Navigator Dry Dock

[yarlenna]

I just got a call from my trusted TA and he has informed me that our cruise is canceled because of dry dock. We were booked for Nov 30 this year. Now we are looking to see what we can do later.

[pj20]

I called and emailed Regent several times in the last month about shore

activities. As recently as this week I was assured, of course Nov 23

cruise was going and shore activities would be available soon for booking. In fact final bill was tendered this week which I paid with

a Regent agent by phone. So they accepted many thousands of dollars

in a payment THIS WEEK when they knew there was an issue.

This is a 6 star cruise line? They are not even paying for airline flights

booked. I feel Regent has been dishonest and unprofessional about this cruise.

[NCCruzQueen]

So they accepted many thousands of dollars in a payment THIS WEEK when they knew there was an issue. This is a 6 star cruise line? They are not even paying for airline flights booked. I feel Regent has been dishonest and unprofessional about this cruise.

 

Could not agree with you more on this, pj. This is NOT the Regent we know from the past. Work with your TA to get the money for your airplane tickets.

[Host Dan]

My TA called and said that his transatlantic crossing on Navigator has been cancelled due to drydock in Germany... :(

 

Host Dan

[Mike2131]

...I am glad we avoided cruising with them. On to someone who actually may care about our business.

[judy&steve]

Just called Regent and yes it is true the cruise for Nov 30th is canceled and can be moved to January. The dry docking scheduled for January in South Carolina has been moved to November December in Germany because the SC dry dock cannot accommodate Regent.

[yarlenna]

...I am glad we avoided cruising with them. On to someone who actually may care about our business.

 

I cannot even remember how many times we have been cancelled on many lines. Stuff happens. Now, I am looking forward to a Bermuda cruise next year. I only hope that everyone who is dealing with this can find lemonade out of all the lemons -

[Wendy The Wanderer]

These things happen, I don't think everybody should be quite so mad and disappointed.

 

Except...the person who was told they had to pay their final payment, just hours before their cruise was cancelled. That's just plain bad communications.

[Mike2131]

These things happen, I don't think everybody should be quite so mad and disappointed.

 

Except...the person who was told they had to pay their final payment, just hours before their cruise was cancelled. That's just plain bad communications.

IMHO, you are far too forgiving. This was not just a case of bad communication, it borders on out and out disregard for their clientele.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I'm trying here not to be an apologist for Regent. But cruises get cancelled sometimes. It's happened with Radisson/Regent a few times over the years. It's never affected me, and I'm sure I would be pissed if it did, but as I said before, it's always a risk. I'm not sure they did the best job of handling disemination of information about the changes, for sure. I've already paid for my cruise in December, and if it were cancelled I'd be disappointed, but I would not feel betrayed by Regent, especially when it's something that they can't really control.

[hondorner]

I cannot even remember how many times we have been cancelled on many lines. Stuff happens. Now, I am looking forward to a Bermuda cruise next year. I only hope that everyone who is dealing with this can find lemonade out of all the lemons -

I agree that stuff happens, and I have experienced it before. I also understand that when the original shipyard canceled the refit, they had to scramble to find a substitute.

 

What I cannot understand, however, is the manner in which they handled the situation. I don't blame the poor reps who handle the phones; they were only repeating what they were told.

 

All that had to happen was for them to say, "We have run into a problem and are working on a solution", and nearly everyone would have understood because, as you say, stuff happens.

 

But, to continue to say that they had an "inventory change" and that the cruises would reappear in "two days", and that shore excursions would be posted shortly, and to ask for final payment for at least one of the cruises, all while they were negotiating a different shipyard for the refit, is poor public relations at the very least.

 

I'm trying to make lemonade; my travel agent and I discussed a reasonable solution, within the financial boundaries they set, that suits me almost as well as the original cruise, and he is currently presenting this alternative to them. I certainly hope they accept the proposal, which would go a fair way towards making me happy again.

[Travelcat2]

"Inventory change" may have been the wrong choice of words (although, if you get really technical, it could be an inventory change since they are losing the Navigator for a month). I am assuming that Regent was preparing itself to handle a lot of changes after announcing the drydock from November 15th - December 15th. Had they announced it too soon, they may not have been prepared to accommodate the affected passengers.

 

We have had a cruise cancelled. Yes -- we were very disappointed and booked a different cruise immediately. That was three cruises ago with three more book in the future. I do hope you are able to enjoy your replacement cruise -- wherever and whenever it may be.

 

I'm assuming that the Navigator will have to do a crossing in mid-December. It would be nice if they gave special pricing for those passengers who were cancelled during drydock.

[Flamingotropicale]

Regent accepted my final payment just a few days' ago also. Now I can either rebook a different itinerary/timeframe with my credit or wait six weeks for a refund. I don't understand why it will take six weeks.

[gdlamberth]

Wendy,

Isn't interesting that your "pissed" survived but "oderc" didn't??

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Yeh. Their automated "catch bad words" software sounds pretty lame! :D

[hondorner]

I'm trying to make lemonade; my travel agent and I discussed a reasonable solution, within the financial boundaries they set, that suits me almost as well as the original cruise, and he is currently presenting this alternative to them. I certainly hope they accept the proposal, which would go a fair way towards making me happy again.

I have just had the most incredible experience I have seen with a cruise web site.

 

We are not able to accept offer of Feb 2 or Feb 19 Navigator cruises to the Western Caribbean at no additional charge. Thje cruise on which we were originally booked had a published fare, after discounts but before gov't fees and air credit, of $3,095 per person for a Category "E" cabin. The 2/2/10 cruise is $3,420 pp; the 2/19/10 cruise is $4,020 pp. They are willing to let me choose those at no additional cost.

 

Since we can't take either of those, I looked at other cruises. Navigator is sailing to the Eastern Caribbean on Jan 13, 2010, for 10 days. As of 11:00 this morning, that cruise was listed for $3,865 for an "E" cabin, which is less than the $4,020 cruise they offered me. I called my agent, and he looked at the same screen, and it was $3,865 pp. I wrote it down. We both saw it. He agreed to present that option to them, and we disconnected.

 

I fixed some lunch, then came back to the computer,which was still at the same screen, showing $3,865. Before I moved on, I refreshed the screen -- and the price had jumped $1,000 in an hour! It was now showing $4,865! It was showing the cruises starting at $3,965, when it had showed $2,965 as beginning price an hour earlier.

 

I quickly went back to the list of cruises in the Caribbean for Navigator, and sure enough, it still showed the starting price as $2,965. I called my agent to discuss this, and while we were chatting, I refreshed the screen again and the list was now showing the $3,965.

 

I have never had the prices change while I was watching them! It was an incredible, and unnerving, experience. It was like as if they changed the prices simply because my agent had called earlier! My paranoia went into overtime!

 

The proposal also was shot down -- they essentially said I could apply the $500 compensation credit to that cruise, but at the new pricing, it came out to a total of $2,075 more for the two of us -- almost exactly the $1,000 per person by which they had just increased the fare!

 

I can't understand why they were advertising it at the lower price at 11:00 AM and refused to consider that price at 11:30 AM. I'm getting very disillusioned about Regent.

 

At the moment, we have placed an option hold on an acceptable cabin for that 1/13/10 cruise, and the administrator of my travel agency is going to call and let her representative know what happened. I still feel it would be entirely reasonable to substitute that cruise at this morning's prices. the have a chance to create an advocate or an adversary.

[NCCruzQueen]

On the few cruises I looked at today, Regent has removed the Special Pricing of $1000 off. I thought it was going to be good through Sept. 30. Regent is really having fun with us today. :mad:

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Hmm. so sounds like they are removing the special $1K off offer. They do reserve that right, but wow, sounds crazy. I looked at a typical Med. cruise just now, and it still has the special discount.

[Angiet2]

I was just the lucky recepient of a phone call from my TA, informing me that Regent is placing the Navigator in dry dock, to accomodate the ship yard's schedule!

 

Nice... Flights are booked. FLL hotel is booked. Seabourn Odyssey is basically sold out. I know that 'things happen', so no need to flame me w/ rude reponses, HOWEVER, I don't believe for one minute, that Regent just had this 'dry dock schedule change' come up today. This must be the reason that they have not posted shore excursions on their website and continued to be dishonest about the reasons they were not on the site, each time I would call.

 

If this is 6 star service.... All I can do is **sigh**.... They should offer us a credit on a replacement cruise, on a line of our choosing, on the same dates. This would be the fair/proper thing to do, since airfare has been booked and paid for.

 

Sure wonder about my Baltics cruise in July 2010 with Regent... Really excited about giving them $23K of my hard earned money after this fiasco!

[mpb43]

Well, I just had a long conversation with my TA as well. I'm really disappointed that the cruise is off. So far, Regent appears to be trying to make things better for us. TA asked me to send my receipts for nonrefundable air and hotels.

We are going to do a land trip to Rome and London instead. Maybe we can do a little early Christmas shopping in London.

The replacement cruises just don't work for us. Hopefully, things will go smoothly with the cancellation. We'll see how the next couple of weeks plays out.

[Island Cruiser]

Angie2, you are correct in the sense that there has been "stuff" out there for several days to the effect that something is up with Navigator.

 

Part of me thinks how awful for Regent. This year they not only were coping with the lousy economy but also the immensely costly Voyager accident and now an unexpected but unavoidable change in the Navigator dry-dock schedule. With respect to Navigator they have to cope with a month's worth of painful (to Regent and clients and travel agents) cancelations AND the need to sell a month's worth of new itineraries on short notice.

 

But this misfortune doesn't exempt them from the responsibility to deal responsibly with their clients. I DO hope this works out well for you eventually.

 

With respect to the Baltics next summer, hope you are fully aware this that will be a kids cruise almost free cruise. I trust you have been following the kids cruise free experience in Alaska this summer. Positive reviews but lots and lots and lots of kids. They are booking them as an overload sometimes two to a cabin. I have no idea whether they will cap the number of "free" kids next summer. But I sure hope so.

[Mike2131]

For those who posted that "stuff happens" and that people should not get so upset (even though they would be if it happened to them - sorry to single you out Wendy), please look over the subsequent posts. They illustrate actions that make people crazy about poor customer service.

 

We had a cruise cancelled on the QM2 due to an unscheduled dry-dock (not damage related) and moved on to a different cruise. We were not thrilled to lose a cruise we were looking forward to, but the situation was handled the best it could be under the circumstances. I don't see that type of sensitivity here. I do think the front line reps probably repeated what they were told, but I would bet some of the old hands among them suspected something was up. Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% of how you handle it. Regent perhaps could not change the 10% but they have really bungled the 90%. Had they gotten out in front of the issue, I think the reaction would have been far different

 

The timing of changing prices (like marking up to mark down for a sale?), undeniable (and seemingly deliberate) misinformation, and slow reaction to address this PR issue are not the hallmark of a top-flight management team. It's a shame because we were really looking forward to sailing with Regent.

 

We hope everyone gets through this with minimal further aggrevation and expense.

[cpinstein]

I have only had one other cruise cancelled in my life. It was Renaissance back when. And guess who the president of Renaissance was.. Mark Conroy, the same guy who is president of Regent. I knew this Nov. 23rd sailing wasn't going. It still hd so much availabilty, and they never published the shore excursions. When my agent called for final last week, the first thing I said t her was if the cruise was cancelled. Not fair, and not OK. I'm through with whatever cruise line Mark Conroy ends up being associated with. Bet Regent is the next to go under!

[Angiet2]

I have already been on the cheap.carib website, and will be booking a land package at a beach front villa at the Morning Star Marriott in STT for 9 days. I can do an all inclusive package w/ this resort, for HALF OF THE PRICE of my Regent cabin. I'm trying to make lemonade out of this challenging situation. I am also going to call my TA and cancel my Baltics cruise. I know that Regent is going to try and 'nail' me for the $100 pp change, but I will fight that tooth & nail. Thank you, SO much, to the original poster, that told me that it will be a 'kiddie cruise' (Baltics). My husband and I are in our 40's, have no kiddies, and even though there are lots of well behaved kids, for the most part, they don't 'enhance' a high end cruise experience.

 

Basically, I am afraid that this is the handwriting on the wall for Regent. I would expect this out of Carnival or NCL, but not out of Regent.

 

Mark Conroy - are you listening? Do you even care? Seabourn Odyssey or Seabourn Sojourn... here I come for the Med/Northern Europe cruise in 2010 (Hello, Mark?! This is the sound of lots of revenue walking out your door, never to return!).:cool:

[nana541]

Kiddie Cruise????

We did the Baltics last August with Regent it was fabulous and there was not ONE child on the whole ship....in fact there where only 600 people on Voyager!!! I agree that someone at Regent used poor judgment in how this whole mess was handled esp. when taking final payments for a cruise they had to know was not going!! Be sure and get you US Dollar conversion fees back that your bank will charge....

But I would not miss the Baltic Trip and am sailing with Regent over Christmas and New Years and looking forward to it!