Hi all, just got back from Voyager cruise. Will post a review later.

But for now, thought I would open up a controversial topic. We took just 3 "free" excursions on this trip, and all were in some way or another of lesser quality or organization than previously.

I think upon reflection that we'd rather pay something. Previously we did some "concierge selection" excursions that were wonderful, but even the "ordinary excursions" were in general better than we experienced this trip.

1. Salvador. Good guide, nice tour, bus not totally full (about 2/3). But...there were about 12 buses full of people doing this single excursion. All the same. So we were constantly bumping into other groups in a very crowded little group of beautiful baroque churches. Why could they have not staggered these tours or provided more of a variety?

2. Barbados. Catamaran with snorkel turtle-viewing, then some beach time. Huge cat, with about 40 people on it--should have been 25. Very crowded in the water to view the turtles. Beach time on a public beach with other boats and people. Nasty rude captain, tried to turn us geriatrics into a party boat, partly succeeded with loud music. No pretense of sailing other than a bit of jib. Horrible bus to get us there. We have done marvellous similar trips in the past, way better than this.

3. San Juan. Good tour guide, nice little bus, only about 15. Bacardi distillery tour--not worth it, done lots better. City tour, very nice. So all in all, not bad, chosen because we didn't want to be energetic that day and hike through the rainforest.

Regent inclusive shore excursions along with their many operating problems of the past several years have motivated us to switch to Silverseas and Seabourn.

We do not enjoy tours involving a large bus with 40 passengers. We don't like the rigid schedule, the required stops (some interesting but others worthless and annoying), the difficulty of having informative conversations with a guide and the inevitable late returning passenger(s) who delay everyone and shorten subsequent stops.

As a result, we never take standard cruise line shore excursions in preference for making our own arrangements which are easy to do over the internet, through a travel agent or through the cruise line. Although privately arranged excursions cost more, you can reduce the cost by involving another couple(s). More importantly, you see exactly what you wish and gain far more from the experience through close interaction with a knowledgable guide.

Since we don't take Regent shore excursions, we don't wish to pay for them in the total cruise price. They are not free. To date, we have been very pleased with our trips on Silverseas and Seabourn.

In a word, touring in a large bus or a crowded van is not our idea of "Luxury Goes Exploring."

Well in defence of Regent, we have often but not always taken their offerings. Often, as I said, the slightly more expensive ones which promise smaller groups. But even some standard excursions in the past have been very pleasant with smaller groups and unfull buses. Not so this time, with the exception of San Juan. The guide there was also flexible and helpful, driving some back to the ship early, leaving some in town to shop then fetching them later, etc.

My two cents worth...We enjoyed the Catamoran and Snorkel. We also had done numerous other trips of this sort and found this one as good as many others. We thought the Captain was fine and the crew very helpful. Just a different way of looking at things. Maxine

We just enjoyed three "free" Regent excursions on our Rio to Ft. Lauderdale cruise. They were fine but seemed to be more crowded than the previous shore excursions we paid extra for. All three busses we were on were almost full. We prefer to make our own shore arrangements most of the time. We usually have managed to organize a better overall shore experience independently at about the price of a Regent tour if we include one or two other couples. The "free" excursions program is a serious disincentive to doing this. We wish Regent would either find another way to offer discounts or offer "free" excusions of the same quality they used to offer. Pat

On MOOSE, Julie and I went on several excursions where we were the only ones or not more than a hand full of people. I really enjoyed the free excursions in Alaska as they are SO expensive!
I don't think you can assume from one cruise that the free excursions will all be crowded and as far as we know, they might of been crowded before they were free ;)

On our recent Asia trip we found the excursions just as good as the ones we usually paid for on Regent. We always do a mixture of private tours, small group tours (like Pat described), and Regent tours.

As some posters mentioned, we are not in love with large bus tours. We took them during our cruise to keep down costs and to have a good social time with more than a small group. It is also our way of meeting folks who aren't LCTers. We have found Regent tours in general uniformly good, with some misses here and there. We have seen no degradation since their all inclusive offerings. Even when they had many multiple buses going on one tour, we were staggered and did not run into others. The tours were not overcrowded. We had an issue with rigid schedules, required stops and having to deal with other passengers whose interests may not be the same as ours.

Regent offered some very nice smaller tours that were an extra fee. These were cheaper than in the past and were absolutely wonderful. It seems to be a good way to accommodate those of us who want a bit more of a personal experience. One we can recommend in Viet Nam is the Mekong Delta in Depth. Regent also did a wonderful job in arranging a private guide for us in Ho Chi Min city. He was amongst the best we have ever had.

We have found the tour desk operations not consistently excellent from ship to ship. However, we have nothing to say but good things about the Regent-run Asia tours on the Mariner, group, extra fee or private. We had one lousy tour guide in Hanoi, but this was aberrant because the rest of the groups were happy with their guides.

I think the program just may need some tweaking.

Maxine perhaps you were on the other catamaran? Our captain was Chad, skinny with blonde hair.

We had fun, but had done much more relaxing similar excursions without the frenetic aspect. Trying to see a half dozen (beautiful) turtles while surrounded by about 35 other snorkelers in a small area was no fun.

And the bus to get us there was a laugh--obviously a local bus, with very narrow seats, no a/c, and jump seats in the middle aisle to stuff as many people in as possible. Just glad it was a fairly short right. Ugh.

BTW, very glad to hear that the Alaska excursions continue to be of good quality.

We just got off over 60 days on the Mariner and with a rare exception enjoyed every one of our included tours. For the most part the buses were not packed full even though most of the tours were waitlisted. The included tours were every bit as good as the tours we used to pay for, plus the ones we paid a small amount for were even better. In some of the more remote places in the world that we went to, the buses were older and not as well equipped as we would expect in the U.S.--but these are third world countries for the most part and the buses and the guides were better than we anticipated. The tour desk on the Mariner was very good--much better than we experienced on our last cruise on the Voyager. We were told that a new company is managing the tours now and it really showed.

Peggy,

It sounds as if you are saying that the ShorEx office is now a concession . . . am I understanding that correctly?

also Peggy

Excellent comments, shared experiences and insights. Thanks to everyone.

While Regent may have offered "all inclusive" excursions to stimulate depressed sales in a down market to avoid a more substantial cruise price discounts, believe it is reasonable to assume they will recover these costs in their future cruise pricing as normal market demand for their product returns.

As a result, you will probably be paying for these excursions on future cruises (i.e. compare Regent per diem 2010 to 2009 cruise prices) whether you use them or not. When it comes to excursions, I prefer to pay for what I use as it gives me more control over deciding whether to use a standard cruise line excursion offering or to make my own arrangements. I don't want to be forced to pay twice when I decide (for whatever reason) to make my own arrangements.

Frank2525, we are essentially in your camp on this issue. We are booked on two fairly port intensive Regent cruises in 2010 to give the "free" excusions program the full college try. But after that, unless there is a dramatic difference in pricing between Regent and Silversea or Seabourn we'll probably go with the latter two to enjoy better shore excursion options. Paying twice stings! Pat

Peggy, I guess we could assume that the tour desk is a concession now, although I don't know that for sure. I was just told (and I can't even remember by whom) that the "Destinations" office, as it's now called, is under a new management company. I had the impression that the status isn't different (in other words, if it's a concession now, it was also a concession before), only the company that is managing it is new. The individuals working at the tour desk were people I had met on previous cruises--Katja is the onboard manager, etc. Not sure if they work for Regent or some other concession company.

Thanks Peggy,

I'll see what I can find out . . . we board the Voyager in 4 days so if not before, when we're "there"

Well the value is the bottom line, isn't it? So I'm with Pat and Frank on this one.

Give us free excursions if you like, but offer some enhanced options at a cost (presumably smaller than previously), and in general offer a good selection. If I have to roll my own excursions, then the value proposition has changed.

Wendy I also think the quality of the tours varies with the different destinations and the local tour company the cruise lines use for the tours. Some areas of the world simply do not have quality local tour companies and I am sure all the cruise lines seek out the best they can find. South America (particularly the area you were just touring) does not come to mind as one of the areas that has exceptionally good tour operators.

My worst tour EVER was on Silversea in South America in the same area you were just crusing. Cannot remember the name of the port right now (similiar to San Francisco) but we drove for one hour to see a bicyle museum (terrible) and a tree that had been hit by lightning. We went round and round the block trying to see this tree we were all so bored. They then took us to a hotel that looked German to have a drink and use the restrooms and then it was an hour back in the bus again. Torture and I think we paid about $89 for that.

I know on the Baltic's cruise in August everyone was very happy with the tours and Alaska has had great reports too. The tours in Asia were generally good, the trip to Hanoi is torture but there is no way around that it is a long way.

Some love the free excursions, just the whole idea of not having to get the bill and having things included. Others feel that they do not want to pay for something they do not necessarily want to utilize. Like the dress code of the Formal or Elegant Casual some love the new dress code others feel it is totally unacceptable.

They do have a sampling on most cruises of reduced rate excursions that are either more limited in the number of people on the tour or that go further afield to more interesting places.

I guess it all boils down to the fact that we are all different and perceive the same situation in a totally different way.

The good thing is that there are nice options out there with multiple luxury cruise lines and everyone can make their choice according to their preferences.

We enjoyed the three tours we took on our recent Voyager cruise. They were just more crowded than we are accustomed to on Regent. The first tour, in Salvador, is one we couldn't have planned independently. It was a walking tour of the old town and a folk dance show. We paid a premium ($79) for it and considered it a bargain. The folk dance show was staged exclusively for us. It was an hour long with 12 male dancers, 6 female dancers, four musicians on percusion, and a fire dancer--simply sensational. I'll never forget it. Yet there were the kind of "challenges" one encounters all too often on ship's tours. As our busload of 36 offloaded in old town our guide announced "This is where we begin our two hour walking tour." There were immediate shouts of protest: "We didn't sign up for a two hour walking tour. We want to go back to the ship." Well, there were a half dozen passengers among us who had trouble boarding the bus and were clearly not up to walking two hours and should not have signed up for the tour to begin with. There followed a fifteen minute negotiation to determine what to do. Finally it was decided we would proceed SLOWLY. The protesters were forced to hobble (And I mean hobble!) along on cobbled streets in the very hot sun. They grumbled constantly. At the end of the folk show they insisted on an early return to the ship and they were accommodated gladly since the rest of us were tired of putting up with them. Back on the ship I overheard one of the protestors tell someone he had been "forced to walk five miles." Hardly. He had walked about 700 yards (about a half mile) as the tour description correctly stated. The two hour "walking tour" included 60 minutes of sitting in the tiny folk show auditorium in splendid air conditioning and twenty minutes of sitting in the pews of three different churches included in the tour. I guess my point is one can avoid this sort of situation by organizing a private tour when possible. It is just more painful to do when you have already paid for tours as part the cost of the cruise. But, Ngaire, you are quite right. There are lots of great options out there, clearly enough to suit every taste. Pat

Pat - thanks for your thoughtful comments. We've been there as well, most recently on the monastery tour of Trabzon, Turkey. After lunch onboard, about 60% of those on our bus opted out of the rest of the tour. :p

Cheers, Anne

On our Navigator and Voyager cruises this year, the free excursions were all as good as they had been when you had to pay. Groups were no larger than in past. St Petersburg excursions were all excellent. My only complaint is that if the itinerary was not new, I would not be taking advantage of the free shore excursions. I would rather that they lowered the fare $100 per person per day; about the value of excursions in Europe.

I have been watching this thread since Wendy began it. Having only done the Baltic since the inception of "free excursions", I can only say that the ones that I took advantage of were fine except for stopping at the same shop 2 out of 3 days in St. Petersburg. New tour company, therefore new store. I have been on this cruise 4 times, and only took the free excursions to visit some places I enjoyed before, but if it hadn't been free, I wouldn't have taken any of them.
I get a kick out of Marc and Frank 2525 talking about only paying for what they want. Despite the fact that I do love Regent overall, of all the "inclusive" perks I get, I only use the internet...I do not drink, and have no family to call, but since it the fares are structured with those things and free excursions, you just have to accept it or go elsewhere.....
There is no easy answer.
Lynn

Lynn, the only thing different I recall about free excursions is that there was NEVER a great demand that they be included at all. Free internet and phone time are related to your nights onboard, nothing else. OTOH, there has been huge debate over the years about all-inclusive alcohol and a change in dress code, which I am assuming (both changes) came about because of customer feedback. As soon as all-inclusive alchohol was introduced, prices spiked considerably to make up for the lost revenue. During the recession, they added the free excursions for most cruises on 2009, but prices for 2010, in my mind, reflected this new perk, then they offered more incentives because sales still lagged, but prices for 2011 are over the top. I'm with Marc, would rather do my own port planning if I want, and pay less for the cruise. Unlike Marc, my perception on my last cruise with Regent (Vietnam) is that the busses were much more crowded than I am accustomed to.

When you are paying for too many things you do not use, you should at least consider other cruise line options. As Ngaire suggested, we are fortunate to have attractive luxury cruise line alternatives. I don't think there is that much difference between Regent, Silverseas and Seabourn. Crystal and Oceania are also viable options for people who do not drink. I recommend first deciding on an itinerary and then comparing per diems rather than become overly attached to a particular cruise line. You may still decide to go on Regent but you will at least be aware of the premium you are paying for features you do not use. When that premium becomes high enough, you may be motivated to consider alternatives.

Frank, unfortunately, I use all the inclusives ;)

Coming to this conversation a bit late. On our Vancouver to Singapore cruise on Mariner this fall, we found the tour desk to be vastly improved. Most of the tours were well run. The information about them and the knowledge of the tour desk was much better than on our previous Regent cruises.

On the Alaska portion of the cruise, we chose many of the paid excursions. They were definitely subsidized, providing a bargain to us. Once we reached Asia, most of the excursions we took were the free ones. Sometimes the buses were crowded but some of that involved traveling in third world countries where infrastructure is not as sophisticated.

However, by the end of 52 days (actually by the time we reached Hong Kong), we had used up our tolerance for bus excursions. Next time, we'll be making more of our own arrangements. It's not a reflection on Regent or the tour desk but more an indication of our changing travel preferences.

If free excursions were eliminated, I doubt that it would result in much of a fare decrease from Regent.

Olivia, I was aware that I was mixing earned perks with overall perks, it was just to state that there were several perks that I would not participate in. Yes, I agree that the 2011 prices are over the top.
Frank 2525....I am also well aware of the options availabe. I am not as well travelled as many people on LCT, but at over 20 cruises and over 8 cruise lines, I know the alternatives.
However, I do love the feel and the ships of regent. I just wish their pricing was more reasonable. For 2010 the changed my favorite category "Horizon Suites" on the Voyager to Butler suites and now the single supplement jumped from 40% to 75%!!!!! That is a huge difference.
As to free excursions, again, overall, I probably would not take them and find my own.
Lynn

Wendy and Pat,

We were on the Voyager with you and would agree regarding the excursions on that segment. The problem with the Salvador tour was that a similar tour had a warning about difficult walking and that tour (which I wa on) did not. This caused many to select that tour over the other, only to find that they were very similar, thus the grumbling. I agree with Wendy that Chad's vessel was way overcrowded.

Having said all that, the excursions on the four earlier segments were not as crowded (due to a smaller passenger population and many were very good. However, in spite of the fact that I have booked a cruise on the Voyager this year, I agree that the included shore excursions are a very bad idea (the Destinations staff agrees) and may result in loss of business for Regent. This is especially true of its typical passenger; one who is well traveled and doesn't like the motorcoach method of excursions.
Jody

Oh boy, so many people to respond to.

Hmm, let me say first that, despite our wonderful 2 weeks on Voyager, we were left with a feeling that the luxury edge that Radisson originally had, and that Regent has attempted to improve on, is in peril. I don't know if this is related to the free excursions and mad dash to fill the ships in 2009.

It's just an uncomfortable feeling, mostly to do with the people on the ship, but also the feeble attempts to do entertainment and make you feel cherished, things that seemed to be so easy in the past. Perhaps I'm just jaded, but I'm ready for something new. And it may also coincide with the fact that I'm now retired and David is approaching retirement, and our disposable income is reduced. I could imagine trying another luxury line if we decided to splurge, or even R again for the right itinerary, but we'll stick to land for a bit.

Anyways, back to excursions:

Jody, too bad we missed you! So you were on the catamaran with Chad! Did you ride back on the bus where they filled the jump seats in the aisle?

Lynn, I'm with you on the prices. I was checking out single supplements today, since our friend Jim wants to do Alaska perhaps in 2011. I can't find any discounted single rates for Alaska at all--can this be?

To all, I don't mind that the excursions are included, but they should be done right, in the Regent manner, or lots of "concierge" alternatives should be offered for moderate fees.

Quality on Regent has definitely gone down. Just returned last month from Voyager -Capetown to Rio to FLL. Sevice still good but food quality disappointing. Can't put that down to free excursions as only a few port days. As we have always said, we don't mind paying for the quality we used to have with Radisson.

Wendy,

We were not on that bus, at least I don't remember use of the fold-down seats. I agree with you regarding the population of that segment. It was, by far, the most crowded and had a significantly different feel from the first 55 days of the cruise. Also the 9 day segment from Dubai to Mumbai was not as crowded as the last segment but had a little feel of that portion of the trip. Maybe it was that there were a number of pax that came only for those nine days and consequently didn't integrate well with pax from prior segements.

Jody

I was on a tour in American Samoa years ago. The bus took us to the local Tuna Plant which they were pretty proud of but smelled pretty bad, The ship's representative threw up. That was the classic cruise bus tour of all time. Truly a luxury experience.

We were wondering if Regent had gone downhill ourselves this year. We took the Voyager Reykjavik to Southhamptom in the spring and was not pleased with either the tour desk or the food. The service levels also were good but distant. We felt as many of you do on this board. However, we were thoroughly pleased with our Mariner Hong Kong to Singapore trip this year. We hadn't a complaint about the food nor the tour desk. Service levels were high. I thought that perhaps Regent was experiencing growing pains and had overcome them by the time we cruised the second time. It seems that there is unevenness that needs to be worked through that comes down to staff.

My guess is that Regent is being impacted by a number of different factors:

1) Operational integration issues (to reduce overhead and to achieve anticipated efficiencies) with Apollo/Oceania.
2) The necessity to reduce expenses during the recent economic turndown.
3) The loss of a significant number of key people in the operations area. The major strength of Regent's President is marketing - not daily ship operations.
4) Distraction and management time devoted to the recent ship rennovations.

The President of Regent probably has about a year to prove to Apollo that he can reach their revenue and profitability targets for their investment. Hopefully, he will and you'll also see more consistency in their product than was the case last year.

Frank,
I agree with everything you said.
I also feel that Apollo doesn't really get the concept that Radisson had a few years ago.
Wendy, i feel the rates are going up at an alarming pace, yet when I went on the Baltic cruise in August, there was no single supplement in any category (relatively last minute promotion.)
Obviously, those two things contradict each other.
What Apollo has to realize if, indeed, it has to be proven that profitability targets have to be met, they must figure in that the multi-million dollar renovations should be prorated over the length of time before they are needed again.
I would love to sail with them again, but at the rates (single) that they are presently charging for the services and product that is being offered, it is not worth it to me. Any cruise I have looked at for 2010 works out to between $800-11,000 per diem for a single at the lower end categories.
Lynn
PS I know this is rambling, but i couldn't get it to sound coherent.

lynn,
my pet peeve right now is included air. i've been looking at doing a med cruise this summer on silversea or seabourn and they are both including air instead of reducing prices (particularly seabourn). i don't want air included because i visit my family while i'm in Europe and i don't fly straight to the ship. i wish the cruise lines would just give us the best price they can and let us add in the pieces we want to pay for. maybe i'm not understanding the pricing but when i look at Regent's prices right now, i get sticker shock. they seem so much higher than seabourn or silversea. (using weird key board - sorry about the mistakes).

Julie, very difficult to compare one line to another for pricing, given the different things included (air and excursions in particular). Forgive me if you already know this, but if you opt to do your own air, you will receive a credit on Regent if you don't. Usually $800-$1,000 for destinations to Europe or further. Have you found that Silversea and Seabourn don't do the same?

I know what you mean about sticker shock. You just have to figure what perks you enjoy and will use on the different lines, and go from there.

olivia,
i had forgotten that. i'm not sure if Seabourn or Silverseas does it. that would be great.

just from a glance at Regent, a week in the med runs above 5k, or Silverseas or Seabourn, you can usually find a spcecial around 3k - 3.5K. All of them are including air now, it seems. i could be misunderstanding Regent pricing.

Lynn, I could not agree with you more. I do not drink, I only use the Internet, and I don't take the included tours because most of the ones I want are not available when I try to book them. On my last crossing in Dec. from Auckland to LA, I wanted 5 different excursions. They were all booked 3 months before departure. It almost seems as though there should be two prices, one for those who want included tours, and one for those who do not.

We are booked on Mariner for April and are looking forward to it. We are encouraged by your experience as we have not sailed on Mariner before. Our New Year's Cruise on Navigator was a bit of a disaster (both food and service were off as well as mixed reviews on the Destination Desk, tours, etc).

All I can say about included excursions is that today we had a terrific 7+ hour excursion in Puerto Montt, Chile, that included a very good lunch and it did not have any supplement either. I'll write up details in the next day or two.

As I already wrote up, our excursion in Valparaiso was also excellent. Admittedly, we've had wonderful weather, which makes a difference.

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Eugene and Gail