Itinerary Changes - Decreased Time in Port

[Susan-M]

DH and I had been 'sitting on the fence' regarding booking an Asian cruise on Quest for next month .... too much time on board with limited time in port was a drawback for us, although the price was almost too good to pass up.

 

Yesterday, when we had pretty much decided to go ahead with it, I had a look at the itinerary again and noticed some recent changes that decreased time in some ports (as much as 4 hours in one port, and a couple of hours in two others), leaving what seems like too little time for some ports. With those changes, we decided that it wasn't a good choice of cruises for us, so we're no longer 'sitting on the fence'.

 

I wonder if Azamara is doing this so that the ship can travel more slowly in order to conserve fuel, or if their initial planning wasn't done carefully enough?

 

Are others noticing changes to itineraries for their upcoming cruises? (It's the Feb. 28/09 cruise that we were considering.) Fortunately, we had no changes to our Med cruise on Quest in October, and perhaps this is just an isolated situation.

[Bufrenee]

Haven't noticed but will check itinery again as we are booked on the Feb. 14th cruise on the Quest. Will come back to you after checking.:)

[Bufrenee]

Just rechecked the itinery on the Feb 14th sailing and found that there was an extra 2.5 hrs in port at Osaka arriving at 5 pm instead of 7.30 pm and arriving in Shanghai at 5am instead of 7am, the departure times have not changed.:)

[Susan-M]

We had looked at the 14th initially and then decided on the 28th because of the extra time in Kyoto(Osaka) and lower price, but now they've taken away 4 hours of that time in Kyoto. Plus the Feb. 28th itinerary has less time in Busan and Seoul than the Feb. 14th one. The 28th cruise is hugely discounted right now, and I guess as they say, you can't have your cake and eat it too. If we could add another couple of weeks onto the trip, it would have made the decision much easier, but the most we could take off in Feb. would be about 18 days and therefore the need to squeeze in as much sightseeing as possible.

 

Enjoy the trip ... I'm looking forward to hearing about the Asian itineraries!:)

[shoshona2]

Dear Susan,

 

We took a similar cruise on Oceania several years ago. Since it wasn't our first time in some of the ports, we booked it. If you won't be enjoying your cruise (even though the price is right), I would suggest you take a land tour to some of the same ports and see the cities in depth. We were disappointed when Oceania changed our time in Shanghai. Instead of leaving at 4:00 p.m. on the second day, the time was changed to 1:00 p.m. We found this out just before we received our documents. We left Shanghai at 1:00 p.m. and got as far as halfway to the end of the opening to the open sea, when the fog rolled in. We were ordered to drop anchor and sit there for 14 hours. Thus, we were a day late into Kobe and only had one day in Kyoto. Since we were there before, we just hung around Kobe which was boring. This part of the World deserves to be seen very thoroughly.

 

Sheila

[Susan-M]

Hi Sheila,

Thanks for your thoughts on this. We normally take land trips when we travel, and when we do cruise, we choose port-intensive ones. I am looking into a land trip now for a trip to Asia later this year.

[cadcruiser]

Hi Susan,

 

We're on the Feb. 28th sailing. Too bad you won't be joining us. We are disappointed with all the changes on this itinerary. Azamara has already refunded money to our credit card after cancelling a shore excursion in Osaka because we are leaving early. They did not notify me and I had to figure out myself where this money came from. After checking the cruise calendar I noticed all the changes.

 

As you know, the service onboard is much better than the pre-cruise service. Hope we cross paths again in the future.

[shoshona2]

HI Susan,

 

When you look for a land tour, please take a look at Tauck's tours. They are more money than their competition, but EVERYTHING is included. There are NO extra charges. We arrived in Hong Kong a day after the tour started since we had been there several times before. Tauck arranged a private pickup for us at the airport and it was at NO charge. We are now booked on our 12th Tauck tour to Egypt and Jordan next October.

 

Sheila

[Jade13]

HI Susan,

 

When you look for a land tour, please take a look at Tauck's tours. They are more money than their competition, but EVERYTHING is included. There are NO extra charges. We arrived in Hong Kong a day after the tour started since we had been there several times before. Tauck arranged a private pickup for us at the airport and it was at NO charge. We are now booked on our 12th Tauck tour to Egypt and Jordan next October.

 

Sheila

 

Have you gone with them to Peru? They now have my "perfect" itinerary for 2 weeks which includes Bolivia.

 

My parents and their friends used them for a trip to Canada and said everything was first class. They could have done it cheaper on their own but their friends did not want to bother making the arrangements.

[Jade13]

Are others noticing changes to itineraries for their upcoming cruises? (It's the Feb. 28/09 cruise that we were considering.) Fortunately, we had no changes to our Med cruise on Quest in October, and perhaps this is just an isolated situation.

 

Susan, this is an interesting comment and we are booked on Azamara in Asia for 2010. It's a good itinerary but I don't believe as good as the HAL Rotterdam which had a slightly better itinerary but was redeployed. My issue with Azamara is that (in 2010 and could of course change again) it is a 14 night cruise and long for us) YET only stops in 4 different ports between the first and last. It's good for the cruise line to sell overnight trips but we do want to spend most nights on the ship we are paying to be on. The Southeast Asia cruise we are booked on spends 3 days in Bangkok (OK, my favorite place in SE Asia), a couple different ports in Vietnam and one in Cambodia that is not supposed to be that great (we will probably do an overnight on our own to Angkor Wat), but the more I think about it over a 2 year period on two 10 night HAL ships we had 7 port stops (in Europe) each year, so with Civitevecchia 15 ports....but my point is 7 stops on a 10 night vs this 4 stops on a 14 night journey.

[Aussie Gal]

Susan,

 

We are a couple who are booked on the 28th February sailing, so you can imagine we are terribly disappointed at the changes in the itinerary. We booked in May because we were having 3 ports in Japan and loved the schedule. The itinerary changed in July and one of the ports in Japan was taken away and we were given an extra day in Shanghai whiich didn't suit us as we are having a land tour at the end of the cruise and we are spending quite some time in that city.

 

Then, at the weekend and thanks to Cadcruiser, we found out that we have lost 4 hours in Osaka as well as a couple of hours from our time in Seoul. I had already organized private tours in both these ports and they now have to be changed. We will not get to see Osaka at all, as our one full day in that port will be spent in Kyoto and as Seoul is a good 90 minute ride from Incheon, I doubt if there will be any time to see this city.

 

When one books a cruise for the itinerary which we always do, it is upsetting when the itinerary is changed not once but twice and after we have made our final payment. I know that we have had decreases in the price we are paying and we are now getting a very cheap cruise, but that does not make up for the itinerary we have lost.

 

It does make us wary about booking another Azamara cruise as in all our years of cruising, this is the first time an itinerary has been changed so much and we usually book a good 18 months in advance.

 

Jennie

[Jade13]

I am assuming that the change is to save on port fees since the cruise is not sold out and thus discounted? And why bother to show a 10:00am departure from Osaka? It might as well be listed as a sea day.

[Susan-M]

Thank you all for your feedback on this!

 

Cadcruiser & Jennie, I'm sure you'll have a great time on this cruise and hopefully will be able to maximize your time in port ... and with any luck, maybe Azamara will add back on some of the time that they've recently deleted. If the on-board experience is similar to what we had in October, that in itself will be worth going for! Diane...we would very much enjoy doing another cruise that you and your DH are on...and if we both remain Azamara fans, I guess there's a chance that that will happen.:)

 

Sheila...thanks so much for the Tauck recommendation ... I will be sure to check them out.

 

Jade 13, we've also been spoiled with port intensive itineraries in the Med ... but I haven't seen any yet in Asia...too much distance to cover. Azamara has an interesting 18 day one, but it's at Christmas which doesn't work for us. Oceania also has longer ones that look interesting...esp. their 24 day ones... now all we have to do is come up with enough time to fit it all in.:)

[Moeve]

as a matter of interest have any of you complained to Azamara - especially those of you who are on the ill fated 28th Feb cruise?

[cruiseyguy]

Or asked for an explanation? There may be port congestion issues which suddenly came up somewhere along this cruise that affected the overall itinerary.

[Susan-M]

Or asked for an explanation? There may be port congestion issues which suddenly came up somewhere along this cruise that affected the overall itinerary.

 

I think that with changes as significant as the ones made for the Feb. 28th, itinerary, the cruise line should be sending an explanation to those booked, with having to be asked...but it doesn't appear that Azamara has taken the initiative to do this.

[Jade13]

I think that with changes as significant as the ones made for the Feb. 28th, itinerary, the cruise line should be sending an explanation to those booked, with having to be asked...but it doesn't appear that Azamara has taken the initiative to do this.

 

 

How significant again? Were ports dropped and if so,how many? How many total different ports on this 14 nigh cruise? If they do it this year they will do it again next year.

 

I recall a friend who did the Journey Antarctica cruise and Falklands Islands was dropped prior to departure.

[Susan-M]

How significant again? Were ports dropped and if so,how many? How many total different ports on this 14 nigh cruise? If they do it this year they will do it again next year.

 

No ports were dropped (recently) but Aussie Gal mentioned above about a substitution that was made this past July. Not sure if they will continue to make changes like this and as mentioned, we were lucky on our Med cruise not to have any changes ... so perhaps they just didn't calculate properly when they first put this itinerary together, or as cruiseguy mentions, perhaps conflicts in ports with scheduling.

 

Recent changes:

• An overnight in Osaka, with a scheduled 2 p.m. departure was cut back to 10 a.m., meaning another sea day instead of time to do anything in that port in the a.m. ... unless you head off the ship at a very early hour.
  

• Two hours cut from Incheon (Seoul) ... leaving only 6 hours there instead of 8 and barely enough time to get to Seoul & back with time for sightseeing in Seoul. Interestingly, many of Azamara's excursions offered on their website for that port on that sailing are for longer lengths of time than the ship is scheduled to be in port.
  

 

Sat Feb 28 Hong Kong, China Embark

Sun Mar 1 Hong Kong, China 6:00pm departure

Mon Mar 2 At Sea

Tue Mar 3 At Sea

Wed Mar 4 Shanghai, China 7:30am arrival

Thu Mar 5 Shanghai, China 8:00pm departure

Fri Mar 6 At Sea

Sat Mar 7 Pusan, South Korea 7:00am-3:00pm

Sun Mar 8 Hiroshima, Japan 8:00am-4:00pm

Mon Mar 9 Kyoto, Japan 7:00am arrival

Tue Mar 10 Kyoto, Japan 10:00am departure

Wed Mar 11 At Sea

Thu Mar 12 Seoul, South Korea 10:00am-4:00pm

Fri Mar 13 Dalian, China 11:00am-5:00pm

Sat Mar 14 Beijing (Tianjin), China 6:30am

[Aussie Gal]

I sent an email to Azamara two days ago regarding the shore excursions that were still being offered for Incheon and Seoul for our particular cruise. They were all too long, over 7 hours and therefoe useless as we now only have 6 hours in that particular port.

 

I also stressed to them my disappointment at the changes which are so close to our sailing and asked them the reason why this had happened.

 

Of course I haven't heard back from them. I am not surprised as I sent an email to Azamara about a different matter months ago and I never heard back.

 

They are so different from Oceania in this respect. Whenever I had a query before our cruise with Oceania last year, I sent off an email and I even heard from the CEO, Mr F Del Rio on one occasion.

 

Azamara should take a leaf out of Oceania's book.

 

Jennie

[Tinwoman]

I sent an email to Azamara two days ago regarding the shore excursions that were still being offered for Incheon and Seoul for our particular cruise. They were all too long, over 7 hours and therefoe useless as we now only have 6 hours in that particular port.

 

I also stressed to them my disappointment at the changes which are so close to our sailing and asked them the reason why this had happened.

 

Of course I haven't heard back from them. I am not surprised as I sent an email to Azamara about a different matter months ago and I never heard back.

 

They are so different from Oceania in this respect. Whenever I had a query before our cruise with Oceania last year, I sent off an email and I even heard from the CEO, Mr F Del Rio on one occasion.

 

Azamara should take a leaf out of Oceania's book.

 

Jennie

 

Well I would encourage you to call instead of email, in my experience a personal call received more results then any email.

If they can't satisfy you with their answers, then there are many more cruise lines to choose from.

[Aussie Gal]

How significant again? Were ports dropped and if so,how many? How many total different ports on this 14 nigh cruise? If they do it this year they will do it again next year.

 

I recall a friend who did the Journey Antarctica cruise and Falklands Islands was dropped prior to departure.

 

Jade,

 

We lost a port in Japan in July. That was the first of the changes. Instead they gave us an extra day in Shanghai. We also lost time in Incheon (Seoul) at that time. We were originally docking around 8am and they changed it to 10am.

 

Then just recently we have lost hours off our time in Osaka. Instead of departing at 2pm, we are now departing at 10am which is useless!

 

We have lost more time in Incheon. We now depart at 4pm instead of 6pm. Seoul was one of the reasons why we booked this cruise.

 

Also in Hirsohima, we have lost a couple of hours. We were leaving at 5pm or 6pm, we are now leaving at 4pm.

 

We are not impressed and because of the changes that have happened to us, we certainly would not book another Azamara cruise in a hurry because we would be worried about changes to any of their itineraries.

 

Also, we have only just found out that we will not be docked at the Ocean Terminal in Hong Kong. This is a huge disappointment as it is so convenient to everything. Instead we are at a Container Terminal on Hong Kong Island. If we had know all of this before we booked, we would have looked at another cruise line. eg. HAL, Oceania, or Princess.

 

Jennie

[Aussie Gal]

Tinwoman,

 

As we live in Australia, we are certainly not going to waste a prohibitive amount of money on a phone call that may not give us the correct answers and be sent from one department to another.

 

This is our first taste of Azamara and I know that there are lots of other cruise lines out there as we are experienced cruises who have just about cruised around the world in our travels, but when we booked this cruise, we chose it for the itinerary, the size of the ship and because we wanted to try Azamara and compare it to Oceania and Princess having cruised on the ex "R" ships on both these cruise lines. We are still getting the smaller ship but not the itinerary we booked.

 

 

The only compensation is that we are paying a quarter of the original price of our verandah cabin but I would rather pay the higher price and get the itinerary we originally chose.

 

Jennie

[Lobbylin]

I am on the Asian itinerary after Aussiegal/Cadcruiser, and our itinerary has changed too. It is the same itinerary in reverse.

 

The irony is we have gained 2hrs in Osaka, and gained another 2hrs in Shanghai, which makes it sound like Azamara are not penny-pinching to avoid paying port charges as others have suggested.

 

To me, they simply seem so disorganised and don't seem to have planned this very well, constantly changing things.

 

Hopefully anyone doing this itinerary in 2010 will end up with the best and most accurate itinerary.

 

Thankfully, I have benefitted from the latest changes, but I am not holding my breath just yet. I will be watching to see how the next few sailings work out....;)

[cruiseyguy]

You are visiting some very busy commercial ports; things change on a daily basis beyond the control of the cruise line.

[Aussie Gal]

You are visiting some very busy commercial ports; things change on a daily basis beyond the control of the cruise line.

 

How come other ship's itineraries are not changed at the last minute and they also visit busy ports. Most ports in Asia are busy. We are now only weeks away from our cruise and major changes were made only a few days ago.

 

There are two cruises before ours with the same itineraries, the first leaves on the 31st January. I wouldn't like to be told about major changes only a couple of weeks before sailing.

 

Also, how canwe found out where we are docking in each port. We have had no communication at all from Azamara regarding changes etc. and we would like to know where we will be in each city.

 

Jennie