How is best way to find out which shore excursions are good with Regent?

[Responder]

I think Travelcat meant to say ""Luxury cruise line customers by and large dislike Regent SHORE EXCURSIONS as some resemble mass market", which is of course her opinion.

 

I've said in a few other threads that we just got off the Voyager...certainly a luxury cruise line, and there was never a wait for the announcement to proceed to our included tours...the busses were not full...the guides were well spoken and the busses were modern and spotless.

 

And the ship was full up....along with an 85% return rate on board.

 

Can we all be so wrong and she so right?

[newlondon]

Responder you describe our experience in SE Asia perfectly. Not full, good guides and every effort to make the experience pleasant. One exception; vans for smaller tours are almost always full--not good:mad:

[wripro]

I don't think there;s a right or wrong here. Everyone's tastes are different and so everyone will react differently to the included excursions. Personally, I hate all bus tours and will never set foot on one so the included tours are a waste of money no matter how well or poorly they are conducted. Others like them so they don't mind paying the much higher fares Regent charges because of them.

[Travelcat2]

Peggy: Thank you for the explanation. Regarding ship clearance, why would any cruise line schedule guests to meet anywhere at the same time the ship is due to arrive? IMO, whenever possible, meeting times should be 1/2 hour after the ship docks. As you know, the theaters on Regent can get quite crowded.

 

EZ99B5: Thank you for correcting my sentence. You are right about what I meant to say:-)

 

newlondon: We have had excellent excursions in some areas - specifically the Middle East and India. My point always has been that passengers should be permitted to opt out of excursions. In the case of Southeast Asia, we would not opt out. We would opt out for the Med. and certainly many ports in South America.

 

fizzy: I am not posting on the SS board during the cruise. Briefly, the Food and Beverage Manager called me the 1st day. Not sure how he knew I wanted to talk to him. He reassured me about the food/kitchen and said that not everything we read about the June incident was correct. I believe they are being inspected again today in about a half an hour. The people in La Terrazza are running around like hamsters.

[UUNetBill]

I felt like I had to chime in on this one a bit - our biggest gripe on our last Regent cruise was with the shore excursions. One or two were mediocre at best, one was a complete bust (we felt, anyhow), and a few were outstanding.

 

There is no right or wrong answer here - it depends entirely on what YOU want out of a shore excursion. Some people love the panorama tours, seeing famous sights from the air conditioned comfort of a packed bus. Others like flying through the mud in a modified swamp buggy. Others like hikes, or quiet wine tastings, or gourmet meals, or a ballet...well, you get the picture.

 

Best advice I've read on this thread so far? Post what specific excursions look good to YOU and ask if people had good or bad experiences on them. I'll gladly share whatever experiences I might have had on any of these...

[xrvlcruiser]

Jackie,

 

Clearance:it all depends on when the ship arrives. And how long it takes to clear. Even if the time for the tours is 1/2 hour after docking, it is something the ship has no control over. Stuff happens. To quote Jamie: We need to be travelers, not tourists.

[newlondon]

Peggy, Miss you! The market here has changed, hope your experience has as well.

[AWED23]

It depends upon your experience with excursions. If you are used to sailing a large ship where there are multiple bus excursions going to the same place then Regent will seem great since they do not fill the buses (but still have multiple buses going to the same place -- including restroom stops).

 

Luxury cruise line customers by and large dislike Regent cruises as some resemble mass market.

 

It also depends upon where in the world you are. In the Middle East the excursions were great -- in parts of South America they were not. The Med. is expensive so we have found that paying for excursions with on board credits was the way to go.

 

Lastly, it depends upon the person. We want small group tours or private tours. For this reason, we wish that excursions were not included on Regent.

...:confused::) Saying that Luxury cruise line pax by and large dislike Regent cruises as some resemble mass market is trying to make your opinion fact again. It also smacks of elitism...We all know your total dislike for ships tours but if you took the time to consider just how many passengers were going on ships' tours at each port you would come to recognize that you are in the minority and that indeed MOST passengers make use of Regent's tours. :cool:

[eliana]

We are on the voyager from Singapore to Auckland over Xmas. We are considering one of the special tours from Picton called " Gourmet Malborough . . .". It is though over the top in price at £169. Has anyone experienced this?

[galavant3]

Peggy, would you mind posting how excursions on done on Crystal? Since you have sailed Crystal, you would be the right person to explain it.

 

 

Obviously I'm not Peggy but wanted to share our experience on Crystal.

What impressed me (on our one Crystal cruise to date) is that on every excursion, someone from the ship joined the tour. From what I could tell, they signed up to join the tours that were of interest to them. As much as that was possible.

 

When in Montreal, a staff member joined us. He has not signed up for the tour (apparently no one had) and I suspect it was not how he wanted to spend his day since it was a very rainy day. However, you would never have known since he was an absolute delight.

 

During this tour, an older gentleman required assistance and needed to get back to the ship. The staff member knew exactly what to do and took care of everything in a professional and efficient manner. There was not one second of delay or interruption for the rest of the group.

 

I really appreciate that Crystal takes this extra step.

 

We sailed Regent to Alaska and one of the reasons we selected Regent was the inclusion of excursions. We had some incredible ones and some I wouldn't repeat - but that really had nothing to do with Regent. Some of the tours were crowded, namely Tracy Arm and the Crab Feast but the rest were smaller groups, one tour as small as 6 passengers.

[xrvlcruiser]

I am Peggy (LOL)

 

One thing I do like on the Crystal tours which Regent no longer does is the Ship's escort. This went away when the Clergy and Dance Hosts were eliminated (the production team also were escorts).

 

The Escorts function exactly as galavant3 described. They also carry a backpack with a first aid kit.

 

Having said this, I have not had ANY problem with tours on Regent - which was the question - but do appreciate the extras provided by Crystal.

 

Peggy

[TedC]

Holland America also had escorts with first aid kits on all tours - at least they did a few years ago. I think it's a good idea!

[eliana]

So do Many other cruise lines. I suggest we all get back to the subject of this thread, i.e. Regent's excursions.

[Travelcat2]

I do not feel that explaining how other cruise lines handle excursions is off topic. After all, Regent executives do read these threads and may read something about other cruise lines that they may wish to adopt. Another cruise line that handles excursions quite well is Silversea. I am currently on board the Shadow and have heard many positive comments regarding the excursions they have taken in the past week. No one ever has to wait on the ship for their excursions. The tour guides are waiting on shore.

 

Peggy, having had the pleasure of sailing with you a couple of times I know how easy going you are. When some of us on the South American cruise (I think this is the right one), were complaining about the excursions, you were enjoying them. I admire your positive outlook.

 

On our Regent cruise last November, three busloads of passengers (there were six busloads going to the same place:-( revolted! We wanted to go back to the ship. The excursion had been acceptable but was going downhill quickly. Our bus took a vote. 100% of the passengers wanted to go back to the ship (about 2 hours early on a 8 hour excursion). Two of the buses - ours included -- were taken to places to shop. We were not pleased! The third bus took the passengers back to the ship.

 

I share this story because you may wonder who was at fault for this? IMO, it was both Regent and the tour operator. Apparently, when a tour company is suppose to keep the passengers out for 8 hours, they do not want them back in 6. In fact, the tour company may not be paid the full amount. While I understand this to a point, when you have 28-30 people demanding to be taken back to the ship, there should at least be a way for the tour guide to contact the ship and ask for further instructions. Holding us hostage was, IMO, not the way to go.

 

P.S. I love Regent and would rather be on the Voyager right now instead of the Shadow. However, I would not be on the Bering Sea if I were on Regent. Silversea may not be Regent, but is a good second choice.:D

[Emdee]

Obviously I'm not Peggy but wanted to share our experience on Crystal.

What impressed me (on our one Crystal cruise to date) is that on every excursion, someone from the ship joined the tour. From what I could tell, they signed up to join the tours that were of interest to them. As much as that was possible.

 

When in Montreal, a staff member joined us. He has not signed up for the tour (apparently no one had) and I suspect it was not how he wanted to spend his day since it was a very rainy day. However, you would never have known since he was an absolute delight.

 

During this tour, an older gentleman required assistance and needed to get back to the ship. The staff member knew exactly what to do and took care of everything in a professional and efficient manner. There was not one second of delay or interruption for the rest of the group.

 

I really appreciate that Crystal takes this extra step.

 

We sailed Regent to Alaska and one of the reasons we selected Regent was the inclusion of excursions. We had some incredible ones and some I wouldn't repeat - but that really had nothing to do with Regent. Some of the tours were crowded, namely Tracy Arm and the Crab Feast but the rest were smaller groups, one tour as small as 6 passengers.

 

On our May Regent cruise we always had a staff member on board on each excursion. In crowded destinations like Jerusalem they usually brought up the year of the excursion and made sure no one was lost. When one passenger disappeared they left the group with the leader and darted back into the mass of humanity and ferreted out the missing passenger so everything ran smoothly.

[galavant3]

On our May Regent cruise we always had a staff member on board on each excursion. In crowded destinations like Jerusalem they usually brought up the year of the excursion and made sure no one was lost. When one passenger disappeared they left the group with the leader and darted back into the mass of humanity and ferreted out the missing passenger so everything ran smoothly.

 

We didn't have staff members join us on our Alaska cruise (our only Regent cruise to date) but maybe it was because of the nature of the excursions and we were in the US?

 

I'm glad to hear Silversea handles excursions well since they are next up for us.

 

We are pretty easy to please and don't require assistance but for some reason it is comforting to have a cruise line representative along.

[xrvlcruiser]

Emdee,

 

I'm glad to hear that Regent had a staff escort on the tours. I hope they are reconsidering the situation.

 

Peggy

[Eager2Travel]

We could not agree more about how important it is to have someone on the ship with an excursion. After a very negative experience in San Juan in the dark of night it took a couple of years before we returned to Regent.

 

We know all about Regent's explanation that employees need to volunteer to go along but that doesn't make us feel any more secure.

[Keith1010]

Holland America also had escorts with first aid kits on all tours - at least they did a few years ago. I think it's a good idea!

 

We too like having escorts on board shop sponsored tours for several reasons:

 

-In general, the escorts will review with the tour guide the itinerary to ensure that there are no deviations.

-Should a passenger become ill and even need medical attention they can really make a big difference. I have been on a couple of tours where the escort accompanied the ill passenger to the hospital and then contacted the ship so they were aware of the situation.

-Should something go wrong with the tour they will document it. At the same time they will document positive aspects of the tour and all of this feedback is very useful when planning the following years shore excursions.

 

As a side note it also provides a crew member with the opportunity to be on the tour and I think that is very nice.

 

Keith

[newlondon]

Hi Keith, As usual your comments are appropriate. Let me go a little bit further. Protecting passengers imo is important. Many, not all, nor even a majority, understand the risks or the unfortunate occurrences that can happen on shore excursions. When in Tierra del Fuego a passenger had a heart attack. The SS contact, Natalie, Did everything necessary and the outcome was positive. I have always been a supporter of SS and Natalie and feel that all cruise lines should follow this scenario.

[Keith1010]

newlondon, excellent real life example of the benefit of having a person from the cruise line on the tour.

 

Keith

[Travelcat2]

Agree that Silversea handles excursions very well. However, they do not have included excursions or 30 buses going out each day.

 

Since I am on board a ship at the moment (and paying for internet), I cannot read the last couple of pages. Did someone say that Regent now has representatives on EVERY bus now? That would be a great thing.