Question for Bill - Asian shore excursion prices

[Jade13]

With that in mind, I will recommend that we state that our Land Discoveries pricing is subject to change on our website and brochures and to book early.

 

As always, we appreciate your loyalty and I'm sorry for your frustration.

 

Sincerely,

 

Bill Leiber

__________________

Chief Blogging Officer*

 

Bill, you actually stated previously that the prices were subject to change on the shore excursions. I read into it that prices would go up on the excursions that were selling well as they could command higher prices. Increasing prices on those not selling doesn't help in my opinion. But of course most people aren't on CC and I don't recall which thread (maybe someone else does).

[Bill Leiber]

Thank you for your answer Bill.

 

This will be our first cruise with Azamara, and we were looking forward to taking mostly ship excursions, due to the pricing that we originally saw online, instead of planning our own private excursions as we have done in the past with Celebrity. That would have saved me lots of time and effort since I wouldn't have had to plan private excursions.

 

We also held off booking ship excursions due to the lack of information as to when the Azamazing Evening would be scheduled for our cruise. That information is still not available for our March 3, 2014 cruise.

 

We understand that you are looking at your bottom line, but we also are looking at ours. Like uktog mentioned, we are locked into this cruise since we have already booked our air and our pre-cruise hotel.

 

I will now reluctantly start researching private tours for our itinerary.

 

Hello Sandy -

 

I learned that we are working on entering the 2014 AzAmazing Evening events which are repeats of our 2013 operation into our shore excursion system. We expect to have them available online within the next two weeks.

 

However, we are still formulating the events for other 2014 voyages to ensure the best type and size of venue, especially those first quarter 2014 voyages in Central America, Mexico and Japan.

 

I will let you know where we stand with the March 3, 2014 Azamara Journey voyage so that you can know the date and place that we have planned for that evening. Hopefully, it will allow you to reconsider the shore excursions that are being offered and to take advantage of the Land Discoveries Savings of 25%.

 

I'm hopeful that your Azamara onboard experience next year will meet and exceed your expectations.

 

Sincerely,

 

Bill Leiber

__________________

Chief Blogging Officer*

Azamara Club Cruises

(*CBO is an authorized and compensated representative of ACC)

[uktog]

Thank you Bill for your response. The pill remains too bitter for us to swallow at present I am afraid, it's not a small pill, it's not even a horse pill, it's of significant size and it is choking us.

 

Given we are now being asked to pay a significant premium for Azamara excursions even allowing for discounts over what RCI charge for almost identical excursions where they stop in the same ports it would be helpful to understand what it is that is different dare I say bespoke about the Azamara offerings.

 

Is there now going to be smaller vehicles, I know you talk about guaranteed minimum but what about guaranteed maximum guests per trip, will higher quality guides be used than on the equivalent RCI or Celebrity guides as the excursion descriptors are identical.

 

I feel this smacks of, we have sold you a destination experience, we need to balance our books for other reasons, hey wait, you are probably interested in the experience at the destination, we've got you hooked already and you are bound to be booking excursions in this part of the world so BANG and we won't even give you a pre book chance - you would have had a lot of money from us for 7-10 months if you had.

 

If they are going to release brochures they should be complete or they should not be released and wholesale price increases of the scale we saw here - up to 67% should not be thought of as the kind of increase that can be passed over without warning.

 

The experience onboard will be great, but it cannot compensate for incidents like this.

 

It has been such a nasty bate, it may be legal but it is not fair and certainly not reflecting the values of an organisation. I would want to champion as a loyal customer, sorry.

[Jade13]

 

Given we are now being asked to pay a significant premium for Azamara excursions even allowing for discounts over what RCI charge for almost identical excursions where they stop in the same ports it would be helpful to understand what it is that is different dare I say bespoke about the Azamara offerings.

 

Is there now going to be smaller vehicles, I know you talk about guaranteed minimum but what about guaranteed maximum guests per trip, will higher quality guides be used than on the equivalent RCI or Celebrity guides as the excursion descriptors are identical.

 

 

That is a good question. Do you know if any of the excursions are special to Azamara? I always assumed they are the same ones offered on Celebrity and RCCL. Are they priced lower on Celebrity and RCCL?

 

I also don't think there is anything unique excursion wise on our November cruise. I suppose that is fine for most people, especially if it is their first time at these ports. We found areas we wanted to explore absent at many ports at any cost. There is nothing as far as night excursions with the exception of the last night in Singapore with the night drive or night Safari (which we have done and on an Azamara excursion). There are even people on our roll call arranging a night tour on our overnight in Mumbai because there are no night tours. We are not going because we are leaving the next day to fly to Aurangabad for the Ajanta and Ellora Caves (both UNESCO) but not offered by Azamara.

 

I am not surprised at the price increases because now that Azamara is more inclusive it is really the only place where they can increase revenues. But I think they have it backwards and should have thought it out before adding more included liquor especially since they want to be the destination cruise line. They had a problem selling the excursions on our last cruise. We mostly took their excursions on our last cruise, but they had a hard time filling them. We had 6 out of 9 that never had enough passengers to run, but they ended up running most of them with under 20 people. This time we will likely only do one excursion with Azamara because they are not offering what we want in most of the ports. So I don't think there is anything special about what is being offered, which is a shame.

[Grandma Gilly]

UKtog. I have followed this thread and really feel for you as I know you are a loyal Azamara fan and always jump to their defence.

If this is any help, we sailed on Quest from Mumbai to Chennai last November. We arranged private guides and tours at every port. They were, bar none, excellent. We much prefer a one-on-one tour. If you really want to visit theTaj Mahal, get in touch with a decent travel agent that specialises in India and I'm sure they can sort something out for you. We did a two week pre cruise land tour and the Taj was definitely a highlight. If you want any more info about our trip I can give you my email address.

I'm sure that the cost of private tours can't be more than the ships ones!!!

[mare s.]

This is a shame. We're on a January 2014 cruise and have been waiting for posting of the Azamazing evening so we can plan other excursions. I've asked on several occasions when the evening will be announced but apparently it won't be for a while. Odd that it's taking so long when the brochure for regular excursions has been out for months. Our final payment is due in October so I sincerely hope that things will be organized before then.

If only the shoreside Azamara (excursion planning and pricing and web site issues) were as wonderful as the on board experience.

[genineh]

I don't know if this is any help but my online travel agent also sells these excursions.I haven't used them yet but have been told by a third party that they are ok.

http://www.cruisingexcursions.com/

 

regards

[Jade13]

UKtog. I have followed this thread and really feel for you as I know you are a loyal Azamara fan and always jump to their defence.

If this is any help, we sailed on Quest from Mumbai to Chennai last November. We arranged private guides and tours at every port. They were, bar none, excellent. We much prefer a one-on-one tour. If you really want to visit theTaj Mahal, get in touch with a decent travel agent that specialises in India and I'm sure they can sort something out for you. We did a two week pre cruise land tour and the Taj was definitely a highlight. If you want any more info about our trip I can give you my email address.

I'm sure that the cost of private tours can't be more than the ships ones!!!

 

I believe A&K US can sell this tour cheaper than Azamara ($3,000) considering their 10 night "Connections" (lower priced) India Tour is $3,990.00 per person, and that tour stays at the Taj Palace in New Delhi, The Rambagh Palace in Jaipur, and The Oberoi Amervitas in Agra. They do this right by visiting the Taj Mahal both for Sunrise and Sunset.

 

See tour description from their 10 night tour

 

 

Day 7: AGRA / The Greatest Monument to Love Visit the Taj Mahal early this morning to watch as the sunrise decorates its sheer white surface in rosy pinks. Afterward, visit the Agra Fort before returning to your hotel for an afternoon at leisure. Return to the Taj Mahal at sunset to watch as the light dances off the crisp white marble.

The Oberoi Amarvilás (Click here to see the full tour)

 

 

I bet one could even contact A&K's local/Asia office and pricing will be less than in the US or UK and have something put together using a well known tour operator if one doesn't want to book the hotels, flights and touring separately. It's a 2 night tour with basically one full day of touring. We worked directly with their Egypt office for our Nile cruise in Egypt.

 

 

I wouldn't hesitate to use them anywhere and wish they had this type of pricing in other areas of the world we wish to visit.

 

 

Just another suggestion.

[Grandma Gilly]

The Oberoi Amarvilas is one of the finest hotels I have ever stayed in, just fabulous.

[uktog]

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions. I am exploring a number of options but DH is abroad in inhospitable part of the world and this sort of thing does not resolve itself in snatched phone calls so will wait until he is back and run all the options by him.

Certainly need some as his previous response when the pricing increase came to light was cancel the cruise