Just booked, but excursions sold out!

[talljules1]

Oh no - me again.

 

We've just booked to cruise to Greenland in July. Alas, having booked it turns out that in some ports (all tender ports) all of the included and for a fee excursions are sold out.  Booo!

 

Am I right to think we will still be able to get tenders ashore and potter about on our own? (We're quite happy with this and don't really like being frogmarched about everywhere.  We're in a Penthouse A Suite, should that make any difference)

 

Ta

 

[flossie009]

7 minutes ago, talljules1 said:

in some ports (all tender ports) all of the included and for a fee excursions are sold out

Put yourselves on a waitlist, which hopefully will clear before your cruise

 

8 minutes ago, talljules1 said:

Am I right to think we will still be able to get tenders ashore and potter about on our own?

Yes, of course you will be able to do your own thing

 

9 minutes ago, talljules1 said:

We're in a Penthouse A Suite, should that make any difference

No difference in clearing excursion waitlists or boarding tenders for any suite grades

 

[talljules1]

3 minutes ago, flossie009 said:

Put yourselves on a waitlist, which hopefully will clear before your cruise

 

Yes, of course you will be able to do your own thing

 

No difference in clearing excursion waitlists or boarding tenders for any suite grades

 

Thanks, Flossie! 

 

So long as we can get off and wander on our own, that's all we ultimately need - these are tiny places and what I really hope to see (icebergs, glaciers, whales) are things we would see from the ship.

[talljules1]

Alas for several ports there is no option to waitlist - they're just sold out.

[cwn]

 Check after final payment is due . There might be a  few that free up. If not , check when you board as again there might be no shows.  If there is something that you really want to do go to the theater the morning of the tour to check on no shows.

 

But anymore we just do our own thing when we want too. These are small ports but sometimes we are surprised at what the locals have to offer. Greenland is beautiful and we had fun just walking around on our own….be sure to go to food market… grocery store and see what is for sale.

[talljules1]

10 minutes ago, cwn said:

 Check after final payment is due . There might be a  few that free up. If not , check when you board as again there might be no shows.  If there is something that you really want to do go to the theater the morning of the tour to check on no shows.

 

But anymore we just do our own thing when we want too. These are small ports but sometimes we are surprised at what the locals have to offer. Greenland is beautiful and we had fun just walking around on our own….be sure to go to food market… grocery store and see what is for sale.

Thanks, CWN - that has put my mind at rest.  We're perfectly happy just pottering in port - and don't like feeling like we have to work to a schedule every day. This sounds like it will work well for us.

[Desperate to Sail]

If Regent is going to promote their cruises as all-inclusive then they should make a reasonable effort to ensure there are enough excursions available to meet the demand. It may be buried in the fare but, one way or another, passengers are paying for the excursions. How would you react if they told you "Sorry, I know you paid for a Category D but all those cabins with beds are sold out. Here's a folding cot you can use instead."

 

If all the exclusions are sold out, there needs to be a reimbursement in cash.   

[CJANDH]

I agree with D to S. Regent promotes included excursions and charges for them in the fare. On several recent cruises the excursions have sold out, with no wait list, a few days after booking becomes available. All the messing around in case of "no shows" is not acceptable on a luxury cruise line. Either provision enough tours for everyone or drop the pretense of unlimited excursions included and reduce fare accordingly. If people have to pay for excursions they will not book as many and choice will be restored.

[Poppy1966]

1 hour ago, CJANDH said:

I agree with D to S. Regent promotes included excursions and charges for them in the fare. On several recent cruises the excursions have sold out, with no wait list, a few days after booking becomes available. All the messing around in case of "no shows" is not acceptable on a luxury cruise line. Either provision enough tours for everyone or drop the pretense of unlimited excursions included and reduce fare accordingly. If people have to pay for excursions they will not book as many and choice will be restored.

Hear hear..

[cwn]

The free tours have been talked about many times. Read the fine print on the Regent contract and most ads, at least the ones I bother to read. Free tours at every port for everyone are NOT guaranteed on a Regent cruise. We have been to ports that didn’t have any tours offered period, ones where there was one maybe two school bus type busses only available for transportation .. no A/C. And now with ships with 1000’a of people competing with Regent for tours in popular destinations, just not enough transportation/guides to serve all the passengers on all the ships. . Yes Regent offers tours at no cost but it does not guarantee a free tour in every port for everyone.

 

But long time Regent cruisers will tell you that by the port day, if you want to take a Regent tour there will be one available. In 250+ days we have had one port that we couldn’t get a tour of our choice, but there were still tours that opened up.

 

In this uncertain travel time read the fine print about all included extras and read the TandC before you put money down and/or make final payment. We cancelled a cruise through the Suez about 10 or so years ago and did a land trip to India since we had already bought air fare. We are canceling the Amazon trip inNov because we will not mess with the Brazil Visa mess. 
 

if you don’t want to “mess around to get a free tour”  there are other “luxury lines” that don’t include free tours. That is just a Regent thing. 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 20 by cwn

[Clutj]

For future reference, your travel agent can put a hold on a RSS room for 3 days or something.  That gets you online access to check excursions.  I spent a fair amount of time determining that 75% of my preferred excursions on an Australia to Singapore cruise were sold out, many without a waitlist but there were a couple of those, and one island stop only had 6 of the same excursion sold out, all apparently in a national park and no real ability to do anything else on the island.  We were very disappointed in RSS that they didn’t plan better, and unwilling to risk waitlists or other things opening up.  Also, RSS told our travel agent “almost all excursions have room.”  Shame on them. (I know, I know, “buyer beware”, blah blah blah, but I still consider it an ethical failure and will criticize them for it).  So we booked Antarctica with SS instead!

[pappy1022]

As fare as tenders and doing your own thing, you will have to wait for a tender until all of the passengers using Regent tours are tendered. If you are planning private tours make sure the tour provider is flexible as to the start time. You really don’t know for sure what time you will make landfall. 

[WNcruiser]

On 1/20/2024 at 11:55 AM, talljules1 said:

Alas for several ports there is no option to waitlist - they're just sold out.

Did you call Regent? Many of my excursions for Mariner in June were sold out when I booked. Several wouldn’t let me waitlist on the website but when I called they were able to add me to the waitlist. 
 

Happy that most cleared in a couple weeks but still waiting on two. 

[DDDweller]

Same thing just happened to me. Booked and paid for a Regent Seven Seas Cruise in July, and was unable to book excursions for half the ports because they are sold out. Regent Seven Seas advertises "unlimited free shore excursions." Clearly deceptive advertising since they do not have enough shore excursion capacity to meet demand and you are left with no excursion in half the ports. BUYER BEWARE.

[kjbacon]

11 hours ago, DDDweller said:

Same thing just happened to me. Booked and paid for a Regent Seven Seas Cruise in July, and was unable to book excursions for half the ports because they are sold out. Regent Seven Seas advertises "unlimited free shore excursions." Clearly deceptive advertising since they do not have enough shore excursion capacity to meet demand and you are left with no excursion in half the ports. BUYER BEWARE.

That’s very unfair of you and it absolutely is not “clearly deceptive advertising” as you just stated. You waited till the last minute to book this cruise so you need to accept the challenges that come with doing things that way. The shorex booking window for your cruise opened up 8 months ago with full availability on each and every selection.

[carolcp]

I second what CWN said about the grocery store. Like the old fashion general store.  The 5 gallon buckets of freeze dried soup as you walk in, to the gallon jugs of spices, the hardware next to the guns and ammo next to the yarn and fabric!  I am a knitter and love saying "I made this with the yarn I bought in a Greenland grocery store, the yarn was next to the guns and ammo".

[Chateaunole-du-pape]

The cruise hasn’t departed yet - indeed, it’s still 4 months from departure - so 1) Regent hasn’t failed to deliver anything at this juncture, and 2) It’s likely that they’ll add more excursion capacity as both the excursions and the cruise itself fills. Moreover, many people in many different posts on this board have indicated that they’ve almost always cleared the waitlist for excursions.

 

When we did our first Regent cruise, last summer, we booked a month before departure and there was still plenty of excursion availability in most ports. Our second one is this coming summer, and we booked it in November. Pretty much every excursion was available at that point, and we only had to waitlist for one; we cleared the waitlist a week later. Out of curiosity, I’ve checked several times since and most of the most appealing excursions have filled up, then a couple of weeks later had availability again, likely because Regent noticed that they were popular, contacted the tour operator to see if they could add another group, and if so, then did exactly that. They can’t just offer limitless capacity without knowing if the tour operator can accommodate it.

 

My advice is to sit back, relax, and look forward to your cruise. Check on the excursions periodically - maybe once a week - and see if any of them have opened up. Get on the waitlists, if they exist, for ones that interest you. If you end up never clearing the list before departure, check the Destinations desk once you are on the ship to see if they can waitlist you, and even show up the morning of the tour to see if someone no-shows - I believe that’s quite common. And again, relax! You’re still going to have a great time, regardless.

[PhD-iva]

On 3/19/2024 at 4:21 PM, DDDweller said:

Same thing just happened to me. Booked and paid for a Regent Seven Seas Cruise in July, and was unable to book excursions for half the ports because they are sold out. Regent Seven Seas advertises "unlimited free shore excursions." Clearly deceptive advertising since they do not have enough shore excursion capacity to meet demand and you are left with no excursion in half the ports. BUYER BEWARE.

“Booked and paid for…..” 

You likely got a great deal on a last minute booking, right? So, if you have to pay for one or more non Regent excursions, you’re probably still ahead.

Enjoy your cruise!

[LvnCruisin]

We have been on many cruises where we turned tickets back in as we found something else that we really wanted to do, based off of what someone on the ship said to us or we were simply tired from travel or the day before etc. Tickets seem to can be readily available the day of. But put your name in for excursions when you get on the ship at destinations services. In the long run it's the vacation that always mattered to us.

[Lady of Leisure]

When we went to Iceland( not with Regent) we booked shore excursions direct with a family run company. They also provided packages of 2 or 3 tours to match the cruise ships itinerary, which worked out cheaper. The company were very good and the tour was a small group.

I know that doesn't help when you think you are getting free excursions but Iceland was a beautiful country, even in the rain, and it would be a shame not too see more, 

[Tsunami74]

55 minutes ago, Lady of Leisure said:

When we went to Iceland( not with Regent) we booked shore excursions direct with a family run company. They also provided packages of 2 or 3 tours to match the cruise ships itinerary, which worked out cheaper. The company were very good and the tour was a small group.

I know that doesn't help when you think you are getting free excursions but Iceland was a beautiful country, even in the rain, and it would be a shame not too see more, 

Can you give us the name of this family run company for tours?

[Lady of Leisure]

I'm just on my way out for the evening, I'll come back to you tomorrow.... 

[Lady of Leisure]

21 hours ago, Tsunami74 said:

Can you give us the name of this family run company for tours?

We used a company called IGTours and their sister company FabTours. They were really helpful and replied to our emails quickly. I hadn't realised it was 2018 when we cruised to Iceland.

I also bought the Marco Polo Perfect Days in Iceland guide book which is very good, maps of the town's and information. 

There is a blog by Mike Preisman that I found on CC which was very helpful as well,

the website is Visit our Cruise/Vacation Review website at www.thepreismans.com

Hope you have a lovely time.

 

[Tsunami74]

Thank you, Lady of Leisure, for your Iceland recommendations