Christmas/New Year's - LIVE - Voyager

Hi TC. Have enjoyed your postings. Have a safe trip home. Elsie

We have not read the whole thread but in a nutshell our thoughts were that the destination services were awkful caused mayhem with queues delays and total disorganisation some toys left nearly an hour late on 2 occasions and all tours were cut short due to delta by these staff . The on board singers and dancers were a joke whilst the guest entertainers were wonderful food and service acceptable although penthouse suite much smaller than mariner. Found Christmas eve and new years eve great fun although someone forgot about Christmas day which was basically dour on board

Will cruise with rss again but more likely back on the mariner

Still in sheeny typing this ovlooking the bridge flying home tomorrow

We have not read the whole thread but in a nutshell our thoughts were that the destination services were awful caused mayhem with queues delays and total disorganisation some tours left nearly an hour late on 2 occasions and all tours were cut short due to delays by these staff . The on board singers and dancers were a joke whilst the guest entertainers were wonderful food and service acceptable although penthouse suite much smaller than mariner. Found Christmas eve and new years eve great fun although someone forgot about Christmas day which was basically dour on board

Will cruise with rss again but more likely back on the mariner

Still in sydney typing this ovlooking the bridge flying home tomorrow

Now spelling corrected also found the Internet not a problem used iPad on board all time , there were 26 children on board and in general were all well behaved especially one little lad called Brodie who was wonderfully polite and well behaved biggest noise was from the bridge players when we tried to get a quiet game of cards ourselves did also notice the smell on board but was gone in 2 days , there also seemed to be a bout of sickness on board and that after a few days the self service was taken away and that we were served at the buffett sections also noticed the voyager sailed late from Sydney last night anybody know the reason

We are also still in Sydney, looking out at the Opera House. We had a wonderful excursion today!!! There was a choice of two excursions: trip to the Blue Mountains or to Hunter Valley. Only 20 people signed up for Hunter Valley and only 14 showed up. It was delightful.... first to a winery with 9 small tastes. Then to lunch at an upscale restaurant in the countryside. Just in case we needed more wine we went to another winery with 8 tastes.

We have been to the Blue Mountains previously and were not impressed. Our driver and guide said that we made the right choice. It is amazing how well Regent contractors can do (without Destination Services)

We have been to the Blue Mountains previously and were not impressed. Our driver and guide said that we made the right choice. It is amazing how well Regent contractors can do (without Destination Services)

Have to comment regarding the last piece of the above post regarding destination services. Have been beat up by certain people regarding my comments about destination services and now one of Regents most prolific cheerleaders seems to be supporting some of my thoughts.

The previous poster also echos my previous thoughts and may even be worse with the comment about awful services. I see that nothing has changed in the little over a year since we took our last Regent cruise. For those who are unaware, destination services is headed up by a vice president who is the son of PCH's highest ranking executive and seems more concerned with increasing profits at the decided inconveniences of the paying passengers. That said, of course profits are important and key to the continuation of any company but, satisfying paying customers is almost as important and the almost constant complaints seem to be met with indifference and increased costs as well as decreased customer service.

I have intermittantly had severe issues with destinations services, actually more in the past than recently, and that was before the current VP took over. So I don't think the person in charge right now is the source of the problem, though he should be doing all he can to correct it. The problem IMO is a couple of very long term employees in that dept who have big attitude issues and need to go. On the cruises where they are not present, everything seems to run much better.

Destination Services was not horrible when we were on board. Long lines are pretty normal, whether we like it or not (at least it is normal since all inclusive excursions started). Some delays were caused by the ship arriving late and/or the ship taking too long to be cleared.

The issue I saw was communication between the ship and the tour company. The biggest error we experienced is when we drove almost 3 hours to see the show at Steve Irwin's Australian Zoo. We left the ship 1 hour after the show and arrived 2 hours before they closed. IMO, the communication was the fault of on board staff. The second is clearly headquarters. You do not send 4 bus loads of passengers to see something that occurred before they even left the ship.

Crystal serves Hendricks, also.

as does Seabourn

OK, not horrible but, unacceptable to send a group of 4 buses or approx 100 passengers out to an excursion leaving the ship an hour after the purpose of the excursion has occurred and to spend approx 2 hours each was to an excursion site where you only have 2 hours prior to closing is also totally unacceptable.

So glad you mentioned the poor planning by both the home office as well as destinations on board. Nice to see we agree at least some of the time. I agree that destinations and the home office are not always at fault, just that they are at fault more times than should occur, especially for a luxury cruise line where the fares are toward to top of cruise line fares.

I will preface this by saying that I have seen Destinations staff having to deal with some extremely difficult, rude and demanding pax and admire their patience and (mostly) good grace in those circumstances. I know I wouldn't be able to restrain myself which is why I've never worked in customer service!

However (you knew that was coming) I have been met with surly indifference and outright insolence by a couple of staff when asking a simple question or even when I handed back a couple of unwanted excursion tickets. Being bossed around like naughty children on a school outing while herded into the theatre for our tender/bus tickets doesn't help the general mood either. I know there has to be a system to get everyone off the ship in a timely and orderly manner, and I know there are always people who deliberately ignore that system, but sometimes things can get very heated if we feel we are being treated like idiots.

As noted above there seem to be a couple of "usual suspects" here and while I would never demand someone be sacked outright, if they clearly don't have the temperament for this kind of work they should perhaps be assigned to other duties.

I will preface this by saying that I have seen Destinations staff having to deal with some extremely difficult, rude and demanding pax and admire their patience and (mostly) good grace in those circumstances. I know I wouldn't be able to restrain myself which is why I've never worked in customer service!

 

However (you knew that was coming) I have been met with surly indifference and outright insolence by a couple of staff when asking a simple question or even when I handed back a couple of unwanted excursion tickets. Being bossed around like naughty children on a school outing while herded into the theatre for our tender/bus tickets doesn't help the general mood either. I know there has to be a system to get everyone off the ship in a timely and orderly manner, and I know there are always people who deliberately ignore that system, but sometimes things can get very heated if we feel we are being treated like idiots.

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As noted above there seem to be a couple of "usual suspects" here and while I would never demand someone be sacked outright, if they clearly don't have the temperament for this kind of work they should perhaps be assigned to other duties.

On this particular cruise, passengers were extremely rude to the crew. They were also very demanding. Agree that it takes a certain type of person to work in Destination Services.

I wanted to mention earlier to those that are not familiar with sailing in the Great Barrier reef. It requires a special captain to be on board to avoid the reefs, find pathways through the reef and dealwith very shallow waters. Our speeds were variable. Sometimes we went very slowly. These were the reasons that we arrived slightly late in some ports.

Yes, there are highly experienced reef pilots/captains who navigate cruise and other ships the entire length of the GBR, usually for several days depending on itinerary. It can be tricky and there are sometimes delays but a we would not be able to visit that stretch of the Aussie coast at all without them.

Yes, there are highly experienced reef pilots/captains who navigate cruise and other ships the entire length of the GBR, usually for several days depending on itinerary. It can be tricky and there are sometimes delays but a we would not be able to visit that stretch of the Aussie coast at all without them.

Thank you for describing the situation better than I did:-)

On this particular cruise, passengers were extremely rude to the crew. They were also very demanding. Agree that it takes a certain type of person to work in Destination Services.

Something else you can blame on the passengers on our cruise, TC! Sorry to hear that attitude remained on board with "the runs". As a first-time Regent cruiser I had intended to write a review, but it was overwhelmed with the irony complaining about the complainers. It was brutal!

Something else you can blame on the passengers on our cruise, TC! Sorry to hear that attitude remained on board with "the runs". As a first-time Regent cruiser I had intended to write a review, but it was overwhelmed with the irony complaining about the complainers. It was brutal!

Hope you write a review. I love hearing new perspectives.

Was the excursion in question a"premium" extra cost trip or an included excursion? I ask because I would assume that the $ would be refunded for what sounds like a totally and aggravating waste of time. On the other hand, if there is no dispute that this was a comedy of errors that was no fault of the guests...it seems that some onboard credit is due for the non value of the included excursion. Was anything done to correct this? I wish that the excursions were optional.

The excursion was approx. $199/person. We do not tend to get overly upset about things. No one we spoke with wanted to make a fuss.

Tallship - will not do review!!!!! However, will be in contact next week as we are still in Sydney.l

The excursion was approx. $199/person. We do not tend to get overly upset about things. No one we spoke with wanted to make a fuss.

 

Tallship - will not do review!!!!! However, will be in contact next week as we are still in Sydney.l

That $199 price plus the $150 value that Regent puts on included excursions certainly supports Fizzy's comment that money should have been refunded for this totally screwed up excursion. Checked the wildlife park rates and the entry fee not in a group was about $53 Au which is less than $60 US. Add in transport at even $100 US per person and you are close to the price of included excursions yet Regent was charging an additional $199 pp Quite an extreme upcharge and a lot of excess profit.

Truly supports the notion that Regent Destinations is a huge profit center at the expense of the customer and also supports Regent's increasing of prices where the customer has no idea of the actual costs to Regent such as the increasing airfares being caused by a combination of increased airline prices and increases by Regent thus increasing profits.

Thank you for describing the situation better than I did:-)

Same thing holds true in Alaska.

That $199 price plus the $150 value that Regent puts on included excursions certainly supports Fizzy's comment that money should have been refunded for this totally screwed up excursion. Checked the wildlife park rates and the entry fee not in a group was about $53 Au which is less than $60 US. Add in transport at even $100 US per person and you are close to the price of included excursions yet Regent was charging an additional $199 pp Quite an extreme upcharge and a lot of excess profit.

 

Truly supports the notion that Regent Destinations is a huge profit center at the expense of the customer and also supports Regent's increasing of prices where the customer has no idea of the actual costs to Regent such as the increasing airfares being caused by a combination of increased airline prices and increases by Regent thus increasing profits.

There is a mix-up with excursions. We paid $199 for the Barrier Reef Excursion that went on two hours too long. The excursion to the Australia Zoo was included.

We were on this cruise from Singapore to Auckland. We enjoyed it so much , warts and all, that we booked on Board for the 2014/5 Voyager cruise. But for the benefit of Regent management arranging next year's cruise I summarise the changes those writing on this thread would like, ion no particular order.

1. Reduce or eliminate the presence of the art and jecwellery dealers.

2. Change the excursion staff to more knowledgeable and congenial staff who could even lecture about forthcoming excursions.

3. Improve wifi. Do not blame the ipad but blame your hardware.

4. Add British hard biscuits to the soft inedible American varieties.

5. Change the singers/dancers to more professional ones or dispense with them altogether. We could do with more good individual entertainers.

6. Improve the quality of the coffee beans. The problem was not the strength but the taste.

7. Try to dissuade parents from bringing children, e.g. Charge them prohibited fares!

Agree with everything except #7. While we do not enjoy sailing with children (and really did not like the disruptions caused by the 30 children under the age of 21 on the portion of your cruise that we sailed) in my opinion, if passengers decide to travel during Christmas and New Year's, they have to expect children. What I have learned from this is never - ever sail during this time of the year.

Have to comment (and smile) about what the British find are inedible soft biscuits. Those of us in the U.S. were raised on them and find some of the crackers (aka biscuits) in other countries quite strange.

The point I agree the most strongly about is the coffee. To repeat the last post, it is not the strength - it is the taste.

Thanks Travelcat. We are hopeful the next years Voyager Xmas/New Year cruise might not have many children as it is in one leg and does not finish until late January.

We found the singers/dancers excellent. Some of the other entertainers were less so.

Two other points. We are bridge players and Patricia, the bridge director on the leg from Singapore to Sydney was unfriendly, rude and inefficient. Quite the worst bridge director we have ever encountered. Secondly, the boutique had poor and tasteless goods and needs to be overhauled.