Revised Black Sea Itinerary

[DiJohn]

We are on the May 5th Black Sea & Greece cruise on the Pursuit. Just received an email with our revised itinerary.

 

5-May-22: Istanbul, Turkey
6-May-22:Istanbul, Turkey
7-May-22: Varna, Bulgaria
8-May-22: Burgas, Bulgaria
9-May-22: At Sea
10-May-22: Canakkale (Kepez), Turkey
11-May-22: Kavala, Greece
12-May: Thessaloniki, Greece
13-May-22: Volos, Greece
14-May-22: Cesme, Turkey
15-May-22: Mykonos, Greece
16-May-22: Athens (Piraeus), Greece
17-May-22: Athens (Piraeus), Greece

 

It is now called a Greece, Turkey & Bulgaria cruise.
 

[java spot]

wow, I am very surprised they are entering the black sea. thank you so much for sharing!  thoughts? 

[ECCruise]

We are on the June 5th sailing and very happy with the changes.  Our itinerary, since it starts and ends in Pireaus, is different, but also makes it into the Black Sea to Varna and Burgas in Bulgaria.  We lose Odessa (no surprise) and Constanta (also no surprise) but happy that we retain Bulgaria and entry into Black Sea.  Also added Kos, Greece, which looks interesting and Cesme, Turkey (same) as well as Heraklion, where we were in December and love.

We are good with the changes.

[Janet&Carl]

August 26th changes there are no Black Sea ports it is now a Greece and Turkey Cruise

 

 

[LeCommandant]

Unfortunately it is very unlikely that a cruise ship sails in the Black Sea. Many security concerns in the area are raising right now. Cruise lines don’t like uncertainty (their insurance neither!). 

[ECCruise]

11 minutes ago, LeCommandant said:

Unfortunately it is very unlikely that a cruise ship sails in the Black Sea. Many security concerns in the area are raising right now. Cruise lines don’t like uncertainty (their insurance neither!). 

No one knows that.

 

And since Azamara just released the itinerary changes less than 24 hours ago, I feel pretty confident that they have weighed the uncertainty (and consulted with their insurance carriers) before making all of these changes.  Things can change, of course, but that goes both ways.  

 

[LeCommandant]

Yes sorry I should have added “in my opinion”. Of course no one knows 😉 

[ECCruise]

6 minutes ago, LeCommandant said:

Yes sorry I should have added “in my opinion”. Of course no one knows 😉 

Thanks,

We were prepared for NO Black Sea ports on our 5 June sailing so were happy to see the 2 ports in Bulgaria (1 retained and 1 added) there.  If things change and we lose those also, we will just go with the flow.

[SummmerInKefalonia]

Weird thing is that only Azamara left Bulgaria and subsequently Black Sea in their itineraries.

All the other companies have cancelled and go up to Istanbul and no further.

[ECCruise]

Just now, SummmerInKefalonia said:

Weird thing is that only Azamara left Bulgaria and subsequently Black Sea in their itineraries.

All the other companies have cancelled and go up to Istanbul and no further.

The letter they sent said they made the changes they did based on the survey that they sent out a while ago.

We surveyed you, the booked guests, and based on both your feedback and developing situation in these countries, we made the related adjustments to this voyage

[njguy_south]

I received an email this morning stating that the Black Sea Cruise (July 30) on the Onward will be "a Greece, Turkey, and Bulgaria cruise."  Not what I booked and NOT what I paid for. The intensive Black Sea cruises had a premium cost above those also sailing in the Adriatic or only in the Med. With that in mind, Azamara offers nothing in return (such as a discount), other than extending full payment.

 

Additionally, they changed nothing about the July 30th cruise on the website. (Come on, in 2022, that is an easy fix and could be changed in minutes to reflect the new itinerary.) Nor did they add anything to show the change when I log into my upcoming voyages. And they are still offering the cancelled ports among their shore excursions in the voyage planner. There is no excuse for this company, which markets itself as "the world' top up-market cruise line," not to have the latest information on their website and to communicate directly and more openly with their customer base.

 

If this is the service that Azamara is providing, it is a bad omen. This is how Crystal Cruise Lines were acting when they went bankrupt and left MANY people out of their paid deposits and cruises. I was switching to Azamara, but this is giving me second thoughts.

[ECCruise]

I guess everyone's reaction to this will be different.  And I understand some having frustrations.

 

We booked a Black Sea cruise and we are getting a Black Sea cruise subject to the obvious inability to visit a war torn Odessa and a country on Ukraine's southern border (Romania).  On our sailing, we have an additional sailing on the Black Sea (Burgas) as well as the addition of somewhat unusual destinations (Kos and Cesme) that are not on a vanilla Greece/Turkey sailings.

 

As far as the website not updated immediately, speaking from someone who owned internet based businesses for nearly 20 years, making the many changes that would be required (most of the sailings are unique), adjusting shore excursions, interfacing with the Cruise Personalizer, interfacing with the TA networks, and on and on, is not a "push a single button and the magic happens" process.

 

Would I rather it all be done immediately?  Of course.  But I understand the situation and am willing to give at least a few days of patience. 

[njguy_south]

Just excuses for a multi-million dollar company that is not doing its job well. (This was also the case with Crystal Cruises before the sunk.) The website can be updated quickly, as other cruise lines do. They aren't updating uploaded PDF files; they would be adjusting electronically created files, which in 2022 is quick to do.

 

And no one is expecting them to go to a war torn area, but the product paid for is NOT the product they can deliver. A total Black Sea circumnavigation cruise (such as on July 30th and others) is not the same as one that goes to Greek ports instead. It is not frustration, but it is pointing out that Azamara needs to admit that they are not able to deliver the product for which a premium price had been paid and need to either (1) adjust the price or (2) allow easy cancellation.  THAT is the point.

 

If you worked with a car dealer to purchase an expensive car, but on delivery you received one in the wrong color and a downgraded model, would you simply say you were frustrated, or would you expect either the car you ordered or a price reduction?

[tgg]

This is about timely web site updates.

 

We returned earlier this week from an Azamara Quest cruise in the Caribbean. According to the Azamara web site, there were two ports where Azamara required booking their shore excursions or we could not get off the ship - which we did.

 

During a conversation with the Shore Excursion Manager, we mentioned that we were not happy with the mandatory excursions we were forced to book.  He said that the rules had changed, there were no ports where we HAD to book excursions,  and he was happy to cancel the two excursions, which we did. On that day, the Azamara web site still said that there were mandatory excursions in these two ports. (This all happened on the 2nd day of the cruise.)

 

A fellow passenger, who had also booked  the mandatory excursions found out about the change the day before one of her excursions. (The web site STILL had no been changed.) When she said she wanted to cancel the excursion, she was told that she would not be able to because it was less than 48 hours before the excursion. Needless to say, she was not happy.  (She should have spoken to the Hotel Director, Ryszard, who I'm sure would have taken care of it.)

 

 

[ECCruise]

25 minutes ago, njguy_south said:

Just excuses for a multi-million dollar company that is not doing its job well. (This was also the case with Crystal Cruises before the sunk.) The website can be updated quickly, as other cruise lines do. They aren't updating uploaded PDF files; they would be adjusting electronically created files, which in 2022 is quick to do.

 

We will just need to agree to disagree.

 

I know from tons of experience what it takes to update websites with numerous components and  interfaces, which are at play here.  I explained what is involved in this somewhat unique situation in my previous post. If you believe that those updates can be done in a matter of hours, "like other cruise companies", then we will just leave it at that. 

[crzrr]

39 minutes ago, njguy_south said:

Just excuses for a multi-million dollar company that is not doing its job well. (This was also the case with Crystal Cruises before the sunk.) The website can be updated quickly, as other cruise lines do. They aren't updating uploaded PDF files; they would be adjusting electronically created files, which in 2022 is quick to do.

 

And no one is expecting them to go to a war torn area, but the product paid for is NOT the product they can deliver. A total Black Sea circumnavigation cruise (such as on July 30th and others) is not the same as one that goes to Greek ports instead. It is not frustration, but it is pointing out that Azamara needs to admit that they are not able to deliver the product for which a premium price had been paid and need to either (1) adjust the price or (2) allow easy cancellation.  THAT is the point.

 

If you worked with a car dealer to purchase an expensive car, but on delivery you received one in the wrong color and a downgraded model, would you simply say you were frustrated, or would you expect either the car you ordered or a price reduction?

Are you covered under the 48 hour cancel for any reason?  

[excitedofharpenden]

I wasn't booked on a Black sea cruise, but will weigh in on what I'd feel if I was. First of all I totally understand why Azamara have had to change the itinerary. Secondly, those Black Sea cruises certainly had a premium price. So, if I was booked and faced with Greek Ports and a couple in Bulgaria in substitution I would expect to see some price adjustment. It's not right they are going to charge the same. 

 

Phil 

[ECCruise]

11 minutes ago, excitedofharpenden said:

I wasn't booked on a Black sea cruise, but will weigh in on what I'd feel if I was. First of all I totally understand why Azamara have had to change the itinerary. Secondly, those Black Sea cruises certainly had a premium price. So, if I was booked and faced with Greek Ports and a couple in Bulgaria in substitution I would expect to see some price adjustment. It's not right they are going to charge the same. 

 

Phil 

I definitely agree that there should be some price adjustment, especially on those that were only visiting Black Sea ports.  Ours is less impacted since we lost 2 ports on the Black Sea (Odessa and Constanta) and gained a second Black Sea port in Bulgaria (Burgas). Some of the cruises already had those 2 Bulgarian ports, so they weren't substituted, but the Greek ones definitely would be.

[lisiamc]

16 hours ago, ECCruise said:

We are on the June 5th sailing and very happy with the changes.  Our itinerary, since it starts and ends in Pireaus, is different, but also makes it into the Black Sea to Varna and Burgas in Bulgaria.  We lose Odessa (no surprise) and Constanta (also no surprise) but happy that we retain Bulgaria and entry into Black Sea.  Also added Kos, Greece, which looks interesting and Cesme, Turkey (same) as well as Heraklion, where we were in December and love.

We are good with the changes.

Thank you for this.  We bailed on that cruise, and booked a different itinerary.  It looks like they did a good job with substitute ports.  Well done Azamara!

[ECCruise]

3 minutes ago, lisiamc said:

Thank you for this.  We bailed on that cruise, and booked a different itinerary.  It looks like they did a good job with substitute ports.  Well done Azamara!

I agree.

I really hadn't expected to go into the Black Sea for months (it was fairly obvious what was going to happen before the invasion) so was really happy to see we were still scheduled (and that is the operative word) to be heading north from Istanbul and 2 ports in the Black Sea.

[blag]

4 hours ago, njguy_south said:

I received an email this morning stating that the Black Sea Cruise (July 30) on the Onward will be "a Greece, Turkey, and Bulgaria cruise."  Not what I booked and NOT what I paid for. The intensive Black Sea cruises had a premium cost above those also sailing in the Adriatic or only in the Med. With that in mind, Azamara offers nothing in return (such as a discount), other than extending full payment.

 

Additionally, they changed nothing about the July 30th cruise on the website. (Come on, in 2022, that is an easy fix and could be changed in minutes to reflect the new itinerary.) Nor did they add anything to show the change when I log into my upcoming voyages. And they are still offering the cancelled ports among their shore excursions in the voyage planner. There is no excuse for this company, which markets itself as "the world' top up-market cruise line," not to have the latest information on their website and to communicate directly and more openly with their customer base.

 

If this is the service that Azamara is providing, it is a bad omen. This is how Crystal Cruise Lines were acting when they went bankrupt and left MANY people out of their paid deposits and cruises. I was switching to Azamara, but this is giving me second thoughts.

We are on the same cruise, but have not received any such notification. Would you please be so kind as to post the revised itinerary? 

[njguy_south]

40 minutes ago, blag said:

We are on the same cruise, but have not received any such notification. Would you please be so kind as to post the revised itinerary? 

They did not mention the full itinerary in the email, only that it was Greece, Turkey, and Bulgaria. (I suppose it may take then weeks to upload the new algorithms to be able to communicate the information to the customer. I would perhaps suggest that Azamara send out telepathic messages, as they seem to work more efficiently than their UNIVAC.

[blag]

July 30th out of Istanbul

My TA has sent a difficult-to-read screen dump of the new itinerary. I won't post it here because it's almost unreadable, but here are the changes:

02 Aug: At sea

03: Thessalonika

04: Volos (?)

05: Can't read this, and can't see any port vaguely like the blurred text, but not At sea

06: Mykonos

07: Ephesus (Kusadasi)

08: Cannakale (Kepez) [I think]

 

All other dates remain the same. So, two-and-a-half days in the Black Sea, maybe three, out of a total of 12/13.

 

To continue on the same theme: I ordered a Lexus and I'm being offered a Fiat Panda for the same price.

 

Notwithstanding the inevitability of the changes, Azamara must acknowledge that they are now offering a far inferior, and almost completely different product.

But, having had other cruises drastically modified by them in the past, I feel sure that they will NOT be offering any adjustment in price.

Unless one can cancel and hope that they put the 'crippled' cruise on the market at a lower price?

Again, historically, they force you into a decision before they release any new pricings.

 

Edited March 18, 2022 by blag
typo

[ECCruise]

Have any of you so unhappy with the itinerary changes contact Azamara and if you did,  what did they say about compensation?

[Baynanno1]

5 hours ago, njguy_south said:

If you worked with a car dealer to purchase an expensive car, but on delivery you received one in the wrong color and a downgraded model, would you simply say you were frustrated, or would you expect either the car you ordered or a price reduction?

 

What a ridiculous "comparison"!