pappy1022

Not true. It is a scheduled dry dock.

And do let us know on this board how your trip went.

Another black eye for Regent as far as customer service. How far in advance does Regent book hotels? I realize that they need to book a large number of rooms but I recently experienced where they spread us out amongst multiple hotels. I would think they would have known there was an issue before final payment was due, don’t you?

What a crap way to do business Windstar. Glad I booked with Paul Gauguin (PG) instead. It was a close call for me but my gut kept telling me to go with PG.

How far in advance does Regent normally book hotel rooms for people who choose to do so through Regent? I would expect them to have to do this far in advance of a cruise.

Regent is in the midst of cost cutting in part to help pay the interest on the huge loans they took out during the COVID shutdown. I went through this process with my former company multiple times and back then we called it re-engineering. Regent calls it the Transformation Office. This process is an inevitable one and all cruise lines are doing it to get back to profitability. Regent says that they cut food cost by 30%, shoreside staff by 9%, halted broadway style production shows and reduced daily turndown service on some of their ships, resulting in a 21% overall cost reduction (excluding fuel) in 2023. They say they have no plans to ratchet down marketing although they did say that they will do more targeting and electronic marketing. They also said that they are reducing upcoming dry dock times by 9 days. They said they did a complete assessment of all dry dock projects and implied that they cut some of the projects out. In their words, they are on a relentless mission to enhance margins and reduce costs. They have to make significant changes to be profitable and pay down debt. All cruise lines have to do that. Some changes can be for the better and some are just leveraging scale and opportunities. Not every cost cutting initiative equates to a poorer customer experience. But we will definitely see changes (and I already have) that will be apparent to customers. Articles that I have read about the travel industry tell the story of the new normal and it will require our expectations to change. As I said in my previous response, Disappointment = expectations minus reality. As a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan, I know that equation is real. Regent has created very high expectations and I used to cringe when people on this board would reply to criticism by saying our expectations were too high. I felt they were putting the blame on us, the customer. In hindsight, maybe those folks are correct, we need to change our expectations.

“The definition of disappointment in life is expectations minus reality equals disappointment. The only two solutions you have to get over disappointment is to either alter your reality or alter your expectations.” Maybe you are correct Commodore.

I wouldn’t hesitate to cruise with PG. In fact I chose PG over Windstar for my 2025 French Polynesia cruise in June. Just be forewarned, January is in the rainy season and heavy rain and rough seas are more likely in that region. Just recently, there were 2 cyclones that went through that Region in January/February and it was reportedly very rough and several ports were missed. Who knows what it will be like next year but it is the rainy season.

They are still selling those cruises on their website.

Could it be because that the casino makes money?

$12.6 billion still in long term debt so there is still a long road to go and the cost of building their ships in the future have gone up substantially in cost. Not saying they can’t do it, they just need the full capacity situation to continue over several years. The other thing I read is the use of the term new normal for cruise lines and the travel industry in entirety. In general, it is getting very difficult to staff this industry and the turnover is greater than ever before, so people should expect an impact on service. Another example, and this is just for the lower cabins on NCL ships, they intend not to service those cabins every day. I must admit that I have seen examples of the new normal on Regent this past cruise. Staffing shortages, slower than normal service and inconsistent food was evident. The staff onboard for the most part tried to please but it was obvious that the staffing levels aren’t enough to bring that 5 star service consistently. Regent is not alone with this challenge. It is everywhere including airlines, restaurants, hotels, etc. Maybe, just maybe, our expectations are too high for the new normal experience.

I’m in on that. Cheers!!

Let’s hope they improve the product and services as they start to dig out of their financial woes. It would be interesting to see where they got their cost reductions. I bet one area is staffing and another area is the quality of food.

Opinions themselves cannot be true or false, correct or incorrect, because they are based on personal feelings, beliefs, or preferences. Opinions reflect an individual's point of view, and different people can hold different opinions on the same topic without one being definitively right and the other wrong.

Wow, we had our seats assigned at the time we agreed to the deviation flights. Outbound was BA and I could see my seat assignments but I had to have my TA talk to Regent to change. Inbound was with Virgin Atlantic and I could change my seat assignments online. Not sure what your circumstances are but we were abler to change seats without any issues.

And that explains why service and food have taken a hit . Oooops, is that opinion fraud? My goodness.

It all could be a moot point if Regent and others would be forthcoming and tell us the truth. You can make fun of the multiple people on this board who have experienced head scratching excuses but the fact that people are expressing issues means where there is smoke, there is fire.

It’s unfortunate that adults are acting like children (or grumpy old people) when it comes to chair hogs but Regent needs to do something to stem the tide.

Take a look at the board: Ports of Call in the cruise critic forum and select Pacific Islands, All and you will find a lot more information on specific ports.

Nan, have you settled on a cruise line and itinerary for the French Polynesia?

Thank you for the clarification. I just know it was in the French Polynesia in the middle of 2 cyclones. I would never sail to that region during the months when Regent passes through there. Now if Regent sailed there between May & August, count me in.

That’s quite a jump. It is suspicious though.

I wish I had an answer for you but I don’t. Are you going through the deviation process or letting Regent pick the flights for you? I have always deviated, did my homework beforehand as to 2-3 options I would consider, and let my TA do the work with Regent. My sense is that things have changed recently with the airlines and Regent has fewer options, but that is just a gut feel.

Not sure if this was the same cruise but here is someone’s report from the February cruise in the French Polynesia: “We had a rough ride getting to Bora Bora, a tender port. Captain came on at 0730 to say it would be impossible to tender. It is raining buckets and high swells. So we are sailing to Pago Pago. This is our 5th missed port.”

Then it’s not a policy if they won’t enforce it.