BONNIE: scheduling change on our B2B 2020

Bonnie

We are long time Celebrity cruisers who took our first AZ cruise to the Norway fjords on Journey this past July/August. We are hooked on AZ! So much so that we booked a B2B in 2020 and upgraded to a suite -- August 29 Ireland and Sept. 10 France, Spain, Portugal. One of the draws was the first cruise ended with an overnight in London and the second cruise began with a London overnight.

Now... we received two emails changing the itinerary to disembark and embark in Southhampton. Very disappointing. We were looking forward to a 3+ day stay in London. Reason? Too much maritime traffic and inability to get a favorable docking position. Sure there are a couple new ports added but to us that de-values the cruise without the long stay in London.

Is there any chance Azamara will go back to the original itinerary? If they did, what does 'favorable' docking position actually mean?? We are fine taking a shuttle in to town if things are not walkable. Yes it's a long way away, but we were told that actually a new port was being added in London to accommodate ships like AZ. I guess we really don't care about 'favorable' docking position, we just wanted a docking position in London!

Seems to me that Azamara should offer a complete refund of your deposit, without penalty, in the event that Azamara changes the itinerary, if that’s what the customer desires. This should be done as a matter of goodwill, regardless of what the terms and conditions may state.

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Seems to me that Azamara should offer a complete refund of your deposit, without penalty, in the event that Azamara changes the itinerary, if that’s what the customer desires. This should be done as a matter of goodwill, regardless of what the terms and conditions may state.

 

 

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Totally agree, they will not just be missing docking in London but also the cruise up and down the River Thames which is memorable in itself.

Shades yet again of advertising something and failing to deliver.

Totally agree, they will not just be missing docking in London but also the cruise up and down the River Thames which is memorable in itself.

Shades yet again of advertising something and failing to deliver.

Agree, Azamara has really "missed the boat" on a number of similar customer service issues recently. Will be watching to see if good will is worth the $200 fee, or if they dig in on this one.

I understand that some things may be out of the company’s control, but the customer should not be held responsible for that, and they have sufficient profit baked into their fare structure that they should be able to absorb that in the name of customer goodwill.

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As I read the first posting, the request is that Azamara revert to the original itineraries with overnights in London. There is no mention of having asked for a full refund from Azamara and being refused such. I suspect Azamara is quite unlikely to restore the original itineraries once having changed them.

Ships are no longer permitted to dock at Tower Bridge and plans to build a new port facility at Greenwich met with so much opposition that apparently they have been scrapped, so highly unlikely the original itinerary will be reinstated.

Ships are no longer permitted to dock at Tower Bridge and plans to build a new port facility at Greenwich met with so much opposition that apparently they have been scrapped, so highly unlikely the original itinerary will be reinstated.

All that is correct, but it has been known for some time.

No excuse for Azamaras bad itinerary planning.

Not for the first time they have messed up and people have been misled when booking.

Glad to know my concerns are not unfounded. We may change our back to back, although we like both cruises. It's just that the time in London was a selling point. If we change, hope there will be no cancellation fee with our TA. Yeah, it's already with them.

Hi ClaudiaB,

I understand your disappointment. I wish we could have kept the docking spot in Greenwich, but as I understand it the Port Authority only just let us know they've allocated our spot to a competitor <|3

Yes, of course you may cancel without penalty. Of course we hope you won't cancel, but this is YOUR vacation so we understand you want what you want.

I hope you'll give us another chance in the future?

Bonnie

Bonnie, we're not going to cancel completely, we really like AZ, but we may change for a different B2B or the one before. Probably won't get our carefully chosen suite of choice for both though. Thank you so much for answering me, and hopefully if we *do* cancel the TA won't charge us a fee either.

The Greenwich Cruise Terminal certainly won't be built any time soon. We see Viking ships in Greenwich every few weeks so I suspect that Viking is likely to be the competitor mentioned since regular docking fees must be more inviting to The Port Authority than the one offs that Azamara have. I think Azamara have been in Greenwich only once this year. Occasionally there are other cruise ships but there is only one position at Greenwich which more often than not is empty.

On the positive side there are many wonderful places within easy reach of Southampton.