Here is the official announcement on Azamara Cruises !

[Richard Stein]

Several months ago when RCCL offered $700 million for Oceania and failed. The Journey and Quest were meant for this line. Failing this I guess they will start their own Premium line. I will watch the first reviews by our readers. If their food is up to Oceania standards I will consider trying them. All the premium lines do go round the world with their ships, Bermuda is not enough for the price they are asking.

[eroller]

Several months ago when RCCL offered $700 million for Oceania and failed. The Journey and Quest were meant for this line. Failing this I guess they will start their own Premium line. I will watch the first reviews by our readers. If their food is up to Oceania standards I will consider trying them. All the premium lines do go round the world with their ships, Bermuda is not enough for the price they are asking.

 

 

Exactly, except it was only a couple months ago that the deal fell through. RCI was a stones throw from acquiring Oceania and then it all fell through at the last minute. The next day it was announced that Apollo had acquired Oceania.

 

I can't help but think Azamara might be a little ego coming into play on the part of Fain due to his failed attempt at Oceania???? We all know the CEO's of these cruise lines have a bit of an ego.

 

Ernie

[lysolqn]

I have to wonder how this will affect the Celebrity brand itself. My (hopefully unfounded) fear is that the formation of Azamara means X will move more in the direction of "mainstream" in order to appeal to the masses and as such, will begin to lose those touches that set it apart from from RCCL, HAL, Princess, NCL, etc. I'd hate to see the X product morphed into something other than what it is currently. Anyone want to allay my fears that our favorite cruise line may slowly become just one of the pack?

[AstridSJ]

And direct from Azamaro's website:

 

Will smoking be allowed on these ships?

A.Azamara Journey has two designated smoking areas. These areas are located in the aft section of the Looking Glass Lounge on the port side, and on the starboard forward section of the Pool Deck. Smoking areas have signs indicating that smoking is permitted there. All other areas of the ship are non-smoking. This includes Public Rooms, Restaurants, Pool Deck, Staterooms and Suites, Verandas and Halls. For the comfort of all of our guests, we request strict adherence to this policy, and thank all of our guests for their cooperation.

[Richard Stein]

Princess has three of the small R ships including the Pacific, Taihitian and Royal. They travel a round the world in these ships and do not charge an arm and a leg to do so. With elite status on both Princess and Celebrity I get free laundry on Princess which makes long exotic trips possible. I hope it works out. I guess they converted 48 of the balconies into 32 suites. Suite passengers get two free cracks at the specialty restaurants and others get one fee try.

[Andy]

I have to wonder how this will affect the Celebrity brand itself. My (hopefully unfounded) fear is that the formation of Azamara means X will move more in the direction of "mainstream" in order to appeal to the masses and as such, will begin to lose those touches that set it apart from from RCCL, HAL, Princess, NCL, etc. I'd hate to see the X product morphed into something other than what it is currently. Anyone want to allay my fears that our favorite cruise line may slowly become just one of the pack?

 

Hi Lysolqn !

 

Ok, I will give it a try. I feel your comments are a valid concern, but I do feel that if Celebrity makes any further changes from the product we have come to know and love over the years, that their passengers will "jump ship" (pardon the pun) in very short order. I find it hard to believe that the decision makers at Celebrity will radically change much at this point. As far as I am concerned, they can try their experiments with Azamara. I hope I am right that Celebrity will not change very much. Time will tell.

[chessbriar]

I have to wonder how this will affect the Celebrity brand itself. My (hopefully unfounded) fear is that the formation of Azamara means X will move more in the direction of "mainstream" in order to appeal to the masses and as such, will begin to lose those touches that set it apart from from RCCL, HAL, Princess, NCL, etc. I'd hate to see the X product morphed into something other than what it is currently. Anyone want to allay my fears that our favorite cruise line may slowly become just one of the pack?

My guess is with the continuing cutbacks, they will continue to fall closer to the mainstream. When they cut ties with Roxi, they said they would use more Prue-prepared food. Sounds like they'll cut it out of a bag and heat it up. Same as RCCL.

[lysolqn]

My guess is with the continuing cutbacks, they will continue to fall closer to the mainstream.

 

I fear you're right - but I sure hope you're wrong!

 

IMHO the Celebrity product is unique; X isn't quite a luxury line but it's not quite mainstream either. As a result, it has marketed to and attracted a somewhat unique demographic - passengers in search of a more traditional, more upscale cruise experience than that offered by the mainstream lines. I wonder whether RCI will choose to keep X afloat somewhere between luxury line Azamara and mainstream RCCL, or let it slowly evolve into just another one of the dime a dozen "load 'em up, ship 'em out" cruise lines. I sure hope it's the former and not the latter.

[LovetheSea]

So now that Celebrity has an upscale line for it loyal more picky cruisers, it can scale back the budget on it's other ships so they are just like RCCL's.

Will this mean BAD things to come for the Celebrity ships?

If so then they should cut the price of the cruises as well :(

[tromvest]

Celebrity will not be going to Bermuda for the 2008-2009 season.

[cruising with marti]

What a dreadfully horrid name.

 

 

I like the name , just can't pronounce it.:D

we are booked on the quest trans atlantic next April

Phil

[Mr. Tucker]

I have to wonder how this will affect the Celebrity brand itself. My (hopefully unfounded) fear is that the formation of Azamara means X will move more in the direction of "mainstream" in order to appeal to the masses and as such, will begin to lose those touches that set it apart from from RCCL, HAL, Princess, NCL, etc. I'd hate to see the X product morphed into something other than what it is currently. Anyone want to allay my fears that our favorite cruise line may slowly become just one of the pack?

 

With the addition of 3 ships with a capacity of almost 3000 passengers each Celebrity will have to look to attract families as its bread and butter passengers just to fill their ships. Families will flock to all ships in the Ceelbrity fleet and not just the three new ones.

 

That being said you can almost be guaranteed that Celebrity will be competing head to head with all of the other mainstream lines so their fares and services will be diectly in line with all of their competitors. A continuation of their downward spiral is inevitable and should be expected by all.

[Undercover Cruiser]

Regarding the marketing of the cruise lines, below is what Royal, Celebrity and Azamara considers it's competion:

 

Royal Caribbean- Carnival and NCL

 

Celebrity Cruise Lines- Princess, Holland

 

Azamara Cruise Line- Oceania and Regent

 

Regarding will there be cutbacks in Celebrity so it will be more mainstream. The answer is No. With the arrival of 3 more new ships in the Celebrity brand this will not happen. Budgets between Azamara and Celebrity are not tied together.

[caliber35]

Hi Everyone !

 

The one noticible thing is the ships will be white, not the usual Celebrity dark blue. I wonder if they already did this to Journey as she sails tomorrow.

 

Celebrity has been white for years now. The photos in the lit are old. Every X ship I've sailed on in the past five years was white with blue stripes.

[esther e]

We were really considering a reservation for the Oct sailing until I called Celebrity just to ask about a string quartet -- something we absolutely love about Oceania (and Constellation). They said "no" because the ships are smaller. Sorry. That did it for us. We enjoy the quartet and know we can get it on Oceania.

[Mr. Tucker]

Exactly, except it was only a couple months ago that the deal fell through. RCI was a stones throw from acquiring Oceania and then it all fell through at the last minute. The next day it was announced that Apollo had acquired Oceania.

 

I can't help but think Azamara might be a little ego coming into play on the part of Fain due to his failed attempt at Oceania???? We all know the CEO's of these cruise lines have a bit of an ego.

 

If you read statements made by Oceania executives at the time of RCI's attempted takeover you will find that the deal was never even remotely close to ever going thru. In fact Oceania executives replied to questions with don't be surprised if we become the "hunter" instead of the "hunted".

 

If I were a gambling man I would definitely bet that Oceania will eventually devour Azamara into their fold. This whole acquisition of Pulmantur by Celebrity, followed by them being very tight mouthed about the services such as dining, dress, smoking, childrens programs etc clearly shows how totally confused they were about what they were doing and that the everything was based upon a knee jerk reaction of not getting Oceania. To announce this total switch in concept the day before their first sailing is a marketing nightmare and whoever is responsible is going to have their heads served up very soon.

[pilewski]

i don't know how i feel about this yet

[gillianrose]

What a dreadfully horrid name.

 

Yeah, the first thing that came to mind is "Arizona Marinara".

[gillianrose]

Name also reminds me of "Ana Mandara," a restaurant in San Francisco.

 

 

 

Aha! Both of my thoughts were about FOOD. Maybe that's the plan. ;-)

[gillianrose]

And direct from Azamaro's website:

 

Will smoking be allowed on these ships?

A.Azamara Journey has two designated smoking areas. These areas are located in the aft section of the Looking Glass Lounge on the port side, and on the starboard forward section of the Pool Deck. Smoking areas have signs indicating that smoking is permitted there. All other areas of the ship are non-smoking. This includes Public Rooms, Restaurants, Pool Deck, Staterooms and Suites, Verandas and Halls. For the comfort of all of our guests, we request strict adherence to this policy, and thank all of our guests for their cooperation.

 

 

HELLO AZAMARA! Thrilled there will be significantly less smoking, and wish there were none at all.

 

But if smoking is permitted in the FORWARD section of the pool deck, won't the smoke drift AFT? And why starboard, when Celebrity used starboard as the non-smoking side?

[RLM77]

I have to wonder how this will affect the Celebrity brand itself. My (hopefully unfounded) fear is that the formation of Azamara means X will move more in the direction of "mainstream" in order to appeal to the masses and as such, will begin to lose those touches that set it apart from from RCCL, HAL, Princess, NCL, etc. I'd hate to see the X product morphed into something other than what it is currently. Anyone want to allay my fears that our favorite cruise line may slowly become just one of the pack?

 

You may be right, but bear in mind that Quest and Journey have a capacity of just over 1,400 between them. X still has over 13,000 berths to fill. That number will only rise as the S-class makes its appearance. They can't go down-market too far or they risk having to discount more aggressively to fill their ships. So I'm guessing that X won't change too dramatically. Azamara will get all the new luxury touches, though.

[SandyR5]

We booked starboard room on Journey and Quest on purpose because smoking is allowed on deck on starboard. We wanted to be as far away as possible. They did a turnaround on us.

[RLM77]

With the addition of 3 ships with a capacity of almost 3000 passengers each Celebrity will have to look to attract families as its bread and butter passengers just to fill their ships. Families will flock to all ships in the Ceelbrity fleet and not just the three new ones.

 

That being said you can almost be guaranteed that Celebrity will be competing head to head with all of the other mainstream lines so their fares and services will be diectly in line with all of their competitors. A continuation of their downward spiral is inevitable and should be expected by all.

 

With all respect, RCCL already has a family-oriented brand, and they have spent many years and millions of dollars building that brand. Celebrity will definitely not be going head to head against RCI. That's a lose-lose proposition.

 

I suspect that there will be few dramatic changes. X will continue to target mass market cruisers of middle-aged and mature years who are looking for a few upscale touches at a price only a little above mass market lines. They've been successful at this for years, the strategy doesn't compete directly with the flagship RCI brand, and they do compete directly against (and offer a solid alternative to) both HAL and Princess. I simply don't see this changing much, if at all.

[Dolphins]

Celebrity will not be going to Bermuda for the 2008-2009 season.

 

It makes no sense to me that Celebrity would obtain two ships ideally suited to dock in Bermuda (St. George & Hamilton) and not go there in 2008 & 2009. Few of their competitors have similar sized ships now?

[SandyR5]

What I meant to say was smoking has always been allowed on port side and we wanted to be as far away as possible. Sorry for the error.