New Regent Seven Seas Cruiser - Shore Excursions Questions

[Paul Bradley]

Morning all,

 

We'll be taking our first Regent Seven Seas cruise next June aboard the Mariner - a seven-day Alaska cruise from Vancouver. We will be in a Penthouse-B cabin. We are very much looking forward to our forst RSS cruise, but I have a few questions regarding shore excursions. I hope you'll excuse the noobie-ness of them - I could not find the answers elsewhere on the forum. :o:o:o

 

1. Excursions are supposed to be available to book starting next Monday, Oct 15th. I've been requesting the shore excursions list from the RSS website on a daily basis, though the document that they send via e-mail does not yet list the excursions for our cruise. The website still has the 'typical' excursions available for this cruise, presumably those that were available this past season. Should I be concerned that the booking date looms quickly but that there isn't yet information on what will actually be available?

 

2. We are scheduled to be in Juneau for 13 hours. Most excursions are 3-4 hours. I'd like to book more than one excursion. I understand that 90 minutes need to be left between excursions. Can anyone who has been on this cruise comment on the feasibility of doing more than one excursion in this port? And indeed the other ports - Ketchikan (8 hrs), Skagway (10 hrs) and Sitka (9 hrs).

 

3. Related to that, we have the arrival times for each port. How soon do excursions typically start after arrival? And how long before scheduled departure time are you supposed to be back onboard?

 

4. It is often wet in Alaska. :') If it is pouring, can RSS provide full wet weather gear for excursions? We're already going to pack rain jackets, but should we plan on bringing rain pants as well?

 

Many thanks in advance for your comments!

[rcandkc]

It can be quite wet or beautiful...even on same cruise. Regent will not have rain pants for you. Some “wet” excursions may have extra gear for you such while on the excursion...like if in a kayak.

[JMARINER]

1. Excursions are supposed to be available to book starting next Monday, Oct 15th. I've been requesting the shore excursions list from the RSS website on a daily basis, though the document that they send via e-mail does not yet list the excursions for our cruise. The website still has the 'typical' excursions available for this cruise, presumably those that were available this past season. Should I be concerned that the booking date looms quickly but that there isn't yet information on what will actually be available?

 

Not to worry, Regent is well versed in Alaska and how to deal with the Shore Excursion capacity. It is extremely rare not to get what you want.

 

2. We are scheduled to be in Juneau for 13 hours. Most excursions are 3-4 hours. I'd like to book more than one excursion. I understand that 90 minutes need to be left between excursions. Can anyone who has been on this cruise comment on the feasibility of doing more than one excursion in this port? And indeed the other ports - Ketchikan (8 hrs), Skagway (10 hrs) and Sitka (9 hrs).

 

Usually there is not enough time between excursion so the website blocks you out from booking. However, once on board they will make exceptions sometimes, if you are willing to do thing like stay ashore and meet the tour at the dock/bus, etc.

 

3. Related to that, we have the arrival times for each port. How soon do excursions typically start after arrival? And how long before scheduled departure time are you supposed to be back onboard?

 

They will often have you meet in the lounge even before the ship docks so that the tours can start as soon as the gangway is down and the ship is "cleared." You need to be back aboard 30 minutes before sailing

 

4. It is often wet in Alaska. :') If it is pouring, can RSS provide full wet weather gear for excursions? We're already going to pack rain jackets, but should we plan on bringing rain pants as well?

 

Bring your own. Alaska weather is extremely unpredictable. It can be in the 90's one day and pour rain the next. Rain pants and waterproof hiking boots are a good idea. Regent has umbrellas in the suites and at the gangway.

 

J

[Travelcat2]

Agree with other posters but want to add that Ketchikan has some of the best and least expensive jackets/hoodies/sweatshirts, etc. anywhere.

 

I wouldn't be too concerned about the excursions. Look at the ones that are shown now and make decisions on those. Then, when they go live at midnight (Eastern Daylight Savings Time) on the 15th, you only have to review and decide on the ones that have changed. It would not be too many.

 

As the previous poster mentioned, it can get extremely warm. On our first Alaska trip we ended up having to go to a shop to get t-shirts because everything we brought was too heavy. Layering seems to work the best. As the day goes along you can just take off or add layers.

 

P.S. Not sure but I think that Arizona is currently in the same time zone as the West Coast since you do not go on daylight savings time. If this is the case, you can book excursions at 9:00 p.m. on the 14th. If it isn't up immediately at 9:00 p.m., try 15 or so minutes later.

[poss]

To add another detail to the other good ones: It used to be that the "real" excursion lists came out well before choice-time, so that one could research and consider various options. Most recently, the PDF was available only one day before we were able to make our choices, which was frustrating. On the "real" list there will be the actual times of the various excursions, and that's when you'll be better able to determine whether you can do more than one. E.g. we have some trouble getting up and about very early, so except on rare occasions we tend to choose excursions that start mid or late morning. If you choose ones that begin at, say, 7:00 or 8:00, there's a fair chance that there'll be time for an afternoon or evening excursion, especially in Juneau where there were indeed some evening excursions.

 

We loved Alaska on the Mariner. I hope you will too.

[Paul Bradley]

Many thanks to those who replied, I appreciate it!

 

Well, I received the pdf of the shore excursions from RSS last Friday, so we had the weekend to make our selections. Sunday evening came and I was well prepared with a spreadsheet of our choices and alternates. There was a little unease at 9pm when the shore excursion webpage for our cruise when 'live,' as nothing seemed to be available, but after refreshing the browser a few times, it all cleared up and we were able to make our selections. The porcess was very simple and we got everything we wanted! We got two excursions in both Juneau and Sitka and we are all very pleased and very much looking forward to our first RSS cruise next June!

 

Thanks again everyone for your help!

[Paul Bradley]

Oh, and there's a mandated gap of 75 minutes (not 90) between excursions if you wish to do more than one in a day. The webpage will not allow you to select an excursion that violates this.