CHTobi

On 11/9/2023 at 1:16 PM, travelberlin said:

Oh, I do not mean the local companies. I mean the ones responsible for excursions on board. 
Ivi

The issue is not the shore excursion team on the ships... they do (or try to do) a phenomenal job. But they are as exposed to the onshore disaster and the dysfunctional systems as the passengers. On a recent sailing during which I failed to secure shorex bookings with the promised 10% pre-booking discount, it was clear that the shorex team would have loved to make the close to $4,000 sale, BUT the systems would not allow them to do so and the cumbersome workaround that was suggested was not acceptable to me. It is the onshore incompetence that has led to the dysfunctional or non-functioning IT systems that needs to be held responsible.

On 8/7/2023 at 8:39 AM, uktog said:

The appeal certainly used to be - as one Captain put it - the only difference between the ships is the artwork.  

Azamara appears to have veered away from that

Other lines like Viking are absolutely rigid in being the same fleet wide in terms of service standards, ship layout and guest experience

I know this is a generalisation but the older demographic tends to like that consistency and predictability more than the younger market.

Perhaps symptomatic of Azamara's current direction of travel, consistency does not fit their plans.

Time will tell if that is the right path or one that will come back and bite them big time.

 

Bingo... my main complaint - lack of qualitative consistency across the fleet - and that BIG TIME. AND - I hate it...

On 7/30/2023 at 10:13 PM, uktog said:

So sad - my university town - so much to see and do there but you need the right research pre cruise and tour etc. Give me the history and buildings of Old Aberdeen any day 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿. Sounds like the cruise line and port tourism folks need to do a bit more work on this one 

We loved Aberdeen... Made the effort to walk to Aberdeen Old Town and visit the phenomenally beautiful campus of Aberdeen University. For us it was an alternate port as we had to get out of Oslo in a hurry to cross the North Sea due to severe storm - and we actually considered ourselves lucky to be able to visit Aberdeen.

On 7/5/2023 at 7:20 PM, srvpoo said:

When was your last Azamara cruise

Five of them, post-COVID. Would you like the dates? And maybe the itineraries? 😉

The mere fact that this thread about the Azamara WEBSITE drama is now on "page" 37 is proof enough that "something's rotten in the state of Azamara" - unnecessary and absolutely (at least in large part) avoidable drama, which reeks of extreme incompetence at the highest level of the organization. How else can one explain that after FINALLY another message from the top earlier this week, that said message needed to be followed up by another email to explain the original message a short while later. The average girls-scout cookie sale in the United State is better organized and executed than this IT implementation and data migration. At least I am happy to report that my personal issue (overcharge of $3,214.20) has been partially resolved to the tune of $2,200.00 and both myself and my TA are waiting with bated breath to see completion of the resolution.

On 4/14/2023 at 8:30 PM, TeaBag said:

Too many mistakes.  How many of us are being asked for more money when we have been paid in full for months?  We are sailing in less than 3 weeks and none of this has been corrected.

Being asked for more money is one thing. In my case I was overcharged $3,182.40 by mistake (Azamara's mistake - so far unexplained but most likely IT/systems based) when my TA called in final payment due. It was during the short window when the new Azamara system did not allow my TA to run the charge herself and a "highly qualified Azamara employee" ran the charge (with the overcharge). This has remained unresolved and it is impossible to get any type of update or timeline for a resolution. $3,182.40 is a substantial enough mistake to take immediate action and resolve it for a loyal customer who has sailed with the brand 37 time (33 of which, I hate to repeat it - in top ten suites).

3 hours ago, NicNata said:

Yes I absolutely agree with you. I worked in customer service my whole career and the golden rules when things go wrong, and they will, are apologise, acknowledge that there is a problem, tell clients what you are doing to fix the problem and give an approximate timeline for the fix. Sweetening the frustration that your clients have experienced may not even be necessary if the above steps are followed but of course that is the icing on the cake. I have two current cruises booked, only the deposit paid, but am very reluctant to do anything further like pay the balance, book excursions etc. Like many others, my loyalty points are wrong and I have received no reply from Azamara to my request to correct this. I am also holding off on booking two additional cruises we had originally planned until there is some clarity. It seems to me that Azamara must be losing a lot of business at the moment quite apart from the damage they are doing to their brand. It must be very disheartening for the crew working on the ships as they probably have to hear all the stories of issues caused by the front end, even though they themselves had nothing to do with these issues.

The current shore side paralysis (for lack of a better word) speaks volumes. Systems seem pretty much collapsed, the hired staff in the customer service center are not educated and trained enough to deal efficiently and effectively with the many issues that passengers have. And "All quite on the Western Front" - no communication from the top. Whereas months ago there were eloquent messages with rosy promises and marginal apologies. Now - nothing! Again, paralysis through and through - to the point of clear damage to the brand. That's what happens when a cruise line sails (no pun intended) into the uncharted waters of a divorce from a big "mother company" WITHOUT proper planning. 

23 minutes ago, TeaBag said:

How can you reach out if the phone lines are shut down?  

Email to LoyaltyAzamara@Azamara.com or Loyalty@Azamara.com. But do NOT expect a quick response and/or resolution of any issue.

19 minutes ago, KevintheIrishDJ said:

After waiting for 2 weeks, this isn't something I made up:

"Good afternoon, Kevin.

Due to the migration into our new systems, we are just now seeing your message; please accept our apologies for any frustration or inconvenience this may have caused. While we hope you were able to reach out to one of our agents via phone to get your initial inquiry resolved, we still wished to verify if all has been taken care of or if there's anything we can still assist with.

Kind regards,

Azamara Customer Service"

I got the exact same e-mail response yesterday (14 days after I e-mailed, mind you) regarding my overcharge issue of $3,182.40. Clearly semi-automated and nobody checked if the actual reported issue has been resolved. They are throwing the ball back at you with a "...double check yourself if your issue has been resolved..." And hoping that people "...were able to reach out to one of our agents via phone to get your initial inquiry resolved..." is, of course, an insult to my intelligence considering that you may be either on hold or waiting for hours or days for a call-back. No, we only could wish that this is all a joke, but it unfortunately is a sad reality that many loyal Azamara customers are currently forced to deal with.

11 minutes ago, molemaui said:

I am hoping on board will indeed be a "wonderful" experience. What I and others are responding to in this thread is the utter incompetence of Azamara's "front end". Our inability to communicate directly with AZ, our travel agency's inability to do the same, a website that is totally a joke along with the folks responsible for the migration. I do not believe any of could have done our jobs so poorly and remain employed. Even if the website is not working, an "all hands on deck" effort (from CEO down) could have been instituted to better communicate with customers and agents alike via phone and email. Next week I'm flying halfway across the world having  been unable to have some basic questions answered. 

 

We'll make it work of course but I think there needs to be a distinction between the actual cruise (excellent service, great crew, etc) and everything that leads up to this. 

 

The cruise likely will be fantastic but I will think twice sailing AZ again especially after so many perfect pre-cruise experiences with other cruise lines. 

The sad part is that Azamara knew literally for years that this divorce from RCCL was going to happen. Clearly the planning for this divorce and the need for proprietary systems and a clean data migration was beyond sloppy and as a result many of the (frequently very loyal long-term) Azamara customers (or their travel agents) are now confronted with a tremendous and mismanaged mess. That does simply not reflect well on the brand. And I get outraged when I see the very aggressive Azamara sales pitches on my social media feeds. They are selling more an more cruises and when it comes to managing and servicing the sold products they fail completely in many cases. I hate to say it yet again, an "accidental" overcharge in my personal case of $3,182.40 that remains unresolved and pretty much not responded to more than 15 days after it happened and was reported, is not a confidence builder.

18 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

You’re right about the website, but otherwise I can’t see how Azamara has been ‘dumbed down’ or made into a ‘bland mass market product’. That’s totally NOT my experience over the 10 years we’ve been cruising with Azamara. 
During that time we’ve done the Athens to Dubai route 4 times (we love the sea days). The first was in 2013 and the last in autumn 2022. They were all as good as each other - and in fact in terms of service, the last one in October last year was stellar! 

Individual experiences and perceptions differ and therefore there seem to be different realities. It is wonderful that things are as perfect as they always were for you. But not everyone agrees with you - as you very well know. The art and ability to agree to disagree comes in handy in situations like that. 

2 hours ago, alfredo1 said:

What should be worrying for Azamara, if they monitor this forum, are the ongoing and continual complaints and dissatisfaction from obviously long time cruisers and supporters of Azamara who do not seek to put the line down but want it deliver the standards experienced some time ago now. We have cruised with Azamara since the early days, been top cruisers etc. and could have bought a nice apartment with what we have paid them, but found that Azamara delivered what we wanted at decent value for money, but there is no denying that things things are awry just now. Over three cruises last year we could see things improving, but still not as good as expected and the huge turnover of crew would not have helped.

The current situation with website and contact centre is disgraceful, it is impossible to properly research cabin availability and book online or even by telephone due to the lack of knowledge being displayed and it seems at times prices are unrealistically high despite the repeated "special offer" emails, to such an extent we have just booked a like for like cruise with Seabourn at a better price all in than Azamara. Something has to give and in troubled times Azamara should be pushing forward unbeatable value to maintain and increase their customer base rather than chasing increasing fares without delivering the quality expected. Wonder how Larry P. is doing??

 

 

 

Larry P. Has been hired by Four Seasons - they are going to have a luxury cruise concept and with Larry Pimentel imvolved it will be stellar. Sometimes I vacillate between anger and sadness when I see what has been done to Larry’s brilliant Azamara concepts - deconstructing them, dumbing them down and turning them into bland mass market kind of products only begins to describe the brands deterioration. There really isn’t an appropriate word for what has been happening on the customer service side…

On 4/20/2023 at 6:37 AM, laurieb said:

Had your TA tried to run it through online before calling Azamara?  Is it possible that it had gone through?  There were only a handful of days that online payment was not possible and that was back in March.

This was called in during that short window when the TA could NOT run the charge herself. She would not have messed it up for sure. And again, I would be somewhat forgiving if the error had been fixed right away - but two weeks later - nothing. I have gotten my bank involved now with a dispute, they will certainly "breath down their necks" appropriately. BUT it should not be necessary to take such drastic steps.

I have been an extremely loyal Azamara customer since 2013 (I think that 37 sailings - 33 of which in top ten suites [paid for top ten suites, mind you - not upgrades!] qualifies me to say that...) Post change in ownership and post COVID, I have repeatedly voiced criticism of what has been going on at Azamara. I have made a clear distinction between the "old Azamara" and the "new Azamara" and continue to insist that the old was better than the new. In my opinion Azamara customers currently "pay more and get less" and that is not a good thing. Diehard Azamara fans do neither like to hear this nor do they admit to any flaws whatsoever. The enormous brain drain and departure of stellar legacy Azamara officers and staff compounds the problems that exist on the ships. With the current disastrous IT changeover and all its resulting problems, it becomes increasingly more difficult to defend the brand. My most recent experience really has solidified my loss of trust in Azamara. My credit card was overcharged to the tune of $3,182.40 when a final payment came due and was called in to Azamara (after about five hours to wait for a call-back) by my travel agent. Despite my agent's efforts to get this "right" - she had the Azamara representative who ran the payment repeat back the amount due multiple times - the mistake did happen (most likely due to issues with faulty and/or sloppy data migration) - not a small mistake, $3,182.40. Mistakes can happen - of course. BUT here we are, more than two weeks later (the mistake was immediately discovered and reported) and despite the alleged involvement of the Azamara Head of PR in the resolution of the issue, there has literally not been any action, communication or resolution. Except for an e-mail earlier today ("Good morning, Markus. - Due to the migration into our new systems, we are just now seeing your message [14 days after I sent it!]. Please accept our apologies for any frustration or inconvenience this may have caused. While we hope you were able to reach out to one of our agents via phone to get your initial inquiry resolved, we still wished to verify if all has been taken care of or if there's anything we can still assist with. - Kind regards, - Azamara Customer Service") An insult to my intelligence as the message implies that the issue has been resolved, which it - of course - hasn't. Instead of checking if the issue has been resolved they throw the ball back into my court. To call that customer service is ****! I have in the meantime involved my bank (filed a dispute for the erroneous charge). In short, I am working way too hard to get something fixed that Azamara messed up and I have no idea when this will be resolved. So, anyone who is still trying to tell me that things are all nice and fine at Azamara should stop doing so. And this is not about fears of Azamara being in financial trouble. This is simply about Azamara showing a level of incompetence, a lack of leadership, a lack of plans B, C and D that should have been in place because Azamara knew for years that the divorce from RCCL was going to happen eventually. With no good planning and lack of focused leadership, the resulting customer service disaster is a brand damaging epic failure that could very well eventually contribute to the downfall of the brand.

FYI - my travel agent called in a final payment on a future Azamara sailing on 7 April 2023. Normally and before the IT migration, she was able to run the charge through my credit card herself. Due to the implementation of the new system, Azamara told her that they would run the charge on their end. To play it safe (and as my TA has been having a lot of trouble working with Azamara) my TA had the Azamara representative read back the exact amount due. Minutes later my card was charged AND overcharged to the tune of $3,182.40. I saw this on my online credit card account the day of the charge, reported it immediately to my TA and my travel agent reported this to Azamara the same day. We are now 12 days past the report of the error and my agent has spend a tremendous number of hours waiting for call-backs and actions and results. The Head of Azamara PR in Miami is also involved (I had a lengthy phone conversation with her about other things related to Azamara but also mentioned the overcharge). This whole IT migration and the resulting mess are an absolute PR disaster for Azamara and anyone who is trying to rationalize and justify this mess with "...well, this happens when data gets migrated..." is simply wrong. Smart companies have a plan B, a plan C AND a plan D in place when a migration becomes necessary. And smart companies do not let $3,182.40 errors "sit there" and collect dust. They solve the problem - very quickly. I hate to say it - Azamara is not handling this terribly smartly...

On 5/5/2021 at 6:24 AM, KevintheIrishDJ said:

Does Lift & Shift apply if we cancel?

No, I do not think so... If Azamara cancels sailing, they will offer alternative sailings to "lift and shift" into so you can lock in the old price (price you paid when you booked the canceled itinerary). If you cancel a sailing that might still take place or a sailing before it is canceled by Azamara, the conditions are different. For lift and shift to be offered, the cruise line has to initiate the cancellation, or at least that is my understanding.

22 hours ago, eanselm said:

The options we were offered in the letter were missing a number of cruises that were actually eligible. We were interested in one that was not in the letter. My TA talked to Azamara and found out that the letter was incorrect and we were eligible for the cruise we were most interested in.

Or as they say in the "trade" - mistakes do happen. Glad that your TA was able to secure for you what you were interested in. These are unprecedented times and everybody in every industry seems a bit overwhelmed with the consequences of the pandemic. I am willing to be forgiving and understanding as long as things get resolved down the line...

On 5/4/2021 at 12:08 PM, laurieb said:

Hmmm

Definitely sounds like something you'll need to talk with Azamara about.

Was this by chance one of the cruises you had already lifted and shifted earlier?

Yes, this was the second lift and shift for this itinerary. The original sail date was July 2020, I believe. But I do not see why that should make any difference in terms of how this gets handled (form a money flow perspective - as in FCC vs refund to credit card). Azamara has communicated with me and they think that something "messy" went on (as in - mistake) and they are in the process of figuring things out for me.

5 hours ago, laurieb said:

Were you offered Norway as an option by Azamara, or is that one you selected?  If it's one you selected that Azamara didn't offer you, that could be why as it's to a different destination. 

Nope, the Norway intensive was offered as one of the lift and shift options in my cancellation letter...

On 5/1/2021 at 8:02 AM, manc said:

In the UK, we were offered 4 alternative cruises. 3 in the Black Sea but shorter than the one cancelled or a cruise from Bordeaux to Barcelona. 

We could have refund or FCC.

Were you not offered the Norway intensive as an alternative for the lift and shift? That one is a 14 night sailing and therefore closer to the one that got canceled. I did not like the 2022 Black Sea itineraries and opted for the Norway (Dublin to Amsterdam via Oslo) instead. My question is why there is a difference in what happened to paid cruise fare last year after a lift and shift - refund to credit card vs what seems to be happening now where an FCC is issued instead of the refund.

On 4/30/2021 at 4:37 PM, laurieb said:

Guests will have three compensation options to choose from.

1. . 125% Future Cruise Credit to book a new cruise by April 30, 2022 and sail by September 30, 2022.
   • This amount will be based on total cruise fare paid.
   • Future Cruise Credit will automatically be issued via email.
   • If you have purchased pre- or post-land packages through Azamara, you will also receive compensation in the same form as your cruise fare.
   • If you opted into the Cruise with Confidence 100% Future Cruise Credit for this sailing, you do not qualify for this offer.
   • Visit our online form to submit your FCC request.
2. Lift and Shift: Or, you can keep the cruise vacation plans to the same destination and move the existing booking to a 2022 sailing within four weeks of the originally scheduled sailing.
   • Call Azamara to move the reservation at the same rate and promotion.
3. 100% Refund: Or, you have until July 21, 2021 to request a refund and deactivate the Future Cruise Credit certificate.
   • You can expect to receive your refund 45 days after you submit your request.
   • Visit our online form to submit your refund request.

Thanks for that info - I was, of course, aware of these policies. But my question is about what happens when you do a "lift and shift" - with regard to cruise fare paid. As I stated in the original post, I did two lift and shifts last year and in both cases I received a full (minus deposits) refund of the paid cruise fare to my credit card and a new due date. On this new lift and shift (the one of last week) the confirmation spells out an FCC, which is very different form a refund to my credit card. I am wondering if there was a change in policy. With an FCC the cruise line hangs on to my money whereas with a refund to my credit card, the cruise line releases my funds back to me and collects them again at a new due date. It is not that I desperately need the money back (although we are talking $18,000.00 plus in this specific case - which isn't necessarily "small change"...) Also, should anything happen in terms of the cruise line getting in financial trouble down the line, it would - of course - be better to have the refund instead of the FCC. Not that I am overly worried about financials trouble for Azamara at this point in time. Still waiting to hear back from Azamara themselves regarding all this. But thanks for your feedback and input.

11 hours ago, uktog said:

sorry I am so steeped in the last year, I was meaning infection rates

Moving in the right direction, form what it looks like... but still a ways to go!

Quick question (probably mostly addressed to USA Azamarians primarily as this is about bookings made in America) regarding the new round of "lift & shift" options at Azamara that followed the announcement earlier this week of cancellations. Has there been a policy change? I did two lift and shift transactions last year and earlier this year and in both cases I received the full fare paid (minus deposits, of course) refunded to my credit card and a new "payment due date" (the now standard 120 days prior to sailing) was noted on the confirmation of the lifted and shifted itinerary/confirmation.

Yesterday I did a lift and shift of our cancelled July 2021 Black Sea sailing to a Norwegian intensive sailing in July 2022. The new confirmation now shows a FCC instead of a refund to credit card. Considering that the sailing is over 15 months into the future, I would prefer to get a refund and am wondering if this actually is a real policy change or just a "mistake"?

Also, the onboard credits of the two earlier lifted and shifted sailings moved along to the new reservations completely. On this most recent lift and shift (the one yesterday) the onboard credit that was moved to the new confirmation was $900.00 vs. the $1,500.00 on the original reservation. Again, does this represent a policy change or is this a "mistake"?

Hope someone has an answer. I have also contacted Azamara to get an answer on this. But am curious if anyone has had a similar experience.

Thanks!

My main point was/is and continues to be the unnecessary inconsistency of communications over years (independent of my loyalty to the brand) which simply comes across as quite unprofessional and somewhat 20th Century. Judging by Azamara’s rather speedy, efficient and effective handling of my complaint, I believe I actually may have been moved into the 21st Century yesterday. So all is well on planet earth - and peace and harmony reign supreme again!

The cruise line sells the product. So the buck stops with them - even if the booking is handed off to a TA. The comment: "In these unprecedented times, is there a right way to communicate to those that are booked or loyal vs everyone else?  I don't think there is..." would be perfectly fine IF it were only during these unprecedented times that there are communications issues - but in my case the issue has been persistent and unpredictably so (some times I get e-mails and sometimes I don't - no real rhyme or rhythm to it). If you follow the postings on the Azamara related groups on Facebook you will see that I am not alone with these problems. And I am by no means suggesting that only very loyal customers should get preferential treatment - everybody should get the same (perfect - or at least near perfect...) treatment in my opinion. I merely emphasized the "loyal customer" because Azamara seems to have an extremely extensive loyal customer base - a customer base that has certain expectations.