As our experience with Regent on our January 12th cruise to New Zealand and Australia unfolded we tried to remain positive but Regent's lack of execution and candor was very disappointing. We have a future cruise on Regent and our seriously considering cancellation.
A daily perspective:
1/12 - Boarded in Auckland with no indication of problems
1/13 - In Constellation theatre ready for excursions to Bay of Islands. Announcement over intercom that Bay of Islands is cancelled due to not meeting New Zealand's standards. Letter in suite offering $250PP ship board credit
1/14 - Allowed to port in Tauranga to refuel. Allowed to proceed to booked excursions but told to truncate times to return to boat by 3:00pm. Departure not til 5:00pm
1/14 - Announcement that Napier is also now cancelled. Letter in suite offering $250PP refundable credit. Told that after additional cleaning Regent will try and make majority of New Zealand ports. Conspicuously absent is any mention of New Zealand's Sounds.
1/16 - Unplanned stop in Gisborne. A complete waste of time. No excursions available. Not a suitable destination site.
1/17 - Revised itinerary announced. As suspected Sounds have been eliminated. Timaru has been addded. No explanations why Burnie has been eliminated. A letter is in suite offering 30% FCC ( cruise fare only) on future cruise booking. No one in Destination Services or Reception can explain how to calculate FCC or if it can be used on already booked cruise. Mysteriously first ship board credit is now reflected as refundable. No announcement made. Many passengers still believe first credit is nonrefundable.
1/19 - Timaru has been added. Also a complete waste of time. Not a suitable destination site.
1/20 - Taeri Gorge paid excursion. Very disappointing. Information from Destination Services on excursion is very inaccurate. Return to suite 50% refund offered without being asked to all participants. Reflective of disappointing delivery.
1/22 - Missed timing to Melbourne docking, instead of arriving at 10:00 AM, arrived at 5:00 PM. Many passengers had planned excursions to the Australian Open. Ticket costs were lost. Port of Geelong was eliminated.
1/22 - A letter is in suite offering 25% refund ( cruise fare only).
Recap
We traveled half way around the world at a very expensive price (both air and cruise) for the following:
1) Miss four of our scheduled nine ports,
2) Missed cruising through the Sounds
3) Substituted two extremely poor and unprepared destinations
4) Truncated our tour at one location
5) Missed considerably our target time to Melbourne
6) Have an offer of compensation that no one can definitively calculate. Our travel agent has been in contact with Regent with no definitive answers as to amounts and FCC qualifications
7) Regent"s overall piecemeal communication was flawed and unfortunately, very disingenuous. Regent boarded us when they knew they had issues with the local authorities. The captain's and Regent's cruise leadership tone was overall dismissive of their failed service delivery. Regent's "not my fault"attitude reflects how we as customer's were not Regent's primary concern. We were one of many passengers (approximately 33%) who signed a petition asking Regent to accept more responsibility for flawed delivery of service. Regent now has two back to back failed cruises to New Zealand and Australia. A monetary compensation does not make up for the many lifetime experiences that were ultimately lost.
