Excursions for Taj open on 8/4/12 and while it seems early my experience is that one needs to book quickly to get their preferences. So, I have started to look at the excursions. I am overwhelmed. I guess it is because I know absolutely nothing of this part of the world. One reason I booked the cruise.

I am asking for advice / thoughts from those that have been to this part of the world. What not to miss , what to avoid etc.

I am doing the precruise to Ankor Wat and the post to Taj Mahal

I am traveling alone but would be eagar to join others that have room and are setting up tours on their own separate from the ship. While it adds to the cost my experience is that doing a tour with a small group can be worth while and more fun.

I'll be on the ship and am staying on but I'm with you , Ralph - I know very little about this part of the world.

I'm also a bit nervous being on my own here.

I'd be interested in joining people organizing small groups for tours . . .

Peggy

Ralph:
We need to talk.
I am awful about booking stuff early...including dinners. I might guess that is why I haven't been in Prime 7 at all during my last few trips.
We are always open to a private thing or 2, also. I do hate the big bus tours.
Anyway, call or write & let's plan something.
Anyone else want to work all this out together so that we can tour together?

Doug

Peggy:

relax about being alone. This group has very large wings to take you under.

Doug

I'm not part of Ngaire's group although I know a number of the members. If the tours are for her group alone, that's OK too.

Peggy

Peggy, Marc and I generally do not do tours not organized by the ship (we feel we've paid for them so might as well not pay for different ones). If you are going to go on any of these rather than people planning tours on their own, we would love to have you join us. (You too Ralph!) I know nothing about this part of the world either and am very leary about eating off the ship or doing ports on our own due to the crowds etc. For me this is one time I will be happy to have Regent doing the planning and will go along with what they recommend. I don't think Ngaire usually organizes tours for "her group" though many LCTers do make tour plans on their own or in small groups if they don't want to do Regent's tours, don't like what Regent is offering or if they have something special they want to do. I do know that sometimes tours organized by people on their own are nice because they can do exactly what and where they want. So... on second thought it would be interesting to see what others are doing too and if Ngaire or others who are familiar with the ports has any comments or suggestions.

Ralph, I don't know how full the ship is but we are able to book at 240 day mark instead of 180 like before; I am hoping there won't be an issue getting excursions.

We have both been to Singapore and I have been to Colombo; Ihose are the only ports we have been to. I know many have been to the Malay and Thai ports so we should be able to get some insight. Like Arlene, I am inclined to do the ship's tours as it will be first time for us so all is new. Only place I defeinitely want to go to (on my own if necessary) is Mt Lavinia Hotel in Colombo which played the part of the hospital in the movie Bridge Over River Kwai.

Arlene and I are going to look at currently posted excursions and start to make plans; we will try to post our thoughts soon.

Hi Arlene,

I emailed you. . .

Peggy

Peggy I still don't have your email. Maybe one of services is just slow Maybe PM me or send it to Marc??

I sent a pm . . . let me know if it arrives . . .

Got it! Have replied by email

Ralph, Doug, Peggy

Boy we seem to all the in the same boat (pun intended) Marc and I just spent a while looking at the tours for this and I agree with all of you. We are pretty much settled on what we will do tour wise until we get to Sri Lanka because we have either been to these places before or have read about them and have ideas about what we want to do. But from Sri Lanka on ward I am at a loss. Marc has been to Sri Lanka before though it was about 30 years ago I am not familiar with any of it, though these are places I have always wanted to visit. I don't usually research places before I go there, though I plan to this time because I am so unfamiliar with it AND because it will probably be the only time I go to this part of the world so I want to make sure I see the important things. I plan to spend some time on this in the next couple of days or so. I need to look at my 1,001 Places To Go book and maybe do some googling.

Any one else done any research on any of these ports? Anyone familiar with them? Any suggestions anyone? Ngaire?

I looked at the ships tours for Taj Mahal before we left on this trip --there were some pretty good ones. We'll probably book ships tours, but would still be interested in looking at any private tours anyone puts together. Don't know how much shipboard credit we'll have on this one, but hiring a private car and driver for a small group through the ship's destination desk is a good way to spend it.
Ralph--we'll be at the Peninsula in Bangkok a couple days before the Angkor Wat trip--lets definitely get together, at least for dinner.

Private Tours on Taj.

Our web site now has a link to a Signature supplier that handles shore excursions. If a group of you get together you can arrange it very easily through this company in most places in the world. The Signature suppliers are well checked and you can be comfortable using any Signature supplier. They show the price for one - or a group of people.

Go to www.brownandkeene.travel.com
Scroll down to the bottom right hand corner and link from there.

The nice thing about this company is they guarantee they will get you back to the ship sometimes a bit of a worry with a private tour - traffic jams that are out of people's control.

Guaranteed Return to Ship
We have never had a customer miss their ship. Our team possesses over 80 years of combined cruise line experience and we are not aware of a single case in which a customer on an independent tour missed a ship. In the extremely unlikely event that you miss your ship due to the late arrival of one of our tours, we will arrange and pay for your accommodations, meals, and transportation to the next port of call, and we will pay you an additional $500 per customer for the inconvenience.

However, they have NOTHING for these ports. I also checked a similiar cruise in December - nothing there either.

https://secure.shoretrips.com/main/MapSearch?code=ASI

This is another company that does tours all over the world. I pulled up Asia (link above) and they had only a few ports. The tours were sky high in our port of call in Cambodia, Sihanoukville. So high I thought it was a mistake but looked at the other ports and they were more reasonable. This leads me to believe this port does not have much of a tour structure for tourists in place. They have pricing for an individual listed but I am sure they would do a group as well if contacted.

I spent 19 days in India and had a good guide travel with us to every destination with some local guides mixed in from time to time. However the company that booked that for us does not do shore excursions ONLY full tours.

Most of these ports I have not visited before. The two ports I have been to in India are Cochin and Mumbai. The Kerala backwaters in Chochin were fascinating. Mumbai I liked Elephanta Caves there are tons of steps and they do carry you up if you pay so you do not have to walk. It is a nice pleasant boat ride out to the island and then walking up to the caves that had images of the walls. Pretty touristy but okay.

These are challenging places and unless you KNOW the tour operator I would personally suggest doing Regent tours a busload or not. I would never take on the responsibility of arranging something in these areas and I think anyone that plans on doing that needs to be very cautious.

Ken and I will be doing the Regent excursions and I think most of you know I am not really a fan either. However in this case I think it is the most sensible thing to do.

As to me arranging private tours, having been down this road in the past I really do not do this anymore. There can be so many complications. If I put a group together for some people then I feel obligated to offer it to all my clients. Then you end up on a bus just like Regent with me having just little more say in where we go and for how long and that costs a lot more - it does not make sense.

One small van last year I joined a group organized by a client of mine and we had a guide that was so bad. He was determined to do it his way and it did not matter what the group wanted. I almost got into a fight with him a very uncomfortable situation. It was worse than being in the Regent bus and we were captive just the same. The person who organized it felt responsible but was using a company that had provided a good tour the day before. Just like with Regent all guides are not created equal privately hired or on a Regent bus.

Thank you so much for all the info Ngaire. Your insight is so helpful. It reinforces what I had thought about using Regent tours in this part of the world.

Didn't realize the excursion bookings were opening so soon - thanks for the heads up.

Isn't there a way to get an email of all the excursions - I don't see a link - maybe that will come closer to the booking window opening?

Another company that does excursions is viator.com. We are taking a day trip with them in Normandy, France in a couple of weeks so I will report back about how it goes - their tours seem to get good reviews.

I do think in these ports you go with a larger company that does all over the world not a local small company if you want to do private tours.

You can see the "examples' of what should be offered online Leslie, this is not available by email. You can go online and print it all out if you wish.

While so many of us loathe the 'big bus' tours and like the private tours (when they do what we ask them to), I have to agree with the comment made by Marc. Dang! The current deal with Regent has the 'included' tours in the fare. Ergo, we have already paid for them. Paying twice is not logical UNLESS there is a major difference, which there can be from time to time.
I checked today and the tours are not yet on the RSSC web site. So, we have time.
I would suggest that we talk here and if there is a port without acceptable tours, we regroup for a private. But, time is very much on our side here.
Granted, it is always preferred to be with 6 to 8 friends rather than 40 to 50 on a bus, but let's figure it out within the constraints of the Regent playbook.

Just my 2 cents....... Doug

I really did not intend to kick off a discussion of private tours , just wanted to be thought of if that was direction, but more a discussion of regent tours and what should be considered and what to avoid. So what are key sights that are subject of regent tours.

Ralph, Arlene and I just spent a couple of hours researching tours and sights to see. We have made some initial decisions.

For Sihanoukville, we are going to take the long bus trip to Phnom Penh. We figure it probably is our one and only chance to see Phnom Penh. If we get enough folks, we can get card games going in bus each direction.

In Phuket, Arlene will take the Snorkel at Phi Phi Island. It should be a fantastic experience. I am not a fan of snorkeling so i will do something else.

In Colombo, we are going to go to Kandy. I had a chance to go there in 1983 but missed it. I believe Marcie went on World Cruise. I just want to see Temple of Sacred Tooth.

In Cochin, we are going to take Tranquil Backwaters. It is supposed to be beautiful.

In Bombay, we want to see the Taj Mahal Hotel. It doesn't appear to be on any tours so we might see on our own.

For the rest of the stops, we are still researching.

The Taj Hotel is right at the dock where you board the boats for Elephanta Island. Of course there would probably not be time to see the hotel inside.

Ngaire,we overnight in Bombay; sounds like a great place to go for a nightcap.

Marc, my excursion to Kerala didn't include lunch, but I hope your time there is as spectacular as mine was.

I saw on the other forum that malaria meds are necessary for this area . . . does anyone know about this?

I work wuth alot of Indian doctors and residents. They say we should get the Hep A & B shots (a series of 3). I had them a couple yrs. ago at my hospital. Most thought the malarlia pills should be taken. I am on the fence with that.. Any questions any of you have regarding India; they will be only too happy to answer..
Judy

HI Judy,

I've taken the pills before and never had any problems . . . but I'll talk to my doc and go with her advice . . . .good point!

Peggy

For everyone going of the Taj Mahal post excursion, this is what we have to look forward to. Enjoy.

http://www.airpano.ru/files/Taj-Mahal-India/2-3

Terrific Taj link, thanks very much for sharing Carolyn and Don.

FYI, two malaria links below to ponder.

http://www.hpa.org.uk/webc/HPAwebFile/HPAweb_C/1206520188751

http://www.fitfortravel.nhs.uk/destinations/asia-%28east%29/india/india-malaria-map.aspx

Thanks, Carolyn! Great site. This is going to be great fun.
Tomorrow is pick the excursions day here!

Doug

What a wonderful sight. They went through so much to get these photos. I so hope John and I get to see it in April 2013.

So I was just looking at the new Regent Web site and the excursions for TAJ MAHAL. It took me a while to find them. I thought that there had been some significant changes but it was not that simple because you have to click on both free and "choice" excursions to see all of them. I had first thought that the ones I couldn't find were dropped. Of course, they were the ones that cost an additional fee, though I didn't see any costs given yet. Gail and I had spent a lot of time over the weekend looking over the potential excursions.
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Eugene

Excursions out and I AM NOT a happy camper.

A quick perusal finds that the all day tour to Phnom Penh is not on the schedule. Neither is the tour to Kandy from Colombo. Both of those were at the top of our list. Seems that Regent has focused on shorter excursions instead of in depth.

This is pretty bad. Maybe there is truth in those complaints about Regent's corporate destinations department now that it has been merged with Oceania.

I am NOT happy.

I'm disappointed, too. There were several that were at the top of our list that are not being offered, including the trip to Kandy.

I noticed in a brochure that I received from Silversea that they were offering an excursion to Kandy by air on their World Cruise--it was associated with a supplemental fee, however, though the amount was not given.

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Eugene

I called Regent to see if they could tell me anything about the missing excursions. The answer is not really. EXCEPT that the excursions for Mormugao (on 4/16) are listed for booking purposes by them with Goa. I don't know how you could do anything online, but the Regent rep was able to book one of them for us, and then he sent me a complete list. My online calendar still doesn't show it, however.

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Eugene

Eugene, could u private email us about this excursion. I must have missed it. Thanks.

If I book one excursion and then go back in later to add more excursions, is the previously booked excursion in jeopardy? I want to get Arlene an excursion but am not ready to book the whole set.

thanks,

Marc, I wouldn't think so, but who knows with the new Web site. Why don't you just call Regent? That's how I added an excursion for Goa (Mormugao).

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Eugene

I went back and edited mine. I decided not to make a change and when I updated it I thought it had lost all my excursion as it said "no excursions booked" However in reality all the previous excursions were still there.

I believe it just shows the "changes" when you open it up again was ONLY on the update showing no NEW excursions were booked and that message relates ONLY to the update. Is that as clear as mud?

Ngaire and Eugene, thanks. I booked just Phuket and Cochin and will try to book rest today or tomorrow.

Excursions even worse than I thought.

No excursion in Kuala Lumpur include visit to Petronas Tower. In fact, none of the descriptions even seem to mention a drive by. Then, 232 days out two of our tours are waitlisted. Worse, we are having to pay for two of the tours.

This is pretty bad. Looks like I need to have a long talk with Rennaissance on this.