What happened to the Le Club Voyage announcement?

[uktog]

I have pointed all this out to them, lets see if they can help be understand why the reduction we all agree exists is not a reduction

Yours

Confused Bear of Very Little Brain

Edited February 6, 2014 by uktog

[riandei]

If they have not reduced the benefits, are the fewer internet minutes and one bag of laundry per stateroom misprints?

 

 

How many internet minutes are there now....

 

Our elite status on celeb was an incentive over Oceania for us as we need to keep in touch with our dog sitter while we are away...i would hate to lose this benefit.

 

E

[little britain]

How many internet minutes are there now....

 

Our elite status on celeb was an incentive over Oceania for us as we need to keep in touch with our dog sitter while we are away...i would hate to lose this benefit.

 

E

It's now 235 minutes instead of 237......:rolleyes:

[uktog]

It's now 235 minutes instead of 237......:rolleyes:

 

Indeed aka a reduction, ok its 2 minutes, perhaps pendantic, but I do not like a dismissive response from Azamara that there has been no reductions when as we all know there clearly have been both in terms of the internet and parties but more significantly the laundry.

 

The stupidity of yesterday's email that made it to the UK is the sort of exercise you give kids in a first year business communications programme, spot the mixed messages in this piece and correct them - come on Azamara, sub it down the message is "we are recognising your loyalty with two extra levels you can spend your hard earned cash trying to achieve but when you get there we are giving you nothing now and actually we are not committing to giving you anything in the future"

 

Do those who write the blurb here and on Facebook actually know the product and what existed before - no don't answer that.

 

The one thing that is eminently clear to me is had this all happened on Bill's watch we would have had a response, an explanation and would have a far better understanding of what was going on than we do now. In all probability we would have had the same package, certainly in the short term, but we would have felt we had been listened to but if there are oversights we would have felt they had gone into the system to be looked at.

 

Azamara, you need to recognise by actions, not words, the power of social media, electronic communications and the bottom line value you can add (or lose) through use (or misuse).

 

Right now............... its not looking good sorry

[procter]

Well at least this has got a few people exercised about the incompetence of both Miami and UK offices.

As a discovery plus member there is nothing to get excited about.

Who on earth spends £2000 on gift shop jewellery.??!!

If it breaks etc how are you going to return it etc.

If this news was so exciting why is it not on the news page on Azamara UK website.

I am an Azamara loyalist but they really are testing our patience with their CONTINUAL foul ups.

It would be interesting to see a response by the NEW MD of UK.

You would have thought he would at least put an appearance on this board to show that somebody might be listening.

 

If it is NOT broken leave it alone.

We like stability and the great on board experience!!!

 

As an aside we are invited to a cruise event at Alnwick hosted by our local travel agent who have Oceania Silversea and Seabourn so will be looking closely at their offers then.

We had a private (24) people tour of Crystal Serenity last year arranged by them which was very interesting but confirmed our belief that Azamara crew beat them into a cocked hat as practically every staff member we met either ignored us or was unwilling to even make eye contact.

[curiouscat]

Per Azamara the 2 new level Perks have not been announced. It should be next month. Not the greatest roll out but again hang on and stay tuned !!!!

 

More announcements to come...

 

 

CC

 

PS and this isn't really a surprise to some one who worked in Corporate America for a fortune 500 co in Sales/Marketing. :D

[marinaro44]

Per Azamara the 2 new level Perks have not been announced. It should be next month. Not the greatest roll out but again hang on and stay tuned !!!!

 

More announcements to come...

 

 

CC

 

PS and this isn't really a surprise to some one who worked in Corporate America for a fortune 500 co in Sales/Marketing. :D

Right. I think they've made clear that April 1 is the date for the roll-out. Now, knowing Azamara, they may miss that date, but I don't understand all the handwringing when it's still February.

[uktog]

So

1. why when sending out the email in the UK this week do they not specifically state that there will be additional benefits for the top two levels. As it is written, guests have absolutely no indication this is going to happen

2. why keep saying benefits are the same when they have been reduced

 

Even I cannot "cheer" for my favourite cruiseline these days

[curiouscat]

Right. I think they've made clear that April 1 is the date for the roll-out. Now, knowing Azamara, they may miss that date, but

 

"I don't understand all the handwringing when it's still February" .

 

Exactly... and I don't think they should announce it on April 1st..( aka April Fools day) LOL :D

 

 

CC

[Andy]

Hi Everyone,

 

FYI - Cruise Critic's editorial team, just published an article on the LV updates.

 

Some good news from the article... : According to Azamara, benefits for the upper three tiers will remain identical to each other through the end of March. However, the line is working on changes to the program and plans to roll out new rewards and amenities in the second quarter of 2014.

 

Here's a link to the story : http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=5719

Edited February 7, 2014 by Host Andy

[uktog]

Thanks Andy

- and priceless their reps Facebook response yesterday given the release today

[Kellie Poodle]

Hi Everyone,

 

FYI - Cruise Critic's editorial team, just published an article on the LV updates.

 

Some good news from the article... : According to Azamara, benefits for the upper three tiers will remain identical to each other through the end of March. However, the line is working on changes to the program and plans to roll out new rewards and amenities in the second quarter of 2014.

 

Here's a link to the story : http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=5719

 

 

Can someone interpret this: "Oddly, the cocktail party, which is offered to the lower tiers, will only be made available to the three upper tiers on voyages of 10 nights or more."

 

The way this reads, the two lower tiers get a cocktail party on less than 10 day cruises, and the higher tiers only get a cocktail party if the cruise is longer than 10 days.

 

I was under the impression that the top tiers got everything the lower tiers got with additional internet minutes and perks.

[excitedofharpenden]

Andy, thanks for posting that link. What a shambles.

 

Phil

[tgg]

Can someone interpret this: "Oddly, the cocktail party, which is offered to the lower tiers, will only be made available to the three upper tiers on voyages of 10 nights or more."

 

The way this reads, the two lower tiers get a cocktail party on less than 10 day cruises, and the higher tiers only get a cocktail party if the cruise is longer than 10 days.

 

I was under the impression that the top tiers got everything the lower tiers got with additional internet minutes and perks.

 

With the introduction of the "included" alcohol, the cocktail parties have become a nonissue for many people.

[greeneg]

Fascinating thread. It seems as though management hasn't learned a lot since 2010.....

 

Anyway a belated Happy New Year and Hello to our old friends here on the AzB....

 

Ed

[Andy]

Fascinating thread. It seems as though management hasn't learned a lot since 2010.....

 

Anyway a belated Happy New Year and Hello to our old friends here on the AzB....

 

Ed

 

Right back to you Ed. I hope you are doing well. Much has changed in recent weeks, much of it due to our dear friend, Bill Leiber's tragic passing. And then, a mind boggling announcement on the LCV updates, which made little sense. Yesterday, we learned there's supposedly more to come. Time will tell if this latest saga has a happy ending.

 

Since then, Azamara's presence has been nearly non-existent on this forum -and just when we needed them the most ! Very sad indeed. The feelings of our community is pretty somber. We can only hope things will improve in the coming weeks. I'm trying to remain hopeful, but....

 

Please drop me an email when time permits. It would be great to catch up. We are sailing on Century this week, probably for the final time, as many suspect she's being transferred to CDF. I'm sure we will have a great time.

[mare s.]

What we've heard on board was that RCI insisted on making early announcement even though Azamara was not ready and that top tier benefits would be announced in April. Larry Pimental is supposed to be on board next week and I'll bet he will get lots of questions.

[uktog]

What we've heard on board was that RCI insisted on making early announcement even though Azamara was not ready and that top tier benefits would be announced in April. Larry Pimental is supposed to be on board next week and I'll bet he will get lots of questions.

 

Thanks for that helpful update

Maybe someone could persuade him that in the absence of the new benefits, the current ones should be retained as it's a very unusual launch to reduce the benefits first and leave those currently and about to cruise with a worse deal than before.

Even if it's not possible to reinstate event related perks, it's very easy to hand out more laundry coupons

[Bees100]

Just got the email here.

 

It clearly says one bag of dry cleaning per stateroom and that the Champagne Brunch is only on voyages over 10 nights.

So a backward step IMO. :(:mad:

 

We were on the Journey in November and we're only given one laundry voucher per week for the Stateroom. In the past we were given one voucher each per stateroom and so, I queried this with the representative on board. She said that it had always been the case that a laundry voucher per stateroom per week was on offer and did not agree that it was per passenger. As it was sufficient for us, I could not be bothered to argue.

 

I received the email about the new levels last week here in the UK and was surprised by the content as there was no difference in the top three tiers and did not see anything about new benefits would be announced later in the year. It strikes me that we have been relegated from the top tier but at the same time can understand that Azamara would want to incentivise us to cruise more with them by offering an enhanced package of benefits. But to have stimulated all this negative comment on Cruise Critic does not strike me as a very professional approach!

[Going Coastal]

I always thought there was one laundry coupon per Discoverer per cruise, and this was what we received on each leg of our back to back on Journey in November and December. Since there are just the two of us this usually works out. I would hate to see it cut back to less because we would have to pack more.

[marinaro44]

I always thought there was one laundry coupon per Discoverer per cruise, and this was what we received on each leg of our back to back on Journey in November and December. Since there are just the two of us this usually works out. I would hate to see it cut back to less because we would have to pack more.

We had one per stateroom per week on our two Quest cruises this past November, or four total over 23 days.

[Going Coastal]

The four we ended up with for 31 days was just about right.

[Andy]

What we've heard on board was that RCI insisted on making early announcement even though Azamara was not ready and that top tier benefits would be announced in April. Larry Pimental is supposed to be on board next week and I'll bet he will get lots of questions.

 

Hi Mare s,

 

Thank you for the update. I bet you are right about Mr Pimentel getting plenty of questions. I hope there will be some answers... but Azamara is way too quiet at this point. Let's hope this changes in the near future.

Edited February 10, 2014 by Host Andy

[kathy9]

Mr. Pimentel is on twitter most days....You would think either he or some one from AZ could take a few minutes to read these boards every few days.

Kathy

[uktog]

I have been trying to sort something out re our forthcoming cruise and was also hoping for some clarity on one of the benefits - never mind, by the time we get answers, our ships will have sailed.

I am not sure if this is the message you get elsewhere but this is the current acknowledgement message in the UK

Thank you for contacting our Captains Club team, this is an automated confirmation that your email has been received. We are reviewing your comments and one of our team will contact you in due course. We aim for this to be within 21 days, but it may take slightly longer during our peak season.