New to Regent - any tips on booking Dining & Tours?

[Huggsy]

Hi all - Booked on The Splendor, Feb 2022 (fingers crossed), calling at St Barts, St Kitts, Domenica, Antigua, St Lucia, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rica. Does anybody have any recommendations (good or bad) on excursions on these islands?

 

Also, seems the Splendor is similar to the lay out of the Explorer so any comments or views regarding the restaurants would be appreciated - do you have to book or are they easily accessible. Thank you.

[1982CruzStart]

Book your speciality restaurant reservations as soon as they become available in order to get the days and times you want. It is good to try every speciality restaurant once. Most of the time you can get extra reservations after you board.  If you want to make extra reservations, make sure to take a copy of your itinerary with you to the reservation desk so you are aware of port and sea days and what you may have planned.  Of course if you have a butler he will do that for you. 

 

When booking online look carefully at your itinerary and figure out what days work best for the times you like to eat dinner.  For instance, if you like to eat at 6:30 or 7 don't book a speciality restaurant on days when you are in port late just in case you have a excursion that goes long or you decide to spend more time in port and then you are rushing to make a reservation.  The most popular times seem to be on sea days  but if you have a port day where the ship leaves at 5 that gives you lots of time to get to dinner at a leisurely pace. 

 

I have talked to a number of people who don't really care if they go to the specialty restaurants as the variety is so great in Compass Rose. Only you can decide that. We enjoy visiting each one and do book extra reservations onboard if it is a longer cruise. 

 

Have a great cruise. 

[flossie009]

2 hours ago, Huggsy said:

Also, seems the Splendor is similar to the lay out of the Explorer so any comments or views regarding the restaurants would be appreciated

 

You may find this previous thread of use:

 

[Huggsy]

Thanking you both, very informative 👍

[wishIweretravelling]

I recommend booking one of the alternative restaurants on the evening of embarkation. They are usually less crowded then. Plus, that evening often is a bit "off" in the main dining room, as there is nothing special on the menu, and the staff there are exhausted from their work all day of helping disembark the last group and embarking the new one. Baggage movement and other duties of the day is pretty much an "all hands" activity. Yes, the alt restaurants also have this latter issue, but they are smaller and usually fairly uncrowded the first evening, so the staff is less harried.

[mj_holiday]

Booking excursions:

I review the excursions associated with the cruise a couple of months ahead of booking.  Some may change, but this still gives me a good idea of the tours.

When I start booking on line, if any that I want are full, I will book my second choice and call Regent to get on the wait list (for us the waitlists have always cleared)

When boarding, the excursion tickets are usually in your cabin.  Review them for anything , these will show where and when you meet for each tour.  The tickets will show the deadline for canceling.  There should also be a sheet with the tickets that show any changes to the excursions, most often it seems that the change is to the activity level.  Last minute changes will be in the daily Passages the night before (this has been location of meeting or time).

Because I get excited about the excursion, I usually want to get to the meeting place (usually the theater) about 1/2 hour before the time.  And I do recommend this the first day (at least) so you get some kind of understanding how they call the tours, what you do with your tickets and how you get to the tour off the ship.

As you leave for the tour, there will be water at the gang plank and if needed umbrellas. 

Also,  someone will be reminding you if you need a passport or just ship ID (this is also in Passages) and anything about what you wear (in Barbados, wearing camouflaged was against the law) and there was the cruise director reminding people if they had some on. 

Bus drivers and tour guides are not employees of  Regent, so I give both of them a tip at the end of the tour.

We have enjoyed all of our excursions!

[Cleckie]

3 hours ago, mj_holiday said:

Booking excursions:

I review the excursions associated with the cruise a couple of months ahead of booking.  Some may change, but this still gives me a good idea of the tours.

When I start booking on line, if any that I want are full, I will book my second choice and call Regent to get on the wait list (for us the waitlists have always cleared)

When boarding, the excursion tickets are usually in your cabin.  Review them for anything , these will show where and when you meet for each tour.  The tickets will show the deadline for canceling.  There should also be a sheet with the tickets that show any changes to the excursions, most often it seems that the change is to the activity level.  Last minute changes will be in the daily Passages the night before (this has been location of meeting or time).

Because I get excited about the excursion, I usually want to get to the meeting place (usually the theater) about 1/2 hour before the time.  And I do recommend this the first day (at least) so you get some kind of understanding how they call the tours, what you do with your tickets and how you get to the tour off the ship.

As you leave for the tour, there will be water at the gang plank and if needed umbrellas. 

Also,  someone will be reminding you if you need a passport or just ship ID (this is also in Passages) and anything about what you wear (in Barbados, wearing camouflaged was against the law) and there was the cruise director reminding people if they had some on. 

Bus drivers and tour guides are not employees of  Regent, so I give both of them a tip at the end of the tour.

We have enjoyed all of our excursions!

 

[Cleckie]

DH and I are also new to Regent and hoping to be on Explorer in November. All our excursions are booked and we are excited. I just wanted to say thank you for your post. You have some really GREAT information

[Huggsy]

Yes! Thanks to all for taking the time with your answers 👍

[Jlhalldc]

Booked my excursions yesterday at 8am on the first day possible -- one year out from our TA cruise on Splendor. Hilariously, one of our choices (Alhambra) was already sold out. Guess I should have stayed up until midnight to book 🙂 With 12 months to go, I suspect the excursion for which we've been waitlisted will open up. 

 

All that said, book excursions ASAP. Regent folks are an efficient and organized lot. 

[wishIweretravelling]

2 hours ago, Jlhalldc said:

Booked my excursions yesterday at 8am on the first day possible -- one year out from our TA cruise on Splendor. Hilariously, one of our choices (Alhambra) was already sold out. Guess I should have stayed up until midnight to book 🙂 With 12 months to go, I suspect the excursion for which we've been waitlisted will open up. 

 

All that said, book excursions ASAP. Regent folks are an efficient and organized lot. 

Allhambra always sells out right away. They limit the number of tickets any outlet can have, so Regent can’t just add a second group. It sounds like you’ve already done so, but if you haven’t, call and get on the waitlist now.