Personal cruise consultant?

Is this something new? Yesterday I had a phone call and also an email from my "Personal Cruise Consultant" at RSSC...noting that he saw I had been researching on the Regent website and offering his services. Frankly, I was a bit freaked out that my internet search would reveal my first name, my phone number, my personal email address, etc. Also, all of my previous bookings with Regent have been with my own local travel agent at the same local travel agency for many, many years. If he could access my personal contact info, would he not also be able to access the fact that I always work through my local travel agent? I sincerely hope this is not RSSC's attempt to start pushing "direct bookings" from existing customers. I realize many passengers prefer not to work through agencies. However, on many occasions (and not only with cruises) my local agent has gone beyond what was necessary to create my perfect vacation. I appreciate her!

Is this something new? Yesterday I had a phone call and also an email from my "Personal Cruise Consultant" at RSSC...noting that he saw I had been researching on the Regent website and offering his services. Frankly, I was a bit freaked out that my internet search would reveal my first name, my phone number, my personal email address, etc. Also, all of my previous bookings with Regent have been with my own local travel agent at the same local travel agency for many, many years. If he could access my personal contact info, would he not also be able to access the fact that I always work through my local travel agent? I sincerely hope this is not RSSC's attempt to start pushing "direct bookings" from existing customers. I realize many passengers prefer not to work through agencies. However, on many occasions (and not only with cruises) my local agent has gone beyond what was necessary to create my perfect vacation. I appreciate her!

They have access to all your contact info. Your TA has to supply this info to RSSC as part of the booking process or fare inquiring about cruises.

And they do have in house people... Really nice consultants, I have actually booked thru one to get a special promo and he knew that the next week I would be turning the booking over to my own TA. Was very gracious and said he was happy to do it! My own agent transferred it and I got all the normal benefits she always gives me.

Yes, the travel agent will provide the cruise line all your information when they receive the booking and it may already be on file if you have cruised the line before.

I would never use a call center or book direct with the line. A strong TA can alway offer you more such as private transfers,a private tour,a larger OBC or a rebate when you complete the cruise....nice to see that check. If Regent is just offering you the same benefits as your TA you are getting from your TA you are getting the minimum. A strong TA will make a world of difference.

I hope that TC or Keith will add to my post.

had this experience, repeatedly. Since all of these three are under one umbrella, I feel that they may be adopting some measures used by one another. Not to freak out. Just a sales ploy, more or less, in my opinion.

Thank you for your replies. I will just take it for what it is and not fear an invasion of my privacy. I'm in the "elderly" category and have trouble realizing how much personal information flows through my keyboard when I simply visit a website.

I have never had a direct call from Regent. And if I got one I would not be happy. I work only with my travel agent. I pay her and that is her job.

There have been a few times when I have had to call Regent directly and it is usually a disaster. Regent Customer service and sale is notorious for having incomplete, out dated or just plan wrong information.

Always use an experience travel agent. Always....

j

It's been a couple of years since I've called Regent but the person I spoke to - she has been promoted - was wonderful. She answered all my questions and if she did not have the answers, she found out and got back to me.

And yes, I have an excellent Travel Agent but some times I prefer to hear the information myself.

Peggy

The only solicitation calls I've ever received have been from a couple of Regent agents, at different times. The first was easy to get rid of, I just told him I was researching Regent for comparison purposes only, that I had my own TA, and that I was experienced enough to make my own decisions without help. He graciously removed me from his lists.

A couple of years later, I got several calls from a very persistent and aggressive agent after I accessed the RSSC web site. I couldn't get him to stop calling, and he started spamming me with emails. I finally called Regent directly, asked to speak to a supervisor and reported the fellow. It still took a second call to get rid of him (I hope he was fired).

This was before NCLH took over, so it had nothing to do with that (and I doubt it has had any effect). The only thing I can figure is either the fellow was new and was trying to impress someone or there was some sort of quota system like car salesman fave, to make such and such a number of cold calls.

I get emails notifying me of specials from a NCL PCC I only used once (my first NCL cruise), but have never received a call. I only used her once as I found a really good TA offering incentives.

Don

If you signed up for a Regent account, there were "cookies" placed on your computer that allows Regent to follow everything you do, including knowing what other websites you are looking at. Almost all web sites do this now.

If you are concerned about your privacy, you may want to set your browser settings to delete at the end of any session, that way you cannot be tracked. This may require you to enter passwords, etc each time you visit a website, but allows for more privacy.

gnomie :)

Gnomie, pleased to see your font.

Good advice. At the least, as a general rule, good internet hygiene mandates routinely purging cookies by clearing your browser history. Which, regretfully, is not the same as consuming cookies.

While what gnomie says about cookies is correct, few of us would make the choice to have our history erased every time we leave a website (for many reasons). IMO, Regent, is not tracking everything we do (although I can think of some websites that do). We are in and out of the Regent, Oceania, Silversea, and many other websites on a daily basis and have never received a solicitation call from any of them.

Note: We do not use Google Chrome since it would not work with Windows 10 when it first came out. That is off topic but there are reasons that we no longer use Chrome.

Just trying not to give posters something else to worry about. If Regent were to call me (unsolicited) I would block the number - takes only a second on most phones.

gnomie, if you are concerned about privacy, then you should be more worried about Cruise Critic, which uses 3rd party ads extensively, as opposed to Regent, which does use them at all.

 

In every modern browser that I know of, there is a way to see cookies. On Cruise Critic, I can see cookies from Cruise Critic, but also from googleads, flashtalking, and googlesyndication. On Regent, I see only Regent. (Note that most cookies have no nefarious intent at all. Html pre-processors use them to set a session id - a unique code to aid in communication between the client, i.e. you, and the server. This is what I see on Regent. If you had asked Regent to remember your login, there would probably be other cookies related to that.)

 

If you are worried about cookies and browser history, one simple thing you can do is browse in incognito mode. I don't know that all browsers have it, but since I browse mostly in Chrome, I know it does. In Chrome, go alt-shift-n to open an incognito window. Everything will get wiped clean when you close that window. This is not to say that a web site can't obtain information about you - they can still get your IP address, for example. There is more sophisticated ways to prevent that kind of thing - but if you use them, then there's a chance that a web site might not work properly at all for you.

Always something new to learn.

This cookie-memory business also determines, in part, which ads one is shown. I'm often amused at how off-the-mark these can be.

In any case, clear your browsing history often.

I used Waterfox (updated version of Firefox) . It can be set not to allow websites to track you. I use in W10 , W81 and W7 64 bit machines .

Always something new to learn.

 

This cookie-memory business also determines, in part, which ads one is shown. I'm often amused at how off-the-mark these can be.

 

In any case, clear your browsing history often.

Although this is definitely not cruise related, perhaps you could quickly advise why ads are "off-the-mark". I do not find this to be the case, My "ads" tend to be related to the sites I visit.

Now, hopefully we can go back to the topic -- unsolicited phones calls from Regent. As stated in my earlier post, I do not agree that Regent is tracking us online. Even if they did - how would they get our phone numbers? To me, the obvious answer is that Regent already has a record of our names, phone numbers, address, what cruises we have taken and whether or not we have a TA.

I've got to proof-read better. :( Above, it should have read "Regent, which does NOT use them at all."

 

And to clarify about going "incognito," you do that only when you want to. Most of the time, it's a good thing for your browser to remember your history and keep your cookies. Incognito mode is probably mostly used for people viewing adult content. Just saying ...

Agree 100%. I would certainly not recommend frequently deleting your browsing history (except in the case you mentioned, as it causes more problems than it solves. :-)

Not sure how we went from Regent consultants making random calls and recommendations regarding our internet usage. Fortunately, this is not something that is reported often.

Yes, the travel agent will provide the cruise line all your information when they receive the booking and it may already be on file if you have cruised the line before.

 

I would never use a call center or book direct with the line. A strong TA can alway offer you more such as private transfers,a private tour,a larger OBC or a rebate when you complete the cruise....nice to see that check. If Regent is just offering you the same benefits as your TA you are getting from your TA you are getting the minimum. A strong TA will make a world of difference.

 

I hope that TC or Keith will add to my post.

Better late than never:o I could not agree with you more (this is becoming a habit:-) Obviously there are a few people that receive these types of calls..... but, iMO, it is so easy to shut them off that it is hardly worth mentioning!

It should also be noted that there does not seem to be anything going on in terms of merging "contacts" between NCL, Oceania and Regent (thankfully). If I received a phone call from a NCL rep., after I fainted and regained consciousness, I would insure that they never - ever called me again!!!!!!! Sorry but I am not a fan of NCL -- not in a top suite -- not in a bottom suite -- not in this lifetime (guess I made that perfectly clear:D).

Anyone who believes that Regent is not using cookies to follow website visitors is completely fooling themselves.

For security reasons, our office computers are heavily monitored and I constantly get reports of the websites that I have visited, what cookies were placed or tried to be placed, and what the cookies were doing - Regent is indeed monitoring their users, just like almost any other website. I can adjust my settings to allow for absolutely no tracking or monitoring, which is what I usually do, unless for some specific reason cookies are required to enter a website, which is becoming more and more common.

gnomie :)

Better late than never:o I could not agree with you more (this is becoming a habit:-) Obviously there are a few people that receive these types of calls..... but, iMO, it is so easy to shut them off that it is hardly worth mentioning!

 

It should also be noted that there does not seem to be anything going on in terms of merging "contacts" between NCL, Oceania and Regent (thankfully). If I received a phone call from a NCL rep., after I fainted and regained consciousness, I would insure that they never - ever called me again!!!!!!! Sorry but I am not a fan of NCL -- not in a top suite -- not in a bottom suite -- not in this lifetime (guess I made that perfectly clear:D).

This is rare - I am quoting myself. Just need to comment that I received a tacky, ugly flyer from NCL (or they claim to be NCL). It is offering a 7 night cruise plus 2 nights at a major hotel for........ nothing (of course). Where did they get my address? Who knows (I do not go into the NCL website). Now that I vented I will shred it. :eek:

This is rare - I am quoting myself. Just need to comment that I received a tacky, ugly flyer from NCL (or they claim to be NCL). It is offering a 7 night cruise plus 2 nights at a major hotel for........ nothing (of course). Where did they get my address? Who knows (I do not go into the NCL website). Now that I vented I will shred it. :eek:

TC2,

Doubt this was actually from NCL.

I have sailed with them before and receive promotional materials from NCL.

This sounds more like those random "free vacation" flyers I'll get on my fax line - the equivalent of paper spam - and not from NCL.

I endorse (knowing your published preferences) that you would not enjoy NCL - even in the Haven. It was a cruise I am glad to have done but am not at all eager to go back to the line.

TC2,

Doubt this was actually from NCL.

I have sailed with them before and receive promotional materials from NCL.

This sounds more like those random "free vacation" flyers I'll get on my fax line - the equivalent of paper spam - and not from NCL.

 

I endorse (knowing your published preferences) that you would not enjoy NCL - even in the Haven. It was a cruise I am glad to have done but am not at all eager to go back to the line.

Thanks for the explanation. We typically do not get those kind of flyers (and hopefully will not get one again). Just so strange that I wrote my feelings about NCL one day and received the flyer the next.

I think you are right about NCL. We would probably be fine in the Haven but do not want to deal with a ship holding so many people. The biggest negative for me is the "class system" that is alive and well on mainstream cruise lines.

Anyway, the main reason I wrote about the flyer was to add to my posts and feeling that unsolicited phone calls do not necessarily come from visiting a website. Actually, I usually get unsolicited calls from stores that I shop from online (I'm a big online shopper - rarely visit a mall or store). When we receive a call from an unknown number and a message is not left on the telephone, I promptly block the call. We do not get calls from the cruise lines that we've sailed (Regent, Silversea and Oceania). If they want to "watch" what I do online, they would undoubtedly get quite bored as I'm either doing research, shopping or posting on CC.

...Sorry but I am not a fan of NCL -- not in a top suite -- not in a bottom suite -- not in this lifetime (guess I made that perfectly clear:D).

LOL -- TC, you are the last person in the world I would expect to sail on NCL. The only reason I do is budget, and I don't think you have that challenge. I'd sail on a tuna boat rather than not cruise. But, it does have it's good points once you are aboard. Like this forum, the people are not as bad as they write.

LOL -- TC, you are the last person in the world I would expect to sail on NCL. The only reason I do is budget, and I don't think you have that challenge. I'd sail on a tuna boat rather than not cruise. But, it does have it's good points once you are aboard. Like this forum, the people are not as bad as they write.

You do know me pretty well;) If you, Betsy, FDR and his wife and family were on a NCL ship sailing to Cuba, I'd stay in the smallest suite if necessary because that would be a dream cruise!