Booking Next Azamara Cruise While On Board

[coyboy1971]

We're cruising on Journey from Rio to BA on February 6, and are already planning our next Azamara cruise for October 2013 in the Western Med.

 

Has anyone recently booked their next cruise while on board Journey or Quest? Are there any advantages (e.g., discounts, extra on-board credits) to doing so?

[Jade13]

Hi Coyboy, yes, you receive a cruise discount. I would have to look at my paperwork which is at home to give you all of the details, but I believe we are receiving a $400.00 discount on our next cruise ($200.00 per person) that was booked onboard.

 

I can tell you this is not marketed very well, because the staff told me they had not sold as many future cruises as they would have liked. When I asked at least one person if they had booked another cruise while onboard (and it is someone on CC), they said no because they can do better with their own travel agent.

 

Your travel agent would give something on top of this, so the future onboard booking person definitely was not explaining it very well.

 

This is more than you asked, but from a marketing view I think Azamara would be better off giving the OBC instead of the discount because it is more easy to understand. That is as long as this OBC can be combined with everything else (Celebrity does not allow the OBC from booking onboard to be combined with stockholders credits, and while not a RCCL stockholder I agree with them that one has nothing to do with the other. If the numbers don't work they should make them lower like they do on Holland America Line where it seems everything can be combined).

 

I do have to say on our last cruise we had a $200.00 OBC from booking the cruise while onboard Celebrity last year and Azamara eventually turned that $200.00 OBC into a $400.00 discount telling us they no longer give book on board credits. Even though it was a better deal, I still think from a marketing point of view people understand the OBC's better.

[cpgrneyes]

We booked our next trip while onboard in September. The discount depends on cabin type and length of trip (Club Continent for over 9 nights was $600 per cabin). One other advantage is the 50% reduction in deposit. According to the paperwork (and what we were told onboard), that 50% does not apply to any suite categories. We initially booked a V2, but upgraded when we got home, and the 50% remained.

 

Be careful if you transfer the booking to a TA. Not all of their discounts can be applied to the onboard booking discount.

[Grandma Gilly]

We too booked our next AZ cruise while on board earlier this year. We received a substantial discount. I think it was $300 each for a club comtinent suite. We also asked our TA to take over the booking.