CA Oceanfront

One wonders how Miami missed this during their due diligence process before making such a significant commitment to them and Azamara passengers. 

We are currently at the Amerikalinjen Hotel in Oslo, a 4-star, newly opened, historically renovated beauty across the street from the Central Station, and there are dispensers in both the shower and bathroom sink areas. 

On 6/26/2019 at 12:45 PM, Azamarajunkie said:

I like the idea of replacing the tote bag with with a branded aluminium water bottle instead. 

Me too!

Well, here’s the latest from the new Azamara rebranding campaign.  Just received a FedEx package from them this morning containing the following contents and letter:

Oh, to be a fly on the wall in the board room when all of this was hashed out...

Guess it’s a gradual, rather than a simultaneous, roll-out. The “My Azamara” Landing page, at least in the US, still sports the old logo and name.

Royal Caribbean Facebook post minutes ago:

“Cuba Travel Update: We are aware of the announcement and are analyzing the details to understand the impact on our itineraries. In the meantime, we are adjusting the itineraries of our June 5 and June 6 sailings, which will no longer stop in Cuba. We are communicating with our guests about those changes. We will provide other updates as needed.”

Travel and Leisure also reporting on this development:

https://apple.news/AJe8MEnjTQm-Dx9ceWkfrSw

So my wife would like to know if the Sanctum Spa does lash extensions. Couldn’t find it on a recent spa menu that was posted on CC. My guess is no, but I’d appreciate it if anyone has specific knowledge in this area. Thank you!

10 hours ago, donaldsc said:

It appears as if Azamara has no AK cruises scheduled in 2020. 

Or 2021. I agree with the “one and done” comment.

53 minutes ago, cruzluvers said:

Unfortunately Phil, the higher bid will probably get it.  So much for "loyalty"!

Not necessarily. It depends on the “multiplier” assigned to the loyalty level. 

On 3/11/2019 at 2:58 PM, cruisestitch said:

Boarded yesterday in Buenos Aires.  From here it’s Around the Horn, then on to San Diego.  

 

Any questions? Ask here.

Katherine, thank you for starting this thread, and for the time and attention you are devoting to it. We will be sailing Eclipse for the first time on April 8, and this will also be our first sailing as Zeniths. Do you, or any other follower of this thread, have any words of Eclipse wisdom for us, special tips to share, things to do, places to explore, or any other suggestions to help us take full advantage of what Eclipse has to offer? Thank you!

3 minutes ago, Dylandude said:

This therefore raises the question, at the new highly inflated upgrade prices do TA’s get commission? If they don’t then the situation we encountered last year will happen again.

Excerpted from flyer distributed to travel agents just prior to the general release:

Q. Are the Azamara UpgradeSMcharges commissionable?
A. Yes, based on the commission percent on the booking. At this time, the only exception is for bookings that reserve under a net price code which will not earn commission on the upcharge.

Apparently this “select group of LCV members” includes our son, who has taken exactly one Azamara Cruise, and that was years ago. I chose not to invest 40 minutes of my time for the simple reason that, as someone else mentioned, why bother when a decision has pretty much already been made, such as the Veranda Plus rollout. 

6 hours ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

You’re probably right, but it will be interesting to see the range of successful bids. 

Exactly.

1 hour ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

Good idea to add ship and sailing date - and length of cruise might be helpful too.

Agreed. And if we are trying to help the reader avoid having to look up the subject cruise, we might even ask to include the world region or general itinerary, such as Norway intensive or Westbound TA.

2 hours ago, hiccups said:

Also, Azamara is probably going to hate that we are doing this 

Truth be told, this is also one of the reasons I suggested it, just to emphasize to Miami how ridiculous this new program is. 

Grandma Cruising, thank you for acting upon my suggestion to post bidding experiences on this forum under the new upgrade program. As I am highly suspicious (for a multitude of reasons) of the numbers associated with the various sliders, what I am really interested in seeing is the actual successful bid results, which obviously may not be available for some time. These are the numbers that will be most instructive for future bidding purposes, and not necessarily the numbers appearing on the sliders when one submits a bid. I also think it would be more helpful if each successful bidder also lists the ship and date of sailing. Let the games begin!

I think it would be fun and informative if the moderators of this forum were to start a “sticky” thread where people would post their successful upgrade bids with all pertinent information such as as loyalty tier, current booking category, category that was bid, and the amount of the bid. I’ve seen this type of thread on hotel bookings, car leases and others. Thoughts?

I, too, am still baffled about the specifics surrounding the loyalty multiplier. Is it based solely on loyalty tier, or on total LCV accumulated points? Is based on tier, then one who is a newly-minted Discoverer Plus would have the same multiplier as one who is knocking on the door to Discoverer Platinum, which would strike me as unfair to the latter individual. There’s a BIG difference between 750 points and 3,000.

Since Bonnie has chosen not to address the question of being more specific, quantitatively, about the loyalty “multipliers” she has referred to, I must assume that they are part of the top secret “algorithm” that she has also referred to. So we may never know, just as in the case of the old upgrade program. Transparency at its finest!

i also must assume that the “minimum bid” that she has further referred to, correlates with the old upgrade program’s fixed cost.

The roll-out of this program, in my observation, is just another in a long list of “enhancements” that have surfaced over the years, each one being given a certain spin, but in the end, representing a revenue enhancement of one sort of another. Every one of these has been met with a predictable wave of disappointment, disapproval, resentment, frustration and incredulity on the part of their loyal customers. Ah, but one must remember that it is all driven, like most businesses, with an eye towards the bottom line, and little else matters in the C suite of this organization.

Thank you, Bonnie. It looks like we’re starting to zero in on some LCV specifics. Since the bidding starts tomorrow, it would be critically helpful if you could be more specific as to the multipliers that you referred to. 

Marty

Bonnie, would you be please be kind enough to clarify exactly what the status of the old LCV upgrade program is? The FAQs state: “The original upgrade pricing will remain, starting from $200 up to $598 on select stateroom categories. The great news is that guests have the opportunity to make an offer on a higher category stateroom which was not previously allowed.”

However, the new terms and conditions state “all other things being equal”, priority will be given to loyalty status. 

Thank you,

Marty

Just an FYI that the general customer email regarding the new upgrade program was blasted out about 15 minutes ago, so Bonnie didn’t jump the gun by that much. 

Marty

Checking the inventory about an hour ago,  there was one Club Owner’s, two Club Ocean, and three Club Continent suites available. 

Marty