Staffing of Pursuit

[rabin1]

When Steve Wynn opened all those hotels in Las Vegas when he still owned them this is what he used to do. I know this because one of my best friends works there in Bellagio. When he opened Treasure Island he owned Golden Nugget he took some not all of his best people to Treasure Island. When he opened Mirage he took some some not all of the best people from both hotels to Mirage. When he opened Bellagio he did the same thing from the other three hotels. Mainly she and I think to make sure guests at the new hotels were given the same great service as each of his other hotels. Maybe that is what Azamara is doing with Pursuit.

 

Kathy

[Grandma Cruising]

When Steve Wynn opened all those hotels in Las Vegas when he still owned them this is what he used to do. I know this because one of my best friends works there in Bellagio. When he opened Treasure Island he owned Golden Nugget he took some not all of his best people to Treasure Island. When he opened Mirage he took some some not all of the best people from both hotels to Mirage. When he opened Bellagio he did the same thing from the other three hotels. Mainly she and I think to make sure guests at the new hotels were given the same great service as each of his other hotels. Maybe that is what Azamara is doing with Pursuit.

 

Kathy

 

 

 

I’m sure that is Azamara’s thinking, and it’s a good idea to have a group of staff who know what is expected and can help to train new staff.

 

 

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[MNgardens]

Staffing the pursuit perhaps also offers the opportunity of promotions for employees who were unable to move up due to no openings. This could be good for staff morale as everyone likes career advancement.

[TravelBugM]

We were on Quest this past October. Ship was 100% occupied. Service was absolutely amazing everywhere.

[bob278]

Too many people choose to find negatives in every change. Why should we assume because Azamara is using experienced staff as the base for a new ship that it will automatically result in a staff reduction? That's actually pretty smart. Where else would they find people who understand the Azamara way?

 

When a cruise line with a lot of ships does the same thing, it isn't as noticeable because they don't have to take as many people from each ship. I do think it is likely that taking enough good people from two ships to form the

core of a third ship's staff may have some short-term impact as the company finds and trains good replacements. But to assume this is an evil scheme to disguise cutting staff is both highly pessimistic and unrealistic.

 

Azamara is a business and apparently running well based on the passenger load and parent company's financials. Sure, they (along with every cruise line) make adjustments that some passengers don't like. But if every person who posted on Cruise Critic that they are done with Azamara actually left, I doubt if the impact on the bottom line would even be noticeable. If losing past cruisers begins to impact the bottom line, you can bet they will make adjustments to correct that trend.

 

I agree that some of the changes being made or rumored could add up to my leaving as well. But I don't believe in assigning bad intentions to reasonable business practices until they actually happen.

 

However, I will continue to use this forum to express my preferences since there is anecdotal proof that Azamara does read CC and sometimes makes major changes because of our concerns (think of the aft Asian restaurant that died before the re-imaging).

[Grandma Cruising]

Well said, bob278. Totally agree with you.

 

 

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[rallydave]

Azamara is a business and apparently running well based on the passenger load and parent company's financials. Sure, they (along with every cruise line) make adjustments that some passengers don't like. But if every person who posted on Cruise Critic that they are done with Azamara actually left, I doubt if the impact on the bottom line would even be noticeable. If losing past cruisers begins to impact the bottom line, you can bet they will make adjustments to correct that trend.

 

I agree that some of the changes being made or rumored could add up to my leaving as well. But I don't believe in assigning bad intentions to reasonable business practices until they actually happen.

 

However, I will continue to use this forum to express my preferences since there is anecdotal proof that Azamara does read CC and sometimes makes major changes because of our concerns (think of the aft Asian restaurant that died before the re-imaging).

 

Since RCL financials are the only available, azamara is but a small bump on RCL so looking a public financials cannot tell the story of how azamara is doing financially so, even if azamara were failing financially, it would not be noticeable on RCL's financial.

 

Many of the recent recent business practice changes have already occurred and marred the customer's experiences with the home office and the same poor customer business practices continue to occur time after time after time so while azamara does read CC, appears that the powers that be simply don't give a darn when problems are identified yet continue to occur.

 

Also, in the ask azamara thread, larry responded to several questions by ignoring the completely obvious problems with the horrid IT system by ignoring the problem and crutching it by saying simply contact Nicole who will get one back on the email list without also saying they will fix the actual problem.

 

Yes, they removed the Asian restaurant from the refit but, have completely ignored issues that increase the bottom line!!! Good luck Bob but, your patience will eventually run out and join us who won't put up with the continual take advantage with the paying customer.

[Grandma Cruising]

Many of us like the cruise experience enough to carry on with Azamara, providing the price meets our value for money criteria.

That doesn’t mean we like some of the niggles, like the poor IT system, but for us the cruise experience is by far the most important thing, so long as we’re happy with the price.

 

 

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[Bloodaxe]

Many of us like the cruise experience enough to carry on with Azamara, providing the price meets our value for money criteria.

That doesn’t mean we like some of the niggles, like the poor IT system, but for us the cruise experience is by far the most important thing, so long as we’re happy with the price.

 

 

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Many are very unhappy with the way prices are heading and with the way that they are promoting them.

[rabin1]

Many of us like the cruise experience enough to carry on with Azamara, providing the price meets our value for money criteria.

That doesn’t mean we like some of the niggles, like the poor IT system, but for us the cruise experience is by far the most important thing, so long as we’re happy with the price.

 

 

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What is a niggle?? lol Sounds like something from Harry Potter. Teasing trying to bring a little levity. Happy New Year

Kathy

[bob278]

Dave,

 

Your point about Azamara being a small part of the corporate financials of RCL is absolutely correct. But part of my career was spent as a business analyst and I can tell you from experience that subsidiaries (especially small ones) get very little tolerance in providing positive margins to the bottom line. Losers get shut down or spun off. Azamara just increased their fleet by 50%. Given their overall budget, that was a very large proportional investment. There is no way the parent would have approved that with a unit that was losing money.

 

I agree that things are not perfect, but I evaluate each product, including cruises, I buy on its immediate value to me. And Azamara's constant poor communications fiascos really get on my nerves, but don't impact my cruise.

 

Admittedly, my experience with various cruise lines is not vast. My wife and I have one cruise each on NCL and Oceania, about 60 combined on RCL and Celebrity (starting in 1998) and 8 on Azamara (1 in 2008 and 7 in the last 2 years). So the best I can do is compare those products.

 

From personal experience I can say that all three have cut things out that used to be included (and possibly even no longer provided, although I can't name anything at the moment). I also don't know exactly what I paid for my earliest cruises but I can compare how I feel about the value I received then and now.

 

Talking only about my perception that the product I get today as opposed to each individual item such as amount/quantity of food, I still think all three of the RCL companies give me my money's worth. A caveat to that is that Azamara does not deliver enough "more" than Celebrity unless I can find a cruise with a decent promotion and my 10% LCV discount. Even with that, as you said, all the changes are beginning to add up and my patience (value perception) is not infinite. It is certainly possible that the 3 cruises I have booked on Azamara (where I did get the discount and a good promo) may be my last. But I prefer to remain optimistic that at least some of the negative things that are rumored or being considered will not come to pass.

 

What I won't do is accept at face value all the doom and gloom of a few people who for whatever reason had bad experiences with Azamara and are done with them. Everyone should spend their money where they feel like they are getting value for it.

 

What I don't understand is why those who have no intention of ever sailing on Azamara again spend so much time on these forums constantly denigrating the company and product. Once the experiences are shared to inform others of what happened to them, folks should move on and participate on forums where they plan/expect to have a good time. It makes no sense to me to dwell on past negatives - it doesn't accomplish anything can only upset both the poster and those who still like the product. Observations and indications of concerns by people who still plan to sail with Azamara are one thing, but those who are never coming back have, as the saying goes, "no dog in this fight"

[rabin1]

Dave,

 

Your point about Azamara being a small part of the corporate financials of RCL is absolutely correct. But part of my career was spent as a business analyst and I can tell you from experience that subsidiaries (especially small ones) get very little tolerance in providing positive margins to the bottom line. Losers get shut down or spun off. Azamara just increased their fleet by 50%. Given their overall budget, that was a very large proportional investment. There is no way the parent would have approved that with a unit that was losing money.

 

I agree that things are not perfect, but I evaluate each product, including cruises, I buy on its immediate value to me. And Azamara's constant poor communications fiascos really get on my nerves, but don't impact my cruise.

 

Admittedly, my experience with various cruise lines is not vast. My wife and I have one cruise each on NCL and Oceania, about 60 combined on RCL and Celebrity (starting in 1998) and 8 on Azamara (1 in 2008 and 7 in the last 2 years). So the best I can do is compare those products.

 

From personal experience I can say that all three have cut things out that used to be included (and possibly even no longer provided, although I can't name anything at the moment). I also don't know exactly what I paid for my earliest cruises but I can compare how I feel about the value I received then and now.

 

Talking only about my perception that the product I get today as opposed to each individual item such as amount/quantity of food, I still think all three of the RCL companies give me my money's worth. A caveat to that is that Azamara does not deliver enough "more" than Celebrity unless I can find a cruise with a decent promotion and my 10% LCV discount. Even with that, as you said, all the changes are beginning to add up and my patience (value perception) is not infinite. It is certainly possible that the 3 cruises I have booked on Azamara (where I did get the discount and a good promo) may be my last. But I prefer to remain optimistic that at least some of the negative things that are rumored or being considered will not come to pass.

 

What I won't do is accept at face value all the doom and gloom of a few people who for whatever reason had bad experiences with Azamara and are done with them. Everyone should spend their money where they feel like they are getting value for it.

 

What I don't understand is why those who have no intention of ever sailing on Azamara again spend so much time on these forums constantly denigrating the company and product. Once the experiences are shared to inform others of what happened to them, folks should move on and participate on forums where they plan/expect to have a good time. It makes no sense to me to dwell on past negatives - it doesn't accomplish anything can only upset both the poster and those who still like the product. Observations and indications of concerns by people who still plan to sail with Azamara are one thing, but those who are never coming back have, as the saying goes, "no dog in this fight"

 

Bob

I agree 200% with everything you say.

 

I have been doing a lot of thinking recently about everything I have read on this site for the past year. I must admit some of the Azamara bashing I let affect my way of thinking. I am a very strong willed person and I say and do what I want/think. Allowing others to affect my thinking was/is quite frankly stupid and really not my style. While I must admit Azamara web site and IT department does seem to be a ship of fools all the other stuff and it is just that stuff and some with no real basis in some cases is simply conjecture. Other peoples opinions are also just that opinions.

 

I am a big girl and have the ability to figure things out on my own. Therefore, nothing so far has really affected me in any way shape or form for me to think badly about Azamara. Now I do have the ability to go for the jugular when needed I have decided to wait and see before I make any further comments or think negative about Azamara. I will decide after my experience in April whether I stay with Azamara in the future or move on. I didn;t get to be Diamond Plus on RCCL by allowing others to form my opinions.

 

There have been numerous times on this site I wanted to become a snappy turtle to some of the comments directed at me and others but I kept quiet simply because it was not worth my time and mostly I simply laughed. So feel free to attack I need a good laugh today

 

My word of advice is if you don;t like something is this and if you don;t like it Oh Well. God gave us all free will and the ability to make choices. If you are no longer a fan of Azamara nor wish to purchase what they have to offer then everyone me included need to move on. In 99% of the cases whining will not change a dang thing simply say...........Next

 

Kathy

Edited January 1, 2018 by rabin1

[rallydave]

Thanks for a great response Bob. Think we are almost in complete agreement. Reason I am sticking around and still posting is to help people when I can like in the Cuba thread and, as there continue to be new people coming to the boards who need to hear the good and the bad about the cruise line. Yes I have strong beliefs both positive and negative and usually have concrete examples to justify my comments. Sometimes I do go too far and sometimes just have to show where another's comment may be incorrect or need clarification.

 

Will continue to browse and tell the good with the bad so people, especially newbies hear both sides of the story and can then make their own minds up.

 

rabin 1 really respect your ability to not comment as we both are cut from the same cloth.

[rabin1]

rabin 1 really respect your ability to not comment as we both are cut from the same cloth.

 

 

Rally Dave I don;t want to give them the satisfaction of thinking they got to me............lol

Kathy

[Grandma Cruising]

What is a niggle?? lol Sounds like something from Harry Potter. Teasing trying to bring a little levity. Happy New Year

Kathy

 

 

 

Niggle does sound a bit like Harry Potter, Kathy - like a little annoying creature! (Dictionary definition is a trivial criticism, discomfort or annoyance)

 

 

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[Trend]

Just got off the Journey two week and even with heightened sanitary protocol everyone pitched in.

Beyond that we found special specialty restaurants bending over backwards for any request. Our stateroom was perfect and our butler even accommodated very early breakfasts for our tours.

This was our second AZ of 28 cruises and found all areas including Windows and Patio up to the task.

People whine a lot

[florisdekort]

And Azamara tries to take advantage of their customers way too often

 

 

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Azamara is a business. If you take your business elsewhere and they are able to sell your cabin to someone else at a higher price point or with less (loyalty) perks, they did the right thing by their shareholders. Especially if the new customer doesn’t go online and whines about the same thing in every single thread.