First Regent cruise- shore excursion booking opens next week

[the_dylaness]

Greetings,

We are not new to cruising but we are new to Regent, and have booked the 16 night eastbound Panama Canal transit for January 2024.

 

Our cruise planner shows that we can start booking shore excursions a week from tomorrow. I am, however, unable to locate the guide to what shore excursions are actually available, so we can browse in advance. It says that booking starts at 8pm EST- is this going to be like checking in on Southwest, where you log on minutes in advance and keep clicking until you get what you need, or is it a less stressful experience? We have no idea what to expect. We did book a concierge level room (no idea if that makes any difference) because we understood that we would get slightly earlier access to shore excursions than in a regular balcony.

 

I have to say I've never had a lot of desire to visit Ensenada, for instance, but perhaps there will be some interesting shore excursions that change our minds.

We tend to prefer more active/interactive excursions; less interested in bus or vehicle based touring, more interested in outdoor activities, food, and culture.  For warm weather cruises we often prefer hiking, kayaking, snorkeling, etc.  No idea if this will line up with the types of excursions available but we are hopeful.

 

Thanks for any insight you can provide into what we can expect next Sunday, and happy new year!

 

 

 

[WNcruiser]

When you are on the Regent website, find your cruise and right under "Itinerary and excursions" you will see a link to click to have the brochure emailed to you.

 

Heres a link to your sailing:

https://www.rssc.com/cruises/GRA240108/summary?source=CruiseSearch&m=2024-1&r=CARMX

 

Suites and concierge can book a little earlier than other categories but so far we haven't had any issues getting the tours we want. We were waitlisted once but it cleared in about a week (we were in concierge). 

 

Also be aware you cannot cancel tours on line, you must call Regent to change or cancel them. 

 

 

Edited January 1, 2023 by WNcruiser

[labonnevie]

1 hour ago, the_dylaness said:

Greetings,

We are not new to cruising but we are new to Regent, and have booked the 16 night eastbound Panama Canal transit for January 2024.

 

Our cruise planner shows that we can start booking shore excursions a week from tomorrow. I am, however, unable to locate the guide to what shore excursions are actually available, so we can browse in advance. 

 

 

 

If you go to your cruise on rssc.com, right under Itinerary and Excursions, it says Click here to receive a list of all shore excursions….

When you click it will ask for your email address to receive the complete list. It comes as a pdf file. As a first time Regent cruiser you are getting earlier access to tour reservations as Concierge level versus a balcony suite. However, many Regent past cruisers also have access one year out. If you know in advance what tours you want to book and do so early in the booking period, you should have no problem getting what you want. 

Edited January 1, 2023 by labonnevie
Error

[the_dylaness]

41 minutes ago, WNcruiser said:

When you are on the Regent website, find your cruise and right under "Itinerary and excursions" you will see a link to click to have the brochure emailed to you.

 

Heres a link to your sailing:

https://www.rssc.com/cruises/GRA240108/summary?source=CruiseSearch&m=2024-1&r=CARMX

 

Suites and concierge can book a little earlier than other categories but so far we haven't had any issues getting the tours we want. We were waitlisted once but it cleared in about a week (we were in concierge). 

 

 

 

Thank you! We were struggling to find this, somehow. This is incredibly helpful.  Best wishes!

[the_dylaness]

32 minutes ago, labonnevie said:

If you go to your cruise on rssc.com, right under Itinerary and Excursions, it says Click here to receive a list of all shore excursions….

When you click it will ask for your email address to receive the complete list. It comes as a pdf file. As a first time Regent cruiser you are getting earlier access to tour reservations as Concierge level versus a balcony suite. However, many Regent past cruisers also have access one year out. If you know in advance what tours you want to book and do so early in the booking period, you should have no problem getting what you want. 

 

Excellent- thank you! A PDF in email sounds perfect, I will sign up right now. 

[papaflamingo]

I believe we are on the same cruise, Grandeur sailing Jan.8, 2024?  I assume you have downloaded the excursions and are able to see them?  When you go online, at 8 pm on Jan. and select your account, the cruise should come up.  On the right is a list of what dates each thing needs to be selected or completed.  The prompt "Select Shore Excursions" will turn blue when you can access them to select.  Also if you click on "manage this booking," it'll take you to a page where you can "customize" shore excursions.  That will also become active at 8 pm EST.   Then you simply select each port and select the excursions you want.  Once in you cart you need to save them.  It will show a checkout prompt.  When you do this your excursions will be saved and any extra cost will need to be paid for.  Even though most are included, it will still show some kind of "pay" prompt.  Don't worry, the cost will show zero if you didn't select any upcharged excursions.  But to save your selections you must do the full checkout.  Once done, excursions can only be changed via a phone call.  You can't change them on line. 

[the_dylaness]

@papaflamingo Yes, same cruise! We have scrolled through the PDF and made some selections.  Your description above is very helpful.  There are several excursions we are interested in.... a couple of ports (Cartagena & Puerto Quetzal for instance) we may be looking for alternate ideas.   Seems like the best idea is to sign up for something now and cancel them via phone if we decide go to with a private tour rather than Regent.

 

I'm curious to understand better if most RSSC pax tend to do ship-sponsored excursions or book their own.  When we sail with our school-aged children on the larger ships, we rarely do ship-sponsored because it feels like cattle herding but we've been on a few (too much OBC, too tight of timing to do the desired tour on our own, etc).  Some are OK, some are somewhat less than OK.  Have you generally found the Regent excursions to be desirable? Do most people use them?

[cwn]

Yes most people if they do a tour on Regent do the ship ones. After all you are paying for them. Sone people  just walk around in the port and a few do private but not many.

 

If you have done the ship tours on the bigger ships you can tell when they are going to be a bust. We have been on a month now (-16 ports) and if we toured did a ship one. (About half the ports) There are all kinds of tours, we usually avoid the bus sightseeing. Go for wine tasting or food tours. Or the ones marked strenuous are usually good.

[papaflamingo]

On 1/3/2023 at 7:15 PM, the_dylaness said:

I'm curious to understand better if most RSSC pax tend to do ship-sponsored excursions or book their own.  When we sail with our school-aged children on the larger ships, we rarely do ship-sponsored because it feels like cattle herding but we've been on a few (too much OBC, too tight of timing to do the desired tour on our own, etc).  Some are OK, some are somewhat less than OK.  Have you generally found the Regent excursions to be desirable? Do most people use them?

As CWN said most people do ship excursions since they're included in the cruise cost.  As to the tours themselves, Regent is part of NCL so it seems they use the same vendors (also many vendors are used by other cruise lines also).  But we have generally been happy with them.  We have done up-charge tours and they have all been worth the extra money.  Many of the tours are simply bus tours. We tend to avoid those and look for tours that include stops.  We have also found that, generally, the busses aren't full so it isn't as bad as it sounds.  If we can't find a tour that really interests us, we book the "next best thing" then we'll decide as the cruise progresses.  We always cancel as many days ahead as we can so they can clear the waitlist.  If we can't find a tour we like or simply decide to cancel one, we will just wander the port and see the local sights as opposed to booking a private tour. Anyway, we see some very interesting tours on the 2024 cruise, including beach days, zip lines, canopy skywalks, tequila sampling, winery visits.  So we'll book one at each port.  

[rcandkc]

My husband and I are on this cruise.  Reading through the excursions I’m finding many are too long for my liking.  Not sure what we will book. 

[the_dylaness]

@rcandkc We noticed some were rather lengthy too, which isn't necessarily a problem for us but I'd like to know what the time is spent doing... it seems that at some sites the location of the excursion is a couple of hours away (each way). I do not care for long car rides (I still get motion sickness especially if sitting anywhere other than shotgun... a warm tour bus on hilly or windy roads for 2+ hours in the back sounds like my idea of something other than a good time) so we crossed those off our list pronto!

[pappy1022]

The details associated with each excursion will tell you roughly how much out of the bus vs in the bus time is spent and how strenuous it is. I tend to go toward more activity related excursions vs just looking out the window excursions. We also like to pay, via shipboard credits, for small group tours where we believe there is value associated with going with a smaller group. On our next cruise, we are traveling with 2 other couples and in 1 port, we decided on a private tour where we will see a lot more of a specific port than any 1 Regent tour. Cost split amongst 3 couples becomes pretty cost effective for a private tour. The Regent excursion selection web site is pretty straight forward and a lot better than it was just a couple of years ago when it was horrid. We too have a concierge suite and got all of our first choices on tours. Good luck and welcome to Regent. We love it and hope you do as well..

[the_dylaness]

Thanks to all who assisted and advised on this topic. We were able to successfully reserve all of our requested shore excursions.