Calling all theorists, insiders, and speculators … why don’t we have viable shorex 11 months out?

[kjbacon]

We are booked on the Navigator for March 2025 and our shore excursions, for the most part, are still not listed correctly. For example, there are ports that have every excursion’s start time at 7:00 am or 8:30 am … and that includes a dinner excursion. Another port has every excursion at 12 noon, the time we pull into that port. My travel agent has called regent and was told that they are probably waiting for better info from the land operators? I’ve never had any experience with a situation like this, on regent or any other cruise line, so I’m hoping that someone here might have some insight!

[UUNetBill]

If I had to guess I'd think it was due to Navigator being moved from the Middle East to the Med a while back, there was probably a ripple effect on subsequent cruises that required a reshuffling of ports.  Unlikely almost a year out, but that's all I got.  🙂

[cAPS lOCK oN]

Our Caribbean cruise on Grandeur in March has the same issue. Every shorex is scheduled for 30 minutes after the arrival in port. So a sunset cruise in Antigua is supposed to leave at 8:30 AM. There's some stops where we should be able to book 2 excursions in a day, but can't because because it thinks there's time conflicts.

 

We don't understand, but we're not sweating it, 

[cAPS lOCK oN]

4 minutes ago, cAPS lOCK oN said:

Our Caribbean cruise on Grandeur in March has the same issue. Every shorex is scheduled for 30 minutes after the arrival in port. So a sunset cruise in Antigua is supposed to leave at 8:30 AM. There's some stops where we should be able to book 2 excursions in a day, but can't because because it thinks there's time conflicts.

 

We don't understand, but we're not sweating it, 

I take it back... One port (Curacao), has accurate times for tours, and we're now able to book a morning and an evening tour. The other 8 ports are still messed up.

[Dolebludger]

Just a guess, but it looks like Regent is having problems finding suitable providers of shorex hotels, land transportation, and all land services. For what ever reason, the end of the pandemic left us with world-wide shortages of labor, which could be the root of these problems.

[kjbacon]

4 hours ago, UUNetBill said:

If I had to guess I'd think it was due to Navigator being moved from the Middle East to the Med a while back, there was probably a ripple effect on subsequent cruises that required a reshuffling of ports.  Unlikely almost a year out, but that's all I got.  🙂

Maybe, that’s as good as any explanation that I’ve come up with!

 

2 hours ago, cAPS lOCK oN said:

Our Caribbean cruise on Grandeur in March has the same issue. Every shorex is scheduled for 30 minutes after the arrival in port. So a sunset cruise in Antigua is supposed to leave at 8:30 AM. There's some stops where we should be able to book 2 excursions in a day, but can't because because it thinks there's time conflicts.

 

We don't understand, but we're not sweating it, 

Yes, definitely some similarities. I also wanted to book 2 shorex in a couple ports and can’t with everything starting at the same time.

[Got2Cruise]

1 hour ago, Dolebludger said:

Just a guess, but it looks like Regent is having problems finding suitable providers of shorex hotels, land transportation, and all land services. For what ever reason, the end of the pandemic left us with world-wide shortages of labor, which could be the root of these problems.

Or maybe their credit is not good. The Caribbean is booming. 

[ARDXXX]

You think you have problems! we are flying to Cape Town tomorrow to board  Mariner on Saturday and one of the ports still has no excursions at all to offer in Mindelo (Sao Vicente) and three of the excursions that I wanted at other ports are all waitlisted even though I tried to book them the minute they became available. Whenever I contacted Regent about them they informed me that Miami office was to blame and they would be released soon.

[Dolebludger]

38 minutes ago, Got2Cruise said:

Or maybe their credit is not good. The Caribbean is booming. 

Good point. This would account for Regent’s failure to secure hotel and transfers in Barbados.And it had the same problem in Iceland too.

[Pcardad]

8 minutes ago, Dolebludger said:

Good point. This would account for Regent’s failure to secure hotel and transfers in Barbados.And it had the same problem in Iceland too.

Their credit is fine...they had no problem securing financing for all the new ships on order.

[cAPS lOCK oN]

32 minutes ago, Dolebludger said:

Good point. This would account for Regent’s failure to secure hotel and transfers in Barbados.And it had the same problem in Iceland too.

There's plenty of excursions to choose from all 9 islands for our cruise. It's just that the times are clearly messed up. It doesn't indicate credit problems at all.

[Dolebludger]

We had signed up for a tour of the Normandy beaches on our August Splendor cruise. It was scheduled to depart at 8:45 AM. We received an email from Regent that it was cancelled. We contacted our TA and she was informed that the tour would now depart at 9:45 AM. We are still on it. Wonder why the email said cancelled instead of simple informing us of the new time? 

[Johnthesailor]

1 hour ago, ARDXXX said:

You think you have problems! we are flying to Cape Town tomorrow to board  Mariner on Saturday and one of the ports still has no excursions at all to offer in Mindelo (Sao Vicente) and three of the excursions that I wanted at other ports are all waitlisted even though I tried to book them the minute they became available. Whenever I contacted Regent about them they informed me that Miami office was to blame and they would be released soon.

 

6 hours ago, UUNetBill said:

If I had to guess I'd think it was due to Navigator being moved from the Middle East to the Med a while back, there was probably a ripple effect on subsequent cruises that required a reshuffling of ports.  Unlikely almost a year out, but that's all I got.  🙂

Both the Navigator and the Mariner had significant routing/port changes so that very likely is part of the problem.  Adding to this, I suspect lower headcount at HQ and partial outsourcing have impacted their ability to react quickly to the changes and caused cascading effects. I do not know that this function has been outsourced but I do know that some outsourcing has taken place at Regent.

[kjbacon]

The good and bad news is that I didn’t realize that this was not isolated to my cruise. I’ve been wondering if we were going to hear that the ship has been chartered or is going in for a repair or something. When would you get concerned when most ports have the shorex listed incorrectly on your cruise? 

[papaflamingo]

1 hour ago, kjbacon said:

When would you get concerned when most ports have the shorex listed incorrectly on your cruise? 

I wouldn't get concerned.  I could speculate as to why, but that would only be speculation.  The bottom line is that they'll get the excursions out and you can reserve them.  Just keep watching the website.  You can also call them and see if they have any info.  But I wouldn't worry at all. 

If the shore excursions are listed with "wrong times," no problem... just reserve it and let them work the timing out.  

[Lady Meer]

kjbacon - when you get onboard, check your tour tickets! On our W Africa cruise last year all of our tours had a time change. Some were 30 to 60 mins different but 2 were changed from afternoon to morning - one to 6.30 am 😡.

 

[Amber14]

On 4/24/2024 at 11:24 AM, cAPS lOCK oN said:

I take it back... One port (Curacao), has accurate times for tours, and we're now able to book a morning and an evening tour. The other 8 ports are still messed up.

We are on that cruise and if Curacao times are correct then we will have to cancel our excursion. They have the wine & cheese tasting at 7:30AM. I thought for sure that would be in the evening. We have a private excursion booked for the day.

We are also doing the sunset cruise at 8:30AM and can't book another excursion for the day. It is frustrating for someone like me who likes to do the research and get everything booked as soon as I can.

[cAPS lOCK oN]

6 hours ago, Amber14 said:

We are on that cruise and if Curacao times are correct then we will have to cancel our excursion. They have the wine & cheese tasting at 7:30AM. I thought for sure that would be in the evening. We have a private excursion booked for the day.

We are also doing the sunset cruise at 8:30AM and can't book another excursion for the day. It is frustrating for someone like me who likes to do the research and get everything booked as soon as I can.

When I said Curacao's times were correct, I just meant that the evening tour actually shows it takes place in the evening. I'm dead certain that the other 9 tours don't all start at 07:30, but when do they? It'd be nice to be able to plan the rest of the day.

 

We're spending long days in these ports,12 hours or more in some of them. And from past experience some of the tours will have multiple starting times. So if you booked, say, a sub tour, which of the many starting times will you be assigned? It'd be nice to know that!

 

I expect this will all be sorted out in the end, but it's so avoidable. 

[rallydave]

10 hours ago, Lady Meer said:

kjbacon - when you get onboard, check your tour tickets! On our W Africa cruise last year all of our tours had a time change. Some were 30 to 60 mins different but 2 were changed from afternoon to morning - one to 6.30 am 😡.

 

Tour tickets???  I was on venture almost a year ago and no tickets. Had to use the app and the expedition team who managed all excursions simply checked us off lists on clip boards 

[Lady Meer]

15 minutes ago, rallydave said:

Tour tickets???  I was on venture almost a year ago and no tickets. Had to use the app and the expedition team who managed all excursions simply checked us off lists on clip boards 

We had tour tickets in our room when we boarded. No app as far as I remember with Regent last month!

[DaveFr]

38 minutes ago, rallydave said:

Tour tickets???  I was on venture almost a year ago and no tickets. Had to use the app and the expedition team who managed all excursions simply checked us off lists on clip boards 

The Venture is not a Regent ship. Totally irrelevant. 
 

Dave

[rallydave]

20 minutes ago, DaveFr said:

The Venture is not a Regent ship. Totally irrelevant. 
 

Dave

 

21 minutes ago, DaveFr said:

The Venture is not a Regent ship. Totally irrelevant. 
 

Dave

Thanks, got my boards mixed up, thought I was on the Seabourn board