Vesalius

We did not get a refund but we were able to apply a full credit to an alternate future cruise to New Zealand, about 15 months in the future. They are keeping all of our money, and in order to make the change, we did have to pay a slight increase in the fare, in full, immediately. I don't mind that they have our money, as we now have a wonderful trip to look forward to.

I had a chance to think about everything that transpired, and I have to say we are grateful to Azamara for working with us to come up with a new plan that works for us. We are looking forward to our future trip to Australia and New Zealand as this part of the world has been on our travel wish list for a long time. Now that we are booked, I can start looking for a good option for lie flat business class travel from North America to Oceania.

We booked business class ourselves directly with Turkish airlines, with a stop in Istanbul. They have very reasonable prices for lie flat seats and great cuisine, and the business lounge in Istanbul has chefs that prepare delicious meals on demand, one of our favorite lounges around the world. We consider that particular Turkish airlines business lounge stopover as another enjoyable part of the trip. These business class flights were about half the cost of business class on United non-stop. But their policy is that these deeply discounted business class fares are non refundable and non changeable. They refunded us around $1500 in taxes and fees for two tickets, but the non-refundable, non-changeable fare itself was forfeited. We also had booked a wonderful hotel in Athens for two nights pre cruise. That would have been refundable had the cancellation been with more notice, but was non refundable so close to the travel dates. Most often we book some elements of the travel ourselves if there are better options for a better price, and in a case like this, we lose the protection of booking through the cruise line. We don’t take travel insurance but rather “self insure”. Over the years we have saved many thousands of dollars declining insurance, but this particular trip with the war breaking out, we did finally experience some losses. In any case, the trip insurance policies apparently have an exclusion for acts of war. Our travel companions did take the insurance, but the coverage did not help them. They worked with Azamara to change their cruise with a FCC.

So we have a final outcome. Azamara allowed us to cancel the cruise to Israel that is not going to Israel. They offered us the option to reschedule our cruise to Israel in the future. As the situation there is horrific and the timeline for when the instability will end uncertain, we did not feel comfortable rescheduling our Israel trip until there is more future clarity on the situation. Our TA was able to negotiate a full credit to be applied to a different cruise. We booked a trip on Azamara Onward to Australia and New Zealand, another trip that has been high on our bucket list for a long time. For our Israel trip, we had booked business class air and a pre-cruise hotel on our own, so we did lose thousands of dollars on those elements of our trip as we were only able to get a partial refund, but at least we were able to fully reapply the cruise fare. Such is life. We are saying our prayers in the hope that those currently suffering in the war will somehow find peace.

Our TA has spoken with Azamara and has escalated our request to rebook to a higher level staff member with Azamara. The TA is waiting to hear back as they were told the staff have all been "working 24/7" on their contingency plans.

Good advice, thank you. We are hoping to hear back from out TA after they inquire with Azamara tomorrow during business hours.

From Azamara by email today: Dear Azamara Guest, We are preparing for your cruise with Azamara Journey® on October 17, 2023, and we can't wait to welcome you onboard. We are aware of and have been monitoring the escalating situation in Israel. Our guest safety is of the highest importance, therefore we will not be calling ports in Israel as planned. We appreciate your understanding of this change that is beyond our control. This is an evolving situation and we appreciate your patience as our deployment team evaluates alternative ports. We are committed to preserving the Azamara experience that you expect while maintaining safety of our guest and crew. Please be on the lookout for further information regarding the itinerary. Should you have any questions please contact your Travel Advisor or click here for your local Azamara contact center number. Sincerely, AZAMARA® ©2023 Azamara. Ships registered in Malta. “Change the Way You Sea” is an international service mark of SP Cruises OpCo Limite Azamara, 3059 Grand Ave, Suite 205, Miami, Florida 33133, United States

We were scheduled on Azamara Journey that departs on October 17. And yes, if we lose a lot of money, that is nothing relative to the horrors of war that exist for the citizens of Israel and Gaza. Your comment is appreciated.

Would they possibly give us a future cruise credit if we don’t go?

In the USA, if a cruise is “canceled“, then you are owed a refund. I guess it depends on how you interpret the word canceled. To me, if a cruise to Israel does not go to Israel, that is a substantially canceled cruise. but it appears that the cruise line may be saying that if you board the cruise ship, it wasn’t canceled even if it didn’t go to where it was planned to go. For us, the primary purpose of our travels was to visit Israel.

We booked our cruise later this month to Israel as we have been wanting to visit Israel for a long time. The cruise itinerary was to travel from Greece and spend 5 days in port in Israel. Given that war broke out yesterday, Azamara emailed us and notified us that the cruise to Israel will not be going to Israel, but not to worry, they look forward to seeing us and will find somewhere for us to go, to be determined. The purpose and plan for our trip was to visit Israel. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen. We want to cancel our cruise and hope to visit Israel in the future. We asked our travel agent to request a refund and she said she would try, but she doesn’t know what the response will be. Has anyone had experience getting a refund when this type of situation occurs? Any advice?