Riocca

This has been the way of the U.K. holiday market for as long as I can remember and certainly not exclusive to Azamara. Terms & conditions within the U.K. market have been stricter than the North American market it was always said that this was because of the legislation that gives us greater protection making the cost of doing business higher. We’ve encountered similar issues with other cruise lines P&O U.K. being one of the more intransigent when a cruise we booked early was slashed in price, in fact we ended up paying more for a balcony cabin than they were selling Owners Suites for in the last few weeks before the cruise. It’s swings and roundabouts, we are usually early bookers with Azamara and certainly with our current bookings have been happy with the overall deal. Our next cruise is in March and the cruise is included in the latest offers however currently for the price we are paying for a CC suite we could only book an ocean view.

There was a question about this back in October so as we were onboard Onward I asked and was told it was still $10. Of course this could have changed since then but hopefully not.

Going back to 2015 this thread would indicate that Azamara didn’t respond to this thread as regards the proportion of walk in showers as opposed to bath/ shower combos. There were many other threads regarding the then proposed refurbishment but the majority were about the addition of an Asian specialty restaurant on the Sunset Terrace which of course didn’t happen but makes interesting reading. Flicking through the pages of history was interesting but the number of threads relating to Website / Customer Service issues highlighted that the past wasn’t that perfect either.

It was always subject to local rules and regulations, availability of immigration and customs officials seems to have diminished since Covid even for regular departures.

Booking was exactly as it was before the 3 nights were applied, early booking bonus, onboard booking discount and OBC. Everything was done off ship by the back office so no reason to believe that this is not now the normal procedure.

We were told that onboard staff now have strict instructions to refer all changes that have financial implications to the home team responsible for that passenger. It’s clear that the new Azamara regime are beginning to get a firm grip and everyone is now following the correct procedures. I think the figures are too exact for us to have gotten lucky, so hopefully free nights now actually have value for everyone.

I can only post this regarding UK bookings but it possibly relates to others as well. Back in October onboard Onward we changed an existing booking previously made onboard, in this case the new cruise was booked with a new booking number and the deposit transferred from the existing booking which was then cancelled. This is no longer the case, currently onboard Onward we wanted to change an existing booking (actually made on the October cruise) to one of the new Quest 2025 Canada / New England cruises. Now this has to be referred to Azamara UK to action, the cabin we wanted was held on a temporary booking while Azamara UK updated the booking. This took a few extra days because of the Christmas holiday but was done without any problems then the temporary booking was cancelled. We also asked if the three free nights would work with this booking but this had to be submitted after the booking was changed. As the new cruise was 12 days we weren’t expecting it to work however to our surprise the onboard discounted cruise fare was reduced by 25% within a couple of days. So this represents a true 3 free nights on the booking, much better than it used to be under the old RC system.

Incidentally there’s currently no F&B Manager onboard Onward, there is a back story but unable to repeat it on here. I would like to think that they will correct this before the World Cruise starts on the 6th January.

We currently have the same butler and can say he’s the nicest guy going and is looking after us extremely well.

We’re boarding Onward tomorrow and will probably swap our 5th August booking to the late September Montreal to New York itinerary. It’s a few days shorter but can make up for that with a few days in the Big Apple.

In 2009 during P&O’s Arcadia’s Grand Voyage at the peak of pirate activity in that area we were escorted by a U.K. Navy warship at close quarters in both directions. However the current threat is different from the waterborne pirates, drones and possibly missiles would present a much more dangerous threat. We are booked on Pursuits October Athens to Dubai cruise and are booking changeable flights just in case, although I’m sure cruise ships are way down in priority given the greater importance of the effects on commercial shipping.

Possibly it’s more of a problem because of Quests power problems but we just accepted it as normal for cruising in that area, when we put our hands on the window glass it was freezing, as were the outside walls.

Years ago we did the Antarctic Cruise on Star Princess in a corner aft suite of similar size to an Owners Suite on Azamara. The ship was operating normally but we also suffered the heating in the suite being unable to cope with the low outside temperatures, we also lost hot water for 2 days. Just wondering if it could be that modern cruise ships are not designed to handle the low Antarctic temperatures. That said we’re hoping that they can fix Quest soon as we are due to join her in Rio in March.

We have always had to complete the form and apply online but we recently booked a b2b onboard and the bookings were linked under one booking reference and the OBC applied immediately to both legs of the booking and was showing on the confirmation we were given.

When you’re in the booking go to Add ons, then choose available you should be able to scroll through all the available packages. In our bookings I can see all the Chefs Table options but as we’re in a suite no speciality restaurant packages.

Made a Shorex booking last week using the OBC from an Experience More package that was part of the early booking bonus without any problems. We were 35 days from sailing and spoke to one of the agents in Wichita.

There is a U.K. agency that offers the same facility unfortunately it can’t be named or even hinted at. Not used a travel agent since the pandemic but it sounds as though some agents are just using the same system we can use to check availability. Would be interesting to know exactly what is being made available to agents and if they are choosing to use it, but probably we will never know.

Yes, Azamara’s response times on the phones is very good these days I’ve only had to wait a maximum of 10 minutes recently and the ring back feature is also working well. Having booked recently onboard Onward I’ve seen the system the Azamara agents are looking at and it gives full availability of all the available cabins, it’s just the customer website that displays a limited number of available cabins.

All gratuities (except in the spa) are included on Azamara so there’s nothing added to the drinks price whether you have a drink package or not.

Tatiana is supposed to be on Onward until the 5th January.

With a bit of internet digging it was 2006-2012 and he also oversaw the introduction of the Solstice class of ships. The new CFO was with Virgin Voyages so would have been involved with the financing of their new builds, so that’s possibly the direction Sycamore are looking to go in the near future.

This is the email address for Guest Relations on Onward, they should be able to help you. on_grd@azamaraships.com

Azamara has overhauled the Refer & Receive offer; https://refer.azamara.com/global_header?pk_vid=d39cea4992a30df0169947155170cdc8 How this works outside the U.S. is unclear but it’s a sign things are getting changed.

Sometimes happens if there’s a possibility of an itinerary change or they’re negotiating a charter, so it may be a case of wait and see.

Possibly just add some OBC to the current deal, that’s been done before so must meet the required criteria.