Great staff...TERRIBLE Regent Management

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Vote: 1

Review summary

The ship staff was splendid. The food was very good to excellent. Our cruise rep, Dustim, and the Regent management, are why we give Regent a "TERRIBLE" review. We live in Asheville, NC. Our area was completely devastated by Hurricane Helene one month before we were to set sail. No electricity, cell service, gas, or water. Neighbors were living in tents. The first day the National Guard set up a temp cell tower, we called Regent to try and postpone our trip. We were not looking for a penny back, just a postponement. We called for one month straight and could not get anyone to call us back, with the exception of our rep Dustim, who told us we'd hear from management. They never called. A week before the cruise set sail, we regained electricity but no water (as I type this, we now have water, but no potable water). We were volunteering in the neighborhoods helping people who had lost their homes. As for going away, we could no longer get anyone to come to our home to watch our dogs. We tried to use our travelers' insurance but we had to have a letter stating that our home was not habitable. The insurance companies had not deemed Asheville "uninhabitable" in spite of the presence of FEMA, the National Guard, and a visit from the president (you have to love insurance companies). A few days before the ship was to set sail, we finally received a call from a manager stating he had spoken to our agent (he referred to Dustim as "her" and "she", even though Dustim is a male), and told us we could not get out of the trip because "It sets sail in a few days--it's too late." We explained to him we had been calling for a month and that we only wanted to POSTPONE, given the devastation in our area and the extremely poor giving conditions. After quite some time going back and forth with this clueless individual, explaining we just wanted to postpone, that we could not get anyone to watch our dogs, how there was no water anywhere, (and by the way, how do you tell your neighbors living in tents that you're going on a CRUISE??) We were told by Renent management (this is a direct quote), "I just can't see how your request can be honored," and they hung up on us. Because we could not get a postponement and we could not get any help from travelers' insurance, we were forced into the decision of either losing thousands of dollars and saying goodbye to our "dream cruise" or making a big-time, last-minute scramble to get on the boat. We drove our three dogs separately to various friends and family and left our home. To add more stress to the situation, homes were starting to get burglarized, and we had no internet to set our alarm system. Was taking the trip the wise thing to do? We are not in a position to walk away from that kind of money after spending years planning it and saving up for it. Full disclosure: the staff on the ship was amazing, and the trip was fantastic. Crazily enough, the ship was only half full, so Regent would not have lost any revenue by giving us a postponement!!! To add even more stress for us was the ship's positively horrible internet. Voyager is getting old, and we were told it's soon going in for a significant overhaul. Guests were having trouble getting online and making phone calls the entire trip, which adds a lot of stress when you're trying to find out how your dogs, home, and town are doing. So, bravo to everyone aboard the Voyager, and SHAME on Regent and their uncaring, unsympathetic management. We will never cruise with Regent again.

Embarkation

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Food and Dining

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Service and Staff

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Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Istanbul, Turkey

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

Barcelona, Spain

Disembarkation