Rare kjbacon Posted July 24 Author #26 Share Posted July 24 41 minutes ago, papaflamingo said: It's a non-issue. Just select the excursion and time you want. There will be a ticket in your cabin for the tour. It will tell you where you meet and at what time. That's all that matters. We've had a number of tours over the years that have had time changes once we board. This is part of the problem … you can’t select a time. For example, one day in New Orleans, all the excursions start at 8am and the second day, they all start at 7:30am. It’s impossible to book two shorex in a day, which we often do, or coordinate anything on land (like brunch reservations at the Court of Two Sisters). We did book all our shorex months ago but we know most, if not all, of them are wrong. We have sailed many times with Regent and have never experienced this so I’m curious why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rallydave Posted July 24 #27 Share Posted July 24 It’s a way for regent to save money by not allowing multiple excursions the same day and by the time you see the actual time too late to schedule the second excursion that day 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papaflamingo Posted July 25 #28 Share Posted July 25 21 hours ago, rallydave said: It’s a way for regent to save money by not allowing multiple excursions the same day and by the time you see the actual time too late to schedule the second excursion that day That's not true. We have often booked 2 excursions in one port. In fact in both our upcoming cruises next March (excursions were selected 4 months ago) we have two excursions booked in each of the first 3 ports on our next cruise and in 3 ports of the following cruise, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papaflamingo Posted July 25 #29 Share Posted July 25 (edited) 22 hours ago, kjbacon said: you can’t select a time. For example, one day in New Orleans, all the excursions start at 8am and the second day, they all start at 7:30a Again, a non issue. Just select the time posted and when you get on board the time and place to meet for the excursion will be listed on the ticket. As for multiple excursions in the same port, all depends on what is available. You need, I believe, 1:45 between excursions to book a second excursion (not positive of the time, it may be 1:30). If nothing satisfies that then you can't book a second excursion. Also in many ports they only offer a morning departure as tour companies are limited and they may not be able to do multiple tours in one day. Realize that tour companies also cater to other cruise lines on the same day and their availability is limited. Edited July 25 by papaflamingo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rallydave Posted July 25 #30 Share Posted July 25 2 minutes ago, papaflamingo said: That's not true. We have often booked 2 excursions in one port. In fact in both our upcoming cruises next March (excursions were selected 4 months ago) we have two excursions booked in each of the first 3 ports on our next cruise and in 3 ports of the following cruise, Yes know you can book multiple excursions the same day with sufficient time between the excursions. I was responding to previous posts complaining about all excursions starting at identical times and the poster asking why this type of scheduling was occurring and in fact my response to that question is absolutely a valid reason. I simply did not quote the question asked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papaflamingo Posted July 25 #31 Share Posted July 25 1 minute ago, rallydave said: Yes know you can book multiple excursions the same day with sufficient time between the excursions. I was responding to previous posts complaining about all excursions starting at identical times and the poster asking why this type of scheduling was occurring and in fact my response to that question is absolutely a valid reason. I simply did not quote the question asked. So you believe Regent intentionally won't schedule "multiple excursions the same day" to "save money" even though I personally booked multiple excursions on the same day just 3 months ago for SIX different ports (and passed on booking multiple excursions in a few other ports due to lack of interest)? Ok then, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rallydave Posted July 25 #32 Share Posted July 25 6 minutes ago, papaflamingo said: Again, a non issue. Just select the time posted and when you get on board the time and place to meet for the excursion will be listed on the ticket. As for multiple excursions in the same port, all depends on what is available. You need, I believe, 1:45 between excursions to book a second excursion (not positive of the time, it may be 1:30). If nothing satisfies that then you can't book a second excursion. Also in many ports they only offer a morning departure as tour companies are limited and they may not be able to do multiple tours in one day. Realize that tour companies also cater to other cruise lines on the same day and their availability is limited. Again an absolute problem to have all excursions having the identical starting time as impossible to plan day for multiple regent excursions or combining with private excursions or independent touring 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rallydave Posted July 25 #33 Share Posted July 25 1 minute ago, papaflamingo said: So you believe Regent intentionally won't schedule "multiple excursions the same day" to "save money" even though I personally booked multiple excursions on the same day just 3 months ago for SIX different ports (and passed on booking multiple excursions in a few other ports due to lack of interest)? Ok then, Again you fail to understand not including realistic starting times. For sure they will not all start at the same time. put in your thinking cap and forget your histii oh Ty where excursions were properly scheduled and you could do as you stated. regent has changed excursion scheduling which is causing problems. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papaflamingo Posted July 25 #34 Share Posted July 25 Just now, rallydave said: Again an absolute problem to have all excursions having the identical starting time as impossible to plan day for multiple regent excursions or combining with private excursions or independent touring Yes, I'm really not trying to be argumentative (and I assume you aren't either). My only point is that what I believe happens is that availability, or time in port, is the determining factor as to how many excursions have multiple departure times. We've cruised 4 times since 2022 and when I look at excursions I seem to find that the availability of tours and tour companies is limited for a variety of reasons, either number of ships in port or size of port, etc. In fact in our Asia cruise in Feb. many of the tour companies were not from the port city, but sent busses and guides to the port from, sometimes, as much as 3 hours away. When that happens they simply can't book the same bus for 2 tours in a day. And I'm sure there are many other reasons, but "saving money" is likely not one of them, since, as I said, we had a number of ports on our upcoming 2 cruises that offered multiple times for excursions. Again, not trying to be argumentative, only expressing my opinion based on personal experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papaflamingo Posted July 25 #35 Share Posted July 25 (edited) 10 minutes ago, rallydave said: Again you fail to understand not including realistic starting times. For sure they will not all start at the same time. put in your thinking cap and forget your histii oh Ty where excursions were properly scheduled and you could do as you stated. regent has changed excursion scheduling which is causing problems. Ok...let me "put on my thinking cap."🤔 You know... my "thinking cap" tells me I really don't care all that much. I book whatever they offer that I like at whatever time is offered, and if given a choice, the time I prefer. The "why" of their scheduling is irrelevant, If I like a tour I book it. If not....then not. 😏 Edited July 25 by papaflamingo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fizzy Posted July 25 #36 Share Posted July 25 I'm thinking that the company also saves $$ when customers start to get frantic and reserve their own private pay tours rather than rely on a whole constant bunch of reasons why this or that is unavailable or go line up and hope for the best etc. etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flossie009 Posted July 25 #37 Share Posted July 25 36 minutes ago, papaflamingo said: We have often booked 2 excursions in one port. In fact in both our upcoming cruises next March (excursions were selected 4 months ago) Agreed, it is still possible to book more than one excursion in some ports. We did in June this year for a cruise in June 2025. Some love conspiracy theories especially when Destinations are involved. However, IMO the more likely reason for coincident timings is that tour operators are unwilling to confirm exact start times very far in advance 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare kjbacon Posted July 26 Author #38 Share Posted July 26 I’m not sure what’s up so that’s why I posted the question on here. Most ports on this cruise have all the shorex starting at the same time, 7:30 in one, 8:30 in another, 10:30 in another, 7:00 in another. And some of these ports are ports that we just called on last January with no issues at all like this. Made our reservations 12 months out, no problem. Like I said earlier, we’ve done many regent cruises and have never experienced anything like this. Now we are less than 8 months from sailing and all the excursions are still a mish mosh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare loriva Posted July 30 #39 Share Posted July 30 On 7/24/2024 at 8:12 AM, papaflamingo said: It's a non-issue. Just select the excursion and time you want. There will be a ticket in your cabin for the tour. It will tell you where you meet and at what time. That's all that matters. We've had a number of tours over the years that have had time changes once we board. The issue is when you are trying to coordinate a ship's excursion with something booked privately off the ship. For example, the ship's online system shows the excursion starting at 0800 hours and ending at noon. So, you go ahead and book a hard-to-get reservation at a foodie haven for lunch at 1300 hours, after checking the time you need to get from the port to the venue. (Also not to be argumentative, but the reality is that some people use a cruise to try local foods, not eat every meal on board.) But when you board, you discover the tour departure has changed to 0930 hours, meaning the tour will return after your reservation time. And if the restaurant you have chosen is an iconic one, you might not be able to get a different reservation time--or, at best, you'll need to spend time trying to contact the restaurant in the hopes of changing the time. (If you've ever tried to get a reservation at Nobu in Copenhagen or the French Laundry outside San Francisco, you know what I mean--reservations book up completely when they are released three months ahead.) Yes, if the restaurant is a priority, you can just not book or cancel your ship's excursion. But after spending tens of thousands on your cruise, why should you have to do so? Regent should be able to obtain realistic start and end times for its excursions and make this information available to passengers. If this is not possible due to local operators when excursions open, Regent's Destinations team should be working closely with the operators and update the offerings as soon as possible. If they cannot do so--they don't have the staff, they have outsourced this function, whatever--maybe it's time for Regent to drop "unlimited shorex" from its business model like other luxury cruises and reduce the prices accordingly. After high demand and scheduling problems with the airlines, Regent seems to have made the decision to drop business class airfare from its base price. Shorex would seem to be a similar headache for the company. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare mj_holiday Posted July 30 #40 Share Posted July 30 While I realize there are probably issues working with local companies, at least when times are changed or excursions are canceled, the web site can be updated and an email go out to those whose excursion booking are impacted. This would help passengers alot more than waiting until the passenger gets to their suite to find out about time changes or canceled excursions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pcardad Posted July 30 #41 Share Posted July 30 On 7/25/2024 at 8:11 AM, fizzy said: I'm thinking that the company also saves $$ when customers start to get frantic and reserve their own private pay tours rather than rely on a whole constant bunch of reasons why this or that is unavailable or go line up and hope for the best etc. etc. Regent pays for a set minimum number no matter how few sign up. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare loriva Posted July 31 #42 Share Posted July 31 23 hours ago, loriva said: (If you've ever tried to get a reservation at Nobu in Copenhagen or the French Laundry outside San Francisco, you know what I mean--reservations book up completely when they are released three months ahead.) And, of course, I meant NOMA in CPH. We are trying Crystal for our next cruise and I have Nobu on my brain... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papaflamingo Posted July 31 #43 Share Posted July 31 23 hours ago, loriva said: The issue is when you are trying to coordinate a ship's excursion with something booked privately off the ship. For example, the ship's online system shows the excursion starting at 0800 hours and ending at noon. So, you go ahead and book a hard-to-get reservation at a foodie haven for lunch at 1300 hours, after checking the time you need to get from the port to the venue. (Also not to be argumentative, but the reality is that some people use a cruise to try local foods, not eat every meal on board.) But when you board, you discover the tour departure has changed to 0930 hours, meaning the tour will return after your reservation time. And if the restaurant you have chosen is an iconic one, you might not be able to get a different reservation time--or, at best, you'll need to spend time trying to contact the restaurant in the hopes of changing the time. (If you've ever tried to get a reservation at Nobu in Copenhagen or the French Laundry outside San Francisco, you know what I mean--reservations book up completely when they are released three months ahead.) Yes, if the restaurant is a priority, you can just not book or cancel your ship's excursion. But after spending tens of thousands on your cruise, why should you have to do so? Regent should be able to obtain realistic start and end times for its excursions and make this information available to passengers. If this is not possible due to local operators when excursions open, Regent's Destinations team should be working closely with the operators and update the offerings as soon as possible. If they cannot do so--they don't have the staff, they have outsourced this function, whatever--maybe it's time for Regent to drop "unlimited shorex" from its business model like other luxury cruises and reduce the prices accordingly. After high demand and scheduling problems with the airlines, Regent seems to have made the decision to drop business class airfare from its base price. Shorex would seem to be a similar headache for the company. Wow... ok... well, we have over 120 nights on Regent and to be perfectly honest at least 90% of our shore excursions went about the time it was advertised in the pre-booking. Those that didn't were adjusted due to the arrival time of the ship shifting for a variety of reasons. But I will also say that most of our excursions ended up getting back to the ship a bit late due to...a variety of reasons. To be honest, I expect that Regent does the best they can with the information available. They allow selections for the excursions an entire YEAR out. Lots can change during a year (just look at 2020). Personally, I am realistic and experienced enough to know that everything needs to be flexible on a cruise. So I guess I just don't consider the "exact" timing of anything as my definition of a "luxury cruise." And I don't think Regent should be "like other luxury cruises." I SURE don't want them to drop shore excursions, I LIKE that feature. We do long cruises and I don't want to have to research every port, contact third party companies, pay deposits on my credit card worldwide, and then hope nothing happens to delay the ship. But... that's me. Luckily we have cruise line choices, no need for all cruise lines to be the same. P.S. Regent didn't make "the decision to drop business class airfare from its base price." Business Class was ALWAYS an optional item. They ALWAYS posted the Air Credit available it you chose to book your own air. All they did was add an Economy option and they display it so you don't have to do the math, you just look at the cost and decide for yourself. MUCH easier than before. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cAPS lOCK oN Posted July 31 #44 Share Posted July 31 3 hours ago, papaflamingo said: Wow... ok... well, we have over 120 nights on Regent and to be perfectly honest at least 90% of our shore excursions went about the time it was advertised in the pre-booking. Those that didn't were adjusted due to the arrival time of the ship shifting for a variety of reasons. But I will also say that most of our excursions ended up getting back to the ship a bit late due to...a variety of reasons. I think you're misunderstanding what's happening. On our March 2025 Caribbean cruise we get into most ports around 08:00 or 07:00. ALL of the shorex's say they leave 30 minutes after arrival. It doesn't matter if it's a sunset cruise, or one labeled as an evening tour. Some excursions we know will have multiple start times, but only the earliest time possible shows up and can be booked. We're not worked up about it. We know that the sunset cruise we booked will go off at sunset. We'll just go with the flow; it's the Caribbean after all. But it'd nice to know if we've reserved a morning tour or an afternoon one. Is that too much to ask? I expect that Destination Services will be overwhelmed, even more so than usual. Good thing we start with two days at sea. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pcardad Posted July 31 #45 Share Posted July 31 3 hours ago, cAPS lOCK oN said: I think you're misunderstanding what's happening. On our March 2025 Caribbean cruise we get into most ports around 08:00 or 07:00. ALL of the shorex's say they leave 30 minutes after arrival. It doesn't matter if it's a sunset cruise, or one labeled as an evening tour. Some excursions we know will have multiple start times, but only the earliest time possible shows up and can be booked. We're not worked up about it. We know that the sunset cruise we booked will go off at sunset. We'll just go with the flow; it's the Caribbean after all. But it'd nice to know if we've reserved a morning tour or an afternoon one. Is that too much to ask? I expect that Destination Services will be overwhelmed, even more so than usual. Good thing we start with two days at sea. I didn't read the entire thread but have you called Regent and asked them what is going on? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cAPS lOCK oN Posted July 31 #46 Share Posted July 31 I have not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pcardad Posted July 31 #47 Share Posted July 31 19 minutes ago, cAPS lOCK oN said: I have not. I might be a good place to start. Chances are that they might have some information that helps you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare kjbacon Posted August 1 Author #48 Share Posted August 1 13 hours ago, Pcardad said: I might be a good place to start. Chances are that they might have some information that helps you. My travel agent, who specializes in regent cruises, has called and there’s no explanation to be had. They just keep saying “soon”. On 7/30/2024 at 8:11 AM, loriva said: The issue is when you are trying to coordinate a ship's excursion with something booked privately off the ship. For example, the ship's online system shows the excursion starting at 0800 hours and ending at noon. So, you go ahead and book a hard-to-get reservation at a foodie haven for lunch at 1300 hours, after checking the time you need to get from the port to the venue. (Also not to be argumentative, but the reality is that some people use a cruise to try local foods, not eat every meal on board.) But when you board, you discover the tour departure has changed to 0930 hours, meaning the tour will return after your reservation time. And if the restaurant you have chosen is an iconic one, you might not be able to get a different reservation time--or, at best, you'll need to spend time trying to contact the restaurant in the hopes of changing the time. (If you've ever tried to get a reservation at Nobu in Copenhagen or the French Laundry outside San Francisco, you know what I mean--reservations book up completely when they are released three months ahead.) Yes, if the restaurant is a priority, you can just not book or cancel your ship's excursion. But after spending tens of thousands on your cruise, why should you have to do so? Regent should be able to obtain realistic start and end times for its excursions and make this information available to passengers. If this is not possible due to local operators when excursions open, Regent's Destinations team should be working closely with the operators and update the offerings as soon as possible. If they cannot do so--they don't have the staff, they have outsourced this function, whatever--maybe it's time for Regent to drop "unlimited shorex" from its business model like other luxury cruises and reduce the prices accordingly. Exactly!! Our second port of call is two days in New Orleans so we are planning for two lunches and one dinner in port. We made reservations but we really dont know what our actual availability will be. The only thing we are sure of is that all the shore excursions don’t start at 7:00 in the morning! We don’t care which of the two days we do our tours so we would pick them based on the times, but we can’t. And all the ports are that way. And the question still begs … why? I don’t even have a good guess at this point lol! It’s not an inability to set things up with the operators. For example, when we called on Cozumel in January, the shore excursions were ready to book one year out but with this sailing, all the shore excursions in Cozumel start at the exact same time so we know they are wrong. With 100 nights on Regent, we’ve never seen anything like this. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare loriva Posted August 1 #49 Share Posted August 1 19 hours ago, cAPS lOCK oN said: I think you're misunderstanding what's happening. On our March 2025 Caribbean cruise we get into most ports around 08:00 or 07:00. ALL of the shorex's say they leave 30 minutes after arrival. It doesn't matter if it's a sunset cruise, or one labeled as an evening tour. Some excursions we know will have multiple start times, but only the earliest time possible shows up and can be booked. We're not worked up about it. We know that the sunset cruise we booked will go off at sunset. We'll just go with the flow; it's the Caribbean after all. But it'd nice to know if we've reserved a morning tour or an afternoon one. Is that too much to ask? I expect that Destination Services will be overwhelmed, even more so than usual. Good thing we start with two days at sea. 1 hour ago, kjbacon said: My travel agent, who specializes in regent cruises, has called and there’s no explanation to be had. They just keep saying “soon”. Exactly!! Our second port of call is two days in New Orleans so we are planning for two lunches and one dinner in port. We made reservations but we really dont know what our actual availability will be. The only thing we are sure of is that all the shore excursions don’t start at 7:00 in the morning! We don’t care which of the two days we do our tours so we would pick them based on the times, but we can’t. And all the ports are that way. And the question still begs … why? I don’t even have a good guess at this point lol! It’s not an inability to set things up with the operators. For example, when we called on Cozumel in January, the shore excursions were ready to book one year out but with this sailing, all the shore excursions in Cozumel start at the exact same time so we know they are wrong. With 100 nights on Regent, we’ve never seen anything like this. There seem to be several elements to this issue--reported by multiple people. One would seem to be lack of communication with local tour operators. Or communication between those doing the outreach to whomever is responsible for posting shorex and timing. And, finally, communicating availability of new shorex, new timing, or changes to old ones to passengers. Three years ago, when cruises were just starting up after the COVID pause, the first element would be understandable. Now, not so much, given the cruise lines offer the same shorex in the same ports on each call. Communication within operating elements within Regent is more problematic--where is the breakdown? Is Regent aware of it? What are they doing to resolve? Communication with passengers is, however, the most-troubling aspect. It would seem doable from an IT perspective for changes made to shorex (if they were being kept up to date) to be communicated to those on the cruise--or even individually to those already booked on affected shorex. Regent's IT Chief @mikemoore used to monitor these boards and add perspective to such issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rallydave Posted August 1 #50 Share Posted August 1 Unfortunately Mike Moore has left regent and nobody has replaced him commenting on this board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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