uktog

Tanya Roberts known to many as an opera trained cruise director on Azamara has announced she is joining Explora Journey as an Experience Manager (the name they are using for Cruise Director)

Glad it’s worked for you. It all got too difficult for us and one of the windows of opportunity has closed now. We do want to try and upgrade another booking but the agent can’t get through - they can’t sit on the phone for hours when other customers are waiting in the shop. We love the personal face to face service from the traditional UK agents but it’s not working so well just now. I got the feeling if you went into a shop just now and asked for Azamara the agents would say I’ll try but have you ever thought of (other line) I know I can certainly complete a booking with them whilst you are here

If it is driven by the software, it is clear the cruise line would have known this but have chosen on balance to select their software provider based on what matters for them not necessarily what matters for potential customers at each stage of the customer journey

They cannot get calls through and can’t get a hold of any help

Millennials trying to be trendy totally missing any understanding of what Azamara is about

Well something is up because between 1330 and 1515 I sat beside the agent as she tried. Clearly is it not working if a major High Street agent cannot get through for that length of time. We have decided to abandon the plans for that quick trip away, because of the delay it gave us a chance to look at something else and opted for that.

It is currently not possible to make a new booking or pay to upgrade an existing booking through a travel agent in the UK. I sat with my travel agent for 90 minutes today each time she was disconnected, and then finally the message came up that the office was closed. Now, in my case, the booking plan will still stand, but for many other potential guests, they will just walk away and head to another cruise line today where things can be serviced. it is disappointing because in this tight marketplace, I am sure Azamara would want a free reservation Also highlights, when people say, talk to your travel agent, actually it’s no better for them

I was using incognito but no joy 😞

Or is it they are giving such primacy to travel agents over customers that this is what the cruise line wants. You see it on these boards. People who are travel agents on these boards. always saying this is what you should ask your travel agent about. Have you wondered why? By pushing you to talk to the travel agent, it takes you further down the sales journey and locks you further in to process of the conversion of interest to sales that the agent and cruise line want to see. However, for me, it overlooks the buying behaviour of many people and the role of the research before committing plays for many cruise passengers. Because calling retail store travel agents by phone is not straightforward - it goes to a central call centre along with all holiday queries today, I am heading off on a 40 mile round-trip just to go to the store to talk to the travel agent about a change in cabin. I do not know if this change will happen. Granted if it does, this will be more revenue for Azamara, but if the sort of cabin I want is not available (I need to see what type of club continental are available) I’m not going to be very happy at having had to drive 40 miles to find that out a question I used to be able to answer in two minutes on the website. It will not let me move on the booking process because I already have a booking for that sailing

If he is not much of a drinker, it might be better if he just bought a glass as he wanted it - he would need to drink 3-4 Jack Daniels or other non included drinks to break even given the cost of the package. They do usually have Jack Daniels

Gone from some information to no information and it won’t even let you submit a form Not sailing for a while so I’ll leave it but it seems each time they say they’re on the case my own personal information gets less and less accurate. Im glad they are hiring more staff. Is this in addition to the staff they already said they were recruiting or is it just those staff coming on stream anyway

But travel agents aren’t open 24x7 and when they are open it’s better they aren’t focusing on those not yet ready to book Many of us browse exactly when agents are shut. Potential guests will head to those lines where you can see specific cabin availability. That is VERY important on Azamara where 50% of Club Continental suites are no use to many guests. A quick browse in the past could tell if a cruise was even an option or not for those wanting that category of room.

Very much depends on the travel dryer. Some more expensive ones are far better

I thought I would submit the form to highlight 4 missing cruises and 2 cruise again certificates when were there yesterday had gone. Unfortunately I think the box that the forms go to is full and the form just froze where I pressed submit

Yes you could not make this up I could see everything until yesterday. How would they have email addresses of those who are booked through UK agents for example

We have just received global update communication email from the CEO. I’m sure someone will paste it here soon (can’t from my phone)

Yes on Pursuit you do, only onward has lost the hold down to date. They really are not powerful enough for mu type of long hair but others might have fared better

But the crunch is, does that contract allow the guest to reserve seats before the ticketing deadline? Most people would be unaware of what happens (eg when does the cruise line pay the airline) if from their customer experience they can access the seat (and for some extra suitcase menu) as soon as they are aware who their carrier is/what flights they are on. For Viking that is 60 days before sailing and if you upgrade from economy to business, as soon as you ask for that deviation. Works well for lots of guests. The cancelling I think is a glitch as a result of the RC contract being shut down and for some, maybe not all airlines, this leading to what appears to the customer to be a full cancellation given the messages the airlines are maybe incorrectly giving them. There is one lesson for the cruise line in this - historically guests would sit, wait to hear who their flights were with and do nothing, accepting what seats they got (that was certainly how it was in our early days of cruising Celebrity and using their air). Now many guests (especially those in Azamara's target market rather than the larger providers) are travel savvy, they know about pre booking seats and are much more proactive in how they can get the extra they want. Sounds like Azamara has to drop any RC think regarding air and move to a model that reflects their customer base. As an aside, I was arranging something where Azamara does not go with another agent that could have included an air bundle added by the agency. (The typical thing you see for some UK cruises, cruise plus air plus transfer) Her first words were - we do this but its so limiting Im not sure you will want it and I dont think the cost savings are that great for the restrictions. I like that honesty.

Or given as a charity donation in the give us your unused currency drums many charities have. Same goes for dollars

And for many if there is not a way to select and pay for seats earlier it’s certainly not going to be a great travel experience. I’ve no issue if the actual ticketing is delayed so long as the arrangements with the airline are such that once provisionally booked a guest can arrange seats if they wish (paying for the seats if they do not have airline status). I hope I’m wrong but this feels like a financial driver taking precedence over guest experience. That said, apart from Viking and Ama where airfare is a standard inclusion for UK guests (the credit if you have it removed is very low to be not worth it) we do our own air so are not affected by this issue.

Viking cruise in late August was ticketed in early February and we were then able to arrange the seats we wanted

We decided not to take the after cruise package in Chicago well before the current saga. We looked at it (you are right is still says Sheraton), but decided as we wanted a day longer anyway and I could actually do us more sightseeing (including a Gangsters Tour and a Pizza Foodies tour), the Intercontinental and the same boat tour for three days for less £ than they wanted for their two day after cruise package. Maybe we take a big hit on £ packages as they think oh they will take it they will want to stay.

That is the correct hotel. All our paperwork and separate email correspondence from booking until the point we got the documents stated The Westin which was why we booked 15-17 in there See you onboard

Indeed but even if I get the English "versions" I will not be tipping that way in USA or Canada and so wherever you are, tip in the currency of the country unless your home currency is one that has widespread use in the host country. The dollar does not have widespread use in Europe - it does in places like Vietnam, Euro is generally useful everywhere in mainland Europe even if it is not the currency of the country - for example in Scandinavia where only Finland has adopted the Euro etc etc. The UK is not mainland Europe so tip in sterling (or not at all as you choose, we do not have an ingrained tipping culture and in restaurants a service charge may already be added which has to be shared to staff)

My frustration is a very minor one compared to others but is an example of how Azamara is losing both revenue and some goodwill I have a cruise next year and I can see there is a nice price drop on it. In accordance with the booking guarantee at the time I booked I would like to investigate not taking a price drop but giving Azamara more money as a splurge on a suite (possibly even a big one) is probably in reach. However 1. Because of how the website operates (and this is a permanent feature if I read right) I cannot see what suites remain and I need one with a walk in shower and not in a noisy location. So not being able to see the availability puts barriers on the making of this move 2. I am working with a travel agent, she would need to call in to get the suite availability (I would leave her a range acceptable and ones I would not rebook to so she does not have to call back again) and make the change. In all consciousness, I cannot expect her to sit on hold for hours for this move which I have discovered is not automatic for her to do on the system (I doubt it ever was). I also feel maybe that precious space in the line to get the call answered belongs to someone else. So rather than get a few £K more out of me certainly no revenue for Azamara at this moment in time. In the "olden days" this switch would have been done as soon as we saw it was an option