Grandma Cruising

Interesting. I talked to my daughter TA today and this week she rang Azamara on behalf of another client. She got through straight away and got the issue sorted.

Not stressing at all, as I know it will all get sorted out - but my account, which was right from day 1 is now showing no loyalty points and no upcoming cruise.

You have to then go back up & click Search after entering destination and date range

The email from Carol Cabezas said that you can only buy excursions by credit card online. If you want to use OBC you need to wait until you get onboard

That may be less likely, given how difficult it is to book them!

We’ve had 2 cruises in the last 6 months and the experience onboard has been as good as ever.

My onboard credit shows towards the bottom of the reservation page. It’s a bit misleading as it says $150 Shore Excursions Credit, but below it says Quantity 2 - I take it that means we both have $150, which is $300 in total. That’s what I expected.

Your TA will have the original Azamara invoice that shows your OBC. Our TA sends us a copy attached to an email.

This is on their website at https://www.azamara.com/b2c/booked-guests/before-you-board/payment-cancellation

Same here

If you have Azamara non refundable OBC then they should take the money for your excursions from that. If it’s refundable OBC from your travel agent(TA) then it’s likely they will bill them to your credit card as typically TA OBC isn’t available until you board. If they’ve been charged to your credit card, you can ask the Shore Excursions crew onboard to cancel your excursions and rebook them using your OBC.

Firstly does the $1200 OBC include some refundable OBC from your travel agent. If so that won’t show up until you board. Secondly, presumably you have some paper/digital evidence that you have $1200 OBC, such an invoice from Azamara/your travel agent. Make sure you take that evidence with you.

The pencil icon isn’t on the Manage My Reservation page, it’s on each item on the next page (Addons , Excursions etc). My OBC, drinks package & free Wifi show up under Addons.

We haven’t done Singapore to Dubai, but are doing Dubai to Singapore on Journey in November this year. Azamara do have vegan options and the buffet is open for breakfast, lunch & dinner.

As suggested by Dr H above if you send a letter by certified mail, that could be your proof. Also I would send an email to loyalty@azamara.com and submit their contact form https://www.azamara.com/gb/about-azamara/contact-us/contact-form stating very clearly that you are cancelling the cruise and explaining why. Both of these would be your proof that you cancelled.

So sorry to hear that. Try emailing loyalty@azamara.com. Do you have travel insurance?

Where is the ship? The issue may be lack of starlink coverage.

Was it paid on your credit card? If so you should be able to make a claim with them,

Same for our cruise that starts in Dubai. I reckon there’s some sort OV algorithm that just pulls in any excursion from any of the ports listed on the itinerary, including the embarkation port. I guess the same excursions show up on the previous cruise.

My cruise in November has free Wifi, premium drinks package & $300 OBC. it’s labelled as EXMO

We got it after our Pursuit cruise in March

In terms of the planning, they bought in a reservations system - Seaware by Verizon. Its used by other companies, such as Explorer Journey. The main issue seems to have been the quality of the data transferred by RCCL. Looks as if they should have asked for a much longer handover period to allow the date to be interrogated more thoroughly.

We completed our cruise on 23rd March & got the usual email feedback form

Absolutely agree that great crew, good food, interesting passengers and different itineraries are sufficient for the the average discerning passenger. That’s what we’ve always had over the last 10 years.

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!