Excursion booking issues

[BNguy]

I know this has been discussed before but it bears repeating so hopefully people like Jennifer T.  and Mike M.  can research and "FIX" the problem.  My wife and I are on the Explorer leaving Vancouver, BC on the 20th of September and cruising to Tokyo(Yokohama).  Just today I tried to add an excursion in one of the ports.  We have nothing scheduled for the day and the excursion shows availability.  However when I go to checkout and confirm my excursions, guess what it doesn't go through.  Now, when excursions were first available I was able to get my picks with NO issues and I'm using the same computer and same browser as before.  I'm not sure why this is happening, but I'd like to know......has anyone else had these issues?  (for the record, I'm using a Macbook Pro and the Firefox browser).   I'm not looking for your experiences, we've all had fun with it, but I am looking to see if the folks at Regent will see this and respond.

[mrlevin]

Call Regent when they open at 0830 EDT tomorrow and they will have you booked in seconds.  I know that doesn't answer your question but will possibly save you a lot of brain cells.

[cruiseej]

I ran into a problem booking a shore excursion for our upcoming cruise. We're doing a Splendor cruise circumnavigating Iceland later this month with my parents, and to make sure we got the same excursions so I can help them, I used my laptop and my mother's iPad to book the excursions we selected simultaneously. My order and payment went through without a problem. I have a PDF of booking my parents' order for the same group of excursions. But we later discovered that one of their excursions wasn't in the system, even though it's clearly on the PDF confirmation. (All the others purchased at the same time were fine. Go figure.) By the time we realized this excursion wasn't on their itinerary, it was sold out, and rebooking it, they were waitlisted. We contacted our TA who talked with Regent; Regent said they had no record of the booking and there was nothing they would do — even though I have a PDF showing it was booked. That's an IT glitch, but Regent wasn't interested and wouldn't help. (They could have put them at the top of the waitlist, but they said no.)

 

Unfortunately they have not cleared the waitlist months later, so we'll head for the cruise without them having the excursion. Unless we get lucky at the last minute, I will have them take the excursion using our spots — the cruise is for them — and my wife and I will remain onboard. I'm just disappointed that Regent  wouldn't do anything despite me having black-and-white proof it was an IT problem on their end. 

[Bearsparents]

@cruiseej FYI i had the same issue.  i booked excurions and then they went missing.  My TA was able to get me back on them.  Seems like Regent and most other cruise lines need some more IT help. 

[papaflamingo]

Have you tried using Safari instead of Firefox?  Not sure if it'll matter, but I find that on my Mac Safari seems to be the most stable browser.  Otherwise, call Regent as suggested, don't wait or you could lose the tour. 

[Mike Moore]

12 hours ago, BNguy said:

I know this has been discussed before but it bears repeating so hopefully people like Jennifer T.  and Mike M.  can research and "FIX" the problem.

If you could please send me an email with you relevant booking information, we'll be happy to take a look at it. mmoore@rssc.com

[BNguy]

Thanks to Mike Moore for contacting me and fixing the issue I was having.  It had nothing to do with the browser I was using and Mr. Moore was kind enough to explain the issue to me, it was an apparent "glitch" in the system.  So the Cruise Critic board came through as did Regent and I am now a happy "camper".   Looking forward to our sailing on the 20th of September.

 

[labonnevie]

12 hours ago, cruiseej said:

 

Unfortunately they have not cleared the waitlist months later, so we'll head for the cruise without them having the excursion. Unless we get lucky at the last minute, I will have them take the excursion using our spots — the cruise is for them — and my wife and I will remain onboard. I'm just disappointed that Regent  wouldn't do anything despite me having black-and-white proof it was an IT problem on their end. 

As an experienced Regent cruiser, I know you know this, but for others in a similar situation, don’t assume you can’t get on a sold out excursion. Check with Destinations staff on board, there are often cancellations, even up to the last minute at the meeting place for the excursion, usually the theater. 

[cruiseej]

4 hours ago, labonnevie said:

As an experienced Regent cruiser, I know you know this, but for others in a similar situation, don’t assume you can’t get on a sold out excursion. Check with Destinations staff on board, there are often cancellations, even up to the last minute at the meeting place for the excursion, usually the theater. 

 

Yes, thanks for making that point. I am planning that we will keep hoping and waiting up until the tender for the excursion leaves the ship.

 

I was just adding my story about an IT glitch with booking excursions to the one the original poster above shared, and like the OP, hoping someone at Regent might take enough interest to want to look into it.

[newgolfr]

We were on the Splendor in the Baltic in June and had one of our excursions cancelled and had to wait in the theatre for waitlisting on another excursion.  The method of issuing tickets and getting all the seats filled is very organized and most likely any time you want to change your mind, it's possible to get on another excursion.

[cruiseej]

I'd like to add a follow-up to my posts in this thread about Regent losing a booked excursion and then saying there was nothing they could do about it. I reached out to Mike Moore, after seeing his helpfulness on this forum, to explain what had happened and offer him the document showing the booking which Regent had subsequently said never existed. He responded quickly and said he'd look into it, and a short time later followed up to say we were cleared off the waitlist onto the excursion!

 

He said they were looking into it, but gave a plausible explanation how it could have happened, and also said they would be revamping parts of their website by next year to make things easier to do and to prevent a fall-between-the-cracks error that apparently was the culprit for us. What awesome service!

 

It's probably not Mike's job to monitor this forum or respond to direct customer service issues, but it's a credit to him and to Regent that he does. He turned a pre-cruise disappointment into all smiles. (I'm a regular on the Seabourn and Silversea forums here, and those cruise lines don't have someone monitoring the site to jump on customer problems.) We see lots of complaints on this forum, but I wanted to make sure to share a positive experience here. 

[Mike Moore]

Many thanks for the kind words - I was happy that we were able to get it straightened out, and it's my pleasure to help out where I can. We all do our best to provide exemplary customer service for our guests, from the first point of contact until long after you have returned home.

[suzyluvs2cruise]

New Regent cruiser who booked last week. I was excited to book excursions but couldn't do it online as I would get knocked out after I selected the port. I cleared cache/cookies, tried another browser, tried another computer and even my phone. By day 2 I decided I'd call Regent and book them with them. Interestingly 2 different agents said they weren't aware of any problems?? I'm tech saavy and know it had to be some kind of glitch. At least I was able to get them booked. Now to hopefully clear the waitlist for 3 of them.