Cancelled Excursion

FYI I do believe the excursion was "important " as Bordeaux is imo an important port. Management has been contacted with no response received. And furthermore this is beyond a mistake. As others have noted it's a failing in their database management.

IMO, if it was "beyond a mistake", it would be happening frequently. If this were the case I assume that we would hear about it more often. If your TA typically does business with Regent, they would have their own representative to call and they should be the ones following up since they were suppose to be the recipient of the email! It behooves your TA to discuss this with their Regent contact person (not with Customer Service)).

Note: If you expect or want Regent to mail everything to their customers in addition to TA's, that is a different matter and is still not a "failing in their database management" but rather something new for Regent to consider. Sending updates/changes/preliminary and final cruise documents (in addition to the documents customers receive) is likely a decision that was made by Regent a long time ago and may need to be looked at again (or maybe not).

When a guest makes an on-line shore excursion booking, the guest receives the automatic confirmation.

It therefore seems only appropriate that should an alteration/cancellation of a shore excursion becomes necessary then an email should again be sent direct to the guest, perhaps with a courtesy copy to the TA.

In this case it appears that Regent failed to notify anyone (a situation we have encountered in the past).

This is not rocket-science. As others have noted it should be relatively simple to update Regent's systems to ensure that these communication errors do not occur.

P.S. The lack of facility to waitlist or alter excursions on-line is extremely annoying, and this has been reported many times to Regent in the past but no improvements are ever progressed :(

I feel like I'm on repeat here but once again: my TA does regular business with Regent and is someone I am certain other posters on this board know.

And again they contacted their Regent rep and were told that no notifications were sent.

With the technology available today there is no excuse for this.

Now the lack of any decent tours in this port is a whole other story.....

I feel like I'm on repeat here but once again: my TA does regular business with Regent and is someone I am certain other posters on this board know.

And again they contacted their Regent rep and were told that no notifications were sent.

With the technology available today there is no excuse for this.

Now the lack of any decent tours in this port is a whole other story.....

Did your TA resolve the issue with Regent so that it is likely that it will not happen again?

P.S. the "technology available today" has messed up more people's accounts - in all areas -- technology can be as bad as it is good.

TC2 do you really want to get into the discussion of technology? If so, bring it on. I have 50 years of experience in that realm; from "A+" (financial programs) through main frames to cloud computing and dba work. You write as if you are user of products and have very limited knowledge of the systems that generate those products. Suffice it to say Regent is lacking in their DB department. As UUNetBill stated what Regent does not do is "child's play" in today's data intensive world. They should upgrade their systems to eliminate the necessity of threads such as these. 5 Star Service should be across the entire experience.

TC2 do you really want to get into the discussion of technology? If so, bring it on. I have 50 years of experience in that realm; from "A+" (financial programs) through main frames to cloud computing and dba work. You write as if you are user of products and have very limited knowledge of the systems that generate those products. Suffice it to say Regent is lacking in their DB department. As UUNetBill stated what Regent does not do is "child's play" in today's data intensive world. They should upgrade their systems to eliminate the necessity of threads such as these. 5 Star Service should be across the entire experience.

Then perhaps you should be talking to Regent rather than me. I am just fine with their technology.

TC2 do you really want to get into the discussion of technology? If so, bring it on. I have 50 years of experience in that realm; from "A+" (financial programs) through main frames to cloud computing and dba work. You write as if you are user of products and have very limited knowledge of the systems that generate those products. Suffice it to say Regent is lacking in their DB department. As UUNetBill stated what Regent does not do is "child's play" in today's data intensive world. They should upgrade their systems to eliminate the necessity of threads such as these. 5 Star Service should be across the entire experience.

To be fair, building and using a common system like that would be fairly simple, but replacing many disparate systems with a new one - while maintaining service on the existing system - is a daunting, not to mention expensive proposition. The training alone will cost a small fortune. But it’s obvious to most of us that Regent is using a bunch of non-related systems that apparently don’t play well together. But a new, centrally managed system would pay dividends for many years.

If they can afford a billion dollars for a pair of new ships, they should be able to cough up enough for an IT overhaul.

To be fair, building and using a common system like that would be fairly simple, but replacing many disparate systems with a new one - while maintaining service on the existing system - is a daunting, not to mention expensive proposition. The training alone will cost a small fortune. But it’s obvious to most of us that Regent is using a bunch of non-related systems that apparently don’t play well together. But a new, centrally managed system would pay dividends for many years.

 

If they can afford a billion dollars for a pair of new ships, they should be able to cough up enough for an IT overhaul.

That is the best explanation that I have read/heard yet! Perhaps Regent doesn't want to spent a small fortune on something that will not bring them revenue. It seems that when cruise Iines fix or change their computer system, it is worse when they are finished. I see that with Regent as well as Crystal. I'm still not a fan of the format of Regent's "new" website.

OP or his TA should have been notified when the excursion was cancelled to allow at least an attempt to be able to arrange something else. That being said, I have had excursions cancel once onboard, leaving nothing really to be replaced with and no time for me to try to make individual arrangements. Stuff happens, fortunately not a lot though.

To update: I did receive a response from Regent management who, acknowledged the mistake on Regent's part.

Doesn't make the situation better but at least they accept responsibility.

Just checked our April sailing. Excursion we booked in Portofino was canceled. I was able to book Genoa instead. Our TA received a notice about a "special" price for the cruise before ours so she's getting things from Regent and forwarding them but she did not get anything about this.

I think I shall treat this like the airlines...check every month for changes. We got burned by United who canceled our home flight a couple of weeks before an Alaska cruise but didn't tell us. We were able to get on another flight but it was a tense day figuring it out! We've also had our seats switched all around with no notice.

Most of us on this board have had excursions cancelled - either before or during the cruise. While disappointing, this is one thing that we know is a possibility when we book a cruise (we also realize that the port may be skipped for various reasons). While we hope to get the excursions that we want, there is always the knowledge that we may not visit the port that we are most interested in. If/when we want to visit a specific place and it is important to us, we visit by land rather than via cruise ship.

Most of us on this board have had excursions cancelled - either before or during the cruise. While disappointing, this is one thing that we know is a possibility when we book a cruise (we also realize that the port may be skipped for various reasons). While we hope to get the excursions that we want, there is always the knowledge that we may not visit the port that we are most interested in. If/when we want to visit a specific place and it is important to us, we visit by land rather than via cruise ship.

The canceling of excursions is common, yes. The non-notification and given no other options are not.

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The canceling of excursions is common, yes. The non-notification and given no other options are not.

 

 

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From what I understand, there are options but none that the TS is interested in. I "get" that since we have had cancelled excursions and could not find satisfactory replacements. Keep in mind that many "included" Regent excursions have over 200 passengers signed up. Even if your TA receives notification, unless they call you at home and you answer the phone, there is a delay in checking what excursions are still available. Since excursions for most Regent guests can be booked 240 days prior to sailing, there I generally few choices left. As another poster indicated, many times an excursion is cancelled while you are on the cruise. The "replacement" options are generally poor since Regent can't pull good excursions out of a hat either.

If I were in the situation that the TS is in, I'd check out private of small group excursions.

The canceling of excursions is common, yes. The non-notification and given no other options are not.

 

 

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Agree, excursions get cancelled but no notification is the problem. And imo the offerings are slim.

"If I were in the situation that the TS is in, I'd check out private of small group excursions."

Which I've been forced to do in another port and should not have had to do. Makes me question why I'm paying for included excursions and then booking on my own. But that has been hashed out on other threads.

I stand corrected...my TA forwarded me an email this morning about the canceled excursion. The date on the email from Regent was Jan 13th so I know this was a recent email. I'm glad I checked online last week and discovered this myself and will continue to check as we get closer.

Hi, Regent I’m a retired DBA that cruises with you, give me a call and I’m sure we can resolve this issue, as the person above mention this shouldn’t be that difficult. Actually to avoid the TA missed it issue - the cancellation needs to be sent the traveler and TA. - one of them should be paying attention.

LOL! I was just about to post something similar -- retired in 2003 after 20 yrs as a DBA/designer (last job was designing Amazon's databases [catalogue, customers, sales/marketing, marketplace sellers, etc.] from 1997 - 2003). Did a lot of business troubleshooting to come up with database solutions to solve real business problems. This one shouldn't be that difficult to fix.

Lana in Bellingham, WA