Gold and Above to Receive Same Benefits for Dining and Excursion Sign-up

[Dreps]

I wrote Mark Conroy a lengthy e-mail about my views of the new Concierge-Level Amenities. I focused on my unhappiness with the advance sign-up for excursion and dining reservations being bestowed on those booking the "Concierge-Level" Cabins. Yesterday evening, I received a response from Conroy that included the following:

 

"You make a great point concerning the new concierge benefits which we did not take that into consideration when we designed the program."

 

" ... based on her {our TA's} feedback and the feedback from many Society Members we have elected to provide the same benefits for dining and tour sign up to Seven Seas Society Members ( Gold and above)."

 

I know that our TA had been working on this issue in the background on behalf of her loyal Regent passengers, and I imagine other TAs also expressed the displeasure of their clients as did the threads on CC and other cruise blogs. I am glad that the Regent saw the "error of their ways."

 

Conroy's e-mail back to me was short, but given it's content, he obviously read the details of my e-mail.

[mrlevin]

Eugene, great news! I would have expected nothing less from Regent.

 

Now, if I can get Regent to drop that pesky $199 per person charge when you don't fly from one of the 22 gateways; it was a lot better when their air was from one hundred gateways.

[KathyPet]

I will be embarking on my first Regent cruise in Sept. It will also most likely be my last one. I refuse to spend the money for a higher cost cabin on a ship when the least expensive cabins meets my needs and wants. Now, in spite of the large amount of $$ that I am spending for this cruise I will be treated as some sort of second class citizen and relegated to the end of the line for dining and shore excursion reservations??? I don't think so. If Regent wants to reward its higher spending passengers with freebies and perks like free laundry and free internet and nightly canapes served in their cabin that's fine because it does not affect me. Pushing me to the end of line for dining and shore excursions does affect me. Sorry Regent this cruise will not be repeated.

[turtlemichael]

Eugene, great news! I would have expected nothing less from Regent.

 

Great news if you are gold or above. I guess our 4 cruises and silver status don't wash as we slip further down the totem pole.

 

I was prepared to give Regent the benefit of the doubt and wait and see but I'm less inclined to now. I think we are now in the bottom 25% as a guess. I am not prepared to take the risk I won't get the tours I've paid for. I don't want to live with uncertainty so we will be now be looking at alternatives as others have done.

[mariners]

Dreps, I realize that this news has made you and many other passengers happy but I really question Regent's marketing. First, rather than informing an individual passenger of this change, wouldn't it make more sense to inform all of the gold and higher passengers at the same time and/or post it on the website so that everyone can see the information. Having a passenger "break the news" seems odd to me.

Second, as some of the others have stated, this is only good news to some people if they are gold or higher. Although, we are in this bracket, it is not good news to us for the reasons I have stated in previous threads.

Third, if this is to woo new passengers to Regent, then Regent must only want the passengers who will be Concierge class. It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out in the future.

[turtlemichael]

Mariners, I agree with you. Their marketing seems to be policy on the run. It's one thing to be responsive, it's another to be chaotic and reactionary.

[rallydave]

While this is a step in the right direction, once again communications from Regent is in the dark ages. And, what makes Gold and above any more entitled than Bronze or silver. We are well into Silver and after spending thousands of dollars for more than 25 nites, we are still considered second class citizens.

 

Our next and LAST regent cruise just before these stupid changes take effect will give us 43 nites on regent yet that only qualifies us to be second class in regent's mind. Our money is as good as any gold and above and will definately be going elsewhere.

 

Why gold and above, why not platinum and above or titanium. Once again, an other item from regent with not enough thought. The worse lack of thought is del rio junior being in charge of destinations, promoted to vice president when it is obvious to the customers that destinations is horribly run and needs a complete house cleaning while regent so called senior management gives the ceo's son a promotion.

 

Clearly not the type of company we want to spend any further money on and hopefully others will continue their migration causing regent to be the thorn in the side of apollo and a failure!!!

[Dreps]

I am sure that there will be a formal announcement from Regent. Perhaps I jumped the gun, but I thought it worthwhile to share the information since so many people expressed opinions on the subject. I wouldn't say that the news makes me "happy." I can easily understand why people would still object to the new policy. However, I am glad that at least Regent took some action in response to the displeasure voiced by many of their customers.

[BarbS]

Another lowly silver here also with four previous cruises who would be with you on the bottom of the Regent totem pole. We're in the process of planning a 2012 cruise, but will probably be looking at Seabourn instead of Regent.

 

 

Great news if you are gold or above. I guess our 4 cruises and silver status don't wash as we slip further down the totem pole.

 

I was prepared to give Regent the benefit of the doubt and wait and see but I'm less inclined to now. I think we are now in the bottom 25% as a guess. I am not prepared to take the risk I won't get the tours I've paid for. I don't want to live with uncertainty so we will be now be looking at alternatives as others have done.

[hondorner]

There was a significant number of protests from Gold passengers in the original thread who believed the new Concierge policy would somehow strip them of their existing status. This is a positive response to their position. It puts to rest the silliest of the early responses, that perks like free internet would be lost.

 

You know, the very first cruise I took on Regent, I spent "thousands" of Dollars. I wasn't even Bronze level until the end of that cruise! Should I have protested that after spending thousands of dollars, I wasn't invited to the SSS party? I've since spent thousands on a second cruise and have 17 nights; should I be canceling all future cruise with Regent because I don't yet have Silver benefits?

 

Criticizing their marketing as "reactionary"? What do you expect, that they get it perfect every time out of the box? They created a policy, people raised objections, and they reacted! If reactionary is a bad thing, give me more bad things!

[Responder]

There was a significant number of protests from Gold passengers in the original thread who believed the new Concierge policy would somehow strip them of their existing status. This is a positive response to their position. It puts to rest the silliest of the early responses, that perks like free internet would be lost.

 

You know, the very first cruise I took on Regent, I spent "thousands" of Dollars. I wasn't even Bronze level until the end of that cruise! Should I have protested that after spending thousands of dollars, I wasn't invited to the SSS party? I've since spent thousands on a second cruise and have 17 nights; should I be canceling all future cruise with Regent because I don't yet have Silver benefits? Bah.

 

If you remember, I quoted what the future cruise booking person told me a few weeks ago on the Navigator...that nothing would be taken away from the existing ranked cruisers...only the possibility that future cruisers would have to accrue more nights to reach the various levels.

 

Makes me wonder about why there is sheer panic about a timely restaurant reservation or excursion.

[BarbS]

Yes, I did notice the repeated requests for gold and above to be exempt from the new policy. Never mind about anyone below gold.

[CCKelly]

That is just more bad news for us! Lowly Silver here, so after paying a lot more money for a Regent cruise for "included" tours, we would be regalated to the bottom of the list to take whatever is left after most people would have already booked. I am wondering if we would still be guaranteed a dinner reservation in each specialty restaurant or if that is out the window also?

I am really not sure how this entire new policy attracts new customers to Regent, but what do I know.

[rallydave]

There was a significant number of protests from Gold passengers in the original thread who believed the new Concierge policy would somehow strip them of their existing status. This is a positive response to their position. It puts to rest the silliest of the early responses, that perks like free internet would be lost.

 

You know, the very first cruise I took on Regent, I spent "thousands" of Dollars. I wasn't even Bronze level until the end of that cruise! Should I have protested that after spending thousands of dollars, I wasn't invited to the SSS party? I've since spent thousands on a second cruise and have 17 nights; should I be canceling all future cruise with Regent because I don't yet have Silver benefits?

 

Criticizing their marketing as "reactionary"? What do you expect, that they get it perfect every time out of the box? They created a policy, people raised objections, and they reacted! If reactionary is a bad thing, give me more bad things!

 

Reactionary can be a good thing but, why do they need to be reactionary and not think the process through from the beginning?? Yes, I do expect a "luxury" cruise line that charges far and above the mainline cruises to be as close as possible to perfect. Too many of regent's actions are so far from perfect, they make Carnival look perfect. Not canceling all future cruises because I am not yet Gold, but because Regent has simply made the possibilities for getting good reservations to speciality restaurants and some excursions even more difficult that the stupid concierage policy for people who have already cruised fewer than 75 nites.

 

Guess Bronze and Silver should now be called third class citizens on regent. After our disaster in Beijing, we decided to actually give regent another chance and now that del rio jr is being promoted for poor performance and regent is making things worse and worse for frequent passengers with not enough nites, it is painfully obvious that regent, conroy, del rio both jr and sr don't give a damn!!!

 

Enough said. Only way we will even consider regent after April 2012 is if they can del rio jr and replace him with someone competant and correct this booking policy which puts people who have booked regent up to 75 nites at the bottom of the pecking order.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

 

Makes me wonder about why there is sheer panic about a timely restaurant reservation or excursion.

 

I think it's obvious that a fair number of Golds and above are not pleased, even now, because we care about the pax who aren't in that category, and want no part of this new class system.

 

What would we tell our newest cruise buddy, who just made Silver? That he may not get the same tours as we do, and to forget dining together in P7?

[cruiseluv]

Dreps, thanks for posting.

 

I find Regent's "strategy" hilarious, totally schizophrenic and reactionary. They started by creating this "Concierge Class" as a means to differentiate those standard cabins above Cat F and provide additional incentives to book those and the more expensive suits. Now they have added the universe of Gold and above tiered passengers. I would think that the total of these passengers account for at least 85% of total passengers, thus defeating the "exclusivity" of most of the new perks in "Concierge Class". Frankly, IMO their Concierge Class strategy will generate only nominal additional revenues if any, but it sure has created a PR blunder and bad feelings among those that will still see themselves as "2nd class " passengers.

[Responder]

Reactionary can be a good thing but, why do they need to be reactionary and not think the process through from the beginning?? Yes, I do expect a "luxury" cruise line that charges far and above the mainline cruises to be as close as possible to perfect. Too many of regent's actions are so far from perfect, they make Carnival look perfect. Not canceling all future cruises because I am not yet Gold, but because Regent has simply made the possibilities for getting good reservations to speciality restaurants and some excursions even more difficult that the stupid concierage policy for people who have already cruised fewer than 75 nites.

 

Guess Bronze and Silver should now be called third class citizens on regent. After our disaster in Beijing, we decided to actually give regent another chance and now that del rio jr is being promoted for poor performance and regent is making things worse and worse for frequent passengers with not enough nites, it is painfully obvious that regent, conroy, del rio both jr and sr don't give a damn!!!

 

Enough said. Only way we will even consider regent after April 2012 is if they can del rio jr and replace him with someone competant and correct this booking policy which puts people who have booked regent up to 75 nites at the bottom of the pecking order.

 

Why don't you tell us how you really feel..;)

 

I don't fault you for the way you feel, but just curious how or why you relate your future plans to revolve around who the CEO might be.

 

Are you as concerned when they change CEOs in the AT&T world or with GE or any major company for that matter?

 

You either like the product and/or service or you go elsewhere. Same with restaurants or music events or....

 

Do you know the CEOs on any other cruise line or are you that intimate with their products? If so, then that's where you should be spending your money.

 

From reading these posts, I don't see all that many people bailing out...most seem pleased with Regent.

[Travelcat2]

I feel that Regent deserves full credit for recognizing their long-time, loyal customers. If it is reactionary, so be it.

 

However, this does not make the policy right. It still creates two classes on a luxury ship. We were not affected by the policy before and we are Gold which satisfies most people who only think about themselves.

 

When Regent continues to lose customers, perhaps they will see the situation differently. Give all the benefits you want to different categories of cabins. However, putting anyone at the end of a line is not right and never will be.

[hondorner]

I won't repeat the points I made on the other thread about how and why that won't happen and why this is not a two-class system -- people will as likely ignore them on this thread as they did on that one.

 

But, I will try to quickly dispel the latest "sky is falling" worry about this policy before it, too, is considered fact. There will be the same potential number of passengers as before and will be the same number of seats in the specialty restaurants -- why on earth would someone think this might affect the one guaranteed reservation everyone gets?

[mrlevin]

For dining reservations, the only real problem is on seven day cruises. There are not enough seats to guarantee every passenger can get into Prime 7 if the ship is full. On 10+ day cruises there is no reason that everyone can't get a reservation in both restaurants.

 

Remember, also, that Regent does not fully book the restaurants through online pre-boarding bookings. There are always seats held in reserve for booking on board. Suite passengers already have a leg up on these due to their butlers. For the rest of us, it has always been an issue of how we ask. On one ocassion, they added an extra table in Signatures for me (this was some years ago). That was going above and beyond and it wasn't truly fair to slam the staff that way.

[rallydave]

Why don't you tell us how you really feel..;)

 

I don't fault you for the way you feel, but just curious how or why you relate your future plans to revolve around who the CEO might be.

 

Are you as concerned when they change CEOs in the AT&T world or with GE or any major company for that matter?

 

You either like the product and/or service or you go elsewhere. Same with restaurants or music events or....

 

Do you know the CEOs on any other cruise line or are you that intimate with their products? If so, then that's where you should be spending your money.

 

From reading these posts, I don't see all that many people bailing out...most seem pleased with Regent.

 

Why are you talking about the ceo. I am talking about frank del rio's son who I am calling jr to differentiate him from the ceo. jr is a bloody idiot and has no clue how to handle the destinations department yet his father promotes him to a vp?? Excursions are one of the higher priortity reasons for booking a particular cruise on a particular cruise line and from experience as well as many supporting posts on this forum, regent's destinations department is absolutely clueless as to how to satisfy the customer. They had the unmitigated gall to say that they couldn't refund any money to us for the missing of the Great Wall of China and sitting on a bus at a complete stop for about 7 hours because the excursion was "free". Do they think we ar stupid. Of course there was a cost for that excursion and we paid that as part of our cruise fare. It's attitudes like that directed by jr. that have driven us from regent in addition to our third class citizen status.

 

It does appear that many have cancelled cruises after the third class citizen policy takes effect and am sure others haven't booked because of that disaster of PR. You may not see what you consider a significant bailing on this board but, this board only represents about 5% of regent cruisers so for sure the jury is still out.

 

Can't wait for regent to be spun off to a real company with management that cares and has the brains to run a luxury cruise line.

[Island Cruiser]

I'm gold. I got mine! I'm going first class no matter what I pay for a cabin. Yea!

 

NUTS! I don't like a class system. Period. As a matter of fact, since there are lots and lots of us in the gold and up status, it will be all that much harder for the second class folks to get the excursions they really want and have paid for.

 

Question: what's coming next?

[Responder]

 

However, putting anyone at the end of a line is not right and never will be.

 

From my tenure on this earth, I figured out a long time ago that someone must be at the end of the line...any line.

 

Do you have a suggestion to change that process?

[mrlevin]

From my tenure on this earth, I figured out a long time ago that someone must be at the end of the line...any line.

 

Do you have a suggestion to change that process?

 

Most common sensical statement I have seen on these boards; there will always be someone at the front of the line and always someone at the end of the line. My wife always says that if food is involved, I am always at the front of the line. ;)

[mariners]

Dreps, I should have stated in my original message that I am very glad that you posted this information. If I had received the reply that you got from Mark Conroy, I, too, would have posted it on the board. A couple of years ago, I sent an e-mail to Mr. Conroy and he responded very quickly to my question. His response was a large part of the reason that we continued to sail Regent and I posted that on the board. Regardless of how the rest of this thread plays out, I really appreciate that you took the time to write to Regent and also post the results of your correspondence. Thank you!