Marylebone37

True on the debt front. But AZ certainly seems have the corporate-wide mismanagement that is blatantly obvious at the moment. This system cutover required a high degree of corporate-wide strategic planning and precise execution by management at nearly all levels. And they failed miserably (and continue to do so).

I realize that for sure. Just something to keep on eye on if we start hearing reports of on board issues, to-good-to-be-true reduced deposits, special sales etc. I'll be on board the Pursuit starting on Monday for 2 weeks so will keep my eyes and ears keenly peeled. Well, hopefully I'll be on board since my online/web site cruise details are still VERY incorrect. I honestly can't believe that I'm sailing in < 7 days and they haven't taken all those bookings on this voyage (it is not sold out) and made sure they are all "done and dusted" and 100% accurate for guests to view. Really stinks!

I hate to even go here (but honestly I've been thinking about it)… Crystal operated pretty much as normal on board until the very end. They weren't paying their bills and who knows what else was going on behind the scenes, but the onboard experience remained pretty much as expected until they went bust. I know we're talking a bit of apples and oranges since COVID definitely contributed to Crystal's woes in a significant way. But what transpires on board at AZ right now may not necessarily be indicative of what is truly happening at a broader level - especially at a company that is now owned by a private equity firm with zero public fiduciary/reporting responsibilities or disclosure requirements.

Nice! I embark in Barcelona in 7 days and have received nada. And in fact, when I log in, it shows two cruises on the same ship departing on 30-May. Also got a blast email this morning (in US) about a new offer. Their bookings are way down I suspect. AZ EMAIL — Claim Your Bonus Nights: Book a European Cruise and Enjoy 3 FREE Nights! Ready to set sail and make lifelong memories? We are thrilled to introduce an exciting opportunity for you to save on your next Azamara cruise! Book a select 2023 European cruise and receive three free nights, save 50% off your guest, and earn a $750 Onboard Credit*. Discover the small ship cruising advantage as we take you to the heart of incredible hidden gem destinations. Step back in time and discover the fascinating history of the Ottoman Empire’s Cimenlik Castle in Canakkale, Turkey, and admire the breathtaking views of the Dardanelles Strait. Or after a day of sightseeing, take advantage of the clearest skies in Greece and relax while watching the sunset meld into a starry night in Kos. With Azamara, excitement awaits day and night. Take advantage of this limited-time offer and enjoy extra time exploring your chosen destination with a friend or family member, while enhancing your journey with onboard credit for dining, shore excursions, or spa days. Book your voyage between May 23, 2023, through June 2, 2023, and explore Europe the Azamara way this year.

This concerns me also. If you look around what has happened to some companies under Sycamore Partners’ ownership, it's quite troubling to put it mildly. Buyer beware for sure (at least for the time being).

Yes, got it too. I’m pleased that management is becoming better with their communication… finally. I suspect we on CC are helping to ensure this improvement. I’ll see you on 5/30 in Barcelona!

No, and I’ve tried a bunch of the reliable ones. The number of new bookings must be markedly down with folks not having ready access to cabin availability.

It sure does speak to management's incompetence that they couldn't even take a few minutes today (or over the weekend) to update their web FAQ to let folks know online check in is not available. It still says May 15th! The vast majority of guests as we know are not using CC to avail themselves of the latest information.

I'm sailing on 5/30/23, and wondering what to expect come Monday, when, according to their FAQ page: Sailings May 15, 2023 and after: Online check-in will resume on azamara.com starting May 15th, 2023. Will I be able to check online or will I will I have to fly half way across the world with my TA paperwork, cross my fingers and toes, click my heels, and show up at the pier hoping that all be well. I'll report back on Monday.

She and her illustrious management team are just the worst, aren't they?!?! It's simply amazing to me — as we approach the TWO MONTH anniversary date of the system cutover — that there are still so many, many unresolved issues and disgruntled customers.

I asked about this on the WC '24 roll call, and nothing is known/announced about Myanmar for that cruise either. It is still on the itinerary for now (> 8 months away), but some believe there will be a replacement port or two added. Here is a link for the scheduled calls at Rangoon: https://cruisedig.com/ports/yangon-myanmar. We now know (from CC) that Oceania canceled their May '23 calls, but waited to do so until almost the last minute. And the next ship is not scheduled to stop there until mid-December. Might be interesting to ask/look around on the various CC boards closer to the dates in the port schedule.

And I am not giving up on them (even given all the conversion issues, including my own, ugh). I’ve asked for some corporate comms in other threads to hopefully prompt management to give the many stressed travelers (and TA’s) an update on the issues, resolution plan, and timeline. That would go such a long way to help. I am supposed to be embarking in about a month and will report back on the experience.

Please do read all the threads recently. It’s embarrassing to me, a guest who used to love the brand. What a train wreck.

Surely you're not communicating for a reason, Have the Sycamore partners banned you from saying anything? After all that great pre-transition communication, for you to go silent regarding this complete disaster seems VERY suspicious to me. What gives?

So true, CHTobi. As Marcellus once said in Hamlet, Something Is Rotten in the State Of Denmark. My gut tells me there is more to this than just an absolutely bungled system implementation.

Please allow me to suggest that you write an article for your News section about the total fiasco of Azamara's cutover to their new systems, their lack of frequent/regular communications about the issues and anticipated resolution times, and the many troubles they are subjecting their guests to. After a full month of issues, long hold times, closed phone lines etc. - enough is enough. There is certainly plenty of information in various threads to create an article. Maybe something like this would get their attention and prompt Azamara to start being more open and transparent about what's going on exactly.

Azamara management's total incompetence would prevent them from doing so.

Hi Grandma, there are many IT strategies that could have been properly executed to ensure a smooth transition. But those details are probably not appropriate to the topic/concerns at hand. Azamara totally screwed it up… whether that was in the system/data turnover contract negotiations early on or during the actual system conversion itself.

I am all for support, BUT, that's a two-way street. How about some frequent and clear support from them in terms of communications on what the issues are, what they are doing to resolve them, and the expected timeline for completion? Please, give us anything — by email or right here on Cruise Critic (and especially with a thread titled like this one!). But no, they are majorly stressing lots of people out by leaving us all wondering when things will be fixed after nearly a MONTH!! since the date when the migration should have been completed. Come on Azamara, we'll gladly show you our support if you show some transparency and support to us, your loyal guests who do really enjoy and admire the brand.

I am pretty concerned and am happy that I only have a single paid in full booking with them at the end of May. These IT "folks" (to be kind) are still in charge of their other management systems which require constant vigilance, software and operating system patches/upgrades, disaster recovery planning/testing, and more. If these same "folks" who couldn't even manage a rather straightforward migration of reservations for 4 small ships are responsible for the ongoing oversight of many other complex systems, it will only be a matter of time until things degrade further across the brand. Such a shame as I have been a true Azamara fan! And wouldn't some frequent communications from management to booked guests be nice to advise us the issues, progress against plans to remedy the issues, and reassurance that all be corrected by X date? They did all that pre-cutover communications staged very well, but nearly nothing since then except for that one email from the CEO that some received and many did not (I did not get it, even with a May, 2023 booking).

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).

The poor data? That's why any IT department with a brain tests the data conversion algorithms, fixes the errors, re-tests them again, fixes the errors, re-tests them again… and so on and so on… until they're down to a small subset of data integrity issues that can be manually dealt with. I can recall many posts both on this Board and others commenting on the poor systems at RCCL/Celebrity/Azamara. Aren't they just having the last laugh! Sorry, don't mean to be preachy, so just frustrated with all this crap and I've got a cruise coming up with AZ in 5 weeks times.

As a retired IT guy with a lot of experience doing system upgrades and data conversions over the years, I just can't fathom doing a system conversion that produced over 50,000 reservations with errors! They surely received multiple iterations of live test files from RCCL months ago that should have been run through the new processes and loaded into the new system multiple times in the lead up to the big cutover. Bugs are found and problems corrected during each of these test runs. Sure, there will always be tens (or maybe even hundreds) of unique errors that could not be reasonably anticipated… but not > 50,000. And this is a small cruise line in the grand scheme of things with a fraction of the reservations of the huge companies in the industry… which makes it all the more appalling. The senior management of this new company has really let its guests (and investors) down and I hope appropriate action is taken.

I'm most definitely sure that an "I'm sorry” or “I apologize” was appropriate in the very first sentence or two of her first wide email blast to customers since this fiasco under HER watch! I would have appreciated her sincerity to own up to Azamara's horrendous transition/account migration planning and execution. Instead, it shows no guts whatsoever and just another example of meaningless corporate-speak.

Go to: https://www.azamara.com/account/faqs The form is in the Loyalty Account Information section: https://www.azamara.com/b2c/account/support