laurieb Posted December 8, 2018 #1 Share Posted December 8, 2018 (edited) I’m sad to see that the cruises being offered on the new 1/2 off second guest and free wi-fi promotion are essentially the same ones as the last promotion. I was really hoping that they would extend farther into 2020. Edited December 8, 2018 by laurieb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
excitedofharpenden Posted December 8, 2018 #2 Share Posted December 8, 2018 Laurie, I have to say that I haven't been very excited by Azamara's offerings of late and giving away Internet just erodes the loyalty benefits I've gained. Coupled with the prices they are asking. It seems I am not alone. Currently on Pursuit and the guest count is 497. That is the lowest I've ever experienced on Azamara in 7 years. Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cornish.Maid Posted December 8, 2018 #3 Share Posted December 8, 2018 Interesting to read this. Hear in the UK we have received an email and letter to tell us that on Monday Azamara are going to announce their ‘Best Offer’. I have my eyes on a cruise in February 2020. Got a quote onboard on a recent cruise but decided to wait. I have been monitoring the cost and suddenly today it has gone up by well over £1,000! Azamara please note, I am not stupid and your offer on Monday will have to be exceptional to make me book again. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EngSet Posted December 8, 2018 #4 Share Posted December 8, 2018 1 hour ago, laurieb said: I’m sad to see that the cruises being offered on the new 1/2 off second guest and free wi-fi promotion are essentially the same ones as the last promotion. I was really hoping that they would extend farther into 2020. Fares and total price seem to be pretty much the same. 😞 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vival Posted December 8, 2018 #5 Share Posted December 8, 2018 Also in preparation for this new UK promotion they have increased the cost of one of the cruises I've been watching by almost 50%. I'm not happy. Its enough to make me look elsewhere! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawnino Posted December 8, 2018 #6 Share Posted December 8, 2018 Wow... I'm very much the exception to the rule it seems. Under the old promo the two legs of our B2B (Pursuit, Nov '19, BCN--Lisboa--Rio) were $8200 ea. Rebooked this afternoon for $6700 and $7100, plus free wi-fi. I hope the prices get sorted through for everybody else in the coming days. S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawnino Posted December 8, 2018 #7 Share Posted December 8, 2018 @vival: that's one of the legs that dropped for me. Forgot to add: in above post, prices C$. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EngSet Posted December 8, 2018 #8 Share Posted December 8, 2018 Shawnino- Happy that the promo is working in your favor re the route/trip you have planned. I still plan to try Azamara one day; but, for now, holding off a bit due to the fare. (Fare on Crystal for slightly better route is less right now for an OV vs. and inside on Azamara; thus, holding off and watching for a bit to see if something changes.) Still looking forward to trying Azamara some day, though. 🙂 Know that the right route/fare will come along eventually. (Earlier fare before the Double upgrade and now current 2nd person's fare 50% off was much better-but, I held off on booking too long. My error - no one to blame but myself on waiting on that one. :-)) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare uktog Posted December 8, 2018 #9 Share Posted December 8, 2018 5 hours ago, excitedofharpenden said: Laurie, I have to say that I haven't been very excited by Azamara's offerings of late and giving away Internet just erodes the loyalty benefits I've gained. Coupled with the prices they are asking. It seems I am not alone. Currently on Pursuit and the guest count is 497. That is the lowest I've ever experienced on Azamara in 7 years. Phil Ditto. When I was getting flyers saying best sale ever coming I was ready to commit but have discovered based on screen shots I took two days ago for four cruises we were interested in that three are only better by tiny amounts (so it’s not really 50% off the second fare) and one is less good. In Europe on port intensive itineraries WiFi is also not really a benefit as my provider already covers me there apart from the short time I’m at sea. It’s not ideal being on a significantly empty ship - we’ve been told some of our prebooked excursions are unlikely to run due to minimum numbers not being met and the speciality restaurants are embarrassingly quiet. Maybe some like it but we feel awkward being the only ones or one of two or three tables. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baynanno1 Posted December 8, 2018 #10 Share Posted December 8, 2018 Similar experience "down under" Base price increased above previous cost before 50% off second person "deal". End result a slight improvement, but not what one hoped for . . . however, for us a better deal than the double upgrade farce. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
150edmiston Posted December 8, 2018 #11 Share Posted December 8, 2018 Its kinda sad to watch this happening and the bean counters at RCCL have got this wrong, with this brand. You are polarising and marginalising your loyal, cheerleading customers. The price for our cruise in Feb on pursuit has shifted around a bit but no more than a couple of hundred £. However on another thread both Phil and i commented that there were over 100 cabins unsold on this particular cruise, and others. There is no commercial sense in upping prices, then offering a promo that looks like but isnt a deal. We are not idiots. I cant wait to see what happens Monday. David 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiservirginia Posted December 9, 2018 #12 Share Posted December 9, 2018 Our March 2020 cruise is part of this promotion, but prices have increased. So, even with 50% off the second passenger, the fare is now higher than what we booked last month. Disappointing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kayakcove Posted December 9, 2018 #13 Share Posted December 9, 2018 We all seem to be looking for the best price for the cruises we would like to take, but not all sales can be equal, if not there are never any real sales or promotions. I am looking forward to our first cruises on Azamara. Did I compare my costs as booked to today's new promotion? I did and felt good the back to back we had chosen was better under the expiring promotion. Under the current promotion, I might look harder at a Club Continent suite which was not discounted under the Double Upgrade promotion. I will check again in March just to see what the next set of offers brings but do expect anything better. As for empty cabins and competitive pricing, remember with the addition of the Pursuit, Azamara increased total capacity by 33%. Azamara has a good reputation but would bet most cruisers are not familiar with the brand. I had looked at Azamara before but not that seriously until I saw the videos on the refurbishment of the Pursuit and was comparing it to the refurbishment of Oceania’s R-Class ships happening now as well. Looking at similar itineraries, pricing on Azamara proved to be the better choice. We are sailing on May 14 and May 23 and both show a several cabins available. I won’t mind, preferring the smaller ships. We have done Windstar twice, Tahiti and Panama/Costa Rica and each time they were about two thirds full. That meant we had nearly one to one ratio with staff and passengers and everyone was relaxed and got to know each other. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
150edmiston Posted December 9, 2018 #14 Share Posted December 9, 2018 Just crazy. No sense in this at all. Well at least on this board. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare uktog Posted December 9, 2018 #15 Share Posted December 9, 2018 We’ve just got updated pricing. It’s better than we were given this morning! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baytraller Posted December 9, 2018 #16 Share Posted December 9, 2018 (edited) We've just booked 20th March 2019 (17 nights) on the Pursuit - not using the current promotion The price on the Azamara web site is $10,800 AUD - we booked with discount agent for $7,400 AUD There are loads of staterooms available so we may beat the 497 guest low that Phil reported Lets hope we are not sailing on a ghost ship Peter Edited December 9, 2018 by baytraller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rallydave Posted December 9, 2018 #17 Share Posted December 9, 2018 "As for empty cabins and competitive pricing, remember with the addition of the Pursuit, Azamara increased total capacity by 33%" Actually capacity has increased 50% And, when is a promotion a real promotion, certainly for the most part NOT with Azamara. The majority of the so called promotions result in about the same price as before the promotions. Guess Azamara management believes people are stupid and don't see the so called promotions as pure deception. Much like the "Help is Coming" to get people on and stay on the email list. Instead of taking the time to develop a real email list that works, Azamara seems to only put band aids on the non-working list and keeps making unkept promises. As Phil stated, ships are not sailing full and it will continue until competent management is brought on board to fill the holes in the process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodaxe Posted December 9, 2018 #18 Share Posted December 9, 2018 23 minutes ago, rallydave said: "As for empty cabins and competitive pricing, remember with the addition of the Pursuit, Azamara increased total capacity by 33%" Actually capacity has increased 50% And, when is a promotion a real promotion, certainly for the most part NOT with Azamara. The majority of the so called promotions result in about the same price as before the promotions. Guess Azamara management believes people are stupid and don't see the so called promotions as pure deception. Much like the "Help is Coming" to get people on and stay on the email list. Instead of taking the time to develop a real email list that works, Azamara seems to only put band aids on the non-working list and keeps making unkept promises. As Phil stated, ships are not sailing full and it will continue until competent management is brought on board to fill the holes in the process. Totally agree with these comments but they have been said before and Azamara seem to take no notice. It seems that they are starting to reap what they have been sowing and deservedly so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawnino Posted December 9, 2018 #19 Share Posted December 9, 2018 Glad uktog got better pricing--I hope it filters through to other cruises/cruisers. @kayakcove: I think what's annoying people are not the prices per se, but the lengths to which cruise lines go to in artificially raising and then lowering prices in an effort to mislead people as to the gravity of a "deal" they're getting. Azamara is by no means alone in this (O for instance has wildly inflated Brochure Pricing that utterly nobody pays) but that doesn't make it OK. I wish there was more transparency. Maybe I'm just disappointed in my fellow human beings. To put a twist on Willie Sutton's answer when asked why he robs banks ("that's where the money is"), cruise lines and other companies do this deceptive stuff simply because it works. If it didn't work, they wouldn't do it. Like how stuff gets priced at $X.99 instead of $(X+1)... it sells better. Oh well. I'll finish this post with a quote usually attributed to George Carlin: "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now realise that half the population is stupider than that." 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kayakcove Posted December 9, 2018 #20 Share Posted December 9, 2018 I agree, but somehow it does not always work. In the USA there is a national department store chain, JC Penny who a few years back declared they were cutting back on sales and using a leveled pricing structure. It did not work, people like sales and they reverted to the old way. I don’t see but a couple of cruise lines that brochure rates seem to come anywhere close to actual pricing and that seems to be fading. I was wondering if people were seeing more OBC offers beyond online pricing when working with a TA. If so, is that a way to fill cabins without disrupting “normal” published pricing? On my booking in May, I got $1800 in OBC, plus additional B2B OBC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rallydave Posted December 9, 2018 #21 Share Posted December 9, 2018 11 minutes ago, kayakcove said: I agree, but somehow it does not always work. In the USA there is a national department store chain, JC Penny who a few years back declared they were cutting back on sales and using a leveled pricing structure. It did not work, people like sales and they reverted to the old way. I don’t see but a couple of cruise lines that brochure rates seem to come anywhere close to actual pricing and that seems to be fading. I was wondering if people were seeing more OBC offers beyond online pricing when working with a TA. If so, is that a way to fill cabins without disrupting “normal” published pricing? On my booking in May, I got $1800 in OBC, plus additional B2B OBC. JC Penney had and still has other issues beyond the try at level pricing. It's NOT the sales that are the issues. Sales are fine IMHO; it's the phony and deceptive sales that are the issues And Shawnino, loved your George Carlin post and wonder how the average and below plus the Azamara management manage to get to work and home on their own without getting lost daily?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vival Posted December 9, 2018 #22 Share Posted December 9, 2018 15 hours ago, uktog said: We’ve just got updated pricing. It’s better than we were given this morning! Thank you for posting, I had a look at the Spanish Cruise I had been looking at and the prices had reduced significantly, so maybe I'll book after all. We had a fabulous cruise on Pursuit in October and I'd love to sail on her again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBMacLaird Posted December 9, 2018 #23 Share Posted December 9, 2018 2 hours ago, vival said: Thank you for posting, I had a look at the Spanish Cruise I had been looking at and the prices had reduced significantly, so maybe I'll book after all. We had a fabulous cruise on Pursuit in October and I'd love to sail on her again. Thank you vival! With our new Share & Save promotion (offering 2nd Person 1/2 off + unlimited Wifi for one device) on 91 Azamara voyages ranging from Spring 2019 - Spring 2020 I'm sure many people like yourself will be taking advantage of the offer. And thank you for considering our country-intensive cruises. They are something that differentiates us from most other lines and have proven to be very popular. Right now we have over 65 voyages on the books that are country-intensive. Check them all out here: https://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/destinations/country-intensive-voyages We look forward to welcoming you back aboard soon! 🇪🇸 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussie travel bird Posted December 10, 2018 #24 Share Posted December 10, 2018 21 hours ago, baytraller said: We've just booked 20th March 2019 (17 nights) on the Pursuit - not using the current promotion The price on the Azamara web site is $10,800 AUD - we booked with discount agent for $7,400 AUD There are loads of staterooms available so we may beat the 497 guest low that Phil reported Lets hope we are not sailing on a ghost ship Peter Hmmm, just home from 36 nights on the Quest (when we paid for this Pursuit cruise and the previous one), we only ever book with what we're happy to pay and would drive ourselves crazy to see what discounts are offered. You win some you lose some..... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vival Posted December 10, 2018 #25 Share Posted December 10, 2018 I spoke too soon! Yes, Azamara had reduced their price yesterday morning, but what appears to have happened is they adjusted their prices to include the second guest half price promotion 18 hours before the promotion started!! So the price this morning after all the hype of the countdown to "best offer yet" is exactly the same as yesterday and £1000 more expensive than if I had booked the same cabin last week. As others have said do Azamara really think we're stupid? Bonnie, I find this totally unacceptable and will not be booking! I would love to have your comments on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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