Needed: Updated Website

[PirateWife]

To the Azamara IT Department:

Please update the Azamara website. Your company has spent millions refurbishing your ships and yet the website still has postings from 2020. Things to do:

1. Update the crew listing. Many Azamara frequent cruisers like to know who will be the captain, cruise director, hotel director, and executive chef on their cruises.

2. Update the onboard activities. Before 2020, I could see who would be guest lecturer onboard. I could see if there were any guest instructors for learning experiences.

3. Make it possible to download the shore excursion booklet. I could do it several months ago but now cannot. Or, is it hidden and difficult to find. I like to look at different suggestions for shore excursions on paper rather than flipping from screen to screen.

4. Give booked cruisers the embarkation and debarkation locations for cruises. This info helps cruisers decide where to book a hotel room if they arrive for a cruise a day or more before the start of the cruise. We all understand this information can change but this would give us a starting point.

5. Send out updated information on changes to cruise itineraries, health protocols, boarding procedures as soon as that information is available. Don't leave it until the last week.

Again, I realize that information changes. I can deal with changes. I just don't deal with lack of information.

Gini

[SunnyNy]

1 hour ago, PirateWife said:

To the Azamara IT Department:

Please update the Azamara website. Your company has spent millions refurbishing your ships and yet the website still has postings from 2020. Things to do:

1. Update the crew listing. Many Azamara frequent cruisers like to know who will be the captain, cruise director, hotel director, and executive chef on their cruises.

2. Update the onboard activities. Before 2020, I could see who would be guest lecturer onboard. I could see if there were any guest instructors for learning experiences.

3. Make it possible to download the shore excursion booklet. I could do it several months ago but now cannot. Or, is it hidden and difficult to find. I like to look at different suggestions for shore excursions on paper rather than flipping from screen to screen.

4. Give booked cruisers the embarkation and debarkation locations for cruises. This info helps cruisers decide where to book a hotel room if they arrive for a cruise a day or more before the start of the cruise. We all understand this information can change but this would give us a starting point.

5. Send out updated information on changes to cruise itineraries, health protocols, boarding procedures as soon as that information is available. Don't leave it until the last week.

Again, I realize that information changes. I can deal with changes. I just don't deal with lack of information.

Gini

Well said, Gini

 

[Mackdogmolly]

1 hour ago, PirateWife said:

To the Azamara IT Department:

Please update the Azamara website. Your company has spent millions refurbishing your ships and yet the website still has postings from 2020. Things to do:

1. Update the crew listing. Many Azamara frequent cruisers like to know who will be the captain, cruise director, hotel director, and executive chef on their cruises.

2. Update the onboard activities. Before 2020, I could see who would be guest lecturer onboard. I could see if there were any guest instructors for learning experiences.

3. Make it possible to download the shore excursion booklet. I could do it several months ago but now cannot. Or, is it hidden and difficult to find. I like to look at different suggestions for shore excursions on paper rather than flipping from screen to screen.

4. Give booked cruisers the embarkation and debarkation locations for cruises. This info helps cruisers decide where to book a hotel room if they arrive for a cruise a day or more before the start of the cruise. We all understand this information can change but this would give us a starting point.

5. Send out updated information on changes to cruise itineraries, health protocols, boarding procedures as soon as that information is available. Don't leave it until the last week.

Again, I realize that information changes. I can deal with changes. I just don't deal with lack of information.

Gini

I don’t know about all of this, but there is a senior officer schedule on the website, I think it’s possible to download the shore excursions, and booked passengers can see where to go to embark/debarked. It’s under Booked on the website 

[PirateWife]

The senior officer schedule is out of date. Officers listed that are no longer with Azamara. Notice that there are lots of blanks. The shore excursions can be downloaded but not printed.

[AJCM]

Haven’t been able to download a shore excursion PDF, in Australia, over the past year, when I encountered the problem with 2020 bookings. I’ve reported this on a number of occasions but it’s not rectified. The work around has been to changing the site to USA (at bottom of screen page), downloading the PDF easily, print the summary pages and write in the AUD cost.

 

A helpful IT addition is to note when a shuttle will be provided at a destination. 

 

Although not an IT problem, if any of the Cruise Directors follow Cruise Critic, please come up with some new trivia questions. A lot of us probably know a lot of the answers off by heart now. As children are rare on Azamara cruises, consider dumping the disproportionate number of children’s movies. Otherwise, all good.

[laurieb]

3 hours ago, PirateWife said:

The senior officer schedule is out of date. Officers listed that are no longer with Azamara. Notice that there are lots of blanks. The shore excursions can be downloaded but not printed.

Besides chef Monica who is no longer there?

Not up to IT to figure out schedules; they just post them.  
Cruises are just starting up; very possible that no one knows yet where the ship will dock- especially as early as November. This year is not a normal year. Good time to cut some slack.  

Edited September 9, 2021 by laurieb

[Grandma Cruising]

I found the printer friendly version of the shore excursions for the cruise I’m considering for 2023. I searched for the cruise on the website, clicked on ‘View Itunerary’, then on the Shore Excursions tab, then scrolled down to the button for the ‘printer friendly e-brochure of all shore excursions’

[uktog]

I am sure much of this wish list is in their minds. The excursion booklet is printable it’s just clunky getting to it. 
All businesses will have need to have vs want to have lists and the issues like whose driving is want to have. 
Even the captains don’t fully know their rotations for the coming year. If the current information gets published and then changed people kick off - “I booked to sail with him; I never sail with her” so it seems Azamara are damned if they publish and damned if they don’t. 
 

When the time is right they will tell us!

 

PS. I initially thought this thread was about sorting out these nightmare boards. Their problems are encouraging people to head elsewhere never to return as some page admin on the other place are really capitalising on the issues here!

[excitedofharpenden]

4 hours ago, laurieb said:

Besides chef Monica who is no longer there?

Not up to IT to figure out schedules; they just post them.  
Cruises are just starting up; very possible that no one knows yet where the ship will dock- especially as early as November. This year is not a normal year. Good time to cut some slack.  

I agree with you. For some time now (well actually for as long a I remember) the website has needed investment and work. We are still in the midst of a pandemic with still much uncertainty and many staff furloughed. The time to kick the update the website thing again?  I don't think it's the time just now. Hopefully Sycamore have some plans when they cut the Royal IT strings. 

 

As for the comment about new trivia questions, that's unlikely to happen very soon. Although I do know the likes of Tony Markey made a big effort to think of new ones, there is not an infinite number of questions and if you play trivia often enough you will get some repeats. Is that the fault of the entertainment staff for not having the variety or the guest who plays too often?  Trivia is supposed to be fun, but to some it's a huge intellectual challenge. 

 

Phil 

[Riocca]

12 minutes ago, excitedofharpenden said:

I agree with you. For some time now (well actually for as long a I remember) the website has needed investment and work. We are still in the midst of a pandemic with still much uncertainty and many staff furloughed. The time to kick the update the website thing again?  I don't think it's the time just now. Hopefully Sycamore have some plans when they cut the Royal IT strings. 

 

As for the comment about new trivia questions, that's unlikely to happen very soon. Although I do know the likes of Tony Markey made a big effort to think of new ones, there is not an infinite number of questions and if you play trivia often enough you will get some repeats. Is that the fault of the entertainment staff for not having the variety or the guest who plays too often?  Trivia is supposed to be fun, but to some it's a huge intellectual challenge. 

 

Phil 

I was going to post something earlier if the CC website had allowed me 🤔 my thoughts are that the cruise industry has some of the worst websites of any industry with a big web presence. Royal Caribbean have used a common platform for all the brands and to me the Azamara was probably the best to navigate of them, the main RC site is so busy it’s enough to bring on a migraine.

Sycamore have said from the get go that they will develop their own state of the art  IT system for Azamara this will take time to develop so I doubt there’s much expenditure on the current system from either RC or Sycamore. Hopefully with Sycamores background they will be able to produce a website and back office system that’s truly fit for purpose.

[Mackdogmolly]

5 hours ago, excitedofharpenden said:

Trivia is supposed to be fun, but to some it's a huge intellectual challenge. 

That would be me 🥴

[jelayne]

Before they focus on brochures for excursions, updating listing of lecturers or crew I hope they determine where or if the Pursuit will  be sailing  in January -March 2022.  Final payment has been moved back 30 for all those sailing while they assess the situation.  

[PirateWife]

I forgot that I can see shore excursion booklets when I am looking at cruises to consider not from the booked cruise site. (It has been a long time since I have cruised.) Then I can download it.