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I have been spending quite a bit of time looking at excursions for a couple of different cruises.

Just wondering if it is just me but so many of the ( included) excursions seem a bit tiresome.

Regent is a luxury cruises line however I have to wonder why they are not offering a few more

interesting/exciting excursions. So many seem to be either walking around a town or going

from place to place on a bus. How about offering a Flamingo show in Seville or sheep herding

demonstration in Ireland or a short train ride to a particular destination.

Are there any included excursions that you have been on that really stood out to you?

Would love to hear about them.

 

Edited by snorkle lover
wrong word
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Not long ago we visited Brunei on an Asian cruise with Regent. Our excursion was a trip upriver in the long, thin shallow-draft haabja like boats. The excursion was to hike inland to a waterfall fed pool where the little pedicure fish are found. Due to recent rains, the creek leading from the pool had overrun its banks and we ended up slogging up the creek in some fairly deep mud. Even though we had some pretty elderly folks all but a couple were game. We made it, helping each other along. Upon return to the boat dock we hosed off, had a lunch of traditional food and headed back to the ship. It’s still among the most memorable of all our Regent excursions. Our companions really had a sense of accomplishment after that trip and not one word of complaint. Regent also offered free laundry to us all. 

Edited by texasatty
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Yes!  This one in Lima, Peru...  we began in a museum    then went on to a beautiful estancia where we had the most fantastic horse show and delicious (late) lunch before returning to the ship.  It's one of many examples of fascinating (included) excursions we have enjoyed on our Regent cruises.

 

Or this one, which was a day at Borobudur, Indonesia

 

Or here, in Punta Arenas, Chile which needed a second post for the afternoon and which could have been dismissed as "walking around a town and going from place to place on a bus" but was anything but.

 

Have they all been of excellent quality?  No....  But choose carefully, do a bit of independent research and the best ones are there for the finding.

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@texasatty  you are right - we've done that excursion too and it was tremendous fun!  Everyone in such good spirits in spite of getting wet and finding it tough going at times...I wonder even if we were on the same tour?!    We loved it!

 

(I see we were there in 2015 and I see it was another of those two post days... 😎)

 

Thank you for the reminder of that one!

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Although I am not a fan of included excursions, there have been some that were quite good!  We also went to a beautiful ranch in Salavarry (misspelled), Peru where they served a beautiful (and yummy) lunch with Pisco Sours while we watched a horse show.

 

We loved an excursion in Funchal that we will be repeating in November.  It goes to a place where you do Madeira wine, then to a lovely market where you can Black Scabbard fish (only found in two places in the world - they are really scary looking but taste pretty good).  Then we have lunch outside in a beautiful location.  We watch (and participate) in making the local bread and threading beef on skewers that will be barbecued.  They will keep serving wine, beef (may have chicken too - I don't recall) salad, etc.  Worthy of being a Regent Choice Excursion but is included.

 

One more that comes to mind is in Rhodes, Greece.  We have taken this excursion twice and plan on doing it again.  We watch (do not participate) in food preparation and then have a authentic, delicious Greek meal with wine.

 

Guess that food oriented excursions are our thing.  Regent must have a heck of a time finding excursions for their guests - particularly when larger ships are in port.  I would assume that many tour companies would much rather provide a tour for a ship of 2,000+ passengers than maybe 300 from Regent (based on money alone).  And, there are places that are so expensive that Regent probably cannot offer them as "included" excursions.  

 

To me, in general, the least exciting included excursions are in South America and some parts of Europe.  The best ones for us have been in the Middle East, Asia and Norway (but many in Norway are not included).

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I've done the horse show/pisco sour gig in Peru as well, very nice.  The trip to Tayrona National Park in Colombia was wonderful, although there was a fairly long bus ride, and the tour organization was amateurish.  And our temple tour in Lima was good too (Oracle Centers.)

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Gilly you are a wonderful photographer and raconteur. Looks like there are some good excursions so I will need to do some digging and researching. We also enjoy

food centered excursions TC so will need to narrow it down.

Thank you for your information.

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I've done numbers of Regent included excursions over the years and for the most part have been happy with them - are there some which have been have been disappointing? Yes but very few and mainly in places where that would happen in any case - poor infrastructure, bad weather - that sort of thing.

 

Peggy

 

 

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3 hours ago, texasatty said:

Not long ago we visited Brunei on an Asian cruise with Regent. Our excursion was a trip upriver in the long, thin shallow-draft haabja like boats. The excursion was to hike inland to a waterfall fed pool where the little pedicure fish are found. Due to recent rains, the creek leading from the pool had overrun its banks and we ended up slogging up the creek in some fairly deep mud. Even though we had some pretty elderly folks all but a couple were game. We made it, helping each other along. Upon return to the boat dock we hosed off, had a lunch of traditional food and headed back to the ship. It’s still among the most memorable of all our Regent excursions. Our companions really had a sense of accomplishment after that trip and not one word of complaint. Regent also offered free laundry to us all. 

No chance of doing that excursion again. Our day in Brunei was cancelled due to the sultan's lack of acceptance of gay and lesbian people (was this a surprise for Regent?) so we have a day at sea instead.

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4 hours ago, Gilly said:

@texasatty  you are right - we've done that excursion too and it was tremendous fun!  Everyone in such good spirits in spite of getting wet and finding it tough going at times...I wonder even if we were on the same tour?!    We loved it!

 

(I see we were there in 2015 and I see it was another of those two post days... 😎)

 

Thank you for the reminder of that one!

Definitely the same excursion. Cheers!

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IMO Regent does a good job in offering a wide variety of both included and paid excursions, of varying durations, to suit most travellers’ tastes and physical abilities.

 

In our ten years of regular cruises with Regent in all parts of the world we have generally been happy with the tours; some better than others; some fails; some excellent.

(The quality of tour guide and attitude of other participants can affect enjoyment levels, but both these factors are unpredictable)

 

A surprisingly good tour that exceeded our expectations 100% was a walking tour of Naples .............. much of the tour was through ancient tunnels and chambers underground - so different and interesting.

 

As others have said, take the time to do your research. Read the tour descriptions, activity levels and durations carefully; have a look on Tripadvisor; and look for blogs of similar itineraries here on CC.

 

Have fun choosing your excursions and enjoy your cruises😎

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The excitement level of an included excursion will depend a lot on where you are.  Many of our excursions have started out as a "walk thru town" as described in the brochure that were really things like: on Madeira we had a ride down a hill in a wooden sleigh; a great visit to Aix en Provence; free time to people watch in a square in Naples; visits to some wonderful churches; a walk through a fishing village in the Netherlands with some unique architecture.  A walk through one town will always have something new/interesting to see.

 

Research the ports of call both on cruise critic and trip advisor.  See what Trip Advisor says is available at that port.

We have never been disappointed.

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Thank  you so much for all the thoughtful responses to my questions of Regent's excursions.

I will do as many suggested and really study what is being offered and then hopefully make some 

good selections. We do love Regent and are looking forward to our next cruise Rome to

Barcelona in 2020.

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The quality of the excursions varies from port to port, and on what you like to do.  For our two currently booked Regent cruises, some of the tours are fantastic:  archaeology in Kirkwall, Shetland Islands; amazing choices in two of our three ports in Iceland; and, on our TA next year on the Splendor, many of the interesting "Splendor only" tours mentioned in recent Regent publicity blurbs.  In other places, particularly ones we've been to before, the excursions are either bus and short walking tours only (Martha's Vineyard), or there are no choices of things we haven't done before (Reykjavik, Bermuda, Boston).  In Boston and (probably) Bermuda, I guess we'll do things on our own.

 

Often wonderful (Canary Islands) and awful (Recife, Brazil) tours happen on the same trip.  On a Med cruise, we had a wonderful included wine tour in Sicily; and a wine and archaeology tour (Regent choice) in Sorrento that took us to a fabulous archaeology site (Stabiae), followed by an awful meal and arrogant service at a winery on the slopes of Vesuvius.  Regent gave us a partial refund on that one,  Overall, the quality has been excellent; but there definitely have been some clunkers.

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Well, I suppose you have to take the good with the bad. Considering everything we found to be good

with Regent ( business class air, open bar, great cabins, good food) we understand there may be a few things not

to our liking. However, we would recommend Regent to anybody looking for a first class cruise.

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On 6/25/2019 at 3:46 PM, snorkle lover said:

Well, I suppose you have to take the good with the bad. Considering everything we found to be good

with Regent ( business class air, open bar, great cabins, good food) we understand there may be a few things not

to our liking. However, we would recommend Regent to anybody looking for a first class cruise.

I'm not sure what your point was in starting this thread. What were the Ho Hum excursions that bored you, or did you just find the descriptions boring?

Your post said:

"How about offering a Flamingo show in Seville or sheep herding

demonstration in Ireland or a short train ride to a particular destination. "

I'm thinking you meant Flamenco, and not a long legged pink bird show in Seville, and I really can't think of anything more boring than a sheep herding demonstration while on a cruise. The short train ride to our destination would not be what we want if we can take an a bus with AC and get to our destination sooner.

Our only Regent Cruise so far was to Alaska, and the included excursions were a bargain compared to what we've had to pay on other upscale cruise lines.

We leave on a Regent Med cruise on Sunday, and the excursions that we chose were either included, or a small price for a Small Group excursion.

Regent has a good selection of excursions, and are a much better value than we have found on other cruise lines.

 

Edited by SWFLAOK
typo
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In defense of the TS (Thread Starter), we have experienced some pretty miserable included excursions.  Perhaps this is because we have taken so many Regent cruises.......

 

Because Regent wants to accommodate as many passengers as possible on their excursions, they keep adding buses.  There are usually multiple buses going to the same places but trying to do them in a different order.  Because of this, we have had a wine tasting excursion (excellent) but it had to take place at 9:30 a.m. due to others that were lined up for the tasting.  

 

We have also had to have lunch at 3:30 p.m. which was a problem for some passengers.  

 

Our personal preference is to do a Regent Choice excursion with limited participation.  I understand that this means that people that book late may not be able to take the excursion, but, it is fair in some ways.

 

Some included excursions are simply boring.  We have been on more than one excursion when the tour was running late (and was boring) but the Tour Guide was insisting that we go to the local tourist shop - even though this meant getting back to the ship late.  Some passengers were extremely upset and demanded to go back to the ship while others (very few) wanted to shop.  It was a no-win situation.

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Our experiences with the “included” excursions have been pretty good. Last August our Navigator Norway etc. cruise had some of the best tours we have experienced. The scenery from the bus was magnificent, the train was enjoyable, the boat trip through the fiords was spectacular  and the visits in Russia to Murmansk and Archangel took us back to the Soviet Union era. 

We have never felt too crowded on an excursion. 

There are times, of course, the guide is not great. So we stop listening and enjoy whatever we are seeing. 

There are times some folks are rude. So we ignore them. 

In the past, sailing on other ship lines, we would book private tours that were expensive. We certainly enjoyed most of them. However, we love the Regent package. It’s easy and enjoyable. 

Sheila and Herb

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