Is 16 days and counting too long?

[Grandmaanne7]

This is my first experience with Regent.  We have cruised many times, recently mostly with Celebrity.  We have a December cruise booked (now on Explorer after the Mariner cruise was cancelled May 26th).  The message received from Regent (the only actual correspondence directly related to the situation) asked for understanding while things were sorted out.  The expected date was June 2nd.  It's now June 11th and things don't really appear to be sorted out.  I know that, with Celebrity, the pre-cruise experience was not wonderful as the website and other services left much to be desired.  However, once onboard, everything was wonderful!  I am truly hoping and expecting that this will be the case with Regent.  My question is "Is 16 days and counting an acceptable time frame to put into place that which was expected to take 7 days?"

[ronrick1943]

2 hours ago, Grandmaanne7 said:

This is my first experience with Regent.  We have cruised many times, recently mostly with Celebrity.  We have a December cruise booked (now on Explorer after the Mariner cruise was cancelled May 26th).  The message received from Regent (the only actual correspondence directly related to the situation) asked for understanding while things were sorted out.  The expected date was June 2nd.  It's now June 11th and things don't really appear to be sorted out.  I know that, with Celebrity, the pre-cruise experience was not wonderful as the website and other services left much to be desired.  However, once onboard, everything was wonderful!  I am truly hoping and expecting that this will be the case with Regent.  My question is "Is 16 days and counting an acceptable time frame to put into place that which was expected to take 7 days?"

It should good, but if you booked with a TA I’d call them asap.  If booked by the office of Regent I’d call them asap and get everything worked out to your liking.

[Grandmaanne7]

20 minutes ago, ronrick1943 said:

It should good, but if you booked with a TA I’d call them asap.  If booked by the office of Regent I’d call them asap and get everything worked out to your liking.

I have called my TA.  They say they are awaiting info from Regent.  All Explorer cruises which were transferred from Mariner are still waitlisted on the Regent site so obviously things are not yet sorted out.  This must have been a much larger undertaking than originally estimated.  I'm having difficulty understanding why.

Edited June 11, 2021 by Grandmaanne7
clarification

[ronrick1943]

You’d think they would have that worked out by now.  I guess as long as your TA is on top of it, that’s all you can do—just wait and hope for the the best.  Good Luck.

[annapolitan369]

I spoke to Regent again on this and was now told that it might be until next Wednesday until the actual suites are assigned.  This is indeed a movable target.

[ronrick1943]

One would think assigning suites would be a simple process, unless they have over sold that cruise.

[mrlevin]

The movement from Mariner to Explorer is not that simple.  First, a Cat H on Mariner is not equivalent to an H on Explorer; in fact, since there are 25 more cabins on Explorer it would be nice not to use H or G2 or even G1 as transfers.  Second, there is no equivalent to the Horizon Suites on Mariner.  Third, the Seven Seas suites are different and a lot more Grand Suites on Explorer so how to they decide whom to move into those.

 

I think they thought the process would be simple; too bad they just didn't make Mariner second ship to sail and none of this would have been a problem.

[golfgirls]

We are in a very similar situation.  Good news is that our cruise is to be transferred from the Mariner to the Explorer and we will be sailing in December!  We were to receive updated suite assignments on June 2nd as communicated directly by Regent.  This has been an unmitigated disaster in my books.  Ok well, compared to the pandemic, of course not really.  It has though, been an uncharacteristically awful Regent customer experience.  The TAs are in as much of the dark as we are.  It is even more frustrating when I see other postings on CC that some people on our cruise received their new bookings over a week ago.  Unfortunately, this situation has taken a bit of our joy away from our first sailing after not only the pandemic but a previous year of health issues. 

I know that this has been a simply indescribably difficult year and more for the cruise industry.  I am of course sympathetic to all of the challenges that have been and will be faced.  I really just look at this as a total mismanagement of expectations.  Clearly Regent was not prepared to get all of this sorted out by June 2nd and is still having challenges but unfortunately not providing timely info to TAs or their clients. Hopefully lessons learned here. 
 

Still hoping for a positive outcome.  

 

[ronrick1943]

I agree a difficult year at best, but this is when a company can show who they are and how important customers are for them.  Regent missed the boat so to say.  After a few cruises were canceled for we got a e-mail from Regent (via TA)—how sorry they are, but had to cancel are cruise, they look forward to us cruising again with Regent.  No other help, nothing from Regent.  We did pick another cruise to book, only because of FCC.  After this I’m not to sure about Regents loyalty program, it’s suppose to work for the customer- with service on top- in my opinion Regent isn’t doing that.  So we all have choices after FCC.

[Grandmaanne7]

"We will be (hopefully) back on Explorer late this October for TA to Miami.  This was to have been on Mariner.  But---

 

Our exact Penthouse Suite assignment remains in limbo.  Frankly, whether A, B, or C. makes little difference.  It is the interior layout we like."

 

The quote above from GOARMY on another thread makes me realize there are many, many of us in this position and we will likely be waiting a long time to get our suite assignments.  I will do my best to focus on the fact that we can look forward to being on a beautiful ship in less than 6 months and not be concerned with what I have absolutely no control over. (This is my biggest challenge as I am a huge "control enthusiast".)

[annapolitan369]

Anne

If you have a choice of location, please consider being closer to the forward elevators.  On the Explorer, the aft elevator only goes down to the 5th deck, so there is a flight of stairs to walk down to the main dining room on deck 4.  Those steps have been difficult for many people and there have been several falls at the base of the stairs.

[Grandmaanne7]

17 minutes ago, annapolitan369 said:

Anne

If you have a choice of location, please consider being closer to the forward elevators.  On the Explorer, the aft elevator only goes down to the 5th deck, so there is a flight of stairs to walk down to the main dining room on deck 4.  Those steps have been difficult for many people and there have been several falls at the base of the stairs.

Jay,

I'm actually a stair person and prefer to use them to burn up the extra calories I enjoy on cruises.  I have prided myself on being on several 14-day cruises and never setting foot inside an elevator.  Is there something particularly difficult or challenging about the stairs you mention or just stair danger in general?

[mrlevin]

1 minute ago, Grandmaanne7 said:

Jay,

I'm actually a stair person and prefer to use them to burn up the extra calories I enjoy on cruises.  I have prided myself on being on several 14-day cruises and never setting foot inside an elevator.  Is there something particularly difficult or challenging about the stairs you mention or just stair danger in general?

Those are crew only stairs; they head to the galley.  If you are in the rear of the ship you need to head to forward elevators or forward stairs to get to Compass Rose.  There is no rear passenger entrance to Compass Rose.

Edited June 13, 2021 by mrlevin

[annapolitan369]

I am not referring to the crew stairs.  There is a stairway between deck 4 & 5 that is the nearest stairs one will come to if you leave the aft elevators at deck 5.  This does not take you aft of Compass Rose.

 

Anne, there just seems to be a problem with the design of the stairs that has resulted in several falls, particularly at the bottom of the stairs. I didn't fall but stumbled once, even knowing of the potential problem.  Just be careful, particularly at the bottom of the stairs.  On Splendor, they changed the orientation of the staircase.

[flossie009]

1 hour ago, annapolitan369 said:

On the Explorer, the aft elevator only goes down to the 5th deck, so there is a flight of stairs to walk down to the main dining room on deck 4.  Those steps have been difficult for many people and there have been several falls at the base of the stairs.

Every cruise we have taken on Explorer those stairs down to deck 4 have been roped off. The other danger associated with those stairs is that they are very close to the elevator on deck 5; so step back to let someone exit the elevator and ........................ 😱

 

1 hour ago, mrlevin said:

If you are in the rear of the ship you need to head to forward elevators or forward stairs to get to Compass Rose.  There is no rear passenger entrance to Compass Rose.

Agreed.

Is this arrangement the same on Splendor?

[annapolitan369]

Flossie,

You are talking about different stairs.  The one I am talking about will take you to the atrium, and will be first passenger stairs to Deck 4 that you will come to when exiting the aft elevator at Deck 5.

[mrlevin]

10 minutes ago, annapolitan369 said:

Flossie,

You are talking about different stairs.  The one I am talking about will take you to the atrium, and will be first passenger stairs to Deck 4 that you will come to when exiting the aft elevator at Deck 5.

Those are the forward stairs near the forward elevators; past the coffee connection and past the lobby.  At least on Splendor they turned around the grand staircase between four and five so you are facing the restaurant when you are on deck 4.

Edited June 13, 2021 by mrlevin

[flossie009]

 

20 minutes ago, annapolitan369 said:

The one I am talking about will take you to the atrium

Now I understand  - you are referring to the Atrium stairs by the chandelier.

I had not realised that there had been accidents on that staircase.

 

 

[annapolitan369]

Thanks Flossie.  I'm glad that at least one person understands what i am talking about.  There was a lot of conversation early on about falls at the bottom of the atrium stairs, and it is closer to the aft elevators than going to the forward stairs.  That's why I thought that having a stateroom closer to the forward stairs might be more useful, particularly for anyone who might have some mobility issues.

We are waiting for an assignment of a Seven Seas Suite for the December 9th cruise on the Explorer.

[ronrick1943]

4 hours ago, Grandmaanne7 said:

"We will be (hopefully) back on Explorer late this October for TA to Miami.  This was to have been on Mariner.  But---

 

Our exact Penthouse Suite assignment remains in limbo.  Frankly, whether A, B, or C. makes little difference.  It is the interior layout we like."

 

The quote above from GOARMY on another thread makes me realize there are many, many of us in this position and we will likely be waiting a long time to get our suite assignments.  I will do my best to focus on the fact that we can look forward to being on a beautiful ship in less than 6 months and not be concerned with what I have absolutely no control over. (This is my biggest challenge as I am a huge "control enthusiast".)

Why shouldn’t you have control of your suite, after all you are paying full price.  I mean if you were buying something, paid for it and then you were told—Oh, you can’t have that one, you’ll have to take this one.  Would you?

[captjohn]

We are also on the TA and waiting for a suite. We started in a PH-B and then were moved up 2 category's Horizon Suite on the Mariner. We now have a Seven Seas Suite -GTY. We see what happens !

[Grandmaanne7]

1 hour ago, ronrick1943 said:

Why shouldn’t you have control of your suite, after all you are paying full price.  I mean if you were buying something, paid for it and then you were told—Oh, you can’t have that one, you’ll have to take this one.  Would you?

What I do not have control of right now is what Regent is doing and how long they are taking to do it.  Once my suite is assigned, if I am not happy with the location, I will absolutely do everything I can to rectify the situation.  I am happy with the category that I paid for and have been promised.  I just don't have an actual suite assigned yet and it appears that many others are in the same boat.

[ronrick1943]

1 hour ago, captjohn said:

We are also on the TA and waiting for a suite. We started in a PH-B and then were moved up 2 category's Horizon Suite on the Mariner. We now have a Seven Seas Suite -GTY. We see what happens !

I didn’t think that the two suit category upgrade was good on namers suites.  At lease that’s what Regent stated.

[captjohn]

You may be right , all I know is that the RSSC site shows us in a  GTY in a Seven Seas Suite. We are hopping for better .

[golfgirls]

If I understand this correctly, an upgrade courtesy of Regent from a Penthouse B to a Seven Seas Suite.  Wow.  Happy for you but now even more ticked off for us.  Would love to know how these decisions are being made.