bluewave200

Ok, Bonnie, it sounds you were put on mute mode. When I look at your post from May 8th and your short note right now I can‘t put both of them together. Yes i booked guarantee, but i talked about an accessible cabin we didn‘t want, I talked about changing my booking from inside to outside when the prices went down and azamara and/or TA would not let me, although terms and conditions are not clear about that, and I talked about paying much too high price regarding later price drops and not one try from azamara and/or TA to make a single move.

It was you who implicated a solution and wrote „

## All this aside, as I first said, I expect you’ll have a resolution very soon.

And finally I thank you for reaching out to us. It IS our goal to provide brilliant experience...in this case we were entirely unaware there was a problem. Now we are striving to make you happy.  ##

That‘s why I‘m a little bit surprised about your answer and the bias in commenting we booked GTY. 

Hello Bonnie, will I get a response or a reaction to my last post?

Regards

Manfred

Hello Bonnie,

I'm afraid in the end just and exactly nothing has changed in our case, I refer to your answer in this topic from May 8th which I appreciated very much. Our TA didn't talk to us, but apparently reads this forum too. All we got from TA was an email on May 17th which obviously referred to my writing in this board, and second mail on May 22nd that we were put back on guarantee.

Not ONE word about booking conditions, changing our booking to current conditions or anything about the issues I made up in this topic.

Tonigh I took a look into our booking and saw we have been assigned a cabin. It is 4035 - just the cabin we had before. By now the ship is sold out and all chances are gone getting another cabin. I'm still happy with you trying to take care of passenger issues and I understand my TA is important for Azamara as he is one of the biggest in Germany and has been bought from an even more important British TA, so one single customer might not be too important (which all in all I understand). But: When you wrote " I expect you’ll have a resolution very soon. " and " It IS our goal to provide brilliant experience...in this case we were entirely unaware there was a problem. Now we are striving to make you happy. " I expected a little bit more: getting the chance to change the booking to the current price (what was refused allthouth the terms are not clear about that point). Now is "game over" no cabins left. So much ado about nothing. I know it's not up to you and I'm thankful for your trying anyways.

German guests have the same problems obviously. When RCL started in Europe they had best price guarantee like in the USA before final payment. By now they adapted to the local competitors like AIDA and TUI (which is a joint venture with RCL) and don't offer it anymore. You are right, it seems to be unfair that non-american guests are less precious than those in their home market.

Hello Bonnie,

please apologize for bothering you again, but I didn't hear anything more about my topic. Is it still "in progress"?

Thanks again

Manfred

Thank you Bonnie for your time and thank you Phil for your comment. It already feels good not running against walls but see people taking care and practicing excellent service. Bonnie, you are the one who did not talk to me about "terms and conditions" and told me what azamara would not do but asked "how can I help you". This is so much more customer oriented and I'm already so much more content just by knowing being taken seriously. So thanks again to you and all our fellow cruisers on the seven seas.

Thank you everyone for your support and understanding. Especially thanks to you, Bonnie, as you spend so many time to held so many people with their little and big problems. We are very grateful you take care even if the resukt might be the same. What bothers us is that on the one hand azamara advertises and says they want to provide a brilliant experience, sending emails every other day in preparation of our departure, but they act differently (at least as far as we experienced). From my point of view, a deal must be good for both parties. So every side gives a little and no one loses. That's my experience from days gone with the cruise lines i mentioned above. They always at least "tried". That's what you are doing now for us. Thank you so much for your empathy.

@ grayjay: Sorry, I didn't explain it well: we asked to change the booking to an outside cabin (at that time cheaper than the inside we already booked). TA said, yes we could change the booking, but then would have to pay the outside cabin price which was valid at the date of our initial booking. That price was much higher and thus "no deal" to us. We told him, we should be able to change, as the terms and conditions of azamara figured out (at least we read it that way), we only had to pay 60 Euro for handling by azamara which would have been ok to us, even if we had lost obc. That is the point when TA said, azamara wouldn't change bookings to lower prices but only if you pay up. Of yourse we could cancel - lose obc and 15% deposit - and book new - as you said - with new cabin, new booking number and so on, but again: that would have been no deal after summing everything up. By now prices dropped further and I could do the maths again, but unfortunately we are less than 90 days before departure, thus cancelling and booking new would be very expensive now, because we would have to pay 50% for nothing and book a new cabin.

@florisdekort: Yes, you are right. We have the same impression. TA was good when he started, he took care and provided really excellent service. Obviously he grew too fast and can't keep his standards from the the time he started.  Next time we'll try anolther TA or book directly with the cruise line.

Hello to everyone who loves cruises as we do. We would like to share our booking experience with azamara in Germany. We have been long time cruisers, we were on AIDA, TUI Cruises, RCL, Celebrity, HAL aand Cunard and this year we decided to try azamara and found a nice route in the mediterran sea starting July 27 in Barcelona. 

We booked thru a german internet TA and chose an inside guarantee which then was combined with an obc of $ 500 for the cabin ($ 250 per Person). We booked this inside guarantee on Feb 25 for a price of ~ € 1.428 pP, thus € 2.853 for the cabin including $ 500 obc.

We were very surprised when we immediately got a confirmation from the TA which already included the assignment of a cabin although guarantee - as far as we know - likely is to be assigned later and sometimes even just days before boarding. We found out that we were assigned an accessible cabin 4035, which we weren't happy with. It's not the cabin itself, but we felt and feel uncomfortable taking a special cabin reserved for fellow passengers with disabilities without needing it. It felt like taking something that's not supposed to be ours. Ironically TA sent us another mail and told us we had chosen an accessible cabin (which we didn't, it was assigned by azamara) and we would have to fill out a form declaring that we actually needed this type of cabin. TA also wrote that in case we booked such a cabin with special equipment (again: we were assigned!) though we don't need it, we could get in trouble because azamara could sent us to another cabin. We were very annoyed because all of that is nothing we wever wanted, it was not in our hands. So we told TA the facts and they said we shouldn't bother, everything would come out well. Ok then.

Some time later we found out azamara had changed prices. Now we could get an outside cabin for some 2.534. We understood that we could lose the obc if we changed the booking but ok: Conditions said a change of booking would cost only €60 (till 90 days to departure) and it sounded like a deal to us. But no way: a) we could not change the booking they said, we could only cancel it, which meant 15% deposit is lost. or b) further more: as the price - so said the TA - was only valid for new customers we would have to pay about € 3.534  (that was the price at the time of our initial booking) for the outside cabin. TA said, this is azamaras terms and conditions (we couldn't find something there that explained their practice).

Today we discovered the price of outside cabin went down to just € 2.002. We are so disappointed. We paid a far too high price for a cabin we didn't want. Ok we booked guarantee, but didn't expect to get an accessible cabin. We know some people will say, you were happy with the price at the time you booked it. Yes, that's true. But some years ago when there was a real best price guarantee from all major lines, customer care and satisfaction was much better and the would at least try to make something possible to keep the customer. Our experience now is: wait, wait, wait till you book.

@ Bonnie: Could you please figure out if there are any ways left to get us somewhat happier again? Thanks for caring. Our booking number is 9997557 Pursuit July 27

Manfred

Looking at the regular price tags I'd say it is an upgrade. If it's a Vista Suite (I refer to Koningsdam) you will probably have a little more space. The information of the room size is from 24-33 square meters in both categories but of course depends on the location. It's not the jackpot but definitely not worse than your first assignment and you're nearer to the water... Enjoy