aussie travel bird

We are currently onboard the Journey. Reliable shipside officers have told us that AzAmazing Evenings are being phased out in lieu of onboard AzAmazing celebrations onboard or destination celebrations.whilst all cruises might not have a suitable venture for AzAmazing evenings we are extremely disappointed in the direction this is now taking. Not aligned with Destination immersion at all. It will be in our feedback and I encourage others to do the same.. 

On 1/12/2024 at 1:13 AM, uktog said:

State of emergency now also in Papua New Guinea. Certainly doesn’t sound good there either 

And I imagine the Red Sea and the suez will be a no go. Major impacts there for all types of shipping. 

8 hours ago, DS said:

On the Quest, from Lisbon to Barbados (with follow on thru the Amazon to Buenos Aires).  Current passenger load is 419 PAX.  Somewhere between 20 something and 100 or more are back-to backers from previous cruise—heard both numbers--- but some times at specialty restaurants were already booked by B2Bers before we got on in the first group!   We had a good sail away from Lisbon, a bit of a swell to Funchal, but wonderful weather when we got there.  Now heading toward Barbados with 6 sea days.  Calm seas.  Expect more than 200 back-to-backers onto the next, Amazon, voyage.  Early info (no precise numbers yet) indicate that this cruise has the most number of repeat/loyalty cruisers of ANY Azamara cruise ever (even with only 419 passengers!)

Current Senior Officers are…

              Captain:  Johannes Tysse—gets off in Buenos Aires on Dec 10^th… no info on replacement

              Staff Captain: Roman Kutsenko

Chief Engineer:  Nikolay Georgiev

Hotel Director Ryszard Gusmann – gets off in Buenos Aires on Dec 10^th… no info on replacement

Cruise Director:  Amanda Poulson… gets off in Barbados on 18 Nov… replaced by Steven from the Journey!

Asst. Cruise Director:  Jose Alpizar… gets off in Barbados on 18 Dec… replaced by Justin from the Journey

Exec Chief:   Jason Chastom

F&B Manger:  Tekin Sahin

Been on since Barcelona and at the b2b2 meeting we were informed there is 126 back to backer from the crossing to the Amazon. There’s is also a record breaking number of top tier Azamara Circle Members onboard for this and the next cruise.

On 9/12/2023 at 9:36 AM, luv2travel90266 said:

As long as they allow you to use the OBC for other services (specialty dinners and chefs table) the OBC won't cover all the excursion costs for a cruise. I do agree with you that the OBC is built in to the cruise price and the excursions are a highly profitable revenue source for Azamara. 

This is rather off topic.

Just when we have retired we're not interested in sailing with stressed out working people hogging public areas with the Team Meetings online etc.  I answered it, hope it goes now where.  Not a mention of web issues anywhere.

For veteran Azamara Cruises excellent news to see Russ back at Crystal.  We wish him luck.

On 7/31/2023 at 5:35 AM, manc said:

Any update on officers aboard?

 

Don't Azamara admin  look at these posts.

 

No one is going to cancel at this point but we would appreciate knowing as long time cruisers who is on board  

I don't believe Azamara look at these Cruise Critic Boards.  I think they have enough to do.

On 7/23/2023 at 4:40 AM, Grandma Cruising said:

I'd wash those by hand & hang them on a hanger on the line in the laundry

Do you mean hang them in the laundry or your bathroom?  I certainly wouldn't be hanging my delicates in the guest laundry for all to see. LOL

On 4/18/2023 at 4:15 PM, Marylebone37 said:

Yes, you sure would run parallel once you received the data files.  It's like Data Conversion 101 — very basic stuff for any IT department.

 

And as DenGNNJ mentioned above, we've been talking mostly here about their front end booking engine and customer reservation management system.  I wonder how bad things are with their inventory management, catering, and all the other systems that are relied upon to run a successful cruise operation? With this kind of corporate IT management in place, it must be pretty bad.  I wonder how long before we hear of the on-board experience being impacted, which admittedly, has not been the case of as of now (well, at least here on Cruise Critic).

Onboard the pursuit now and would have no idea that the ‘my account’ or migration issues exist. Nothing was correct before we boarded in Athens on Saturday but the back end Azamara information had it all correct. Have sone patience and if your Cruise isn’t immediately wait a little while to sort. Mainly don’t panic. 

You used to be able to 'Add a reservation' to your upcoming cruises with the provided reservation number, seems you cannot do this anymore.  It was definately a feature that was very handy.

4 hours ago, TeaBag said:

Our upcoming cruises have been restored also.  I was thrilled when I saw that.  The bad news, some moron has made a mistake in the cruise prices and now they want $800 more.  One of our cruises is nearly $4000 and the other, same room, nearly $9000.  Now i'll take the first one as it's much less than we paid, but they can stuff the second one!  No way are they getting one cent more. 

I think we are finished with Azamara and will cancel the next two cruises.

Enjoy your new cruise lines, whoever they may be.  More room for us😀  I have the same issue but know wholeheartly that the discrepencies will be corrected and I have maintained my own records, but you're free to cancel and go elsewhere.

13 hours ago, Mrs Skip said:

We also now have our 1 upcoming cruise showing, definitely correct room details, and looks like correct set of booked excursions 🙂

 

We have an (incorrect) outstanding balance showing, and (incorrectly) no loyalty points.  I suspect that the (incorrect) outstanding balance is due to a lack of recognition of the OBC we have. 😞

 

However, it is so good to see progress.

 

For info.. the above info became available 24 hrs after I had submitted a 'query form' which stated that both upcoming cruises and loyalty details were incorrect.  I received a courtesy email to say that some updates had been made.

 

Overall this progress has really cheered us up..

 

vYou've been very luckly Jane, though ours is hopelessly wrong as well. Future bookings, incoices balances, obc, loyalty points are all incorrect. I submitted my 'query form' about 4 days ago but nothing has been updated yet.  I'm not concern as I will address at the right time onboard in the next week or so.  I'm a 'records manager' so I am going armed with a whole host of information in paper form to substainate.  I do feel for those working onboard as I fear they will be the brunt of the complaints from the guests.  We know they're not to blame.  Hope you're well. Jenny and Neil

2 minutes ago, Belfastman said:

New UK offer is 10% of and $300 obc.

Different offers, different international markets really get be upset.......

24 minutes ago, MegCV said:

We're on an an 8 day Greek Intensive on the Pursuit leaving on April 24.  I can access my account and can see the excursions (2 each) we purchased through Azamara with OBC prior the conversion.  Can't see if any other excursions are still being sold by Azamara.  Anything I'm missing there? We had a $1000 in OBC prior to excursion purchases but don't see info anywhere on my account about current balance of OBC.  Any suggestions there?

Last ? We checked in when system let us a week before conversion but have since gotten email saying we're not checked in.  Since we're new to Azamara, that means we're in last section to check in and then will have to scramble to get dining reservation in Prime C or Aqualina. Any advise there?

I've really been looking forward to cruising on Azamara and hope the bad juju from this systems debacle disappears when I get on the Pursuit!  

Meg CV, all will be okay onboard I'm sure.  When you board go directly to the speciality reservations desk, explain that you were allocated the last checkin time and adhered to it, and that you're new to Azamara and would like to experience what you believe advertised.  If you're told (unlikely) that there is no reservations available, especially for the times and dates you want, ask there and then to go on a wait list for cancellations.  Then walk away and go to guest relations and ask to speak with the Speciality Restuarant Manager and tell him what has happened.  In all my many many Azmara cruises I have not heard of anyone that has not been able to secure a booking, especially with a little flexibility in times.   Hope this helps.  PS, we're on the same cruise.  

They cannot solely blame RCI/Celebrity as they (Azamara - Sea Trade) have a responsibility to ensure the validity of the data coming accross.  I have been personally involved in many data migration activities and one does not 'go live' until the intregity of the data coming accross is checked, rechecked and appears correct.  Our 'My Account' information is so incorrect it's not even funny anymore.... and we sail next week!

19 hours ago, travelberlin said:

Thanks I am sorry Ngawhira will not be on my cruise. I am boarding on the 24th. I have not met Marcelo Alfonso yet. I am sure he will meet Azamara high standards for Hotel Directors.

Ivi

We also met Marcelo on our Athens to Dubai cruise and we’re looking forward to seeing him again on 24th. We believe he’ll be a good fit for Azamara. Ngawhira is long overdue for some leave. I believe she said she’s been onboard for more than 9 months straight.

Azamara Pursuit 7 January

Captain Mikael Palmroos

Staff Captain Kostas Monas

Hotel Director Ngawhira Fleet

Cruise Director Emily Love

Assistant CD Lee Hetherington 

Guest Relations Manager Adrian Silverman 

F & B Manager Adell Terrassi

Executive Chef Michael Jay Villa

Ngawhira goes on leave on 24 January and is replaced by Marcelo Alfonso.

4 minutes ago, kydems said:

We are having a quiet 2023 and will be on the Journey in 2024 from March 7th to April 3rd B2B for Japan Intensive from Hong Kong to Tokyo. We haven't been to Japan before and the itineraries look great

We'll be joing you on these too.  Easy to access from Australia.

We're on the 7 January and 24 January Pursuit cruises to Antartica and the Chilean Fjords. Feeling very fortunate to have returned to travel post covid and will have been on all 4 ships in the fleet in 7 months.  We have lots more booked as we've just started our retirement and these years are said to be the  best of our lives.....fingers crossed.

2 hours ago, blag said:

Finally, the voice if reason.

Exactly what I have been wanting to say since I saw this thread, but was unwilling to do so, because I feared that there would be retaliation.

2 hours ago, blag said:

Finally, the voice if reason.

Exactly what I have been wanting to say since I saw this thread, but was unwilling to do so, because I feared that there would be retaliation.

Yes, I've struggled to understand the issue and the importance it holds for people and I too was afraid to say anything.  It's worse on FB.

On 12/11/2022 at 3:15 AM, Riocca said:

The transition to Azamara’s new IT system is starting, could be an interesting few months ahead.

 

https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2022/12/azamara-launches-new-azamara-alliance-program/

Doesn't mention the onboard updated WiFi experience, it will be interesting. Hope you're well! Jenny

It will be great to experience the new IT System on the Pursuit in January and February.  I'm spending my last working week before retirement from IT and my experience says 'Believe it when I see it'.  I'm not overly confident but I sure hope I'm wrong.

5 hours ago, andrcan said:

Vesselfinder shows they are still in Patmos just off the port: https://www.vesselfinder.com/?imo=9200940

Such a tragedy 😞

 

 

 

It now appears underway and on route to Santorini.

2 hours ago, gojocruise said:

Can someone tell me how i find out how to place a bid. Is it by email invitation only? Or is there a link on the Azamara website to do this?

 

Jo, it's by email invitation.  I believe not all category of fares/bookings (ie. interline rates, etc) qualify for an upgrade or your cruise could be full.  When your receive that invitation to bid will also depend on your sail date. We've had a number of invitation emails for upcoming voyages to bid recently and they are for cruises 29 October and 18 November sailings, nothing yet for our January 7 and 24 cruises.  To us it doesn't always represent good value as we always book a stateroom that we are happy with in the first place. We are indeed fortunate to be able to do that. Hope this helps you. As far as I'm aware there is not facility to lodge an upgrade bid on the Azamara website. 

As you are new to Azamara it's probably worthwhile noting that whilst there's high demand for washers and dryers at certain times it is unspoken good etiquette that you're back in the laundry to remove your clothes from the washers or dryers as the timer finishes.  Your fellow cruisers will appreciate that sentiment.  Unfortunately, I've witnessed some unpleasant behaviours by guests in the early days but certainly none in the recent years. Some of the ships have timers on their washers and dryers and you can get a pretty accurate prediction of finish times. It's certainly a good feature to have access to, especially if you're travelling before and after the cruise.