pappy1022

You would think that Regent would voluntarily explain these abnormal number of schedule changes to their customers, especially those who are booked on this cruise. Honesty is the best policy when it comes to situations like this. When a company doesn’t come out and tell the truth they leave the “answer” up to speculation and rumor and that can lead to distrust and unsatisfied customers.

I’ve cruised on both and I would say that the food and the cabins on Regent are significantly better than Oceania. I don’t like that Regent includes shore excursions and won’t provide a credit if you don’t use them. If you count all of the included items on Regent, I have found the cost to be similar, especially if you are wanting international business class air.

Sorry to hear that. Where are you cruising to? This is the exact situation where I don’t think it’s fair to the customers who are paying for excursions in their fares. Cancellation for safety concerns or even a single excursion cancelled is within reason but to have multiple excursions cancelled without any choices goes beyond reasonable to me.

Our hotel is the Landmark London which is a short cab ride to Buckingham Palace. Our plan is to visit the palace and the Mews (horses and carriages used by the royal family). Not sure if it is open when you are in London. If interested, you will have to check to see if it’s available. You may also want to consider a 1/2 day tour to see a couple of the major sites like Westminster Abby and the Tower of London. I can highly recommend Tours by Locals. Just use someone with a lot of positive reviews. We spent 10 days in London last summer as my son worked there for 6 weeks, so we have seen all of the major sites and some of the lesser known sites. Buckingham Palace was not open for tours when we were there, thus our specific interest in that venue this time.

Having an excursion cancelled or unavailable and then having an alternative excursion available is one thing. Having an excursion cancelled or unavailable and then not having any alternative is another thing. I think it is reasonable for a person to expect some available excursion, even if it isn’t one of their top choices. I am sorry to keep harping on the use of the word “free” with Regent but nothing is free, it is included in our base fare. I hear the constant drum beat of the legal verbiage in the contract, and obviously that gives them cover and it trumps whatever we think is fair, but there is something morally wrong if Regent advertises free or included excursions and then doesn’t have any available excursion to book. I completely understand the cancellation of a port in the event that there is a safety concern that prevents Regent from stopping at that location. I think there are 2 distinct sides to this argument and I respect all perspectives.

We will be on a British Isle cruise starting in Copenhagen and ending in London (Southampton). Not sure if that means we will be going through customs. Just to clarify your one response. Will the bags be dropped off at the hotel and secured without us touching them or being present when they are dropped off? Our intention is to go out and have fun as soon as we get to the hotel and check in later that evening/night. We need to buy tickets for a venue beforehand and we are trying to figure out what time we want to book the tickets for.

I am curious as to how luggage is handled from the ship to the hotel via Regent transportation. Assuming that we will arrive at the hotel before check in time, do we have to wait in a presumably long line to get our luggage stored and tagged or is that automatically done in some way. As far as checking in and room assignment, do we all need to come back at check in time and go through the normal hotel check in processes or is there a different process for large groups? Can we come back to the hotel in the evening sometime to check in or do we have to do so in a specific time window? If so, do we need to arrange for late check in?

We all know that they aren’t free, just like they advertise free airfare. For legal purposes they may call it free but the cost is in the base product price. If not, it would be hard to justify the higher cost of a Regent cruise vs other high end competitors.

Seasickphil, I agree with you. There is a difference between having excursion options, even if it isn’t your first choice, during the selection process long before the actual cruise. When excursions are cancelled close to or during the cruise and there aren’t even any choices available, it is different. And although Regent uses the term “free” for hotels, air and excursions, we all know that we are paying for them in our base fare. And sometimes, we do directly pay extra for an excursions such as small group tours or Regent special tours. I would hope that Regent would credit us back if this was the case. Comments like “if you don’t like it, cruise elsewhere” aren’t helpful to an open discussion. You have the right to be disappointed and to express that disappointment. I would do the same because for me the destination is as important as the onboard experiences.

I understand that Regent doesn’t control the airlines and tour companies BUT Regent is our “agent” to procure these services on behalf of their customers. Just maybe Regent advertises these excursions as “free” for a legal reason so they don’t have to reimburse their customers in the event that the excursion is cancelled. We all know that we pay for these excursions in our base price. I just believe that Regent should reimburse the customer for a cancelled excursion if no reasonable alternative is available. After all, I’m sure Regent isn’t going to pay the tour provider if they cancel, so in effect, Regent is getting that money back and should pass it along to the customer.

So much for included excursions.

P.S., how was the British Isle cruise and what can’t miss excursions did you choose? How was the weather?

Thank you so much for all of the info. We were thinking of going to Buckingham Palace for our afternoon touring and then at pub and dinner somewhere. I will check out your recommendations. I was asking about timing because we will need to buy our tickets beforehand. We spent 2 weeks in London this past summer but only saw Buckingham Palace from afar as it was not open to the public at that time.

My question has more to do with the time one gets off the ship then gets on the Regent bus and makes it to the hotel. Any sense of how long that might be?

We will be disembarking our British Isle cruise on a Sunday in Southampton and using the Regent provided transfer and hotel included package. The hotel is the Landmark in the Marylebone district. I am trying to plan for the day in London as far as touring and dinner and was wondering what my expectations should be as far as the time we will get off the ship and when we will get to the hotel. I assume we won’t be able to check in right away and will have to store our luggage at the hotel. I also assume that the hotel process will take some time just to get the bags checked and later on to get our room.

Does this require downloading an app on your phone prior to the cruise? We will only find out if the app is being used when we start a tour or will we know before then?

Respectfully agree to disagree. I find most of the criticisms to be warranted and well documented. I for one think it’s good to be able to read differing opinions and experiences as long as they are written in a way that doesn’t make personal attacks. We can then form our own conclusions based on all of the reviews and opinions. It’s the same process many people use when reading reviews of other products or services that they are researching to buy. There are always people who loved a product or had issues with a product and the reader needs to look at the opinions in totality and decide if the product will work for them. We are paying a premium price for a premium product on Regent and our expectations should be high. Will it always be perfect? Of course not but we should always accept differing opinions on these discussion boards. We shouldn’t make judgements on whether or not a person has different expectations or whether we agree or disagree with their opinions. After all, opinions are just that, opinions. We all have them and we should be able to freely express them.

I’m sure some people expect perfection every second of a cruise and that is impossible. Calling out a bad experience or poor service has nothing to do with a willingness to be pleased.

Makai7, I’m with you on this. Personal attacks and name calling have no place in these forums. I am surprised that those posts haven’t been deleted by the host. Some folks just can’t handle anything but glaring positive comments about Regent. We should always expect great services and great experiences with Regent, after all we are paying a good $ for it. Anyway I hope your issues are resolved to your satisfaction.

Back to the original question. I would definitely look at other cruise lines if the “free” (we pay for them) excursions turn out to be poor adventures. I realize there my be a dud or 2 but we shall see. Keeping an open mind. Will report back after my cruise.

Makai7, thank you for your honest review. I haven’t sailed with Regent in a few years and I was looking forward to the 5+ star experience. It’s obvious that your well documented experience wasn’t up to the standards that Regent espouses to have. I have now read about several experiences on these boards from long and loyal cruisers like yourself, who have had unacceptable experiences. It gives me pause as to whether or not it was a wise decision to pay big bucks to come back to Regent. I chose Regent for the itinerary but I also justified paying a premium fare for Regent because of the service, food, included excursions, etc. I hope my experiences are much better than yours. I am holding out hope but maybe my expectations need to be scaled back from what I remember Regent to be like.

I don’t know how Regent works with airlines to get specific flights or routes. Do they buy a block of seats at a discounted price for specific routes or buy a generic block of seats from the airlines they choose to do business with? Is Regent guaranteeing X number of seats to purchase? Just curious more than anything.

I would like to better understand the original poster’s issues which has driven them away from Regent. There has been a growing criticism of Regent on these boards in recent times and it would be nice to get Regent’s perspective on what’s being done to improve their services and processes. I understand that Regent can’t respond to every single complaint but there are some common themes that keep coming up. Regent would do well to provide some feedback on those items to their loyal customers on these boards.

I find the air credits to be far below the market rate one can purchase on their own. As an example, for my upcoming international cruise, the air credit for business class is about the same as the cost of premium economy if I purchased it on my own. It didn’t make any sense to take the credit and just downgrade my seat for the same net price. Now if I had a lot of points that I could use for air travel it might make some sense.

True on the surface but if you look at the cost associated with international business class air and some debatable values for included excursions, included hotels, etc., the difference starts to disappear, especially with the included business class air. I think that Regent realizes that airfare adds a lot to the cruisers’ cost, thus they are starting to provide more options for lesser airline seats. The question one has to ask is: do these included items provide value to the customer. That’s up to each individual to decide.