Miami Misteps

Bonnie,

I am sure you have read uktogs review and assorted comments.

Sadly this may be the ”canary in the coal mine” for a lot of regular cruisers who read these boards and are your most loyal customers.

I believe that Azamara may be charting a dangerous course with this fill at all costs and part charters.

1: Pricing

If there is any cruise on any line that should be a sell out it should be Christmas /New Year IF priced correctly

Sadly this one was obviously priced too high for regular Azamara clientele because of the last minute discounting.

To sell a cruise at $3000 per cabin for 12 days isridiculous.

Which is better for the brand amd long term bottom line???.

A: Sail with a full ship at reasonable pricing which fillsthe ship 3 months early and enables any cancellations to be sold at runningprices.

Result 100% happy passengers

B: Stick 70% of passengers with high prices (after all it is Christmas) and fill last 30 % cabins with a crowd of people who would NEVER pay Azamara prices in normal times.

Result

1: You upset loyal customers

2: Any high priced new customers will think this is “normal”and not return

3: Your 30 % freebies will never pay Azamara prices.

Outcome

You have 100% of customers who will probably not return.

We were waiting for reviews for Christmas cruise as we had had a reasonable Christmas Cruise from Buenos Aries to Rio a couple of yearsago but we will not put out £20,000 if there was any thought that we would have an experience like uktog

For £1000 a night I could probably stay at the Savoy in London, the Ritz in Paris or maybe even Trump Tower in New York and probably get better wines than the $5 Azamara wines currently on offer.

2: Occupancy.

Larry’s proud boast of “always sailing full “rather contrasts with previous assertions that he would rather sail with empty cabins than cheapen the brand.

Last minute discounting or 200+ part charters destroy the unrivalled ambiance created by the Azamara Management and crew.

We experienced similar sell off on the Indian OceanSeychelles cruise when 70 cabins were sold off at 3000 euros for a 21 nightcruise.

Not as bad as uktogs experience but a very different hard drinking culture on board that cruise.

Not 100% sure but that with the new ship and current pricing /discounting that the problem may get worse.

Other people have commented on the different atmosphere on 7day cruises compared to 10 days or more.

We will wait and see what pricing is like for the months just before launch of Pursuit as I am sure loyal Azamara guests will want to sail on the new ship which may expose exactly how large the Azamara High price market is.

3: Miami Back office.

Bonnie I know you try your best and obviously forward all problems to Miami but they simply either do not care or do not have the authority to check/change things.

We could fill the comments with examples but just go back to

Rabin1 and Cyprus queries

Uktog

New Year fireworks

Upcoming cruise excursions

Oman fort tours with half an hour at a fort

Shabbath ceremony on a Tuesday Hokey at best

Sydney Bridge

London Tower Bridge

We experienced Azamara failing to book a flight for us on a return from a cruise with consequent problems and we were advised this was a “slight inconvenience” and it took a month to get a resolution only through RichardTwynam at UK office.

As too the problems on uktogs cruise I am sure that Journey staff must have felt they would not get back up from H office if they had removed the obnoxious people and their bladder (hopefully) problems.

I hope they will be billed for the extra cleaning.

As to the disabled excursion I have a disabled relative and I do everything to help her live a “normal” life but for Azamara to permit this passenger to go on this excursion when it is sold as NOT suitable is crazy.

I note Azamara provided helpers which merely exposes Azamarato duty of care responsibility issues and law suits.

Even if the cost was refunded to those other 29 people itdoes NOT compensate for the lost experience.

Any Miami issues should not be forwarded to the dept or even the Department manager.(he will wish to protect his staff) or even his manager.

They should go to the 3rd level up and he/she should emulate Winston Churchill

“Action this day”.

After a few Exocet missiles from above (sorry for mixed wars) then things may get better and get fixed rather than ignored in the hope they go away.

Sorry for rant but as stated we have pulled the plug on booking Christmas New year 2018

We will watch and wait

Not sure why so many words have run together as it was spell checked before submission and again when posted but more seem to have appeared since.

Sorry

Not sure why so many words have run together as it was spell checked before submission and again when posted but more seem to have appeared since.

Sorry

Excellent post, really sums up the way many people are feeling at the moment.

Asking too much for the cabin via the website and then fire selling them toward the end leads to cheapening the product and bad feeling. I believe the ethos at Azamara at the moment is "see what we can get away with charging" instead of offering true value. It's in shake down stage at the moment. If they can't sell the cabins they'll lower the price. They have to. They can't rely on a couple of consolidators near the end. Pursuit's Antarctica Jan 2019 cruise has dropped in price by a third in the last week. From £12k to £8k for a balcony, total cabin price. That really shows how crazy the pricing is at the moment.

Phil

Asking too much for the cabin via the website and then fire selling them toward the end leads to cheapening the product and bad feeling. ......... Pursuit's Antarctica Jan 2019 cruise has dropped in price by a third in the last week. From £12k to £8k for a balcony, total cabin price. That really shows how crazy the pricing is at the moment.

 

Phil

And Azamara have lost out on a booking that could have been made in November last year as a result. Now other plans have been made for that period because the price of that trip was beyond where we were able to stretch.

Excellent post Proctor, this is exactly how I feel but you put it in a better way than I could have.

I do agree with a number of the points made however, and I may be controversial here, there is another perspective here.

We are currently on a 6* line where a standard balcony cabin costs more than a CC suite on Azamara so have some direct comparisons to make.

The ship is in excellent condition but has recently been extensively refurbished so should be, cabin is adequate but not as well appointed as a CC suite and of course no butler, but that’s not necessarily important, we do get 2 bottles of spirits though.

Food is excellent but as we are not foodies doesn’t matter to us but I know it does to some, however the specialty restaurants do not in our opinion match Azamara’s either in ambience or food selection.

Included drinks would be equivalent to Azamara’s Ultimate package but at the price point I would expect that.

Service whilst good and efficient comes nowhere near Azamara’s, it just lacks that personal caring touch Azamara have. Entertainment is glitzy but lacking the touch Azamara’s Cruise Directors bring to it.

I will come to my point, experiencing 6* has made us realise Azamara is not too far off the mark, certainly there could be improvements in some areas but maybe that will come. Prices are currently higher than we are comfortable with but is that because we have had pricing below the market value?

Maybe the current pricing is wrong and a reduction would fill ships at a profitable level without having to sell off cabins cheaply, we like many will be reviewing our cruise purchase strategy, but having seen that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side will still continue to think of Azamara as our 1st choice line.

Just another thought for us Brits, Brexit saw a considerable fall in the value of Stirling versus the US Dollar this has put prices up across the board. Hopefully that will improve in the future but it could be some time.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I do agree with a number of the points made however, and I may be controversial here, there is another perspective here.

We are currently on a 6* line where a standard balcony cabin costs more than a CC suite on Azamara so have some direct comparisons to make.

The ship is in excellent condition but has recently been extensively refurbished so should be, cabin is adequate but not as well appointed as a CC suite and of course no butler, but that’s not necessarily important, we do get 2 bottles of spirits though.

Food is excellent but as we are not foodies doesn’t matter to us but I know it does to some, however the specialty restaurants do not in our opinion match Azamara’s either in ambience or food selection.

Included drinks would be equivalent to Azamara’s Ultimate package but at the price point I would expect that.

Service whilst good and efficient comes nowhere near Azamara’s, it just lacks that personal caring touch Azamara have. Entertainment is glitzy but lacking the touch Azamara’s Cruise Directors bring to it.

I will come to my point, experiencing 6* has made us realise Azamara is not too far off the mark, certainly there could be improvements in some areas but maybe that will come. Prices are currently higher than we are comfortable with but is that because we have had pricing below the market value?

Maybe the current pricing is wrong and a reduction would fill ships at a profitable level without having to sell off cabins cheaply, we like many will be reviewing our cruise purchase strategy, but having seen that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side will still continue to think of Azamara as our 1st choice line.

Just another thought for us Brits, Brexit saw a considerable fall in the value of Stirling versus the US Dollar this has put prices up across the board. Hopefully that will improve in the future but it could be some time.

This describes exactly our experiences on that line that calls itself six stars. Nothing controversial at all in your posting. In fact, it's a much-needed counterpoint to much of what I've been reading here lately.