What's with the dissatisfaction at Azamara?

[cle-guy]

I'm just starting to look into an Azamara cruise next year so came to this forum to get the vibe of the line.

 

On the 1st page there are 5 posts with unhappy faces :mad: :( ....First glance I thought it was weird but shrugged it off. Then I went to my other forums, NCL, X, and RCI, not 1 unhappy face on the 1st page of recent posts on any of them.

 

What is it about Azamara that has its cruisers so unhappy over here? From what I've seen seems to be fairly respectable but the barrage of unhappy faces makes me think twice...?

[Grandma Gilly]

Don't be put off by the moaners and groaners. There are some changes at Azamara. They have become 'more inclusive'. Basically, this means that most drinks are available free. Some top brands still have to be paid for.

They have, apparently, got rid of the harpist. Does it make any difference to your enjoyment. NO!!

 

Azamara is a fantastic line to cruise with. I have been on both ships, most recently last month and have another cruise booked with them.

The staff onboard are brilliant and really add to the vacation pleasure. Azamara is probably my favourite line and I have travelled on Silverseas, Crystal and Seabourn. No, the cabins are nowhere near as luxurious and yes, the bathrooms are tiny but the overall Azamara package is great.

 

I am sure there are dissenters on these boards but you will also find lots of AZ fans. Once you've tried it you too will be a convert.

[taxwiz]

Grandma,

You're right on.

There is just no pleasing some people.

[uktog]

I agree, do not be put off at all. I think if you look at these faces there is

 

two are about onboard changes, but if you look at the threads they are small (though for some important) changes, everyone is saying the same thing, we love the onboard experience, the crew will work round it but please head office rethink this move in the longer term

 

one is about issues with flights from the UK - a long running issue but also has to be tempered with management of expectations about what, if you get a free flight, might be the "price" of that

 

two are from the same cruiser who is also posting negatively on another thread

 

I think if we all remembered to start our threads with the thumbs up logo when we are happy, your visual would be very different.

 

Honestly compared to issues being flagged up on other boards, Azamara is in great shape and a lot of us are still very happy with the product indeed

[navyaviator1955]

Azamara is still a good cruise line,however recent changes have not been for the better. There are better options available.

[ddcruiser]

Try Azamara, no matter if you have found a negative here or there. We have switched from Oceania and others(8 trips) to Azamara (7 trips and one booked for next summer) because of the wonderful camaraderie onboard, both from terrific staff as well as other passengers. We have made friends on every AZ voyage and cannot imagine better service. You will love the experience. ddcruiser

[cle-guy]

Ahh. Is I read posts closer, I see there are certain "passive aggressive" DYKWIA types perhaps being the vocal minority....

 

Always takes a bit of time to get the feel of each individual forum. always amazing how much "culture" each particular one actually generates...!

 

I'll stay tuned...! I really like the idea of overnights in ports is how I've stumbled over to this line.

[Andy]

I'm just starting to look into an Azamara cruise next year so came to this forum to get the vibe of the line.

 

On the 1st page there are 5 posts with unhappy faces :mad: :( ....First glance I thought it was weird but shrugged it off. Then I went to my other forums, NCL, X, and RCI, not 1 unhappy face on the 1st page of recent posts on any of them.

 

What is it about Azamara that has its cruisers so unhappy over here? From what I've seen seems to be fairly respectable but the barrage of unhappy faces makes me think twice...?

 

Hi Cle-guy,

 

So you see a few frowns, get worried, and call it a barrage ??? What about the many positive comments ? Do they not matter ? If we are going to split hairs, as you wish to do... 2 of the recent "frowns" are from a member who is generally very happy with Azamara, and brought a couple of valid points to the table.

 

Please don't let a handful of negative comments put you off. One thing I've noticed over the years, is that folks are quicker to punish than praise. I suppose it goes with the territory. At any rate, we welcome the discussion, as it provides valuable feedback to our members and the cruise line, especially as Azamara has a representative watching what's said on here.

 

The bottom line is, Azamara offers an outstanding cruise experience, and that should be what matters the most. I hope this is helpful.

[dln929]

I'm just starting to look into an Azamara cruise next year so came to this forum to get the vibe of the line.

 

On the 1st page there are 5 posts with unhappy faces :mad: :( ....First glance I thought it was weird but shrugged it off. Then I went to my other forums, NCL, X, and RCI, not 1 unhappy face on the 1st page of recent posts on any of them.

 

What is it about Azamara that has its cruisers so unhappy over here? From what I've seen seems to be fairly respectable but the barrage of unhappy faces makes me think twice...?

 

If you look at the big picture, you'll know that the Quest and the Journey carry about 700 passengers and how many of them are on this forum grumbling? Use that as your guideline as overall satisfaction. If there were truly the dissatisfaction with Azamara that you're puzzling over, you'd see heaps of posters with little purple frownies on their posts...but you don't.

 

Take a look at the member reviews and you will see a lot of happiness with the Azamara experience. My husband and I come to Azamara by way of Celebrity and Royal Caribbean, and we're confident enough to have not one, but three Azamara cruises lined up and we can't wait. ;)

[ellbon]

Hi Cle-guy,

 

So you see a few frowns, get worried, and call it a barrage ??? What about the many positive comments ? Do they not matter ? If we are going to split hairs, as you wish to do... 2 of the recent "frowns" are from a member who is generally very happy with Azamara, and brought a couple of valid points to the table.

 

thank you Andy!

 

 

 

The bottom line is, Azamara offers an outstanding cruise experience, and that should be what matters the most. I hope this is helpful.

 

IN case the OP missed this point i have done 16 cruises with this cruiseline and have about 10 to 12 more. i am only trying to improve things not only for myself about other guests.

The service and food is prefect. I miss the the harpest a lot. I know as most people do every officer on two ships and many crew. They know how you like your drink, what allergies you have and how ypu want your morning coffee. if you decide to have a butler you might never leave the ship again.

i love this line but when a crew member tell me or suggests to post on tours i will. i want Mia to know how we feel. I tend to do most cities on my own or small tours but i felt it needed to be said that we have gone from 15 to 20 in a tour to 35. that tours are cancel for less people.

i will not even talk about buses to the Amazing Evenings as we all been there or will be.

[workingtocruise-59]

Don't think you can extrapolate from a few posts .. What do they say "one happy person tells one person , one unhappy person tells everyone " ?

We booked our first Azamara cruise in 2008. The reviews on CC were terrible.We had just taken a (very expensive) Silversea cruise which was truly awful. I wasn't keen to book Azamara ( a relative unknown) but my DH said "How bad can it be? - we've just spent two months salary on a mediocre cruise, this can only be better". And it was .. and 11 cruises later we're still here...

And it just gets better and better ....

[beachmudhut]

We have cruised with many cruise lines but once we discovered Azamara early this year we wouldn't want to sail with anyone else! We have been on 3 Azamara cruises this year and have another one booked in December.

 

 

We don't like having to leave the ship at 8.00 am for a flight at 19.00 but there again, we don't like having to leave the ship at all!!!

[LindaAndBillTravel]

I haven't sailed on Azamara yet, but booked my first AZ cruise recently so I have also been new to reading this board. We have historically sailed on Royal Caribbean and so I am most familiar with that forum. Recently, I have found reading the RC board just causes me stress, there are so many rude and inappropriate postings there. On the other hand, I have found the AZ board refreshing. Postings are appropriate and informative, and any negatives are raised in a mature manner. The RC board may not have as high a percentage of frowny faces on the threads, but if you read enough, I feel certain that you will find more complaints there. The high regard of Azamara comes through in this forum and I look forward to cruising with you all!

[kikki21]

I haven't even sailed yet with Azamara but I can't wait till next June!

 

The many positives that have been spoken about Azamara do seem to outweigh the negatives!

 

I guess the difference is what each person is expecting from their cruise experience! In a perfect world then yes I would love the staterooms and bathrooms to be bigger, will it make much difference to my cruise experience? Most likely no..... I am really hoping that we will be kicking ourselves hard after the cruise that we didn't book another one straight after! :)

[taxjam]

We currently prefer Azamara having switched from Oceania. While we have some things about we find negative (we have had 2 poor Azamazing evenings, the stateroom size, etc., we think the overall on board experience is excellent, especially the staff, itineraries, main dining room food and service, etc.

[pacheco18]

Complainers are quicker to post than those that are satisfied -- anywhere.

CC is such a small percentage of cruisers that I not sure these comments are meaningful.

 

I am a veteran Oceania cruiser who just took her first Azamara cruise. I loved it and have another planned and booked a back to back after that. Most of us agree that marketing has been a disaster at Azamara, and some of the choices ill advised, but fortunately the overall product is wonderful.

 

The only way to know if you will like a cruise like is to book a cruise and experience it yourself.

[marinaro44]

I think what we're seeing are postings from people who absolutely love Azamara and are disappointed by the slightest changes they perceive as taking away from their enjoyment of the cruise line. The key thing to note is how many future Azamara cruises have been booked by those posting the frowning emoticons.

[ellbon]

I think what we're seeing are postings from people who absolutely love Azamara and are disappointed by the slightest changes they perceive as taking away from their enjoyment of the cruise line. The key thing to note is how many future Azamara cruises have been booked by those posting the frowning emoticons.

 

i think 10 more!! but some to very cold climates!

[kiawahdon]

[quote)

CC is such a small percentage of cruisers that I not sure these comments are meaningful.

I respectfully disagree CC posters are frequent,knowledgeable cruisers in general-not one time wonders. As such, I would listen closely to their comments as they have probably been on numerous cruises with a number of lines-just like you. While we just finished a fabulous cruise on AZ, I have some real concerns for the future.

Now to my real point. In my opinion, AZ is at at crossroad and it will probably be 18 months before we know the results of the conundrum. The issues as I see them are:

1. Will the scheduled dry-docks take place and what will be done? Will they answer the substantial renovations that Oceania has scheduled for their R ships starting this spring?

2.will the itineraries be adjusted to reflect longer, more over-night and fuel efficient cruises?

3.Will the Azamazing evenings be reevaluated given the logistics and difficulty of delivering a CONSISTENTLY satisfying and valued event.

4. And most importantly, can a 2 ship, 1300 bed subsidiary survive in the RCC environment long term-that means-past 2015?

[Texed]

We have been on 3 "R" ships, Reniassance, Oceania, and Princess. We love them. And, we have a B2B on Quest. We are looking forward to trying Azamara. :)

[oddjob16]

I'm just starting to look into an Azamara cruise next year so came to this forum to get the vibe of the line.

 

On the 1st page there are 5 posts with unhappy faces :mad: :( ....First glance I thought it was weird but shrugged it off. Then I went to my other forums, NCL, X, and RCI, not 1 unhappy face on the 1st page of recent posts on any of them.

 

What is it about Azamara that has its cruisers so unhappy over here? From what I've seen seems to be fairly respectable but the barrage of unhappy faces makes me think twice...?

The emoticons might seem a bit strange here at Azamara compared to other boards. Maybe there is a difference. We have a direct line with Azamara management tru this board as Azamara has apointed Chief Blogging Officer Bill Leiber to answer our queries and give us information as of first hand. Many of the emoticons have been put there by people who are devoted to Azamara and certainly are not trying to make Azamara look bad. We are all trying to improve the product. Some changes are for the better and some are potentially for the worse. We all voice our opinions in different ways and when Robin puts in a :mad: I interpret it as "Hey, Bill! This is important" I think Bill knows most of the frequent posters on this board and I don't think many of us react to these emoticons like you just did. It is good of you to point out your reaction to the use of "faces" so that we all can think twice before we use emoticons. Thank you for a valid and very important reminder to all of us. ;)

[pacheco18]

[quote)

CC is such a small percentage of cruisers that I not sure these comments are meaningful.

I respectfully disagree CC posters are frequent,knowledgeable cruisers in general-not one time wonders. As such, I would listen closely to their comments as they have probably been on numerous cruises with a number of lines-just like you. While we just finished a fabulous cruise on AZ, I have some real concerns for the future.

Now to my real point. In my opinion, AZ is at at crossroad and it will probably be 18 months before we know the results of the conundrum. The issues as I see them are:

1. Will the scheduled dry-docks take place and what will be done? Will they answer the substantial renovations that Oceania has scheduled for their R ships starting this spring?

2.will the itineraries be adjusted to reflect longer, more over-night and fuel efficient cruises?

3.Will the Azamazing evenings be reevaluated given the logistics and difficulty of delivering a CONSISTENTLY satisfying and valued event.

4. And most importantly, can a 2 ship, 1300 bed subsidiary survive in the RCC environment long term-that means-past 2015?

 

The answers to those 4 questions are critical if Azamara has the "will" to be competitive.

[marinaro44]

Ahh. Is I read posts closer, I see there are certain "passive aggressive" DYKWIA types perhaps being the vocal minority....

I'm afraid you still have not grasped what people are trying to tell you in their responses to your initial posting. People here are NOT "passive-aggressive DYKWIA." They are NOT "unhappy" as PetuniaP erroneously wrote. They love the cruise line and are providing feedback to Azamara via Cruise Critic.

 

And it's rather rude and obnoxious to refer to others here as DYKWIA, don't you think?

[oddjob16]

I'm afraid you still have not grasped what people are trying to tell you in their responses to your initial posting. People here are NOT "passive-aggressive DYKWIA." They are NOT "unhappy" as PetuniaP erroneously wrote. They love the cruise line and are providing feedback to Azamara via Cruise Critic.

 

And it's rather rude and obnoxious to refer to others here as DYKWIA, don't you think?

Hear hear. That should sum it up. Thread finalised.

[Bill Leiber]

Hello Cle-Guy, Kiawahdon and other Readers -

 

I realize that in the last few weeks I have not been present on the forum as much as I would have liked, but as the only Chief Blogging Officer (CBO) on the Cruise Critic forum it seems that the time is right to remind you of my presence. This month it's been three years that I've been serving as Azamara's CBO.

 

Larry Pimentel, President and CEO, created this position to manage our reputation in cyberspace. As I've said before, he's very intuitive when it comes to understanding a consumer’s mindset and recognized the important role the internet plays in the decision-making process. Like you, Cle-guy, they’re searching the web to reduce their perceived risk when making a vacation decision - you don't want to make a mistake.

 

He understood that incorrect information on the internet does not disappear. It leaves a historically inaccurate residue creating “false starting points” when deciding whether or not to vacation with Azamara. This dynamic is especially true due to the accelerated rate of change of the Azamara brand product deliverables - more inclusive amenities, optional beverage package upgrades and increased tariffs along with a greater emphasis on destination-immersion with longer stays, overnights and night touring. Also the reader has to wade through both "factual" and "inferential" comments. When I read that people are acting as if the inferential knowledge were actually factual, my job will be to point out that it’s “misinformation” or “non-relevant” and offer a fact-based explanation.

 

I know that some of these recent product changes have disappointed some of our valued past guests and they are reporting their dissatisfaction on the forum so that the executive team at Azamara gets the message. What might seem as a "barrage" of unhappy faces is in my opinion, a signal to us from passionate Azamara loyalists conveying their disagreement about our decision to introduce art-auctions or to discontinue harp music. Our loyal past guests are protective of "their" total onboard Azamara experience and are concerned about the risk that these changes might present to spoiling the onboard ambiance.

 

I am a “company reporter.” My role is to not only to provide factual information to you but also to focus on your negative feedback and to forward those issues to executive management in formal reports. I’m the executive’s “news aggregator” and their eyes and ears. Consider me as the “missing link” between the two constituents.

 

When controversial issues arise about our policies, procedures and business decisions, I serve as an "ombudsman" for the Cruise Critic members. For me, it’s the only way to ensure an ongoing, freely flowing two-way communication process. I make a conscious effort to remain objective to present both points of view because this dialogue serves as a means to evaluate and reformulate our business so that your path-to-purchase is easier, more user-friendly and fair. I'm sure you realize that not all requests are fulfilled, but you can be sure that the issue has been heard.

 

Kiawahdon - your probing comment about the long-term outlook for a two ship operation within the Royal Caribbean Ltd family begs the question of fleet expansion. As Larry often says, "expanding the Azamara fleet isn’t as simple as flipping a light switch." In a public company, we need to deliver to our board of directors and to our shareholders, the budgeted financial results and profitability targets. We need to prove that we are on the right track for growth.

 

Our mission is to exceed our guests' expectations profitably. It is within this context that we are constantly evaluating our expenses and the return for having spent the money. Also, we are seeking additional revenue generating opportunities, e.g. art auctions. With respect to our more inclusive alcohol beverage program, it's a delicate balance. We still have the need to generate beverage revenue through our optional liquor, wine and beer programs.

 

Throughout 2013, our executive team has taken a decision to modify, improve, change, add and eliminate various items that evolves our brand and positioning. Most other cruise lines have been around for a while, and have tested the waters with their programs. The Azamara Club Cruises brand was launched in April 2010 - so we are still evolving. It might be challenging sometimes because policies and programs may change which some people will like and others will not, while some won't care.

 

But at the end of the day, we are looking to deliver an experience that guests will love built upon our core essence of destination-immersion and our extraordinary onboard team. Simply, we are striving toward achieving such striking success that additional vessels will be possible. We want to continue to achieve successes in profitability--- because that’s the name of the game in a public company.

 

Sincerely,

 

Bill Leiber

_____________________

Chief Blogging Officer*

Azamara Club Cruises

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

 

PS to "Cle-Guy:

 

According to Cruise Critic's own member polls, I'm restating the results of the 2013 Cruise Critic Cruisers’ Choice Awards:

 

Both ships tied for the #1 “Best Overall” position in the U.S./Canada markets! In the U.K. the Azamara Journey scored the #1 “Best Overall” position and the Azamara Quest the #2 position! Also we’re tops in “Value” with the Azamara Journey scoring the #1 position in both the U.S./Canada and U.K. markets, and the Azamara Quest the #2 position on both sides of the Atlantic.

 

Again we’re tops in “Service” with the Azamara Quest scoring the #1 position in the U.S./Canada and the Azamara Journey coming in at the #4 position. In the U.K. the Azamara Journey earned the #1 position and the Azamara Quest the #2 position.