Countrygirl79

We were not Cuba intensive so our Azamazing evening was held in New Orleans, another story altogether as it was supposed to be a beach party in Mexico with Barry White jnr but altered due to itinerary changes!

I am not the best ambassador for Azamara at present; they have let us down two years running which is why we will not trust them with our holiday plans for the foreseeable future.

I have just posted a reply on the other thread, "where have the March 2018 cruises gone", about our experience with Azamara in Cuba.

We had a lovely time in Cuba and would highly recommend it as a destination. It's just a shame that in this situation you don't get to choose your destination and feel as though it is forced upon you which, to me anyway, left a bad taste and rather upset the anticipation of a long awaited and much prepared for holiday. But all is forgotten once you are away and you can enjoy each port of call for its own merits, and Havana has many!

I'm sure that if you decide to continue with your booking you will enjoy all that Cuba has to offer, I would certainly look forward to a return visit, just not with Azamara!

Having travelled on the first Azamara Cuba cruise in March this year, I sympathise with your situation now.

After much debate, telephone calls and emails we decided to go with the visa provided by Azamara (although we did manage to secure some additional obc to cover the cost). We had to complete an affidavit to confirm the nature of our time ashore, an easy box ticking form.

Immigration controls were long-winded on the first morning and a process that had to be made on each trip ashore. But we were able to come and go as we liked although we booked a walking tour for acclimatisation on the first morning. Who knows if this may change in the future but the Cubans want and need the tourism.

If you do decide to keep your bookings I hope you enjoy Cuba as much as we did ( and I really didn't want to go). We have decided to cancel our future cruise with Azamara as we have no confidence in getting the cruise we book any more.

You have my sympathies. I don't know what's happening at Azamara but customer relations certainly don't figure in their plans.

It seems that we can never trust to get the cruise we book. This is not a one off. Our cruise departing March 21 has had itinerary changes mainly to include the 'wonderful' Havana. We also had 3 days cancelled including port calls to Vietnam last year in order to make the refit happen on time!

I no longer trust Azamara to deliver what we have booked; I still look forward to my upcoming holiday, the cruise will be as good as ever I'm sure, but I fully intend to cancel the cruise I have booked for next year. Like most people we book a cruise for its itinerary and when it is changed without good reason it is very disappointing.

As I am the one who mentioned Cuba being forced on us, I assume that you are responding to my post Globehoppers.

I am not American, I am English and the reason I have used the word forced is that we have had an itinerary change at such a late stage it is impossible to cancel without taking a huge financial hit. I book my holidays to places I want to visit and don't usually expect to end up somewhere else!

That said, Cuba has its own attraction as a destination but at the expense of somewhere I wanted to visit and, at risk of repeating myself, with more restrictions than I would expect to have as a British Citizen.

Our problem like many is that the cruise only forms part of our holiday. Our flights were booked and paid for months ago. And now, having paid the final balance we have booked and paid for hotels and car hire before and after the cruise.

I am still waiting for the letter from our travel agent but when it arrives I will definitely be making my feelings known to the powers that be at Azamara.

As an American I can wait to go. My grands abd my parents went now I can go. I am also doing a land tour in Jan. The large suites abs club suites are selling a. Both soa sipuites are gone. So no one cancel yet. Tampa not a seller to me but I have family there so I hope to see them.

 

As long as Brits or Canadians go on an American ship you follow the rules. Else just book a holiday there.

I think you are missing the point. Cuba is being forced on us whether we like it or not, and if we did want to visit we can find a better way to do so with more freedom. We didn't sign up for this when we booked and paid for this cruise.

It's rather difficult to understand the first half of your message but I think we all get the drift of the last bit!!

I'm sorry you're unhappy with the change in itinerary, azamarajunkie.

The itinerary planners must take many variables into account, but their aim is always to please the most possible.

How can you please people who have booked an itinerary by changing it? This change appears to be an incentive to fill the empty cabins.

Bonnie, that is very disappointing to us, particularly as when we booked this cruise we were looking forward to visiting the Mayan temple at Uxmal from Progresso, and now we find we have to pay for a visa and presumably land discoveries in Cuba as it appears we are not allowed to book our own there as we are subject to the US rules despite being British citizens who are allowed to visit Cuba unrestricted like many other nationalities that will be on the ship.

 

We had also made arrangements with another couple on our cruise to visit Bellingrath Gardens from Mobile, and now we are going to Tampa for which which we cannot understand the logic as the ship arrives in New Orleans on the original schedule.

 

I am sure there are many people looking forward to visiting Cuba, but we would have preferred only missing Cozumel and having a day in Cuba on the way back to Miami.

 

Disgruntled of U.K.

Well said. I agree with all of the above. I am also very disappointed to find that our travel agent has no knowledge of the revised itinerary as of today.

Whilst Cuba has its own appeal, those of us travelling long haul have booked this cruise for the destinations advertised for our own reasons and may not visit this area again to catch up with ports missed due to an itinerary change.

On our last Azamara cruise we had a stop in Vietnam cancelled, will we ever get to see it now when we have so many parts of the world to see. Our confidence in booking with Azamara is starting to wane, we never seem to end up with the cruise we have booked and paid for.

Interesting to note that this announcement has come when we have all paid the final balance! We now find that we have to pay additional fees for a visa for a port we haven't booked plus shore excursions. Why would a British citizen choose to visit Cuba via the USA when we have free access with a much cheaper visa to travel direct?

We have mixed feelings about this latest announcement. Whilst the opportunity to visit Cuba is welcome, we are pretty fed up with Azamara continually changing itineraries relatively close to departure dates. One of the attractions of this cruise was the chance to visit the Mayan ruins at Uxmal which will not now be accessible, we have booked and paid for the trip already, let's see how quickly that money comes back to us. This is the 2nd cruise running that our itineraries have been massively changed, last year we missed out on the 3 days in Vietnam because of the refit debacle. Beginning to feel rather unimpressed with Azamara customer service.

I was looking at Quest cabins online today and noticed all the N1s show tubs, and none of the N2s show tubs. This would be a different arrangement than the post dry dock Journey. Is this an error on the deckplan? Can anyone who has sailed post dry dock on the Quest tell us? Or Bonnie, could you confirm the CC layouts on the Quest? Thank you!

We were told when booking on board the week before dry dock that odd no. N1's will have showers and even baths, not sure about N2. Hope this is true as we have booked for a shower! Hope this helps

Well, here in the UK, we are still waiting to hear from Azamara, not very impressed so far. After reading about the itinerary change on here, we contacted our travel agent who in turn spoke to Azamara. We should hear something today when they have decided what compensation will be offered to the UK market!! Why this should be different to everyone else baffles me as well as taking two days to decide.

While not happy with the change, we agree with others who look forward to more time in Singapore, but would like to finalise plans before we leave for Osaka.