Journey - Nov08 - Mar09 ??

[Albert Ross]

Does anyone know what is happening to the Journey - all cruises between Nov 21 08 and Mar 20 09 have been closed out (code red)??? Are they just doing price adjustments to all these 9 cruises?? Anyone with insider info...?!

[Albert Ross]

FWIW now the cruise from Nov 21 - Dec 2 has totally disappeared from the inventory of cruises. Dec 2 - Mar 2 still all code red.

[Andy]

Hi Everyone !

 

Interesting News. Maybe Azamara is reconsidering where the ship will be placed. It appears to involve 1 Europe sailing, 1 Transatlantic Saling, and the rest look to be Brazil sailings. I am curious to see what happens.

[nanasoxfan]

I noticed the same thing, since we are looking for another Journey cruise, having enjoyed our 11/29 Brazil sailing so much.

Andy, could it be that they are taking the ship out of service to finish up the refurbishing? Did I read somewhere on this board that that was going to happen? There are still areas of this beautiful ship that show their age and obviously haven't been touched yet.

[Betty/Avie]

I checked with Azamara this am, and according to its agent the Journey was in drydock in April-May of 2007, and it is not scheduled to be drydocked again until 2012! Assuming the information I received was correct, the cruise line is not anticipating completing refurbishing the ship for some extended period of time.

[Andy]

I noticed the same thing, since we are looking for another Journey cruise, having enjoyed our 11/29 Brazil sailing so much.

Andy, could it be that they are taking the ship out of service to finish up the refurbishing? Did I read somewhere on this board that that was going to happen? There are still areas of this beautiful ship that show their age and obviously haven't been touched yet.

 

Hi Nanasoxfan !

 

I cant see that being a possibility. The ship just had a major upgrade, and even if there was a drydock upcoming, it wouldnt last for several months.

 

My guess is, that the South America itineraries will either be changed, or dropped for another region. Please keep in mind, that this is STRICTLY a guess, and I have no direct information. Stay Tuned.

[nanasoxfan]

Wouldn't surprise me. There were fewer than 500 pax on our Brazil sailing. Nice for us--not so great for them.

[Hlitner]

Why would we be surprised? Azamara started-out with awful marketing (even many TAs have still not heard of this line) and priced their cruises at prices that were not very attractive for a cruise line that had been getting very mixed reviews from day one! We are booked on the 3/22 Journey cruise, and its been hard to keep-up with all the price drops (we have had to re-book once and re-price twice). If Mr. Hanrahan thinks he can charge prices higher than the mass market (including Celebrity) and below the real classy lines (Regent, Seabourn, etc)...but he must offer more than a smaller ship (many cruisers avoid smaller ships). What does Azamara offer us? Alternative dining with limitations,,,than no limitations, but special gratuities, etc, etc. Concierge service that is pretty much another name for a decent cabin attendant. The Concierge thing on Celebrity is a cute marketing gimmick, but with Azamara he is trying to deal with an educated clientele who will not be lured in by the promise of a decent cabin attendent called a concierge. Even RCI has a real concierge lounge where the privileged entrants get free booze, a nice cappucino machine, decent snacks, etc. For more money Mr. Hanrahan wants us to be happy with pillow menus? Give me a break! We really do love the concept of Azamara, but it has occurred to us that Azamara does not know their own concept! If they want to be another Oceania Cruise Line than they need to do a major attitude adjustment from their Celebrity mind-set.

 

For the record, we really hope that Azamara gets their act together since the cruise industry needs more small ship, good itinerary, cruise lines.

 

Hank