Azamazing OBC Deal...!!

[Lindy028]

1 hour ago, uktog said:

Labadee is a lovely beach stop with the whole area fully supported by the ship's personnel e.g. bar set up included, buffet lunch etc.  We are on 21 November trip and the included excursions include a sail off the peninsula as well as some activities in the resort area.  I am certainly looking forward to this stop, have been before on Celebrity and it was a love4ly (and safe) day

Thank you for that, we are reassured. We’re not really beachy people, which is probably why the Caribbean has not been on our radar, but after a very stressful year, and we’ve not been able to take a break for nearly 12 months we need some R&R and this looks perfect!

[Host Jazzbeau]

The only good thing is that by not reducing the cruise price, they don't reduce my TA rebate.  But we don't usually spend much OBC, so I would much rather have the discount.

[Henk123]

Take the drink package, good internet package, diningpackage and excursions. What is left use it at the Spa and/or shops.

You must do good calculation for the first and the second leg of your B2B.

[tgg]

The second leg of this B2B has only two ports.  When I looked at booking this, I couldn't figure out what to do with the $800 OBC on the second leg. I also had to add the cost of a flight to San Juan, which would have been a difficult connection for us,  a hotel night pre-cruise, and renting a car to drive home from Miami (not Uber distance).  

 

Bottom line for us, this was not an amazing deal. YMMV.

[Fatfish]

Spark of Summer has been extended for 3 weeks..

Edited July 11, 2019 by Fatfish

[Doh15]

Can it be used for post-cruise add-on stays?

[uktog]

2 minutes ago, Doh15 said:

Can it be used for post-cruise add-on stays?

Nope it’s onboard only

[hamrag]

20 hours ago, tgg said:

The second leg of this B2B has only two ports.  When I looked at booking this, I couldn't figure out what to do with the $800 OBC on the second leg. I also had to add the cost of a flight to San Juan, which would have been a difficult connection for us,  a hotel night pre-cruise, and renting a car to drive home from Miami (not Uber distance).  

 

Bottom line for us, this was not an amazing deal. YMMV.

 

Yes, I understand that for Florida residents it probably doesn't work! For us, flying from the UK, it adds only the equivalent of about $100pp to our return air and we need to fly a couple of days early at that time of year (potential snow UK and USA connecting airport) so hotel needed either way.

[beachmudhut]

1 hour ago, hamrag said:

 

Yes, I understand that for Florida residents it probably doesn't work! For us, flying from the UK, it adds only the equivalent of about $100pp to our return air and we need to fly a couple of days early at that time of year (potential snow UK and USA connecting airport) so hotel needed either way.

 

Norwegian Airlines fly direct to San Juan from Gatwick.  Maybe this could be a better connection for you.  We did this route and would choose it again without hesitation.  Less chance of snow and only one lot of customs to cope with.   Not sure if it would work for you because they don’t fly to San Juan every day.  (I would prefer a couple of nights in San Juan on the beach than New York in the snow!) UK travel companies rarely suggest this airline.  

 

 

[hamrag]

49 minutes ago, beachmudhut said:

 

Norwegian Airlines fly direct to San Juan from Gatwick.  Maybe this could be a better connection for you.  We did this route and would choose it again without hesitation.  Less chance of snow and only one lot of customs to cope with.   Not sure if it would work for you because they don’t fly to San Juan every day.  (I would prefer a couple of nights in San Juan on the beach than New York in the snow!) UK travel companies rarely suggest this airline.  

 

 

 

Not for us, our route is Virgin Atlantic from Manchester with a NYC same day connection.....San Juan beach is indeed the way to go for us too!

[Fatfish]

Spark of Summer has changed again....

Spark of Summer

 

 

Spark of Summer

Set sail with our Spark of Summer Sale and get up to 30% off* a wide selection of 2019-2020 sailings, plus receive a $500 onboard credit when you book by July 14, 2019

[Fatfish]

On 7/8/2019 at 1:23 PM, hamrag said:

We are new to Azamara, having sailed 44 cruises on 14 different cruiselines. Being aware of the recent Cuba cancellations, across many cruiselines, we went looking for value seeking some winter sunshine in the Caribbean. Journey has 4 cruises available being 21 Nov, 30 Nov, 7 Dec and 14 Dec so we have booked two B2B 7 night sailings from San Juan. We noticed that Az had a special 'Spark of Summer' promotion for sailings between November 2019 and February 2020 giving $500 OBC. Our TA then advised us that by booking back to back cruises we were entitled to a further $300 OBC, which we assumed was in total....then we discovered it was $300 per cruise.

 

I know most Az cruisers will be aware but, for us, this is just incredible. These sailings are already heavily discounted (40%??) because of the Cuba situations and now for each leg we have $800 OBC plus some from our TA. Now we need to work out how we would spend $1900 on board across both cruises!! Any advice will be more than welcome.

 

Hopefully this will also alert some to this deal available through Wednesday 10th July.

Have you actually been credited with the additional B2B bonus?

[Redtravel]

If your OBC comes from Azamara, you must spend it or lose it.

if your OBC comes from a TA it is refundable. You can get it back on your credit card or ask for the cash. Just do it before 9 pm on the last full day of the cruise.

[spiritoftravel]

On 7/9/2019 at 12:47 PM, Lindy028 said:

We are looking at one of these cruises, with a 3 night stay in Miami, then the 21st November cruise to SAN Juan. We’ve sailed Azamara many times before but never the Caribbean, and one of the stops is Labadee. I understand that only the area that is leased to Royal Caribbean is accessible and is sealed off and patrolled by security guards! It sounds a bit scary, so, anyone who has first hand experience, do we treat it as a sea day or is there enough to see and do to venture off the ship!

We went with RCCL a while ago, did not find it scary at all, local people help with beach chairs, etc so take some $1 bills for tips, Labadee  is basically beaches, snorkelling, swimming,  one 'side' with more rocks/waves in sea and a sheltered side, there is a coaster and zipline, they were around $125 to go on the two. Go onto You Tube and type in RCCL Labadee and  watch the videos, they give all the info you need. Have fun, enjoy!

[Fatfish]

12 hours ago, Fatfish said:

Have you actually been credited with the additional B2B bonus?

Filed for B2B OBC yesterday and posted today....Great!

[hubofhockey]

22 hours ago, Redtravel said:

If your OBC comes from Azamara, you must spend it or lose it.

if your OBC comes from a TA it is refundable. You can get it back on your credit card or ask for the cash. Just do it before 9 pm on the last full day of the cruise.

 

Yup, OP really only has to worry about the Azamara $1600 per cruise as the $300 per leg will be refunded.  If not in a suite, go for a dining package, a wifi package, and spa and most of it will get used.  After that, follow what others say.  

[Redtravel]

We had lots of OBC nonrefundable on my last cruise.  We don't drink or spa.  The shops have very limited things to sell. I would have a really hard time trying to spend it in the stores.  We prefer the regular dining room to the specialty restaurants. Ate in Prime C and was not impressed. Had better steak at the Patio Grill.  As discoverer plus we get some internet and laundry. The internet is so slow that it is a challenge using it. There are lots of places that have faster free wifi. The last sea day there were lots of people in the stores trying to spend the OBC. I used some for laundry. I tried using the laundry machines. The dryers are too high for me to reach even using the ladder.  We also bought transfers. It was more expensive than taking a taxi. It was just a way to use up the OBC.  Used most of the OBC for excursions.

[uktog]

4 hours ago, hubofhockey said:

 

Yup, OP really only has to worry about the Azamara $1600 per cruise as the $300 per leg will be refunded.  If not in a suite, go for a dining package, a wifi package, and spa and most of it will get used.  After that, follow what others say.  

I have to disagree

I read that the $300 is the cruiselines cruise again incentive paid if you book back to back cruises.  If it is, it’s non refundable.

You do get a letter fairly early in the cruise that sets out how much non refundable credit you have left. You also get a further spend or lose it reminder near the end which keeps you on track.  

If you have a mixture of both they work on the assumption you use your non refundable first. 

[diana11]

We also had plenty of OBC on our last Azamara cruise. We bought the dining packages, booked an excursion for our last day that also dropped us off at the airport, handbag, watch, aftershave, and WiFi. I was left with $20 so I played bingo with it and won!

[Fatfish]

15 hours ago, diana11 said:

We also had plenty of OBC on our last Azamara cruise. We bought the dining packages, booked an excursion for our last day that also dropped us off at the airport, handbag, watch, aftershave, and WiFi. I was left with $20 so I played bingo with it and won!

Great...Add Bingo to the list...Thanks

[uktog]

1 minute ago, Fatfish said:

Great...Add Bingo to the list...Thanks

We noticed not every cruise has bingo these days.   i think sometimes they just cannot fit it in and sometimes so few folks turn up they abandon it.  We  heard the latter happened on our May cruise.

[hamrag]

On 7/15/2019 at 2:03 AM, Fatfish said:

Have you actually been credited with the additional B2B bonus?

Apologies for a late response, just returned from a 14 night cruise and catching up. Yes, we have and also the $500 bonus incentive. Now I see you get the B2B bonus

[Fatfish]

Yes...We also got the B2B bonus..