Journey 15th October pricing

[uktog]

Hi

I wonder if I am missing something about the pricing of the shore excursions and/or the descriptions offered for the excursions in Israel. Let me explain, and apologies I am talking in £ as these are the only prices I can see

 

Option 1

 

Grand overland two day trip including an overnight off ship which allows visits to Galilee, Nazareth, Jerusalem and Bethlehem costs £629 per person. As this has a hotel element there is no 50% reduction

 

Option 2

One day trip to Galilee and Nazareth £122.25

One day trip to Jerusalem and Bethlehem £122.25

Total £244.50 - both of these are the full price costs and would attract the 50% off if booked in advance

 

Staying though with the full price costs for ease of comparison, what is it that is driving the £384 per person price difference other than the cost of the hotel overnight in Jerusalem. Given that there should also be a notional small allowance for not eating/drinking on board that night lets make that an easy £16 per person we seem to be looking at £800 or $1200 additional cost for the overnight trip and that is ignoring the 50% off some people will be able to use

 

It may of course be that the description of the overland trip is wrong - I am wondering, given the time we have in Israel is it a 2 night away, not a one night away and the description is wrong. That would make sense

 

Interested Bill or Andy if we can get some clarification in the coming months on this one to help with our planning

[Jade13]

Hi

I wonder if I am missing something about the pricing of the shore excursions and/or the descriptions offered for the excursions in Israel. Let me explain, and apologies I am talking in £ as these are the only prices I can see

 

Option 1

 

Grand overland two day trip including an overnight off ship which allows visits to Galilee, Nazareth, Jerusalem and Bethlehem costs £629 per person. As this has a hotel element there is no 50% reduction

 

Option 2

One day trip to Galilee and Nazareth £122.25

One day trip to Jerusalem and Bethlehem £122.25

Total £244.50 - both of these are the full price costs and would attract the 50% off if booked in advance

 

Staying though with the full price costs for ease of comparison, what is it that is driving the £384 per person price difference other than the cost of the hotel overnight in Jerusalem. Given that there should also be a notional small allowance for not eating/drinking on board that night lets make that an easy £16 per person we seem to be looking at £800 or $1200 additional cost for the overnight trip and that is ignoring the 50% off some people will be able to use

 

It may of course be that the description of the overland trip is wrong - I am wondering, given the time we have in Israel is it a 2 night away, not a one night away and the description is wrong. That would make sense

 

 

We were on the Quest October 26, 2011 that included Israel. The excursions in Israel averaged around USD $169.00 at full price, with the exception of the Masada & Dead Sea excursion that was in the $200.00 range. If I recall the Israel Overnight was somewhere around $800.00 USD. We were never interested in the itinerary, but the pricing difference never made any sense and from a marketing view I always thought they should have offered some type of discount to book pre-cruise (maybe 25% off if the 50% numbers did not work), but then again did not know if it was selling and never found out if the excursion took place. (I had my doubts because they had a hard time selling the day tours we were on as 2 weeks prior to our sailing 6 of our 9 excursions did not have enough participants to operate.)

 

If I recall the 2 day 1 night tour covered more than 2 day time excursions with Jerusalem, Northern Israel, plus either the Dead Sea or Tel Aviv, so areas that would have needed 3 days if booked as day tours.

 

As far as your assumption that Azamara should consider an allowance because those who leave will be saving the ship money while not eating onboard, that will never happen since they still have to pay the third party Shore Excursion Operator to run the tour. I still think they should have offered a pre-booking incentive.

[uktog]

Thanks Jade - interesting idea about the pre cruise incentive but as Bill has just confirmed we cannot access pre cruise incentives as we will be trying to burn off on board credit as a result of the redeployment plus shareholder credit that would not work in our case

 

I am suspecting there is more to the 2 day 1 night trip than the current specification is saying and certainly if it included the Dead Sea (though I cannot see how it would with the current timings but I would love to be told otherwise) we would be there like a shot.

 

I am not expecting Azamara to pay be an allowance because I am off ship and yes, they will have to pay the third party operator, but I would hope they were factoring into their calculations that I will not be eating one dinner plus wine, one breakfast etc etc

[Jade13]

Thanks Jade - interesting idea about the pre cruise incentive but as Bill has just confirmed we cannot access pre cruise incentives as we will be trying to burn off on board credit as a result of the redeployment plus shareholder credit that would not work in our case

 

I am suspecting there is more to the 2 day 1 night trip than the current specification is saying and certainly if it included the Dead Sea (though I cannot see how it would with the current timings but I would love to be told otherwise) we would be there like a shot.

 

 

Also, I think because of Israeli security this overnight excursion has to be booked so many days in advance, so if your itinerary has you in Israel on the 2nd or 3rd day of the cruise this might not be possible. We would never wait until we boarded to book Israeli shore excursions. We had three days in Israel and had two different private guides on two days, and went with Azamara one day. Note that the Masada & Dead Sea excursion we were on with Azamara sold out before we boarded the ship.

 

Additionally, we had to dock in Haifa for three nights when we could not dock in Ashdod, and all Azamara excursions the first day were canceled. We were fortunate we had a private guide that first day in Israel, and we went to Jerusalem although our time was shortened. We met one couple who took a bus to Jerusalem and then they could not get back to the ship and paid some ridiculous amount for a taxi (at least $300.00) to get back to Haifa.

[Jade13]

Thanks Jade - interesting idea about the pre cruise incentive but as Bill has just confirmed we cannot access pre cruise incentives as we will be trying to burn off on board credit as a result of the redeployment plus shareholder credit that would not work in our case

 

 

That is no surprise as they are in business to make a profit and are trying to sell the shore excursions.

[Bill Leiber]

Hello Uktog and Jade13 -

 

Please give me some time so that I can look into the specifics of the shore excursions on the Journey's October 15th voyage.

 

Thanks for your patience.

 

Regards,

Bill Leiber

___________________

Chief Blogging Officer*

Azamara Club Cruises

(*CBO is an authorized and compensated representative of ACC)

[uktog]

Thank you Bill, we have time yet so no big rush, just starting some planning whilst I can

[baldmtn517]

Looking forward to a reply on this as well. The trip looks terrific, it's just that the pricing doesn't relate to the other similar tours. There doesn't seem to be a 50% either.

 

Many thanks, Bill

[baldmtn517]

Hello Uktog and Jade13 -

 

Please give me some time so that I can look into the specifics of the shore excursions on the Journey's October 15th voyage.

 

Thanks for your patience.

 

Regards,

Bill Leiber

___________________

Chief Blogging Officer*

Azamara Club Cruises

(*CBO is an authorized and compensated representative of ACC)

Bill

Did you ever get any information on this question? I think a number of us on this cruise are still waiting to hear. Thank you for following up.

David

[uktog]

If you look at the 50% off pricing thread, Bill is looking at what is happening on 19th Oct for me

 

As regards the 50% IT glitch, that is now sorted for the other ports, I am assuming as the Grand Overland has a hotel there is no 50% off which is also distorting its value

 

But no, missing the full detail on the Grand overnight. I think there is a real opportunity with the one day in Haifa and two in Ashdod for Azamara to put on a fantastic pilgrimage experience, I hope they do as this is a once in a lifetime trip for many