nonrev1

I hope you have a fantastic vacation. We did love our cruise. The onboard product is wonderful…..and a great team on the Quest. With this transition it is just a bit rough getting there. They will try everything possible to resolve issues.

It is embarrassing that a second email had to come out….and you are right about the OBC, clear as mud. You have to call…..but what if there is no OBC visible? Will it magically appear? I do have all the documents that show I have an OBC. I read the new email three times and it does not make sense. And still no apology.

I am very disappointed. I loved our Japan cruise the first week April and yes, the Azamara onboard team is the best. But, yes, there were issues and like other posters have said, we did not book a luxury vacation to stand in line or have to meet daily to see if things were sorted out. We did it on that cruise but I am not willing to do it again. I think the email today was what tipped the scales for me. I did try calling again today and pressed 1 to hold my place in line. It has been 9 hours…..since I did not get a call back from 8 days ago, I am pretty sure I won’t get a call back with this attempt. This really has tarnished our thoughts of Azamara so we will probably start looking at Viking in the future.

I don’t believe a word of that e mail either. My $1550 in onboard credit is nowhere to be seen. My loyalty points are incorrect.

That is a great email they sent to you but you cant add shore excursions if Azamara does not have the $$ loaded.

Of course they can't magically correct everything at the same time but the situation just seems to get worse. My travel agent can't get through on the phones, I have tried for hours, I have sent emails with no response. Azamara promoted the new "hold your place in line" call back service. The first time I tried it, I was disconnected. The second time I still have not been called back. I get it that they are having IT data issues - but, this has now been over a month. I worked for a very large company with hundreds and thousands of customers and we had a problem and had to rebuild the entire schedule/operation starting at zero. We knew that there was going to be little tolerance and also knew that we could not do it on our own. We contracted with a company that was able to get everything up and running in less than a week. And were able to reach out within that week to every customer that would be using us within the next 300 days. Azamara is not huge. 4 smaller ships. I think they needed to reach out for help.

We had this issue on our last cruise and are having it on our upcoming cruise. Our OBC was from Azamara and not showing. We had to pay by CC and then it will be converted onboard. I am hesitant to do that again as when they converted onboard they used our OBC and then credited our onboard account another non refundable OBC vs. putting it back on our credit card. So yes, you would have to pay now by credit card. If it is from the agency - it is as Grandma Cruising states , you will not see that until you board the ship. I am hoping before we all cruise this summer that they will find our OBC and attach it to our reservations.If that is the case you can book ahead of time using your OBC.

I have over 1,500 in OBC. I have the invoice from the agent. When we were on the quest, they told me to put the $1500 on my credit card and get reimbursed when we board the journey. I’m not going to do that. When the quest staff tried to help me, they could not find the onboard credit, and Azamara says, there’s no record of it. So, I’m not going to put that much money out of pocket not knowing if I will get reimbursed. And I don’t want them to Credit my credit card as a nonrefundable like they did on this last cruise and have over $3000 tied up. 🙄

I find it all very strange. The cruise we booked onboard while on the Quest has been showing up accurately with OBC/ beverage package etc. So it seemed like everything after the IT fiasco was ok. This morning, everything ws gone and showed that we are new cruisers and have no bookings. My poor travel agent has been trying to get through to Azamara and the line disconnects after many hours. I also tried with the same outcome. I am not worried about cruises next nyear - it is a cruise I have coming up this summer. I would like to get it resolved - they tried while on the Quest, I have sent emails with no repsonse and no one answers calls. I am beyond frustrated. The issue I am having is a bit similar to one we had when we cruised earlier this month and they will not be able to resolve it on the ship. So, this does have to be resolved. Not sure what other avenues there are to contact Azamara.....but, nothing is working.

Unfortunately it does not have all the information. It showed us booked and paid in full. Allowed those that could not check in prior to cruise - check in. But onboard they did not have my OBC for that cruise or the cruise coming up. The excursions were not correct and we all had issues with loyalty points. I did book a cruise onboard and it still has not been transfered to my agent. She cant get through to Azamara.

We were on April 3 Quest and I did receive the survey. In the past, we both received the survey. This time it was just me. As for final invoice, our past few cruises I received a final invoice via email. So far nothing this time.

Yes, I agree that you have to be careful with the pricing. But, the problem we had on our last trip was I had put Tours on our credit card and outright canceled them because I also had other tours booked. When they canceled them on board even though they were paid on my credit card they gave it to me as a nonrefundable Onboard credit. The tour manager said, don’t worry you can always spend that money when you’re on the ship. That was not an acceptable answer. It took a while, but it finally did get resolved. It was frustrating because that’s not the way I wanted to spend my vacation. For this next cruise I don’t want to pay $1500 on my credit card and then on the ship use my OBC but not credit my card back again.

Kind of funny since when we were onboard they could not find our OBC for our next cruise this summer. (we were hoping to book our excursions while onboard and get the lower rate and the 10% off promo for booking 3 while onboard) They told us we could book our excursions with our credit card and when we board the ship this summer, they will cancel it off our credit card and rebook it with our OBC. ( That is assuming this gets sorted out by then) After the Shore Excursion issues we had earlier this month, I am not willing to do that.

We just finished a Japan cruise on Azamara. There were no rooms blocked for Covid cases.

Wished mine was that easy. I understand not wanting to wait until you are onboard. I had canceled tours prior to our cruise but somehow they “uncanceled” them. Onboard, they messed up and showed it as non refundable when it should have been a credit on my CC. I have an upcoming cruise that I have a very large OBC. While I was on my last cruise, they tried to find the OBC so I could book shore excursions for the summer cruise. After my experience, I am not willing to put all that money on my credit card and hope it gets sorted out. Right now they do not show my OBC and my travel agent tried calling Azamara and was on hold 8 hours and then disconnected. The experience is great when you get onboard but we also learned that onboard they don’t have all the information either.

While we were on our April cruise we received a credit on our credit card for our summer cruise. We asked why we got a credit….onboard they did not know why. Friends we are traveling with also received the same credit. Today we all received an email saying we received a credit in error and we will be seeing a charge this week. Crazy stuff.

I cancelled shore excursions and never received an email that said they were canceled. But, they disappeared from my booking. Then a week later they popped up again. Then disappeared. Still never got a credit. Boarded the ship and there were the tickets for my canceled shore excursions that were never really canceled. Unfortunately onboard instead of crediting my credit card they gave me a non refundable OBC. It took another 3 days to have them get in touch with Miami to fix it. Very frustrating. We have another cruise coming up this summer that we were hoping to book excursions for while we were on the April cruise….no luck. There was no record of us having a very large OBC and I was not willing to put it on my credit card until it could be sorted out.

Thank you for your kind words. Yes, the Hotel Director is excellent. We sailed with him on our first Azamara cruise in 2010 on the Quest and he was Food and Beverage Manager. It will be a huge loss when he leaves the ship.

Part 2 Food onboard - I was not on the first Japan cruise so I cannot compare except from what I read that there was not a lot of Japanese food onboard their cruise. We had quite a bit so I think they took the feedback and made improvements. We were in a suite so we were able to eat in Prime C or Aqualina ….but, the menus have not changed in a long time. Every night they offered a chefs special but we did find on a 15 night voyage it lacked options. I wish they had a menu that rotated every few days. We limited our time at the specialty restaurants and ate in Discoveries or on long tour days at Windows. The food at both was very good. We never had slow service in Discoveries. Some had stated they did. I did notice they now have a sign at the entrance letting you know what the busy times were. entertainment- we did not watch too many of the shows but those we did were very well presented. After a long day we preferred to get a nice pot of tea and relax in a quiet area by Mosaic. We learned so much on this cruise: there are no trash cans outside in Japan. You are expected to throw away your trash where you bought the item or take the wrappers home with you. It is considered rude to walk and eat. ( that’s why you throw out wrappers where you bought the item) japan is spotless. the people of Japan were very happy to see us and could not have been nicer. If you have a question, they thank you for asking a question. if you are lost they will walk with you to try to help There was so much more. I have to end with one that was especially fun. The ship was delayed leaving Tokyo because the gangway was stuck and they could not lock it into place. A gentleman that worked for the port tried his hardest to get it to move. He finally attached it to two cars. ( it looked like they were towing the ship with two cars) the employee looked like a symphony conductor directing the cars to go or stop. It was quite a performance but he finally got it locked into place. Today when we docked I saw him as we went down the gangway. I said something to him about the great job he did. He acted like I just gave him a million yen. He was so excited that I saw him and told everyone around that I saw him two weeks ago. He then gave me a big hug. This is quite unusual for the Japanese….but it was a great ending moment of a terrific voyage. We have taken over 20 cruises on Azamara and this is definitely in our top 3 if you have any questions, ask away…..I am sure there are also some on the first cruise that will also answer questions.

I was planning to wait and do my summary when I arrived home but I have 5 more hours at Haneda airport before boarding our flight. ( pardon my spelling auto correct and my not so nimble fingers are a bad combo) Airport: Haneda airport was the closest airport to the cruise terminal we used. Hotel: we stayed at the Hotel Nikko Tokyo Daibo. When we arrived in our room we could see the ship down below. They had a special promo when we booked that gave us executive room access, along with compl8mentary snacks in the afternoon and evening. Breakfast was also included. Very nice hotel and the staff was excellent. If you don’t have a lot of luggage it is not a difficult walk to the ship. I am only going to put a small section in regarding the sins of the mothership and the onboard consequences because by the time you take this cruise I am confident this will all be resolved. They worked triple hard onboard as there were many that arrived with missing OBC, missing tour tickets, tour tickets with incorrect times, missing refunds, and missing loyalty points that affected those that had reached the next tier and were eligible for free nights. It definitely did impact the onboard experience. But, wow….they went above and beyond to try to make up for everything. The Hotel director had local talent onboard at many ports including Geishas ( still working), some outstanding drummers, saki tastings etc. I hope those that were new or chose not to make a future booking based on some of the struggles reconsider when things settle down. Wifi- hopefully it will change but the wifi was good when docked but very slow at sea. We were told this was a Japan issue. Due to some family issues and needing to ensure I was reachable, I got a pocket wifi through Japan Wireless. Loved it. Just had to make sure it was turned off while at sea and when we were in S. Korea. Since we spent most of our time exploring while in port, the pocket wifi was wonderful. Definitely helped with the google translate and map apps. When I needed to make phone calls, it was perfectly clear. You can pick up the device at the airport on arrival or they will send it to your hotel. They give you a mail pouch so when you are on your way out, you put it in the pouch and drop it in a post box. Easy peasy. They offered a promo which made it even better. You can hook up to 9 devices and no limits or throttles on speed. My husband laughed because if we were out and about he lost the wifi when I walked away. His wifi came back when I got closer. Ports- each one was so different. Someone asked which was our favorite and I honestly could not tell you. They were all unique. We are typically do it your selfers and at the beginning of the planning stage struggled to find ways to do things on our own. But then as tourism started opening up again, it got a bit easier. Each port will be what you make of it. We try to do it all because we know that some of the towns we will never go back to. We are not fans of ships tours but some ports we did because we had an OBC or wanted to go someplace that a tour was going but there was not another way to get there. I listed some of the tour companies we used and I woild recommend them all. If you don’t want a tour but simply want transportation, they have taxi tours. You can book most of them in advance and there is a set itinerary. The driver does not speak English but has your itinerary. They also have a sheet in the taxi that you can point at and it has the sentence in both English and Japanese. The taxi will drop you off at a location for a set amount of time and will be there when you return. Azamazing Evening - ours was a destination immersion. It was nice, but not the same. Plus, it was a Japan Intensive cruise and our on ship experience was in S Korea. Hopefully we will get back to off ship events soon.

Sad that this amazing adventure has come to an end. When I get home and recover from my vacation I will post a summary. Tomorrow is a very long day. Tokyo- today we toured with the same company we used while in Kobe the first day. All Star Osaka. I cannot say enough good things about them. In both ports they arrived early, the guides were both excellent, everything was included and they made sure we were having a good tour and were willing to be flexible. We started off going to the fish market. It was very different than the fish market in Busan. Busan was all live fish….this was sushi, cooked fish cakes, and many types of foods. I would consider it a market vs. fish market. The original fish market ( live fish) moved and is not open to the public. From there we moved on to lunch. We went to a food court near the market and we each had the opportunity to order whatever we wanted. Next stop was Shibuya Crossing. First we went to Shibuya Sky. What was great was that we could go to the 14th floor and then to the top. Along the way we watched a 3D ad ….it happens every hour on the hour. Wow. The ad sign turns into a clock, then a 3 D Akita dog jumps out. Truly a must see. From the top the views were amazing. We returned down the last 14 floors by escalator and saw all of the stores in the building. Good thing we stayed on the escalator because I could easily had done some retail therapy. We then crossed the Shibuya Scramble. So fun! Then it was off to Asakura Sensoji Temple. Very impressive. Again there was more shopping leading up to the Temple that was tempting me. Our guide took us to her favorite sweet place. A man makes hot mini waffles stuffed with big chunks of red bean paste while you wait. Absolutely delicious. Nice and hot. I can see why it is her favorite. We walked a bit more and she pointed out many local landmarks including the Asahi Beer building that was designed to look like a mug of beer. It was a full day and an excellent choice for our last day in Tokyo.

Ouch. We did have that in one of the deck 7 cabins and like you, they tried the wash cloth trick. But, we have not had it in any of our CC suites.

A beautiful send off on our last official “cruising” night.

Shimizu - today we chose a ship tour as we wanted to go to Hakone National Park and there really was no other feasible way to get there. If anyone is interested in this tour and is scared by the “strenuous “ and requires a one mile walk and 200 steps - I don’t know where that comes from. People on a Moderate tour had steps and walking, we did not. The bus travel was longer on this one, but we knew it going in. This is where we wanted to go. The tour guide was the best ship excursion guide we have had. We started off with lunch and this was the only disappointment. We had lunch at the Hyatt Hotel which was beautiful. The service and lunch were excellent……but, it was the first place we have eaten while off the ship where we had forks, knives and spoons. No chopsticks. We were all quite surprised that it was an American style lunch. It was very good…..just surprising. ( there were 3 buses- we all went to different restaurants so I am not sure what the others had for lunch). After lunch we went down to the lake and took a pirate boat across the lake and had beautiful views of Mount Fuji. It did get crazy windy but the sun was out and Mount Fuji was fully visible. After we left the boat, we took the cable car up the mountain ( even crazier windy) and again had great views of Mount Fuji. Upon reaching the top we saw areas of thermal springs and sulfur springs. One of the specialties of the area is boiling eggs in the sulfur water and having the egg shells turn black. Back to the stairs and walking- we were dropped off at the hotel front door and took an elevator down to the restaurant. When we reached the boat, we walked maybe 100 yds from the ticket office to the boat. The boat had an elevator if needed. Left the boat and walked maybe 50 yds into a building and took escalators. Got on/off cable car and you could take an elevator to the ground level or walk stairs. That’s it. So, if you are interested in this tour, don’t let the description scare you. That being said…..we had absolutely clear and perfect views of Mount Fuji. This is one of those tours I would book after having a better idea what the weather will be. We did not and we were either lucky or the Weather Gods were making up for some bad weather we had along the way. The original forecast was rain. I would have been very disappointed if I took this tour and there was no visibility or it was raining.

The only time we hear noise is the evening of the White Night party. You hear set up, the party and then returning everything to the proper place. Other than that, no noise.