I've been reading this thread with great interest but no great concern since, until yesterday, our next booked cruise was July 2010! However, an unexpected cancellation of a land tour drove us to a quick decision to take the June 17th Mariner cruise in Alaska. Today our booking was recorded in the system (that, by itself, was slightly amazing given Regent's bookkeeping issues of late). And, at least for a conventional single segment, 7-day cruise, the shore excursion booking actually worked quite well. Their implementation of the 1-hour window between adjacent shore excursions (reasonable) seems to be pretty well done so that after you choose your must-do-at-this-port excursion, the other, incompatible tours are grayed out. We found only one apparent error where it disallowed us from choosing a second tour that starts 1-1/4 hours after the first based on the information posted. Next week I'll call them and see whether it can be added or truly is in conflict.

Yes, paying up front for the "premium" shore excursions is annoying (we don't have a lot of OBC so that aspect isn't a big deal for us), but for the first time ever I have something tangible in advance of boarding that not only lists what we requested but confirms the tours! That's worth something. They really seem to be tracking the loads since a (very) few of the tours were shown as full.

Also, per others' reported experiences, our specialty restaurant reservations were live (~90 days out) and we had a wide open field for the days, times, table sizes we want. I actually thought the "terms" were clearer than before and allowed us to do exactly what we wanted one night: request a table for 6 with no other pre-planned tablemates. It says the maitre d' will fill the other seats (and I added a note to that effect as well)...we like pot luck!

So, all in all, and regreting many aspects of the new site (like no "sticky" future cruises...the log in every time is a pain), the advance bookings are an improvement in our estimation.