Corporate Guest Relations email for Shore Excursion Complaints

[Mrs Miggins]

Have had a reply from Azamara.

 

Thank you for contacting Azamara. We cannot apologize enough for the extended delay in our response; this is not indicative of our normal operations.

 

I am sorry you were unhappy with the shore excursion. Our goal is to restore your confidence, and this feedback is a valuable and essential part of our ongoing improvement efforts. While we are unable to increase the compensation provided by the ship, I want to assure you that all of your comments will be shared with our operational teams for their internal review. 

 

We understand that the way to ensure that all of our customers are loyal customers is to guarantee that every contact or experience they have with Azamara demonstrates how important each customer is to us. This understanding is at the heart of everything we do, and we sincerely apologize you did not receive the experience you expected. We truly hope that the disappointments you shared have not caused you to lose faith in Azamara. 

 

Actually it has caused me to lose faith.  I do not know why they couldnt issue a Future Cruise Certificate for the disputed amount.  They lose nothing if I do not book again, but it would show good faith and just might encourage me to book.  They neglected to mention my credit card debit despite their final invoice showing me with unspent OBC.

Strangely I get a red box at the end of their email "EXTERNAL EMAIL CAUTION:  This email originated from outside Azamara.  Please use caution when clicking on links or opening attachments"

[Whitby100]

Mrs. Miggins’s experience is my nightmare.  Since destinations are often repeated and thus, so are shore excursions on offer, perhaps a thread where shore excursions are reviewed would be beneficial?  I’d like to know about great ones, and I’d sure like to avoid bad ones.  We could identify port, name of excursion and a quick summary clearly identifying if it’s a pro or con experience. I’d suggest only great or horrible reviews so it doesn’t get too clogged up.

Edited July 9, 2023 by Whitby100
Clarification

[Grandma Cruising]

10 minutes ago, Whitby100 said:

Mrs. Miggins’s experience is my nightmare.  Since destinations are often repeated and thus, so are shore excursions on offer, perhaps a thread where shore excursions are reviewed would be beneficial?  I’d like to know about great ones, and I’d sure like to avoid bad ones.  We could identify port, name of excursion and a quick summary clearly identifying if it’s a pro or con experience. I’d suggest only great or horrible reviews so it doesn’t get too clogged up.

Good idea

[uktog]

25 minutes ago, Mrs Miggins said:

Have had a reply from Azamara.

 

 

Strangely I get a red box at the end of their email "EXTERNAL EMAIL CAUTION:  This email originated from outside Azamara.  Please use caution when clicking on links or opening attachments"

I can see why confidence and faith wouldn’t necessarily be restored by that response. 
 

However to reassure you re the red box message that’s pretty standard if any organisation where they quote your email who are running a certain type of incoming mail system. Our work system has it though I often remind our IT folks it’s pointless I see it so often it goes right over my head. 

[Riocca]

6 minutes ago, Whitby100 said:

Mrs. Miggins’s experience is my nightmare.  Since destinations are often repeated and thus, so are shore excursions on offer, perhaps a thread where shore excursions are reviewed would be beneficial?  I’d like to know about great ones, and I’d sure like to avoid bad ones.  We could identify port, name of excursion and a quick summary clearly identifying if it’s a pro or con experience. I’d suggest only great or horrible reviews so it doesn’t get too clogged up.

Good idea in theory but on most shore excursions the passengers impressions will vary, normally we avoid ships excursions as they’re usually overpriced and tour guides do seem to be variable in quality. Last year we were on an Azamara excursion that could only be described as farcical, a cider tour in Spain, the tour company forgot to tell the cider producer we were coming so the factory was closed when we arrived. Tour guide winged it until the factory guide arrived, unfortunately she spoke no English and the guide couldn’t translate the technical stuff. We come from the part of England where cider production is part of the culture so we tried to help as some of the information being given was comical. We did get a cider tasting and a lunch that was very tasty but very little followed what was expected of the tour. On returning to the ship we highlighted the problems to the tours team but we were the only ones to do so as most others had no idea how bad the information they’d been given was.

[Whitby100]

Riocca, I’d love to know the name of that excursion and port.  You’ve provided the details, but omitted what I would find helpful.  In a new thread, others would find it, rather than buried here. 

[Riocca]

40 minutes ago, Whitby100 said:

Riocca, I’d love to know the name of that excursion and port.  You’ve provided the details, but omitted what I would find helpful.  In a new thread, others would find it, rather than buried here. 

Can’t recall the exact name of the tour but it was the only cider making tour offered in Gijon Spain.

 

Over the years we’ve done quite a few ships tours and private tours the percentage of problems we’ve experienced with ships tours is way higher than the private tours. 
Talking it through with the tours manager on Onward their biggest problem is that since covid a large number of the better guides have left the industry, those replacing them often are not of the same quality and don’t have the experience. 

 I also think that when you do private tours the guides are often the company owners who are reliant on good reviews and recommendations for future business. However ships tours are contracted to bigger operators who remain anonymous, profit is the name of the game so they may take on guides with less knowledge. As the ship, which will be sailing away after the tour, fronts the tours they don’t worry so much about content and quality. Remember there isn’t a large number of companies that can provide tours in the volume ships require. Probably the best cruise line for tours is Tui/Marella as they often have their own tours infrastructure in the areas the visit.

[excitedofharpenden]

2 hours ago, Mrs Miggins said:

Have had a reply from Azamara.

 

 

 

Actually it has caused me to lose faith.  

I'm not surprised. A wordy canned response that doesn't address the issue raised or make it right just makes it worse, but I have to say it doesn't surprise me. Once you walk off that ship, resolution is in the lap of the Gods. Fortunately I haven't had an experience like this. If I was in your situation I think I'd just take a deep breath and put it down to experience and vote with my feet in future. 

 

Incidentally, the most I spent on an excursion was £850. An overnight in Jordan visiting Petra amongst others. Overpriced?  Sure it was. I could have arranged the same tour privately for £450. But it still remains the best tour I have ever done and that's the lasting memory. Yours, unfortunately is the opposite. 

 

Phil 

[JYDCruise]

2 hours ago, Mrs Miggins said:

Have had a reply from Azamara.

 

Thank you for contacting Azamara. We cannot apologize enough for the extended delay in our response; this is not indicative of our normal operations.

 

I am sorry you were unhappy with the shore excursion. Our goal is to restore your confidence, and this feedback is a valuable and essential part of our ongoing improvement efforts. While we are unable to increase the compensation provided by the ship, I want to assure you that all of your comments will be shared with our operational teams for their internal review. 

 

We understand that the way to ensure that all of our customers are loyal customers is to guarantee that every contact or experience they have with Azamara demonstrates how important each customer is to us. This understanding is at the heart of everything we do, and we sincerely apologize you did not receive the experience you expected. We truly hope that the disappointments you shared have not caused you to lose faith in Azamara. 

 

Actually it has caused me to lose faith.  I do not know why they couldnt issue a Future Cruise Certificate for the disputed amount.  They lose nothing if I do not book again, but it would show good faith and just might encourage me to book.  They neglected to mention my credit card debit despite their final invoice showing me with unspent OBC.

Strangely I get a red box at the end of their email "EXTERNAL EMAIL CAUTION:  This email originated from outside Azamara.  Please use caution when clicking on links or opening attachments"

As an additional scary thought - they refunded you 50% of what you paid Azamara. That may well represent the entire price that they paid the tour operator. For example (using made up numbers; I don't know what Az's margin in on shorex): you pay Azamara $100 for the excursion, they pay the tour operator $50. Tour operator refunds the entire $50 they received, which Az passes on to you while holding on to the remaining $50.

[avw]

8 hours ago, Mrs Miggins said:

I am sorry you were unhappy with the shore excursion. Our goal is to restore your confidence, and this feedback is a valuable and essential part of our ongoing improvement efforts. While we are unable to increase the compensation provided by the ship, I want to assure you that all of your comments will be shared with our operational teams for their internal review. 

 

We understand that the way to ensure that all of our customers are loyal customers is to guarantee that every contact or experience they have with Azamara demonstrates how important each customer is to us. This understanding is at the heart of everything we do, and we sincerely apologize you did not receive the experience you expected. We truly hope that the disappointments you shared have not caused you to lose faith in Azamara. 

Such gobbledygook!!! Says all the right words and then acts in total contravention to those exact words. Oh, Azamara, please don't become just another cruise line! 😢

[AJCM]

12 hours ago, Riocca said:

their biggest problem is that since covid a large number of the better guides have left the industry, those replacing them often are not of the same quality and don’t have the experience. 

 

I'm sure this is decidedly true. Tour businesses have an obvious vested interest in talking up their capabilities to cruise companies, while knowing they are not capable of providing the same standard as pre-covid; due to staffing. Cruise companies must necessarily go with what they can get. (By the by, anyone who has cruised since covid restrictions have lifted would be aware of inexperienced staffing issues and supply issues - the problem is certainly not restricted to the tourism sector).

 

Even so, when a tour falls significantly short of what it was supposed to be, the cruise company has a responsibility to provide a straight out refund. Recently, Seabourn gave a 50% refund for a failed excursion. We considered 50% was fair, as costs were certainly incurred by the operator.

 

At least with Azamara, there is usually ample opportunity, through the cruise critic roll call, to arrange and/or join small group private excursions. In our experience the best excursions we've done have been this type; whereas ship excursions have usually been disappointing in some aspect both pre and post covid (you know what I mean - I'm not suggesting covid is over).

 

The roll call is a real plus for Azamara clients as premium cruise lines (Seabourn, Regent, Silverseas) usually have little roll call acitivity. Azamara roll calls, by comparison, are always very active. We recently signed up to join a small group overnight tour to Luxor next year and I expect there'll be other private tours available. We can only hope these tour providers can indeed supply a quality tour.