So disappointed - shortened itinerary

[BrendaJ]

Our 2024 Iceland cruise has just had a major itinerary change, due to unavailability of the Reykjavik port on the cruise dates.   In my mind, Azamara has removed the three most interesting ports (Faroe islands and the Shetland islands) and shortened the cruise by two days.   They also changed the departure port from Amsterdam to IJmuiden (30 minutes from Amsterdam which would mean missing the impressive sail-in and ability to walk into the city that porting in actual Amsterdam would feature).

 

The 11 night cruise has become a less interesting 9 night cruise, with no compensation whatsoever.   I would have thought they would at least adjust our price pro-rated to the fewer number of days but nothing.   Not even token onboard credit.   Of course, I understand that availability of all the ports was a factor, but to reduce the length of a cruise by two days with no price adjustment seems wrong.

 

I have to think that the old RCL-owned Azamara would have offered something in the way of compensation to keep people booked on the less-appealing cruise.   Has Azamara shortened an itinerary in the past with no adjustment of price?

 

Email attached.

 

 

[blag]

I don't know that the later 'old' Azamara would have behaved differently.

The most galling thing about this is that, should you cancel and lose financially (for flights, hotels etc that you cannot cancel without penalty), your insurers will argue that it is your choice to cancel, because the cruise line has not cancelled.

For this very reason Azamara has cost me over £5,000 for two significantly-changed itineraries. Admittedly for the first (about 6 years ago), I was able to recoup a small amount, but could have lost much, much more.

Better that they cancel, but offer the chance to re-book. They steadfastly refuse to do so.

[fruitmachine]

How close to departure could they get away with this?  If you were in the UK, then I'd expect knocking nearly 20% off the length of your cruise at any time would be grounds for you cancelling with a full cash refund.
 
As a newbie I'd like to know if other UK cruisers or travel industry professionals think the same. This would make me think twice about ever using them again.

[BrendaJ]

1 minute ago, fruitmachine said:

As a newbie I'd like to know if other UK cruisers or travel industry professionals think the same. This would make me think twice about ever using them again.

To be fair, this itinerary is more than a year away, so no one would likely have lost any money with flights, although it’s possible some hotel bookings are available this far out.

[Grandma Cruising]

I would have expected at least 15% off the price of the cruise. As a matter of interest is the new 9 day price less or more than the price at which you booked?

[fruitmachine]

38 minutes ago, BrendaJ said:

To be fair, this itinerary is more than a year away, so no one would likely have lost any money with flights, although it’s possible some hotel bookings are available this far out.

I've just re-read through the attachment, and see that a full refund is offered (my bad).  So the underlying question is whether you still see the cruise as something you want to do at the same cost (but increased per-day cost) and with quite a significantly changed itinerary.

I wouldn't, for the itinerary changes alone.

[combine]

51 minutes ago, BrendaJ said:

To be fair, this itinerary is more than a year away, so no one would likely have lost any money with flights, although it’s possible some hotel bookings are available this far out.

Its interesting that neither this cruise or the following one is on the website now, so obviously behind the scene amendments being made before it goes back online. They say prevailing rate so theres a chance this 9 nighter will be less money than an 11 nighter?  Hope all works out well. 🤞

[gowilk]

in my mind, missing the shetland islands is no big deal (been there, done that, one of the worst ports IMHO).  As stated, they told you over a year in advance and offered to refund money paid, what more could they do…they found a problem and addressed it…i’m no azamara fanboy but i doubt ANY cruise line would have done more.  take your refund and wait for them to reprice it if you still want to go.  The market will adjust the price if they don’t.

[Riocca]

47 minutes ago, fruitmachine said:

How close to departure could they get away with this?  If you were in the UK, then I'd expect knocking nearly 20% off the length of your cruise at any time would be grounds for you cancelling with a full cash refund.
 
As a newbie I'd like to know if other UK cruisers or travel industry professionals think the same. This would make me think twice about ever using them again.

Given that such a alteration to the itinerary would qualify as a major change under U.K. legislation then the option to cancel with a full refund would have to be offered to U.K. customers at any time.

In the past such changes have tended to be made more than 12 months out before flights and hotels are open for booking, however when changes have been made within that timeframe our experience has always been that Azamara have been fair with compensation or cancellation options.

 

As to the op’s email from Azamara option 1 does say that if the new cruises price is less than originally paid the price will be reduced, it’s just badly worded. Of course if the 9 day price is the same or more than the original 11 day price i would think cancellation was the best option.

[lisiamc]

In your shoes, I’d cancel, and book something else I’d enjoy. We were scheduled to cruise on the Black Sea, and call at Odessa in 2022, but that couldn’t happen for obvious reason. The cruise was expensive, but we thought it would be worth it. It changed to a Greece and Turkey cruise, calling at ports we’ve seen a few times. They offered no money back for the changed itinerary. We cancelled and booked something else. I’m sure the Greece and Turkey cruise was nice, and we understood the reasons for the changes, but I wasn’t interested. 
 

You could also play the long game, and see if the price drops as people who aren’t happy don’t book or cancel. You could cancel before final payment, but keep an open mind about rebooking closer to the time if the price drops, which it might. That length and itinerary won’t be as popular, and bookings could be fairly soft. 
 

On a couple of cruises with Azamara we’ve had the opposite situation, where the cruise was lengthened by a couple of days, went to more interesting ports, and we weren’t charged anything extra. 

[BrendaJ]

13 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

I would have expected at least 15% off the price of the cruise. As a matter of interest is the new 9 day price less or more than the price at which you booked?

They haven’t actually posted the revised cruise on their website yet so I’m not sure.   Regardless, I think we will be booking a Celebrity cruise that has a better itinerary.   I hope you and Nick are well, Denise!

[Lady President]

1 hour ago, BrendaJ said:

I have to think that the old RCL-owned Azamara would have offered something in the way of compensation to keep people booked on the less-appealing cruise.   Has Azamara shortened an itinerary in the past with no adjustment of price?

 

RCL wouldn't compensate us for a shortened and in our opinion less appealing cruise.  We were supposed to take an 11-days cruise out of Southampton to Portugal and the Canary Islands.  This was shortly after cruising began again and the Canary Islands reinstituted a negative testing policy.  A few weeks prior to sailing the cruise was changed to 8-days around the British Islands.  When we called for a price adjustment, RCL told us that we had booked a good deal and the British Islands are usually more expensive, so no price adjustment.  Luckily, we were able to cancel our cruise and flight. 

 

Personally, I think there should be a price adjustment for you.  I hate missing ports! 

[uktog]

2 hours ago, Riocca said:

Given that such a alteration to the itinerary would qualify as a major change under U.K. legislation then the option to cancel with a full refund would have to be offered to U.K. customers at any time.

In the past such changes have tended to be made more than 12 months out before flights and hotels are open for booking, however when changes have been made within that timeframe our experience has always been that Azamara have been fair with compensation or cancellation options.

 

As to the op’s email from Azamara option 1 does say that if the new cruises price is less than originally paid the price will be reduced, it’s just badly worded. Of course if the 9 day price is the same or more than the original 11 day price i would think cancellation was the best option.

Absolutely 

 

And in that situation that’s when it’s good to have really good insurers who recognise given the significant itinerary change that it’s a technical cancellation and so other losses can be picked up. You sometimes have to push a bit with the insurers but it pays! 

[Grandma Cruising]

2 hours ago, BrendaJ said:

They haven’t actually posted the revised cruise on their website yet so I’m not sure.   Regardless, I think we will be booking a Celebrity cruise that has a better itinerary.   I hope you and Nick are well, Denise!

We’re fine thanks, Brenda. Regards to Jim!

[uktog]

As I said, if there is a significant change which would fall under the consumer legislation Riocca covered, many insurers will consider the cruise cancelled (even though a different one is offered on the same day). It’s easier to position your case if the replacement cruise is shorter, there is no incentive being offered to transfer your booking or if the cruise is to a different part of the world. 

Your insurance company will expect you to evidence that you made every effort to recover any losses from the cruiseline (and I would not rely on a travel agent to go into bat for you on this one) and then you present the information if you’re unsuccessful to the insurers. 

However, this does depend on the insurance company. We had reimbursement of business class cancellation costs (made sure not to claim the full fare but the fare minus taxes which are refunded automatically) on a changed itinerary but our policy is a premium annual travel plan so isn’t a cheap one but is one we can rely on in situations like this. 

[terry&mike]

20 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

We cancelled a 2023 Black Sea cruise and were able to use our deposit from it against a new booking.

Us as well.

[PirateWife]

This is not the only cruise that is being shortened. We received a similar letter for the Wine and Culture cruise on the Quest sailing on 9/3/24 ending in Lisbon. Azamara customer service has said that there will be a new cost for the cruise but would not know until today.

[gowilk]

must be nice to be upset about a trip 18 months from now…i’m a heart patient worried about going on a paid for cruise on 2/20, 18 months seems forever to me

[Mackdogmolly]

1 hour ago, gowilk said:

must be nice to be upset about a trip 18 months from now…i’m a heart patient worried about going on a paid for cruise on 2/20, 18 months seems forever to me

It seems like forever to me too. And I wish you all the best on your upcoming cruise.

[sherylc]

We are looking to book our first Azamara cruise (over a year and a half out) and I have to say I have a very different way of looking at the original issue. I understand that ports get changed all the time, cruises get shortened, etc. and this is just part of cruising. But what makes this issue much more worrisome to me is that the issues I mentioned are usually through no fault of the cruise line -- usually things they couldn't control such as weather, a change in requirements to enter a country, etc. To me, this shortening of itinerary seems to totally be because Azamara was unable to obtain port space ahead of time. While I have not been able to find the process for how ports determine which ships get to dock, I have to assume that the well organized cruise lines seldom face this issue -- they turn in the correct paperwork on time and don't have to change published itineraries very often. Based on the timing of this update, I just wonder if Azamara might have dropped the ball due to all the changes going on with new ownership. 

[hubofhockey]

On 2/2/2023 at 7:39 AM, blag said:

I don't know that the later 'old' Azamara would have behaved differently.

The most galling thing about this is that, should you cancel and lose financially (for flights, hotels etc that you cannot cancel without penalty), your insurers will argue that it is your choice to cancel, because the cruise line has not cancelled.

For this very reason Azamara has cost me over £5,000 for two significantly-changed itineraries. Admittedly for the first (about 6 years ago), I was able to recoup a small amount, but could have lost much, much more.

Better that they cancel, but offer the chance to re-book. They steadfastly refuse to do so.

 

We had a great Azamara itinerary canceled about 4 years ago.  They split it up into two smaller itineraries and charged 50% more to do both.  Offers to us?  NONE.    It was over a year away.  Left a bad taste in my mouth.  We took our deposit back and booked a similar itinerary to the canceled cruise on Celebrity.  The “old” Azamara could be very frustrating.

[cruiseaholic78]

On 2/2/2023 at 1:23 PM, BrendaJ said:

  They also changed the departure port from Amsterdam to IJmuiden (30 minutes from Amsterdam which would mean missing the impressive sail-in and ability to walk into the city that porting in actual Amsterdam would feature).

 

I have to think that the old RCL-owned Azamara would have offered something in the way of compensation to keep people booked on the less-appealing cruise.   Has Azamara shortened an itinerary in the past with no adjustment of price?

 

Email attached.

 

 

 

 

I understand your frustration about the other details but I have now read this a few times and keep seeing new itinerary has Amsterdam instead of IJmuiden which I thought is what you wanted.

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by cruiseaholic78

[BrendaJ]

Just now, BrendaJ said:

On 2/10/2023 at 2:19 AM, cruiseaholic78 said:

 

I understand your frustration about the other details but I have now read this a few times and keep seeing new itinerary has Amsterdam instead of IJmuiden which I thought is what you wanted.

Ah, well that’s good then.   Although I think we’ve convinced ourselves to go on a Celebrity itinerary instead.   Same price (including tips, wifi and beverage package) and we’ll have 3 extra nights, as well as a stop in Greenland.