My reservation cancelled to accommodate a charter

[puppyluv1]

I received an email today that my reservation on the Oct 2024 Mediterranean cruise on Splendor is cancelled because the ship has been partially chartered.  We booked the cruise while onboard this past January.  We were able to take advantage of the 2 category upgrade….paid for concierge and got a penthouse….plus the savings for booking onboard. Regent is offering a $250 per person FCC (concierge and below). We’re so disappointed. Without the upgrade, we wouldn’t be able to book a penthouse and I don’t know if we lose the other discount for booking onboard if we book a different cruise. We had postponed a 2019 Mediterranean cruise because of work obligations and we all know what happened in 2020. This was going to be our chance to sail the Mediterranean again with a perfect itinerary for us. I have certain windows of time when I can travel so no other appealing options for 2024.  Fingers crossed some good options will be available for 2025.  I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else. Sorry for the negativity.  

[wcsdkqh]

What was your sail date?

 

[GOARMY]

puppyluv1:

 

You are not being negative.  You are describing a situation which has never happened to us during a 23+ year history with Radisson/Regent.  

 

Suggest you review this reversal in fortune with your Travel Agent.  Hopefully, your TA will have had experience with the Regent product to include actually being onboard from time to time.  This would be in conjunction with being your advocate acquiring a similar Suite category (Penthouse) on the new booking with no increase in cost.  

 

Expect other CC'ers who HAVE gone through this experience to share same with you--as to what, if anything, Regent did to mitigate the situation.  

 

GOARMY!

 

 

Edited May 18, 2023 by GOARMY
clarification

[puppyluv1]

Wcsdkgh, the sailing date us Oct 19, 2024. 
 

Go Army- thank you for the advice!  

[Rothko1]

I would be absolutely livid if this happened to me.  I'm certain you made all sorts of plans already, including calendaring for the trip, etc.  

 

I am very sorry this happened to you.  I hope you can get it resolved in a favorable way.

[wcsdkqh]

So disappointing, I'm sure. My family and I are on a Greek Isles cruise departing Athens on 10/30. Hopefully Regent will make it right.

[BettyDol]

I just want to throw a different perspective into this discussion.  If this happened to me, I am sure I would be upset.  However,  a few years back, we were on a Back to back Caribbean cruise on the Voyager.  There were 70 other passengers on this btb cruise.  Unfortunetly for all of us, there were also 2 different corporate charters aboard.  each group had about 300 "guests" each.  One group consisted of about 85% 25 to 30 year olds.  When I tell you that cruise was an absolute nightmare I am understating  the situation by many miles. So, the alternative perspective I mentioned is this:  I think Regent got you out of a nightmare and into an opportunity to find a wonderful cruise!  Hope you can find a fabulous "second Choice"!!!

[DeepFreeze63]

10 hours ago, BettyDol said:

I just want to throw a different perspective into this discussion.  If this happened to me, I am sure I would be upset.  However,  a few years back, we were on a Back to back Caribbean cruise on the Voyager.  There were 70 other passengers on this btb cruise.  Unfortunetly for all of us, there were also 2 different corporate charters aboard.  each group had about 300 "guests" each.  One group consisted of about 85% 25 to 30 year olds.  When I tell you that cruise was an absolute nightmare I am understating  the situation by many miles. So, the alternative perspective I mentioned is this:  I think Regent got you out of a nightmare and into an opportunity to find a wonderful cruise!  Hope you can find a fabulous "second Choice"!!!

Amen, Amen. Last November, DW and I were on a BtB. First leg was marvelous; second leg was "partially chartered" - awful.

[carolina cruisin]

1 hour ago, DeepFreeze63 said:

Amen, Amen. Last November, DW and I were on a BtB. First leg was marvelous; second leg was "partially chartered" - awful.

 

1 hour ago, DeepFreeze63 said:

Amen, Amen. Last November, DW and I were on a BtB. First leg was marvelous; second leg was "partially chartered" - awful.

My lesson learned is to not book a 7-day cruise to the Caribbean.  Second leg of a longer cruise was not as enjoyable because of the difference passenger profile

[rcandkc]

1 hour ago, carolina cruisin said:

 

My lesson learned is to not book a 7-day cruise to the Caribbean.  Second leg of a longer cruise was not as enjoyable because of the difference passenger profile

So, are most charters 7 days?

[carolina cruisin]

54 minutes ago, rcandkc said:

So, are most charters 7 days?

Can't speak to that.  Believe our situation was a combination of a short cruise to the Caribbean and in the Spring Break time frame.  Just a different mix - am sure everyone enjoyed themselves and there were no BIG problems - just a different feel to the overall experience.

[2012_Alaska_bound]

18 hours ago, wcsdkqh said:

My family and I are on a Greek Isles cruise departing Athens on 10/30.

I'm on that cruise! Can hardly wait.

[wcsdkqh]

Alaska Bound-- Are you on the 7 day Athens to Athens, or the 14 day Athens to Rome?  Like you, very excited

[2012_Alaska_bound]

Just now, wcsdkqh said:

Alaska Bound-- Are you on the 7 day Athens to Athens, or the 14 day Athens to Rome?  Like you, very excited

 

We are on for the 14 day! Whoo hoo! Doing both pre and post cruise tours. Only worry is it is so port intensive, but with all those days in Athens, might take a sea day for one of them, maybe "change over" day.

[rcandkc]

10 minutes ago, 2012_Alaska_bound said:

 

We are on for the 14 day! Whoo hoo! Doing both pre and post cruise tours. Only worry is it is so port intensive, but with all those days in Athens, might take a sea day for one of them, maybe "change over" day.

On change over day can you stay onboard?  We have done 11 regent cruises but never a b2b. 

[flossie009]

37 minutes ago, rcandkc said:

On change over day can you stay onboard?

You certainly can if you have booked more than one segment, and it is a very enjoyable experience.

In some ports you may be required to disembark for immigration formalities, but you will be allowed to re-board shortly after.

[-Lew-]

20 hours ago, puppyluv1 said:

the sailing date us Oct 19, 2024. 

 

You might want to check out the Splendor sailing just before the one that was canceled.  We're booked on the October 4th sailing that embarks in Southampton and disembarks in Barcelona on October 19th...very interesting itinerary.

 

Our plan is to spend a week in Barcelona and then catch a ride home on Celebrity Ascent on October 26th.

[RachelG]

I too would be very upset if that happened to me if all they were offering was a $250 FCC.  Yes, you should be able to transfer your onboard savings to whatever you book in its place, but I agree about getting your TA involved.  On the other hand, I agree that you may have dodged a bullet by not being onboard with a partially chartered ship.  Those can be ok, but they can also be terrible. 

[rcandkc]

We were on Mariner when a somewhat small group took over observation lounge at a key time…late afternoon/evening near leaving port.  We were very unhappy about it. This small group could have easily fit in a smaller lounge like Stars. 

[Pcardad]

There is a difference between a charter (They take the entire ship and move off paying clients) and a group booking (They add the group to the existing public cruise). The cruise being discussion here was converted to a charter and all guests are being refunded.

Edited May 20, 2023 by Pcardad

[flossie009]

52 minutes ago, Pcardad said:

The cruise being discussion here was converted to a charter

The OP refers to the the ship being "partially chartered". I wonder what that means? 🤔

[Pcardad]

1 minute ago, flossie009 said:

The OP refers to the the ship being "partially chartered". I wonder what that means? 🤔

It wasn't, it was fully chartered and all reservations were refunded. 

[puppyluv1]

That makes more sense. The letter from Regent referred to it as “partially chartered “ but I guess it’s fully chartered. We reached out to our TA, so we’ll see if she can retain our discounts on a future sailing. 

[puppyluv1]

21 hours ago, -Lew- said:

 

You might want to check out the Splendor sailing just before the one that was canceled.  We're booked on the October 4th sailing that embarks in Southampton and disembarks in Barcelona on October 19th...very interesting itinerary.

 

Our plan is to spend a week in Barcelona and then catch a ride home on Celebrity Ascent on October 26th.

Lew, that is a really nice itinerary. We did a very similar one in our first Regent cruise.