Question about free excursions & dining

Hi we have a new RaV 4 with all the bells and whistles. They have already replaced one battery because the car would not start. Subsequently, after that battery was replaced, the car would not start. My husband had to use our starter to get it started.

The car has been at the dealership this past week, they are unable to find out why we are having problems. Tomorrow we go back to the dealer to see hpw we can resolve this problem.

I like all the safety features.quote=Dolebludger;54341399]Travelcat2,

It may come as a shock, but I have a Toyota also (RAV 4 SUV) and a Honda (S 2000 roadster) . I wanted an SUV and a roadster, and found these had the most bang for the buck. But when I needed a sedan with AWD and enough power to get up the mountains around here Mercedes had the most bang for the buck. In cruises, Regent (fka Radisson) used to have the best bang for the buck for what I wanted. Now, I'm not sure about that.

Hyacinth,

I feel your pain. Our fully loaded 2011 RAV 4 with AWD and a V6 and 29000 miles of use has had an excessive number of problems. First, original tires went bald at 18,000 miles, and uniformly so. An alignment check showed perfect alignment. Then the front bumper cover and driver's side front wheel well cover came off/loose with no sign of any impact, Then the glass in the sunroof exploded for no reason at all. Then the car wouldn't start due to electrical problems, and neither my jump starter or that of AAA would start it. After a week in the shop, a new alternator, a new battery, and a bunch of other stuff, it is running again. For how long, I do not know. I bought it because it offered sufficient power, hauling capacity, and back seat comfort that other smaller SUVs didn't have. Given the low mileage to have all these problems, the chance of our buying another Toyota SUV (or Toyota anything) is close to zero. And I am starting to look for a replacement SUV.

Now, I'll bring this subject back to cruises. Unless a cruise line offers value for the money, comfort, convenience, reliability, and concern for necessities, I won't take it. (Just like I won't buy a vehicle that doesn't offer these things.) Regent, this comes from one of your former "cheerleaders". Are you listening?

Hyacinth,

 

 

Now, I'll bring this subject back to cruises. Unless a cruise line offers value for the money, comfort, convenience, reliability, and concern for necessities, I won't take it. (Just like I won't buy a vehicle that doesn't offer these things.) Regent, this comes from one of your former "cheerleaders". Are you listening?

Obviously, I am a Regent cheerleader. And, while I hate how the prices have increased so dramatically, I don't want Regent to dumb down the Regent Experience.

It seems to me (and I don't know this as a fact) that Regent's sister cruise line, Oceania, have lowered their prices. I remember vividly when I compared Regent's prices to Oceania's and many times Oceania came out higher than Regent. This is no longer the case on the itineraries that I have researched.

When NCLH first purchased Regent and Oceania, their stated their intention was to be able to have cruise ships to meet the needs of cruisers from the beginning (entry level NCL cruises) to luxury cruising (Regent). Our experience with Oceania is that there are many cruisers from NCL, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, HAL, Princess and Celebrity that are moving up to the next level. IMO, this is the perfect cruise line for those moving up.

OTOH (on the other hand), I hope that Regent isn't into competing with Oceania's pricing or benefits since this isn't the target audience for Regent. Regent advertises to premium and upper premium cruisers that book the top suites. This would put them in the mid to lower suites on Regent (for the same price but with a ton more benefits).

So, while Regent has lost some people that now find it unaffordable, they have not lost their market share in the luxury arena. Even if we take 1 less cruise per year, we would rather pay more to sail on Regent than to have Regent cut back on food or the service in order to lower fares. There are plenty of lovely cruise lines for those that find Regent a bit too pricey.

THANK YOU for the info on your RAV4, I plan to inform Mgr when I go in tomorrow.

Regent, I have read many of the flaws people find with Regent.I think I agree with them 100%. Yet we conti ue to sail with Regent even though for the cost of the cruise, the food, shore excursions did not live up to our expectations. Shore Excursions we have found the information given not accurate. On one excursion it stated 4X4, reality, was a hay wagon where people sat opposite each other. View was the person opposite you, could see the front and back views IF nobody's head was in the way. Many people could not get into the vehicle as the first step was at leaSt 2 plus feet off the ground. They did not have a step stool.Go to places that are not accessible for someone who has limited ability.

What keeps us returning to Regent is not there shore excursion or the physical problems that could be addressed.

Now that I stated all of this you are probably wondering why we are still sailing on Regent. It is because of the staff, willingness to go out of their way for you, remember you if you sailed with them previously, we have always felt that we were coming home when we boarded the ship.

I will give you one example of what I am referring room - a close friend died unexpectedly and we wanted to call them on a regular basis. Regent did not charge us for the calls, created a space where we could talk and facilitated getting connected to our friend when we were unable to do this.

It is incidents like this that keeps us coming back.

Hyacinth,

 

I feel your pain. Our fully loaded 2011 RAV 4 with AWD and a V6 and 29000 miles of use has had an excessive number of problems. First, original tires went bald at 18,000 miles, and uniformly so. An alignment check showed perfect alignment. Then the front bumper cover and driver's side front wheel well cover came off/loose with no sign of any impact, Then the glass in the sunroof exploded for no reason at all. Then the car wouldn't start due to electrical problems, and neither my jump starter or that of AAA would start it. After a week in the shop, a new alternator, a new battery, and a bunch of other stuff, it is running again. For how long, I do not know. I bought it because it offered sufficient power, hauling capacity, and back seat comfort that other smaller SUVs didn't have. Given the low mileage to have all these problems, the chance of our buying another Toyota SUV (or Toyota anything) is close to zero. And I am starting to look for a replacement SUV.

 

Now, I'll bring this subject back to cruises. Unless a cruise line offers value for the money, comfort, convenience, reliability, and concern for necessities, I won't take it. (Just like I won't buy a vehicle that doesn't offer these things.) Regent, this comes from one of your former "cheerleaders". Are you listening?

Hyacinth,

If you want further info about what I've done so far about an unreliable Toyota, click on my screen name and find my email address. You can email me (please identify yourself) and I'll tell you about how to contact Toyota about your situation. I did and I got some relief.

Now, we have never had a Regent cruise that we did not enjoy. But many of them were at much less than 50% of the fares now. When the price goes up, so do my expectations. One problem with shore excursions is that cruise lines must rely on local vendors, against whom the cruise lines have little remedy, except not to use that vendor again. But that doesn't help the cruiser who has taken the problem excursion. And there have been complaints that some included excursions are nothing more than bus rides. But in some ports, that may be all Regent can find to offer.

Travelcat 2

In 2016 we were on the NCL pearl in "The Haven" for a four night music cruise with bands we like. I almost didn't book it because we had taken NCL in the late 90s, and it was the worst line we had taken (or had taken since). Our suite was huge with a very large deck with a hot tub. It had a constantly stocked in-suite bar. But outside the room, it was the same old NCL. No separate "anytime" restaurant, no dedicated lounge with open bar, and $10 beers anywhere but in our suite. People we know who were not in the Haven say they will never set foot on an NCL ship again. And for what I paid, neither will we.

Regent's fares have really grown, while their benefits have not. "Free air" is rather worthless to me so long as they include domestic flights in economy/coach only, and give us a very skimpy credit for not taking them, and no way to upgrade them, and no way for us to coordinate our domestic flights to the business international flights they provide. Included shore excursions are not that great a benefit because they book up rather quickly, and (as has been said) many are no good anyway.

Regent sends me an ad about every day. The last one I got really set me off. It had cruises on the Explorer priced at way over $1000 per diem pp -- even for cat. H which is unusable (in my opinion) for a couple -- way too small. Regent cannot rely on guests like me for much longer. The reason is simple and morbid. I will be 74 in two months. It won't be long to when it is too painful for me to navigate the airports to even get to a cruise to take the cruise. So, unless something is done about our horrible airlines (not holding my breath) Regent must be looking to the generation after mine for its customers in the near future. And for them, Regent's fares are beyond consideration.

 

Now, we have never had a Regent cruise that we did not enjoy. But many of them were at much less than 50% of the fares now. When the price goes up, so do my expectations.

While I completely "get" your increased expectations, when a premium loaf of bread that was $1.50 just a few years ago is now over $4.00, do you have the same expectations?

Not sure if I can go off topic with homes since we have gone off topic with cars but I'll give it a try. We watch House Hunters International as we are extremely interested in the living conditions/costs, etc. in places around the world. When we saw that rentals in London are easily $5,000+/month and rentals in Mexico top $2,000/month, it was a real shock. It seems that no matter where you live in the world, prices are higher than I've ever seen (whether you are buying or renting). The condos/apartments/homes that are now $2K - 5K per month are no better than they were a few years ago. This is a tough pill to swallow but is the new reality.

Travelcat 2

Regent sends me an ad about every day. The last one I got really set me off. It had cruises on the Explorer priced at way over $1000 per diem pp -- even for cat. H which is unusable (in my opinion) for a couple -- way too small. Regent cannot rely on guests like me for much longer. The reason is simple and morbid. I will be 74 in two months. It won't be long to when it is too painful for me to navigate the airports to even get to a cruise to take the cruise. So, unless something is done about our horrible airlines (not holding my breath) Regent must be looking to the generation after mine for its customers in the near future. And for them, Regent's fares are beyond consideration.

I think your right, but they need both cruisers. The SSS has been good and is doing it's job. However once you reach an age that you can't cruise the benefits done mean a think. Most upper tier members are older and won't be cruising later so Regent has to get new cruisers to fill the ships-it's just the way it is. I'm just starting to cruise Regent and I have 3 booked in higher end suites, which is good for me, hat said I'm your age. I enjoy "O" also but am looking for something better in service that's high end. I get perks on "O" that are pretty good--however that's not why I cruise. I do want value for my dollar---and I pretty sure they want by cruise dollars.

If/when a person can no longer cruise or take a vacation (for any reason or at any age) it is sad. Fortunately (for Regent) people keep getting older and more are able to afford to cruise on a luxury line. Even if only 50 + year olds sailed on Regent, they would do fine.

Dolebludger, your comment about "H" level suites is puzzling. These suites are the same size as "G", "F", "E" and "D" (concierge) suites on Voyager and Mariner. IMO, there is nothing wrong with these suites.

Also, it has not been my experience that upper tier loyalty customers are elderly. In fact, I believe that some CC members adult children have reached Gold ........ Pretty impressive.

While I completely "get" your increased expectations, when a premium loaf of bread that was $1.50 just a few years ago is now over $4.00, do you have the same expectations?

 

Not sure if I can go off topic with homes since we have gone off topic with cars but I'll give it a try. We watch House Hunters International as we are extremely interested in the living conditions/costs, etc. in places around the world. When we saw that rentals in London are easily $5,000+/month and rentals in Mexico top $2,000/month, it was a real shock. It seems that no matter where you live in the world, prices are higher than I've ever seen (whether you are buying or renting). The condos/apartments/homes that are now $2K - 5K per month are no better than they were a few years ago. This is a tough pill to swallow but is the new reality.

Well, I said I was done with OT car posts so I won’t mention cars again...

I just bought a new Harley Davidson a few weeks ago. Has anyone priced THOSE lately? :o Of course, they’ve added content, much like Regent has...but still...

Agree that everything is getting crazy expensive. Not sure where it’s gonna stop, but it’s gotta stop somewhere. Prices are going up, wages, well, not so much.

Travelcat 2,

First, as to the bread, I grocery shop and don't find that its price has risen as much as Regent cruise prices over the past 10-15 years. As to real estate, the prices are very "location dependent". Here in the Colorado mountains (and other places) real estate prices are rising fast. But in Oklahoma (and other places) prices have been rather flat since this period.

And don't you know about cat H on the explorer? They are much smaller that cat H on any other Regent ship. Rumor is that they were originally designed for single cruisers. I haven't cruised in one, but have reviewed the floor plan and the square footage. No for us.

UUNet Bill,

If you want to talk about cars, I'm more than willing to do so -- but not here, because "here" is about cruises. Click on my profile, find my email address, and I will be happy to tell you all about the C 43 AM.

Travelcat 2,

 

First, as to the bread, I grocery shop and don't find that its price has risen as much as Regent cruise prices over the past 10-15 years. As to real estate, the prices are very "location dependent". Here in the Colorado mountains (and other places) real estate prices are rising fast. But in Oklahoma (and other places) prices have been rather flat since this period.

 

And don't you know about cat H on the explorer? They are much smaller that cat H on any other Regent ship. Rumor is that they were originally designed for single cruisers. I haven't cruised in one, but have reviewed the floor plan and the square footage. No for us.

 

.

Yes - you are right about the Explorer - they are small and I do wonder if Regent will have those suites on their new ship.

In terms of costs raising - I was just making a general point about how much bread and rents have gone up - more than doubled in price in the last 15 years. In terms of Regent, some fares have doubled in that time - other have more than doubled and others have risen but are still affordable. A good example of "affordable" (by Regent's standards) is the 7 night Mariner cruiser in early November. Regent has very competitive pricing on many Caribbean cruises.