kjbacon

Our experience from earlier this year is that Regent is going with a “Don’t ask, don’t tell” type of policy. According to the nurse at the medical center, if you test positive there, you will be quarantined. If you self test positive, you can go and do whatever you want (with or without a mask). Your choice.

Great pictures, Bob! Thanks so much for the helpful review (and for making me sooo hungry reading it) 😆 I’m really happy that you and Jeanie had such a great cruise.

We love the wine lunches and have never heard of a wine dinner. How often do they happen? We will be on the Mariner in November.

And the real me was just about to respond that yes, there are delicious cheese boards on the Splendor! Our favorite dessert.

Not much of a follow up but here’s the last I heard. After waiting a couple of days, the connection my TA has at Regent reports that they are working on it. So, that’s that I guess lol the cruise is 7 months out and most or all of the shorex times are wrong.

21 hours ago, papaflamingo said:

The port times should tell you if a Sunset cruise is possible. But if you don't want a catamaran cruise if it isn't "sunset," why don't you cancel and book a morning tour?  

I know it’s hard to picture this thing because regent is usually right on and so accurate. And of course we have had the occasional time adjustment on a tour but this is different. This is that the shorex times are all incorrect. You can’t differentiate and book a “morning” tour when all the tours are at 7:30 am and none of us can book two tours in a day (which we often do).

18 hours ago, Amber14 said:

We are in port till 11:00pm so plenty of time for a morning excursion and the sunset cruise. The problem is we can't book a morning excursion because the time of the sunset catamaran is at 1:30. We want to do two excursions but aren't able to book two. I do not want a catamaran cruise at 1:30 but don't want to cancel it in case they just have the time wrong. They either need to fix the time or rename the excursions. Neither seems hard to do.

I hear you. We are also trying to make sense out of this chaos but it’s so frustrating lol!! Now that we are at the 7 month mark, it’s more than frustrating.

My TA, who specializes in Regent, has called them a couple times already and received no explanation other than it will be fixed soon. She hasn’t called lately so she tried again on Thursday and is still waiting to hear back from them.

On 8/1/2024 at 12:17 PM, cAPS lOCK oN said:

Correct. We've selected and booked shore excursions in each of the 9 ports, but really have no idea as to the times in 8 of them (Curacao seems to now be accurate). We're in each of these ports for 10 or more hours so the excursions we've booked could go off in the early morning or in the afternoon. No way to tell.

 

These aren't unfamiliar stops for Regent, and in most cases we're the only ship in port. So I don't understand why this is still messed up just 7 months from departure. I'm contacting my TA to see what is going on.

We have selected our excursions also and I’ve asked my TA to try yet again. Please let us know what your TA finds out and I’ll do the same. 

20 hours ago, cAPS lOCK oN said:

Correct. We've selected and booked shore excursions in each of the 9 ports, but really have no idea as to the times in 8 of them (Curacao seems to now be accurate). We're in each of these ports for 10 or more hours so the excursions we've booked could go off in the early morning or in the afternoon. No way to tell.

 

These aren't unfamiliar stops for Regent, and in most cases we're the only ship in port. So I don't understand why this is still messed up just 7 months from departure. I'm contacting my TA to see what is going on.

You’re on the grandeur in early March 2025 and having similar shorex time issues as we are? We are navigator in late March 2025. Weird! I called my TA yesterday and she was surprised this is still going on. She called regent and asked again what’s up. Now she’s waiting to hear back from regent.

13 hours ago, Pcardad said:

I might be a good place to start. Chances are that they might have some information that helps you.

My travel agent, who specializes in regent cruises, has called and there’s no explanation to be had. They just keep saying “soon”.

On 7/30/2024 at 8:11 AM, loriva said:

 

The issue is when you are trying to coordinate a ship's excursion with something booked privately off the ship.  For example, the ship's online system shows the excursion starting at 0800 hours and ending at noon.  So, you go ahead and book a hard-to-get reservation at a foodie haven for lunch at 1300 hours, after checking the time you need to get from the port to the venue.  (Also not to be argumentative, but the reality is that some people use a cruise to try local foods, not eat every meal on board.)  But when you board, you discover the tour departure has changed to 0930 hours, meaning the tour will return after your reservation time.  And if the restaurant you have chosen is an iconic one, you might not be able to get a different reservation time--or, at best, you'll need to spend time trying to contact the restaurant in the hopes of changing the time.  (If you've ever tried to get a reservation at Nobu in Copenhagen or the French Laundry outside San Francisco, you know what I mean--reservations book up completely when they are released three months ahead.)  

 

Yes, if the restaurant is a priority, you can just not book or cancel your ship's excursion.  But after spending tens of thousands on your cruise, why should you have to do so?  Regent should be able to obtain realistic start and end times for its excursions and make this information available to passengers.  If this is not possible due to local operators when excursions open, Regent's Destinations team should be working closely with the operators and update the offerings as soon as possible.  If they cannot do so--they don't have the staff, they have outsourced this function, whatever--maybe it's time for Regent to drop "unlimited shorex" from its business model like other luxury cruises and reduce the prices accordingly.

Exactly!! Our second port of call is two days in New Orleans so we are planning for two lunches and one dinner in port. We made reservations but we really dont know what our actual availability will be. The only thing we are sure of is that all the shore excursions don’t start at 7:00 in the morning! We don’t care which of the two days we do our tours so we would pick them based on the times, but we can’t. And all the ports are that way.

And the question still begs … why? I don’t even have a good guess at this point lol! It’s not an inability to set things up with the operators. For example, when we called on Cozumel in January, the shore excursions were ready to book one year out but with this sailing, all the shore excursions in Cozumel start at the exact same time so we know they are wrong. With 100 nights on Regent, we’ve never seen anything like this.

I’m not sure what’s up so that’s why I posted the question on here. Most ports on this cruise have all the shorex starting at the same time, 7:30 in one, 8:30 in another, 10:30 in another, 7:00 in another. And some of these ports are ports that we just called on last January with no issues at all like this. Made our reservations 12 months out, no problem. Like I said earlier, we’ve done many regent cruises and have never experienced anything like this. Now we are less than 8 months from sailing and all the excursions are still a mish mosh.

41 minutes ago, papaflamingo said:

It's a non-issue.  Just select the excursion and time you want.  There will be a ticket in your cabin for the tour.  It will tell you where you meet and at what time. That's all that matters.  We've had a number of tours over the years that have had time changes once we board.  

This is part of the problem … you can’t select a time. For example, one day in New Orleans, all the excursions start at 8am and the second day, they all start at 7:30am. It’s impossible to book two shorex in a day, which we often do, or coordinate anything on land (like brunch reservations at the Court of Two Sisters).

We did book all our shorex months ago but we know most, if not all, of them are wrong. We have sailed many times with Regent and have never experienced this so I’m curious why.

Three months later and no changes so the times for the shorex are still wrong in most ports. This doesn’t makes sense, does it?

Regent is set up to accommodate a low salt diet at dinner if requested ahead. Each day, you receive the next day’s menu in your cabin to make your selections. 
 

At breakfast, you can order your eggs to be prepared without salt at the grill station day of. The day before, I also request avocado in La Veranda.

In Reykjavik, we loved Thingveller National Park where the continents meet. It’s beautiful and so very different!

We did a similar itinerary on the Grandeur just a few months ago.

In Cozumel, we did the Chefs Led Tequila Tasting and absolutely loved it. It’s a shorex with an up charge but we would highly recommend it. It was fun, delicious, and educational… what’s not to like!

In Santo Tomas de Castillo, we did the Las Escabos tour. We enjoyed it and the scenery at the actual park is spectacular but note that there is more walking than you might expect with lots of steps. We were also unprepared for the level of sustained poverty as we traveled to and from the park.

In Roatan, we went to gumbalinda (sp?) nature preserve and disliked it very much. Note that we were in odd step on that. We did not like the touristy feel, especially with the sense of being taken advantage of. For example, you are absolutely not permitted to carry anything into the park and are required to rent a locker for $5 or $10. So, you guessed it that they nabbed nearly everyone with that little surprise! We also were looking for a more natural setting with the animals but found it too staged for our taste. 
 

In Grand Cayman, we did the Reef and Wreck Snorkel and thought everything about it was great. You said no scuba but don’t know if you snorkel. If you do, this was one of the better snorkel tours and we would recommend it.

Hope you enjoy your cruise as much as we did!

On our very first Regent cruise years ago, we stopped at that port with every intention of going to Florence. Long story short, we were exhausted so we switched gears and went to Lucca instead. It turned out to be one of our favorite days on our Med cruise and we still talk about how much we love Lucca!

17 hours ago, bookbabe said:

Us too.  We’d love to spend six months on Splendor, but the different start and end points for 2027 are a total no go for DH.  We had hoped to swap, but we are sticking with 2026 as the itinerary is perfect.  (Yeah, I know there can be port changes, but the general route meets 100% of DH’s preferences.  I care much less, but the WC is his bucket list thing, not mine, so he’s calling the shots on this one.)

Same here. We were going to switch to the ‘27 Splendor, our favorite ship, but the itinerary just could not compare to ‘26 for what we wanted. We will probably become well acquainted as we cruise the world together!

17 hours ago, GMIAC said:

Never mind - I got the 2025 list from the RSSC website. 

 

Wow, that 2025 cruise completely skips Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. Is that still considered a "World Cruise?"

Yes, but I love the intensity into South America, Japan, and some other areas that are not the “usual”. We are booked on 2026 WC. For us, as much as we would prefer Splendor, ‘26 is a better itinerary than ‘27.

On 4/23/2024 at 11:15 AM, papaflamingo said:

However... the cost of the cruise includes food and drinks, so I would suppose that 10% of the price includes food and drink... 

I think I have too much time on my hands too (at least my wife keeps telling me I do), and I can't blame it on recovering. 🤣

Hope your recovery goes well and you're back cruising soon. 

Thanks so much! Doing well and looking forward to getting back on the water.

39 minutes ago, GeorgiaPeach51 said:

We are booked on Explorer, Auckland to Tokyo, January 12-March 14, 2026.  Would love to meet if you are on that one!

No, we are on Mariner. Hopefully, another time!

Thank you @flossie009 for such a great blog. Safe travels home!

3 hours ago, GeorgiaPeach51 said:

Loved reading about your trip.  Thanks for taking the time and for all the great photos.  I have made notes to help with a cruise we want to take in 2026, and your report was very helpful!

 

Joanie

Are you looking at a leg of the WC? Perhaps we will meet!

The good and bad news is that I didn’t realize that this was not isolated to my cruise. I’ve been wondering if we were going to hear that the ship has been chartered or is going in for a repair or something. When would you get concerned when most ports have the shorex listed incorrectly on your cruise? 

4 hours ago, UUNetBill said:

If I had to guess I'd think it was due to Navigator being moved from the Middle East to the Med a while back, there was probably a ripple effect on subsequent cruises that required a reshuffling of ports.  Unlikely almost a year out, but that's all I got.  🙂

Maybe, that’s as good as any explanation that I’ve come up with!

2 hours ago, cAPS lOCK oN said:

Our Caribbean cruise on Grandeur in March has the same issue. Every shorex is scheduled for 30 minutes after the arrival in port. So a sunset cruise in Antigua is supposed to leave at 8:30 AM. There's some stops where we should be able to book 2 excursions in a day, but can't because because it thinks there's time conflicts.

 

We don't understand, but we're not sweating it, 

Yes, definitely some similarities. I also wanted to book 2 shorex in a couple ports and can’t with everything starting at the same time.

We are booked on the Navigator for March 2025 and our shore excursions, for the most part, are still not listed correctly. For example, there are ports that have every excursion’s start time at 7:00 am or 8:30 am … and that includes a dinner excursion. Another port has every excursion at 12 noon, the time we pull into that port. My travel agent has called regent and was told that they are probably waiting for better info from the land operators? I’ve never had any experience with a situation like this, on regent or any other cruise line, so I’m hoping that someone here might have some insight!

4 minutes ago, papaflamingo said:

Wouldn't  "one day short on a 10 day plus" actually BE 10% of the cruise? 

Yes but usually we board in time for their delicious carved rib lunch and an afternoon of cocktails 🍷 lol instead of early evening. I prob have too much time on my hands right now, recovering from minor surgery!!

14 minutes ago, Pcardad said:

I thought they got 25%...10% cash and 15% credit on a Future Cruise?

Yes, true, but i personally don’t think FCC’s are a substitute for actual reimbursement.