Breaking news! Use your OBC to pre-book shorex!

We’re thrilled to announce that Azamara guests on sailings starting September 1st, 2018 and beyond can now use their onboard credit (OBC) before boarding the ship. Please note, your OBC may only be applied pre-cruise towards the purchase of shore excursions; guests interested in reserving other onboard amenities such as beverage, internet, dining, spa, etc., must continue to apply it onboard.

We understand the importance of pre-planning your vacation and reserving your shore excursions before boarding the ship to secure your space on our smaller-group tours before they sell out. As a reminder, most of our tours have been adjusted to accommodate a maximum of 25 guests for a more intimate destination experience.

Just received the email. Thank you Bonnie.

Just tried to Log In and the website says it is down...

Just tried to Log In and the website says it is down...

Hi Jim, I’m sorry about that. Try again in a little while. As expected there’s a huge response to this long-awaited news.

Just tried to Log In and the website says it is down...

Link is to the same video as the email and NO sound!!

Thank you Bonnie. That’s great news!

Very good news. Thank you.

Ivi

I am livid !!! I have already paid with my credit card a month ago for 2 shore excursions on my upcoming Journey cruise October 6, 2018. I just called and spoke to Luis Lopez (customer service) and he says they are not able to credit my credit card and use my obc at this time and it may be another week. Really? Why send out the email today if you’re not ready to process these requests?

Then, the icing on the cake is when Luis says they WILL NOT honor the rate I paid for my excursions but it will be at the prevailing rate and the prices have gone up since I booked. That is NOT what i was told by various people who are, I believe, higher ups with Azamara. I’m calling those people now!

Who do i call for compensation? I should not have had to deal with these uninformed and unhelpful people over and over. This will be my first cruise with Azamara and we’re not off to a very good start. I have had one issue after the other with their customer service people when I have called.

Thank you Bonnie, just received email and booked our first excursion for our October cruise. Everything worked fine although I have to admit I didn't watch the video. OBC converted to sterling and trip paid for in sterling, not sure how it will work when booking drinks package or speciality restaurants whilst on board, presumably converted from sterling OBC to dollars!

Thank you Bonnie! Hopefully everyone will get the email but if not they now know :)

Link is to the same video as the email and NO sound!!

You quoted my post about the log-in, but just to make it clear, my issue isn't with accessing the video. I can't log-in the the Voyage Planner. It comes back with an error message saying the system is down. But it sounds like at least one person was able to get in.

Link is to the same video as the email and NO sound!!

Pretty easy to understand without any sound. Maybe it doesn’t have any.

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It has worked properly even if I find the canadian exchange rate a bit too high. I had also a balance to pay and it went easy. Perfect, thanks Bonnie!

Thank you Bonnie! Hopefully everyone will get the email but if not they now know :)

At least the 5% to 10% of the Azamara cruisers who are on CC. The other vast majority of people who can't get on or stay on the mailing list are out of luck.

Then, the icing on the cake is when Luis says they WILL NOT honor the rate I paid for my excursions but it will be at the prevailing rate and the prices have gone up since I booked. That is NOT what i was told by various people .

I'm very happy that this has finally materialized, but understand Tromvest's frustration. I too have booked excursions for October, and planned to use the previously offered work-around to cancel and rebook onboard with OBC at the price I'd paid. I hope Luis is wrong and that those of us who've had to take that route won't be penalized.

It would be very reassuring to have some certainty about that.

Bonnie?

Melissa

Awesome! Called to get my shore excursions cancelled and then was going to book online (at the higher cost) but the rep. offered to do the re-booking for me. Made it super easy.

I bet the shore excursions dept. on the ships are going to be thrilled they don't have a ton of these to deal with once the passengers are onboard (I'm sure they'll still have some though).

Doesn't work on Chrome. Doesn't work on Edge. Doesn't work on Firefox. Same error on all 3:

You don't have permission to access "http://secure.azamaraclubcruises.com/cruiseplanner/login?" on this server.

Reference #18.127f1cb8.1529524168.743c049

Awesome! Called to get my shore excursions cancelled and then was going to book online (at the higher cost) but the rep. offered to do the re-booking for me. Made it super easy.

 

I bet the shore excursions dept. on the ships are going to be thrilled they don't have a ton of these to deal with once the passengers are onboard (I'm sure they'll still have some though).

That sounds like the best way to do it, then.

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Am I right in guessing that this only applies to OBC issued by Azamara? We have some OBC coming from our TA for a Cuba trip in January and would like to use it for shoreex. If we cannot use it now, is it refundable if we don't use it? I know Celebrity and Royal will refund unused OBC from at TA but I don't know Azamara's policy since this is our first trip with them.

Am I right in guessing that this only applies to OBC issued by Azamara? We have some OBC coming from our TA for a Cuba trip in January and would like to use it for shoreex. If we cannot use it now, is it refundable if we don't use it? I know Celebrity and Royal will refund unused OBC from at TA but I don't know Azamara's policy since this is our first trip with them.

It is only for AZ OBC, not TA. And yes, if it is from a TA, it is refundable if not used.

It is only for AZ OBC, not TA. And yes, if it is from a TA, it is refundable if not used.

I have $800 non-refundable and $900 refundable. I suppose it makes sense to spend the non-refundable and take the refundable as a price reduction. I think what you can't do is buy the packages with your OBC that include OBC, internet, drinks packages, etc. That's too bad. Our cruise is 16 months out and not all of the excursions are up to be booked either. This is still very positive.

Thanks ECCruiser. That is how it works on Celebrity too. And once you are onboard, they use the non-refundable OBC first and when that is exhausted they start in on the refundable. So I guess I should consider just buying my Shoreex before the cruise if I see something I like and then let the refundable OBC pay me back after the cruise.

I just talked to Customer Service and they said it might be 24-48 hours before the Online Voyage Planner is back working. Happily, they were able to book our two top choice shore excursions for me over the phone using my onboard credit. I'll wait until the system comes back online to make our other decisions for our Sept 5 cruise on the Quest. We still have over $1000 of credit left.

A couple of days ago I was close to going ahead and booking at least one of those excursions using a credit card to make sure we got it before they were booked, but for once I'm glad I procrastinated. So much easier now to just book using the onboard credit than having to do the whole cancel/rebook workaround

Hi Jim,

I'm glad you booked your top choice tours using your OBC.

Once the Voyage Planner is visible for you you'll be happy to see it now shows the amount of OBC available in your account for that particular voyage. I think this is a big improvement!

And you can use your OBC on a per person per tour basis, and also you can pay with a combination of OBC and credit card, should you wish to save your OBC for onboard purchases.

Doesn't work on Chrome. Doesn't work on Edge. Doesn't work on Firefox. Same error on all 3:

You don't have permission to access "http://secure.azamaraclubcruises.com/cruiseplanner/login?" on this server.

Reference #18.127f1cb8.1529524168.743c049

Works on Firefox for me

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