Major October/November 2020 Journey Itinerary Changes?

[hubofhockey]

Something like this happened to us in 2017 on what would have been our first Azamara cruise.  It didn't relate to a dry dock but unrest in Turkey.  They totally gutted our 14-night Greek Isles & Amalfi itinerary and broke it into two 7-night typical Barcelona to Monaco type itineraries.  We cancelled. Only thing that upset us was zero communication from Azamara and finding out about it on Cruise Critic.

[hkr1216]

Spent most of the afternoon trying to figure this out.  I am booked solo on the 10/10 Journey b2b with the 10/3. Have a friend who wants to join me, but when I tried to add her in, saw the itinerary had changed.  Worse, it is different in two different places on the Azamara website.  Worse still, I have Le Club Voyage benefits of free nights applied to this cruise, which I will probably lose if I cancel.  And I really loved the Greece itinerary.  What a mess.

[marinaro44]

6 hours ago, flyingshoes said:

So if the transit to drydock departs Lisbon on 27 October 2020, where do you folks think the dockyard will be?  Vigo?  

I'm told Cadiz.  Then back to Lisbon to embark the next cruise (I think to South America). 14 days total dry dock with transit time.

 

Edited June 4, 2019 by marinaro44

[audobon_tx]

7 hours ago, marinaro44 said:

I'm told Cadiz.  Then back to Lisbon to embark the next cruise (I think to South America). 14 days total dry dock with transit time.

 

 

To South Africa, Capetown, actually.  Was scheduled to depart Lisbon on 10 Nov 20.  We are booked on it.  Will be interesting to see what they do, compensation wise, if the dock is 14 days and not 10.  They have to get to Capetown by 2 Dec 20.

[GoSeeDo2]

I am so glad that JiminNC started this post. We had just signed up for the October 21, 2020 cruise out of Athens. A day after signing up, the cruise disappeared. My TA and I both were trying to figure out what was happening. This was to be our first time sailing with Azamara. We signed up because of the itinerary to Israel. We don't care to do Barcelona to Lisbon, been there done that many times on Oceania. I guess we will be cancelling. Not a great first time experience with Azamara!

[Cruise Junky]

46 minutes ago, GoSeeDo2 said:

I am so glad that JiminNC started this post. We had just signed up for the October 21, 2020 cruise out of Athens. A day after signing up, the cruise disappeared. My TA and I both were trying to figure out what was happening. This was to be our first time sailing with Azamara. We signed up because of the itinerary to Israel. We don't care to do Barcelona to Lisbon, been there done that many times on Oceania. I guess we will be cancelling. Not a great first time experience with Azamara!

It's not Azamara, but Celebrity Reflection has a couple of sailing to Israel around that time.

[dabear]

Changes to Itineraries happen more frequently than pax are aware of. At least you've found out about it more than 1 year in advance so that you can make whatever changed desired & not even loose airfare. In October, 2017 3 days before our cruise Celebrity shortened our stop in Istanbul and cancelled our 3 days in Israel , substituting the Greek Islands instead. At that late date, you were stuck with the new itinerary & in fact some of the pax were not even aware of it until they arrived at the ship. On another cruise a few years earlier we were diverted on a Friday night from a Sunday morning 2 night stop in Alexandria, Egypt. Stuff happens but becoming aware of it far in advance is a break!

Actually I do remember a positive occurance when a new Emerald river cruise ship had a fire in the shipyard and an entire season was lost. Emerald was more than fair by giving us alternative  cruise sailing dates, better cabins at the same price, reimbursed us for any airfare loss, etc. We had a wonderful river cruise with them.

Edited June 4, 2019 by dabear

[stevenr597]

We are booked during Oct, 2020 for a trip to the Greek Island and Israel.  However, it appears that the trip has disappeared from Azamara’s Web Site.  Beginning to get concerned, feel we are now in a state of limbo..

[stevenr597]

On 6/2/2019 at 12:59 PM, marinaro44 said:

Yes, we had that happen for a cruise this coming October.  Was to be Athens to Malta and Sicily, ending in Civitavecchia (I think).  Now it's the usual Rome, Livorno, Monte Carlo, etc., ending in Barcelona in order to move up the trans-Atlantic by weeks to squeeze in more Cuba cruises.  Getting more common to do this despite screwing up passengers' plans.

The U.S. Government has added many restrictions on Cuba Cruises.  It Azamara has increased their cruises to Cuba, looks like they will have to do major rescheduling. 

[JIMinNC]

We received an email from Azamara today confirming the changes to the Oct 10, 2020 Journey cruise. They gave us several alternatives with compensation in the form of on-board credit ($500 stateroom/$1000 suite) for rebooking on a group of selected cruises, credit of $250 stateroom/$500 suite for rebooking on a cruise other than those selected, $100 stateroom/$250 suite for an Open Passage Voyage, or full refund.

 

Not sure yet what we will do, but just looking at 2020, not sure there is an alternate itinerary that jumps out at us right now in the months we want to travel, so it most likely will be fall 2021 before we can rebook, and that's a long way out, so cancel/refund may be the best option. 

Edited June 5, 2019 by JIMinNC

[Grandma Cruising]

5 hours ago, JIMinNC said:

We received an email from Azamara today confirming the changes to the Oct 10, 2020 Journey cruise. They gave us several alternatives with compensation in the form of on-board credit ($500 stateroom/$1000 suite) for rebooking on a group of selected cruises, credit of $250 stateroom/$500 suite for rebooking on a cruise other than those selected, $100 stateroom/$250 suite for an Open Passage Voyage, or full refund.

 

Not sure yet what we will do, but just looking at 2020, not sure there is an alternate itinerary that jumps out at us right now in the months we want to travel, so it most likely will be fall 2021 before we can rebook, and that's a long way out, so cancel/refund may be the best option. 

Don’t know how long you have available, but I can recommend the Suez Canal Cruise Athens to Dubai - in 2020 it’s 24 Oct - 10 Nov. It gives you the opportunity to go to Jerusalem, Luxor and Petra! It’s a route we’ve done 3 times and will probably book again for 2020.

 

 

 

 

[JIMinNC]

1 hour ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

Don’t know how long you have available, but I can recommend the Suez Canal Cruise Athens to Dubai - in 2020 it’s 24 Oct - 10 Nov. It gives you the opportunity to go to Jerusalem, Luxor and Petra! It’s a route we’ve done 3 times and will probably book again for 2020.

 

 

 

 

 

We're sort of singularly focused on something in the Greek Isles. That's a bucket list item for my wife, and the only ones that seem appealing as far as dates and ports are in fall 2021, and that is so far off. I'd probably rather just get a refund until the time gets closer.

 

We're doing my bucket list cruise starting this week - a Tahiti cruise on the Paul Gauguin - so my wife gets to pick the next one. 

[uktog]

We’ve done Suez twice it’s not our cup of tea enough to repeat it and had a b2b2b2b “Grand journey made by us” based on what we wanted. Ah well all plans are shot for this adventure and Cuba 

Edited June 5, 2019 by uktog

[Grandma Cruising]

2 hours ago, JIMinNC said:

 

We're sort of singularly focused on something in the Greek Isles. That's a bucket list item for my wife, and the only ones that seem appealing as far as dates and ports are in fall 2021, and that is so far off. I'd probably rather just get a refund until the time gets closer.

 

We're doing my bucket list cruise starting this week - a Tahiti cruise on the Paul Gauguin - so my wife gets to pick the next one. 

That sounds great, hope you enjoy it.

[Grandma Cruising]

2 hours ago, uktog said:

We’ve done Suez twice it’s not our cup of tea enough to repeat it and had a b2b2b2b “Grand journey made by us” based on what we wanted. Ah well all plans are shot for this adventure and Cuba 

That’s a shame, I hope you find something else you really want to do.

[ellbon]

7 hours ago, JIMinNC said:

 

We're sort of singularly focused on something in the Greek Isles. That's a bucket list item for my wife, and the only ones that seem appealing as far as dates and ports are in fall 2021, and that is so far off. I'd probably rather just get a refund until the time gets closer.

 

We're doing my bucket list cruise starting this week - a Tahiti cruise on the Paul Gauguin - so my wife gets to pick the next one. 

You will love Tahiti . Been twice 

[rallydave]

15 hours ago, JIMinNC said:

We received an email from Azamara today confirming the changes to the Oct 10, 2020 Journey cruise. They gave us several alternatives with compensation in the form of on-board credit ($500 stateroom/$1000 suite) for rebooking on a group of selected cruises, credit of $250 stateroom/$500 suite for rebooking on a cruise other than those selected, $100 stateroom/$250 suite for an Open Passage Voyage, or full refund.

 

Not sure yet what we will do, but just looking at 2020, not sure there is an alternate itinerary that jumps out at us right now in the months we want to travel, so it most likely will be fall 2021 before we can rebook, and that's a long way out, so cancel/refund may be the best option. 

Extremely interesting azamara offering compensation.  About 2 years ago we were booked on an azamara TA from Barcelona to Miami.  Azamara decided to cancel our cruise and move a bunch of others around such that our TA would have begun over a month sooner and been 4 nights shorter missing many of the ports we wanted and was stopping in Cuba.  The reason for the changes was to increase the number of Cuba cruises thus increasing Azamara profits.  The did offer us a full refund or that we could do the replacement cruise at no increase in price for a much shorter cruise.  No OBC, FCC or anything else.  After a month or so the fare dropped significantly as the replacement cruise should have been less money

 

Perhaps but, doubtful that azamara has learned their lesson and is providing adequate compensation after all our cancellation was because azamara was improving profits while today's is because of the regulators. and they have no choice in the changes. 

[petsgalore]

16 hours ago, JIMinNC said:

They gave us several alternatives with compensation in the form of on-board credit ($500 stateroom/$1000 suite) for rebooking on a group of selected cruises, credit of $250 stateroom/$500 suite for rebooking on a cruise other than those selected,

 

Hi, would it be possible to list the ones they offered? We are on board next week and maybe one of those offered are of interest to us. We have not been officially informed of the cancellation.....

[cpgrneyes]

4 minutes ago, petsgalore said:

 

Hi, would it be possible to list the ones they offered? We are on board next week and maybe one of those offered are of interest to us. We have not been officially informed of the cancellation.....

 

• Re-book on one of the Azamara Club Cruises select sailings listed below, in like accommodations, at the rate paid for the October 10, 2020 voyage or prorated to the length of the new sailing; if the lowest available rate for the new sailing is less we will honor the lower rate. Also, receive a $500 onboard credit per standard stateroom, a $1,000 onboard credit for suites when your client's rebook on one of these Azamara Club Cruises sailings. Azamara has opened the selected sailings to many available voyages on all three ships. This will optimistically allow them to find the best alternative and help you fulfill their travel aspirations. Azamara Journey 7-Jul-20; 1-Aug-20; 3-Oct-20; 10-Oct-20; 19-Oct-20 orAzamara Quest 23-Apr-20; 28-Sep-20; 10-Oct-20; 17-Oct-20; 27-Oct-20; 4-Nov-20 and Azamara Pursuit 3-Oct-20; 10-Oct-20; 17-Jun-21; 10-Jul-21; 20-Jul-21; 28-Sep-21; 9-Oct-21.

[petsgalore]

Thanks cpgrneyes, that is quite a list. We’ll see if we find something!!

[Baynanno1]

Perhaps on the plus side for those who do choose to take the post refurbish cruise is that Azamara appears to have learned from the shambles following the far too optimistic refit for Quest in a one week time frame and has doubled the time.

 

Hopefully those affected adversely by the lengthened refit will be able to enjoy a future cruise.

Edited June 5, 2019 by Baynanno1

[stevenr597]

Just received the letter from Azamara telling us our cruise during Oct was cancelled.  Looked at the choices and compensation. Was not very impressed.

I can understand cancellation due to an "act of god"  But in this case, they were not able to get their act straight in regards to the time needed for Dry Dock, or even when it should be done.

This is the third time we have had cruises altered or cancelled by either Celebrity or Azamara.  

Will get a refund, and book with another cruise line. 

[Cruise Junky]

8 minutes ago, stevenr597 said:

Just received the letter from Azamara telling us our cruise during Oct was cancelled.  Looked at the choices and compensation. Was not very impressed.

I can understand cancellation due to an "act of god"  But in this case, they were not able to get their act straight in regards to the time needed for Dry Dock, or even when it should be done.

This is the third time we have had cruises altered or cancelled by either Celebrity or Azamara.  

Will get a refund, and book with another cruise line. 

Are you sure they couldn’t get their act together or it’s a result of the accident to Oasis that seems to have thrown all drydock schedules into turmoil? 

[cpgrneyes]

On 6/5/2019 at 11:43 AM, rallydave said:

Perhaps but, doubtful that azamara has learned their lesson and is providing adequate compensation after all our cancellation was because azamara was improving profits while today's is because of the regulators. and they have no choice in the changes. 

 

It worked out okay for us. While I’m still disappointed about Greece, we found an alternative trip still in October 2020 that will offer us a few new ports. It’s 10 days, not 11, but the same category, and we saved over $3,000 on the cruise fare with the current sale.

 

Hope good solutions can be found for the rest of you!

[stevenr597]

On 6/5/2019 at 10:34 PM, Cruise Junky said:

Are you sure they couldn’t get their act together or it’s a result of the accident to Oasis that seems to have thrown all drydock schedules into turmoil? 

The Dry Dock of the Oasis and the Dry Dock for Journey are actually in separate continents, well over one year apart.  Don’t think that one impacts on the other.

Probably what happened is that Azamara miscalculated how long it would take to refurbish the Quest, and it wound up sailing with the work not complete.  Azamara realized that they would have to schedule more time, hence it changed and cancelled some of their cruises.

Poor planning, and rather poor in the fashion that they handled it.  

In the end, we decided to book Princess.