Riocca

Just received this email relating to our October Athens to Dubai cruise on Pursuit, it’s only one port change so the plan is still to transit the Red Sea. Dear Azamara Guest, We hope this message finds you well and eagerly anticipating your upcoming voyage aboard Azamara Pursuit®. As we prepare for your journey scheduled for October 26, 2024, we wanted to share an important update regarding your itinerary. Due to the ongoing situation in the Middle East, we have made the decision to adjust your itinerary for the safety and well-being of both our guests and crew. As a result, we will be removing the port of Elait from your itinerary and replacing it with the stunning destination of Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. While we understand that changes to travel plans can sometimes be inconvenient, please know that your safety remains our top priority. We apologize for any disruption this adjustment may cause to your travel arrangements. Sharm El Sheikh is a breathtaking coastal city renowned for its crystal-clear waters, vibrant coral reefs, and stunning beaches. Additionally, the city offers opportunities for cultural exploration, with historic sites such as the Old Market and the Al Mustafa Mosque waiting to be discovered. If you have already booked shore excursions through Azamara to the port of Elait, rest assured that any payments made will be refunded to the original form of payment. We sincerely appreciate your understanding and flexibility as we navigate these changes. Our team is committed to ensuring that your experience aboard the Azamara Pursuit is nothing short of exceptional, and we look forward to welcoming you on board for a memorable journey. Should you have any questions or need guidance of what you can explore in any destination please contact your Travel Advisor or click here for your local Azamara call center number. Sincerely, AZAMARA® The revised Itinerary can be viewed below.

Sorry to say no best price guarantee for the UK market, only way to take advantage of a price drop is to cancel lose the deposit and rebook on the new deal, so the price drop has to be substantial. You also lose any booking benefits from the original deal and there’s no guarantee you can rebook in the same cabin.

You can request the cruise ticket booklet any time after final payment, we are on the same cruise as you and received ours last November, I was talking to Azamara about another cruise and the agent offered to send the booklet then. You are correct Azamara now has the easy check in system and having done it a few times since its introduction can confirm it does actually work. All you need is your passport and cabin number, check on their website under Booked Passengers and you will see all the information including boarding times which is now by cabin category, loyalty level and deck.

Yes customer service has improved greatly over the last few months, website does take a bit of getting used to and it’s much easier to phone Azamara on the UK number. Recently waiting times on the phone lines have reduced to just a few minutes.

No if you even hint at the name of a travel agent the post will be deleted. However it is possible to use the “Find a Cruise “ feature on Cruise Critic to look for your selected cruise and you will see prices from CC”s selected travel partners, but this of course is no real recommendation for a travel agency. On a personal note we used to always use a travel agent but had several bad experiences during the dark days of COVID and now book directly with Azamara, to date we have received very good service even during the troubled times of the introduction of the new system.

Azamara is now independent so could set whatever payment terms it chooses, Viking in the North American market asks for full payment 1 year ahead this was always thought to be to help fund its ship building program. Currently Azamara’s final payment in the North American market is 120 days out but only 90 days in the U.K. market, possibly because most travel agents add 30 days to allow them to process the payment. So Azamara’s offer is quite reasonable as at least it gives something back for early payment. There was a lot of talk amongst the staff onboard Onward at Christmas about the imminent announcement of a new ship, could this be to do with the financing of that?

This has been the way of the U.K. holiday market for as long as I can remember and certainly not exclusive to Azamara. Terms & conditions within the U.K. market have been stricter than the North American market it was always said that this was because of the legislation that gives us greater protection making the cost of doing business higher. We’ve encountered similar issues with other cruise lines P&O U.K. being one of the more intransigent when a cruise we booked early was slashed in price, in fact we ended up paying more for a balcony cabin than they were selling Owners Suites for in the last few weeks before the cruise. It’s swings and roundabouts, we are usually early bookers with Azamara and certainly with our current bookings have been happy with the overall deal. Our next cruise is in March and the cruise is included in the latest offers however currently for the price we are paying for a CC suite we could only book an ocean view.

There was a question about this back in October so as we were onboard Onward I asked and was told it was still $10. Of course this could have changed since then but hopefully not.

Going back to 2015 this thread would indicate that Azamara didn’t respond to this thread as regards the proportion of walk in showers as opposed to bath/ shower combos. There were many other threads regarding the then proposed refurbishment but the majority were about the addition of an Asian specialty restaurant on the Sunset Terrace which of course didn’t happen but makes interesting reading. Flicking through the pages of history was interesting but the number of threads relating to Website / Customer Service issues highlighted that the past wasn’t that perfect either.

It was always subject to local rules and regulations, availability of immigration and customs officials seems to have diminished since Covid even for regular departures.

Booking was exactly as it was before the 3 nights were applied, early booking bonus, onboard booking discount and OBC. Everything was done off ship by the back office so no reason to believe that this is not now the normal procedure.

We were told that onboard staff now have strict instructions to refer all changes that have financial implications to the home team responsible for that passenger. It’s clear that the new Azamara regime are beginning to get a firm grip and everyone is now following the correct procedures. I think the figures are too exact for us to have gotten lucky, so hopefully free nights now actually have value for everyone.

I can only post this regarding UK bookings but it possibly relates to others as well. Back in October onboard Onward we changed an existing booking previously made onboard, in this case the new cruise was booked with a new booking number and the deposit transferred from the existing booking which was then cancelled. This is no longer the case, currently onboard Onward we wanted to change an existing booking (actually made on the October cruise) to one of the new Quest 2025 Canada / New England cruises. Now this has to be referred to Azamara UK to action, the cabin we wanted was held on a temporary booking while Azamara UK updated the booking. This took a few extra days because of the Christmas holiday but was done without any problems then the temporary booking was cancelled. We also asked if the three free nights would work with this booking but this had to be submitted after the booking was changed. As the new cruise was 12 days we weren’t expecting it to work however to our surprise the onboard discounted cruise fare was reduced by 25% within a couple of days. So this represents a true 3 free nights on the booking, much better than it used to be under the old RC system.

Incidentally there’s currently no F&B Manager onboard Onward, there is a back story but unable to repeat it on here. I would like to think that they will correct this before the World Cruise starts on the 6th January.

We currently have the same butler and can say he’s the nicest guy going and is looking after us extremely well.

We’re boarding Onward tomorrow and will probably swap our 5th August booking to the late September Montreal to New York itinerary. It’s a few days shorter but can make up for that with a few days in the Big Apple.

In 2009 during P&O’s Arcadia’s Grand Voyage at the peak of pirate activity in that area we were escorted by a U.K. Navy warship at close quarters in both directions. However the current threat is different from the waterborne pirates, drones and possibly missiles would present a much more dangerous threat. We are booked on Pursuits October Athens to Dubai cruise and are booking changeable flights just in case, although I’m sure cruise ships are way down in priority given the greater importance of the effects on commercial shipping.

Possibly it’s more of a problem because of Quests power problems but we just accepted it as normal for cruising in that area, when we put our hands on the window glass it was freezing, as were the outside walls.

Years ago we did the Antarctic Cruise on Star Princess in a corner aft suite of similar size to an Owners Suite on Azamara. The ship was operating normally but we also suffered the heating in the suite being unable to cope with the low outside temperatures, we also lost hot water for 2 days. Just wondering if it could be that modern cruise ships are not designed to handle the low Antarctic temperatures. That said we’re hoping that they can fix Quest soon as we are due to join her in Rio in March.

We have always had to complete the form and apply online but we recently booked a b2b onboard and the bookings were linked under one booking reference and the OBC applied immediately to both legs of the booking and was showing on the confirmation we were given.

When you’re in the booking go to Add ons, then choose available you should be able to scroll through all the available packages. In our bookings I can see all the Chefs Table options but as we’re in a suite no speciality restaurant packages.

Made a Shorex booking last week using the OBC from an Experience More package that was part of the early booking bonus without any problems. We were 35 days from sailing and spoke to one of the agents in Wichita.

There is a U.K. agency that offers the same facility unfortunately it can’t be named or even hinted at. Not used a travel agent since the pandemic but it sounds as though some agents are just using the same system we can use to check availability. Would be interesting to know exactly what is being made available to agents and if they are choosing to use it, but probably we will never know.

Yes, Azamara’s response times on the phones is very good these days I’ve only had to wait a maximum of 10 minutes recently and the ring back feature is also working well. Having booked recently onboard Onward I’ve seen the system the Azamara agents are looking at and it gives full availability of all the available cabins, it’s just the customer website that displays a limited number of available cabins.

All gratuities (except in the spa) are included on Azamara so there’s nothing added to the drinks price whether you have a drink package or not.