Included v 'Pay for' Excursions

[machotspur]

We've just made a pre cruise/onboard booking for an itinerary between Dubai and Istanbul. 

 

The primary appeal of this itinerary to us was to pass through the Suez Canal for the first time. 

Notwithstanding this some of the ports of call were of interest, even if we had visited them before, notably :- 

 

Aqaba - the port for Petra

Safaga - the port for the Egyptian sites around Luxor.

 

I'd suggest that most prospective guests, on reading the itinerary, would have an expectation that they would be able to take an 'included/free' tour to each of these iconic sites, particularly as they are 'named' on the online/brochure itinerary 

Not so !!  Looking at the previous similar cruises all of the tours for both Luxor and Petra are shown as 'Regent Choice/Pay for' options. The 'included/free' tours' at both ports of call are IMHO very poor (e.g days on a beach or in a hotel etc). 

 

Whilst being relatively new to Regent we haven't come across this kind of - in our opinion - deceptive marketing/communication before.  Only this week we have returned from a cruise on Voyager that included 3 days in Israel. We took three 'included/free' tours to Jerusalem/Nazareth/TelAviv/Jaffa/Galilee. We would have been mighty upset if having made this booking it would have been revealed that we would have had to pay extra to visit these locations. 

 

Any thoughts on this issue please ?              

   

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I'm surprised they even offer one day tours into Luxor.  Must be totally exhausting; plus two very long bus rides.  It is a bit surprising that they don't do this for free (I mean included), but I guess with the long day, meals, etc., they just can't justify it.  I wonder what they charge for these.

 

In my opinion, doing an overnight trip, if they offer it, is the way to go for sure (having been there.)  So if they offer this as an Overland Program, I'd go for it (in the $1K pp range.)

 

If I make it back on the WC, we will be staying around Safaga and doing one of those beach or hotel breaks.

[flossie009]

2 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

 If this is not acceptable, you have time to cancel the cruise ($200 fee that can be used on a future cruise).

Not the case under UK Booking Conditions. Cancellation would result in the loss of the full deposit.

 

[papaflamingo]

Just an observation.  I agree that there are certain excursions that would seem "obvious."  However I was once given the impression (don't really remember where or why) that Regent included excursions are up to a certain monetary value.  Any excursion more than that falls into the Regent Choice category.  So let's say the max value of an excursion is $150 per person.  And the excursion you want is $250 per person.  The cost to you would be $100.  As I said, not sure if this is the case.  

Also some excursions that were Regent Choice may actually end up included.  We had one on our cruise that on previous cruises was Choice, but for us it was included.

As for "deceptive marketing," I would say not.  They provide excursions as possible.  They just may not be to your liking.  

[taxare]

While I would have asked the onboard cruise consultant for more information about the excursions at such significant sites, they didn't. If I am reading your post correctly you booked this within 30 days of getting on your current cruise. If that is correct and you are still within 30 days of placing your deposit, you can get a full refund of your deposit, but you will have to pay the $200 onboard credit bonus back. Another alternative is to transfer the full deposit to another cruise that is more pleasing to you and you will still get the onboard savings. There have been many threads on included vs Regent Choice excursions. While you are not pleased with the included excursions I do not agree that Regent is exercising deceptive marketing/communication.

[flossie009]

12 hours ago, machotspur said:

Any thoughts on this issue please ? 

All Regent "FUSE" (included excursions) have an effective price cap, so excursions that include long journeys, meals, high entrance fees etc tend to have an extra cost associated with them.

Excursions in Israel are an exception; I can only assume that they are subsidised by the Israel tourist board.

 

As @papaflamingo says, the Regent "Choice" (charged) excursions are significantly less than you would pay for the same excursion on another cruise line.

You can use any ship-board-credit that you may have to pay for your excursions.

 

As @Wendy The Wanderer says, it would be more comfortable to join an overnight trip to Luxor as it is a long drive there & back for a day trip. We have booked one of these for our forthcoming cruise on Voyager; the 2-day, overnight excursion to Luxor offered by Regent is comprehensive and appears to be reasonable value.

In Jordan, both Petra and Wadi Rum are both worth the price; they can be booked separately or combined.

 

If, however, you are still not happy with what you have booked you do have the option to move your booking to another cruise (since you booked on-board), but be aware that the new booking would be fully under UK booking conditions and an extra deposit would be required at the time you change the booking.

 

Hope you overcome your disappointment and move on to enjoying another cruise with Regent.

Edited October 14, 2019 by flossie009

[Hambagahle]

Like Wendy I would not want to have a very very long bus ride to Luxor and back in one day.  Overnight there at least (and it seems this is not on offer?)

 

Anyway -- when you book a Regent cruise the fare includes "basic" excursions.  On some cruises - the one we are taking in March is an example - there are few "Regent Choice" excursions for which you have to pay more.   On others there are far more.  Basically in your Regent fare you have paid for the basic ones.  So it is natural that Regent Choice excursions cost a lot less than a similar one offered by another cruise line that does not include the basic excursions in the fare.  You are paying for an upgrade to a more expensive excursion.    

 

I suppose some ports, because of their locations, require longer excursions to see anything of interest.  Longer excursions = more cost to the cruise line from the local tour operator = more cost to the passengers.    Makes a lot of sense to me as does Jackie's remark that normally before booking a cruise one takes a look at what can be done in each port and what additional cost it will have if any.   Caveat Emptor indeed!!

[machotspur]

14 minutes ago, flossie009 said:

All Regent "FUSE" (included excursions) have an effective price cap, so excursions that include long journeys, meals, high entrance fees etc tend to have an extra cost associated with them ...........

 ..........Hope you overcome your disappointment and move on to enjoying another cruise with Regent.

 

Thank you very much for your informative and helpful response flossie009 - and of course for the replies from others which illustrate the different views held on this issue. 

 

By way of background my wife and I are hugely experienced travellers - on land and sea - and are used to carrying out extensive research on our sometimes very complex trips. 

The Regent itinerary we refer to was booked a couple of days ahead of our departure for the recent Voyager cruise. Being in 'pack the bag mode' and short of time we were unusually quite carefree with this booking - knowing that for once we had the same low penalty cancellation terms as the US customer.   

 

We are not fools when it comes to travel but have to admit that when seeing locations such as Luxor/Petra on the headline itineraries we did have the expectation that at least one 'included/free' excursion would be going to these headline locations. As has been pointed out by some this is an expectation that we shouldn't rely on in the future with Regent.

 

The post was less about the the specific cruise/locations, or the additional cost  - we've previously visited all of the sites in question in some depth. We were more interested in Regent's policy on this issue in general, to inform our future decisions.

 

To be honest the real 'Red Flag' for us on this was the point made by Wendy the Wanderer as to how uncomfortable an excursion could be when the journey time is 3-4 hours each way (and beach/hotel excursions are of zero appeal to us).

 

Whilst we continue to like Regent - and already have other bookings in the pipeline - we have on this occasion identified a very short cruise with Crystal that meets our needs to travel the Suez Canal, without ports of call that aren't essential to us. 

 

     

[Wendy The Wanderer]

7 hours ago, machotspur said:

To be honest the real 'Red Flag' for us on this was the point made by Wendy the Wanderer as to how uncomfortable an excursion could be when the journey time is 3-4 hours each way (and beach/hotel excursions are of zero appeal to us).

 

Are you saying that you cancelled this cruise having studied the excursion situation Safaga to Luxor?

 

(I'll say that as much as I would love to return to Luxor, I can't even imagine doing the overnight trip.  Although if I'd never been there, I would definitely do it, but not a day trip.)

 

Were they offering the overnight trip on that cruise?

 

 

[FlyerTalker]

FWIW...have taken the Voyager from AUH to the Med, and did the Luxor daytrip excursion.

 

Yes, it was long, but that comes with the territory.  Not everything that you want to see on your trips is right near the seacoast.  FWIW, the bus was comfortable, the restaurant pretty good for the locale and logistics, and the roads were easy.

 

The big key for something like this is preparation.  If you are going to be on a bus for three hours each way, figure out how you want to spend that time.  Kindle, books or magazines.  MP3 player.  Tablet or whatever.

 

I find it interesting that folks who spend hours on hours reading onboard during sea days somehow can't/won't figure on doing the same on a port day with a longer bus ride.  Plus, on the way back, a nap came in handy after walking around through the 110+ degree heat.

[machotspur]

59 minutes ago, Wendy The Wanderer said:

Are you saying that you cancelled this cruise having studied the excursion situation Safaga to Luxor?

 

(I'll say that as much as I would love to return to Luxor, I can't even imagine doing the overnight trip.  Although if I'd never been there, I would definitely do it, but not a day trip.)

 

Were they offering the overnight trip on that cruise?

 

 

Hi Wendy  - firstly to say that we already had concerns regarding the lengthy drive time from Safaga to Luxor.  Your post confirmed that I wasn't the only one with these doubts - although all the cruise lines operate this excursion so somebody must accept the long drive times !  

 

In truth the Safaga/Luxor issue was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. We had booked this cruise for three reasons only - beginning the cruise in the Emirates, cruising the Suez Canal, and being on our favourite ship.

 

We had already visited all of the ports of call in the past - some very extensively, and others very recently. Whilst we were happy to visit them all again, we weren't expecting to have to pay extra for this, and certainly hadn't picked up the drive distances involved to visit Luxor (my bad on this 😞).  As I said earlier, we are near fanatical researchers/planners, just on this one occasion we chose to 'take a chance' due to the lack of prep time available, and benefiting the rare safeguard of being able to cancel under US T&C's.

 

We have now identified two separate short cruses with Crystal, which meet two of our objectives without being burdened by unwanted ports of call. Wouldn't suit everyone i'm sure, but each to their own.

 

For anyone interested we took a Nile river cruise a few years back, operated by Oberoi, the excellent India hotel operator. The cruise & method for seeing 'the sites' was absolutely outstanding. (not sure what it is like now though).   

 

Thank you for your comments.

 

  

 

          

[orvil]

If you want to see Egypt, a Nile River cruise is the best way.  

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Yes to Nile cruises.  We did it with Uniworld in 2015.  Best trip ever for us, despite the heat (it was just at this time of year we went.)

[carolat]

Another yes to Nile Cruises!  If you want to see Egypt, it's a good way to do it.