shore ex story

[Lonedaddy]

So, on one of the minibuses in Papua New Guinea (and they warned us they had little leg room and no A/C a lady was very vocal that she wanted to go back to the ship 30 minutes into the excursion... and the guide turned the bus around and went back.  Unbelievable to me that some entitled passenger ruined the excursion for everyone.  Granted we were told to be in the theater at 715 and the tour provided then called and said they had to fuel the vans and the gas stations don't open until 8.  This was an 8 hour tour and the ship was to sail at 4pm.  Welcome to the third world of excellent planning.  Long story short we go to the meeting point for the snorkel and cave tour and were told the weather was too bad to do it.  They knew this before but turned out to be a "3-hour tour" of driving in an uncomfortable van.  So maybe the lady had a vision!    Regent cancelled the next port: Port Moresby to unsafe conditions - apparently, they were warned of violence and civil issue by state department.  I get it, but now we have 3 sea days in a row before Darwin.    The explorer saga continues.  

[mrlevin]

We actually liked Alotau (four years ago on Mariner) as we took a WWII excursion; not eight hours.  Port Moresby was cancelled for us, also, and I have yet to meet anyone that actually went (on Regent) to Port Moresby.  Why do they keep putting it on itinerary and then canceling?

 

 

Edited February 4, 2023 by mrlevin

[Gilly]

We *loved* our stop in Port Moresby in March 2012, on board Voyager.  Strangely, we had exactly the same experience as @Lonedaddy in that about half an hour into the tour, a long-established Regent cruiser (whom we also happened to know from "real life") claimed sickness in such an over dramatic way, our driver took her back to the ship too.  But fortunately, we continued our day.

We were told that all local buses had been put at Regent's disposal, that local people had to cope without public transport for the day but everyone we met was extremely friendly and generous of spirit.  I wouldn't have missed it for the world (see why here and continuing here )

 

I am so sorry to read of continuing issues on board Explorer and hope for smooth sailing and many happy days to come during the remainder of your cruise.

[irishwitchy]

Yup, totally waste of my time to sit in a hot, tight bus for three hours, only to discover there was no way that we were going to get on these little boats to go to the resort.   Got our money back,  but someone should have figured this out before we got there.  
 

Regent,  if you need to hire someone to do a test run on your excursions,  please let me know.   As it turns out,  someone in our bus did this trip five years ago and it was great.  According to her,  you did get into these motorized row boat, which took you into deeper water and you got on the dive boat.  Ok.  If you read a review of this place from Dec 2021,  the dive boat is no longer running and is rusting away at the resort’s dock.  Tough financial times and  COVID may have taken a toll.  
 

Not happy with another three sea days, but I can’t fix that.  On to Darwin! 

 

 

[Dolebludger]

Actually, I recall when Regent (then Radisson) did “test drive” the shore ex’s from time to time, to guard against deterioration of them. Maybe hard to do now, especially so far away. But things like seat and leg room bus HVAC, and content shouldn’t be too hard to monitor.