Azura Change of Itinerary

[TPers]

We are due to sail on Azura 14th July (originally due to sail 2020) and I have received an e-mail from P&O to say that three of the four ports of call Trieste, Rovinj and Dubrovnik have been cancelled due to ‘Operational Reasons’. They have been  replaced with Korcula, Zadar and Koper.

Does anyone have any idea what ‘Operational Reasons’ means?
 

Trieste and Rovinj were new ports for us so I am disappointed not to see them ☹️.

 

If anyone has any experience of visiting Koper or Korcula I would be grateful for any hints or tips 😊

 

[Angel57]

51 minutes ago, TPers said:

We are due to sail on Azura 14th July (originally due to sail 2020) and I have received an e-mail from P&O to say that three of the four ports of call Trieste, Rovinj and Dubrovnik have been cancelled due to ‘Operational Reasons’. They have been  replaced with Korcula, Zadar and Koper.

Does anyone have any idea what ‘Operational Reasons’ means?
 

Trieste and Rovinj were new ports for us so I am disappointed not to see them ☹️.

 

If anyone has any experience of visiting Koper or Korcula I would be grateful for any hints or tips 😊

 

Korcula is beautiful and one of my favourite places to visit. All very walkable from the ship with its cobbled streets and alleyways (at least 7 or 8 years ago since I was there tho). Lovely places to eat ashore too. Enjoy.

Haven't been to the other ports you mention.

[gsmt47471015]

Were you given the option to cancel or re book? Operational reasons is a new term which appears to act as a smokescreen, if people were told the truth the companies would gain a lot more respect😒

[Orianababes]

I too have been to Korcula, about 15 years ago. Liked it and regard it as very much like Dubrovnik in many ways

[pete14]

I share the opinions of Korcula. It is a walled town a bit like a mini Dubrovnik but without the crowds (unless another ship arrives). I presume the operational reasons may be too many ships scheduled in those ports. 

[gsmt47471015]

While korcula sounds lovely its not Dubrovnik ,Trieste or Rovinj , one port change is bad enough but three out of four? If I was booked on this one i would be looking to cancel or re book, when people book cruises the itinerary is usually the first consideration and having suffered the same fate earlier this year we were given the option to cancel or take enhanced obc  and some substitute ports , it suited us as the ports that were cancelled we had visited before and looked forward to the replacements we had not been to, THREE days before departure one of the substitute calls was cancelled and "a relaxing sea day" replaced it ,to go with the twenty two others , we wouldn't have gone ahead if we knew this was to happen but with virtually no notice the option to cancel had gone, the same thing appears to be happening to a number of booked shore excursions , so i can only confirm that in my opinion operational reasons is a smokescreen and the only people who suffer are the paying passengers😒   

[TPers]

Hi, many thanks for the info.

 

P&O did not mention in the e-mail received that we had the option to cancel or to rebook.
 

We had our fly cruise originally booked for July 2020 on Oceana and it was subsequently cancelled and re-booked three times due to COVID. I don’t want to cancel our first family cruise since 2019 even though P&O have blindsided us with three port cancellations. Luckily the second week is unchanged.
 

I did check the port schedules for the cancelled Ports and Rovinj was the only port with no additional ships due in the same day. Trieste had another three and Dubrovnik one. 

I wish P&O would just be upfront.

 

 

[Harry Peterson]

17 minutes ago, TPers said:

Hi, many thanks for the info.

 

P&O did not mention in the e-mail received that we had the option to cancel or to rebook.
 

We had our fly cruise originally booked for July 2020 on Oceana and it was subsequently cancelled and re-booked three times due to COVID. I don’t want to cancel our first family cruise since 2019 even though P&O have blindsided us with three port cancellations. Luckily the second week is unchanged.
 

I did check the port schedules for the cancelled Ports and Rovinj was the only port with no additional ships due in the same day. Trieste had another three and Dubrovnik one. 

I wish P&O would just be upfront.

 

 

P&O don't do 'upfront' I'm afraid.  Not so long ago they changed all the Amsterdam overnight stays into Ijmuiden overnight stays because it was going to save them money.  Not remotely what passengers wanted - they'd booked for Amsterdam.  Refunds and price adjustments were refused (though some succeeded in claiming by using the threat of court action) and the term they insisted on using for the change was 'operational reasons'. They never did come clean on the real reason.

[Enjoyacruise]

I was on the Azura 31st March to 14 April. On that one they changed Rovinj for Zadar. The captain eventually made an announcement "to correct rumours" that Rovinj would have been a tender port and they felt the tender landing stage was not satisfactory.

 

We were able to dock at Trieste and Dubrovnik. Although on the first week we did not dock at Livorno because they had a disagreement with the port authorities. Instead we went to Ajaccio which had been cancelled two days earlier due to bad weather.

 

In February I was booked on the Iona due to go to Zeebrugge, Rotterdam (overnight) and Hamburg. A few weeks before the cruise Hamburg was changed to Le Havre for operational reasons. Then two days before the cruise the itinerary was changed totally due to a bad weather forecast to Lisbon, Vigo and La Coruna. Then mid cruise La Coruna was cancelled so we could sail back quickly to avoid more bad weather.

 

On board we were told that some had cancelled due to the total change of destination.

[Al_W]

This is worrying for us as the website to book new cruises doesn’t show this itinerary change on 14/7.
 

We were thinking of booking Azura on 2/6 as Dubrovnik is on our bucket list… so would we book this not knowing where we are going?? Would they be able to tell us of any planned changes if I call?

 

I know there are chances of changes when you are on ship but they should be up front when booking if itinerary have already changed. 

[gsmt47471015]

Reading all these comments causes me some concern as we are booked on a similar cruise on Azura in 2023 and have booked it for most of the ports which have been changed on the current one , if this were to occur when we are going it would be a waste of money to go to places we didn't want to or had been to before,  it would help if plenty of notice were given so we could cancel but in light of what's been said on this thread that's highly unlikely, it really is poor service expecting passengers to part with money for something they don't really want and then expecting them to  "just get on with it" 

[Harry Peterson]

52 minutes ago, gsmt47471015 said:

Reading all these comments causes me some concern as we are booked on a similar cruise on Azura in 2023 and have booked it for most of the ports which have been changed on the current one , if this were to occur when we are going it would be a waste of money to go to places we didn't want to or had been to before,  it would help if plenty of notice were given so we could cancel but in light of what's been said on this thread that's highly unlikely, it really is poor service expecting passengers to part with money for something they don't really want and then expecting them to  "just get on with it" 

There are circumstances in which port changes could lead to a refund, but they’re very limited and will almost certainly involve a lengthy battle with P&O. Their T&Cs protect them against most changes - but not all.

[TPers]

There is definitely a trend here for P&O changing ports! I get it if weather prevents it, but if it’s to do with too many ships in port for example, how is it that P&O bites the bullit and cancels?
 

Fingers crossed our Arcadia cruises booked for ‘23 and ‘24 go ahead, but reading other threads I am not holding my breath 🤣

[tring]

23 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

There are circumstances in which port changes could lead to a refund, but they’re very limited and will almost certainly involve a lengthy battle with P&O. Their T&Cs protect them against most changes - but not all.

 

Sorry Harry, but even P&O cannot defend this sort of change without giving a refund if requested - (if on the one week cruise), though they may not offer that one up front.  T&C's cannot over ride legal rights of course.

 

The same letters may have gone out to people on longer cruises as well, though even on a two weeker, three port changes are a lot.  They offered a no hassle refund when they changed five port days on our 16 night Baltic cruise (SPB and three others), so I am surprised it was not done for the OP here.

 

 

[molecrochip]

22 minutes ago, tring said:

 

Sorry Harry, but even P&O cannot defend this sort of change without giving a refund if requested - (if on the one week cruise), though they may not offer that one up front.  T&C's cannot over ride legal rights of course.

 

The same letters may have gone out to people on longer cruises as well, though even on a two weeker, three port changes are a lot.  They offered a no hassle refund when they changed five port days on our 16 night Baltic cruise (SPB and three others), so I am surprised it was not done for the OP here.

 

 

The OP said in their follow up post that a refund or rebook was available. So nothing to defend.

[lancashire_cruisers]

17 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

The OP said in their follow up post that a refund or rebook was available. So nothing to defend.

The OP said that option wasn’t available in the email they received.

[jeanlyon]

Yes but it should be available if they telephone.  You can't change 3 ports - that's a huge change and those 3 are probably the main reason to book the cruise.  3 super ports just removed is not on.

Edited May 14, 2022 by jeanlyon

[molecrochip]

1 hour ago, lancashire_cruisers said:

The OP said that option wasn’t available in the email they received.

Sorry, misread. But should be available 

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, molecrochip said:

Sorry, misread. But should be available 

The lack of a cohesive response from P&O customer service staff is a major issue that crops up repeatedly. This must come from a lack of leadership and seems to be worrying a great many forum members.

[Mollag]

40 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

The lack of a cohesive response from P&O customer service staff is a major issue that crops up repeatedly. This must come from a lack of leadership and seems to be worrying a great many forum members.

I think you mean the lack of any response or result from customer services. We were promised our FCC would be sorted on the 4th, 13th and 14thMay guess what it’ll be done next Friday now but  not holding our breath it’s only taken  seven weeks up to now 

[Harry Peterson]

3 minutes ago, Mollag said:

I think you mean the lack of any response or result from customer services. We were promised our FCC would be sorted on the 4th, 13th and 14thMay guess what it’ll be done next Friday now but  not holding our breath it’s only taken  seven weeks up to now 

I agree. And if Molecrochip is in a position to feed back anything from these forums, poor customer service landside is maybe one of the big issues.

 

Perceptions of companies matter. Some companies, such as Lakeland and Richer Sounds, absolutely stand out for their customer service, and customers keep returning. Others, such as Ryanair, stand out for bad service, and customers return only if it’s cheap enough. Maybe P&O is choosing the Ryanair route? It’s very profitable, but I’m not sure that the business model works as well with cruises as short haul flights.

[Camberley]

Love P&O for the most part, but their customer service - the few times we have needed to use them when there has been an issue - has been poor: verging on a blend of arrogance, the “can’t be bothered” attitude and incompetence. If they could get their customer services right: crikey, even pretending they care would be a start!…..Oh, and sort their embarrassment of an IT system (if I can add that to the wish list)….……
 

But at least when they do get things right, which to be fair they often do with many things related to their cruises from my side of things, they are fabulous.

Edited May 14, 2022 by Camberley

[Britboys]

Trieste is being used as a replacement port for Venice this Summer following the ban on cruise ships there. That I guess could be having a knock-on effect on other itineraries?

[Triggertravel]

We’re booked on Arcadia 5 th July Norway/Iceland ( well hopefully)and we received an email telling us that because of port issues in Iceland they have removed skyolden and replaced it with stavanger,and all the ports that we are visiting in Iceland haves all changed dates meaning that we’re almost doing  it back to front,as first booked .an absolute knightmare  if people have booked trips independently . Not sure what is happening as this does seam to be happening on a common accurance 

[TPers]

Yes, Trieste is being used as a replacement for Venice and was cancelled (assume it is because four other cruise ships in the same day).

I spoke to my TA today who said they had P&O ‘specialists’ in to help with the number of P&O queries.

 

our only option apparently is to cancel cruise or move. This is not possible. We paid for our original cruise, in full, March ‘20. We left our money with P&O in good faith during very difficult times for everyone. 
 

We booked the two weeks off nearly a year ago with our respective employers and for the three of us who are in full time employment to try and get a different two weeks together during the Summer months is practically impossible (cover and other colleagues holidays).

 Apparently other ports have been cancelled on upcoming Arcadia cruises too and the TA is trying to sort those out too.