sandyss

On 9/27/2020 at 4:05 PM, Covepointcruiser said:

Prime8keeper, you say you are disappointed that Azamara has not cancelled your December cruise.   Has Celebrity cancelled their cruises for December?   I don’t believe you should have a bad impression of Azamara because of this as all of the RCL lines are hoping to resume cruising ASAP.   Cunard and Seabourn have cancelled cruises into April 2021 but the lines under Royal are still hoping to salvage some of the winter season.

At least Celebrity doesn't impose a cancellation fee.

55 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

 

So here's how it's going to work:  Anyone who gets upset with their former-favorite cruise line but still wants to cruise will switch to another in the same class.  Fed-up Azamara cruisers go to Oceania; meanwhile fed-up Oceania cruisers go to Azamara.  Net-net:  both cruise lines end up with the same number of passengers – but they no longer have to give out any 'loyalty benefits.'  Big win for the cruise lines!

Azamara is not concerned with keeping their customer base.  Keeping deposits for cruises cancelled due to fear of Covid-19 does not inspire loyalty.

We will switch to Holland America, on which we also have loyalty benefits.  They have excellent itineraries - and don't impose cancellation fees.

19 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

 

The practice has been common to most small-ship cruise lines because there are so few of any category of cabin that folks sitting on multiple reservations and waiting to decide which one to use really reduced the desirable options for others.  Granted that's not the issue right now, but that's where the practice started. 

 

Nor is the policy now:  Azamara's "Cruise With Confidence" program allows cancellation with 100% cash back up to 48 hours before the cruise sails:

https://cancellation.azamara.com/?brand=Z

 

Not a Cash Refund.  "Cancel at least 48 hours before the sail date, and you will receive a Future Cruise Credit that can be used on any cruise through the later of December 31, 2021 or 12 months from the date you cancel."

4 hours ago, MakingUpForLostTime said:

From a business perspective it is so damn Short sighted to keep $150 from you but spend more than $150 in future acquisition costs to gain another new customer.  It is a policy that drives me crazy regardless of who I do business with. Azamara was a great cruise line.

Exactly.  

3 hours ago, suzyluvs2cruise said:

 

Did you use a Travel Agent who kept a cancellation fee? If not, what fee did Azamara directly keep. That's not been our experience. 

 

Yes.  When we booked, we were told by our TA that Azamara "might" keep a cancellation fee, although they often waived it.  But, because of our ages (over 80) and with preexisting conditions, we knew that we would not travel until a safe and effective vaccine was available.  So we cancelled before the cruise was officially cancelled by Azamara, just before final payment was due, giving them the opportunity to try to resell our cabin.   [The fee was only $75 per person (total $150) that they kept.]  Our TA requested a refund of the cancellation fee when the cruise was officially cancelled by Azamara, but Azamara refused the request.  Azamara had the right to keep the cancellation fee, but the fact that, under the circumstances with Covid rampant,  they refused to refund the cancellation fee, made us feel that they really didn't care to keep us as future cruisers.  We have previously sailed with Azamara, Celebrity, Holland America, Princess, and RCL.  Other than Azamara, none of them even had a cancellation fee.

On 8/26/2020 at 10:34 AM, Lindy028 said:

So sorry to read this, I know how loyal you have been to Azamara and this must feel like a kick in the teeth. Our cruise was the first to be cancelled by Azamara, we were fed up waiting for our refund and finally did a chargeback on our Amex card, after waiting 4 months. Richard Twynam leaving and then Larry has really left all Azamara’s loyal cruisers with no voice or support. I had a lot of email conversations with Richard over the drinks package changes and he went out of his way to help and explain things. Sadly I do believe the Azamara we all knew and loved has gone, not just because of Covid, I may add. Loyalty is only as good as the reciprocal loyalty you receive. We feel exactly the same, we would love to sail Azamara again, the crew are exceptional, we too have made good friends with people we’ve met over the years, that is the hardest part, and why we will never say never, but it is looking extremely unlikely at this present time! 
Stay well.
 

 

Sadly, we will not be sailing Azamara again.  Unlike others, the amount that was not refunded to us, is small.  But their insistence on keeping a cancellation fee does not inspire confidence.  We cancelled our cruise - before Azamara officially cancelled it.  We also cancelled a NonRefundable hotel stay in Venice and air reservations.  In all cases, we received FULL refunds - except for Azamara, which insisted on keeping a cancellation fee.  In fact, we cancelled a total of five vacations that we would have taken between April 2020 and April 2021.  Azamara was the only vendor that kept a cancellation fee.  A small amount, but that left a bad taste in our mouths concerning Azamara.  They have lost our business.

Our refund came through fairly quickly.

We cancelled our October cruise on April 13th.  Credit for our deposit (less the cancellation fee) showed up on our credit card today.

51 minutes ago, teacherman said:

Yes, Sandy, we did get charged a cancellation fee.  And a strange thing is that this is the second time we were charged one for the same itinerary.  I originally booked it last November, but then decided not to go so we cancelled.  I did not realize when I booked that there would be a cancellation charge, so we forfeited the money.  Then in early February, I found a really much better price so I booked it again.  I now have paid the fees twice and have never even been on Azamara.  We also got back a credit for 4 rooms I had booked on RCCL for a family cruise this month.  So I  now have a large credit on my CC.  Safe travels.

I expect that we will be charged the cancellation fee also.  We have sailed with Azamara previously, and also enjoyed many cruises on Celebrity and RCCL, but the cancellation fee will be a first for us, and will turn us off to scheduling future cruises with Azamara.  (Because we are in a high-risk group for covid-19, we feel that we have no choice about cancelling this cruise.)

58 minutes ago, teacherman said:

Just thought I would let people know that we had a deposit on Azamara Journey for next February-South Africa.  AS there is way too much uncertainty, and we are "vulnerable population", we canceled it.  I have received the refund to my credit card.  I canceled about 3 weeks ago.  It would have been our first Azamara cruise.  We have enjoyed many wonderful cruises, but do not know if we will ever cruise again.

Hi Teacherman.  Did you get charged a cancellation fee?  We have also cancelled an October cruise, and are waiting for our refund.  We cancelled a little over 2 weeks ago, and were told that the refund should take around 30 days.

Just received an email cancellation from a tour guide that we had booked for the end of May in Montreal, Canada.  This was for a DIY trip that we were planning, and are in the midst of cancelling.

With all of the uncertainty and unknowns surrounding this virus, we will most likely need to cancel our October cruise in early June, since we don't want an FCC.  We will need to evaluate the risk of taking this cruise a full 4 months prior, and will err on the side of caution.  Azamara can expect a lot of cancellations due to their cancellation policy.

4 hours ago, Wheelhouse said:

 

Don't give RCL your cash.   They want to convert it to FCC to help with their cash flow.  If you want its OK to wait a while to cancel but don't let it get to the penalty phase.  Cruise bookings for October, even if things improve, will be light and you could always rebook your itinerary as last minute. 

 

I find it grossly irresponsible for Azamara (RCL) to be selling any April or May Med cruises at this time. 

Exactly my concern.  We do not want to get into the penalty phase with FCC.  So we will need to make a decision on our cruise a full 4 months before sailing.  That is why I would suggest that Azamara shorten the penalty phase to 60 days during the coronavirus crisis in order to allow their cruisers to make a more informed decision.  This would reduce the number of cancellations that Azamara will be receiving.

15 hours ago, laurieb said:

June is a long way off.  We have three booked in October but I’m not thinking that far ahead right now.  If this is still an issue in June, or September, I’m sure it will be addressed 

Due to the lack of things being addressed by Azamara currently, we will need to make a decision on our October cruise in June.  We would prefer to wait longer, but due to Azamara's onerous cancellation policy, we may need to cancel our cruise.

In the current Covid-19 environment, Azamara's 120 Day cancellation window needs to be revised.  We will need to decide by early June about a cruise that we have booked for October.  While we are hopeful that this virus will be contained by early June, we will not want to take the risk of a 25% cancellation penalty if we are not confident that we will not be impacted on our October cruise.  Since we select cruises based upon ports, an FCC would not be acceptable to us.  Azamara needs to be more flexible, and revise their cancellation policy to a 60 day cancellation window for this year due to the uncertainty surrounding cruising.

Everyone has been concerned about the passengers, rightly so.  But, what about the crew?  They are not in isolation and have been exposed to the passengers, and each other, some of whom have been diagnosed with this coronavirus.  I just read this article about some of the crew wanting to go home.  They are in a scarier situation than the passengers.

https://www.businessinsider.com/indian-crew-coronavirus-quarantined-diamond-princess-2020-2        

We normally plan our own excursions.  Normally the cost is less and more importantly the groups are smaller.  In all the years that we have been cruising, we have only booked a handful of ship tours.  The only advantage of a ship tour, IMHO, is that you are guaranteed that the ship will not leave without you.  We just make sure that private tours are scheduled to be back to port not less than 90 minutes prior to departure time.  The only times that we now book ship tours are due to tight schedules with a very short time in port.  With private tours, we always book with companies that are reported to have careful and safe drivers. 

The worst tour that we ever took,  was an Azamara ship tour in Puerto Princesa for a tour of the Subterranean River National Park. There were at least 6 vans arranged to take people on that excursion, so the individual groups were small.  All the vans were constantly passing other vehicles on the highway in a convoy - ignoring traffic.  The people in our van were so upset with what turned out to be a dangerous tour, that we all refused to get out of the van at an optional stop at a flea market en route back to the ship.  Because of the frightening drive (and inexperienced tour guide) we all  just wanted to get back alive to the ship.

Needless to say, I am in the midst of booking private tours at all of the ports on our October Azamara cruise.

4 hours ago, I like vacation said:

 

I may be reading this incorrectly but it sounds like once onboard, the cancellation refund gets you more OBC.  Additionally, you have to be careful that you cancel in time to avoid a fee.

 

Yes.  The cancellation does get you more OBC - but the OBC that you receive is REFUNDABLE.  Then you can use your NON-REFUNDABLE OBC to purchase the same tour - if space is still available.  We did this on our cruise in early December.  There were two tours that we absolutely wanted to have, so we purchased them well before our cruise.  But, since neither was sold out when we boarded the ship, we refunded and rebooked both tours - using up around $200 of our NR OBC.  (We had non-refundable OBC of $750  for a 7 day cruise.)

 

IF your pre-booked excursions are not fully booked when  you board the ship, you should be able to refund them to "Refundable OBC" and immediately rebook them with "NonRefundable OBC".  

Could it be that the part needed was not readily available in Freeport?  HAL may be waiting for a specific part to meet the ship at another port, where the repair can be made.

We were on the Celebrity Millennium in August 2013.  The ship was leaving  Ketchikan when it had to return to port when an azipod needed replacement.  The remainder of the cruise was cancelled, but passengers used the ship as a hotel for several additional days until airplanes could be chartered to transfer all passengers to airports where flights were readily available - Seattle, Anchorage, and Vancouver.  After we finally disembarked the ship, the Millenium sailed slowly, with crew only, down the west coast through the Panama Canal to Freeport for a drydock, where the replacement azipod was to arrive from somewhere in Europe.  I believe that a few cruises after ours were cancelled because of the time needed for the Millenium to sail to Freeport for the replacement azipod. 

We narrowly missed a repeat, since we disembarked from the NA on the 14th. 

Just got our return flight from FCO on Lufthansa, using United Miles.  The timing has changed from the earlier dates that I had been watching.  The flight leaves at 1:05 pm, which should be easy for us to make.

Thank you grayjay.  I've got my fingers crossed that I can book those Lufthansa flights with my United miles.

We have also changed TAs due to a similar occurrence.  When our original cruise had Cuba deleted from the itinerary,  we decided to switch to a different Caribbean cruise.  HAL had offered us $50 cruise credit per person due to the change.  Our TA applied the $50 per person credit and then reduced her discount from $75 per person to $12 per person - a net loss for us. She refused to adjust the discount, so I just booked our next 2 cruises with a different TA.  She lost a long-time customer.

The 12:15 pm flight is on Lufthansa which we should be able to get with our United miles.  I will look into Stefano's Rome Cabs.

2 hours ago, Tapi said:

When we sailed into Civitavecchia last November, our ship docked right at 8:00am and we walked off the ship at around 8:15am. We had a private car waiting for us (Stefano’s Rome Cabs). We arrived at FCO around 9:15am for an 11:25am flight to Atlanta on Delta.

 

We thought we had plenty of time to make our flight but we actually cut it very close. The line at the check in counter and to go through security were short and quick, but we spent a considerable amount of time standing in line at the passport pre-departure checkpoint. Lines there were very long, with many passengers trying to jump the line when they realized they would miss their flights. Tempers got pretty heated between some passengers. We made it to our gate after boarding had already started about 30 minutes before departure, and that was going straight from passport control to the gate. 

 

So I would recommend scheduling a flight and transportation so that you have at least 3 hours before departure, just to give you enough wiggle room. We were a bit stressed.

Thanks for sharing your experience.  I am going to "try" to get the 12:15 pm flight that goes thru Munich since that is considered a domestic flight, and we shouldn't have to go thru customs until we arrive in Munich.  That should save us time at FCO.

50 minutes ago, nordski said:

In October, with a proposed arrival time of 7:00, the earliest official flight departure time to use the ship’s transfer to FCO was.... 11:50!

 

So certainly they thought it was doable. Actually once on board they allowed us to use the transfer even though our flight was at 11:40.

 

The transfer was scheduled to leave at 8:30 and it did so.

 

Their transfer was cheaper than a private transfer since no one on our roll call wanted to share the cost.

 

As Henk123  points out, if you use a private transfer use a company that can access the ship’s docking area. Romecabs is another example. 

That is great information.  Thanks so much.  We are scheduled to arrive in port at 6:00am, so based on your experience, we should be okay.  The flights for next October should open up in around a week, and we plan to use FF points to obtain one of those two flights.

I am looking to book flights out of FCO the same day that we arrive in Civitavecchia.  There will be 5 other ships in port that day. 

If I prebook a car service to pick us up at the port, will we be able to make an 11:50 am flight (connecting in Philadelphia) or a 12;15 pm flight (connecting in Munich)? 

We have been to Rome several times previously, and would prefer to return home straight from the port.

Thanks.