tgg

Just curious. Did you know which cabins were available BEFORE you bid? Were you allowed to withdraw your bid when you were told which cabins were left and you didn't want any of them?

No.

I wonder what would happen if, instead of creating more complicated packages, Azamara fixed the existing product problems and restored travel agents' confidence in the brand.

Not helping others? If people know what is being offered in the marketplace, they will know what to look for. We know many Canadians who book with US travel agents.

I get 5-10% refundable OBC from my TA on every cruise. And she can see every available cabin on the ship.

If I'm interested in a particular cruise, I check a major online travel agency for a deck by deck diagram of all available cabins. I choose a few that would be acceptable and then call my travel agent. She has the same interactive listing I've seen and she confirms that I've made the best choice. (She doesn't work for the online TA whose site I check.) I've never heard of a TA not having access to a complete list of all available cabins. Perhaps you need a new TA.

The IT department is using $150 x 2 as a placeholder. They know the person has OBC but they haven't updated the account with correct information. The $300 total has NOTHING to do with your OBC amount.

So glad I could help. 😄😄😄 Have a great cruise.

After getting into my reservation by signing in, I am able to see both prices and descriptions for shore excursions when I click on the little pencil symbol. With only 3 months until your cruise, I would hope all that information is there. These day, you never know.

Best advice in the world. Travel agents are paid to give you good advice and solve problems when they occur. They have TA-only cruise line phone numbers that connect them with people who can make decisions and fix things. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the 5-10% refundable OBC.😄 The hard part is finding a great travel agent. Ask fellow passengers for recommendations.

Call Azamara and book your shore excursions with them. If you get someone who doesn't seem to know the system, just hang up and call back. Have everything confirmed by email. Of have them email you your Guest Ticket Booklet. The website is still a slog and counterintuitive in many areas. (Example: you do not find your booking under BOOKED GUESTS.)😡

If people booked non-refundable long haul business or first class flights, they will suffer major losses. Very unfortunate.

I want to let you all know how our OBC problems were resolved. I called my travel agent and she initiated a 3-way conversation with Azamara. It took a while, but all questions were answered, OBC amounts are now correct, and a $400 B2B credit was restored. I hated to bother my travel agent with stuff like this. Before the changeover it had NEVER been necessary. But I would never have gotten this resolved without my longtime TA. It's too bad that we can't recommend people like this here on this board.

The B2B OBC has disappeared from the updated invoice for our second cruise. When I called, I was told it would be put back. The new invoice shows nothing. I anticipate a good bit of time will be spent with the Guest Relations folks when we board. I expect we'll have lots of company.

I've never considered asking my TA to book shore excursions for me. Until today. I just got off the phone with Azamara. My online account said I had $800 OBC and had used $400. WE HAVE NO EXCURSIONS OR ANYTHING ELSE BOOKED ON THIS CRUISE. I supplied my reservation number, my name, my husband's name, the ship name and the sail date. Then I was asked for the name of the cruise. REALLY? This was my third call to Azamara today. I give up.

I'm all for value. But I've found that the money saved by booking a cruise close to the sailing date is frequently eaten up by the airfare increase close in.😟 Driving to the port is a nice option for some of us.

Ithikan, try sending a message to Host Jazzbeau. He can get this problem fixed. He fixed one for one of my previous cruises.

There are several online travel agency sites that will give you this information. As you probably know, naming any here is against the rules.

I checked a major online travel agency's prices on this cruise. There is a large number of unsold cabins. This site (which of course cannot be named) is offering V2 balcony cabins for $2,848 per person including taxes and fees. For a 17 day cruise, the per diem is $167 per person. This is MUCH lower than the Azamara website. If you can find a reasonable airfare to get to Rio and home from Lisbon, it's a great deal.

Sounds like it worked out perfectly for you. On our cruise, people have huge amounts of OBC so nobody has organized private tours. That said, it will be fun to put names with faces and meet the people who've been posting on the roll call.

Although the ship is scheduled to arrive at 6:00, things don't always go to plan. You never know when a port authority clears a ship. Why not schedule your private shore excursion later and give yourself more time? And why would Azamara want to delay passengers such as you?

Thanks for the offer of help Tyler. Those of us who are Azamara veterans remember the great parties the ship hosted; many senior officers were there. There were invitations in your cabin when you boarded. Drinks and hors d'oeuvres were served by waiters. On last December's cruise, we had a great group of people who came. Lots of dinner plans were made. Conversations were lively rather than awkward. And it was then nice to see people around the ship that we had met that first night.

I find it so odd that the time and place for the get together will be listed in the Insider - even if the ship has no idea that someone has organized one. As you said: It is what it is.😉 Thanks for your suggestion to seek out the F & B Manager. I'll be sure to do that. I'll make name tags as you did last December. Thanks for all the help.

At some point in Azamara's history, a less-than-brilliant marketing person added the word CLUB to the description of each stateroom. Most comments on this board suggested that it added nothing. Everyone knew that there was no club. An announcement several years later said that CLUB would be dropped. It never happened. Today, as I looked at the Onward deck plan, I noticed that CLUB had been removed from all descriptions. No more Club Ocean Suite; just Ocean Suite. Now if they could just get the web site to work . . .😉

How did you arrange this with Azamara before the cruise? Who did you contact?