Who to talk to at Regent?

[zaby]

I’d like to know if anyone knows who I can talk to at Regent. I booked a 10 day Mediterranean cruise then Regent sent out an offer for the following cruise. We then booked the next cruise - 7 days and therefore we’ll be on the ship for 17 days.

 

My travel agent said that despite us booking the second cruise we would still not be able to get a 2nd set of reservations for the restaurants. Our travel agent said to wait until we get on board and then try to ask and make a second set of reservations. We were on Regent last year and we tried that and it didn’t work, although we heard other couples said that it how they got their EXTRA reservations.

 

Another problem is we are two woman cruising and the people that I’ve seen get the reservations were Couple’s. I also don’t want to wait until we get onboard to be able to make a 2nd set of reservations because we won’t get the days we wanted. I don’t want to obtain anything that we are not allowed to get. We will of course get the first set of reservations for the 1st leg of our cruise but even if our cruise ended another set of people would be getting on for the next 7day cruise and they would be allowed to make a set of reservations.

 

Does anyone know who at Regent - I can write to ... Any advice will be appreciated.

Thank you

[mariners]

zaby, unless things have changed, you will be able to book your second set of reservations online. On our multiple segment cruise last year, I was able to book for every segment.

I'm not sure why it would matter if you are two women travelling together unless what you are trying to do is for each of you to book for two under each name. It is my understanding that bookings are for each suite, not individuals so it could be a problem if each of you is booking restaurants for one person. Is that what you mean?

[OrpingtonT]

Where are you, zaby? If from the UK I may be able to help.

[ededmd]

I've deduced your primary reservation segment was:

Istanbul to Monte Carlo

on Seven Seas Mariner

10 Nights - Departs September 22, 2010

 

and you've added on this segment:

Monte Carlo to Rome (Civitavecchia)

on Seven Seas Mariner

7 Nights - Departs October 02, 2010

 

However this itinerary does exist as a unified cruise as well:

Istanbul to Rome (Civitavecchia)

on Seven Seas Mariner

17 Nights - Departs September 22, 2010

 

When you did the add-on, did the reservation stay a B2B or did the unified 17nt cruise replace the original?

 

Having not taken a 17nt cruise before, I'm uncertain about the "rules" for the number of allowed dining reservations. But if your cruise is a B2B, you are very much entitled to a whole new set of dining reservations. The only thing which may prevent advance dining reservations is if they are full online - shouldn't be an issue since you are more than 75d from departure.

 

It doesn't seem your TA has or is giving you the correct information.

[hoosier74]

The reservation will be a B2B. We encountered this on our recent crossing when it was marketed as the 16 day crossing FLL to MonteCarlo, 10 day FLL to Funchal and 6 day Funchal to Monte Carlo. We were able to book 2 reservations in both Prime 7 and Signatures on line prior. The two segment fact also gave us all Elegant Casual nights.

[zaby]

Here’s all the information that you have all requested and my goodness thank you so much for all your quick replies.

 

 

Mariners - I hope you are right but our TA is a Regent Representative and she is the one that told us that we can only book one set of reservations for both of use.

 

Orpington - I wish you could help but I live in the US.

 

Ededmd - Your assumption is correct about the dates and cruises. We originally signed up for the 10day cruise back in I believe Dec 2009. Then sometime this year - maybe Feb or March - Regent sent an offer for the 7 day cruise and we added it. For a long time on the Regent site our cruises were listed as Two cruises but recently it was changed to the one cruise name. As I mentioned above our TA is a Regent Rep - she is very nice but on several occasions I have had some little issues. I called her this past week and asked her about this and then asked very nicely whom I may call or write to about this. She said she could give me her supervisor but she would tell me the same thing. I told her that I agreed with her that I knew her supervisor would say the same. So what I am asking for is who I may write a letter to - to at least propose that the policy should be changed. I even used the explanation that we we took the 1st cruise and got off. The next set of people in our cabin would get another set of reservations. I really got nowhere - she told me to just wait until I got on and then talk to the people. But what I told her was that - if I waited then I would get what is left and possibly not be able to go to dine on a night that I wanted.

 

My thought is that a cabin should be able to obtain a set of reservations for each leg of the cruise.

 

Hooiser74 - Was you B2B listed still on the Regent site as TWO cruises? As you’’ll note from what I said above - our cruises were originally listed as 2 separate but recently they were changed to one cruise. For example our 7 day and 10 day cruise each had a title and the 17 day cruise had another title. For the longest time our cruises were listed separately but recently Regent changed our listing to the name of the 17 day cruise.

 

Any advice is still appreciated - especially since my TA is a Regent Rep

 

 

The reason why I mentioned that we are two women traveling is because on several occasions when we’ve gone into restaurants we are given much less desirable seating then when a man & woman come in and request a seat and neither of us has had a reservation. Oh and we are both Professional woman and we dress nicely.

[kvisf]

Zaby, when you say your TA is a Regent representative, do you mean that you booked your cruises directly with Regent, without using an independent TA? If that's the case, you could consider transferring the booking to an independent TA who could then take up this issue on your behalf with Regent, and possibly get a better response then you got from the Regent rep.

 

As an alternative, you might consider writing/emailing directly to Mark Conroy, the President of Regent, who has shown himself to be extremely responsive to customer contacts in the past. Since you originally booked these as B2B segments (which I gather from other posters would have entitled you to two dining reservations, though I have no personal esperience on that point), and the two were combined into one segment without your knowledge or agreement, it seems quite appropriate to inquire of senior management why that happened.

 

I'm sure Regent wants you to have a wonderful cruise and become a repeat customer. You can find Mr. Conroy's email address by searching in other threads on this board.

[zaby]

Kvisf

Thank you - I’ve heard of Mark Conroy and even did a search thinking that email may be listed but I couldn’t find it. I’ll search again

 

We did book our cruise directly with Regent - we thought we’d get better service since last time we used an independent TA and she was not very attentive.

 

By the way - since I had heard Mark Conroy’s name - I had asked the TA who his was and she said he was the President of Regent but she couldn’t give me his address.

[zaby]

Ksif

 

As I’m reading the posts - I see you had some interactions with Regent personnel a few months back - if you’d rather respond to my personal email it is sggiordano@gmail.com

 

Thank you - I appreciate your help.

[Threechicks]

Eventhough your two cruises may have been joined under another title they are still considered to be two cruises. When the Dining Reservations button appears you will be able to make one reservation in Prime 7 and one reservation in Signatures for each segment for a total of four reservations. Assuming you are sharing a suite these reservations will be for the two of you. Each of you can not make separate reservations. Please note that there may be a delay in booking for the second segment as you can only book a certain number of days in advance of the start of each cruise. I just completed a back to back cruise (that had one title for the whole cruise) and can't recall if I was able to book for both segments at one time.

[hoosier74]

I agree with 3chicks about the procedure and the number of reservations you will be able to book. Unfortunately I can't speak to the timing as we were booking dining reservations during the time that the window of opportunity for that was changing, so even though I was able to book all four at the same time, we were far less than 75 days out when reservations became available.

[ededmd]

Eventhough your two cruises may have been joined under another title they are still considered to be two cruises. When the Dining Reservations button appears you will be able to make one reservation in Prime 7 and one reservation in Signatures for each segment for a total of four reservations.

 

I agree with 3chicks about the procedure and the number of reservations you will be able to book.

 

This is most reassuring.

 

The thing for the OP to realize is that seemingly *many* times passengers get partially correct information from the Regent reps but that with the knowledge of what is "right", it all seems to work out - especially if it is an IT driven process (Regent's site is coming into its own in this regard).

 

Consider engaging a "Luxury Cruise" TA who specializes in Regent for your next cruise. I have not regretted my choice to do so.

 

Best wishes.

[zaby]

Update Just wanted to update everyone - due to the back to back cruises we ended up with four reservations to the speciality restaurants one in prime and one is Signatures for the two of us for each cruise segment. :D

[ridojar]

Zaby

And that's the way it should be. Enjoy your cruise.

[ededmd]

fantastic!

thanks for the update.

[RachelG]

Excellent! And we will be looking forward to meeting you on the Monte Carlo to Rome portion of the cruise.

[wishIweretravelling]

The reason why I mentioned that we are two women traveling is because on several occasions when we’ve gone into restaurants we are given much less desirable seating then when a man & woman come in and request a seat and neither of us has had a reservation. Oh and we are both Professional woman and we dress nicely.

 

FWIW, I've sailed RSSC a number of times either as a solo or with a female friend, and have never been given lesser treatment than a man and woman receive. In fact, the staff seem to bend over backward to be helpful, particularly when I'm solo but also when with a friend.