Shore excursions

[commodoredave]

Graham, we are veteran cruisers (including about 10 with Regent), so in many ports we prefer to organize our own shore excursions rather than take those provided by the ship. Since excursions are provided by Regent and factored into the price, we end up paying twice for our excursions. Has Regent thought about dropping the free excursions or giving rebates to people who don't want to use them?

[Graham Sadler]

[FONT="Times New Roman"][SIZE="3"]Dear Commodore Dave,

Our free shore excursion programme has proven immensely popular with all our guests. I was recently onboard Voyager and morning and afternoon guests were joining excursions and coming back with stories and experiences to share over a pre dinner drink. It was wonderful to see. At this point in time we have no plans to offer a non-use credit.

Graham[/SIZE][/FONT]

[forevertravel]

I love the "all inclusive" concept including excursions. Please don't take it away. One reason we have stayed away from Oceania is because their tours are so expensive and so are drinks. We keep on coming back to Regent because the all inclusive concept. Once you're onboard you never sign for anything (except Spa and boutiques). I realize some people prefer private excursions but I think they are the minority. This past October on our Mediterranean cruise we had wonderful tour guides. Same thing in March in Asia. Keep the included tours. It's so simple to just go to website and choose tours.

[commodoredave]

Thanks for the reply. We'll certainly consider Regent again when it makes sense.

[SUSANAMOLINOS]

Included . . . except when they aren't.
I was very close to booking a great offer in the Middle East where I decided I preferred the cruise lineto choose the local tour service, when I discovered that the prime locations and obvious tours were NOT included. Cases in point: Port - Petra (Aqaba) but included excursion was a beach trip and Petra costs $100+ p.p.; Luxor (Safaga) - ditto.
In principle I think you should either include or not include all excursions except those that are obviously semi-private. Otherwise the client either has a nasty shock after booking, or has to drill down into the details for every port before deciding to book or not.
I was told that excursions are included APART from premium ones or those that cover great distances. This did not really satisfy me as an answer, and even so, I think the very least Regent should do is rename their port on the itinerary. If the banner says free excursions and the port is Aqaba (for Luxor) maybe we get the hint. If the banner is free excursions and port is Petra (Aqaba), one is entitled to expect SOME kind of free excursion to Petra.
In the end I booked something else with another line as I did not want to have to fiddle around trying to figure out which locations were REALLY included in the free excursions. At least if you book on a line without excursions (obviously for much less), you know you have to factor excursions into your overall budget on top of cruise fare. The situation is clear from the outset.
In the meantime, one lost sale and a newly-wary potential cusomer.

[Senior Citizen]

[quote name='SUSANAMOLINOS']Included . . . except when they aren't.
I was very close to booking a great offer in the Middle East where I decided I preferred the cruise lineto choose the local tour service, when I discovered that the prime locations and obvious tours were NOT included. Cases in point: Port - Petra (Aqaba) but included excursion was a beach trip and Petra costs $100+ p.p.; Luxor (Safaga) - ditto.
In principle I think you should either include or not include all excursions except those that are obviously semi-private. Otherwise the client either has a nasty shock after booking, or has to drill down into the details for every port before deciding to book or not.
I was told that excursions are included APART from premium ones or those that cover great distances. This did not really satisfy me as an answer, and even so, I think the very least Regent should do is rename their port on the itinerary. If the banner says free excursions and the port is Aqaba (for Luxor) maybe we get the hint. If the banner is free excursions and port is Petra (Aqaba), one is entitled to expect SOME kind of free excursion to Petra.
In the end I booked something else with another line as I did not want to have to fiddle around trying to figure out which locations were REALLY included in the free excursions. At least if you book on a line without excursions (obviously for much less), you know you have to factor excursions into your overall budget on top of cruise fare. The situation is clear from the outset.
In the meantime, one lost sale and a newly-wary potential cusomer.[/QUOTE]

Agree.

[Travelcat2]

Although I do not like included excursions because of number of passengers being herded onto buses, I am not understanding the points made by the last two posters. Really wonder who told the poster that "I was told that excursions are included APART from premium ones or those that cover great distances. This did not really satisfy me as an answer, and even so, I think the very least Regent should do is rename their port on the itinerary. " I would not be satisfied by that answer either as it is clear and not true.

Firstly, I do agree that it is difficult to budget for excursions when you do not know the cost s involved at the time you are booking the cruise (unless you are booking approximately 6 months prior to the cruise). However, the same difficulty exists when booking an excursion on other luxury cruise lines when you are booking far in advance.

In terms of cost, I can only compare Regent's excursions with those of Oceania (a "luxury lite" cruise line) and Silversea. We sailed on Silversea in September, 2013 and booked more than a year in advance. When the details and information on excursions were finally published, we learned that one excursion that we were interested in was twice the cost on Silversea than Regent. I cannot think of one Silversea or Oceania excursion that was priced the same or lower than Regent.

We were on Regent in the Middle East in December, 2011. Most of the excursions were included - even ones that took 2-3 hours to reach by bus and included lunch. Petra did have an extra cost - probably due to the cost to enter the area. When visiting some ports, such as Luxor and Aqaba, you need to drive long distances to reach the sites that most passengers have an interest in visiting. It is not like visiting European cities where there is generally a city tour for half a day as well as options for 8-10 hour extended excursions. At the moment I am not able to think of the port in the Middle East where we decided not to take the 11 hour excursion as we were exhausted. Instead we took the Regent provided shuttle to a shopping area about 30 minutes away. The busload of people got off of the bus - looked at the place and 90% got back on the bus as there was nothing to do or see in town. The point I am trying to make is that there may be nothing to see in some of these areas. There is also the issue of insuring the security of passengers while on excursions.

It makes me sad to hear that people sail on Regent because of free excursions because being inexpensive is not what Regent is about. Some posters want free excursions because they want something free....... I want premium excursions because we want our experience in port to be as close to luxury as possible. We want small groups, small buses or mini vans and to visit sites where 6 Regent buses are not offloading passengers.

In terms of the statement "In the end I booked something else with another line as I did not want to have to fiddle around trying to figure out which locations were REALLY included in the free excursions. At least if you book on a line without excursions (obviously for much less), you know you have to factor excursions into your overall budget on top of cruise fare", this does not factor into our decisions. IMO, if you book a cruise a year out -- you can not budget or make excursion decisions on any cruise line. You can guess based on what was done previously, but, to my knowledge luxury cruise lines do not detail and price excursions far in advance. Edited November 13, 2013 by Travelcat2

[commodoredave]

I agree with you TC2 about wanting luxury shore excursions. In some cases, Regent does a good job. In others, I have ended up booking private tours with other passengers because there was nothing being offered that appealed to us.
In addition, when we return to an itinerary that we have done a few times before, there is usually nothing left on the shorex list that we want to do. In these cases, we usually just stay on the ship, rent a car or do a local walk-about. This is particularly true in the Caribbean where we rarely leave the ship except for a beach swim or visit to a local bar.
So for us, the bottom line is that while we love Regent, it only makes sense on a handful of itineraries where we have not yet been.

[Travelcat2]

[quote name='commodoredave']I agree with you TC2 about wanting luxury shore excursions. In some cases, Regent does a good job. In others, I have ended up booking private tours with other passengers because there was nothing being offered that appealed to us.
In addition, when we return to an itinerary that we have done a few times before, there is usually nothing left on the shorex list that we want to do. In these cases, we usually just stay on the ship, rent a car or do a local walk-about. This is particularly true in the Caribbean where we rarely leave the ship except for a beach swim or visit to a local bar.
So for us, the bottom line is that while we love Regent, it only makes sense on a handful of itineraries where we have not yet been.[/QUOTE]

I am curious as to whether you take another cruise line when visiting the Caribbean. If so, how do the prices compare to Regent? We haven't compared Regent in that area but generally find Crystal, Silversea and Seabourn (larger ships) to be the same total cost as Regent - even without excursions.

[commodoredave]

[quote name='Travelcat2']I am curious as to whether you take another cruise line when visiting the Caribbean. If so, how do the prices compare to Regent? We haven't compared Regent in that area but generally find Crystal, Silversea and Seabourn (larger ships) to be the same total cost as Regent - even without excursions.[/quote]

We've been to the Caribbean so many times that now we only go on small ships -- last two being Windstar -- and take few if any shore excursions.

We haven't sailed Silversea recently enough to make a valid comparison, but find the prices on Seabourn and Crystal to be less expensive than Regent on a per diem basis.

We do find the Regent pricing to be very competitive when the free shorex is factored into the equation. So passengers who take advantage of shore excursions in every port are getting a good deal in my view. However, since we do not take enough advantage of them for the reasons stated earlier, it is not such a good value for us.

The only exception might be itineraries where we have never sailed before as we usually find it easier to find acceptable shorex with Regent the first time around. But even then, there are usually one or two ports where we find far superior shorex at more competitive prices purchasing them from private operators ourselves.

So as much as we love Regent, it no longer makes as much sense for us as it once did.