CANCELLED AZAMARA CRUISE - CROATIA INTENSIVE MAY 2020

[hrhdhd]

1 hour ago, Riocca said:

It’s a shame but as with most things it’s the big names that sell, the Kiel Canal is good for us as previously we’ve only been to the Baltic on ships too big to transit the canal.

 

I was on a Hamburg to Southampton AZ cruise, and sailing through the Kiel Canal was canceled due to a strike. So I hope you don't have that experience. 😵

Edited July 5, 2019 by hrhdhd

[stevenr597]

I keep hearing this with greater frequency on Azamara and Celebrity.  We had an excellent cruise to the Greek Island and Israel that we were looking forward to, that was....cancelled due to a decision to schedule a Drydock.  

Several years ago, we had a cruise on the Millennium around Japan, and we found out that the cruise was to be chartered.

We found out in both instances by the Cruise Critic Boards, formal notification from Celebrity/Azamara came several weeks later.
 

Both Celebrity and Azamara have a lot of competition.  Yet they seem very callous to the people that pay not insignificant amounts to cruise on their lines.

Looks like their management needs a big big shakeup. 

[Covepointcruiser]

Let us know when you find a cruise line that doesn’t charter their ships or have unexpected or extended drydocks.    I think we would all be interested in that line!

[ellbon]

4 hours ago, stevenr597 said:

I keep hearing this with greater frequency on Azamara and Celebrity.  We had an excellent cruise to the Greek Island and Israel that we were looking forward to, that was....cancelled due to a decision to schedule a Drydock.  

Several years ago, we had a cruise on the Millennium around Japan, and we found out that the cruise was to be chartered.

We found out in both instances by the Cruise Critic Boards, formal notification from Celebrity/Azamara came several weeks later.
 

Both Celebrity and Azamara have a lot of competition.  Yet they seem very callous to the people that pay not insignificant amounts to cruise on their lines.

Looks like their management needs a big big shakeup. 

I had two canceled that i was booked on. The one this year moving from Sept to  August. AK to Japan. I decided to fly to Japan as i wanted more than one cruise but not three around Japan. The now famous Greece one in Oct 2020. Moved to another ship. 

 Now they line moved to the med. Japan and S America.  They need to do  a cruise that more like a world cruise again for people who want to travel longer.

 

[the mice]

23 hours ago, ellbon said:

Done a few with O. Bored at night and no late nights in port. Plus you need a drink package. Better lines out there vs Oceania.

Just finished a cruise with O on Nautica, one of their R ships.   Entertainment was very lively - great singers and dancers. Excellent service, wonderful high tea daily (although we weren't often around for it), free specialty dining.  Had a bunch of late nights (11pm) in ports.   Think it depends on the itinerary.  We don't drink so that's not a factor for us.  Personally, this cruise compared very favorably with our Azamara cruise last year.  

[ellbon]

15 minutes ago, the mice said:

Just finished a cruise with O on Nautica, one of their R ships.   Entertainment was very lively - great singers and dancers. Excellent service, wonderful high tea daily (although we weren't often around for it), free specialty dining.  Had a bunch of late nights (11pm) in ports.   Think it depends on the itinerary.  We don't drink so that's not a factor for us.  Personally, this cruise compared very favorably with our Azamara cruise last year.  

I was not talking about the shows. i really meant after the show. I have done 5 cruises and really no need to rush back. I do like the O ship with the different places to eat.

[sailco]

On 7/5/2019 at 8:32 AM, hubofhockey said:

With talks of a new fourth ship, it's unlikely that Azamara is hurting.  Of course, treating booked passengers poorly will catch up with them.  We have our first Azamara cruise in 100 days, but I am not going to spend this kind of money again and take on that risk.  It might open me up to Oceania though.

Is it my imagination or has Azamara recently changed its logo?

[Bloodaxe]

13 minutes ago, sailco said:

Is it my imagination or has Azamara recently changed its logo?

 

 

Yes, There's a separate post about this if you scroll down the pages.

Edited July 6, 2019 by Bloodaxe

[sailco]

25 minutes ago, Bloodaxe said:

 

 

Yes, There's a separate post about this if you scroll down the pages.

Sorry, I just keep missing it. Am I being cynical or does it look very much like the Oceania logo?

[travelberlin]

In my case Royal Caribbean cancelled my cruise  in February 2019 for a cruise which was supposed to be in July 2019. So much for cancelling in advance. It was the Voyager of the Seas. Large ship, I did not expected to be chartered. But they did it. Of course I had already the international flights and hotel. Compensation? None.

 

Edited July 6, 2019 by travelberlin

[stevenr597]

14 hours ago, Covepointcruiser said:

Let us know when you find a cruise line that doesn’t charter their ships or have unexpected or extended drydocks.    I think we would all be interested in that line!

There is some truth to this, but in reality there are cruiser lines that specialize in charters such as Holland America, Celebrity and Azamara.  And some lines that at times can’t get their act together, specifically in offering cruises and booking passengers, then deciding they need the time for extended Dry-Docks.

[rallydave]

On 7/4/2019 at 3:05 AM, laurieb said:

I’ve never been able to get international air that many days out.  330 days out for international travel has always been my experience 

Many foreign carriers are in the 355 day mark including Air Canada.  Problem is that many of the Expedia, Orbitz, etc. sites use the 330 days so best for early bookings to go directly to the airline site to see availability.  For instance we will soo be booking an Air Canada flight that coe shares with United and while United does not open bookings until 330 days, reservations are available on the Air Canada site at about 355 days out and nothing on the search engines.

 

Also booking soon Singapore and they are available at 355 days out.

[tring]

I understand that people are annoyed about the cancellation and I would be as well.   In fact I was very  annoyed yesterday when we have notification of just a one port change on a cruise with another cruise line that we have booked for next July, especially as no reason was given, other than the ubiquitous "operational reasons".

 

Regards the loss of flight costs though, can that not be insured against in other countries?  In the UK we have two ways to do that:- 

 

One

We can buy our cruise and flights from the same travel agent, making sure they are put together as a package and we would have legal protection, (but they can be flights of our own choosing and not ones provided by the cruise company)  Those flights will be a similar price as ones which could be booked totally independently and not hiked up prices.

 

Two

Another option we have is to make sure we have taken out travel insurance which covers disruption, so if one part of a holiday is changed we would be covered to adjust the whole holiday accordingly and that would even cover us if we were away at the time, though you may have to go with the cheapest option to re organise the holiday.  We have an annual holiday insurance policy that covers us for disruption and we would not consider buying a cruise with independently booked flights unless we had that insurance, which is much the same price as other travel insurances.

 

I am told by someone who has retired from a roll in consumer protection that, in this instance, we (in the UK) would be  entitled to a full refund and also compensation, which would cover flights if it was a short haul destination and some more compensation for other things.  It would not be enough compensation to cover long haul flights if booked on business class though.

 

I know that in the US people can normally cancel a cruise prior to final payment date without loss of their deposit, which Brits would consider to be very good as we would loose our deposit.  However if you cannot get disruption cover on travel insurance, it would sound very bad, or is it just that some people have not taken out insurance? 

Edited July 6, 2019 by tring

[Whitby100]

I wondered too about insurance.  In Canada (& I believe the US) we have trip interruption and trip cancellation insurance.  These cover medical issues, as well as a variety of other issues, including mechanical problems on the ship.  No where can I find insurance for a cruise ship arbitrarily cancelling and its impact on air, hotel, etc. associated with the cancelled cruise.  I’ll certainly ask before I book - it may be in there but I’d want to confirm before I book.

[tring]

9 minutes ago, Whitby100 said:

I wondered too about insurance.  In Canada (& I believe the US) we have trip interruption and trip cancellation insurance.  These cover medical issues, as well as a variety of other issues, including mechanical problems on the ship.  No where can I find insurance for a cruise ship arbitrarily cancelling and its impact on air, hotel, etc. associated with the cancelled cruise.  I’ll certainly ask before I book - it may be in there but I’d want to confirm before I book.

 

I used the term disruption cover which ours is, but I think other companies call it other things.  It is DH who is the legally minded one and has done the read up of terms and conditions, but he is sure we would be covered.  As you say need to check though for each policy.  We would not be covered for changes to ports etc., but because there is an alteration to one part of the holiday, which affects the other element.  Happy searching.

[hubofhockey]

Just like car accidents, it's nice to have insurance when you're at fault.  When the other side is at fault, you should collect from their insurance company.  If OP is not  covered, Azamara should make him whole - period  - end of story.  

[tring]

1 hour ago, hubofhockey said:

Just like car accidents, it's nice to have insurance when you're at fault.  When the other side is at fault, you should collect from their insurance company.  If OP is not  covered, Azamara should make him whole - period  - end of story.  

 

I agree completely if the flights and cruise were both purchased from Azamara.  If the flights are booked separately and not through Azamara then, yes, Azamara should be responsible for refund and also some compensation, which would be the situation in UK law, and admittedly AZ do not seem to be offering that, which I do think is unreasonable.  However, for them to cover a very large figure such as the cost of a long haul business flight is in excess of reasonable expectations, when a cruise is still almost a year away.  Also the cost to the company would, in effect, be funded by other passengers as the company would have to make that loss up somehow.  If the flight was changed or cancelled almost a year out, would you consider the airline responsible for the cost of the cruise as well as refunding the airfare paid?

 

We had a cruise cancelled about a month before it was due both three years ago as a company went bust and also one was cancelled by a river cruise company about 6 months out, last winter because of lack of bookings .  We did get the cost of both cruises back (from ABTA for the one that went bust and from the river cruise company for the other) and would have been able to cancel the rest of our holiday and flights as we were insured, but we decided to re book other elements and carry in with our holiday.  Good to have had that option though.

 

We also had a major change on a cruise around the Black Sea cancelled when Putin annexed Crimea as there were 3 Crimean ports.  We were given the chance to cancel that with refund and luckily we had flights included with the cruise, but if we had booked our own flights we would have not have been able to cancel those without insurance and that could not be considered the fault of the cruise company, so we would have been left with a cruise we did not want to do.  All this has happened to us over about 5 years or so.  We may have been particularly unlucky, but it is not an unusual situation for changes to be made and insurance is a very easy way to have peace of mind and flexibility in arranging holidays.

 

There are also other things worth insuring against, like health issues or an ill relative, or perhaps failure of transport that is used to get to the cruise, possibly as you are actually travelling there.  Insurance cost's very little for complete peace of mind IMO - but that is my opinion, others may decide to take a risk and that is entirely up to them.   

 

EDIT

Sorry a reply to the above post seems to have been posted by me in error, whilst I was writing this.  I have asked for my previous reply to be removed.

Edited July 6, 2019 by tring

[Covepointcruiser]

We always get the separate flight insurance when we book through an airline directly.   It’s not expensive and does not seem to increase when you buy higher priced tickets.   I always thought it was more expensive to book a flight a year out.   We usually start booking six months or less from our cruise.   Most of the airports that serve ports have multiple flights each day.   We still plan to arrive two to three nights before the cruise if it’s overseas.   Have had massive delays leaving the country many times.   We were to get to Sydney, Aus three nights before our cruise but our flight was delayed 46 hours.   

[aussie travel bird]

On 7/6/2019 at 12:57 AM, DRJVH said:

We’re already on the cruise before. Can’t  go any further back as our flights are already booked to arrive in Athens on 21 April 

We fly solely Qantas from Australia and have changed our booked fares when an offer to 'SailOn' on Azamara has been too good to refuse.  Yes we've paid a fee to do so but it was our decision to extend our cruise and change the airfare.  Assuming you have travel insurance, have you checked with your provider if they will cover the cost of the changed airfares?  Just and though and trying to help you find a resolution.  Hope it all works out for you.  I know how stressful it must be.  Regards Jenny

Edited July 7, 2019 by aussie travel bird

[DRJVH]

25 minutes ago, aussie travel bird said:

We fly solely Qantas from Australia and have changed our booked fares when an offer to 'SailOn' on Azamara has been too good to refuse.  Yes we've paid a fee to do so but it was our decision to extend our cruise and change the airfare.  Assuming you have travel insurance, have you checked with your provider if they will cover the cost of the changed airfares?  Just and though and trying to help you find a resolution.  Hope it all works out for you.  I know how stressful it must be.  Regards Jenny

It’s not a matter of just changing flights. My husband still works and it’s not possible to just change the flights, as much as we would like to. He has to be back at work on 18 May, that’s why we booked  these cruises and flights. 

Yes travel insurance will cover cancellation costs of the flights etc but that’s not the point. Those  people who are able to take up the next cruise are compensated, those that can’t are being penalised. We may be quite happy to book another cruise at a later date, but $100 OBC doesn’t seem to  us as fair compensation! 

 

[Shawnino]

Why should OP have to buy insurance to cover Azamara's bad behaviour?

[aussie travel bird]

1 hour ago, DRJVH said:

It’s not a matter of just changing flights. My husband still works and it’s not possible to just change the flights, as much as we would like to. He has to be back at work on 18 May, that’s why we booked  these cruises and flights. 

Yes travel insurance will cover cancellation costs of the flights etc but that’s not the point. Those  people who are able to take up the next cruise are compensated, those that can’t are being penalised. We may be quite happy to book another cruise at a later date, but $100 OBC doesn’t seem to  us as fair compensation! 

 

 

1 hour ago, Shawnino said:

Why should OP have to buy insurance to cover Azamara's bad behaviour?

Ok, I'll stay out of it, I was trying to be helpful...good luck with everything you do.

[travelberlin]

 

On 7/6/2019 at 6:42 AM, Covepointcruiser said:

Let us know when you find a cruise line that doesn’t charter their ships or have unexpected or extended drydocks.    I think we would all be interested in that line!

If you are serious about the question, as far as I know, MSC or Crystal  do not cancel because of Charters. At least not when air tickets are already available.

[uktog]

For me the issue is charters AFTER air can be ticketed so effectively 12 months out should be the cut off. I would like a cruise line to commit to only making changes in dates, start or end ports and significant + of - 4 hours in a port in circumstances beyond their control (eg Cuba was an example) after the 12 month cut off

 

I would also like a published table of redress that’s applied to all cruises if a nearer in change was applied. 

 

That commitment and transparency would give comfort to those creating more complex itineraries and would encourage bookings. 

Edited July 7, 2019 by uktog

[lisiamc]

1 hour ago, uktog said:

For me the issue is charters AFTER air can be ticketed so effectively 12 months out should be the cut off. I would like a cruise line to commit to only making changes in dates, start or end ports and significant + of - 4 hours in a port in circumstances beyond their control (eg Cuba was an example) after the 12 month cut off

 

I would also like a published table of redress that’s applied to all cruises if a nearer in change was applied. 

 

That commitment and transparency would give comfort to those creating more complex itineraries and would encourage bookings. 

 

I’d like to see those things implemented too.  Sounds very fair.