CruisetheCs

The longer this goes on the more astounded I am that someone in management has not issued an explanation for the changes and has not apologized for the late and inadequate initial notification. This thread goes on and on day after day presumably alerting a widespread audience to Regent's failed communication. (Yes, I see it as failed when there are so many people questioning the episode. And if this had happened to me I would be very unhappy with Regent.) Not only is this scenario widely visible online, I'm sure that the criticism will spread around the ship to those who were not directly affected or concerned. It will be interesting to see if anyone from management on the ship discloses what is really going on. None of this makes Regent look good. And it could have easily been fixed with a simple explanation an apology (which still needs to happen), and an offer to make up for any additional expenses that guests encountered due to the late change. This kind of communication failure can impact the bottom line that shareholders and management care about.

I don't understand the point of saying that these kinds of problems exist with all the cruise lines. It implies that Regent is just like the rest of them. Regent tries to sell itself as superior to the other cruise lines. This whole episode is one of the dumbest, most inept public relations effort that Regent could possibly do. How could anyone at Regent not consider that guests might be staying in Seward? Or arriving on their own itinerary? This was all announced on very short notice in terms of travel planning with a vague explanation. One would think that Ms. Scheer's response would at least have added detail to explain why this change was made. It certainly wasn't for the convenience of some guests. Doesn't make for a credible or empathetic explanation. Unbelievable. Also, this thread has been going on for some time and no one from Regent has bothered to respond here. This level of service from Regent deserves a formal apology and an explanation to extend to all guests on the affected cruises. I hope some other media outlets pick up on this and publicize this public relations mess.

Regent, NCL and other major companies are quite willing to continue paying multi-million dollar salaries for upper management and CEOs. So much for cost-savings! Changing an embarkation port on short notice without making arrangements for all guests is nowhere near Regent's promised level of "luxury" service. If Regent is concerned about the bottom line then maybe it should fulfill its promise of "luxury" cruising. It is incidents like this that occur without adequate explanation from Regent and without a satisfactory resolution that makes me and others less likely to begin or get back to cruising with Regent.

If Regent really wanted meaningful feedback it would offer the option of completing the survey after the cruise. If it is completed before the end of the cruise it won't capture the last day or two of the cruise or the departure from the ship. Things can go badly wrong or very right over the course of the last day or two. I've had too many problems with completing the form due to internet problems and the hassle of trying to give meaningful feedback on some device. The computer center on the ship can be used, but that means finding a time when it isn't busy and the internet isn't balking there also. And why force guests to take time from their vacation if they prefer to complete the survey after the cruise has ended, especially when the survey can be very annoying to complete because of connectivity and device issues? What other type of business would only let customers complete a satisfaction survey before a service transaction has been completed?

Also, be aware that having Regent book a transfer may cost you much more than if you arrange it yourself. If you have unused and unwanted OBC, the cost differrence may not be of concern.

I'm still curious if the survey includes nonsensical questions/answers that I mentioned in a prior post. For example, one question on a prior survey was “How likely are you to cruise with Regent Seven Seas Cruises again?—the answers were “Excellent”, Very Good, etc. Maybe someone completing a current survey can let us know if those questions/answers still remain or if they have been corrected.

Ritz Carlton with lounge access (club level) was great some years ago (before Covid). Would definitely go back.

I agree! Why not give guests a choice? My assessment is that either Regent doesn't care much about feedback or there is a high level of incompetence in parts of the organization (or both). At one time there were nonsensical answers to some questions on the survey. For example, one question was “How likely are you to cruise with Regent Seven Seas Cruises again?—the answers were “Excellent”, Very Good, etc. I wonder if those still exist? Maybe someone completing the survey can let us know if those questions/answers have ever been corrected.

I can only assume that Regent management is not all that interested in getting reliable feedback. There are impediments to completing the survey onboard, e.g., internet problems, device issues, etc. When the internet isn't working well as is often the case, it can be very frustrating to try to complete a survey onboard. On past surveys some of the rating descriptions made no sense with regard to the questions being asked. I wouldn't be surprised if that is still the case. (Maybe someone can copy the current survey and post here.) In addition, events may occur at the very end of the cruise that are missed by completing the survey a day or two earlier. If Regent was truly interested in feedback, management would allow and seek more detailed responses after the cruise was ended. This would give respondents a chance to go into detail about the good or not so good aspects of the cruise and avoid hassles of trying to complete the survey onboard.

Here is guidance from Verizon's website https://www.verizon.com/support/wifi-calling-faqs/#cost I usually just opt to pay for Verizon's roaming charges (typically $10 a day in most countries per phone--you need to be sign up for the roaming plan). That way the phone plan works in ports, on excursions or anytime spent off the ship. Phone and internet service doesn't depend on Regent's sometimes unreliable wifi when near land or in ports (wifi may be better on Grandeur than other ships, I understand). Given the cost of a Regent cruise the extra cell plan charge is a small portion of the total. With cell plan coverage in countries, I found it very useful to use the maps app to track locations and to avoid getting lost when exploring places in ports or being able to make a call or retrieve email, etc., anytime I wished to do so. And for just using the internet, a cell connection (when available) was more reliable and had faster speeds generally than Regent's wifi connection. This was true on my last Splendor cruise in the Adriatic, Mediterranean area. This was a port-intensive cruise so land-based cell service was available almost all the time except on a sea day. The potential downside of Verizon's roaming plan is that when the ship is away from land, it is possible to automatically connect to Regent's offered onboard cell service (Cellular at Sea, as I remember). Using that service could run up charges not covered by the Verizon roaming plan. So when sailing in the absence of a land-based cellular connection, cell service needs to be turned off on your phone so your phone will default to wifi roaming and not use cell data when out of range of land-based cellular signals.

Same issues in October/November. Music was so loud it was very uncomfortable in Meridian lounge. Problems also with loud music in the theater. Observation lounge pianist was not amplified so it was okay, but the pianist also sang and voice was amplified. Would have been better without any amplification.

It may be a standard fee, but it should be waived when there are significant changes to an itinerary. I pity those who are stuck with changes closer to the sail date. Regent seems to be behaving more like some problematic hotel chains and airline companies rather than a luxury cruise line.

Regent punishes its paying guests by not enforcing lounger rules.

Are some tables by windows still available? Do you mean that there are no views from any of the windows in Compass Rose? My favorite tables are those by windows because they are out of the way of much of the traffic and it is nice to see the view outside.

Also was on Splendor cruise with the two port stops, Bodrum and Kusadasi. We only had to show our ship card to get on or off the ship for tours or shopping. So no easy way for anyone to know nationality or other individual passenger characteristics in these ports. Felt no different than other ports we stopped at in terms of safety.