BillericayUK

On 1/17/2024 at 8:41 PM, royallondon said:

 

However, just as soon as the mist disappears I would grab the consolation prize on offer of a £1k plus saving and see your TA’s email as a bit of good fortune.

 

 

Final words

I posted on the forum hoping for pearls of wisdom instead I came under attack by people who said they had been in a similar situations several times before with Azamara and still they continue to book with them knowing that there was a high possibility Azamara would do the same again.  Some posting were even declaring that it had happen to them several times if it was some kind of badge of honour.  As my dear mother would have said, they have more money than sense.

Others parroted supply and demand and T&C’s without them actually having read them which I had before I posted on this forum

Clause 1.8 Will the price change?

We reserve the right to increase or decrease the prices of unsold holidays at anytime. The price of your chosen holiday will be confirmed in accordance with section1.2.

Hardly a supply & demand issue when there are only a dozen cabins left and over 14 months to go before the cruise.

Also in this clause they say they can increase or decrease the holiday cost if the increases exceed 2% and if they are over 8% there is the option to accept, change or refund.  Some who posted haven’t read their T&C’s

For decreases there is no limitation.

I could challenge them in a court that the 20% decrease is because of a decrease in their costs, however since I’m not privy to the cost make-up of the original holiday they could cobble together any figures they want to disprove it.  Equally it is not a legal requirement that they make a profit on this specific cruise but they would have to demonstrate in a legal action that the discount now being offered is not as a result of a reduction of their cost and they probably wouldn’t fancy that close examination.

Clause 1.10 Can I make changes to my booking after it has been confirmed?

A very long cause but in essence it says I can change ship or sail date for £75 per guest. I can change cabin or names for £35 however both would attract a cancellation charge.

T&C’s are a last resort and in business, you try and reach a solution that is amicable to both parties so that you retain business and goodwill on both sides.  For Azamara T&C’s are a first resort.

I put the full T&C’s and exchanges for formal legal advice. 

The advice I received is that Azamara are stuffing me by adopting sharp practice.  I could proceed with a legal action however there is a 50/50 chance that I would lose/win and also I could possibly suffer more cost than I stand to gain.  Also Azamara may not fancy the bad publicity and concede before a court case.

Unfortunately, I don’t have more money than sense and I have done what the only sensible posting from Royallondon said and rebooked.  Azamara places no value on existing customers and this will be my one and only cruise with Azamara.

5 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

No, this is common practice in the UK. For example if you book a non-flexible flight and then it’s price changes, you can’t just swap to it if the T’s & Cs say not. You signed up to the terms and conditions. 
I have cancelled and lost a deposit in the past, then immediately rebooked, getting the same cabin, when it’s been worth my while to do so.

This level of heavy discounting must be unique to Azamara and the message is clearly don't book early with them and on the strength of this experience I will never again book with them. .We are talking thousands of pounds difference not a few hundred. Azamara wouldn't guarantee the same cabin on a rebook however my TA who does appreciate my business moved me a few cabins along into the next grade with his compliments. He will continue to get my repeat business. Azamara make no recognition of booking early and committing to them.

As I said I'm a seasoned cruiser, I am not naïve and I am use to price reductions close to sailing date to fill cabins and discount offers for Black Friday etc but I have never seen a 20% reduction and a couldn't careless attitude to existing bookers.

I'm a seasoned cruiser with top level status with Princess, HAL and high status with P&O and several others. I'm use to cruise prices fluctuating by a few hundred pounds particularly nearer departure.

I'm a 1st timer on Azamara. I booked in July 2023 a cruise for £10,000 which sails in February 2025.

A travel agent sent me a speculative email 2 days ago which included my cruise at £8000. I checked the Azamara website and sure enough it had dropped 20%. My original booking included freebies of $300 OBC, upgraded drinks and internet for 1 person.

I contacted the TA I booked with and asked him to contact Azamara. They replied that Azamara had said 'I can cancel the original booking and lose my deposit of £500, lose the original freebies and have no guarantee that I would be able to rebook the same cabin as the original booking'.

Yes there are T&C's and there is still a saving but isn't it simply stealing to keep my deposit when someone can book today with a £500 price advantage over me whereas I demonstrated commitment and booked early and had this TA not sent me a speculative email I would have never known about the massive 20% saving. UK bookers you may want to check your bookings!

I feel very aggrieved with Azamara's attitude as dealing with other cruise lines where there have been issues has always conciliatory and mutual compromise. 

Have I chosen a very poor cruise line?

On this itinerary we are okay for information on Hawaii and we have already booked lagoon tours for Bora Bora and Moorea with recommended vendors as I had guessed from reading that 80% of the population of FP live on Tahiti there would be a supply issue on the smaller islands

However can anyone provide advice on my cruise for islands other than Hawaii, Bora Bora & Moorea :-

Are there any islands where we can just get off the ship and wander to a nice beach without the need to pre book an excursion?

Are there any islands where the scenery is so spectacular that for a 1st time visitor it should take a priority over the beach option?

Are there any islands which have a 'must do'? 

Best island to see real rural island life?

I am reading and researching about the islands and accept that every island is someones idea of paradise but any first hand comments would be welcomed

To stick my penny's worth in, I detail below a copy of an exchange of emails between me and P&O regarding our one day stop at Goa. If like me all you are doing is stopping at one port in Indian for a few hours then a evisa is acceptable. The MAIN reason they want you to buy a full tourist visa is so that they can preclear you enroute to the port. Its all about the ship running their excursions and not the most cost effective option for you. We have bought an evisa and arrive in India in March 18 as a one port stop, you will also note that P&O are asking ME for the web link that advises that bio-metric data is no longer being collected at cruise ports.

Good afternoon

There are numerous sources that state it is acceptable to arrive in certain seaports India on a cruise ship with an evisa and be exempt from providing biometric data.

The most important one is this direct link to an Indian Embassy

http://www.indembassy.be/pages.php?id=505

The next one is this link to the Indian Ministry of Shipping

http://pib.nic.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1514970

Another is to the Indian Economic Times

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/visa-and-immigration/cruise-tourists-with-e-visa-exempted-from-biometric-enrolment/articleshow/62338047.cms

Also on various cruise review sites contributors state that your sister Company Princess Cruises have changed the information they give passengers

Whereas you and Sovereign both try and push us down the Tourist Visa route using CIBT with their extortionate fees. Plus the CIBT website does not reflect current Indian legislation as P&O suggest.

For a VISA for a few hours in India CIBT fees are £120.44 Consular Fees per person plus £104.40 CIBT arrangement fee per person making a total charge of £224.84 per person.

DIY on the official India website is $75pp (about £55) for an eVISA or $125pp (about £92) for a full VISA so CIBT are ripping us off by at least £30 on the consular fee alone on a Tourist Visa.

P&O are advocating me spending £450 for a few hours in India whereas the India government says I can save £340 by a DIY eVISA. £340 is a helluva lot of money!!!

The website Cruisetimetables.com does not show any P&O ships having visited any port in India since the new ruling was made so how P&O can say there are still delays defeats me.

Sovereign & P&O opting for an easy life instead of giving its customers accurate information leaves a very bitter taste

On behalf of PO Reservations <customerservices(at)pocruises.com>

Sent: 26 January 2018 13:21

To:

Subject: Fw: Customer Support: I've already booked my holiday | Other |

Dear Mr

Thank you for your email. Whilst it is our intention to respond to all correspondence as soon as possible, I’m sorry I have been unable to do so until now.

Regardless if you wish to go ashore independently or on a P&O organised tour you require a visa.

We recommend a Tourist Visa for you to proceed ashore quickly however should you choose to obtain an E-Visa, you must bring a print out of your E-visa showing "GRANTED", and you will undergo a longer passport check at the port of entry, delaying your entry into India and restricting your time ashore.

This is the information we have at present however this is subject to change. Please advise the web address for this source of information so this can be investigated further.

I hope this information has helped to answer your enquiry and we look forward to welcoming you on board soon.

Kind regards

XXX

Guest Services

P&O Cruises

In Belize we are doing a private tour with King David Castillo Belize Tours (localguideinbelize@gmail.com) and he has excellent scores on TripAdvisor. 390 reviews with 98% giving excellent. The tour we are doing is a private tour so slightly more expensive than the ship but exclusive to us and personalized to us. His standard group tours compare favourably with ship prices but his group tours would be a maximum of 11 people.

For Trujillo it seems as if everything is within walking distance although there appears that some enterprising local offers a 'hop on hop off' tour for $20 and Roatan the beach is next to the dock again walkable or via the chair ride.

We are also doing this cruise but a month after you. Leave for Jamaica 30/01/2018 and join Discovery 2 that day. I read the good reviews about this tour operator but my Internet Security (NORTON) advised against visiting their web page so that has sounded alarm bells. I have read from various sources that there are a number of tour operators selling their wares in the 'shed' on the dock and that the local tourist authorities INGUAT are on hand to ensure you don't get ripped off. See http://www.whatsinport.com. Having said that looking at comparing price and itinerary the ships prices compare favourably with the local agents however the big advantage for us is a small group and probably a more personalised tour with a local agent.

We are using a local agent in Belize and still thinking about a local agent in Santo Tomas

Hi

I used cruiseparksouthampton in January this year. http://cruiseparksouthampton.co.uk They offered undercover parking (no seagull messages on your car!), an included taxi ride to and from the terminal, a really friendly and helpful service before booking and on arrival. Plus I wanted to keep my keys which was not a problem provided you tell them when booking. Best of all they were only a couple of pound more expensive than the cheapest off site open air car parking company. Read the testimonials on their site.

We will be using them when we next cruise from Southampton

How on earth can a person living in another country know anything about the way holiday trading takes place in the UK. Once you make a booking in the UK you will lose your substantial deposit if you make a cancellation and a change of tour is also considered a cancellation. Holiday packages are released in the UK around 18 months ahead and the price remains constant right up to a few weeks before departure when price reductions are given to fill spare capacity. The sweetener to early bookers is free parking, upgraded accommodation, 'all inclusive', free insurance, money off in this case £1000 etc. As time passes the sweeteners reduce. I booked 15 months in advance and 11 months in advance they were offering more incentives than I received as an early booker. In the UK consumers must be treated fairly and we have more laws to protect our interests than any other country. I contacted Emerald and the Customer Services Representative said I had an equal value package and I told them I would post reviews. When I placed market values against my package and the new offering they were making they acknowledged I was correct.

They subsequently came back to me at the direction of the MD and amended my package. They further stated that they had become confused with all the packages they had released and had failed to pick this up. I will not be uncharitable and I will accept what they say.

Companies that rip off people should be brought to task in the public arena after they have been given a reasonable opportunity to privately resolve the issue.

Finally your 'one hit wonder' is a seasoned traveller having visited over 60 countries, have Elite status on Princess and similar status on other providers. I also understood the rules of this forum prevented personal attacks being made.

My post will remain unchanged, Emerald were wrong, they have accepted they were wrong and they have put it right and all the facts are available for everyone read

Contacted the MD and he immediately gave instructions for me to receive the better package having been refused by their staff earlier.

Confirmation now received and hopefully they will amend their systems to maintain the advantages to early bookers

I booked a Emerald River Cruise for June next year under the sale puff that this was a special book early deal never to be repeated. Now they are offering an even better deal and its still 11 months before the cruise. I have asked for this better deal to be applied to my booking and they have refused. This is not a last minute bargain deal to fill the boat but 11 months in advance. So if you want to get the best deal do not book early with Emerald. They will only ever catch me once and I will never use them again