Azamara First-Timer Reacts to Itinerary Changes

[hubofhockey]

Len, excellent explanation of your issues with AZ but yet you are determined to give them another shot.

 

Something tells me that you'll be comped for a an excursion or something special next year, all in all AZ takes care of their passengers.

 

Ha! They don't even know who I am and never acknowledged any regret for not even communicating their changes to me or my travel agent. I had to tell my travel agent that I read about it on Cruise Critic. :D They did help out some who agree to the new itinerary and chopping up a 14-day itinerary into two 7-day itineraries at twice the price.

 

I still believe Azamara's corporate office is inept. The second chance is about the perfect itinerary at a great time for me. I'll be devastated if Azamara screws around with this one since it's our 25th anniversary, but I'm not holding my breath. It's 14 months away and there's plenty of time for them to do something.

[norn iron]

Is it fair to blame Azamara for the lack of communication or does that rest with inefficient travel agents?

 

There are six (three parties of two) of us travelling on the same cruise as the OP.

We all booked with three different TA's. One TA has updated their client to the changes, the other two have said nothing.

Why do I blame the TA's and not Azamara? Because in March we cruised with Azamara and applied for the upgrade program, and ten days prior to sailing I contacted LCV to ask what the chances of the upgrade where only to be told that Azamara had made the offer of an upgrade to my TA two weeks earlier and I hadn't taken it up, why? because the TA had not communicated it to me. Thankfully it was applied after I contacted the TA who was very embarrassed.

I have used the same TA this time around and have been told nothing about the changes to the itinerary.

I most likely will not use the same TA again.

[BrownieCruises]

Is it fair to blame Azamara for the lack of communication or does that rest with inefficient travel agents?

 

 

 

There are six (three parties of two) of us travelling on the same cruise as the OP.

 

We all booked with three different TA's. One TA has updated their client to the changes, the other two have said nothing.

 

Why do I blame the TA's and not Azamara? Because in March we cruised with Azamara and applied for the upgrade program, and ten days prior to sailing I contacted LCV to ask what the chances of the upgrade where only to be told that Azamara had made the offer of an upgrade to my TA two weeks earlier and I hadn't taken it up, why? because the TA had not communicated it to me. Thankfully it was applied after I contacted the TA who was very embarrassed.

 

I have used the same TA this time around and have been told nothing about the changes to the itinerary.

 

I most likely will not use the same TA again.

 

 

 

My TA received the Pursuit change from Azamara about the same time as I saw it on CC and contacted her, so I don’t if I would have gotten timely notification from her or not. I agree that this can be the problem on notification. But, why did Azamara change the dates of all 4 port calls 4 months prior to the cruise? Scheduling of the Amazing Evening! Come on, that is simply poor planning on their part!!!!

 

 

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[hubofhockey]

It's fair to blame Azamara if they don't notify travel agents of itinerary cancellations. I had to tell my travel agent that I read about the cancellation of my itinerary two days earlier on Cruise Critic. He hadn't heard a thing and then called Azamara who confirmed the cancellation. I never even received any communication from Azamara. A good company would have sent an email or letter explaining the itinerary cancellation. Azamara NEVER communicated with me at all. I would walk away from most companies that treat customers so poorly. I have not done so in this case because of word of mouth about the Azamara onboard experience. It's too bad for the wonderful people who work hard on the ships that corporate does not match their level of customer support. I suppose they are spending in the right places and that's why I'm giving it another shot with them.

 

My issue was a couple of years ago, but subsequent threads, such as this, lead me to believe that Azamara has not addressed its problems at the corporate level. Now that they have grown by 50% (adding a third ship), you would hope that they could justify adding employees in corporate who could focus on their problems. The product on the ship, perhaps, is so good that customers swallow hard and look past the office issues.

[rallydave]

It's fair to blame Azamara if they don't notify travel agents of itinerary cancellations. I had to tell my travel agent that I read about the cancellation of my itinerary two days earlier on Cruise Critic. He hadn't heard a thing and then called Azamara who confirmed the cancellation. I never even received any communication from Azamara. A good company would have sent an email or letter explaining the itinerary cancellation. Azamara NEVER communicated with me at all. I would walk away from most companies that treat customers so poorly. I have not done so in this case because of word of mouth about the Azamara onboard experience. It's too bad for the wonderful people who work hard on the ships that corporate does not match their level of customer support. I suppose they are spending in the right places and that's why I'm giving it another shot with them.

 

My issue was a couple of years ago, but subsequent threads, such as this, lead me to believe that Azamara has not addressed its problems at the corporate level. Now that they have grown by 50% (adding a third ship), you would hope that they could justify adding employees in corporate who could focus on their problems. The product on the ship, perhaps, is so good that customers swallow hard and look past the office issues.

 

You are so right hubofhocky. We had an identical issues a couple of years ago with a cancelled cruise in the name of increased profits. Heard it here and relayed it to our great TA. They contacted azamara and did finally got a letter, not on any stationary with numerous factual and grammatical errors offering us a 4 day shorter replacement cruise with 3 fewer ports at the same price. No compensation for their decision to increase profits and then a fight just to get our deposit back in a single transaction.

 

Yes, the onboard experience is wonderful but, simply cannot be overcome by the inept incompetent home office which continues to fail to learn from failed policies and offers. Have noticed that after having issues with OBC only being able to be used for Shore Excursions and subsequently allowing the OBC be used for anything on board, they have again offered restricted OBC for excursions only. And, don't forget the recent promotion of save now or later with a discount on the cruise or an identical offer of OBC in the same dollar amount. Sincerely doubt anyone with any knowledge would leave money on the table for the fare in lieu of non-refundable OBC!!! An absolute no brainer and would be shocked if anyone took the OBC.