New Shore Excursions!

[Jason OKeefe]

On ‎12‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 1:47 PM, Anchorbuoy said:

Here is a question for Jason:

 

Seven Seas Society members, platinum and above, have the benefit of discounts on Regent Choice shore excursions. Do the new Go Local or Regent Choice Small Group tours qualify for those same discounts?  

 

Yes, both qualify for the SSS Member savings benefit.

[Jason OKeefe]

On ‎12‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 4:04 PM, jeb_bud said:

I checked the excursion on our April Barcelona to Venice cruise and found several Small Group excursions. I was a little mystified to see that the SG excursions usually show a three walking man difficulty while the standard excursions with the same description have no walking men. 

 

Are the SG tours much more physically demanding than the normal tours, or are the normal tours actually tougher than the descriptions would indicate?  Or is it just a typo?

 

hoping for a reply from Jason here. 🙏

 

I don't think this is a typo, but allow me the chance to gather additional information and answer this more definitively tomorrow.

[gnomie1]

Jason:

 

It would be great if the tours with the surcharge (well, actually it would be great if ALL tours) eliminated the "factory outlet shopping stops". When the free excursions were first introduced, these shopping stops were the exception, not the rule, now it seems that on some excursions more time is wasted at these stops, and rarely is there more than one person buying anything, if anyone. I am not referring to "free time" in town where one has options as to what they would like to do, but the tourist trap "factory outlet" or "stores with special discounts" were one has no where to go until the bus leaves . The most annoying - absolutely no mention of any shopping stops in the description but the "surprise shopping stop". On our last cruise, I thought there was going to be a revolt when we learned that our excursion was cut short so that we could have time to make an unplanned visit to a factory outlet.

 

gnomie 

[rcandkc]

The worst one we had was in Dominican Republic.  Awful guide.  She said we had to follow her to a special jewelry store and then we would have free time.  I asked what time and where we were to meet because we did not want to go to this store.  She refused to tell us.  My end of cruise card certainly mentioned this.  

[xrvlcruiser]

Jason,

 

Are any of the new tours available on the Navigator World Cruise?

 

Peggy

Edited December 3, 2018 by xrvlcruiser

[freddie]

Gnomie1 - A most hearty agreement from us on this matter.   We always avoid excursions that list a "shopping stop" and are seriously annoyed when one is sprung upon us nonetheless.  Sometimes, it is in the guise of a "bathroom stop", even if it is about 30 minutes after leaving the ship, as it once was in Naples.   I think that Regent should prohibit guides from making any shopping stops that are not quite clearly included in the excursion description.

[Travelcat2]

1 hour ago, xrvlcruiser said:

Jason,

 

Are any of the new tours available on the Navigator World Cruise?

 

Peggy

 

Peggy - obviously I'm not Jason but I would think that these excursions would be available in the Mediterranean, Northern Europe and the two ports in South America.  

 

There is one on "our" late 2019 cruise that we will be booking (interestingly, we were on the same excursion with Regent about 4 years ago and it has reappeared ...... it is an interesting excursion!)

 

In terms of shopping, Regent, please do not do away with shopping stops.  Some of us still enjoy shopping and seeing local crafts, etc.  Continue to meet the needs of all of your passengers which includes those that enjoy shopping and those that do not.  

 

rcandkc - if any tour guide insisted on us going into any store, we would decline and not follow other passengers into the shop (and would report it as well).

 

 

[CBWIR]

9 minutes ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

Peggy - obviously I'm not Jason but I would think that these excursions would be available in the Mediterranean, Northern Europe and the two ports in South America.  

 

There is one on "our" late 2019 cruise that we will be booking (interestingly, we were on the same excursion with Regent about 4 years ago and it has reappeared ...... it is an interesting excursion!)

 

In terms of shopping, Regent, please do not do away with shopping stops.  Some of us still enjoy shopping and seeing local crafts, etc.  Continue to meet the needs of all of your passengers which includes those that enjoy shopping and those that do not.  

 

rcandkc - if any tour guide insisted on us going into any store, we would decline and not follow other passengers into the shop (and would report it as well).

 

 

Peggy. When did the itinerary for the Navigator World Cruise change to Northern Europe and two ports in South America? Perhaps you should wait for a reply from Jason. Would expect that he would reply to someone with Diamond status.

[jctdlt]

They have done small groups on our artic cruise (June 2019).  I can’t see any difference between times and what you are seeing.  Will be interested to see what people report.

[nanook21]

I'm with you all on the Shopping topic.  If I want a shopping stop, I'll go on a tour that offers one, but would much prefer to just do our own thing.  We have also been on tours that offered an anticipated "market" stop, that spent so much time touring residential housing areas ad nauseum, that the guide wanted to bypass the market.  Many on the bus revolted and got off the bus instead.  Why cant they find guides that follow the promised itinerary?   But getting back to the topic of this thread, we did get the email about the Go Local, and find it intriguing.  We'll look at that for our August Baltic cruise.  Unfortunately we can't see those excursion offerings yet, I think its open for booking in January.  Sure would be nice to see it in advance so we can plan!!

 

[Travelcat2]

1 hour ago, CBWIR said:

50 minutes ago, nanook21 said:

 

 

My bad.  I assumed that a the WC went everywhere - I didn't check.  Jason will likely chime in (he will respond to anyone - not only to certain Seven Seas Society levels) but, according to him, at the moment, only these areas have the "new" excursions and I can see no reason why it would not include the WC (if it goes to the areas where it is offered).

 

nanook21- you can see the new excursions on the Regent website (I just looked at one itinerary in the Baltics for July and they are there.  Here (I hope) is a link to a page of excursions in St. Petersburg ...... you'll see the small group tours! https://www.rssc.com/cruises/EXP190702/activities/regent-choice-plus-free/day-7

 

Note:  Link took me to page 1 ..... check out page 5.

 

Edited December 4, 2018 by Travelcat2

[donnacat9]

8 minutes ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

 

My bad.  I assumed that a the WC went everywhere - I didn't check.  Jason will likely chime in (he will respond to anyone - not only to certain Seven Seas Society levels) but, according to him, at the moment, only these areas have the "new" excursions and I can see no reason why it would not include the WC (if it goes to the areas where it is offered).

Found you at last.  I have searched everywhere to find your email address so that I can send you the picture from our Thanksgiving dinner.   I don't know where I put the note you wrote.    Please send your email address to

donna4869 at gmail dot com.   Thanks.    donna and ken

[Anchorbuoy]

5 hours ago, Jason OKeefe said:

 

Yes, both qualify for the SSS Member savings benefit.

 

Thanks, Jason.  This is great news !!

[Wendy The Wanderer]

The odd thing about this, to me, is that in the beginning, when Choice excursions were first available as an alternative to the "free" ones, they always *were* small groups (2010?).  I don't remember more than perhaps a dozen people, perhaps 15.  Now they are touting this feature as something special, with an upcharge from just a regular Choice excursion? OBC's suddenly become more important!

 

I will be looking with interest at how the "Go Local" tours are conducted and work out over the next two years, awaiting my world cruise (which does not go everywhere, but I'm hoping they will expand this program if it's successful.)  I'm thinking in Asia it might be difficult to establish these visits, although going private there can be very cheap in some places of course.

[Jason OKeefe]

22 hours ago, xrvlcruiser said:

Jason,

 

Are any of the new tours available on the Navigator World Cruise?

 

Peggy

 

Peggy,

 

No unfortunately, these additional options will apply w/ the start of the Europe season immediately following World Cruise 2019.

 

[Jason OKeefe]

Peggy,

 

Thank you for keeping me honest and accurate. 

 

I stand corrected as there are two legs on World Cruise 2019 where Small Group Tours will apply - April 9 and April 29, 2019 segments. For WC 2019, we have the following ports featuring Small Group Tours: Haifa, Heraklion, Sorrento, Barcelona, Ponta Delgada and Horta.

[Portolan]

While Jason has said that these additional options start next year, I think they've been experimenting with them already.  On our Voyager Caribbean cruise starting this Thursday, I saw some additional tours added which had the identical description to some other (walking) tours we'd already signed up for.  The new entries offered a small group experience for the same tour at relatively modest extra cost.  Sounds a lot like what has been described above.

 

We declined since we're OK with larger, presumably not-more-than-bus-size groups.  But I will add a plea we've been making for years: PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE provide tours with wireless listening devices.  We've usually had very good guides, but it is frequently been difficult to hear them (and this without any significant hearing loss on our part).  Also, as the photographer of our twosome, I like to be able to move around a bit without losing the narrative.  Otherwise, I end up taking the pictures and Ms. Portolan listens to the guide and later we try to connect the two experiences. 

[Travelcat2]

1 hour ago, Jason OKeefe said:

Peggy,

 

Thank you for keeping me honest and accurate. 

 

I stand corrected as there are two legs on World Cruise 2019 where Small Group Tours will apply - April 9 and April 29, 2019 segments. For WC 2019, we have the following ports featuring Small Group Tours: Haifa, Heraklion, Sorrento, Barcelona, Ponta Delgada and Horta.

 

Jason - feeling better that you occasionally (very occasionally) make innocent errors.  On the other hand, glad to know that there will be some Small Group Tours for Peggy and others on the world cruise.

 

There is a thread regarding wireless listening devices and I have rather mixed feelings that I will share on that thread.  While it is nice, if it would incur additional costs, it isn't worth it. 

[Jason OKeefe]

 

On ‎12‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 4:04 PM, jeb_bud said:

I checked the excursion on our April Barcelona to Venice cruise and found several Small Group excursions. I was a little mystified to see that the SG excursions usually show a three walking man difficulty while the standard excursions with the same description have no walking men. 

 

Are the SG tours much more physically demanding than the normal tours, or are the normal tours actually tougher than the descriptions would indicate?  Or is it just a typo?

 

hoping for a reply from Jason here. 🙏

 

jeb_bud,

 

I have learned that the SG excursions should match the effort level of the standard tour option, therefore, no difference except the exclusivity of a smaller group.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

On 12/4/2018 at 8:03 PM, Portolan said:

While Jason has said that these additional options start next year, I think they've been experimenting with them already.  On our Voyager Caribbean cruise starting this Thursday, I saw some additional tours added which had the identical description to some other (walking) tours we'd already signed up for.  The new entries offered a small group experience for the same tour at relatively modest extra cost.  Sounds a lot like what has been described above.

 

We declined since we're OK with larger, presumably not-more-than-bus-size groups.  But I will add a plea we've been making for years: PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE provide tours with wireless listening devices.  We've usually had very good guides, but it is frequently been difficult to hear them (and this without any significant hearing loss on our part).  Also, as the photographer of our twosome, I like to be able to move around a bit without losing the narrative.  Otherwise, I end up taking the pictures and Ms. Portolan listens to the guide and later we try to connect the two experiences. 

 

I would love it if excursions used something like the "Whispers" that we had on our river cruise.  

 

But...it would be complicated to implement.  One the river cruise, we got the equipment at the start and just kept it, and our guide was with us the entire time too.  Can't think that it would be practical with all the independent tour operators that Regent uses.  So it would seem that it could be a value-add to some excursions, offered by the local operators, perhaps?

[travlr21]

We have only been on one Regent cruise, albeit for 63 nights on the Voyager last fall. I believe it was our first included excursion that we had the headsets provided to us, may be in Sicily? Pleasantly surprised and looked forward to subsequent tours. However, generally did not have them after that. We did one river cruise on Viking and really appreciated the head sets. On Regent, I recall at least one guide get off the bus and immediately start her commentary, while it took a good while for the rest of the passengers to get off, and so missed a lot of the commentary.

 

We provided our feedback to Regent after each leg of our cruise, how helpful head sets would be. I am not sure it would be impossible for Regent to implement a system like Viking does. The destination people meet with the local tour guides to hand out the 'lollypops' and they could hand out guide head sets at the same time. Not impossible, would be an expense and some more coordinating at the start of the day, but would be so much appreciated by passengers.

 

Linda

[Sheltieluv]

Does anyone else find the Regent shore excursion section of their website difficult to use?  I just gave up on researching some ports because it got so frustrating!!  Filters won't clear, or filters appear that I haven't chosen, and there are other glitches, such as looking at Santa Marta in Columbia as an example.  It lists over 300 excursions, which includes all of Columbia,  not the port I've clicked on.

Maybe it's me, but for now I surrender!

Does anyone have any tips to share to make this less painful?!

[Wendy The Wanderer]

20 minutes ago, Sheltieluv said:

Does anyone else find the Regent shore excursion section of their website difficult to use?  I just gave up on researching some ports because it got so frustrating!!  Filters won't clear, or filters appear that I haven't chosen, and there are other glitches, such as looking at Santa Marta in Columbia as an example.  It lists over 300 excursions, which includes all of Columbia,  not the port I've clicked on.

Maybe it's me, but for now I surrender!

Does anyone have any tips to share to make this less painful?!

 

Are these the real excursions that are offered on your cruise, or the suggested bunch selected from former offerings?  I've just been sorting through the latter, and have not had problems, but I'm a long way from actually selecting tours!

 

If it's any help, in Santa Marta we did the "Taste of Tayrona Park".  Despite the infrastructure of the tour being badly done, the scenery was wonderful.  More strenuous than advertised. It's also a fairly long bus ride, and the poverty is evident, although not terrible.  But a beautiful park. This may not help you one bit, I know. 

[Sheltieluv]

Hi Wendy,  I'm looking at former offerings through their shore excursions tab and not what's offered for our cruise, as they aren't listed yet.

I'll keep plugging away at it.  Thanks for your suggestion for Columbia.  We've already done the Highlights of Santa Marta so I'm looking into other options.  We'd really like to just revisit the cathedral and walk around, but I'm not sure it's advisable.

[Cerinda]

I'm having trouble, too, but farther down the pipeline.

.

We booked everything the moment the website opened for business; everything worked perfectly. 
Then one of my son's excursions disappeared from the website and from our itinerary (within the "booked cruises" pulldown at the top of the webpage).  Our TA called and was told all was well.  Now another excursion has disappeared from the website, but this time remains on our itinerary.

 

Count us among regular Regent passenger just giving up on booking excursions online.  It's not a problem for us because this is an itinerary we repeat regularly.  But I can see that this would have a negative impact on people sailing once-in-a-lifetime and world cruises.  Step up, Regent; if you enter the 21st century, then bloody well enter the 21st century!