Leslie, in the past we got to submit excursion "requests" to Regent in advance, but we had no idea where our requests fell in line nor how many seats were available for each excursion. On past cruises, I've been closed out of excursions I wanted, once because they lost the entire set of requests. The trade-off for paying up front under the new system is that you find out immediately whether you've got a confirmed seat on the excursions. I know not everyone likes the idea of paying early, but I love not having to worry and stress about whether I'll get the excursions I want.

-- Eric