Booking 2026 …did AZ change its stateroom categories?

[laurieb]

6 hours ago, uktog said:

I did a booking three weeks ago and my travel agent tells me she is still waiting an invoice to share with me. Used to have it instantly 

are things different there?  Do TA's not have access to online bookings?  Here, TA's can forward the confirmations from the online booking engine; my TA does very quickly

[Host Jazzbeau]

8 minutes ago, laurieb said:

are things different there?  Do TA's not have access to online bookings?  Here, TA's can forward the confirmations from the online booking engine; my TA does very quickly

I think the answer is yes – UK posters seem to be having lots of problems (with Azamara and also with Explora Journeys, which also uses the Seaware software package).

[wjfan417]

I normally book onboard for the extra perks. I received the confirmation from my TA within a day of booking.

[blag]

6 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

I think the answer is yes – UK posters seem to be having lots of problems (with Azamara and also with Explora Journeys, which also uses the Seaware software package).

My TA is UK-based. As reported earlier herein, no noticeable delay.

[uktog]

7 hours ago, laurieb said:

are things different there?  Do TA's not have access to online bookings?  Here, TA's can forward the confirmations from the online booking engine; my TA does very quickly

I think there a variety of structures for interaction with Azamara here

[blag]

2 minutes ago, uktog said:

I think there a variety of structures for interaction with Azamara here

Forgive me for being a bit dense.

Am I right in thinking that you are saying that not all UK TA's are using the same booking system or means of making the booking with Azamara, and that this has an impact on invoice delivery?

[uktog]

Just now, blag said:

Forgive me for being a bit dense.

Am I right in thinking that you are saying that not all UK TA's are using the same booking system or means of making the booking with Azamara, and that this has an impact on invoice delivery?

They all use the system but have different payment relationships (which affects how the system appears to the guest) and different company policies on how reservations are handled. There is also the issue of different levels of awareness these days. When Azamara was part of Royal agents had plenty exposure to the system through also doing bookings for Royal and Celebrity but now they are working with one they don’t know as well. 

[blag]

3 minutes ago, uktog said:

They all use the system but have different payment relationships (which affects how the system appears to the guest) and different company policies on how reservations are handled. There is also the issue of different levels of awareness these days. When Azamara was part of Royal agents had plenty exposure to the system through also doing bookings for Royal and Celebrity but now they are working with one they don’t know as well. 

Therefore is it not reasonable to conclude that the problem of consistency (the most important thing) may not be caused by Azamara, but by third parties.

[uktog]

36 minutes ago, blag said:

Therefore is it not reasonable to conclude that the problem of consistency (the most important thing) may not be caused by Azamara, but by third parties.

Some of the requirements are cruise line driven and I’ve first hand experience of my agency being given inconsistent or different process requirements across calls. There is also inconsistent requirements between countries not all are down to legal frameworks. 
I apologise my posts are not detailed and precise enough for your liking. 
I will not answer any more questions from you on this topic 

[oddjob16]

17 hours ago, laurieb said:

Huh.  I can truthfully say that the only issue I've had with onshore is the way that B2B's are being handled.  I think that the onshore experience has improved drastically; yes, I've been booking and sailing every year since 2015, before and after the break from RCCL.  I don't believe they deserve the bashing they continue to get.  

We just had a seamless handling of a B2B request. We had a previously booked seven day cruise in a suite coupled with an eleven day cruise in a veranda (september 2025). All done in a day and all promotions and OBC added without us asking for it.

Our first impression of the new 2026 itineraries is that the prices have increased significantly. We are not jumping on any of them yet. On the fence, as they say.

[blag]

10 minutes ago, oddjob16 said:

Our first impression of the new 2026 itineraries is that the prices have increased significantly

I agree.

[fruitmachine]

16 hours ago, uktog said:

I did a booking three weeks ago and my travel agent tells me she is still waiting an invoice to share with me. Used to have it instantly 

There is an (imperfect) work around:

 

Go to the summary page on Seaware, and change the word "summary" in the URL to "invoice".

[uktog]

51 minutes ago, fruitmachine said:

There is an (imperfect) work around:

 

Go to the summary page on Seaware, and change the word "summary" in the URL to "invoice".

Thanks that’s really helpful 

[uktog]

9 hours ago, fruitmachine said:

There is an (imperfect) work around:

 

Go to the summary page on Seaware, and change the word "summary" in the URL to "invoice".

The great news is I can see the booking and the figures

The bad news - this was a single booking moving to a b2b booking and the figures are all wrong by several thousand £££  Maybe it wasnt a good idea to go and look!  I have asked the agent to push for the new invoices asap.  

[AllisonJames]

I am going to go out on a limb and say the situation may be improving (at least in the US) regarding booking. They had very high volume last few days but yesterday late afternoon my TA got right through to them and I had the invoice within 30 minutes.

[PirateWife]

Yes, booking on board was easy. An advantage was that I could look at what was available. When the 2026 itineraries came out, booking was heavy for some of the cruises. As an aside, the advantage of our just finished b2b cruises was that we could spread our OBC over the two cruises. Also, since we didn't purchase a wi-fi package, unused wi-fi from the first cruise continued into the second cruise, and when that was used up, then the free wi-fi minutes for the 2nd cruise were applied.