing and the service on the ship great.

We love cruising in luxury but the destinations are just as important.;)

While I do not know Chatkat's reason, I disagree that a "whole segment" of loyal cruisers left Regent for other cruise lines. I do agree that some Regent passengers switched cruise lines - not specifically long time loyal cruisers.

I've seen more the usual amount of passengers leave twice. First was when the "concierge" level program was put into place. In the opinion of some, all Regent passengers were no longer being treated equally. Unless you are in a certain level cabin, you could no longer book excursions and dining reservations with everyone else. More recently, passengers in certain cabin categories were no longer eligible for the included one night pre-cruise hotel stay.

The second time some passengers left Regent is when excursions went all-inclusive. There are CC members today that still post that they would return to Regent if they could opt out of excursions. In all fairness, included excursions brought many new passengers to Regent. This is a very contentious subject so I will withhold any further comments on excursions (lest I get blasted from other posters:-)