Did anyone take the "Bump" Regent offered?

[petlover]

We accepted a generous "bump" offer from Regent to change from the oversold Splendor cruise San Diego to Miami  March 14th.  We switched to a Mariner 12 day cruise from Vancouver to Los Angeles. I can't find a roll call for this Mariner Sept. 23, 2020 voyage. Anyone else on this cruise ?

 

Anyone else take the "bump" offer to give up your cabin on Splendor's San Diego to Miami and choose one of the other cruises Regent offered as a replacement ?

 

[shuguley]

My wife and I are on that cruise and did not receive an offer to give up our booking.  Wonder who all got the offer?

[petlover]

shuguley, I have no idea ?? We were booked in an F1 on Splendor. We got the offer from our TA with a choice of 4 or 5 (as I remember) other cruises. 

[Travelcat2]

1 hour ago, shuguley said:

My wife and I are on that cruise and did not receive an offer to give up our booking.  Wonder who all got the offer?

 

Regent typically makes offers of this kind when a certain category of suite has a long waitlist.  Sometimes, when there is availability on the ship in upper categories, Regent will offer an upsell and then will resell the lower category suite (at a higher cost since they raise prices quarterly).  

 

We would have liked an offer to cancel the Splendor cruise but we are in a Splendor Suite and there are less offers for those suites.  We originally booked the cruise because we wanted to be on Explorer.  When they made the change to the Splendor I wasn't thrilled like some others are.  Embarkation day will be full of TA's visiting the ship in San Diego -- it will be quite crowded.  I'd rather sail Splendor when things have calmed down ....... when there isn't a "group" on the ship, and when Captain Serena will be onboard (she will be on a much needed vacation in March).  

 

Despite rather being on Explorer, I'm sure that we will have a great time - we always do.  Looking forward to seeing the officers and crew on Splendor but will be even more happy to return to Explorer later this year.

[Hambagahle]

We are in a Grand Suite and did not receive any offer - wouldn't have taken it in any case because we have the air booked and that can't be changed.

 

If there are a lot of TAs on board on the day we sail I suppose another restaurant will be open.  Can't jam everyone into la Veranda and the Pool Grill!  But since there is a "fam" cruise that disembarks the same day we board I rather think the TAs will be on that...it sails San Diego/San Diego March 12-14.

[marycruz]

7 hours ago, Hambagahle said:

We are in a Grand Suite and did not receive any offer - wouldn't have taken it in any case because we have the air booked and that can't be changed.

 

If there are a lot of TAs on board on the day we sail I suppose another restaurant will be open.  Can't jam everyone into la Veranda and the Pool Grill!  But since there is a "fam" cruise that disembarks the same day we board I rather think the TAs will be on that...it sails San Diego/San Diego March 12-14.

 

"fam" cruise?   Is that a family cruise?

[Hambagahle]

4 minutes ago, marycruz said:

 

"fam" cruise?   Is that a family cruise?

No.  Sorry!  It is a travel industry term and is short for "Familiarisation" - TAs are always being offered what are called "Fam trips" -- by hotels, tourist boards, cruise lines etc - so they can experience the "product" first hand.

[Travelcat2]

13 minutes ago, Hambagahle said:

No.  Sorry!  It is a travel industry term and is short for "Familiarisation" - TAs are always being offered what are called "Fam trips" -- by hotels, tourist boards, cruise lines etc - so they can experience the "product" first hand.

 

The TA's will only be onboard during the day embarkation.  The ship does not depart until midnight so she will spending all day and half of the night in port.

[Hambagahle]

1 minute ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

The TA's will only be onboard during the day embarkation.  The ship does not depart until midnight so she will spending all day and half of the night in port.

Jackie - there is a 2 day "fam trip" cruise between 12th March when the Spendor arrives at San Diego from Miami (25 Feb. sailing) and the 14th March which is when we board.  mini cruise like the one Ancona/Civitavecchia and Civitavecchia/Barcelona.  There is another such fam trip cruise after we arrive in Miami 30 March and the Splendor departs 1 April.

I am not saying there won't be any TAs around on the ship the day we board but I do think the majority of them will have disembarked by the evening or sooner.

 

As I think you know Jason Montague will be on board when we board and he is leaving the ship the evening we sail...Very likely he is on board for the fam trip cruise.

[marycruz]

20 minutes ago, Hambagahle said:

No.  Sorry!  It is a travel industry term and is short for "Familiarisation" - TAs are always being offered what are called "Fam trips" -- by hotels, tourist boards, cruise lines etc - so they can experience the "product" first hand.

 

Thanks.  Got it.    We had several TA's on our last Regent cruise.  They had lunch and were walking in the hallways looking at cabins.

[Travelcat2]

6 hours ago, Hambagahle said:

Jackie - there is a 2 day "fam trip" cruise between 12th March when the Spendor arrives at San Diego from Miami (25 Feb. sailing) and the 14th March which is when we board.  mini cruise like the one Ancona/Civitavecchia and Civitavecchia/Barcelona.  There is another such fam trip cruise after we arrive in Miami 30 March and the Splendor departs 1 April.

I am not saying there won't be any TAs around on the ship the day we board but I do think the majority of them will have disembarked by the evening or sooner.

 

As I think you know Jason Montague will be on board when we board and he is leaving the ship the evening we sail...Very likely he is on board for the fam trip cruise.

 

Gerry, it is our travel agent that told us about many TA's being onboard the day of embarkation.  They are likely visiting from the San Diego and Orange County areas of Southern California.  These are different TA's than those that were on the short cruise (sorry - if I use the unfamiliar term "fam", it makes me think of children onboard.  This is not a term that most of us are aware of.

The "group" I referenced is one that we are actually a part of.  With there exception of the night of embarkation, they will likely not be reserving restaurants (thereby closing them to the rest of the passengers) or lounges.  Still, IMHO, groups do change the dynamics of a cruise. 

[SWFLAOK]

We were actually offered a "fam" upgrade on our first Regent cruise, and didn't know it until now. It was a cruise from Vancouver to Seward Alaska. It was offered through our TA on the morning that we were to embark. We had a Veranda Suite, and were offered a Penthouse Suite. We had already paid for our transfer to our hotel, which we also had  paid for, and our luggage had already been taken by the hotel to the ship, with our room number tags on every piece. The location of the new suite was not available to us. We turned it down, and have never been offered an upgrade again. Now we know why.

But, it we had been offered this in advance, we would have taken it.

[flossie009]

I now understand what a fam trip is (not heard the term previously), but what is a fam upgrade?

[Hambagahle]

Good question -  The only explanation I can think of is that sometimes hotels (and maybe other parts of the hospitality industry - I don't know about that) have what they call a "Family and Friends" rate for their employees.  This enables employees of the hotel to book their family and friends at a lower rate...

 

I had not thought about us being part of a group Jackie but indeed you are right.  89 of us to be precise, plus (or maybe including?) our lovely TA.   Which leads me to say that if the other TAs who will be onboard while we are in port are as nice as she - they really won't be a problem.   In any case we can all retire to our respective balconies.

 

 

[Pam]

We got on Voyager once, and crept down the hall to see if we might drop off our carryon luggage.  Our suite (we had booked the Voyager Suite on a special) was very ready,  the door was open, so we put bags in closet and sat down on the couch to go through the notices on the coffee table.  A group of four (two couples) came in, wandered around and were talking about the suite and chatting with us; as they were leaving, it dawned on them that was actually OUR suite.  They apologized, but we were okay with it, then they brought in a sign that had been outside the door.  We figured out later that there were suites on display for TA's that were exploring the ship and that our suite was actually open for the inspection.

[Travelcat2]

11 hours ago, Hambagahle said:

Good question -  The only explanation I can think of is that sometimes hotels (and maybe other parts of the hospitality industry - I don't know about that) have what they call a "Family and Friends" rate for their employees.  This enables employees of the hotel to book their family and friends at a lower rate...

 

I had not thought about us being part of a group Jackie but indeed you are right.  89 of us to be precise, plus (or maybe including?) our lovely TA.   Which leads me to say that if the other TAs who will be onboard while we are in port are as nice as she - they really won't be a problem.   In any case we can all retire to our respective balconies.

 

 

 

The number has apparently gone down.  Last year I heard that there were 120 of "us".  I have no concerns at all about the TA's being onboard the first day.  My only concern about the first day is that my family is worried about getting on the ship because of coronavirus.  If she is too afraid, I believe that my adult grandsons will be fine driving to San Diego alone (especially since coronavirus does not seem to be targeting people under 35).  

[petlover]

We received a guest day pass and bought train tickets to come to San Diego to visit friends and see the ship on March 14th embarkation day.  Yippee, I received the confirmation letter yesterday.

 

Then today I got the following disappointing letter so I doubt there's going to be non-passenger TA's on board on March 14th. : 

Dear Travel Partner and Valued Guests,

 

Recently we sent a Visitor Request approval for your upcoming cruise. In an abundance of caution due to the current situation with Coronavirus, the decision has been made to stop all scheduled and pending ship visits for the foreseeable future.  

 

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience of canceling this ship visit.  Please note, the visitor confirmation letter you previously received is no longer valid and will not be honored at the pier.

 

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we manage through this evolving situation.

 

Regent Seven Seas Cruises,

 

Special Services

Regent Seven Seas Cruises

1401 NW 136^th Avenue, Suite 101 | Sunrise, FL 33323

www.RSSC.com

[wcsdkqh]

We can only hope this means no TA’s on embarkation day. There is already more than enough chaos on day 1.

[mrlevin]

31 minutes ago, wcsdkqh said:

We can only hope this means no TA’s on embarkation day. There is already more than enough chaos on day 1.

 

This better be true; otherwise this is very discriminatory and a slap in the face of petlover and the others that had been given approval to board.

 

Marc

[Travelcat2]

4 hours ago, mrlevin said:

 

This better be true; otherwise this is very discriminatory and a slap in the face of petlover and the others that had been given approval to board.

 

Marc

 

Why would this be a slap in the face for someone that won't be on the cruise?  What I am missing?  The TS stated that she took a generous offer by Regent so would that no indicate that they won't even be on the cruise - with or without TA's?  I, on the other hand, received approval a few months ago and am coming to grips with the fact that the visit will not happen (and I will be on the cruise).

[petlover]

I think our disappointment came when we received the confirmation letter that we would be visiting the ship for a few hours, proceeded  to buy Amtrak tickets from Orange County to San Diego, made lunch plans with passengers on board , then 24 hours later we received the letter cancelling our visit. It is what it is but I would feel like it's a slap in the face if they allowed TA's on board for a few hours.. Are TA's less likely to have been exposed to coronavirus?  ....I don't think so.

 

At this point, I just hope that the cruise it's self is a GO for all who are booked and and it's a fabulous cruise.