Back 2 back questions for Bill

[kiawahdon]

Bill,

A couple of B2B questions for you:

First, on the wine program, can you"carry-over" your unused bottles to your next cruise if you haven't used all your bottles (eg.2 or 3 ) on your first cruise?

Second, can any of these ship board credits be carried over from the first cruise to the succeeding: travel agent, RCCL shareholder benefit, and AZ ?

 

Bill, your participation on the AZ board makes it truly unique and heads above all others on CC. Thanks for your continued support for this board and AZ.

[Phxazzcruisers]

I will let Bill give you the official answer, but from out B2B's on Azamara, we can tell you that unfortunately the answer to both is no. They have to close out the books on each cruise and therefore each is treated as a completely separate sailing. Sorry, however please enjoy your cruise

[Andy]

I agree with Phxazzcruisers. I'm 99.9% certain you cannot carry OBC's to the next sailing. Not entirely sure on your wine question, but I also believe the answer is negative.

 

Hopefully, Bill will confirm for us.

[Brucen]

Bill,

A couple of B2B questions for you:

First, on the wine program, can you"carry-over" your unused bottles to your next cruise if you haven't used all your bottles (eg.2 or 3 ) on your first cruise?

Second, can any of these ship board credits be carried over from the first cruise to the succeeding: travel agent, RCCL shareholder benefit, and AZ ?

 

Bill, your participation on the AZ board makes it truly unique and heads above all others on CC. Thanks for your continued support for this board and AZ.

 

 

On our back to back in June we were in a suite. One of the suite perks is (4) bottles of liquor and I can tell you that our leftover bottles remained and four new ones accompanied them on changeover day. I would assume it to be the same with any wine.

 

I agree with the previous poster, from a financial point of view, the 2 cruises are treated separately. You have to "close out" cruise #1 and then open a new account with your preferred credit card for cruise #2 on changeover day.

 

Enjoy your Cruise!

 

Bruce

[Phxazzcruisers]

On our back to back in June we were in a suite. One of the suite perks is (4) bottles of liquor and I can tell you that our leftover bottles remained and four new ones accompanied them on changeover day. I would assume it to be the same with any wine.

 

I agree with the previous poster, from a financial point of view, the 2 cruises are treated separately. You have to "close out" cruise #1 and then open a new account with your preferred credit card for cruise #2 on changeover day.

 

Enjoy your Cruise!

 

Bruce

YOu are correct about the liquor in the Suites. We wound up with 12 bottles stacked on the desk. The wine package, however is not treated the same way as the complimentary liquor in Suites. It is a package for the sailing and ends at each leg.

[kiawahdon]

So far we are all speculating on my wine question; so I will now add my 2 cents until we hear from Bill. The reason I asked is that the 12 bottle package is clearly the best value. But, suppose we only consume 8 bottles on our first leg, and have 4 remaining at the end of our first cruise. My plan would be to chose the remaining 4 bottles, tell the wine steward to not open them, but deliver them to me at the end of the meal. The bottles swiftly will disappear to our cabin to reappear at dinner on our next cruise.

This is my take. Now I will await the " official answer ".

[Bill Leiber]

Hello Kiawahdon, Brucen, Phxazzcruisers, Host Andy and others -

 

I'm waiting for an official response from hotel operations about the wine program and from revenue management about the transferability of unused onboard credits to the subsequent voyage.

 

I'll be getting back to you! Thanks for your patience.

 

Regards,

 

Bill Leiber

_____________________

Chief Blogging Officer*

Azamara Club Cruises

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

[rockysquirrel]

Hi Bill,

We were on a B2B before and were told that the OBC had to be used up by the end of each sailing. We made a suggestion on our surveys that although for accounting purposes the OBC has to be reconciled at the end of each cruise, this should be a back office issue that should not impact the guest. It would be nice for the guest to have a combined OBC for the duration of the B2B cruises. This would really be beneficial if you were looking to purchase one item that costs more than the total of the OBCs (i.e. watches and jewelry) or if you are doing a repositioning and a port intensive itinerary where the combined OBCs could be used for excursions.

 

In summary to the guest the B2B should look, feel and act like one long cruise instead of multiple "mini-cruises" just because that is what the back office requires.

[Bill Leiber]

Hello Kiawahdon, Brucen, Phxazzcruisers, Host Andy, Rockysquirrel and others -

 

Here is the response that I received from our hotel operations management team:

§ For back-to-back guests who have purchased a wine package, any left-over wines will be properly tagged according to their booking numbers and will carry over for the next voyage. If the guest has a balance on their package they will be given a menu from which to choose their remaining wines, which will be tagged and carried over to the next voyage.

§ Promotional onboard credits are voyage specific and cannot be rolled-over to the back-to-back voyage. It must be used by 10PM the night before the voyage ends.

 

Because of onboard accounting programs, the packages and onboard credits need to be balanced out for the voyage even though the guests are back-to-back.

 

I've passed on to our hotel operation's team for their consideration, Rockysquirrel's meaningful suggestion that "...the B2B should look, feel and act like one long cruise instead of multiple "mini-cruises" just because that is what the back office requires." Also, I've shared this sentiment with our marketing team in light of our focus to market and sell "Extended" voyages. I'll keep you updated.

 

Best regards,

 

Bill Leiber

_____________________

Chief Blogging Officer*

Azamara Club Cruises

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

[Phxazzcruisers]

Hello Kiawahdon, Brucen, Phxazzcruisers, Host Andy, Rockysquirrel and others -

 

Here is the response that I received from our hotel operations management team:

§ For back-to-back guests who have purchased a wine package, any left-over wines will be properly tagged according to their booking numbers and will carry over for the next voyage. If the guest has a balance on their package they will be given a menu from which to choose their remaining wines, which will be tagged and carried over to the next voyage.

§ Promotional onboard credits are voyage specific and cannot be rolled-over to the back-to-back voyage. It must be used by 10PM the night before the voyage ends.

 

Because of onboard accounting programs, the packages and onboard credits need to be balanced out for the voyage even though the guests are back-to-back.

 

I've passed on to our hotel operation's team for their consideration, Rockysquirrel's meaningful suggestion that "...the B2B should look, feel and act like one long cruise instead of multiple "mini-cruises" just because that is what the back office requires." Also, I've shared this sentiment with our marketing team in light of our focus to market and sell "Extended" voyages. I'll keep you updated.

 

Best regards,

 

Bill Leiber

_____________________

Chief Blogging Officer*

Azamara Club Cruises

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

 

Thanks, as always Bill. That is actually great news on the wine package !!! It is a great start to making B2B guests feel more important.

[kiawahdon]

Thanks Bill for your response. The wine package result is what I projected and is an appropriate result-kudos for that one!

The answer on the credits I suspect is simply the fact that Azamara is using the RCCL corporate wide accounting software platform; and RCL and Celebrity do not have a lot of B2B's due to their repetitive itineraries. AZ is, unfortunately, forced to fit big brother's mold. Maybe some day AZ will have more flexibility.

[HamburgAvonLady]

We had some significant OBC's from our 30 day B2B South American cruse on RCCL's Mariner of the Seas --- we just went to the Purser's office the day before the end of Leg 1 and cashed out our "OBC'S ' for the casino. (which went into our pockets to pay for our shore tours). We were given no hassle. JMO