Unable to book shore excursions due to 'system glitch'

[dkayokay]

Hi all

 

Advice and perhaps some reassurance required. Not a big issue, but would appreciate your thoughts as RSSC newbie here.

 

Booked onto a Caribbean cruise on the Splendor in Feb 2022 in a Concierge suite.

 

Shore excursions opened last Wednesday (Feb 3) and being in the UK (and new to Regent), we picked our shore excursions choices beforehand and got up at 6 am to book them (1 am EST) not knowing if this is something one has to do to secure the most popular excursions.

 

The shore excursion link worked, but no excursions listed in each port (see picture below). Anyway, we thought nothing of it and went back to bed. We called Regent later that day and was told there is a known glitch in their system and the most likely reason is because we had taken advantage of their 2-category upgrade offer so the system thinks we're booked into a Superior suite rather than a Concierge suite, even though our booking clearly shows our cabin category and the correct excursion and dining booking dates.

 

The RSSC agent said they couldn't help and there was no 'back-end' way of securing our choice excursions. Their IT department were "working tirelessly" and we should have just booked concierge or higher if excursions were important to us (WHAT?).

 

Fast forward to this week (Tues Feb 9). Tried to get an update, but they didn't have one. A different agent said they would e-mail Miami for one. She later e-mailed to say it would be available to book from Feb 17 (exactly two weeks from the time we were supposed to be able to book excursions). 

 

Looking through previous posts, I'm fully aware that even if our first choices have gone, we can go on the waitlist which is likely to clear closer to the time. However, my experience so far with Regent has not been great.

 

What would have been great customer service would be to say "we understand your frustration and as it is not your fault you haven't been able to book the excursions of your choice, we would guarantee your options even if that means putting on additional capacity." or something similar.

 

Anyone else experienced this, or are we just special?

 

Ok, rant over. :-)

 

Dan

 

 

[Guerncruising]

Hi, I take it that you booked through a travel agent and they should be able to sort things for you. I normally ask them to print off all the shore excursions so that I can peruse them at leisure prior to booking. It may well be the upgrade which is causing the issue but I don’t know. Stick with it, Regent are usually very good. 

 

PS I am an ex Firparnian living on this little island. 

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

We are Regent cruisers for many years. 
I gave up on trying to book my excursions on line several years ago. I phone Regent the next morning and book through an agent. It’s much simpler and eliminates frustration with their horrible system. 
sheila

Edited February 11, 2021 by Bellaggio Cruisers

[tipsygirl]

I had a similar e instance yesterday. We took advantage of the 2 cat. Upgrade to book a Penthouse suite.. I am new to Regent and had overlooked to December 2020 date for booking excursions for our Dec 2021 cruise until yesterday. I booked our choices and saved, and all looked good. But when I checked back this morning they had disappeared. Also tried to complete our passenger info forms. I entered the info and saved, but most of the info had disappeared when I checked back.
So it sounds like I need to contact myTA for assistance?

cindy

[Grandmaanne7]

I was able to go on this morning (my regular booking date as we did not take advantage of the 2 category upgrade) and booked all our excursions.  I received an email confirmation in less than a minute listing all excursions booked.  I hope you can sort it out.  Good luck.

[flossie009]

4 hours ago, dkayokay said:

The RSSC agent said they couldn't help and there was no 'back-end' way of securing our choice excursions. Their IT department were "working tirelessly" and we should have just booked concierge or higher if excursions were important to us 

Very surprised & disappointed with the reaction you received from the Regent rep. In the past the Southampton office has been very helpful in securing excursion bookings if there was an issue on-line. Maybe the poor response is because many staff are on furlough or working from home?

 

Hopefully you will secure your first choices on Feb 17; if not just waitlist, as more often than not the waitlist will clear.

 

[ShropshireCritic]

2 minutes ago, flossie009 said:

Very surprised & disappointed with the reaction you received from the Regent rep. In the past the Southampton office has been very helpful in securing excursion bookings if there was an issue on-line. Maybe the poor response is because many staff are on furlough or working from home?

 

Hopefully you will secure your first choices on Feb 17; if not just waitlist, as more often than not the waitlist will clear.

 

Likewise, I have always received 110% exceptional service from my U.K. Regent advisor based in Southampton though she may well be currently working from “home” aka Miami in the current climate but yet with her direct dial links and working to U.K. times you would never realise that it’s still dark in Florida with a local time of 4am when you ring mid morning...!!

It’s this type of care & attention that makes RSS above the majority. 

[tipsygirl]

I was able to get all my issues resolved on shore excursions and updating our Guest Information by talking with a Regent agent.  When I asked why I had difficulty he said that perhaps it was my browser and I might try Goggle Chrome. My laptop is a Mac Air so I typically use Safari. I did activate Goggle Chrome and was able to manage my account successfully and found all the changes the Regent agent had made.

Not what I would wish to do, but now I know I need to do to successfully access my Regent account.  Would have been nice to know from Regent that this was necessary.

 

Cindy

[Shippy]

  We booked an F2 on the Splendor for next March.

 I know it is to early for us to book excursions but my husband wanted to see the list anyway.

   I told him it would probably be futile to plan anything even when we can sign up (although we will).

  It is a sad thing to say but I would not be surprised if some of those tour operators would be out of business by then.

  I find it hard to believe our poor travel agent is still in business. Our last year Alaska cruise was cancelled & now this years. I know they do not get commission if there is no cruise.

[dkayokay]

Thanks for all your replies.

 

To be honest, I have been quite disappointed with our experience with Regent so far - and we're not even particularly fussy people! I'm afraid I have yet to experience the @ShropshireCritic "care & attention that makes RSS above the majority."

 

It's not so much the fact that we've not be able to book our excursions (that's just annoying) but it's the "can't do anything, try again later - too bad if they're all gone, not my problem" attitude with both agents (with British accents, so assume based here in the UK). To be fair, the 2nd person I spoke to did e-mail Miami to get an update (which didn't really add anything!).

 

My travel agent did ring Regent but got nowhere (IT problem, can't do anything for you until it's fixed). Both my travel agent and I received the same advice - try again on Feb 17 (exactly two weeks after excursion bookings opened)... my partner thinks it's a conspiracy to 'punish' us for taking advantage of the upgrade offer but let's not open that can of worms!

 

It would have been nice of them to proactively send out communication to customers affected by this, without having to call them to find out. Also, as I said in my original post, it would be great if they could guarantee our choices as it really isn't our fault this has happened.

 

[docmark]

Just would like to voice OPPOSITE  experience with excursion situation . We also "inserted" our excursion choices twice, and see them disappear, so called regent and spoke to an agent ,Nancy. She took the time and registered us for all the excursions right away. 

[dkayokay]

Thanks docmark.

 

Please forgive me if I have this all wrong but I get a sense that I've really hit a raw nerve with some of you recounting my disappointing experiences with Regent.

 

Some have been quick to defend Regent, pointing out your great (and "opposite") experiences with them. Grateful to hear of your experiences and your advice to ring them, but I have rung them twice now (together my travel agent, making that 3 calls in total) with no success.

 

I'm really not making any of this up - I would hope I'm not wasting your time on this forum asking if this is what I (a Regent newbie) should expect (evidently not) and if anyone else who has upgraded on their offer has experienced similar difficulties booking shore excursions.

 

C'est la vie. No biggie and hopefully will be sorted soon, in 2 days as they advise. Perhaps I'll ask my TA to escalate if it doesn't work by the end of the week.

[docmark]

 

 

Hi dkayokay

Just for your information, the cruise I referred to will be our FIRST Regent experience, we had reserved World cruise 2020, but fortunately cancelled before hand .

 

So, by no means I am defending Regent "blindly", maybe your poor experience reflects difference between agents in UK and US 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1982CruzStart]

56 minutes ago, dkayokay said:

Thanks docmark.

 

Please forgive me if I have this all wrong but I get a sense that I've really hit a raw nerve with some of you recounting my disappointing experiences with Regent.

 

Some have been quick to defend Regent, pointing out your great (and "opposite") experiences with them. Grateful to hear of your experiences and your advice to ring them, but I have rung them twice now (together my travel agent, making that 3 calls in total) with no success.

 

I'm really not making any of this up - I would hope I'm not wasting your time on this forum asking if this is what I (a Regent newbie) should expect (evidently not) and if anyone else who has upgraded on their offer has experienced similar difficulties booking shore excursions.

 

C'est la vie. No biggie and hopefully will be sorted soon, in 2 days as they advise. Perhaps I'll ask my TA to escalate if it doesn't work by the end of the week.

Your experience sucks. Unfortunately Regent has had problems with their IT department in the past.  We had a similiar frustrating experience with booking shore excursions a couple years ago when i logged in, picked all our excursions then they disappeared when i tried to save them. It happened on a weekend and by the time i could get hold of someone, we missed out on a couple of excursions we wanted. They were small group ones but we were able to get on the regular ones to the same places.

 

I hope you get all the ones you want and that your experience with Regent improves. I am sure it will if you actually get to sail as the onboard experience is wonderful. 

[GOARMY]

dkayokay:

 

You asked for input from others who, having taken advantage of Regent's  upgrade offer to a Penthouse suite, experienced any subsequent glitches when booking excursions.  

 

We are long-time Radisson/Regent cruisers.  There have been occasional hick-ups completing onshore excursions--which have been sought about 95% of the time going online directly to Regent.  We have a great Travel Agent who handles all other aspects of a particular cruise Booking.  But, it has been easier to do the excursions without the need for a "middle person".  Because:    

 

No difference noted as to whether our booking was at a Concierge or higher suite level.  Those relatively-few issues were quickly resolved by telephoning Regent the next morning to "fill in the blanks" and confirm--again via email, that requested excursions were properly recorded in that particular Booking.   Then, periodically went back online to review details of that Booking to confirm nothing had disappeared in the interim.  Never a problem.  

 

Most-recent experience:  Upgraded (at no additional cost) to a Penthouse suite for Mariner's October 31st 2021 Barcelona to Miami segment.  This followed having three 2020 scheduled cruises canceled due to COVID.  (Frankly, put chances for the Barcelona trip at about 40% as of today.  But, one must plan/hope for eventual resumption of 5+ cruising in some form at some time.)

 

Based on a review of this Thread, checked a few minutes ago to verify that the onshore excursions (there are not that many, as this is basically a trans-Atlantic crossing itinerary) booked for the Barcelona segment are still there.  They are.  

 

That has been our experience.  Hang-in there--as we all are while awaiting developments.

 

GOARMY!

  

 

 

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

4 hours ago, GOARMY said:

Most-recent experience:  Upgraded (at no additional cost) to a Penthouse suite for Mariner's October 31st 2021 Barcelona to Miami segment.  

Hey Army

How did you pull off an upgrade at no additional cost...... please share. 
sheila

[GOARMY]

Sheila: 

 

Regent made the offer for that particular segment in early October as part of a larger two-suite upgrade "sell".  It came at a good time, as we had just-canceled a third Regent cruise (April-May 2021 Tokyo-Vancouver B.C. segment aboard Explorer).   Our ever-vigilant TA jumped on it. 

 

Wanted a fill-in cruise to tide us over until (hopefully) being at Tokyo in April, 2022 for a three-day pre-stay prior to boarding Mariner (again) for a longer segment to San Francisco.

 

Hope springs eternal. 

 

GOARMY!

 

  

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

Thanks Army...

I forgot about the two category upgrade. We took advantage of the offer fir several cruises we have booked. 
Be well

sheila