Excursion - time change!

[Pies4u]

Just viewed my Regent account to check my excursion list - Regent have changed the timing of one without notice or confirmation.

 

Is it common practice for Regent to unilaterally change your (half day/4 hour) tour time from am to pm? I had this problem when they suddenly changed my flight from the UK to Barcelona - that was both the airport an the time. This has varied an am tour to a pm one. Same tour but at a time that it is not my particular choice/preference. I don't want to go on a tour at 13.30 thank you very much, I'll decide which option is suitable - generally the one I've booked and had confirmed!

 

The fact that they do this without advising you and that you find out accidentally seems incredible to me, almost beyond belief. I'll be on the phone tomorrow to find out what on Earth is going on but I'm getting a wee bit fed up of Regent even before I board for my first cruise next April, which can't be a good thing!

 

I'm guessing that there is over subscription for the am tour and they'd decided to shift some people - but intriguingly, when I booked it there was no option offered, unlike any other cruise line I've used before, it was 8.30 am or nothing. Where has the 13.30 option now sprung up from? If the 8.30 am tour is cancelled for some reason, which I very much doubt is the case, then tell me! To just be swapped with no word from anybody is an appalling lack of both courtesy and service in my view, rather like the variation in flight arrangements - which I swapped back to my original preference as soon as I found out.

 

Is this a regular feature of Regent's conduct? If it is, then it is pretty poor effort on their part and a practice that makes me wonder what they are going to do next and it is hardly designed to encourage me to want to re-book with them in the future.

[Travelcat2]

Yes -- we have had our excursions times changed a few times. If the time doesn't work for you, go to Destination Services when you get onboard and see if there is an option for the previous time. I'm not happy when this occurs and have cancelled excursions because of time changes in the past. There are various reasons why this happens -- one of which is that, IMO, the whole "free" excursion option is too difficult to handle. I'll let it go with that -- do not want to get on my soap box about included excursions.:)

[ridon]

That occurred to us as well as completely different tours than advertised. TC's advise is the best in this situation. We've found the destination desk does little to resolve issues like this. Enjoy anyway

[Hunding]

Just viewed my Regent account to check my excursion list - Regent have changed the timing of one without notice or confirmation.

 

Is it common practice for Regent to unilaterally change your (half day/4 hour) tour time from am to pm? I had this problem when they suddenly changed my flight from the UK to Barcelona - that was both the airport an the time. This has varied an am tour to a pm one. Same tour but at a time that it is not my particular choice/preference. I don't want to go on a tour at 13.30 thank you very much, I'll decide which option is suitable - generally the one I've booked and had confirmed!

 

The fact that they do this without advising you and that you find out accidentally seems incredible to me, almost beyond belief. I'll be on the phone tomorrow to find out what on Earth is going on but I'm getting a wee bit fed up of Regent even before I board for my first cruise next April, which can't be a good thing!

 

I'm guessing that there is over subscription for the am tour and they'd decided to shift some people - but intriguingly, when I booked it there was no option offered, unlike any other cruise line I've used before, it was 8.30 am or nothing. Where has the 13.30 option now sprung up from? If the 8.30 am tour is cancelled for some reason, which I very much doubt is the case, then tell me! To just be swapped with no word from anybody is an appalling lack of both courtesy and service in my view, rather like the variation in flight arrangements - which I swapped back to my original preference as soon as I found out.

 

Is this a regular feature of Regent's conduct? If it is, then it is pretty poor effort on their part and a practice that makes me wonder what they are going to do next and it is hardly designed to encourage me to want to re-book with them in the future.

 

Why don't you inquire as to why you were switched to an afternoon excursion? If the response is unsatisfactory, you are then free to accept the change, cancel, or, perhaps, to select an alternate excursion.

[janecambridge]

We recently booked a morning tour of 3 1/4 hours and booked a short afternoon tour too.When we got onboard we were told that the morning tour would be 4 1/2 hours so cancelled the afternoon tour. The whole thing in the morning took less then 2 1/2 hours.!

The change of time,Pies4u,may be a good thing if other cruise ships will be doing the same tour in the morning!

We had no end of problems with our flight change and in the end told them to stick it and decided not to go.I had too much on my mind at the time to be playing silly games..But our agent got onto the case and we got sorted to our satisfaction.But I doubt we will cruise with Regent again unless a really really good offer came up.I have better service ,food etc with other ships which don't claim to be 6 star...such a shame..

[RachelG]

We have tour times change several times. Sometimes for the good and sometimes for the bad. And Regent does not always have control over this. It may be the tour operator. Or they may be trying to avoid something that we complain about all the time-having several buses arrive at the same place at the same time.

 

Same with tour cancellations. I remember one tour we were really looking forward to--a jetboat tour. It was cancelled completely, and I was quite annoyed because none of the other tours in that port really appealed. I started researching to try to find us something to do on our own and found out the tour operator had gone out of business.

[Pies4u]

Thanks, plenty of sound advice there.

 

However, the critical issue is the lack of courtesy and poor communication. It may transpire that pm is, in fact, more suitable in the end - but - it is the policy of unilaterally varying arrangements without consultation or explanation that concerns me the most. That is just very poor service IMO.

Edited November 18, 2014 by Pies4u

[RachelG]

Often we have not found about time changes until after we were onboard. That is just the way things work. In my experience, silversea is way worse than regent when it comes to tour cancellations or time changes. You just have to go with the flow or be constantly frustrated and mad. You can always cancel the tour if it messes up your plans.