Shore Excursions on turnover day when you are on back to back cruises

I am booking shore excursions but on the turnover day, there are no excursions. Are excursions offered at some point to people who are staying onboard for the next cruise?

On the last cruise we took Regent did offer a tour on that day for those that were b2b. It wasn't offered until on the cruise.

Our cruise last spring was booked as a single cruise, but was really a b2b. Excursions for the turnover day were made available when we were on board.

Like mj_holiday our single cruise was a back to back with turnaround day in Lisbon. The limited (2) excursions were posted in advance though. Disappointed with the poor offerings.

It appears that they usually post them when they have a good idea how many people they will have in-transit. If they've been doing last minute promotions on one of the segments, that may not be until you're actually on board. The number and variety seem to be directly related to how many people are in transit.

Thank you to all. We will check when we board.

I called Regent and was told we can book them onboard.

I called Regent and was told we can book them onboard.

To my knowledge that is the only place that you can book them. They only offer excursions if they are enough people doing the B2B and if enough sign up. Generally the turnaround excursions are okay but nothing special.

To my knowledge that is the only place that you can book them. They only offer excursions if they are enough people doing the B2B and if enough sign up. Generally the turnaround excursions are okay but nothing special.

I was able to book in advance; did not have to wait until onboard.

I was able to book in advance; did not have to wait until onboard.

All I can give is my personal experience and what I was told onboard. Since you were able to book in advance, it is possible (you likely had to call Regent to do that). I guess I don't see the point of booking in advance since, unlike regular excursions, the transition day excursions are not going to get filled up. If anything, many are cancelled.

Yes , book on board, however the range may be limited depending on how many b2b passengers there are. We have 3 past b2b trips and found on two of these nothing we wanted to do, not done previously, and on one trip in Venice on the Navigator there were too few potential passengers, so no excursions were arranged. We have in this case just walked ourselves, or in Athens we got the ho-ho bus, as we did not wish to do the Acropolis again in August . We had hoped to go to Corinth, but was not possible except with a very expensive taxi ride $500 , also bear in mind that you often have a short day as you must be back for the 2nd leg muster drill.

All I can give is my personal experience and what I was told onboard. Since you were able to book in advance, it is possible (you likely had to call Regent to do that). I guess I don't see the point of booking in advance since, unlike regular excursions, the transition day excursions are not going to get filled up. If anything, many are cancelled.

I gave my personal experience to the OP. I was able to book in advance. To my knowledge at that port 2 were offered and neither was cancelled as one was a HOHO bus.

I gave my personal experience to the OP. I was able to book in advance. To my knowledge at that port 2 were offered and neither was cancelled as one was a HOHO bus.

Not sure what the issue is. I didn't question your post but rather assumed that you were able to book in advance because you called Regent. Our experiences with excursions on turnaround day are similar to GrJ Berkshire. Giving the TS* different experiences can only be helpful. I personally would not contact Regent in an attempt to book in advance as I don't see the advantage to it but others may see it differently.

*To help newbies with our weird abbreviations (like TA which can stand for travel agent or transatlantic sailing). About a year ago Cruise Critic changed their website and is now using the term "Thread Starter" (aka TS), Prior to that posters were using OP which stood for Original Poster.

To reiterate, I booked in advance - online. I never said I called Regent and don't know why anyone would assume I had.

As we all know there are idiosyncrasies on the website and some sailings may have the options showing.

In so.e ports they offer notbing. You are 100% on your own. Not even a town shuttle. This last happen to me two years ago on a Baltic to Barcelona, B2B2B. One turnover was in Stockholm. It may have been that nothing was offered as we were the only ones B2B.

Like others have written, most turnover tours are last minute and limited in scope . A lot depends on capacity and port.

One of my best was on a B2B from LAX - HON - PPT. The ship offered a small group in-depth tour of the USS Missouri in Pearl Harbor. There were only 5 of us and we got to go all over the ship that was not part of the general tour.

J

To reiterate, I booked in advance - online. I never said I called Regent and don't know why anyone would assume I had.

As we all know there are idiosyncrasies on the website and some sailings may have the options showing.

One would assume that you either called Regent or your TA because in all of the years we have sailed on Regent, we have never seen an option to book an excursion online for turnaround day. This does not mean that it could never happen - just that we have not seen it.

It would be interesting to learn if anyone else has booked a "turnaround" excursion online. It sounds like you were able to do something that most of have been unable to do. Perhaps you will share how you managed to book it as it would be helpful for the TS.

One would assume that you either called Regent or your TA because in all of the years we have sailed on Regent, we have never seen an option to book an excursion online for turnaround day. This does not mean that it could never happen - just that we have not seen it.

 

It would be interesting to learn if anyone else has booked a "turnaround" excursion online. It sounds like you were able to do something that most of have been unable to do. Perhaps you will share how you managed to book it as it would be helpful for the TS.

As a friendly tip it's helpful to fully read a post before commenting. My first post said "Like mj_holiday our single cruise was a back to back with turnaround day in Lisbon. The limited (2) excursions were posted in advance though. Disappointed with the poor offerings."

Maybe the fact that the B2B was sold as a single itinerary had something to do with allowing the online reservation. The OP, HotRoot, does not say what the cruises are or if they are sold as one sailing as well.

I was able to book in advance; did not have to wait until onboard.

Actually, MJ_holiday posted that they had to wait until they were onboard before they booked the turnaround day. You indicated that you were able to book in advance and did not have to wait until you got onboard. Booking before you board would be different than I have heard of previously and the TS likely would want to know how this is done. So, now it appears that you did book onboard - during the first leg of your B2B cruise.

I do read posts but when there is conflicting information either from the same or different posters, it behooves us to attempt to get the correct answer. Kindly reread your posts #4 and #9.

We booked 2019 World Cruise, which is a single itinerary. Still, Regent is not offering any tours on segment start/end days. These ports are quite interesting and we are trying to get information what will our options be. This is so wrong. They should disclose such information at the time of advertising. Shame on Regent.

Actually, MJ_holiday posted that they had to wait until they were onboard before they booked the turnaround day. You indicated that you were able to book in advance and did not have to wait until you got onboard. Booking before you board would be different than I have heard of previously and the TS likely would want to know how this is done. So, now it appears that you did book onboard - during the first leg of your B2B cruise.

 

I do read posts but when there is conflicting information either from the same or different posters, it behooves us to attempt to get the correct answer. Kindly reread your posts #4 and #9.

Seriously? I don't know why you keep arguing with what my experience was.

This is what I posted: "Like mj_holiday our single cruise was a back to back with turnaround day in Lisbon."

Translation: It was available as either 2 separate segments or one full itinerary. I had booked the full itinerary, single cruise option as did mj_holiday.

Next post: "I was able to book in advance; did not have to wait until onboard." Translation: Unlike mj_holiday I was able to book prior to boarding.

Nowhere did I say I booked once onboard.

I do not know why you are misinterpreting/misrepresenting what I wrote.

JMARINER; thanks so much for sharing the outstanding turnover day excursion Regent offered on LAX-HON-PPT. We are on the Mariner for MIA-HON-PPT in October and would treasure a small group in depth tour of the USS Missouri. When I could last check my booked excursions (over a month now where we can't access) there were none offered in Honolulu. The Regent excursions rep we spoke with who deals with excursions, told us we can book Honolulu excursions once on board. On embark day will make a beeline to destination services and suggest this small group in depth USS Missouri tour.

We booked 2019 World Cruise, which is a single itinerary. Still, Regent is not offering any tours on segment start/end days. These ports are quite interesting and we are trying to get information what will our options be. This is so wrong. They should disclose such information at the time of advertising. Shame on Regent.

I agree. When I booked the single itinerary option I had no idea that there would be such a dearth of options on turnaround days. Regent certainly knows how many guests will be continuing and should be able to make arrangements for them.

WesW: we will also be on turnaround day in Honolulu, and if you need more input or additional people for doing that tour we will definitely back you up.

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We booked 2019 World Cruise, which is a single itinerary. Still, Regent is not offering any tours on segment start/end days. These ports are quite interesting and we are trying to get information what will our options be. This is so wrong. They should disclose such information at the time of advertising. Shame on Regent.

We are on the same cruise and I really would like to know what is going to be offered to us and when.

Originally posted by lenaldi

We are on the same cruise and I really would like to know what is going to be offered to us and when.

As I posted on another thread...We were on the 2018 world cruise. The tours for the turn around days were not posted until nearly sailing time, if they were posted ahead of time at all.

Most tours for the turnaround Days were not offered until we boarded in LA. One tour was posted early for Auckland (end of first segment)..it was a overview type by bus. There were a couple offered for Perth and Singapore (end of next two segments) ahead of time. Cape Town and Rio were overnights and the turn around day had nothing offered until we were on board, but there were tours offered ahead of time for the other day in each port.

When we boarded there was a packet of tour information in our rooms with tours offered on the turnaround days along with up dates on other tours...any changes in itinerary, time, or difficultly level plus some more interesting tour offering in some ports.

These tours are offered and run by a third party provider...one of several companies that offer tours to cruise ships in ports around the world. Regent does not have a lot of control over this and things do change and can go wrong. Especially when dealing with very long cruise and when the tours can be booked so far ahead of the actual tour date.

Don't worry you will have a good choice of tours to choose from for those exciting ports, but will probably have to wait until you board for the full list for those days. Good thing is the WCers are a small group so there will be plenty of space.

We were on the wait list for 8 or 9 tours over the course of the 137 days since we booked so late, but cleared all the wait lists before we boarded. Then we actually changed a couple of the tours after more information was available once on board to ones that sounded even better. The tour desk was very helpful in getting the best tour for us to see what we really wanted to, if I wasn't sure about a tour.

Enjoy the cruise it is a wonderful experience!!

Carolyn