I just thought of something. The extra night on MUSH brings me one more night closer to "Gold" and a free picture with the Captain

:banana: :banana: :banana:


"So I got that going for me, which is good"

John, wouldn't you rather strive for the gold to obtain the private art auction?

John, we were sitting at table with Ngaire when extra night was announced. That was the first question we asked: Does this count as an extra night for tier levels? Ngaire has already asked Regent....we are all awaiting their response.

Yea that too

What MUSH Extra night? I spent my night on the phone, internet working on refunds and chasing down my fellow Denali group and finally in the Casino where they paid me to play! Of course that was after dinner at Signatures and after re-packing to go home for a second time!

Confused?? didn't we all have extra night??? No matter how we spent that night???? Unless we are out money - and we are not - I am not looking for payoff

Our group IS out money. While we were refunded by the Denali hotel and train, we were not by our limo/coach refunded. We were out because we could not change flights and spent two nights in Anchorage making lemonade. While if we intended to go straight home, would have been happy to just have an extra night on board, we really did not have that luxury. We spent the day reconfiguring our time and transportation so we would not be "homeless".

Gosh: Sounds horrid - I am sure Regent will make do for legit complaints - homeless??? Would they do that to us???

Kathy,

Did you or anyone else in your group take out insurance? Insurance should cover the costs of your losses, right?

Ngaire is helping us work on it.

Regent even refused to help us write a direct letter to Denali people to obtain our refunds. Yes, Joanna, we could have had nowhere to spend the night! Some of us had trip insurance and others did not but it still may not cover some of our expenses.

All of 7 of us had been to Alaska before this cruise but had not been to Denali. For us, the purpose of the cruise was beyond MUSH. Frank and I would not have gone on MUSH if we had not been going to Denali.

Gotcha - we had planned to tour the area outside of Anchorage for two days - the 6th and 7th and then hop on plane the evening of the 7th - it was not a disappointment to me but it was to a few others in my group - Westmark Hotel in Anchorage was very nice although I was outside of 24 hr period to cancel our 5 rooms - waiting to hear about deposit for two vans which I canceled -

Another good excuse to return!

I hope everyone's issues are resolved to their satisfaction.

I hope you're able to visit Denali sometime soon, Kathy. I would have been greatly disappointed, as well.

For all those who cannot get credits from their tour operators, here is a response to me from Mark Conroy. I hope it can help others who may not have had insurance or good luck with suppliers giving credit. I had insurance and mostly good luck with key suppliers, but there were a few glitches. JoAnn, hope this helps you with your van situation, if needed.

"Dear Andrea,

This is an event that is hard to anticipate, failure of the propulsions system should not normally be on our radar screen.

I would suggest that you make the changes you need to make to insure you enjoy the balance of your vacation and we will assist as best we can but at the same time the tour operators running the programs should not make a windfall profit for what has occurred.

I would suggest you ask the vendors to help understand what has occurred and ask them to mitigate the impact on our valued guests.

Please do what you can to control additional cost but at the same time we will address your reasonable out of pocket expenses.

While it is impossible for us to anticipate every impact of events such as the pod failure we are more then happy to work at trying to make people whole for out of pocket expenses.

What we ask is for people to have a great time and we will work to make sure we cover any reasonable expenses that are not covered by travel insurance.

Please do what you can to make sure you enjoy the balance of your vacation and let us know what cost you have incurred to make it work.

Kindest regards,

Mark
Mark S. Conroy, President
Regent
1000 Corporate Drive, Suite 500, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33334
tel: 954.940.7320
fax: 954.772.4113
www.TheRegentExperience.com
Formerly Radisson Seven Seas Cruises"

The message you just posted from Mark Conroy demonstrates his great leadership ability and responsiveness during a crisis.

Tina

I’d just like to add my thoughts on this. I don’t think any of us wants to profit from Regent’s misfortune. I was lucky enough to have a changeable airline ticket so I am not out any expenses.

But even though I enjoyed an extra day’s cruise, there was some inconvenience. Mona and I both were supposed to be back at work on Friday and as a result of the delay we each had to use an extra day’s vacation for which we had not budgeted.

So far Regent’s only real gesture to its inconvenienced passengers has been a free drink before dinner on the last night of the cruise. The free phone calls and Internet access were more for Regent’s benefit than ours. It enabled us to spend time changing our travel planes thereby making less work for Regent.

I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but so far Regent has been quite silent on what it plans to offer its passengers. Mark Conroy's letter to Andie agrees to nothing. He only says they will try and will work to help passengers.

I think some sort of future cruise credit for everyone on the trip would be appropriate. Thanks. Tom.

I completely agree with everything Tom just said. I too lost a vacation day. As I had sailed Regent before, I already had free internet and phone time.

A pre-dinner cocktail isn't much on their part, some passengers don't even drink. While I think the staff on-board did a great job, the response from the home office has be lackluster. Frankly I would have expected more.

Would agree with Tom and Lauri. My clients onboard with us actually were charged for Internet and Phone calls during those two days. Dick said he talked to Regent on Friday and they told him they "would work it all out". I need to follow up on that for them.

Also I feel that they should have been having open bar from the minute this happened and they knew they would not be getting into Whittier on time. I agree that the staff did a great job and even spent time trying to help those with independent plans, but still those on the next cruise did get a substantial cruise credit from what I heard, I think from Marcie, as she was one of the last ones off the ship. Now granted they definitely were inconvenienced, and missed all but two ports, but I too, would think some sort of cruise credit would be appropriate.

Reimbursement for expenses.
Normally the procedure is to claim on insurance and then whatever is not covered send that into Regent. I was asked to pass along that if anyone is sending in a letter for reimbursement for costs associated with the situation to please also send in receipts.

Other Compensation
I am sure that some solution will be reached but the wheels of Corporations move slowly. Please be patient and give Regent time to react to the situation.

Ngaire, to what address do we send receipts?

Olivia, send them to:

Gair O'Neill
Manager, Guest Relations and Risk Management
Regent Seven Seas Cruises
1000 Corporate Drive
Suite 500
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33334

Thanks Ngaire.

Andrea, cute new signature logo! Also, love your new avitar with your new haircut.

Thanks JoAnn! :hug: I like to keep things updated!

Hi Tom & Lauri:

I know that this this must have been tough on you and I hope that you will have great memories about your trip despite these problems.

My positive comment about Mr. Conroy's response had to do with the following - he wrote personally and he offered to help as evidenced by what he indicated in his letter (see below)... I teach leadership and see so many bad examples of it, that I was heartened to see something prompt and positive.

I am hopeful that they will come through for you.

Tina

"Please do what you can to control additional cost but at the same time we will address your reasonable out of pocket expenses.

While it is impossible for us to anticipate every impact of events such as the pod failure we are more then happy to work at trying to make people whole for out of pocket expenses.

What we ask is for people to have a great time and we will work to make sure we cover any reasonable expenses that are not covered by travel insurance."

Are we really due additional compensation beyond making us whole? Whether additional transportation expenses or lost vacation days or lost deposits; these are all quantifiable. These should be reimbursed either through insurance or by Regent. However, what more compensation are we really due? I have received future cruise credits from Radisson in the past. The first time I was on Mariner and the itinerary had to be modified so as to fix a pod they gave us open bar for a week, $500 per person future cruise credit and $100 per person shipboard credit. The modification was to give up a sea day for an extra day in Key West; not much of a hardship. They probably gave us too much. Now, I think the pendulum has changed and they will give very little; but do we really deserve anything. After all, they didn't charge us for the 8th night.

I was probably the most vocal onboard about the lack of open bar. In retrospect, I should have probably gone directly to Hotel Director that night. This was just shortsightedness. Were they really worried about drunks? If so, how do they expect to handle a similar situation next year when they go all inclusive? If they were worried about drinking mixing with heavy seas and a disabled ship; how are they going to handle a similar situation next year? Cut off open bar and start charging?

I just think they hired a Hotel Director who doesn't know much about running a cruise ship.

Marc,

Very well said. However, many of us would have preferred to get off the ship on the 7th night in lieu of the free forced 8th day but we weren't given the option! And while the Cruise Director and his staff were exceptional as was the Chef, all that we heard out of the Reception and Travel Concierge Desk was that Florida or Omaha were handling it! And that was not for everyone. Reasonable requests were not honored. We were even charged for faxing Marc Conroy's letter to the people in Denali to get over $10,000 in charges returned! We had to go back and ask for $62.00 in refunds for them.

Marc, I too was VERY surprised that the open bar didn't start from the moment the pod problem was announced through the duration of the cruise. Although it didn't affect Tom and I personally since we already get free drinks, it made Regent look CHEAP and certainly less than 5 star to give free drinks for only 1/2 hour! They might as well have not done it all. I heard this over and over from non-Mushers as well.

Kathy, may I ask how you would have wanted them to get you off the ship after the 7th night? You know that that was impossible. "Ship happens," that is part of the romance of the sea. We were not going to get off that ship no matter what before it docked at Whittier. If you had wanted to arrange transportation at 0200 on Thursday, I think that they would have let you off. However, any sooner was impossible.

I was being sarcastic, Marc - of course you could not get off the ship! There was no other option but to make the best of the situation - which we all did to the best of our ability.

But you could not leave if you wanted to at 0200 - the tunnel was not open either. We learned that Regent did not pay the $500 to get the tunnel open either to let the mechanics in! They waited until the tunnel was open as normal!

Kathy, thanks; I hadn't heard that about the tunnel. I guess they figured it didn't help to get the mechanics in in the middle of the night.

I am lost - is 0200 2 AM???

Joanna, yes. I guess you have never programmed a wake up call on the ships. :D

I guess you can say that everybodys situation is a little different, I too had a bit of time consumed, since I could not get a phone line out or when I went to the internet room to cancel my hotel reservation in anchorage I had to go back a few times to get an open computer. The positives I have to say is I got to spend a extra night on the ship and have a wondeful 27 course dinner with a bunch of great people for free, and even though I was going to spend a night in Anchorage, The Mariner is a better place to be, so I did not have to pay $175 for my hotel, transportations, and breakfast/lunch/dinner, in my eyes I have alreay made money on the endeavor: but again everyone situation is different, if Regent offers something for future cruises that would be great, if not, what can you do.

Frank

Still confused - Regent didn't pay to open tunnel at 2 AM and we are faulting them for this ...who was going out at 2 AM? I have missed something - ??? No wake ups bring my alarm

Joanna, I had said that we could have gotten off at 2am if we had arranged our own transportation. I was wrong as the tunnel was not open.

Where was the Mariner at 0200? Was it docked in Whittier, waiting for the mechanics? Since my timing has been screwy for almost three weeks, I couldn't tell when y'all actually got in to dock.

Well said Frank - I was in our cabin for a couple of hrs dealing with hotel and vans - if you lost money you should be reimbursed - insurance/Regent etc - an offer for future cruise great - if not so be it - if we had taken land trip and had delayed plane and missed day at work who do we fault and where do we collect???

Pam, supposedly (I was not awake) we docked around 2am (aka 0200 or 02h00).

Regent is in a no win situation.

While some people may not have had direct costs, they did have indirect expenses. While we all agree it is nice to get a bonus day onboard, and for most it was spent with some time dealing with the situation. Some people were truly afraid with the high winds and earthquake type movements of the ship.

Those who did not have their own computers spent a great deal of time in line at club.com. Getting an outside line to make phone calls took time away from some of the fun activities.

There was never any kind of onboard offer to see what passengers needed. They were just told to wait. Those who were proactive were able to work things out. People are out vacation days, funds for babysitters, dog sitter,airport parking and non refundable transportation costs such as changing of airline tickets not booked by RSSC. and telephone expenses.

The final result will be interesting.

OK think I got it - tunnel not open at 2 am - maybe 8 am?? Regent did not pay $500 to open it at 2 am??? Whew!!