Yesterday a direct booking engine opened on Regent's web.

You select a cruise and to the side you will see VIEW CRUISE and RESERVE CRUISE.

Select Reserve Cruise to book. First screen is to either set up an account or log in to your account. You will need to have an account set up to reserve.

The system enters the name and birthdate of the account holder and you enter the second passenger name and birth date. The Seven Seas Society number may enter this information I did could not try that. (I had to do this on my own account and the system will not load my society number)

Next screen is cabin category choice, select your category and it shows available cabins. Of course they wont show ALL the cabins available probably just the best 6 - 10 cabins. If you want a particular cabin you can enter that cabin number to see if it is available. After cabin selection the next screens offer insurance, land packages etc.

You then have a choice to confirm the cruise by depositing the cruise on line. A guest cannot "hold" a cabin or a cruise they must deposit. Once deposited a copy will be sent to the designated travel agent.

No booking is confirmed or cabin held without the deposit so no invoice is sent to a travel agent without an online deposit being made.

When you call and book with a Travel Agent or on the phone with Regent you can have a 7 day option period to make a final decision before depositing. THIS OPTION IS NOT AVAILABLE ON THE ONLINE BOOKING.

This is still a work in progress and things may change as the continue to work to improve the on line booking for guests.

This works very much like our travel agent system but actually is faster and less complicated.

Personally I think this is a great tool and you and make your own cabin selection.

Regent is getting better and better with their web technology in many areas, it is really working very well.

Well that is pretty cool, only if to see what cabins are available!

So just to be clear Ngaire, there is absolutely no penalty to B&K if we book through the web and send to you all to complete/deposit the reservation?

No problem whatsover. It gives everyone a choice. If you like to do things yourself that allows a person to do that and if you prefer to contact us directly that is fine also.

Until we know there are no glitches I suggest you let us know if you make a booking so we know if it does not get sent to us we "go find it".

It is nice to be able to track inventory. Even if they show only 6-8 cabins per category, it is possible (although time consuming) to track availability of every cabin. Of course, that isn't perfect as you have no way of knowing how many "guarantees" have been booked.

GREAT!!! :app: :app: :app: I love this. I always wondered why Regent didn't have this capability, when so many other cruise lines do. I'm heading off to test it out!

You can just sign in with your e-mail address and password, which is nice. If fills in the rest--at least for you. It does seem to show information about cabin inventory, and I assume it's accurate.

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Eugene

Ngaire, does it show ALL the cabins available or just a few? If it shows just a few, I would still rather book straight with you as you would know all the availability, right?

I love Linda. I'm sticking with her.

I think it's a great addition to the website. It displays up to seven available cabins in each category. The display starts with the lowest available cabin number and works its way upwards. There is also a box to check the availability of a specific cabin number that is not listed as available.

It should enable me to find the exact cabin I want easily. Once I find the cabin, I can send the booking to B&K (Susan W.) for final processing. IMHO, direct booking will only enhance the services B&K already provides to us.

A couple of additional observations:

1. The program does not automatically fill in the title (required) of the account holder (Guest 1).

2. Filling in Guest 2's first name, last name and DOB will allow you to click on the "lookup number" link to add Guest 2's SSS number. However, the reverse does not work (i.e., entering the SSS number will not populate the first name, last name and DOB boxes.

3. If SSS numbers are entered, the program will automatically subtract any applicable Society savings for the cruise from the total fare.

If you book on line B&K can still change cabins if we find a better cabin available. Our booking engine works the same and probably shows the exact same cabins. We usually check with our contacts at Regent to get the full availability.

A little more detail and clarity on how this works

When you call and book with a Travel Agent or on the phone with Regent in the reservations department you can have a 7 day option period to make a final decision before depositing.

THIS OPTION IS NOT AVAILABLE ON THE ONLINE BOOKING.

You must deposit ON LINE to hold a cabin and the Travel Agent gets an invoice ONCE the booking is deposited.

This is still a work in progress and things may change as Regent continues to work to improve the on line booking for guests