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

[TedC]

Good attitude!

[Emdee]

Actually last year on the mariner Hambaghle asked the Cruise Director to set up a cc get together and each of us got invitations. It was very well attended by both cc members as well as Regent senior brass including the Captain. It was a nice event for all of us who had been anticipating this cruise over a few months.

 

So while the initiative may not be Regents they were more than willing to arrange a very nice cocktail party with drinks and appetizers.

[Island Cruiser]

Wayne, what a great post. I love your writing style and your sense of humor. I think your Mariner cruise will be a perfect introduction to luxury cruising for you and SWMBO. I think you'll be more than pleased so much so you will probably book your next cruise on board. The impending concierge changes are subtle in most instances. You'll get reservations in the restaurants. You may have to accept first or last sitting rather then prime time. But you'll get reservations. The shorter the cruise the greater the competition for restaurant reservations. You also may be on a cruise where none of the excursions are capacity limited in which case you'll get your first choice of tours at least most of the time. The problem for me with the new concierge policy is excursions that are capacity limited.

 

I am one of those who objects to the new concierge program and I am Regent gold and will not be personally affected. I don't like the direction it is taking. I don't like the idea of awarding perks to some at the expense of others even though almost all cruise lines do it. Regent hasn't done so in the past and the company's competitors in the luxury market still don't. So for me, the competitors are looking very good at the moment. They offer the same high quality cruise experience without the "class system" at least for now.

 

You're going to love Regent!!!

[Travelcat2]

Wayne, interesting and well thought out post. I look forward to your review of the Mariner and feel it will be a very positive one. On that cruise, you are pretty much guaranteed a restaurant reservation in Prime 7 and Signatures at the time and date you would like IF you book early, You may want to write a note on your calendar indicating the date reservations open.

 

Excursion reservations should open an7 day now. Check your account on Regent to get the exact date(s).

 

Regent cruises book up fairly early, and you receive a discount if you book your next cruise while on board. You may have to take a leap of faith in terms of how the new program will affect your second cruise. If you wait until April, you will have lost your discount and may find the cruise you want already booked up.

[Mark_T]

You can add me to the list of those who do not appreciate this change.

 

It will have no direct negative impact on us due to the suite grade that we usually book, but that doesn't mean that we like this change to the previous class-free environment.

 

We already avoid Cunard because of the grade based dining arrangements (and a few other things), I'd hate to have to add Regent to the list as well, but it is looking like we may have to do just that :(

[blue whale]

Thank you for the idea of getting the CD to set up a meet and mingle. We are hoping that when we are on Mariner in January to meet for dinner with other CCers early in each segment of our cruise. Our group of CCers will be small so that a lunch or dinner party may be feasible.

 

But if the group gets larger, a meet and mingle might be more feasible.

 

Thanks for the idea.

[Travelcat2]

Actually last year on the mariner Hambaghle asked the Cruise Director to set up a cc get together and each of us got invitations. It was very well attended by both cc members as well as Regent senior brass including the Captain. It was a nice event for all of us who had been anticipating this cruise over a few months.

 

So while the initiative may not be Regents they were more than willing to arrange a very nice cocktail party with drinks and appetizers.

 

Do not want to disagree, but, some CD's and other staff are not "more than willing to arrange a very nice cocktail party" -- at least not for CC. In our January Mariner cruise, the "leader" of our group (who was wonderful) had to jump through hoops in order to get any space for the 30 of us. We were were reluctantly permitted to go into the Observation Lounge at 11:00 a.m. There was one bartender for the group (she did a good job). Although Regent would not set up a "cocktail party", we did have a great time meeting each other (no appetizers).

 

On the same cruise, an employee from our TA's office was there (on vacation -- not working) but managed to have Regent put together a very nice cocktail party in the Horizon Lounge for clients of her office.

 

When I put together a meet and greet for 14 CC members, I had us meet at a certain time in the Observation Lounge on the Voyager. I put a CC visor on the table to identify the group. They all showed up and decided to go to dinner as a group in CR. They accommodated us at one table -- really nice. After that day, we more or less decided that the Observation Lounge would ge a spot to hang out for CC. Most evenings we had cocktails there after which people headed off in their own direction (or sometimes with another couple or two for dinner). On the last night, I was asked if we could a large table again for the farewell dinner. We did and it was great. This was the best meet and greet I have been involved with. . . . . and, it was done with minimal assistance from Regent.

[charltonkerry]

Well as another pair of newbes, we have just booked our first cruise with Regent, but we where totally unaware of this divide caused by the Concierge Service, we are sailing in May 2012, therefore we will benefit as we have booked an A penthouse suite. Did this affect our decision, no, as we where unaware of the fact at the time of booking. We thought that the standard 180 days prior to booking excursions applied to all, would it affected us if we known, in fairness i doubt it, but as an example we will not travel on Cunard as we do not like 2 class ships.

 

It seems to us to be extermely unfair that because i am paying more for my cruise that i should have priority booking in the resturant and for the "free" excursions. In our opinion then if extra's are to be awarded then loyalty should be top of the list, will we take advantage of these perks of early booking excursions and the resturants, certainly for the excursions, but doubt it for the resturants, are these decisions 2 faced, we expect so, but it an honest answer. However we will take this 2 class system into account the next time we are thinking about a cruise on Regent.

 

Regards

 

Marion & Kerry

[RachelG]

Travelcat, my experience was the same as your setting up a CC get-together. There were about 12 of us, so I just picked a time and place to meet (observation lounge at 6). We visited and had drinks, then several of us went to dinner together. Had to sit at 2 tables in CR, but they were side by side. No help at all from the cruise director, but we had a wonderful time.

[Emdee]

Regarding the cc get together :Since some of you have had experiences different to mine I will have to speak to Gerry's persuasiveness and Dionne's (CD) cooperation. Kudos to them both!

[msafiri]

So here is another lurker who has come out of the woodwork because of this thread & the related thread about the potential 2 class cruise line.

As a never-ever cruiser, I have long resisted requests from friends to join them on a luxury cruise. We take multiple vacations every year for extended periods of time, have traveled to almost every popular place in the world where tourists go, have always stayed in land based accommodations including many of the most famous luxury hotels as well as some inexpensive b&bs, and eaten at quite a large number of Michelin stared restaurants as well as little pubs. Cruising seemed like belonging to a country club & having a social but sterile experience while interacting with people of a similar cultural background. (We never joined a country club either.) I have been following four luxury cruise boards on CruiseCritic as a way to learn if I should change my opinion about cruising. This thread has been particularly interesting.

 

There seems to be 4 schools of thought expressed here regarding the Concierge Program:

1) The new program creates a class system were people in lower priced suites and a status below gold will have a harder time getting the restaurant, excursion, & spa reservations they want. Second class treatment for a group of passengers based on fare is not considered “luxury.”

2) The perception of unequal treatment won’t happen. Regent won’t let it. Everybody will get the excursions & reservations they want. In which case, these benefits in the concierge program seem to be a sham to trick ignorant people into buying a more expensive suite than they might have without the program.

3) Separate class treatment happens - deal with it. Airlines have been used as an example. If I ever take a luxury cruise, I would hope never to compare it to flying on a commercial airline even though I do not fly economy.

4) Wait & see before deciding the impact.

 

Perhaps I missed something.

I find myself aligning with option 1. While I would not necessarily expect to get all the reservations I wanted when I wanted, I would not want the reason to be that I did not pay enough for my suite on a luxury cruise line. I can handle that I waited too long to try to make the reservation. (Happens to me in land based, luxury restaurants all the time.)

 

Regent had two strikes against it for me because of the included excursions. It would be a big jump for me to go from land based touring on my own, or in some cases with a private guide, to a cruise ship. The additional jump to a tour bus seems maybe too much all at once. The initiation of the Concierge Program may prove to be the third strike on Regent for me. (Sorry non-U.S. readers for the baseball analogy.)

 

Based on my experience monitoring the Regent board, I have pretty much concluded I am not a good fit for the Regent experience. The jury is still out on the other 3. For now, land based touring seems a better choice for me as long as I am physically able and don’t mind packing my bags more frequently in order to visit the same ports.

[tallship]

msafiri -

 

Great summary and post. We are heading on likely our last Regent cruise in just a few weeks time. We have enjoyed the Regent experience and loved the line when the prices were a bit lower (the per diem has almost doubled in 5 years since we took our first cruise with Radisson) and we could arrange our own excursions as well as book a couple from the ship. These recent changes have indeed created a class system on the ship in line with Cunard, etc. - I do not consider Cunard to be luxury and would not cruise them

 

 

We are also looking at Crystal, Seabourn or Silversea. I hope you let us know if you decide on one of the other three cruise lines you are considering - we may do land trips in interim as well since we could likely get great meals, accomodation, local excursions, etc for a lot less than approx. 1500/day for the 2 of us

[ChatKat in Ca.]

Tina - I am in total agreement with you. We are looking for Fall 2012 and saw some fantastic deals on Seabourn. Going to look for some other options including land, but we are waiting to see how we like the River Cruise experience on Viking.

 

msafiri - thank you for looking in and summarizing how you see our exchange. I am with you - the cost of the excursions and hotel included in the fare have changed the opportunity for the travel on Regent for me after investing over $200,000 in fares with them over the last 10 years.

[Travelcat2]

So here is another lurker who has come out of the woodwork because of this thread & the related thread about the potential 2 class cruise line.

As a never-ever cruiser, I have long resisted requests from friends to join them on a luxury cruise. We take multiple vacations every year for extended periods of time, have traveled to almost every popular place in the world where tourists go, have always stayed in land based accommodations including many of the most famous luxury hotels as well as some inexpensive b&bs, and eaten at quite a large number of Michelin stared restaurants as well as little pubs. Cruising seemed like belonging to a country club & having a social but sterile experience while interacting with people of a similar cultural background. (We never joined a country club either.) I have been following four luxury cruise boards on CruiseCritic as a way to learn if I should change my opinion about cruising. This thread has been particularly interesting.

 

There seems to be 4 schools of thought expressed here regarding the Concierge Program:

1) The new program creates a class system were people in lower priced suites and a status below gold will have a harder time getting the restaurant, excursion, & spa reservations they want. Second class treatment for a group of passengers based on fare is not considered “luxury.”

2) The perception of unequal treatment won’t happen. Regent won’t let it. Everybody will get the excursions & reservations they want. In which case, these benefits in the concierge program seem to be a sham to trick ignorant people into buying a more expensive suite than they might have without the program.

3) Separate class treatment happens - deal with it. Airlines have been used as an example. If I ever take a luxury cruise, I would hope never to compare it to flying on a commercial airline even though I do not fly economy.

4) Wait & see before deciding the impact.

 

Perhaps I missed something.

I find myself aligning with option 1. While I would not necessarily expect to get all the reservations I wanted when I wanted, I would not want the reason to be that I did not pay enough for my suite on a luxury cruise line. I can handle that I waited too long to try to make the reservation. (Happens to me in land based, luxury restaurants all the time.)

 

Regent had two strikes against it for me because of the included excursions. It would be a big jump for me to go from land based touring on my own, or in some cases with a private guide, to a cruise ship. The additional jump to a tour bus seems maybe too much all at once. The initiation of the Concierge Program may prove to be the third strike on Regent for me. (Sorry non-U.S. readers for the baseball analogy.)

 

Based on my experience monitoring the Regent board, I have pretty much concluded I am not a good fit for the Regent experience. The jury is still out on the other 3. For now, land based touring seems a better choice for me as long as I am physically able and don’t mind packing my bags more frequently in order to visit the same ports.

 

You have obviously been a very observant lurker as you seem to captured the essence of the Concierge Program. We are aligned with your #1 school of thought,

 

Not believing that it will happen is ostrich-like behavior. Waiting to see what happens could cause you to miss out on 2012 booking as all of the best itineraries will be booked before the new program even begins.

 

I think you may be judging the luxury cruise experience a bit too harshly. Unfortunately, the CruiseCritic boards have not been "normal" for a couple of months since Regent first mentioned the Concierge Program.

 

Let me quote a sentence of your post: "Cruising seemed like belonging to a country club & having a social but sterile experience while interacting with people of a similar cultural background"

 

Fortunately, our experience sailing on Regent does meet your expectations. We do not belong to a country club and have no thought of ever doing so. The cultural backgrounds of passengers is diverse. The discussions on board are about travel . . . . land travel, cruising, any type of travel. At the end of the day people are sharing stories of where they went on their excursions, what they purchased, etc. I usually do not run into any stuffy people. Everyone is pleasant and is there to have a great time.

 

On port intensive itineraries, there is not as much on the ship to do as there is on sea days. Many of us rush back to the ship around 3:30 p.m. as we wouldn't want to miss Trivia. I know, that sounds a bit like a bunch of old women sitting around playing a game. Trivia on Regent is taken seriously (but not too seriously). We try to find a team that includes a couple from the U.K. or Europe so we have some of the international questions handled. We have a great time for a half hour (we laugh at our dumb mistakes).

 

There are many more things to do on sea days. Wine tastings, food demonstrations. . . . of course, there are the card games and board games, sporting events, etc. You can do as much as you want to do. The suites on Regent suites are big enough to be comfortable. Even have a walk in closet.

 

We did 20 years of interntional land travel before we began cruising. So, the excursions are not that big of a deal. We sometimes go with another couple or two and create our own excursions or go on our own in different cities. . .just walking.

 

Really think you should give Regent a try.. . . . if you can resolve the issue of their new policy.

[HappyInVan]

We did 20 years of interntional land travel before we began cruising. So, the excursions are not that big of a deal. We sometimes go with another couple or two and create our own excursions or go on our own in different cities. . .just walking.

 

Really think you should give Regent a try.. . . . if you can resolve the issue of their new policy.

 

Hope that they will resolve Travelcat's angst! :(

[Island Cruiser]

msafiri, your analysis is spot on. You nailed it! Great post. Thanks.

[TedC]

misafiri, I scoffed at cruise ships when I had my own sailboats and we did a lot of land travel in the off season. We hadn't seen much of S. America but didn't want to go because I feared hygiene and food issues - I'm a "germophobe".

 

 

While trekking in Nepal several years ago and having food and hygiene issues I decided a cruise around S. America would be the way to go - ships have to meet VERY rigid standards..

 

 

The great food, convenience of not having to always pack and unpack, sold us on cruising. After reading Cruise Critic and a wonderful blog from "Petlover" on a Regent world cruise we took our first Regent cruise and LOVED it. We were afraid luxury cruise lines would be stuffy - some may be - but not Regent.

 

All of our Regent experiences have been positive.

 

Give Regent a chance, I think you'll love it too.

[Island Cruiser]

Amen to the above. We did land trips, great land trips, for twenty years. We thought we'd HATE cruising. But in 1992 we came upon a cruise deal so cheap we had to try it. It was on the old Island Princess then sort of a dump. Last Alaska sailing of the season. Vancouver to Vancouver. The price for a "premium" cabin was really really cheap. You wouldn't believe what passed for a premium cabin back then. As an added bonus, we live only 120 miles from the Vancouver ship terminal so getting to the ship was also cheap. We boarded the ship still thinking we'd hate cruising. We had an absolute blast. We left the ship sold on cruising as one of several great vacation options. We've since done lots of land trips and have about 200 days of cruising behind us. This year, we'll do our second riverboat trip.

[msafiri]

TedC & Island Cruiser, Thanks for the reassurances.

I have always wanted to do a Nepal trek but decided to wait until my next life. Maybe Regent will add Kathmandu as a port & I can do it in this life!

All the luxury lines get predominately positive reviews so maybe I'll pick one based on price & itinerary. I probably won't price excursions on other cruise lines into the comparison unless I choose an itinerary that doesn't lend itself to wandering around on your own.

[Avondale]

Do not worry what others say-There will not be a two class system on Regent. And, you can compare the perks on cruise ships to perks offered by flying 1st or Busineess Class. Never heard complaints when perks such as additional hours of free long distance, extra ironing, free laundry, early disembarkation, etc. were offered to pax as loyalty perks. Now that additional perks are being offered, some are trying to make much ado about nothing.

This tempest in a teapot will go away with time. Regent is a great cruise line with wonderful cabins, super food with excellent variety and a crew that answers above the call.

[rallydave]

Do not worry what others say-There will not be a two class system on Regent. And, you can compare the perks on cruise ships to perks offered by flying 1st or Busineess Class. Never heard complaints when perks such as additional hours of free long distance, extra ironing, free laundry, early disembarkation, etc. were offered to pax as loyalty perks. Now that additional perks are being offered, some are trying to make much ado about nothing.

This tempest in a teapot will go away with time. Regent is a great cruise line with wonderful cabins, super food with excellent variety and a crew that answers above the call.

 

Avondale, you are TOTALLY incorrect. You obviously have chosen to ignore what many of us have said. Regent is wonderful with the exception of the destinations organization. We are not talking about perks that people pay for by paying higher fares for higher suite categories.

 

We are talking about making people who have not cruised for 75+ nites and have chosen to not pay extra for higher suite categories to be at the end of the line when booking speciality restaurants and excursions even though we pay exactly the same amount of money that the others pay.

 

We don't object to the perks which are paid for by higher fares but object completely to most probably be restricted from dining in specialty when we want to and most important, not being able to book and take excursions that we have paid for within our fare because approx. 85% of the passengers will be able to book 60 days prior to our being able to book and they will be sold out.

 

On my most recent regent cruise, due to an IT error on the part of regent, even though I stayed up until booking opened, I was unable to book an extra cost excursion as I was locked out until the next morning. At that point, all available reservations were already taken. Now consider what a 60 day delay will do to limited excursions??

 

All we want is an equal chance to book what we have paid for and promised in all the glossy brochures. The notion that concierge is a limited perk is proved totally untrue when approx. 85% of the passengers have the perk relagating the rest of us to what was second class cruisers prior to regent supposidly opening up these priviledges to gold and above. Now we have moved further down the food chain to third class citizens.

 

Perhaps the delay in announcing the addition of gold and above to this new program is being held up while regent once again looks at the process and realizes the folly of what they are doing.

 

One can only hope!!

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Only small disagreement with TC's latest post--yes, pax do talk about travels, but lots of other topics too--just not politics or religion!

[poss]

There was a cute moment on our cruise shortly before the 2008 election. The morning of disembarkation, we noticed and spoke for a few minutes with two fellows who were sporting big Obama pins. They said that of course they never worn them during the cruise, nor spoke of the up-coming election at all; but they really really wanted to put them on for the final morning. Fair nuf!

[Travelcat2]

Wendy, of course, you're right, however, we do find ourselves discussing travel quite a bit:)

 

Avondale: Fortunately, your opinion is in the minority. RallyDave explained it quite well. There is no comparison between in-suite benefits and being last in line.

 

Rallydave brought one excellent point that has not really been discussed. While Mark Conroy's correspondence indicated that Gold and above would be excluded from the new plan, it has not been "formally" announced and is not included in the description of Concierge benefits on the website. So, as we learned with the announcement in March (that was later not considered an announcement and was pulled from a publication), it isn't official until Regent makes a "public" announcement.

[Responder]

Wendy, of course, you're right, however, we do find ourselves discussing travel quite a bit:)

 

Avondale: Fortunately, your opinion is in the minority. RallyDave explained it quite well. There is no comparison between in-suite benefits and being last in line.

 

Rallydave brought one excellent point that has not really been discussed. While Mark Conroy's correspondence indicated that Gold and above would be excluded from the new plan, it has not been "formally" announced and is not included in the description of Concierge benefits on the website. So, as we learned with the announcement in March (that was later not considered an announcement and was pulled from a publication), it isn't official until Regent makes a "public" announcement.

 

TC....

 

Maybe I'll get lucky this time and my post won't be deleted.

 

I agree with Avondale as do many other posters. How do we know that we are in the minority? What is the measuring stick? Have we done a mathematical calculation to determine this?

 

Putting this aside for the moment, I don't think the "minority" is saying that changes will not occur. Life pretty much determines that. What we are saying is that in our opinion, the issue is well out of proportion. We think in time that it will fade away. Aren't we also entitled to our thoughts?

 

I don't really want to spend my time analyzing or anticipating Mark Conroy's every word. It's his business and so far I think it's going pretty well. I also think that those in the so called majority who may bail out, may be back.

 

Regent is still the tops in my book and until the day they make it so bad that it chases me away, I'm here to stay.