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That's It For Azamara


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Last November I wrote a thread about my five cancelled land excursions on back-to-back cruises on the Journey. I said then I was reluctant to book again. Well, I did. Now I have finished a cruise on the Quest, and the number of cancelled excursions has risen to seven. (There were also some excursions other that mine cancelled on the latest cruise.)

 

I have been able to travel very extensively over many years. The usual types of excursions no longer interest me all that much, and I look for excursions that are different and more unusual. I have been able to find these on a handful of cruise lines, including Azamara, but they tend to be among the pricier options. But that is fine if they give want I want. I spend time researching available excursions and book them a month or two before sailing. Unfortunately, these are the types of excursions that have little interest among Azamara clientele and end up being cancelled.

 

This time I did some questioning and found crew on the ship quite open about this issue. It seems that the number of people taking ship-sold shore excursions has dropped over the last three years as prices have gone up significantly and discounts for early booking have been eliminated. Also, the parameters for canceling excursions with small numbers of participants has changed. In the past, there was a tendency to look at the overall excursion list. If Azamara was making enough revenue overall, excursions with more than a very small number of participants had a chance of going, even if the excursion might not profitable. Now, the bean counters in Miami apparently insist that each excursion stand on its own and make a profit.

 

One note about the cancelations. They tend to come a day or two before the excursion date. Unfortunately, when you try to book an alternative, it is often sold out. This is particularly annoying when you have booked the original excursion several months earlier. So, you settle for your third or fourth choice or just wander ashore on your own.

 

There have also been threads that talk about changes to excursions and description not always being that accurate. I have experienced both.

 

Also, I have only ever had one other shore excursion cancelled on my 19 non-Azamara cruises the last 8 years.

 

As a result, I have decided not to return to Azamara. For me, the shore excursion mess overshadows the many other fine things about this line.

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On the other hand Azamara are very tolerant of Passengers organising their own excursion parties. The CD on our recent cruise had a definite slot at the Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle for tour organisers to identify themselves and gather their groups together.

 

 

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Last November I wrote a thread about my five cancelled land excursions on back-to-back cruises on the Journey. I said then I was reluctant to book again. Well, I did. Now I have finished a cruise on the Quest, and the number of cancelled excursions has risen to seven. (There were also some excursions other that mine cancelled on the latest cruise.)

 

I have been able to travel very extensively over many years. The usual types of excursions no longer interest me all that much, and I look for excursions that are different and more unusual. I have been able to find these on a handful of cruise lines, including Azamara, but they tend to be among the pricier options. But that is fine if they give want I want. I spend time researching available excursions and book them a month or two before sailing. Unfortunately, these are the types of excursions that have little interest among Azamara clientele and end up being cancelled.

 

This time I did some questioning and found crew on the ship quite open about this issue. It seems that the number of people taking ship-sold shore excursions has dropped over the last three years as prices have gone up significantly and discounts for early booking have been eliminated. Also, the parameters for canceling excursions with small numbers of participants has changed. In the past, there was a tendency to look at the overall excursion list. If Azamara was making enough revenue overall, excursions with more than a very small number of participants had a chance of going, even if the excursion might not profitable. Now, the bean counters in Miami apparently insist that each excursion stand on its own and make a profit.

 

One note about the cancelations. They tend to come a day or two before the excursion date. Unfortunately, when you try to book an alternative, it is often sold out. This is particularly annoying when you have booked the original excursion several months earlier. So, you settle for your third or fourth choice or just wander ashore on your own.

 

There have also been threads that talk about changes to excursions and description not always being that accurate. I have experienced both.

 

Also, I have only ever had one other shore excursion cancelled on my 19 non-Azamara cruises the last 8 years.

 

As a result, I have decided not to return to Azamara. For me, the shore excursion mess overshadows the many other fine things about this line.

Sorry to hear this but fully understand.

I don't want it to happen but we might be forced to follow you between inaccurate descriptions, tours especially the most expensive ones not delivering what was promised and cancellations. I looked at the new offerings for upcoming cruises most of which weren't new just renamed. They are relatively expensive and like you I wanted unusual ones most of which are not there.

Who knows what will happen but between this and people being upset (understandably so) about the Quest November issue and the issues re some of the destinations planning it's sad to see loyal travellers saying I'm out or I'm reducing how many trips a year I have with Azamara.

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On the other hand Azamara are very tolerant of Passengers organising their own excursion parties. The CD on our recent cruise had a definite slot at the Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle for tour organisers to identify themselves and gather their groups together.

 

 

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I agree. We only ever book ship's excursions when we have OBC. Otherwise we book excursions on-line either ourselves or through Roll-call groups. Always cheaper, smaller groups and usually include much more. Never had a problem getting back to the ship on time. Local tour companies make sure they get you back well before the ship leaves as its not in their interest for you to miss the ship!

 

 

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I agree. We only ever book ship's excursions when we have OBC. Otherwise we book excursions on-line either ourselves or through Roll-call groups. Always cheaper, smaller groups and usually include much more. Never had a problem getting back to the ship on time. Local tour companies make sure they get you back well before the ship leaves as its not in their interest for you to miss the ship!

 

 

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I think the problem is now we have lost our price discount for back to back cruises and had this replaced with OBC and we forgo access to later price drops in return for land discoveries credit we can be sitting on a significant sum we can only use for excursions.

I totally agree in many parts of the world DIY is the way to go but when you feel you have a $value to spend with Azamara could have given you in other ways including a small price reduction as they used to do it stings.

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It seems very sad to me that experienced and loyal Azamara cruisers are thinking of leaving the brand because, as we all know, the onboard experience is just as good as ever.

 

The shorex department, both onboard and in Miami has always seemed to be the weakest link on Azamara to me. For a destination immersion cruise line to be cancelling so many shore excursions so often....then something is wrong with the planning in my opinion. The new and much advertised shore excursions seem to have been received with ....well mostly silence. They certainly wouldn't tempt me to book them.

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Lottie A, I totally agree. I don't think the people in charge of the shore excursion team know much, it's actually embarrassing to see some of the errors, especially when Azamara promotes itself the way it does. For example, we did the Auckland to Sydney cruise last year and were horrified/amused to see Sydney being promoted as the capital of Queensland. I get the jokes, but this was on the excursion booking area. We noticed many errors regarding New Zealand ports.

We are booked on another cruise this June which mentions going to Mykonos and Delos, however the itinerary does not include Mykonos...

And now, their shore excursions are so expensive, on a par with Oceania, which is something I never thought I would say about any other cruise line.

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Maybe Azamara shares Celebrity shorex department!

Last year, we had a lot of fun when Celebrity cancelled all the "excursions to Berlin" (and gave a total refund!) because :

" Warnemünde, our port of call for Berlin has been cancelled and our ship will be docked in.......Rostock! "

i.e. The full name of the port is Warnemünde-Rostock, Warnemünde being the cruiseport and Rostock the industrial port, very unpleasant for passengers wanting to walk around the port area, but absolutely no necessity to cancel excursions to Berlin, operating, in any case, by train from......Rostock railway station!

 

 

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On the other hand Azamara are very tolerant of Passengers organising their own excursion parties. The CD on our recent cruise had a definite slot at the Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle for tour organisers to identify themselves and gather their groups together.

 

 

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Excuse me David but why would Azamara not be tolerant of passengers organising their own tours?? You and I have done that already!! If the CD on your recent cruise had a definite slot for independent organisers then excellent as we have found that at recent M & M meetings we have attended the CDs only wanted the whole thing to be over as quickly as possible.... and not only the CD...

We have a cruise booked in May on Quest.....yes, the LCV...we shall see what that actually means ...and I will report back!!

Basically, we feel that Az LDs are at a price point that we do not want to visit....and Az cruises are fast reaching the same price point.

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We have wanted to try Azamara for quite awhile and finally booked our first cruise for Oct 2017 while on board Celebrity last year. We were given a nice sum of onboard credit which I found out in January is mostly good only for Land Discoveries. While we also usually do private or diy tours, I plan to do several azazmara excursions to use up this credit. There are no sea days on this cruise so everyday is a different port. I have been watching the exursions since last year, there are not many choices (in one port there is only 1 choice) and many of them seem to spend alot of time on the bus. I keep hoping they will add some different things to choose from. It also seems odd that while you have this credit to spend, you can't use it until you are on the ship. It seems to me they would better be able to manage their tours if they let you pre book. This way they would know which have enough to go ahead and last minute cancelations could be avoided.

 

After reading this thread I am wondering what are the type of excursions that don't draw enough people, we usually avoid anything labeled as "panoramic" or "mild". I am sure it was very disappointing to have things canceled at the last minute. Another thing I have noticed is that there is not much of a roll call (3 people and no posts in over a month) so organizing tours that way is not an option.

 

We really want to love this cruise so this can be the first of many, but we are still itinerary driven so our excursions are as important as our experience on the ship.

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2 weeks before our TA on Quest, I was telephoned by Miami to ask if I had forgotten I was cruising, as I hadn't booked any excursions. I told the person I wouldn't be, as I considered the excursions too expensive. I obviously wasn't the only passenger thinking this, as Miami had to resort to this tactic and spend expensive Trans Atlantic phone calls to try to save pre arranged Land Discoveries excursions.

The Captain at one time even tried to persuade passengers that they might not come this way again and that there was space on some excursions.

There was also an item in the daily 'news letter' explaining why the excursions were expensive- the operator had to be paid as well as Azamara making money.

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On our Med cruise last June our excursion to Florence and Pisa was cancelled. We got a note in our cabin on the evening before the day of the trip!

It gave us very little time to organise an alternative.

In the end we just got in a taxi at the docks and arranged a return trip to Pisa, with a few hours for sightseeing.

 

We really like to take ships excursions rather then plan our own. Hubby has a demanding job and just wants to really chill out and not have to plan too much at all.

 

We have a another cruise booked on the Quest this June, and we are really apprehensive about booking anything through the ship.

Really not sure what to do to be honest.

We have a couple of weeks until final payment, and these excursions are a major part of our cruises.

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On our Med cruise last June our excursion to Florence and Pisa was cancelled. We got a note in our cabin on the evening before the day of the trip!

It gave us very little time to organise an alternative.

In the end we just got in a taxi at the docks and arranged a return trip to Pisa, with a few hours for sightseeing.

 

 

I can't imagine how frustrated you were. We are booked on the October 14th cruise mainly because it overnights in Livorno. If we had our excursion cancelled to Florence within 24 hours, we would be seriously mad!

 

We have begun to plan our excursions for our b2b in October and are finding Azamara's excursions to be very expensive. We can book a private excursion for 2 to 6 people for a lot less money. The hard part is finding people to join a tour when the roll calls on Azamara are so small. Hopefully, the roll calls will pick up soon.

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This was a big issue that drove us away from Oceania after 1 cruise. They price their shore excursions very high, then cancel for lack of interest -- for some reason they don't see the correlation! I think Azamara needs to realize this is a long-term business that may require some early losses to build up customer confidence. Give us high quality shore excursions, guarantee that they will run, and price in a fair profit -- and this will become a big selling point that helps fill the ships and ultimately makes money on its own.

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2 weeks before our TA on Quest, I was telephoned by Miami to ask if I had forgotten I was cruising, as I hadn't booked any excursions. I told the person I wouldn't be, as I considered the excursions too expensive. I obviously wasn't the only passenger thinking this, as Miami had to resort to this tactic and spend expensive Trans Atlantic phone calls to try to save pre arranged Land Discoveries excursions.

The Captain at one time even tried to persuade passengers that they might not come this way again and that there was space on some excursions.

There was also an item in the daily 'news letter' explaining why the excursions were expensive- the operator had to be paid as well as Azamara making money.

 

 

A couple of the excursions on Azamara's Arabian cruise last October were, what appeared to be, identical tours to those being offered by a UK cruiseline. However, Azamara's prices were much higher; one was a third more expensive. We had no choice but to pay Azamara's inflated prices.

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I understand your frustration. We had a large OBC on our last cruise and tours were cancelled. We were waitlisted for other tours and never got off the waitlist. If they are going to offer an OBC that can only be used for shore excursions, then they need to stop cancelling shore excursions. I am worried because we are doing a B2B for 25 days and have a large OBC. If tours cancel, we will once again lose the incentive for booking early, B2B and onboard.

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We had no choice but to pay Azamara's inflated prices.

 

 

Curious - what do you mean with "no choice"? I assume it wasn't mandatory to purchase these excursions? You could have done your own thing I assume? If enough people don't book, prices will eventually come down... supply & demand.

 

 

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Curious - what do you mean with "no choice"? I assume it wasn't mandatory to purchase these excursions? You could have done your own thing I assume? If enough people don't book, prices will eventually come down... supply & demand.

 

 

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True ... nobody forced us to book the trips, but they would have been a hassle to have arranged to do on our own and the visits to Qatar and Bahrain are likely to have been a one-off for us.

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Not actually difficult to find tours online and book them that way. Also if you join the Roll-call for your cruise you will probably find that others are organising independent tours you can join in with - cheaper and smaller groups.

 

 

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We did participate in the roll call and, as a result, joined up with another couple to do one privately organised trip that Azamara did not offer.

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