Transportation to hotel day before cruise

[chamima]

We will be on our first Regent cruise. As the person in the family who has done ALL of the vacation planning in the past I really appreciate the all-inclusiveness of Regent!

We arrive in Rome early the morning before our cruise . My question is about the provided transportation from the airport to the hotel. We arrive pretty early (8:30 am). Will we have to wait until a whole bus fills up to go the hotel or does the provided transportation leave as soon as we get our luggage?

I've already verified with the hotel that they will store our luggage until our room is ready and we want to have as much time as possible to tour Rome that day.

 

Everyone on this board has been a huge help in answering all of my questions so Thank You in advance!

[Lady Meer]

We arrived in Tokyo early morning this year. We found the Regent agents and were shown to a mini bus. After about 10 mins there were 8 of us so we set off for the hotel. The agents had a list of pax and there were several buses which left as each one filled.

[GOARMY]

There are many factors that come into play.  Our experiences have varied from being the only couple coming in at that particular time of day, and/or the only ones on the same flight.  Then, it was quick transport on a van after collecting the bags.  

 

OR:  most-recent at Heathrow 10 days ago.  Delay in getting our last two bags.  Finally, into waiting area.  There were three other couples standing by.  The Regent Rep. advised the van was about ready to leave, thinking we had missed our flight.  Fortunately, no.  Those waiting for us came in at about the same time; but on a different flight.  

 

GOARMY!

 

[Tnkbstr55]

As GOARMY notes, circumstances vary.  On arriving in Athens last Fall there were three couples who were met by the Regent rep.  Each couple was put into a separate taxi for transport to the hotel.  The driver was waiting with the Regent rep and insisted on taking our luggage as we followed him to his car.  This was our first Regent cruise and we were impressed with the service.  We were part of a pre-cruise land tour.  We later met others on Voyager who were grouped into a small van.  Hope you enjoy your trip.

[chamima]

Thank you all.

Years ago , on another cruise line we took the line's transportation to our hotel. They met us at baggage claim but then we were put on a large bus and waited a long time until the bus filled before we were taken to our hotel. We haven't taken cruise line transportation since then.

My concern was about waiting (wasting) hours in Rome for a large bus to fill up.

It sounds like things are done very differently on Regent.

[irishwitchy]

Keep in mind,  you won’t know until you get there.  You can always bail on the Regent transportation if it looks like it will take a lot of time.  
 

A couple of years ago,  we landed in Copenhagen and we didn’t have transfers included.  However,  we did speak to Regent rep and there was a big bus involved!   We hopped into a taxi,  checked in with Hotel Regent rep, checked into the hotel,  put our stuff in the room, changed clothing and went back the lobby to go explore.    Guess what the bus finally arrived and everyone was standing in lines.   We were very happy that we paid for a taxi.