Posted under "news" on CC

[Welland]

New partners for Azamara

Azamara Club Cruises has announced partnerships with 50-and-older specialist Saga Holidays and Titan Travel through its new third party cruising program. Aimed at the "discerning traveller," Azamara's two ships -- Journey and Quest -- offer culture-rich itineraries in Europe, Asia, South America, the West Indies and Central and North America. Saga Holidays says the joint venture will allow the company to offer more choice. Saga Cruises, which operates Saga Sapphire and Saga Pearl II, will not be affected by the new alliance.

[midwestchick]

And this means????????????????????....more charters? :confused: :confused:

[Sailin' Shoes]

And this means????????????????????....more charters? :confused: :confused:

 

maybe? gotta keep the line afloat; maybe this helps somehow?

[midwestchick]

maybe? gotta keep the line afloat; maybe this helps somehow?

 

 

True' date=' but for those of us that love sailing on ACC, it gives us less opportunities and less itineraries to choose from. :( :( :([/color']

[Andy]

Hi Everyone,

 

I thought a link to the story would be helpful : http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=5865

 

As to what it means ? Who knows... but it seems logical that additional charters could be a possibility. We'll have to wait and see if Azamara's CBO has additional insights to share with us.

[procter]

Saga/Titan already offer tours /cruises with other lines NCL etc so unlikely to offer full ship charters as they always operate with their own tour guides.

What Titan offer is a door to door travel service from anywhere in England/Wales but highly unlikely they would have logistics to offer 350 personal transfers each way.(assuming all couples.

If you predicate single travellers then numbers get worse).

If they had back to back cruises they would need to offer 350+ cars/transports at 8.00am and a further 350 transports to arrive from all over UK at 12.00 that morning.

As an ex Titan employee I know that the personal transport service is a great draw but it is NOT CHEAP.

Do not think it will be a great problem as after all most of us fit the Saga bracket anyway!!!

Apologies to all under 50s who cruise.!!!!

I think that Titan will continue to carry on existing procedures but add Azamara to list of tours.

They offered Alaska cruises to add on to Rocky Mountaineer train trips but at costs of £10.000 for the tour you would not be getting a lot of people.

Checked prices on Titan site for Nov Canaries cruise.

£2195 for interior stateroom so no doubt they are using Titan to fill up cheap rooms whilst the rest of us get upgrade to balcony.

[Lottie A]

This could possibly be a good move for Azamara IMO. Saga are a reputable British company with high levels of customer satisfaction and although somewhat a niche market holiday company for the over fifties I believe they do offer some adventurous itineraries. Titan Travel offer a high end fly/coach travel experience so there should be more opportunity for land tours to be combined with an Azamara cruise. I would certainly consider this as an attractive option because I am increasingly looking at cruise and stay options.

 

My ideal cruise at the moment would be four nights stay on Lake Como, a tour of Tuscany and then a week sailing out of Venice to the Greek Isles.....anyone out there listening? :)

[Literary Lynne]

[My ideal cruise at the moment would be four nights stay on Lake Como, a tour of Tuscany and then a week sailing out of Venice to the Greek Isles.....anyone out there listening? :)

 

Well, I'm with you on that Lottie. Are you listening Azamara - Lottie has a great idea. There must be more people who would love that sort of package.

 

Lynne:)

[insidecabin]

Saga cruises sell out quickly at big(silly) money they have a loyal customer base and most likely are capacity restricted so can cope with more berths without impacting there own profitable revenue.

 

If Saga can suck up some of ACC berths it leaves less available for the regular ACC pax which should push up the revenue.

[pacheco18]

Saga cruises sell out quickly at big(silly) money they have a loyal customer base and most likely are capacity restricted so can cope with more berths without impacting there own profitable revenue.

 

If Saga can suck up some of ACC berths it leaves less available for the regular ACC pax which should push up the revenue.

 

FYI Some of us prefer not to sail with "large groups" on the smaller ships -- if this is what the impact will be. Reunion groups, alumni groups, wine groups etc. often dominate the few available common spaces on the ship and change the atmosphere. If you do searches on some of the threads on the various lines you will find complaints. Of course there is no way to know in advance who the passengers will be or whether a group will be on board, but I hope this is not a sign that many A cruises will have these large groups on board.

[Jade13]

It sounds like they operate like A&K in Antarctica where they run the ship and cruise tours and handle the staff. It works well for this type of adventure travel (Arctic, Antarctica, Galapagos) on very small ships where rates are very high, but not necessarily for other itineraries where there is a lot of competition.

 

I do understand that Azamara needs to go in a direction that will be profitable.

[insidecabin]

saga do fine with regular itineraries it is the client base that is niche.

[LOP]

[My ideal cruise at the moment would be four nights stay on Lake Como, a tour of Tuscany and then a week sailing out of Venice to the Greek Isles.....anyone out there listening? :)

 

Well, I'm with you on that Lottie. Are you listening Azamara - Lottie has a great idea. There must be more people who would love that sort of package.

 

Lynne:)

 

Ditto!!!!!!!!!!!!

[insidecabin]

Saga are actually partnering with a few cruise companies to fill the gap going down to two ships from three.

[SkystheLimit]

Well, I'm with you on that Lottie. Are you listening Azamara - Lottie has a great idea. There must be more people who would love that sort of package.

 

Lynne:)

 

Ditto!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Ditto here as well for Lottie's proposed itinerary.

[little britain]

On Aza-Saga-Mara will the vegetables now be cooked for a minimum of 30 minutes!?!?

 

Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk

[Welland]

On Aza-Saga-Mara will the vegetables now be cooked for a minimum of 30 minutes!?!?

 

 

Do you think you could do a stand-up comedy show in the Cabaret lounge? Your statement gave me my morning laugh.