Navigator April 24 cancellations and port changes

[ARDXXX]

Just received an email from Regent that our Cruise for next year will have several changes so Regent and a lot of other people do not think that things will settle down for a long time.

Jordan and Israel cancelled and replaced with Sharm El Sheikh and Santorini, damn shame as these were the ports I really wanted to go to and never want to go to Sharm, but never mind at least the Cruise is still on and hope that Egypt does not join the conflict.

[roninman]

Different sailing, but also received email AM advising all Holy Land itineraries for 2024 are changed.  Radical itinerary changes on May 15 Voyager, now more a Greek Island and Dubrovnik circuit.

[PhD-iva]

Are these cruises past final payment date? It would be nice if R doesn’t wait until FP to announce significant changes.

[RD64]

The NCL group is being proactive in announcing these changes six months (or so) in advance. This gives the cruise lines ample time to develop alternate itineraries, and sell these alternate itineraries at a reasonable price. This gives passengers ample time to decide if they want to go or not, and not bemoan every last itinerary / port change made at a short notice.

[roninman]

To be fair, something like the aforementioned 5/15 Voyager sailing, at least, apparently changes about 11 days out of 13, so it comes to a little bit more than every last itinerary or port change to bemoan.

 

[UUNetBill]

We had a cruise planned to Turkey several years ago and it was pretty drastically rerouted due to unrest in Istanbul.  Ended up going to Malta and Israel - we *almost* cancelled it due to the extensive changes but decided to go anyhow - and it ended up being one of our more memorable cruises.

 

Which is why we wanted to take this cruise and hit Israel again - but I don't see that happening for quite a while.  We just transferred this cruise to another one sailing in February - I'm not too keen on the idea of making final payment and having things completely moved around and then having nothing else available that will match our timeframe and bucket list...

[RD64]

On 11/2/2023 at 6:34 PM, roninman said:

To be fair, something like the aforementioned 5/15 Voyager sailing, at least, apparently changes about 11 days out of 13, so it comes to a little bit more than every last itinerary or port change to bemoan.

 

True - but it gives adequate time to plan and make decisions accordingly. It is literally six months away. Would you prefer six months or six weeks?

[roninman]

12 hours ago, RD64 said:

True - but it gives adequate time to plan and make decisions accordingly. It is literally six months away. Would you prefer six months or six weeks?

With a near 80% change in itinerary, passengers would likely prefer the option of refund or credit of any advance fares paid. 

[roninman]

12 hours ago, RD64 said:

True - but it gives adequate time to plan and make decisions accordingly. It is literally six months away. Would you prefer six months or six weeks?

Why would we assume changes won't additionally be made within six weeks, not to mention six days?  It was certainly done within that timeframe in recent Voyager sailings.  

[papaflamingo]

1 hour ago, roninman said:

Why would we assume changes won't additionally be made within six weeks, not to mention six days?  It was certainly done within that timeframe in recent Voyager sailings.  

Just for clarity, the changes to the Voyager sailing that was done in "six days" was because a war broke out in Israel and spread (same with the "six week" itinerary changes).  Not exactly a "planned event" by Regent.  Pretty much EVERY cruise line and all airlines changed their itineraries within "six days."   I wouldn't expect the same to happen on every Regent cruise, in fact it DIDN'T happen on every cruise. But itineraries change all the time and generally for a reasonable reasons.  It's part of cruising. 

Edited November 4, 2023 by papaflamingo

[roninman]

2 hours ago, papaflamingo said:

Just for clarity, the changes to the Voyager sailing that was done in "six days" was because a war broke out in Israel and spread (same with the "six week" itinerary changes).  Not exactly a "planned event" by Regent.  Pretty much EVERY cruise line and all airlines changed their itineraries within "six days."   I wouldn't expect the same to happen on every Regent cruise, in fact it DIDN'T happen on every cruise. But itineraries change all the time and generally for a reasonable reasons.  It's part of cruising. 

Good info, thanks for the update.