Azamara Alaska - Success or Failure

[donaldsc]

I was thinking of doing a cruise to AK in 2020.  It appears as if Azamara has no AK cruises scheduled in 2020.  Also, there are a lot of large discounts on the 2019 cruises.  It appears as if the Azamara attempt to add AK to their destinations has been a failure.  Any thoughts?

 

DON

Edited May 16, 2019 by donaldsc

[Grandma Cruising]

7 minutes ago, donaldsc said:

I was thinking of doing a cruise to AK in 2020.  It appears as if Azamara has no AK cruises scheduled in 2020.  Also, there are a lot of large discounts on the 2019 cruises.  It appears as if the Azamara attempt to as AK to their destinations has been a failure.  Any thoughts?

 

DON

Maybe because they are not allowed in Glacier Bay. As I understand it only a Princess and HAL are allowed there.

[lisiamc]

I think Japan has turned out to be a better earner.  We are on the last Azamara Alaska cruise for 2019, and it starts on 30th July, so their season is quite a bit shorter than most other cruise lines.  

[marinaro44]

We were booked on what was too have been the last Alaska cruise this summer followed by a trans-Pacific to Tokyo and then continuing on to China.  Then Azamara scrapped a month of Alaska cruises and moved the trans-Pacific to a month sooner in order to do two Japan-intensive cruises before going to China, as there was apparently great interest in cruising Japan.  So Alaska is out and Japan is in.

[helby]

There seem to be more  cruise lines than ever from mass market to luxury  doing Alaska this year and last minute prices advertised  locally    seem to be lower and more abundant  than in the past few years. Lack of  access to Glacier Bay is probably a factor but many lines including Celebrity, with Solstice and Eclipse  this year, have operated successfully in Alaska for years. As noted above the Azamara season is really short and in peak time   only compared to  early May to mid to late September for many lines.

 

Given the  Azamara price reductions  I tend toward the view that the season will not be successful and that Azamara will look elsewhere in future. That said I will be on Quest this summer taking the opportunity to board 15 minutes from home.

[Mackdogmolly]

I have a friend who works for Azamara who told me 6 months ago re Alaska they were “one and done.”

[lisiamc]

29 minutes ago, marinaro44 said:

We were booked on what was too have been the last Alaska cruise this summer followed by a trans-Pacific to Tokyo and then continuing on to China.  Then Azamara scrapped a month of Alaska cruises and moved the trans-Pacific to a month sooner in order to do two Japan-intensive cruises before going to China, as there was apparently great interest in cruising Japan.  So Alaska is out and Japan is in.

 

Our initial interest was in the Transpacific and the Japan Intensive.  We started looking at it after the date change, and realised that it would be a lot easier to just get on the ship in Vancouver and stay on board, and save a lot of faffing about to get to Anchorage and then to Seward.  It’s turned out to be a lot cheaper than we originally thought it would be, too!

[helby]

Correction: I forgot that Celebrity Millennium also doing Alaska again this year.

[Cruise Junky]

The last minute deals that Azamara had were eye wateringly cheap. And I seem to remember a bunch of regular posters telling Bonnie that Alaska was a mistake when they were released. It's over saturated. 

 

Grandma, other lines can go into Glacier Bay, not just HAL and Princess.  In fact, Viking just got a license.

[BBMacLaird]

1 hour ago, Mackdogmolly said:

I have a friend who works for Azamara who told me 6 months ago re Alaska they were “one and done.”

 

I wouldn't say 'one and done'.  Alaska is a beautiful destination and for many it's a must-do, especially for fans of our North American gold rush history, and lovers of nature and wildlife. 

[Mackdogmolly]

23 minutes ago, BBMacLaird said:

 

I wouldn't say 'one and done'.  Alaska is a beautiful destination and for many it's a must-do, especially for fans of our North American gold rush history, and lovers of nature and wildlife. 

Well, maybe they will reconsider down the road. But doesn’t look like anything for 2020. Maybe not their niche 

[Bimmer09]

6 hours ago, Cruise Junky said:

The last minute deals that Azamara had were eye wateringly cheap. And I seem to remember a bunch of regular posters telling Bonnie that Alaska was a mistake when they were released. It's over saturated. 

 

Grandma, other lines can go into Glacier Bay, not just HAL and Princess.  In fact, Viking just got a license.

 

Indeed, Cruise Junky, I have sailed Alaska 3 times (out of 13 cruises total since 2011) and each time was with Princess who specialize and excel in Alaska. Each time in Glacier Bay there was an NCL ship sailing with us.

We are not done with Alaska even though we always visit the same ports-it's what lies beyond those ports that is the draw. Ship and local excursions rule.

Ships from Royal Caribbean and Celebrity are often in port with us and they don't have access to Glacier Bay so it's not a must-have to get people on a ship to Alaska. 

 

Norris

[uktog]

I have been three times to Alaska never to Glacier Bay always seem other fantastic sights I think Glacier Bay is an overhype by those who can sail there to big up their marketing 

The problem with the Azamara offering was it was overpriced and not unique- nothing special virtually no more time in ports than competitors. We considered it indeed were booked until they messed around and swapped to Japan. After it was pulled we discovered we’d have been cheaper in a Celebrity Royal Suite than an Azamara balcony 

 

[CA Oceanfront]

10 hours ago, donaldsc said:

It appears as if Azamara has no AK cruises scheduled in 2020. 

Or 2021. I agree with the “one and done” comment.

[donaldsc]

In response to myself, I think that the problem was that Azamara went to basically the same ports that all the other cruise lines go to.  They did not take advantage of their strength - small ships that could get into ports that other big ships could not visit - places like Valdez, Kodiak and some of the smaller towns in SW AK such as Wrangell.  Azamara's clientele has probably already been to AK on a larger ship and might have been interested in visiting new ports.  However, the management at Azamara did not have the brains to realize this.  They just offered more of the same and failed.  

[Grandma Cruising]

8 hours ago, Cruise Junky said:

The last minute deals that Azamara had were eye wateringly cheap. And I seem to remember a bunch of regular posters telling Bonnie that Alaska was a mistake when they were released. It's over saturated. 

 

Grandma, other lines can go into Glacier Bay, not just HAL and Princess.  In fact, Viking just got a license.

Good to know, thanks.

[tiggertom]

We are visiting Alaska for the first time next year, but not with Azamara as they didn’t have an itinerary or dates that suited us. Also, we have had  8 fabulous cruises with Azamara but feel a bit confused with all the “offers” and “upgrade bids” game, and our last Azamara trip left us feeling less valued, so we are looking forward to going to Alaska with Silversea. It was such a good deal and too good to miss. Also, it may help us to focus and realize if Azamara is still the cruise line we fell in love with 9 years ago. 

[uktog]

1 hour ago, tiggertom said:

We are visiting Alaska for the first time next year, but not with Azamara as they didn’t have an itinerary or dates that suited us. Also, we have had  8 fabulous cruises with Azamara but feel a bit confused with all the “offers” and “upgrade bids” game, and our last Azamara trip left us feeling less valued, so we are looking forward to going to Alaska with Silversea. It was such a good deal and too good to miss. Also, it may help us to focus and realize if Azamara is still the cruise line we fell in love with 9 years ago. 

That’s a good approach. I’m seeing very good prices for Silversea next year compared to Azamara 

[Riocca]

We’ve cruised Alaska a couple of times on Princess & Celebrity, Azamara’s itineraries are very similar to those Celebrity used to offer on Century.

Whilst we enjoyed Alaska it is in our opinion, like the Caribbean, too commercialised and over cruised. Azamara are better suited to offering unique itineraries off the beaten track with ports inaccessible to larger ships.

We are becoming more selective with both itineraries and onboard accommodation so last minute booking isn’t something that appeals to us so the higher prices are concerning. However driven by itineraries we have flirted with other lines and found the grass is not always greener, so if Azamara continue to offer appealing itineraries and provide the onboard experience it will continue as our first choice.

 

[Shawnino]

3 hours ago, donaldsc said:

In response to myself, I think that the problem was that Azamara went to basically the same ports that all the other cruise lines go to.  They did not take advantage of their strength - small ships that could get into ports that other big ships could not visit - places like Valdez, Kodiak and some of the smaller towns in SW AK such as Wrangell.  Azamara's clientele has probably already been to AK on a larger ship and might have been interested in visiting new ports.  However, the management at Azamara did not have the brains to realize this.  They just offered more of the same and failed.  

 

Likely.

With some of the mass-market lines offering a semi-sequestered, upper-midscale product (say, NCL Haven, X Aqua, ...) the "better service" portion of Az's (and competitors like O's) value proposition is at risk. Something Az can do to protect itself is go to ports/destinations that the mass-market lines don't.

[Bloodaxe]

4 hours ago, tiggertom said:

We are visiting Alaska for the first time next year, but not with Azamara as they didn’t have an itinerary or dates that suited us. Also, we have had  8 fabulous cruises with Azamara but feel a bit confused with all the “offers” and “upgrade bids” game, and our last Azamara trip left us feeling less valued, so we are looking forward to going to Alaska with Silversea. It was such a good deal and too good to miss. Also, it may help us to focus and realize if Azamara is still the cruise line we fell in love with 9 years ago. 

 

I agree that Azamara current marketing policies are confusing and are probably turning potential customers away.

We have also cruised Azamara for years but have only one more cruise booked and are unsure about the future.

[excitedofharpenden]

In answer to the original question I would say fail. 

 

Phil 

[maggie.1008]

I agree the Alaska market is saturated . We are going on AZ on July 20th to Alaska after being gone for 7 years. 

We did the same cruise with Seabourn two years ago and loved it. 

This will be our 7th cruise to Alaska. Where we live it is over 100 degrees all summer long. Being on the west coast makes travel to Alaska easy and the cool weather is a nice change from our heat. 

[dhall711]

We are on the July 2 sailing out of Vancouver.  An Alaska cruise has always been on my wife's bucket list so we booked last November while onboard the Journey to take advantage of the future cruise discount and OBC.  This will be our 2nd AZ cruise so we are just lowly Adventurers. 

 

I'm a little disappointed to see that the itinerary so closely matches the other big cruise lines with only limited times in port (no overnights except in Seattle of all places) and the same AK ports that I visited on my first HAL cruise almost 40 years ago.  Also a little bummed that we don't go into Glacier Bay although I agree that it's not that big of deal - plenty of other things to do and see.  We booked shore excursions for most of the days as there's not much to do in the actual towns other than souvenir shop with 5000 passengers from the other ships in port that day.  The one bright spot is spending a day in the wine country outside of Naniamo, BC.

 

The real gut punch though is seeing the steep discounts being offered since we booked last year.  For the price we paid for a verandah on AZ we could get a sky suite on Celebrity.  Live and learn I suppose although it would be super nice if AZ threw those of us who paid the higher early fares a bone with some additional OBC or Experience More package.  The AK market is obviously over saturated so maybe it's best that AZ focuses on places the other lines don't go to like Japan.

[NewPennCruiser]

We will be on the May 25th Southbound cruise from Seward to Vancouver and are looking forward to the trip.  We have done Alaska twice before both on Princess but are now disappointed to see Princess and other cruise lines sending their mega ships and have no wish to really do Alaska again on one of those ships.  We saw this as a great opportunity to do Alaska with Azamara's product and we will be stopping at 4 ports that we have never been to with Princess.  I don't know if I would call it a fail or not but it has become obvious that interest was not as high as they maybe thought it might be.   

 

I've been to Glacier Bay and I highly recommend it but even Princess does not cruise there on ALL cruises, so it's nice to have options.  I like that Azamara tried to mix it up some even though it always doesn't work out as they hope.   The good thing is that Azmara seems to be flexible and they move ships around quicker than some of the other cruise lines.   I have no desire to cruise in Asia but if the money is there I won't criticize them for shifting things around if that is where most people want to cruise.

 

Happy Cruising everyone!

Dave