Cruising restarts....when?

[oddjob16]

Just a few thoughts. Azamara is not helping their customers by tip-toeing the suspension dates with a month at the time. We managed to hold the final payment until the very day Azamara announced sailing suspension for October, and we finally got a Lift &Shift we were happy with.

I think everybody would benefit from some predictability and I would easily defend any argument that says cruising will be suspended untill the European season of 2021. At least. None of the ships will do winter season in the southern hemisphere. Period.
So we are talking march/april 2021 at the earliest. 
What about Pursuit? She is not due to sail until early may. May we see some new itineraries for Pursuit in april? Just wondering.

 

[uktog]

Pursuits having a dry dock Spring 2021 before sailing according to what booked guests are being told. 
My guess is the ships will be in Glasgow until around February/March 2021 then there will be warming up, mini sea trials, certification inspections, dry docks etc 

Edited September 19, 2020 by uktog

[Marylebone37]

I think there is some (pretty good) chance that Azamara may cease to exist with these older ships.  With RCCL’s acquisition of Silversea at the luxury level, it could make extreme financial sense right now to focus on RCCL, Celebrity, and Silversea. I truly love, love, love what Azamara has to offer, but their ships are not very efficient to operate I’m told - and if RCCL was thinking of retiring them from the fleet in the next ~5 years anyway, now might be the right time (financially, anyway) to do it.  😞 

[tert333]

Azamara competes in the mid-luxury group against others such as Oceania.   As Celebrity already has  "mulit-class" ships with aqua class and the suites class, i could see the thought of eliminating Azamara.

 

The one thing that Azamara has is the small ship experience at more reasonable prices, compared to Silversea.   Silversea, I believe is all-suite and Azamara provides different accommodations such as inside, oceanview cabins at a much lower price point. 

 

There seems to be a push to get rid of ships pre-2000 and Azamara is on the cusp of this.   

 

We are booked on our first Azamara in May 2021.   Hope we get a chance to try the offering!

[tgg]

1 hour ago, tert333 said:

Azamara competes in the mid-luxury group against others such as Oceania.   As Celebrity already has  "mulit-class" ships with aqua class and the suites class, i could see the thought of eliminating Azamara.

 

The one thing that Azamara has is the small ship experience at more reasonable prices, compared to Silversea.   Silversea, I believe is all-suite and Azamara provides different accommodations such as inside, oceanview cabins at a much lower price point. 

 

 

On the Silver Cloud, the Vista Suite has no balcony.  They may call it a suite, but it is just a nice 240 sq. ft. cabin with a window.  Azamara would call it Oceanview.

[oddjob16]

2 hours ago, stines said:

I think there is some (pretty good) chance that Azamara may cease to exist with these older ships.  With RCCL’s acquisition of Silversea at the luxury level, it could make extreme financial sense right now to focus on RCCL, Celebrity, and Silversea. I truly love, love, love what Azamara has to offer, but their ships are not very efficient to operate I’m told - and if RCCL was thinking of retiring them from the fleet in the next ~5 years anyway, now might be the right time (financially, anyway) to do it.  😞 

Valid points, but Azamara is filling up the 2021 sailings already and sales are also very good for 22 and 23. I have been sceptic, but not for the near future.

[oddjob16]

6 hours ago, uktog said:

Pursuits having a dry dock Spring 2021 before sailing according to what booked guests are being told. 
My guess is the ships will be in Glasgow until around February/March 2021 then there will be warming up, mini sea trials, certification inspections, dry docks etc 

Journey also has to have a drydock before sailing. They will probably NOT do the refurb inside this time, but maybe just the obligatory week to maintain certificates. She originally had a two week drydock planned for Cadiz in november, but this will be cancelled.

[excitedofharpenden]

21 hours ago, tert333 said:

As Celebrity already has  "mulit-class" ships with aqua class and the suites class, i could see the thought of eliminating Azamara.

 

 

It's not about class and cabins and that misses the point of Azamara and its success. It's about the experience of getting to places that the big ships of Celebrity can't and the more personal service onboard a smaller ship.

 

Whilst Celebrity is a nice product (and indeed preferred by some), you really can't compare the two.  

 

Phil 

[Mackdogmolly]

On 9/19/2020 at 8:36 AM, stines said:

I think there is some (pretty good) chance that Azamara may cease to exist with these older ships.  With RCCL’s acquisition of Silversea at the luxury level, it could make extreme financial sense right now to focus on RCCL, Celebrity, and Silversea. I truly love, love, love what Azamara has to offer, but their ships are not very efficient to operate I’m told - and if RCCL was thinking of retiring them from the fleet in the next ~5 years anyway, now might be the right time (financially, anyway) to do it.  😞 

If Azamara is selling cruises on ships they are planning to then retire before said sailings, wouldn’t that be fraud?

[Marylebone37]

I doubt it is fraud, but I’m not a lawyer. I’m thinking of many different situations - but as an example, when Seabourn was planning (secretly, of course) on selling their 3 smallest vessels (the “triplets”) a few years ago, they were still taking bookings and had itineraries sold way into the future.  Then they announced the sale to Windstar and people got their money back or were able to move them to other ships (maybe even to other lines under the Carnival umbrella, but I’m not positive of that last point).

[travelberlin]

On 9/19/2020 at 4:19 PM, tgg said:

 

On the Silver Cloud, the Vista Suite has no balcony.  They may call it a suite, but it is just a nice 240 sq. ft. cabin with a window.  Azamara would call it Oceanview.

Yes Azamara would call it ocean view but the ocean views in Azamara are not from the quality of those in Silversea or Windstar. The cabins in Azamara are smaller and some of the “ocean views” are more inside cabins due to the boats blocking the view completely.

[workingtocruise-59]

2 hours ago, travelberlin said:

Yes Azamara would call it ocean view but the ocean views in Azamara are not from the quality of those in Silversea or Windstar. The cabins in Azamara are smaller and some of the “ocean views” are more inside cabins due to the boats blocking the view completely.

The "Ocean View" staterooms ( Vista Suites) on Silversea have walk-in wardrobes, marble bathrooms with baths and are more spacious than the OVs on Azamara.

Regardless, I would still rather cruise with Azamara.

 

[upwarduk]

RCG announced late last night that  Ruisdael with Confidence and Lift and Shift has been extended until November 30th. I therefore think that cruising will not start until after that date.

[Cruise Wonderland]

On 9/21/2020 at 1:58 AM, travelberlin said:

Yes Azamara would call it ocean view but the ocean views in Azamara are not from the quality of those in Silversea or Windstar. The cabins in Azamara are smaller and some of the “ocean views” are more inside cabins due to the boats blocking the view completely.

 

On 9/21/2020 at 4:42 AM, workingtocruise-59 said:

The "Ocean View" staterooms ( Vista Suites) on Silversea have walk-in wardrobes, marble bathrooms with baths and are more spacious than the OVs on Azamara.

Regardless, I would still rather cruise with Azamara.

 

 

The lowest category on most of the Silversea ships are Vista Suites. They are only oceanview cabins but are still named as Suites. Even they are the lowest category, they still enjoy butler service, which is one of the selling points of Silversea.

[lucas34]

Azamara Pursuit is for sale ( 120 000 000 USD).

[oddjob16]

55 minutes ago, lucas34 said:

Azamara Pursuit is for sale ( 120 000 000 USD).

I think you might want to re-phrase this. "You found an old advertisment indicating a ship that looks like Pursuit is for sale. It has been discussed in other threads. The ship for sale is the Adonia and it was sold, - to Azamara, - and it is now called Pursuit..... 

Edited October 1, 2020 by oddjob16

[Bloodaxe]

10 minutes ago, oddjob16 said:

I think you might want to re-phrase this. "You found an old advertisment indicating a ship that looks like Pursuit is for sale

 

There is a thread about this that was discussed a few weeks ago, also on the Oceana board.

[Host Jazzbeau]

This doesn't settle the issue of whether Pursuit is for sale, but it clearly hasn't been sold:  Azamara announced today that it is resuming cruising in Spring 2021 with all three ships!

 

Azamara Announcement 20201006.pdf

[oddjob16]

European season 2021. Not a bad prediction. A sound decision by Azamara. 

[Mackdogmolly]

Glad they made this announcement before final payment for my early March sailing was due in a couple of weeks.

[hamrag]

1 hour ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

.....Azamara announced today that it is resuming cruising in Spring 2021 with all three ships!

 

That is one bold statement! Would have been much wiser to say they PLAN on resuming then.

[uktog]

39 minutes ago, hamrag said:

 

That is one bold statement! Would have been much wiser to say they PLAN on resuming then.

Yes I agree, it’s still going to be a challenge to meet that date bearing in mind all the extra restrictions Scotland is placed under compared to the rest of the UK

[upwarduk]

On 10/6/2020 at 11:34 PM, uktog said:

Yes I agree, it’s still going to be a challenge to meet that date bearing in mind all the extra restrictions Scotland is placed under compared to the rest of the UK

Just wait a few days and I think the N of England will be put into further lock down.