Hello Carol Cabezas (CEO), What on Earth is Going On?

[betsey]

Interesting thread here. I just got off of a British Isles cruise on the Journey this week. This is my third Azamara cruise post Covid, and the only real issue I had was with the shore excursions. They were top -notch in terms of vehicles, guides, etc, but the bookings of them were a disaster. Myself and many others booked one tour and were given tickets for another tour.  Most of us realized this the morning of the tour. The poor beleaguered  shore excursions rep managed to accommodate us. On another one, the description in the onboard booklet in our room was nothing like the screen shot I took of the tour when I made my booking online. Again, this shore excursions agent told me that this verbiage was for a tour that had long been cancelled (WTH?).  Later in the cruise I politely asked for a meeting with the Hotel Director, and she also brought in the Shorex Manager, and I explained my concerns and asked her who can I can contact in the home office, since I thought they did a fine job onboard, but also drove home the point that if this website and shorex booking issue wasn't fixed pronto, their jobs were in jeopardy. During this meeting I found out from them that there were multiple guests with the same issues. I stressed that I sail on Azamara because of their interesting itineraries and that there are few options to take tours with third-party operators.  Now, I don't know if it's going to change a thing, but I do hope that if they can say that a passenger took to the time to meet with them and explain to them what their issues were and how it affected their vacation, perhaps they take it seriously at the top and can start to fix the issues, or not, who knows? The Hotel Director thanked me for the feedback when I disembarked.  

[MariLoui]

In April when our final payment was due for our first two cruises scheduled for September, our travel agent was unable to log on to the Azamara website, contact Azamara by telephone, nor was she able to reach the Azamara rep. I tried to log on to my account, and was informed that I did not have an account; I could not reach Azamara by phone either. When I checked our flights, one still existed but the other did not. This continued for some time. Our travel agent finally got in touch with the rep, who said, "pay your money and have faith. All will be well". I read the various comments posted on Cruise Critic at the time. We decided to bail on all 4 cruises we had booked (2 in 2023 and 2 in 2024). It took 2 months to get our refunds (we did get them though). It is just too much money involved!

We have now booked on Oceania.We are glad we cancelled. I would think that most of the people who have cruised with Azamara in the past few months had booked their cruises before February when all started to go wrong. I cannot believe the ineptitude in operations and public relations! I think that something dire happened the Azamara database and they lost everything and are having to start from scratch to rebuild (not easy). I am glad that most people still seem to have a decent on board experience. It may be that the problems with shore excursions are due to the problems with the database. Best wishes to all.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Different strokes for different folks.  You read the posts here and freaked about possible Azamara issues.  I've been reading the posts on the Oceania forum and have written them off our future plans [despite a lovely cruise in 2022].  

 

Azamara's problems are pre cruise, but the onboard experience is still wonderful and the itineraries are still tops [and the ships actually go to the expected ports and stay in them for the published times].  

 

Oceania's website works fine, but their recent problems relate to onboard cutbacks and especially itinerary changes with ports missed or times reduced.  

 

I would rather deal with pre-cruise problems [or rather, let my TA deal with them] and have a great cruise to the places I expected to go.  So we're booked on Azamara and the Oceania catalogs go straight to the trash...

[Marylebone37]

Would it kill Carol to send out an update (or post here) about the status of problems, their plan to have things fixed, and when we can expect the pre cruise experience to be back to 100%. Gee wiz!  What a management team!

[ECCruise]

1 hour ago, MariLoui said:

 

We have now booked on Oceania.We are glad we cancelled. I would think that most of the people who have cruised with Azamara in the past few months had booked their cruises before February when all started to go wrong. I cannot believe the ineptitude in operations and public relations! I think that something dire happened the Azamara database and they lost everything and are having to start from scratch to rebuild (not easy). I am glad that most people still seem to have a decent on board experience. It may be that the problems with shore excursions are due to the problems with the database. Best wishes to all.

It is not universal.  We have sailed 3x since the conversion (cruises booked long before February) and have had nothing but very minor--and easy to correct--issues.

 

We have done the opposite.  We no longer book Oceania after our last 30+ day sailing.  It was our 8th O sailing and just did not hit any of the right buttons for us.  So it was back to Azamara. 

[takemewithyou]

1 hour ago, Marylebone37 said:

Would it kill Carol to send out an update (or post here) about the status of problems, their plan to have things fixed, and when we can expect the pre cruise experience to be back to 100%. Gee wiz!  What a management team!

I was just thinking the same thing are few days ago…..where are the promised updates?  It has been quite awhile since we last received any communication other than sales e-mails.

[Jay19]

1 hour ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Different strokes for different folks.  You read the posts here and freaked about possible Azamara issues.  I've been reading the posts on the Oceania forum and have written them off our future plans [despite a lovely cruise in 2022].  

 

Azamara's problems are pre cruise, but the onboard experience is still wonderful and the itineraries are still tops [and the ships actually go to the expected ports and stay in them for the published times].  

 

Oceania's website works fine, but their recent problems relate to onboard cutbacks and especially itinerary changes with ports missed or times reduced.  

 

I would rather deal with pre-cruise problems [or rather, let my TA deal with them] and have a great cruise to the places I expected to go.  So we're booked on Azamara and the Oceania catalogs go straight to the trash...

I have to agree with you.    We have now done 4 O cruises and enjoy the ships, the service and the food but we do think that the standard has dropped somewhat post Covid.   Our biggest problem has been that on all 4 cruises we have missed ports and/or "cruising highlights" such as Hubbard Glacier and Prince Christian Sound.   On our last cruise a few months ago (12nts) we were advised ahead of time that we would lose a total of 5 hours from the various ports, but we also missed a port along the way and ended up with an extra sea day.   Reading the various reviews and threads on the O board it is obvious this is not an isolated case, some people have also reported being told about port times being cut short after they board the ship.  

 

We do understand that there may have to be changes or cancellations to ports along the way but on Azamara we have always felt that every effort was made to find a suitable substitute.   On Oceania we feel we are more likely to end up with another sea day or arrive a bit earlier in the next port of call.   Perhaps we have just been unlucky but we were sufficiently annoyed after the last cruise that we cancelled our next O cruise and have booked 3 Azamara instead.

 

I can't say we've been happy with the website issues although our accounts have largely been correct from the beginning thankfully.   Booking shore excursions using OBC has been awful and we have ended up just booking and paying for what we wanted after being told we could get this sorted out on board.   Hopefully that will be the case and we can then enjoy being back "home".  

 

[takemewithyou]

found this interview where she discusses the difficulties they have had with website data migration…..

 

https://www.travelmarketreport.com/Cruise/articles/Azamara-President-Carol-Cabezas-on-Q1-2023-the-Azamara-Difference

[ican82]

On 8/4/2023 at 5:53 PM, Jay19 said:

I have to agree with you.    We have now done 4 O cruises and enjoy the ships, the service and the food but we do think that the standard has dropped somewhat post Covid.   Our biggest problem has been that on all 4 cruises we have missed ports and/or "cruising highlights" such as Hubbard Glacier and Prince Christian Sound.   On our last cruise a few months ago (12nts) we were advised ahead of time that we would lose a total of 5 hours from the various ports, but we also missed a port along the way and ended up with an extra sea day.   Reading the various reviews and threads on the O board it is obvious this is not an isolated case, some people have also reported being told about port times being cut short after they board the ship.  

 

We do understand that there may have to be changes or cancellations to ports along the way but on Azamara we have always felt that every effort was made to find a suitable substitute.   On Oceania we feel we are more likely to end up with another sea day or arrive a bit earlier in the next port of call.   Perhaps we have just been unlucky but we were sufficiently annoyed after the last cruise that we cancelled our next O cruise and have booked 3 Azamara instead.

 

I can't say we've been happy with the website issues although our accounts have largely been correct from the beginning thankfully.   Booking shore excursions using OBC has been awful and we have ended up just booking and paying for what we wanted after being told we could get this sorted out on board.   Hopefully that will be the case and we can then enjoy being back "home".  

 

And I would reiterate the opposite viewpoint:  our cruise with Oceania in the spring was excellent.  We lost one tender port due to high seas, but another port was substituted at the last minute and was more than satisfactory.  Loved the food, service and amenities.

Azamara, on the other hand, has been a dumpster fire.  I was refused boarding for a Japan cruise because Azamara was the ONLY cruise line still demanding 3 vaccinations in Asia, when there was no such requirement to enter Japan or South Korea.  So we switched to Oceania, and used our Azamara credit to book B2B cruises for September.  Except that Azamara has lost the record of that transfer, and think that we still owe the total amount for the second cruise.  Three months of wrangling and now they accept their mistake, but can't figure out how to fix it.  Twenty six days to our cruise and we still have an incomplete account, no record of any OBC for either cruise and a note on our file that we still owe the total amount for the second cruise.  I have probably spent 50 hours on hold over the last three months, and nothing yet to show for it.  There comes a point where the term incompetence has simply lost all meaning.

Maybe Azamara's onboard experience will be wonderful, but I have to ask myself if all of this nonsense leading up to the cruise will make me ever want to go through it again.

[travelberlin]

There was a cancellation of a port at Azamara during my 10 nights Mediterranean cruise. For reasons unknown we did not tender in Sanary Sur Mer. We docked in a big port about half an hour away from Sanary.

 

It was inconvenient with shuttle buses running every half hour just at limited hours. They were full and guest fighting their access to the shuttle. Not the same experience if tendering in front of port. But Azamara provided the shuttle buses. 
 

I did not like it at the moment but after reading about cruise lines just forgetting the ports and offering a sea day instead, I have to say thank you to Azamara. 
Ivi

[nonrev1]

We have always been fans of Azamara and been sailing with them since the beginning of 2011, We have reached our frustration point. We were cruising one week after the computer meltdown and were definitely affected during the cruise. I was hoping by the time we took this one that things would be resolved. Unfortunately, that is not the case. our loyalty accounts are still not correct, but it does affect us because we are due free nights. When we spoke to loyalty onboard, we were originally misinformed that the program was going to go away because they had no idea of who was owed what. I said that’s a very unacceptable answer and how do you just decide that a program is going away with no notice. She handed me a letter from Carol Cabezas and said it’s outlined here. It did not say anything like that in the letter, and then she backpedaled. Our onboard credit was still incorrect and it took five days to fix it. But, there are things that are just off now that are hard to put your finger on, but have changed the way we feel about Azamara.  We usually received a nice note welcoming us back….. nothing.  We asked why we had no ice bucket and found out it is now only on request.  I know these are little items but Azamara is trying to sell itself as an upscale boutique cruise line.  Our fridge was empty…. If you want something you have to ask. We are now out of what we asked for and need to ask for more.   For long time Azamara cruisers we know what we had.  New cruisers don’t expect or know what used to be.  Dinner in Discoveries was always very good.  Now, it is hit or miss.  The staff is wonderful but the onboard product has diminished.  I could go on… but I will go back to the original title of this thread……Carol Cabezas, what on earth is going on? 

[Grandma Cruising]

Interestingly, we’ve never had an ice bucket on 11 cruises! We did notice the fridge had nothing in it on the last cruise, but prefer that to having to ask the room steward to take stuff away so we’ve room to put water bottles in there.

My loyalty points got sorted out when I booked anew cruise a few weeks ago, but my husbands are still wrong, but after a discussion with an Azamara agent to book excursions that has now been escalated to IT to sort out.

[nonrev1]

Ours was escalated weeks ago so it would be correct by the time we cruised.  Unfortunately it got worse, not better.  We still have an issue with a cruise we cancelled that has fallen into a black hole.  And still no loyalty credit  received for our April 3 Japan cruise.   Crazy that I expected a little more progress after close to 5 months.  I do feel bad for them onboard …it’s not their fault.  

[uktog]

We’ve always had our ice bucket filled until our last cruise. @nonrev1 is right. Attendant never said “ask me”. How would new cruisers know. We did ask but it was hit or miss if we got and often only a few cubes. 
There were sodas in our fridge- not stocking the minibar would be an unacceptable cut back if that’s a new policy.   If you asked did they keep it stocked up?  We often have sodas on the balcony mid afternoon it’s something we enjoy just being able to grab one when we feel like it 

[beatnix]

I just asked to fill the fridge with Coke Zero and it was delivered immediately. The filled ice bucket we never used so we do not miss it.

Empty cans where replaced with new ones in the fridge. Maybe it also depends on the stewards. 

Edited August 6, 2023 by beatnix

[takemewithyou]

On Pursuit in June in a regular veranda, we had ice bucket (didn’t need to request) and it was replenished every day, at least.  We had plenty of water supplied which we used.  There were soft drinks in the fridge.

[beatnix]

8 minutes ago, takemewithyou said:

On Pursuit in June in a regular veranda, we had ice bucket (didn’t need to request) and it was replenished every day, at least.  We had plenty of water supplied which we used.  There were soft drinks in the fridge.

I was also on Pursuit in June - so there may be no general order for the staff how to deal with.

[takemewithyou]

14 minutes ago, beatnix said:

I was also on Pursuit in June - so there may be no general order for the staff how to deal with.

Yes, it sounds like there may be differences from ship to ship.  Perhaps different hotel directors are giving different standards to the stateroom attendants to follow. It would seem to be better to have consistency across all the ships.

[Carnevale]

On Journey last month we had a “fridge” but I put that in quotation marks as it wasn’t a fridge as it didn’t cool at all.  We thought it was broken but our steward said it was only a cooler, not a fridge, and indeed, it worked just like a cooler (it held cold things for about 12 hours and then it was all room temperature).  I had a product with me that needed to be refrigerated and it was off after a couple of days.  We asked for it to be fixed so it would cool but nothing happened. 

[Host Jazzbeau]

47 minutes ago, Carnevale said:

On Journey last month we had a “fridge” but I put that in quotation marks as it wasn’t a fridge as it didn’t cool at all.  We thought it was broken but our steward said it was only a cooler, not a fridge, and indeed, it worked just like a cooler (it held cold things for about 12 hours and then it was all room temperature).  I had a product with me that needed to be refrigerated and it was off after a couple of days.  We asked for it to be fixed so it would cool but nothing happened. 

I have seen similar reports from many cruise lines so I think this is the standard for cabin 'fridges.'  If you have a medicine that needs to be refrigerated, you need to alert the steward.

[nonrev1]

We just met with the assistant hotel director.  He read our comments and wanted to explain. ( love that they always read the comments)  On the Journey about a year ago they stopped ice buckets in rooms and beverages in the fridge.  He said they never really knew what customers wanted and beverages expired and they lost control of inventory.  I get it.  But, for us long time Azamara cruisers it was surprising and for new cruisers they don’t know or expect it.  All of the items that were provided before are still available but you have to ask.  We suggested that they put a note in the cabins to let cruisers know what is available……just ask for it.  Also, there is no uniformity/ consistency  between ships. So, where we saw this as a reduction/cut back in amenities. It was really a better allocation of amenities. You just don’t realize that they are available but you have to ask for them. If you are new to Azamara how can you ask for what you don’t know is available?  They need to communicate.  

[Mackdogmolly]

7 minutes ago, nonrev1 said:

We just met with the assistant hotel director.  He read our comments and wanted to explain. ( love that they always read the comments)  On the Journey about a year ago they stopped ice buckets in rooms and beverages in the fridge.  He said they never really knew what customers wanted and beverages expired and they lost control of inventory.  I get it.  But, for us long time Azamara cruisers it was surprising and for new cruisers they don’t know or expect it.  All of the items that were provided before are still available but you have to ask.  We suggested that they put a note in the cabins to let cruisers know what is available……just ask for it.  Also, there is no uniformity/ consistency  between ships. So, where we saw this as a reduction/cut back in amenities. It was really a better allocation of amenities. You just don’t realize that they are available but you have to ask for them. If you are new to Azamara how can you ask for what you don’t know is available?  They need to communicate.  

Stateroom Features

• Veranda
• Two lower beds convertible to one Queen size bed
• Sitting area with 40” flat-screen TV
• Refrigerator with mini-bar
• Thermostat-controlled air conditioner
• Direct-dial telephone with voicemail
• Writing desk
• In-room safe
• Hand-held hairdryer
• USB ports under bedside reading lamps
• Stateroom: 175 sq. ft. (16.3 sq. m.) | Veranda: 40 sq. ft. (3.7 sq. m.)

 

This is from the Azamara website and clearly states that the rooms are supposed to include a refrigerator with mini-bar

[Carnevale]

1 hour ago, Mackdogmolly said:

This is from the Azamara website and clearly states that the rooms are supposed to include a refrigerator with mini-bar

That was our expectation but was one of many areas where our experience did not match up.  The Journey staterooms are in serious need of updating (at least our’s was).  

[Mackdogmolly]

3 minutes ago, Carnevale said:

That was our expectation but was one of many areas where our experience did not match up.  The Journey staterooms are in serious need of updating (at least our’s was).  

If my cabin lacked a fridge, I would probably point to the amenities list and voice a complaint (and I am not a complainer)!

[uktog]

Just now, Mackdogmolly said:

If my cabin lacked a fridge, I would probably point to the amenities list and voice a complaint (and I am not a complainer)!

I think the fridges are there - it is just now suddenly they are empty and there is no explanation to guests about why or how to have them stocked up.

 

Interesting the response given to @nonrev1, we were in a veranda on Journey September and October 2022 and had both ice and sodas, on Onward November and December 2022 we had no ice but still had sodas.  I do not buy the "losing control of inventory" story - sounds like a head office line the assistant HD was told to use.   They did not seem to have inventory issues in the past, we are talking about very long dated items and other competitor cruise lines at the same price point or below manage to keep guests preferences fully stocked without issue.