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Tucruisers

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    London
  • Interests
    travel
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    seabourn

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  1. It's not just the additional cost of the taxi transfer, it's the fact that those affected paid the substantial extra cost of Concierge for no benefit, the cost of the taxi from the hotel to the ship ( I do not think there is any public transport) and the hassle of having to make our own arrangements when we had paid Regent for this. As stated, the legal and consumer rights position differs between the USA and the UK as does the role of the TA. This is sold as a package holiday in the UK and the customer is entitled to a full refund if Regent fails to deliver any element of the package. I guess this is why they are offering the Courtyard by Marriott, they will say this fulfils the promise of a pre-cruise stay, even though it is 50km from Reykjavik. I think things must have changed a lot in Regent since we last cruised with them pre-covid.
  2. Best wishes to those continuing to battle for a fair outcome on this, I feel a little guilty about abandoning the fight! In the end, it was relatively straightforward to book hotel and taxi transfer from the airport (booking.com) but of course we will still have to arrange and pay for the taxi transfer from the hotel to the ship. Quite apart from the fact that this cost more than £300 even with pre-paying we paid unnecessarily for the much more expensive Concierge level precisely because of the promised pre-cruise night in Reykjavik. Best wishes too for those on the Airport Shuttle bus. I am sure it will be fine but is not for us and I do not agree that this is an adequate replacement for the meet on arrival, door to door transfer promised by Regent. It may be different for US customers, but my experience in the UK is that it is terribly difficult and slow to deal with Regent. In effect, our TA gets in touch with the Regent UK Office, they have to get in touch with their bosses in the US Office and every iteration takes a week with the date for final payment fast approaching. Volcanoes permitting, I hope we all make it on board. Let's get the cruise director to put on a cocktail party named "Cancelled pre-cruise cross people". I am sure it will be packed!
  3. Thought I should just update on how things concluded for us. Regent did indeed propose to put us in the Courtyard by Marriott with transfers. This is an airport hotel outside Keflavik some 50km from Reykjavik with no public transport links so far as we could determine. Regent has us booked on a flight scheduled to arrive Keflavik at 9.30am so we would presumably get to the hotel mid-morning. Regent declined to arrange early check in or any other transport or activity so we would have presumably just been stuck in the hotel lobby much of the time. So long story short we made our own arrangements for a ore-cruise hotel (the Alda) and taxi transfer from the airport. The cost is of course much higher than the £300 "gesture of goodwill" from Regent. We are already booked on Grandeur later in the year. After that, we will be Regent ex-customers. Hope others make arrangements to their satisfaction and again, thanks for the interest and support on these boards.
  4. Good advice not to let all this spoil our cruise but for me it would do just that were we to be keeping receipts with the anticipation of subsequent claims against Regent which would have to be backed up by threats of action. I also wonder if we would be deemed to have accepted the change to terms by going ahead and accepting the £300 and OBC. So for us, it looks to be either agree to stay in an airport hotel in Keflavik (if this is even offered) or cancel and seek a refund. I wonder if someone in Regent thinks this is a good way to promote what is supposed to be a premium brand?
  5. We have had the same "offer" I guess we have the same TA. The emphasis from Regent is that neither of these options is guaranteed.
  6. Latest from Regent is that this has been referred up the line, the can't either give a decision on what to do about (lots of) unhappy pax or even when they might get to a decision. This is a bit of a problem in the UK at least as under our booking conditions it seems pretty clear that as this is a package and Regent are not fulfilling their promise people are entitled to a full refund and the date for final payment is fast approaching. As to the airport shuttle bus, really? Once an hour from the airport, limited to one bag then transfers to vans or walk with luggage to hotels. Even then the cost with hotel is way in excess of Regent's "gesture of goodwill". If Regent sat there and thought what was the best way to stop people booking with us ever again they could not have come up with a better plan.
  7. Thanks to Pcardad for the post and information though some of the hotels are not in the centre of Rejkyavik (the 201 Hotel for example is 7 kilometres outside, Hotel 201 2 kilometres outside)) and when you go to the websites for the other hotels you get specific B and B prices (well) over £250 per night for 14 July, at least from here in the UK. It is also true that there is an airport bus that runs once an hour to central Rejkyavik which allows only I suitcase per person and only goes to specific locations at a cost of approx £55 for two people. Is this the same as the promised Regent hotel transfer? I am afraid our days of managing cruise luggage on airport transfer busses are long gone.
  8. Thank you to everyone for the interest, support and advice. Flossie's observation about the extra cost of Concierge over F Grade is spot on. In fact we are now in a worse position than we would have been with an F Grade booking in that we don't even get transfers! We would genuinely welcome advice on hotels and transfers. The cheapest pre-booked airport transfer I can see is 156 euro (£133) although even that was not confirmed and extras sometimes appear when you book. A google search warns of higher costs than this by getting a taxi from the rank at the airport. The cheapest room at the Konsultat mentioned by Iprp is £417 inc breakfast for 14 July and all 4 star hotels that I can see through booking sites online are £250 plus, if anyone has any different information or suggestions these would be most welcome. The taxi from the hotel to the cruise terminal would be on top of this. So, still waiting to hear back from our TA and Regent. I know that in a way these are first world problems and we are fortunate to be able to bear any extra costs without this impacting anything other than our kids inheritance but I must say that it is irritating! We pay pretty much top dollar to Regent for things to go smoothly, not to be endlessly cross with them!
  9. This cruise was booked on the basis that it included a pre-cruise hotel in Reykjavik and transfers. Regent are now seeking to withdraw that element of the contract with passengers and give £150 pp as compensation. First, it is unacceptable that they should behave in this way. It is still perfectly possible for them to book and pay for hotels and transfers even if this may take a little more administrative effort on their part. Second, the additional cost to us of making our own arrangements wold far exceed the amount offered. So lets's see what they do. Our TA has gone back to Regent and we wait to see what they say. We will then assess our options which should include cancellation and full refund (this is a significant change to the arrangements booked) or we may still proceed but Regent will surely have lost us as future customers. I should say we have coming up to 200 nights with Regent but this would be our first cruise back with them since Covid. In the meantime, we have had good experiences with Seabourn and Scenic but thought we would give Regent another go because we were interested in the itinerary for this cruise. We aren now regretting this.
  10. Yes, we received notification this morning as well. We have gone back to our TA to say this is not acceptable to us. We also booked Concierge level for the pre-cruise hotel and transfers. Regent use this port regularly and they point out in their own communication that there are lots of hotels. Unfortunately, they cost more than the compensation being offered. For example, the Hilton at the cruise port is more that £300 for the night in question without transfers. This was to be our return cruise with Regent after 5 years, during which we have sailed with Seabourn, Scenic and Viking. The outcome of this will determine whether we book Regent ever again.
  11. We are UK resident new-to-Seabourn cruisers off to the Norwegian Fjords in the summer. Have read with interest the posts on referral coupons on this site and think I almost understand the system. So, does anyone have a coupon which we could use/share? Would at least help those of us who have to otherwise use the puny £ sterling! Tucruisers
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