Well at least Regent got them to the ship!!

Washington Post article "Left at the dock"


Carol and Peter Ostrowski of Alexandria arrived at a dock in Tahiti for a Regent Seven Seas cruise 4 1/2 hours before the ship was slated to leave, and hours before the boarding deadline. But the ship was gone."We were told that 'the captain can sail whenever he wants,' " said Peter Ostrowski.

"Yes, the ship did leave earlier than we had published," Seven Seas spokesman Andrew Poulton told CoGo. "These guests hadn't informed us of their travel plans. We had no idea they were going to show up that evening, otherwise of course we would have waited for them."

The ship, the Paul Gauguin, holds only 320 passengers. The crew looked over forms on which most passengers had indicated their flight plans, confirmed that all those flights had arrived in Tahiti, and departed.

Cruise line reservation forms routinely ask guests to reveal their travel plans, including flight numbers, on reservation forms. "If there is a cautionary tale in this, it's that you should always let the cruise line know your plans in case of something like this," said Poulton.

"At the same time," he added, "obviously we admitted we were wrong." He said the line apologized, paid for overnight expenses, flew the couple to the ship the next day and offered them a $500 voucher that they chose not to accept.

The Ostrowskis said most of that is true: They're still waiting, they said, for the apology.

I'm confused. Does this mean if we make our own flight arrangements, that we are to let them know in advance? I did not see Regent requesting this info anywhere on the guest information form but maybe I missed it...Just curious.

So unless Regent requests people to send this info in to them in advance my guess is that they are at fault here. I would be devastated to fly so far only to arrive in time and find out the ship had already left.

:( They missed the sailaway party!!!!!!!

LOL Betty!! On the bright side, they also missed the muster drill!!!

Even though the muster drill is (isn't)usually the high point of every cruise I take, I still wouldn't want to be them..... ;)

Actually, the fact that the ship sailed early is really unfair. (Fred, can I borrow your asbestos suit, please?) Someone screwed up big time. At least it's not very far from the dock at Papeete to Moorea, Raiatea or Bora Bora. Can you imagine them doing that on the Crossing?

Wow!

This is quite lame on Regent's part. So what if all the flights they knew about had arrived. What if you decide to do some sightseeing after the flight arrives and before boarding? If you have booked passengers that haven't checked in, then how can you possibly consider leaving early?

(Of course, we always push the early end of the envelope for boarding, so I never expect to be waving at a departing ship!)

Yikes! They were hours early and the ship had sailed. I would have cried! Let me also borrow the asbestos suit, I think this was awful! Well on the up side, I doubt that Regent will do this again thereby cutting down the possibilty of this happening to any of us!
-----------------
Helen

I have been on Seabourn when they have left early after checking that everyone is on board. They have never left more than ½ hour before the original sailing time. On our last embarkation they left a little before the official sailing time, but they knew that all registered guests were on board.

Whenever they left early the captain first made an announcement that everyone was on board so they could sail.

Merril

ChatKat --

The PG must be one fast ship...since I remember flying for some time in a jet between Papeete and Bora Bora.

Well, looking at a map it's about 400 - 500 miles from Papeete to Bora Bora. Not a long distance considering. The first day is to Raiatea - much closer than Bora Bora.

I don't recall ever reading anywhere in the forms that we needed to inform Regent of our flight plans. What if the passengers arrive at the embarkation port a day(s) prior to the starting day of the cruise? How does Regent account for that? I guess they don't!

Am I supposed to arrive to the dock at 9AM and sit on my suitcase, just in case the Captain decides to leave hours earlier??

The explanation from Regent's spokesman sounded very flip.

Wow, I agree, this sounds very lame. I don't blame them for not accepting the $500, they certainly should get more!

It is not normal procedure to put in peoples flight itinerary if they are doing their own air travel. It is the passengers responsibility to turn up on time to the ship.

I would also feel it is the ships responsibility not to sail prior to the scheduled departure time if all booked passengers have not boarded.

These people could have come in days earlier and been touring the island and not planning on boarding until a few hours before departure.

I have no idea what happened here. It occurs to me that the Regent spokesperson may have been misquoted. Would not be the first time.

There is air service between Papeete and Raiatea, with a flight leaving at 7 a.m and gettting in at 8:15, so hopefully they only missed the first night. At least the Regent spokesperson admitted they were at fault. In a case like this, they had egg on their face. All you can do when these things happens is mitigate the inconvenience to the passengers and make sure it doesn't happen again!

One would fervently hope that Andrew Poulton was indeed misquoted. Since there is no policy of or procedure for informing the ship of one's travel plans, it is absurd for the ship to depart hours prior to a scheduled departure when all booked passengers were not yet on board. "If there is a cautionary tale in this", it is that a skipper who decides to depart early even though booked passengers are not all aboard should be keel-hauled.

And if Poulton was quoted accurately, then he seems sufficiently clueless to have been part of the marketing team that developed the "loyalty program" fiasco. Dag forbid that Regent allow anyone from that goofy marketing group to act as a spokesperson for the line. Lordie, what will he say next? Perhaps something like, "If you think it was exciting to almost go down with the ship on the Sea Diamond, consider how much better it would be to sink on one of our six-star ships. If you're gonna go down, go down in style!! And we'll even include free pressing - glub glub - sinking night only, of course."

Now let me get this straight. They had PAID IN FULL for the cruise. They were making their own travel arrangements. It was 4.5 hours before the scheduled departure. And Regent "had no idea they were going to show up that evening" so the Captain pulls away. What an absolute unmitigated piece of crock. What if they had booked a quick independent tour of the island before boarding the ship? Or they were meeting friends for cocktails before boarding. Or they wanted to do some shopping before boarding. And even if they had submitted flight details to Regent (something we have never done or, to my recollection, been asked to do), does this mean Regent thinks they have no right to independently change those plans.

I think a $500 credit is an insult. That is about one half the cost of the night they lost due to Regent's negligence.

Patrick

Does anyone know on which sailing this occurred? I wonder if there was one of the frequent half day dock workers strike that the ship was trying to avoid? Otherwise, the only other explaination is, in fact, gross negligence by the crew.

edited to add:

It is reports like this along with Fred and Pat being locked out of the main dining room that should lead to Regent's backing away from PG once they get their next ship. I also saw that Air New Zealand is dropping most all service to PPT. Has French Polynesia, with all the problems and hassles, lost it's edge?

I was thinking the same thing as many others - we've been on the PG, booked our own air, went a few days early, and never told anyone at RSSC when to expect us. We never did this, but it would be not at all unreasonable to drive around the island, take a ferry to/from Moorea, or do any number of things on embarkation day, as long as you arrive by the stated boarding time. I speculate that the person who was asked to check if all booked passengers had boarded made a human error.

In Papeete, as I'm sure in most embarkation ports, you can check in and then leave the ship and walk around town, have a crepe at the roulottes, whatever. It doesn't sound like that's what happened, but if that were the case, the system of scanning the key cards should have indicated that passengers were still ashore.

With the facts at hand, this sounds like a huge "oops" for RSSC.

Dena

I guess we Tappers better be at the ship early...I don't think I informed them that we will be partying at ES...

Something does not compute.

OMG Fred! Once again, you have me literally LOL when I was really "down!"

In our limited RSSC experience,(2 cruises) never were asked about flight arrivals, went day early both times, and no problem.

Always being skeptical of media reports, IF this story is true, I would be beyond angry! No excuse at all for ship's early departure!

I'm skeptical - leaving 4 1/2 hours early is a long time - and just looking to see if flights have landed makes no sense - many passengers probably arrive early for a few days. I doubt this actually happened.

Leslie, after some thought I agree with you. It doesn't scan.

Here is the Washington Post article link....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/06/AR2007040600614.html

Sounds very fishy!!!!!!

I believe that Captain Knute left early one day by maybe 1/2 hour, but he came on to announce that all were back onboard.

Conversely, we were late leaving another day because one couple were not accounted for. The captain came on several times before our scheduled departure to ask that the passengers in question please contact the desk and let them know they were on board. (They weren't) They finally did show up exactly at the time we were supposed to set sail. We were only about 10-15 minutes late setting sail. (for those who haven't sailed yet, all are expected back on board 1/2 hour before the ship sets sail.)

I have been on board several times and the crew always searches for unaccounted for passengers. On one trip, the ship did not leave because some passengers' planes were late arriving and on another they waited for lost baggage. I have never experienced anything like this before.

Karen, that's hilarious!

Another idea. The quote says that the ship left earlier than the published time. Could the ship schedule have changed from the original brochure time? If the travelers hadn't noticed on their documents the updated time, they might have missed the ship out of their own fault instead of Regent's. The ship might have just thought they were "no shows" as they hadn't heard from them or their TA that they were delayed.

As I don't have a PG 2007 brochure, I can't check to see if it matches the current time stated on the website. It just seems awfully coincidental that the two sailing times are either 2200 or 0230; a 4.5 hour difference. If they were under the assumption that the ship didn't sail until 0230 and showed up 2230, they would have missed the ship.

I Love your final signature. Baklava to Biscotti - very cute!!

Good point Marc, that makes sense. The 0230 departure time is, I believe, timed to accommodate the Air Tahiti Nui flight which comes in from JFK on certain days. If the sailing had originally been published in the brochure at 0230 based on ATN schedule at the time, then ATN changed their schedule, and there was no JFK flight arriving that day, the sailing time could have been revised and published in the actual documents. That's the most plausible explanation so far!

Dena

If that is the case then Mr.Poulton's attempt to explain the situation was dismal. He is quoted as saying "we were wrong" and admonishes travelers to " "If there is a cautionary tale in this, it's that you should always let the cruise line know your plans in case of something like this," said Poulton.

On the one hand he is saying Regent was wrong, but on the other hand he is saying it was the passenger's fault for not keeping Regent informed.

FYI, the article appeared on the front page of today's Washington Post travel section. If Regent was at fault (which the article and quote from Mr. Poulton makes it seem), then clearly nobody in authority at Regent has an idea of the (negative) value of bad press. It would have been far cheaper to give the pax a suite, pay for any dinner they wanted, charter a light plane to get them to the ship and offer them some serious $$$ rather than have this show up in print.

As many have noted, the compensation policies lack any consistency. On the Mariner in 2005, we were delayed going up the west coast due to high seas and had to skip the port call in Victoria. The captain announced that everyone would receive $300 (per person) as compensation. Quite a bit when it wasn't due to circumstances under their control. Versus $500 (total) when the admit culpability???

Putting aside what time the ship was supposed to sail and what information the couple was supposed to put on the forms, the fact is the ship left ealier than scheduled before two of its passengers had boarded.

It has got to be the cruise line's responsibility to know that all passengers are on board before sailing.

Passenger supplied information about flights is so the ship can decide whether to wait for you if your flight is late, not to give the ship a justification for departing early.

For Poulton to imply that the passengers bore any responsibiliy for this is just wrong. He says "These guests hadn't informed us of their travel plans." Yes they did. By purchasing the cruise they agreed to be on board by the published boarding time.

And he makes matters worse by adding, "We had no idea they were going to show up that evening." Weren't they on the manifest?

I agree with the couple's decision not to accept the $500. Given other compensation Regent has offered for problems that were not its responsibility (MUSH) I think $250 per person is way to little for this. Tom.

I totally agree with Tom and Portolan...Can you just imagine the angst that poor couple felt when they arrived at the dock and there was no ship? They didn't have a place to stay, they didn't know where the ship was, they had 'missed the boat," and had lost out potentially on a long-awaited vacation. What a way for a trip to start! Can you imagine what their next few hours were like? Sometimes folks make mistakes-even 6 star cruise lines. But they should havemore experienced and consistent process mechanisms in place across the Regent Line to manage issues when they do arise. Now they have a worse PR situation to deal with.

I agree with those who have opined that something is missing from this story. I don't think we can know what went wrong without all the pieces. But I have to admit the story is giving me pause. I'm on the 4/28 PG sailing, and arranged my own air. I'll be coming into Papeete a couple of days early, and was planning to make full use of the sailing day to enjoy the island. My docs say embarkation at 3:00, sailing at 10:00. That's quite a lag time between boarding and sailing. I'd planned to board later, thinking that a lot of px are bound to be on that day's version of the flight I'm on a couple days before that arrives at 6:20 pm, but now I'm thinking I need to be there at 3:00.

By the time people get off that Air Tahiti flight they wont be at the ship until 7.30 pm at the earliest. The majority of passengers will be on that flight there is no way that ship will leave prior to all those passengers boarding.

There is no reason for you to board the ship at 3.00 pm if you dont want to board that early. My guess is after a few days in Tahiti you will be anxious to board. I love being on the ship early and getting settled in and unpacked. It is so exciting to get on a ship for the first time and start investigating.

Besides you can be enjoying your first dinner on the PG while all those coming in on the flight are just arriving.

Just in the name of accuracy, according to my framed map of the Paul Guagin Cruise it is 139 Nautical Miles from Papeete to Bora Bora.
During the three cruises on the PG the ship never left early from Papeete. Maybe the negative press will discourage some folks from taking the PG or better yet encourage RSSC to make some specials available( free air fare plus 2 for 1).
Ok, I am dreaming but every one of our three trips on the PG was pure heaven.

Egret,

Thanks for looking at the miles. I tried to calculate it, but, Google and Mapquest didn't work for French Polynesia. I did not think it was very far.

Regent definately has a PR problem here. I've already had a couple people come up to me today and ask if I saw it in the post yesterday.