Free Valet Laundry Service for all

[Kiwifromkiev]

On 8/12/2020 at 3:55 AM, mrlevin said:

 

 

PS If they close self service laundries, what about people that like to self wash more delicate items?  What about people that like to iron?  What about singles (and others) that use self service laundries as a way to meet fellow guests?  Will they totally get rid of the laundries and turn them into additional crew quarters?

I think during these times you (and everybody else - regardless of their SSS or the equivalent on another line) should be happy with any measures put in place to minimize places of potential transmission, not to bicker about your "lost entitlements". As to washing more delicate stuff -     if need be, you can always do some special items in your cabin. It's a minor inconvenience after all.

[cwn]

5 minutes ago, Kiwifromkiev said:

I think during these times you (and everybody else - regardless of their SSS or the equivalent on another line) should be happy with any measures put in place to minimize places of potential transmission, not to bicker about your "lost entitlements". As to washing more delicate stuff -     if need be, you can always do some special items in your cabin. It's a minor inconvenience after all.

So true....Just buy delicates that aren’t so delicate to cruise with and free your self from that chore. The laundry service on Regent is very good.

[mrlevin]

7 minutes ago, Kiwifromkiev said:

I think during these times you (and everybody else - regardless of their SSS or the equivalent on another line) should be happy with any measures put in place to minimize places of potential transmission, not to bicker about your "lost entitlements". As to washing more delicate stuff -     if need be, you can always do some special items in your cabin. It's a minor inconvenience after all.

 

I am not concerned about any lost entitlement.  If there are no limits placed on pieces of laundry and laundry is returned on the same schedule I have nothing to complain about.  I haven't used one of the self service laundries on Regent in a few years, so no big deal to me if they go away.  

 

Interesting that this move has been made prior to the report from the Healthy Sail Panel.

 

Marc

[cwn]

3 minutes ago, mrlevin said:

 

I am not concerned about any lost entitlement.  If there are no limits placed on pieces of laundry and laundry is returned on the same schedule I have nothing to complain about.  I haven't used one of the self service laundries on Regent in a few years, so no big deal to me if they go away.  

 

Interesting that this move has been made prior to the report from the Healthy Sail Panel.

 

Marc

They have had free laundry as a perk for booking the Grand Voyages for a long time and it was also offered on Med cruises in the past. At that time there was speculation that it would be offered across all cruises in time and some people were upset then. That was before COVID. COVID protocols may be driving this, but there has been some indication that this was always coming regardless.

[mrlevin]

1 minute ago, cwn said:

They have had free laundry as a perk for booking the Grand Voyages for a long time and it was also offered on Med cruises in the past. At that time there was speculation that it would be offered across all cruises in time and some people were upset then. That was before COVID. COVID protocols may be driving this, but there has been some indication that this was always coming regardless.

 

Yes we had it on the Australia Circumnavigation Grand Voyage almost two years ago.  At that time they limited amount of laundry; that is my only data point.  Our next cruise is also a Grand Voyage where laundry is included; I hope that the limits are removed and the timeline is reasonable.

Marc

[cwn]

We did the Circle SA and a WC. There were no limits on either cruise. They did ask to try to send less for a few days on the WC while we were at the Equator and it was miserably hot. It was just a request, not a demand or limit, and from the looks of the laundry bin on our hallway, nobody changed their habits, we didn’t.  It didn’t effect the turn around time and it was just a one time request.

[Roger88]

Free laundry sounds very nice, especially if your cruise is taking longer than a week. I hate looking for a place to wash and iron my stuff when I am travelling for a long period of time. What I hate the most is when I am offered to do it myself. Guys! I know nothing about it, I am a barbarian man lol. So, such perks for males travelling alone sounds like a good idea 

[flossie009]

It is good to see another amenity added to the list of services included for all on Regent cruises.

This is no doubt partially driven by an assessment of the comparative health risks between self service laundry facilities and a valet laundry service; and partially a future marketing opportunity.

I would hope that laundry capacity will not be an issue since the service was trialled as an offer on a number of previous cruises. 

The additional costs of providing the service will be reflected in the pricing of future cruises.

 

 

As regards the “compensation” for Gold & above SSS members, the offer of $100  SBC per suite per cruise is welcome but IMO is an unimaginative, blunt  device. 

It does not reflect either the previous differentiation between Silver, Gold & Platinum or the value of the benefit on voyages longer than the minimum.

 

I use the word unimaginative as this seems to be the first time that a cash (SBC) SSS benefit has been introduced. 

Surely more inspirational benefits could have been considered to replace the pressing & laundry benefits, with the benefit value being per person, per seven night voyage segment. 

 

 

IMO, the SSS Benefits schedule needs a thorough review to ensure that it still fulfils its original objectives, both for Regent and its loyal customers.

The Internet benefit and then the Valet Laundry benefit were both key SSS benefits to which many loyal customers aspired.

 

Who in Regent now looks after Seven Seas Society matters since the departure of the excellent @Jason OKeefe ?  Some lobbying may be required.

Edited August 14, 2020 by flossie009

[eliana]

I am appalled. I do not believe the service on the ships will manage this with any efficiency and we will get laundry back much later than the current turn round and it will be of poor quality. Furthermore we are in the Platinum grade which included free laundry and we have been given $100 onboard credit as compensation, which is useless to us as we can never find anything to spend it on. Do Regent want to drive away their most loyal passengers.

Edited August 14, 2020 by eliana

[rallydave]

2 minutes ago, eliana said:

I am appalled. I do not believe the service on the ships will manage this with any efficiency and we will get laundry back much later than the current turn round and it will be of poor quality. Furthermore we are in the Platinum grade which included free laundry and we have been given $100 onboard credit as compensation, which is useless to us as we can never find anything to spend it on. Do Regent want to drive away their most loyal passengers.

And, don't forget anything you spend $100  for on any cruise line is probably worth about $50 or so.

[eliana]

Flossie is right. The perks for loyal passengers have been seriously downgraded and Regent  need to examine the Seven Seas Society benefits with some urgency. Although I must admit that  I am unsure they really care. 

Edited August 14, 2020 by eliana

[eliana]

Just to add. I fear Regent have been going down since they were taken over last year. Maybe this is deliberate policy by the new owners.

[Snore42]

3 minutes ago, eliana said:

Just to add. I fear Regent have been going down since they were taken over last year. Maybe this is deliberate policy by the new owners.

 

I think you are confusing Regent with Silversea.  There was no take over that i'm aware of.  They've been with NCL since 2014 I believe. 

[SusieQft]

7 hours ago, eliana said:

Do Regent want to drive away their most loyal passengers.

Dare I point out that nothing was taken away from the upper tier SSS members?  Is the free laundry the only reason that they sailed so many days on Regent?  I had been under the impression that there was a lot more to it than that.

[pingpong1]

1 hour ago, SusieQft said:

Dare I point out that nothing was taken away from the upper tier SSS members?  Is the free laundry the only reason that they sailed so many days on Regent?  I had been under the impression that there was a lot more to it than that.

Susie - I've held off a bit before commenting.  But I agree completely with you on this.  It seems like much ado about nothing.  For as much past talk as there's been (in certain quarters) about Regent not having a "class system"....and I want to believe that as well....Did anyone really dump hundreds of thousands of dollars over many years of cruising with Regent just so they could (finally) get some free laundry, or free internet, etc.?  Hopefully, the time and money was expended because everyone truly enjoyed the whole atmosphere, coddling, and attention of being at sea with Regent, along with that superior product that we all enjoy so much.  If "benefits" change (expand) over time in order to keep attracting new customers, and in the process, enable the rest of us to keep the same cruise line that we've all come to enjoy so much - then I'm all for it!  Regards

[cwn]

1 hour ago, SusieQft said:

Dare I point out that nothing was taken away from the upper tier SSS members?  Is the free laundry the only reason that they sailed so many days on Regent?  I had been under the impression that there was a lot more to it than that.

You are right, there is. We are platinum, but have always had free laundry because it was a special perk on the cruises we picked. Where has never been a problem even when most of the passengers have been gold or above. That happens more often than one might think too. It is hard not to like Regent. 
 

I do wish the the $100 was per person, no big deal though. I will gladly spend the OBC on a good bottle of wine or an extra cost shore excursion. There are several ways to get rid of a little extra OBC including the Spa, but that is not our thing.

 

Amen pingpong, you are right!

Edited August 15, 2020 by cwn

[liptastic]

On an Explorer cruise 2 years ago laundry was included for all guests. There was actually no difference in the turn around service/time than usual.  
The likely main reason for this new inclusion for all is likely to compensate for the loss of the laundry room service , and it shows they are being proactively thinking ahead. 
Jean 

[DarthCruiser]

It appears that the $100 credit has been added to the bookings.  At least all of our bookings have had it applied.  A back to back we had booked got $100 per segment for a $200 total.

[Pcardad]

1 hour ago, DarthCruiser said:

It appears that the $100 credit has been added to the bookings.  At least all of our bookings have had it applied.  A back to back we had booked got $100 per segment for a $200 total.

 

Did Regent send you a new booking sheet or did it come from your TA?

[DarthCruiser]

14 minutes ago, Pcardad said:

 

Did Regent send you a new booking sheet or did it come from your TA?

 

No new invoice from Regent.   It just shows up in my account when I login to the Regent website.

[Pcardad]

ty sir!

 

[mrlevin]

2 hours ago, DarthCruiser said:

It appears that the $100 credit has been added to the bookings.  At least all of our bookings have had it applied.  A back to back we had booked got $100 per segment for a $200 total.

 

We are on the Grand Arctic Adventure on Navigator; a total of six segments and 94 nights.  We were given just ONE $100 SBC; six would have been nicer as the excursions are really eating up our SBC.  But, the $100 given to us is $100 more than we had before so no reason to complain.

 

Marc

[Pcardad]

Regent's logic is that if you bought it as a single segment, you paid less than buying it as 6 segments...so it is only 1 cruise. It ought to be more like $10 per person per day.

[cwn]

31 minutes ago, mrlevin said:

 

We are on the Grand Arctic Adventure on Navigator; a total of six segments and 94 nights.  We were given just ONE $100 SBC; six would have been nicer as the excursions are really eating up our SBC.  But, the $100 given to us is $100 more than we had before so no reason to complain.

 

Marc

As you probably know, You had to book each segment separately to get the $600. But then each segment separately would have been more the $600 SBC. We had a similar deal with OBC on one of our combined voyages in the past. 

 

Something is better than nothing!

 

Pcardad we were posing at the same time, sorry to repeat.

Edited August 16, 2020 by cwn

[DarthCruiser]

2 hours ago, mrlevin said:

 

We are on the Grand Arctic Adventure on Navigator; a total of six segments and 94 nights.  We were given just ONE $100 SBC; six would have been nicer as the excursions are really eating up our SBC.  But, the $100 given to us is $100 more than we had before so no reason to complain.

 

Marc

Yes, its as Pcardad explained.  Ours was a B2B not offered as a single voyage.  Hence we got the $100 per segment.  On multi-segment voyages that Regent offered as a single cruise, we only received $100.