Splendor Ship and Excursions

[Cruzin1616]

We are going on a corporate cruise on Regent Splendor in Italy. Never been on Regent before.

Can you guys tell me how the free excursions are? Would like to save our money to buy stuff and enjoy the food. We are not one to use taxis so prefer to walk or be part of an excursion to help us get places.
So far we have been told our stops are Sorrento, Livorno, Portofino, and Monte Carlo. 
Also any tips on the ship would be helpful. 

[papaflamingo]

The Regent excursions are basically the same as you find on any other cruise line's excursion list.  Read the description and decide if it's something you are interested in.  We've done everything from a simple bus tour to snorkeling with the stingrays and sharks.  We've really enjoyed most tours, some were just ok, others...meh.   But the descriptions were pretty accurate.  

One thing you can do... take the title of the excursion and google it.  Often you'll find the same exact excursion listed on other cruise websites as well as Tripadvisor, etc.  So you can sometimes read the reviews and get a better feel.  

But we've found Regent doesn't generally over crowd excursions so they're usually not on a full bus, etc.  I know that won't hold true all the time, but that's my experience.  

If there's something you REALLY want to do, and a small group is offered, you may find it worth the additional upcharge.  But for just seeing things.  Regent excursions are pretty good in general. 

[pappy1022]

I have a Regent cruise in a week so I can tell you afterwards. What I’ve read on these boards is that it is a mixed bag ranging from poor to great but I would say the majority of them are good and worth taking.

Edited September 4, 2023 by pappy1022

[loriva]

16 hours ago, Cruzin1616 said:

We are going on a corporate cruise on Regent Splendor in Italy. Never been on Regent before.

Can you guys tell me how the free excursions are? Would like to save our money to buy stuff and enjoy the food. We are not one to use taxis so prefer to walk or be part of an excursion to help us get places.
So far we have been told our stops are Sorrento, Livorno, Portofino, and Monte Carlo. 
Also any tips on the ship would be helpful. 

 

Looks like your cruise is 19-24 October 2024, when the Splendor shows a gap in its public offerings, going from Barcelona to Rome (Civitavecchia).  Monte Carlo, Portofino, and Sorrento are all easy ports to walk around and explore on your own.  Regent will likely offer a number of tours that include walking around these cities.  Livorno is for Florence, so you'll likely be on a bus there (maybe including Pisa).  Will be a combination of walking and riding around Florence for some vistas.

 

For tips on the ship, make your way over to the "Reviews" section or read any of the "Live from" threads.  It is a beautiful ship.  All of the food--including specialty restaurants--are built into the fare, so you won't have to spend money there.

[Cruzin1616]

31 minutes ago, loriva said:

 

Looks like your cruise is 19-24 October 2024, when the Splendor shows a gap in its public offerings, going from Barcelona to Rome (Civitavecchia).  Monte Carlo, Portofino, and Sorrento are all easy ports to walk around and explore on your own.  Regent will likely offer a number of tours that include walking around these cities.  Livorno is for Florence, so you'll likely be on a bus there (maybe including Pisa).  Will be a combination of walking and riding around Florence for some vistas.

 

For tips on the ship, make your way over to the "Reviews" section or read any of the "Live from" threads.  It is a beautiful ship.  All of the food--including specialty restaurants--are built into the fare, so you won't have to spend money there.

Our trip is next year. We were told April 2024 and the gap I found was April 24-29th We are awaiting more details to be sure of our dates.  Just found out a week ago about trip. Getting a head start on trying to plan so we are prepared to jump when things open up to us. And where to use what money we get saved from now till then.  So if Monte Carlo, Portofino and Sorrento are easy to walk and explore on our own than would it be better to do a paid excursion for Livorno? Since Pisa and Florence are further away! 

 

The ship does look beautiful!  Can’t wait to go! 
I will for sure look at the “live from” threads. 

Edited September 4, 2023 by Cruzin1616

[Cruzin1616]

1 hour ago, pappy1022 said:

I have a Regent cruise in a week so I can tell you afterwards. What I’ve read on these boards is that it is a mixed bag ranging from poor to great but I would say the majority of them are good and worth taking.

I can’t wait to hear about it. Have a great time and enjoy! 

[loriva]

3 hours ago, Cruzin1616 said:

Our trip is next year. We were told April 2024 and the gap I found was April 24-29th We are awaiting more details to be sure of our dates.  Just found out a week ago about trip. Getting a head start on trying to plan so we are prepared to jump when things open up to us. And where to use what money we get saved from now till then.  So if Monte Carlo, Portofino and Sorrento are easy to walk and explore on our own than would it be better to do a paid excursion for Livorno? Since Pisa and Florence are further away! 

 

The ship does look beautiful!  Can’t wait to go! 
I will for sure look at the “live from” threads. 

 

Sorry, for some reason I thought you had said October, without a year.  My mistake.

 

I have no experience with corporate cruises with Regent but with cruises offered to the public, a variety of shore excursions are part of the cruise fare--"free," if you will.  So, no need to spend any money on shorex if you find included shorex to your liking--well, except for anything you want to buy on the excursion, any food or drink if not mentioned as part of the shorex, and tips for driver and guides.

 

If your corporate cruise does not include no-additional-charge shorex, then, yes, Livorno would be the port to spring for a tour.  Look at the destination boards--there is one for Italy--for lots of recommendations of tour companies to use.

 

[RELS]

3 hours ago, Cruzin1616 said:

Our trip is next year. We were told April 2024 and the gap I found was April 24-29th We are awaiting more details to be sure of our dates.  Just found out a week ago about trip. Getting a head start on trying to plan so we are prepared to jump when things open up to us. And where to use what money we get saved from now till then.  So if Monte Carlo, Portofino and Sorrento are easy to walk and explore on our own than would it be better to do a paid excursion for Livorno? Since Pisa and Florence are further away! 

 

The ship does look beautiful!  Can’t wait to go! 
I will for sure look at the “live from” threads. 

 

Years ago Regent offered an included "Florence on your own" which buses you into Florence and sets you free to wander. We booked timed entries to the Uffizi and the Academy (David) through https://firenzemusei.it/, picked up the tickets for both at the Uffizi, and had a lovely day before we met the Regent bus back to the pier.  There are also tours into Tuscany from Livorno, like Siena, which fellow passengers liked.

 

Monte Carlo doesn't actually have much going on besides shopping (unless you want to pay to see more of the famous casino than just peeking in), but you can take the train to Nice and see the Chagall museum and the Matisse museum.

 

From Sorrento, you can go to Capri. I was just on a Regent cruise that stopped in Sorrento, and I wish I had taken their Capri tour.

 

Once you have your exact itinerary arrival/departure times, and you find out if Regent is running their usual included tours, you can make better decisions. You will have plenty of time to book non-ship tours between now and April, even if you don't get your info until January. We got a lot of information from the Rick Steves Mediterranean Cruise Ports guide book.

 

 

[Cruzin1616]

19 minutes ago, loriva said:

 

Sorry, for some reason I thought you had said October, without a year.  My mistake.

 

I have no experience with corporate cruises with Regent but with cruises offered to the public, a variety of shore excursions are part of the cruise fare--"free," if you will.  So, no need to spend any money on shorex if you find included shorex to your liking--well, except for anything you want to buy on the excursion, any food or drink if not mentioned as part of the shorex, and tips for driver and guides.

 

If your corporate cruise does not include no-additional-charge shorex, then, yes, Livorno would be the port to spring for a tour.  Look at the destination boards--there is one for Italy--for lots of recommendations of tour companies to use.

 

No worries!

I haven’t done a corporate cruise before either. This is a first for them. They normally do a resort somewhere.  We were told there would be some free excursions.  Appreciate all your info so far! 

[Cruzin1616]

44 minutes ago, RELS said:

 

Years ago Regent offered an included "Florence on your own" which buses you into Florence and sets you free to wander. We booked timed entries to the Uffizi and the Academy (David) through https://firenzemusei.it/, picked up the tickets for both at the Uffizi, and had a lovely day before we met the Regent bus back to the pier.  There are also tours into Tuscany from Livorno, like Siena, which fellow passengers liked.

 

Monte Carlo doesn't actually have much going on besides shopping (unless you want to pay to see more of the famous casino than just peeking in), but you can take the train to Nice and see the Chagall museum and the Matisse museum.

 

From Sorrento, you can go to Capri. I was just on a Regent cruise that stopped in Sorrento, and I wish I had taken their Capri tour.

 

Once you have your exact itinerary arrival/departure times, and you find out if Regent is running their usual included tours, you can make better decisions. You will have plenty of time to book non-ship tours between now and April, even if you don't get your info until January. We got a lot of information from the Rick Steves Mediterranean Cruise Ports guide book.

 

 

This is helpful! I expect us to get more info closer to January as that’s when we have gotten more info in the past about our corporate trips. Normally we find out who gets to go and where in August and then more info in December/January when we fill out our “yes, I’m going paperwork”!

thank you 

[pappy1022]

We booked an all day private tour to Florence with a stop at a small winery and of course a stop at Pisa. I thought it was well worth the money because we got a better understanding of what we were seeing, the history of the area, early access to museums and a great stop at a small bakery for some lunch and treats. The guide made all the difference in the world. I would recommend a guide to see this city and surrounding area. 

[Techno123]

@RELS just a tiny disagreement from me re Monte Carlo 😁 Not just the casino,  there is a lovely walk up to the royal palace where you can watch the changing of the guard with fabulous views over the local area (or you can get the tourist train up ) and you can visit parts of it.

[Snore42]

I'd also add a visit to Eze is very nice, when docked in Monte Carlo.    The tour we took with Regent did a bus to Eze, with walking tour.   Then took us back down to the Royal Palace just in time to see the changing of the guard.  

[newlondon]

Second the praise for Eze. Wonderful old town and a center for the perfume industry.

[RELS]

@Techno123 I stand corrected. I think my opinion was colored by the fact that it was dumping rain the day we were there and trying to walk around, and my jacket was inadequate.

 

@Snore42, I will take your advice and try an excursion to Eze if we are ever docked in Monte Carlo again.

[Cruzin1616]

3 hours ago, pappy1022 said:

We booked an all day private tour to Florence with a stop at a small winery and of course a stop at Pisa. I thought it was well worth the money because we got a better understanding of what we were seeing, the history of the area, early access to museums and a great stop at a small bakery for some lunch and treats. The guide made all the difference in the world. I would recommend a guide to see this city and surrounding area. 

@pappy1022 was this done on your own then? Who did you book through?  I have never done a excursion that wasn't through the cruise line.  

[Cruzin1616]

2 hours ago, Snore42 said:

I'd also add a visit to Eze is very nice, when docked in Monte Carlo.    The tour we took with Regent did a bus to Eze, with walking tour.   Then took us back down to the Royal Palace just in time to see the changing of the guard.  

I will for sure keep this in mind. Seeing the changing of guard would be nice to see.

[Gpilon]

On 9/4/2023 at 1:12 PM, RELS said:

 

Years ago Regent offered an included "Florence on your own" which buses you into Florence and sets you free to wander. We booked timed entries to the Uffizi and the Academy (David) through https://firenzemusei.it/, picked up the tickets for both at the Uffizi, and had a lovely day before we met the Regent bus back to the pier.  There are also tours into Tuscany from Livorno, like Siena, which fellow passengers liked.

 

Monte Carlo doesn't actually have much going on besides shopping (unless you want to pay to see more of the famous casino than just peeking in), but you can take the train to Nice and see the Chagall museum and the Matisse museum.

 

From Sorrento, you can go to Capri. I was just on a Regent cruise that stopped in Sorrento, and I wish I had taken their Capri tour.

 

Once you have your exact itinerary arrival/departure times, and you find out if Regent is running their usual included tours, you can make better decisions. You will have plenty of time to book non-ship tours between now and April, even if you don't get your info until January. We got a lot of information from the Rick Steves Mediterranean Cruise Ports guide book.

 

 

If the Capri tour falls on a weekend or Holiday….it is absolute bedlam. Especially waiting for the tram to take you to top of hill. Ours was so “crazy”, we decided to walk back down to the hydrofoil. 

[pappy1022]

Cruzin1616, it was several years ago but yes I did the research and chose the guide for my family of 5. I will check my records to see who the guide was but I have done several guided tours in the last couple of years and I have found Tours by locals to be very good. You do have to do the research even within this group because they have several locals that specialize in certain tours. I have a private guide scheduled for 3 couples through tours by locals for when we visit Belfast in another 2 weeks on Splendor. 

[annmarz]

12 hours ago, Techno123 said:

@RELS just a tiny disagreement from me re Monte Carlo 😁 Not just the casino,  there is a lovely walk up to the royal palace where you can watch the changing of the guard with fabulous views over the local area (or you can get the tourist train up ) and you can visit parts of it.

You can also tour the Royal Palace.  Another fun, easy thing to do is the Oceanographic Museum.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceanographic_Museum_of_Monaco   Very interesting and much more than fish.

[Jim B]

Wanted to point out one thing.

Coarse your corporate cruise may be set up differently, but normally Regent

has a list of excursions you can pick from at each port that are included.

Not always but in some ports they also have excursions you can may extra for.

The price on those are normally for up to 5 people going on the excursion.

And yes you can use your own board credit to pay for those. 

Regent  does not require you to tip on board. But it is up to you to tip your off ship

tour guides as they are not employees of Regent. 

[richardbohn]

Booked our first Regent cruise the other day.  With the free included excursions about how many people will you have on the excursion? What is the maximum number of people allowed? If you pay for an excursion will you have fewer people? 

[pappy1022]

If you are paying extra for a small group excursion you will have fewer people but also likely a much smaller vehicle. There are other excursions that you can pay for but they are large group tours. Look at the excursion information by port to read about what’s included, what the additional cost, if any, and a description of what you will see and how strenuous the excursion is going to be. 

[richardbohn]

Thank you. I will check them out.