August cruises

[many cruises]

8 hours ago, flossie009 said:

 

No news and no plan released 😕

 

It is obviously difficult to forecast how cruising will fare over the coming months but some communication from Regent would be welcome.

 

Surely there must be a limit as to how long Regent can simply carry on with the monthly cycle of final payment deferral, waitlist, cancellation, refund. 

I agree that there must be a limit on how long Regent can carry on with the monthly cycle of final payment deferral, waitlist, cancellation, refund.  Our September cruise is our first booked with Regent and it is becoming more and more frustrating for us to play this wait and see game.  The lack of communication with Regent has left much to be desired.  Final payment is due in a few weeks and we are hearing nothing from Regent. Hopefully, they are reading these posts because each day that passes they are creating more negative customer relations issues.  

[Pcardad]

8 minutes ago, many cruises said:

I agree that there must be a limit on how long Regent can carry on with the monthly cycle of final payment deferral, waitlist, cancellation, refund.  Our September cruise is our first booked with Regent and it is becoming more and more frustrating for us to play this wait and see game.  The lack of communication with Regent has left much to be desired.  Final payment is due in a few weeks and we are hearing nothing from Regent. Hopefully, they are reading these posts because each day that passes they are creating more negative customer relations issues.  

The refund turn time is much better than it was before and the number of complaints here has dropped. It's one thing to complain Regent isn't refunding fast enough, it's another to complain Regent is telling you everything you want to know. Its a frustrating time...as a TA, I don't see any cruise line doing a perfect job and its better to not speak at all then it is to speak in error. We are hearing that there will be news around the end of the month.

 

Suggestion - if you want to be mad, be mad at the CDC. Call your Representatives and voice your frustration. 

[many cruises]

 

24 minutes ago, Pcardad said:

The refund turn time is much better than it was before and the number of complaints here has dropped. It's one thing to complain Regent isn't refunding fast enough, it's another to complain Regent is telling you everything you want to know. Its a frustrating time...as a TA, I don't see any cruise line doing a perfect job and its better to not speak at all then it is to speak in error. We are hearing that there will be news around the end of the month.

 

Suggestion - if you want to be mad, be mad at the CDC. Call your Representatives and voice your frustration. 

Since the end of the month is 6 days from today, we will see what happens.  People just would like some communication from Regent.  

[Pcardad]

So would the travel agents and so would the employees....

[SWFLAOK]

9 hours ago, many cruises said:

I agree that there must be a limit on how long Regent can carry on with the monthly cycle of final payment deferral, waitlist, cancellation, refund.  Our September cruise is our first booked with Regent and it is becoming more and more frustrating for us to play this wait and see game.  The lack of communication with Regent has left much to be desired.  Final payment is due in a few weeks and we are hearing nothing from Regent. Hopefully, they are reading these posts because each day that passes they are creating more negative customer relations issues.  

We decided to postpone our September Regent cruise because our final payment for our back to back cruises starting on Sept 11 was due on April 2nd. It was for a very large amount of money. Toward the end of March, we asked if we could defer our final payment since newer bookings than ours were not requiring final payment, and their cancellations were proceeding from one month to the next. They said no. Since we didn't want to take a chance on having a cruise that doesn't stop in ports or has no excursions, or is cancelled at the last minute (as our 2020 Paul Gauguin cruise was last April with no refund offered, and not similar cruise available while our FCC was still valid), we decided to rebook to a back to back cruise on the same ship that's very similar in Sept 2022.

I used to really look forward to our cruises, and spent a lot of time looking at our cruise ports and choosing our excursions. At this point, I try not to think about them, because we have paid so much money that we'll never get back, and I have no confidence that we'll ever enjoy any of those cruises in the future. We felt that we needed to rebook some of the cruises while there was still a chance to get a decent cabin on a similar cruise in the future, and that gives us no chance of anything other than a FCC. The cruises that we rebooked before being cancelled were all eventually cancelled, except for the Sept 2021cruise , which I'm quite certain will be cancelled next week.

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

We surrendered...we gave up waiting for Regent. We booked the ten day Crystal cruise out of Antigua.

If we enjoy it, Regent just developed competition for us.
Since we started sailing on Regent,, we never looked back....until now....

sheila

[flossie009]

21 hours ago, Pcardad said:

Patience. I think it will be released by the end of the month.

Which month? ............... in which year?

 

19 hours ago, Pcardad said:

........ its better to not speak at all then it is to speak in error

I disagree.

I realise that Regent's policy, probably driven from the top of NCLH, appears to be to keep everyone in the dark until the last possible moment.

Regent customers are intelligent people who understand that during this pandemic things have to remain fluid until some sense of normality arrives worldwide.

If information is given in good faith, most will understand if plans have to be changed later due to issues outside of Regent's control.

 

IMO, it is not a good communications strategy when customers, prospective customers, TAs & employees have to glean the odd snippet of information from FdR interviews and have to second-guess the likely viability of a future Regent cruise by observing when cruises are suddenly switched to "waitlist" status.

 

 

19 hours ago, Pcardad said:

The refund turn time is much better than it was before and the number of complaints here has dropped

I agree that Regent's refund record has improved from the early months of cancellations, but I am afraid that their communication about future plans has remained poor throughout.

 

[Dwtlion]

Corporate bean counters are paid to conserve cash. Delaying your decision to request a refund for 90 days (150-60) achieves that goal. Right now survival depends upon conserving cash.

[CookingChick2020]

Pcardad (and others in the know) - we are new to Regent and have a cruise booked in August on the Mariner.  I've been watching the cabins go from partially waitlisted (when we booked last July) to all available and now all are waitlisted.  What can I glean from this?  Is it an indicator that the cruise will be cancelled?  Confused in the era of COVID!  Thanks for any insight.

 

[Pcardad]

Personally, I do not think Mariner will be sailing in August. I think Splendor will go first and not until after NCL ships are running for 60 days.

[hichachoc]

 Sounds like the RSSC steps are Waitlist - Get customers to pay in full - Cancel the cruise -  Let customers wait for cash refund.

 

Keeps the company's cash flow going until better times (or until they run out of time)

 

1 hour ago, CookingChick2020 said:

Pcardad (and others in the know) - we are new to Regent and have a cruise booked in August on the Mariner.  I've been watching the cabins go from partially waitlisted (when we booked last July) to all available and now all are waitlisted.  What can I glean from this?  Is it an indicator that the cruise will be cancelled?  Confused in the era of COVID!  Thanks for any insight.

 

 

[CookingChick2020]

Thank you Pcardad and hichachoc for your insight!  Ugh.  😒

[johng75370]

2 hours ago, hichachoc said:

Sounds like the RSSC steps are Waitlist - Get customers to pay in full - Cancel the cruise -  Let customers wait for cash refund.

I think you missed the first step:  promote Regent cruises that have zero percent chance of sailing.  

[CookingChick2020]

Well, we got the official word from our TA today...our August Mariner cruise has been cancelled.  At least they did it before they required final payment!

 

[flossie009]

On 4/25/2021 at 12:09 PM, flossie009 said:

I am afraid that their communication about future plans has remained poor throughout

 

Yesterday's announcement was welcome news and JM's video communication was good to watch 😄

 

However let us hope that firm plans to restart Explorer, Mariner, Navigator & Voyager are communicated soon.

In particular it would be helpful if Regent could clarify the following:

• Is it the intention to commence sailings on all Regent ships from October 2021 or will the restarts be phased in over a number of months?
• Is it the intention to stick to the existing schedules/itineraries?
• Will passenger numbers on board be lowered for initial cruises?
• Have any of the cruises from October 2021 onwards been artificially waitlisted due to present uncertainties?

 

 

PS: I see from our latest cancellation notice that Regent are re-introducing the 2-category suite upgrade offer from next week for Mediterranean cruises bookings