Ports closed to cruise ships in the Middle East

[2ndsailing]

52 minutes ago, MakingUpForLostTime said:

Chilcotin, could you please help a couple of fellow Canadians?

 

We were on the Feb 10th cruise out of Cape Town before your cruise. We were scheduled to jump back on the ship in Dubai. That cruise was cancelled yesterday. Phillip, the Hotel Director, offered to store one of our suitcases onboard the ship for the 26 days we were off on our own. Your ship is now destined to disembark in Muscat. We will be in Dubai as originally planned for 2 days while our suitcase and the ship you are on will be in Muscat. Could you relay a message to Phillip and ask him to contact us at SluyterCapital at G mail dot com? The head office is not answering our email pleas as they are dealing with a deluge of other matters. Phillip and direct communication may help arrange for our suitcase to find its way home (someday). Are you able to help? You can email me as well.

 

Thanks, Paul & Liette - Ottawa, Canada

Paul and Lettie

We are also fellow Canadians  on board.

If you don't  see a response from Chilcotin, we can pass on your email. 

Heather from Toronto

[MakingUpForLostTime]

2 minutes ago, 2ndsailing said:

Paul and Lettie

We are also fellow Canadians  on board.

If you don't  see a response from Chilcotin, we can pass on your email. 

Heather from Toronto

Yes! That would be so kind of you. Please email us if you can to let us know what was the response. Much appreciated!

 

Paul & Liette

[2ndsailing]

2 hours ago, MakingUpForLostTime said:

Yes! That would be so kind of you. Please email us if you can to let us know what was the response. Much appreciated!

 

Paul & Liette

Spoke with one of the officers, Phillip was busy, and she took me to his office and she put my note with your information on his desk. She said (Sandra??) they have other cases too. Phillip will contact you. Let me know if I can do anything else.

Heather

[Chilcotin]

Thank you Heather for helping out Paul and Liette.

 

Paul and Liette hope you get your suitcase back.

 

Erin

[Vgroom]

I am going on the Singapore to Dubai cruise on 11/4/20.  I would really appreciate a decision on this cruise ASAP. We would be able to board in Singapore but then have no ports of call as Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India and Dubai are shut.  Please Bonnie could you pass on our concerns for an early decision about this cruise rather than the stressful wait till a few days beforehand. We all know that things are going to get worse before they get better ! 

[Beasty Bee]

We are also on this cruise and in need of rapid decision!!!
So request x 2.

[MakingUpForLostTime]

3 hours ago, 2ndsailing said:

Spoke with one of the officers, Phillip was busy, and she took me to his office and she put my note with your information on his desk. She said (Sandra??) they have other cases too. Phillip will contact you. Let me know if I can do anything else.

Heather

Thank you very much for doing this for us. I just received an email from Philip. He is so professional and sensitive to customer needs. Now that I have direct contact I will make arrangements with him. Enjoy the last days of your mainly at sea cruise.

 

Paul & Liette

[MakingUpForLostTime]

3 hours ago, Chilcotin said:

Thank you Heather for helping out Paul and Liette.

 

Paul and Liette hope you get your suitcase back.

 

Erin

Thanks Erin!

 

Paul & Liette

[Richteab]

2 hours ago, Beasty Bee said:

We are also on this cruise and in need of rapid decision!!!
So request x 2.

 

Make that x3 please !

[Vgroom]

This is my latest email to AZ.

Once again I am writing to Azamara to ask for some information on my upcoming cruise. It is now getting unacceptable to palm us off with the notice of the 5.3.20 as many things have altered since then. There is only 1 port of call open to cruise ships-on my sailing 11/4/20-  Singapore- and the situation in all other countries due to be visited, as well as the passengers countries is getting worse.
 Azamara is failing to confront this issue and seems to be in complete denial. Many customers are absolutely disgusted by the lack of decision making until the last minute. They will not get these customers back. Read cruise critic! 
Many of us have hotels booked before joining the ship as well as expensive air fares. We also have expenses for kennels Catteries etc. We must have time to be able to sort these out. I plead with you to pass this on to the senior management or give me the CEO’s name for me to contact directly 
It is not feasible to cancel and receive a FCC. 
Come on Azamara - win the hearts of your customers back by cancelling this cruise to know where! 
Regards
Val Groom  

[Epicureangirl]

14 hours ago, MakingUpForLostTime said:

Last March, the third cruise (of the 3 B2B’s) lost all cooling after we left Singapore. Two days just north of the equator with the sun directly overhead. We received 50% credit off that cruise direct reimbursement to our credit card. It was not a future cruise credit. We were Wowed! The onboard staff go beyond what is expected and push to Wow us which they indeed did. That was $5,000 in my account for two days of no a/c. The captain said that it was what we as customers expect from Azamara. To step up and do better. It seems the head office is out of touch with their approach. I believe they could come back and do better especially if more people push for it. I believe they do read these boards to feel the pulse.

 

Yes, I would have been wowed too, and I would have felt well cared for and valued as a customer. I would have loved to hear the captain say that and believe it.  It would definitely make me want to come back despite that issue.  I certainly hope they can and will do better than the 25% cruise credit but I would be stunned if they did. I am getting used to being disappointed!  

 

It even ticks me off a bit that if you didn't book your air through Azamara, to get the (was it up to $500?) back per person, you must change your flights and provide proof of the amount, then I assume they will pay what the change-fee portion was?  And then for people who decide to proceed with the flight that is days away, there is no compensation whatsoever.  As I said, I did look at changing the flights but it was going to be $10,500 for the 3 of us for the new fares, l plus the $275 change fee per ticket.  Yes, I know this is in Canadian dollars, but it is still a lot to me! 

 

With the cancellation, people are suffering financial impacts now, that a cruise-credit (to be possibly used in the future) will not help with.  Yes, we will get our cruise-cost back, but at the end of the day I would lose 5k in the other things I have paid for.   I just can't bring myself to lose out on my air and hotel so am going to cobble a vacation together, which may end up being at least the cost of the cruise -- yet I will not get 4 new countries to discover. Instead of enjoying relaxed dining and drinking without opening my wallet on board, I will be constantly paying through the nose to get decent food in a very expensive city. I looked at trying to hop to some other cities on our itinerary, but is just too expensive given we would be booking last minute flight prices for 3 people (with the exception of Abu Dhabi which is a long drive).  I also don't want to spend much time in multiple airports and checking in and out of hotels.  This itinerary was perfect for a cruise, but madness for land-travel.  May be a case of 'first world problems', but there seem to be a lot of them all at once to deal with.

 

Does anyone know if the cruise credit has an expiry date?  If it expires in 2021 I might not be able to use it. I'm not sure about others, but I have my trips planned out for a bit and the upcoming Azamara itineraries don't fit with what I want to do.  If I want to book another cruise I'll have to start saving again anyhow, because my cruise reimbursement will have to pay for salvaging this mess.  

Edited March 11, 2020 by Epicureangirl
typo

[Epicureangirl]

18 hours ago, gnld said:

With the 3/17 cruise being cancelled in the wee hours this morning (Calif time), that gave us no reasonable option but to cancel our 3/28 cruise. Our air was via Choice Air and was a fully refundable fare, so we get all that back, no problem. For our cancelling, we get 100% future cruise credit good thru 2021. We'll find something else of interest once things all settle down later this year.

A poster on the 3/17 thread linked a NYTimes article stating that Jordan is not allowing ships in that come from Egypt. We know Eilat is out, and now Aqaba. The ship (if there is a cruise) will probably leave from Muscat, as that is where they are disembarking current Quest passengers, per a CC'er onboard.

 

Gary, I know you mention that for you cancelling your 3/28 cruise, you will get a cruise credit good through 2021.  But do you know if the cruise credit you get for Azamara cancelling the 3/17 cruise, has an expiry date?   I sure am hoping it doesn't expire in 2021 -- it is as good as nothing to me if it is.  

 

Thanks,

Michelle

[gnld]

Michelle -

For the 3/17 cruise that Azamara cancelled, we get a full refund of the cruise fare we paid, back to our credit card. We booked air thru ChoiceAir, so we get all of that back, too. Also get back 100% of any shorex, drink pkgs, pre-hotels, etc booked thru Azmara. We also get a 25% future cruise credit; not sure of its expiration date (hoping thru 12/21). I haven't received written confirmation of these refunds/credits yet, just what's in the Azamara email I received early yesterday morning.

Gary

[Epicureangirl]

On 3/10/2020 at 9:30 PM, MakingUpForLostTime said:

Last March, the third cruise (of the 3 B2B’s) lost all cooling after we left Singapore. Two days just north of the equator with the sun directly overhead. We received 50% credit off that cruise direct reimbursement to our credit card. It was not a future cruise credit. We were Wowed! The onboard staff go beyond what is expected and push to Wow us which they indeed did. That was $5,000 in my account for two days of no a/c. The captain said that it was what we as customers expect from Azamara. To step up and do better. It seems the head office is out of touch with their approach. I believe they could come back and do better especially if more people push for it. I believe they do read these boards to feel the pulse.

 

 

Looks like Princess has done much better than Azamara...   

 

I'm quite choked ...  sailing Princess for my date I would have a 100% cruise credit in addition to my 100% refund.  Not feeling the 'wow'.

 

https://www.princess.com/news/pdfs/voluntary-60-day-pause-of-global-ship-operations.pdf

 

 

[Epicureangirl]

20 hours ago, gnld said:

Michelle -

For the 3/17 cruise that Azamara cancelled, we get a full refund of the cruise fare we paid, back to our credit card. We booked air thru ChoiceAir, so we get all of that back, too. Also get back 100% of any shorex, drink pkgs, pre-hotels, etc booked thru Azmara. We also get a 25% future cruise credit; not sure of its expiration date (hoping thru 12/21). I haven't received written confirmation of these refunds/credits yet, just what's in the Azamara email I received early yesterday morning.

Gary

 

Gary, I sure hope Azamara can do better for you -- Princess is doing much, much more for their passengers. Check the amounts for each sailing date their passengers are being compensated.

 

https://www.princess.com/news/pdfs/voluntary-60-day-pause-of-global-ship-operations.pdf

 

 

[Kozimoto1209]

27 minutes ago, Epicureangirl said:

 

Gary, I sure hope Azamara can do better for you -- Princess is doing much, much more for their passengers. Check the amounts for each sailing date their passengers are being compensated.

 

https://www.princess.com/news/pdfs/voluntary-60-day-pause-of-global-ship-operations.pdf

 

 

I for one would be happy to come out of this at 100%. 

I have never cruised with Azamara and not sure if I will do so in the future based on their actions as of today. 

A 25% future cruise credit might entice me to book a future cruise but we will see.

I will get through this as most of us will but I would rather the cruise companies give the money to the employees who need it. How the cruise lines treat their employees during this difficult time is where I’ll be spending my future cruise money.

Ron

[gnld]

1 hour ago, Epicureangirl said:

 

Gary, I sure hope Azamara can do better for you -- Princess is doing much, much more for their passengers. Check the amounts for each sailing date their passengers are being compensated.

 

https://www.princess.com/news/pdfs/voluntary-60-day-pause-of-global-ship-operations.pdf

 

 

Yes, doing much better, indeed! But they've had 2 ships in the coronavirus news for weeks - the Japan one a disaster. Real bad press! And many lawsuits to come, I'm sure. Note Viking has cancelled operations for river & ocean ships for a month & a half. We have a Viking cruise (our 1st with them) late August, Bergen to Montreal via the northern Atlantic. Hope things will be back to normal then and we can go.

Gary

[gnld]

47 minutes ago, Kozimoto1209 said:

I for one would be happy to come out of this at 100%. 

I have never cruised with Azamara and not sure if I will do so in the future based on their actions as of today. 

A 25% future cruise credit might entice me to book a future cruise but we will see.

I will get through this as most of us will but I would rather the cruise companies give the money to the employees who need it. How the cruise lines treat their employees during this difficult time is where I’ll be spending my future cruise money.

Ron

The employees are all under months-long contracts, so I assume they will be paid regardless.

BTW, back in the 90s when I was working in the aerospace business, I was traveling several times a year to ELCAN up in Midland. Drove right thru Barrie on the 400.

[Kozimoto1209]

2 minutes ago, gnld said:

The employees are all under months-long contracts, so I assume they will be paid regardless.

BTW, back in the 90s when I was working in the aerospace business, I was traveling several times a year to ELCAN up in Midland. Drove right thru Barrie on the 400.

You probably wouldn’t recognize it today. It’s changed a lot since then.

[Charlie Chan]

There is now a report on the Tripadvisor Oman forum that Oman is banning cruise ships from entering for one month. 

 

Surely Azamara  must now make a decision unless they are hoping Dubai will reopen. Salalah will now be cancelled. Not many ports left. 

[MakingUpForLostTime]

I just cancelled a Nov cruise on Oceania. The email I received back said I could expect the return of my $2,000 deposit in 4 to 6 weeks. What? Has anyone cancelled a cruise with Oceania in the past and had to wait 4-6 weeks or are the Cruise ship companies delaying payment due to unpredictable future cash-flow supply? If they re hoarding my deposit they will never see me again as a passenger. That’s a promise.

 

I have heard nothing from Azamara on when my money will be returned but I can promise you that 4-6 weeks is not a good for maintaining me as a loyal passenger. The have the ability to credit very quickly so we shall see.

[Baynanno1]

4 - 6 weeks is quite fast in the current situation with so many cancellations to process.

 

Multiply the number of cancelled cruises by the number of booked passengers for a start.

 

Continue on and multiply the number of passengers choosing to cancel given the option to do so without losing all.

 

Then divide by the number of staff processing the above.