On Your Own Tours with Regent

[tannie]

We've heard mixed reviews on Regent Excursions. Many passengers complain the excursions which are part of your cruise package price are uninteresting and boring. The Excursions where one pays extra appear to have better reviews. My question is to past Regent guests: Does Regent provide transportation to/from ship/city centers? We sail on Explorer in January Auckland to Bali and are interested in doing our own exploring. 

 

Also, what excursions do you recommend we take in New Zealand, Australia and Bali, either ship tours or our own tour? Thanks so much Regent alumni!

[BBWC]

Regent will put on a shuttle in most ports where they are allowed to (some ports have a taxi ‘mafia’ that prohibits cruise shuttles). In more distant ports (e.g. Rome, Bangkok), Regent often offers an ‘on your own’ tour where they provide the bus transportation and where you can sightsee on your own, meeting the bus at a set time to get back to the ship. That said, in Bali I have never seen a shuttle or independent exploration. I think the local taxis want the business. Definitely possible in New Zealand and Australia, though.

[papaflamingo]

21 hours ago, tannie said:

Also, what excursions do you recommend we take in New Zealand, Australia and Bali, either ship tours or our own tour? Thanks so much Regent alumni!

What ports are you visiting?  We did some great New Zealand tours that were included and one that was additional but worth it.  

[cwn]

The wine tours in New Zealand on the WC were all good as were the wine/food related tours in Australia. The Sydney Opera House tour is good and the Great Ocean Road is worth it to see a beautiful part of Australia. It is a long bus ride but worth it. We also enjoy the HOHO bus tours for a go mod overview of the bigger cities to get an idea of where we want to go. Australia and New Zealand tour companies offer a good product usually, If the tour sounds good to you. 
 

Been to Bali twice once on Regent. Private tours are cheap and good there. We had a car and driver for a week the first time and used him again for the two days we were there with Regent. Much better deal as far as seeing the island than the ship tours!

 

Read about the various tours and come back asking about ones of interest to you. Many of us have travel to that part of the would more than once and can give you some insight about a particular tour we have done.  

[irishwitchy]

CWN - Is there a way to contact the driver that you used?  How long ago was that?  

[cwn]

We were there in 15 and 18 so a while. I found him on one of the popular travel websites. I may have seen him listed on the Bali Port of Call in cruise critic.There will be many Taxis lined up offering trips at the port. The problem with the ship tours were the big bus and they only did 1or2 sites. You really need to spend the whole day out to really see what Bali has to offer. If Regent offers a car/van for the day that might be well worth the cost. The sites are spread out but all beautiful and every interesting!!!!

I will look for my contract.

[BBWC]

Totally agree with using a private tour in Bali. They are inexpensive, and we saw so much more than on a Regent tour. You can also look at Tripadvisor for reviews of guides.

[labonnevie]

If you stop in Akaroa, NZ, highly recommend the Scenic Mail Run (not a Regent tour).

So much fun, it was a real highlight for us.

 

https://akaroamailrun.com/

[RetiredandTravel]

On 11/14/2022 at 12:42 PM, tannie said:

We've heard mixed reviews on Regent Excursions. Many passengers complain the excursions which are part of your cruise package price are uninteresting and boring. The Excursions where one pays extra appear to have better reviews.

 

 

Not sure I'd agree with this 100%.  IMO in smaller ports the Regent excursions are fine.  They are on buses with probably 50 people.  The guides we have been mostly (90%) very pleasant, knowledgeable and engaged. 

 

There are ports like Kyoto where the Regent excursions came up short, we saw the highlights but there was a lot left to see.  It was also so crowded that the guide was of no use.  Hiroshima is another example where the entire ship & others descend on one location (museum & park) at the same time so its so crowded that its hard to fully appreciate.  Getting a jump on the crowds with a private tour would be helpful. 

 

Private tours are obviously better but I wouldn't spend the extra money at every port, it takes some homework.

 

 

Edited November 16, 2022 by RetiredandTravel

[Lonedaddy]

our cruise ends in bali and we booked a driver on viator to pick us up at the port and take us to the sights in ubud .... supposed to go for 10 hours but we just customized it to get us to the conrad at 3-4 pm.  Total is 67 usd for both of us.  That will give you an idea of the prices in Bali

[labonnevie]

Can also suggest that in ports where Regent offers them, the small group tours work well. Max of 16 people, the slight extra charge is worth it IMHO 

[wishIweretravelling]

21 hours ago, RetiredandTravel said:

 

 

Not sure I'd agree with this 100%.  IMO in smaller ports the Regent excursions are fine.  They are on buses with probably 50 people.  The guides we have been mostly (90%) very pleasant, knowledgeable and engaged. 

 

 

 

 

I mostly agree, but have to say the only Regent tours on which I’ve seen 50 people are where they quickly get us to a start point then break into smaller groups. 30-35 is the max (on buses that can hold 50+), and many have had fewer than that.  In the end, how enjoyable and interesting the tour is comes down to the guide and how crowded is the site.  I’ve seen tours where friends are taking the same excursion but wound up in different groups with different guides. People in one group had a great tour, people in the other had a super-dull tour.

[RetiredandTravel]

1 hour ago, wishIweretravelling said:

I mostly agree, but have to say the only Regent tours on which I’ve seen 50 people are where they quickly get us to a start point then break into smaller groups. 30-35 is the max (on buses that can hold 50+), and many have had fewer than that.  In the end, how enjoyable and interesting the tour is comes down to the guide and how crowded is the site.  I’ve seen tours where friends are taking the same excursion but wound up in different groups with different guides. People in one group had a great tour, people in the other had a super-dull tour.

 

 

That's fair.    On our Japan cruise all the buses were full but otherwise they were probably 1/2 - 2/3 full.

 

 

There is no doubt private tours are better I just think in many ports they aren't necessary

 

Its cold 🙂

 

 

 

 

Edited November 17, 2022 by RetiredandTravel

[papaflamingo]

Regent tours, in my experience, have been the same as most cruise line tours.  If it's a bus tour, it's a bus tour.  The descriptions are pretty accurate (In general).  If you read the description and it seems boring, then it probably is.  Just book a different tour.  We had some great tours on our cruises, and some boring ones.  But. I wasn't surprised in any way.  If I don't see a tour that interests me, I go my own way. 

[mj_holiday]

We have always used Regent tours, some that had an extra costs.  I cannot remember where we had a tour we didn't like.  I am a risk avoider and when you are on a Regent excursion, the ship will wait if something happens and you are late getting back.  The only thing that I am not happy with is the activity rating that they give.  One of the excursions I have booked for upcoming cruise had no activity rating and the description sounded like it was fairly laid back visit to a heritage site.  I printed it out and DH noted that it had an activity rating of "3 people"  We will have time to talk with destination services about this, because the description still sounds fairly laid back.

[RetiredandTravel]

1 hour ago, mj_holiday said:

 I am a risk avoider and when you are on a Regent excursion, the ship will wait if something happens and you are late getting back.  

 

 

Yep at our age we've just seen way too many things go wrong. 😬

 

IMO a high quality guest speaker is also crucial to the overall experience.