Does Regent Inform It’s Customers of Port Time Changes?

[pappy1022]

I was just browsing my account and noticed that 4 of the 10 port times were changed. Does Regent inform its customers when this happens? I have not received any notifications. If they do not, then I suggest people constantly look at the official port times to make sure you are aware of the changes and adjust accordingly. In one case where we have a private guide, our arrival time is significantly later. It’s not a problem to adjust the time with the guide as long as we know it changed. I just happened to stumble upon the change.

[Pcardad]

1 hour ago, pappy1022 said:

I was just browsing my account and noticed that 4 of the 10 port times were changed. Does Regent inform its customers when this happens? I have not received any notifications. If they do not, then I suggest people constantly look at the official port times to make sure you are aware of the changes and adjust accordingly. In one case where we have a private guide, our arrival time is significantly later. It’s not a problem to adjust the time with the guide as long as we know it changed. I just happened to stumble upon the change.

If you were not, your TA should have been. I forward everything VERTABIM to my people along with my personal comments/thoughts.

[pappy1022]

I did check with my TA and she said she hadn’t seen anything about port time changes.

[pappy1022]

The only email we both received after final payment was a notice about passports, making sure the expiration date was at least 6 months past the last day of the cruise and to check for enough blank pages.

[RELS]

We got an email from Regent about a port time change for our Dec '23 South American cruise. It went to both us and our TA.

[pappy1022]

haven’t heard a peep from Regent and either has my agent. I was just checking my itinerary again and Regent changed my excursion time in Edinburgh from 9 Am to 1:30 PM. We are still arriving at the original scheduled time. Again, no word from Regent. Do I have to check constantly to see if they made changes? Ridiculous.

[cwn]

It has been our experience over the last 12 years that the stated tour times can and do change sometimes up until the night before the tour. Just check the passages the night before for the final time. Of course, if something happens to slow the ship down it will change again. Really no big deal, certainly not something to get upset over…after all we are sort of a captive audience on a cruise ship🤣

[Portolan]

We, and our TA, have never been notified of port time changes in advance.  Cancelled ports, yes, but arrival and departure times, no.  Most recently I discovered a later departure than originally scheduled when I saw that I could sign up for an excursion which would return after the original scheduled departure time (but was OK since the departure was delayed).

Edited May 31, 2023 by Portolan

[liptastic]

8 hours ago, pappy1022 said:

haven’t heard a peep from Regent and either has my agent. I was just checking my itinerary again and Regent changed my excursion time in Edinburgh from 9 Am to 1:30 PM. We are still arriving at the original scheduled time. Again, no word from Regent. Do I have to check constantly to see if they made changes? Ridiculous.

I would not be expecting Regent to contact every booking reference of individual port excursion changes. There are lots of logistical reasons that the excursion times and schedules change and that can be right up to the day before or day of arrival in port. 
I think you are going to have to be more flexible and realistic here and accept that Regent are working hard to ensure they are delivering their included excursions to the best of their abilities in so many different places .   Jean.

[pappy1022]

If this is normal then I guess I have to keep checking my entire itinerary. Everyone needs to take heed of this possibility and know it’s up to them individually to monitor all changes in the itinerary. The weird thing is that my original tour time now shows it’s available to book on the Regent site. I’ve asked my TA to check out what is happening. It makes it hard to plan for anything outside of the Regent excursions especially when they don’t tell you about significant changes. In this case the morning excursion was changed to an afternoon excursion. Port times remained the same. We had planned to spend the afternoon on our own in Edinburgh, including a visit to the Palace, which we prepaid for on our own. Now we lose that money. In Belfast, they significantly changed the port times. We have a booked a private tour. No big deal to change the starting time with the guide but had I not stumbled upon the change we wouldn’t have been able to communicate that change to the guide. It would be pretty easy for Regent to have a program automatically communicate changes to their customers itinerary. They have all of the information in their system to do so. After all, someone made a change to start this ball rolling. Shoot, even the airlines tell you when they make a change to an itinerary or the schedule and they have a lot more customers than Regent.

[pappy1022]

And all of these changes were made right after final payment was due. Coincidence? None of the changes are a deal breaker for me. But it makes me wonder, if after final payment, Regent locks in on excursions with the providers.

[pappy1022]

My TA checked with Regent and they threw up their hands and said they have no control over the excursion providers. I am curious though. Regent had the excursion starting at 8:30 AM and we aren’t scheduled to arrive until 9 AM and it’s a tender port. I assume someone finally noticed the discrepancy and made the change. I know it’s not a big deal and I accept that some things will change and that I have to adapt. What’s bothersome, is that there seems to be an increasing lack of communication, a lack of attention to detail and an “ain’t my problem” attitude that I have never seen before on Regent.

[pingpong1]

2 hours ago, pappy1022 said:

My TA checked with Regent and they threw up their hands and said they have no control over the excursion providers. I am curious though. Regent had the excursion starting at 8:30 AM and we aren’t scheduled to arrive until 9 AM and it’s a tender port. I assume someone finally noticed the discrepancy and made the change. I know it’s not a big deal and I accept that some things will change and that I have to adapt. What’s bothersome, is that there seems to be an increasing lack of communication, a lack of attention to detail and an “ain’t my problem” attitude that I have never seen before on Regent.

Pappy - I can certainly empathize with your frustration, brought about by a growing collection of "small problems".  After a while, the totality of a lot of "small problems" (and annoyances) can add up to becoming "one big problem".  Particularly when the constant advertising we all receive tells us that the product being offered (at a super-premium price) is going to be a "total luxury experience" for the customer...and you haven't even boarded the ship yet!