New website.

[Riocca]

I understand the concern of those who are cruising in the next month or two but some others are creating problems, there was always going to be problems as RC’s system dates from the 1990’s and is most likely written in a totally different way from Azamara’s new system. So the likelihood of data conversion being flawed was always high add to this the fact that however much you test a new system once in the hands of the general public they will find errors, just look at what happens with Apple’s iOS releases.

If you have an existing booking you should have a booking confirmation with the correct details and any Shorex bookings will have been confirmed by email. We booked onboard Onward and the trade booking engine was working fine so travel agents should be able handle bookings even if the website system is not quite right at the moment.

Yes in an ideal world the transition would be seamless and currently it’s worse than expected but if you’re not traveling for a few months hence just let Azamara sort things out first before adding to the workload.

[uktog]

It was always going to be high risk doing this transfer at this point in the year, given all the Azamara publicity that the first three months of the year is that wave  

season with the busiest level of bookings.
 

In hindsight, maybe wrong time and I think there should have been better communication managing guests expectations, but I’m sure Azamara knows that

 

What is not helping people tying up the CallCenter calling about minutiae for Cruises months ahead like missing points or wrong balances - leave it. Some wrong balances like mine are actually not wrong, the balance in Azamara‘s book differs from the balance on the travel agents book because of rebates given by the agency 

 

I don’t know how many times one has to say that until Azamara says the website is fully functioning leave it (unless you’re sailing in the next month) and at that point call if things are still wrong. 
 

And  if you’re going in the next month, you don’t have to do online check-in before arriving at the port, all will be well without paperwork  - time to do some trusting here!  
there are no reports of anyone turning up with a booking, and not getting on board in this current period of disruption 😀

[Oslo Dutch]

On 4/6/2023 at 6:59 PM, Host Jazzbeau said:

Were you originally scheduled to dock the day before?  That happened to our cruise on Journey last October – Piraeus port notified Azamara long after they had set up the itinerary that they were full and we had to wait a day.  That added a day to my cruise (at no charge) and subtracted one from the following cruise.

We disembarked in Piraeus this morning. Yesterday we left Chania Kriti around 5 PM and Captain Antonio went full speed in the direction of Athens where we docked at 2 AM this morning. So everything was perfect. I think Captain Antonio has been aware what has happened to you

 

Just one warning with onboard credit, when you sailed ONLY between EU ports. VAT 22% is added to purchases ONLY in the shops. (Not for restaurants, drinks, Spa etc). This VAT charge is added to your bill and will be charged to your credit card.

 

As our onboard credit was granted halfway down the cruise we decided to make purchases in the shops. And found out we still need to pay for VAT which can't be covered by the onboard credit. The girl in guest services advised us to claim it back at the Airport, however, this doesn't really work for us as we are EU citizens....

[Mackdogmolly]

15 hours ago, NeilWM said:

Great idea, will try a travel agent in the hope they can make a booking in the next week or so

That’s what I did and they were able to book the a cabin I was happy with. They were not able to sort out my loyalty level screw up, so I wasn’t able to book using my 4 “free” days, but they said once it’s sorted out, I will be able to rebook.

[Grandma Cruising]

22 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

That’s what I did and they were able to book the a cabin I was happy with. They were not able to sort out my loyalty level screw up, so I wasn’t able to book using my 4 “free” days, but they said once it’s sorted out, I will be able to rebook.

Great to hear!

[Silver Claire]

Has anyone managed to book any excursions via the new website or by calling them? We sail on the 18th and I really want to book one of the ship's excursions for the 20th. Can't even see them online and when my husband called them they said they couldn't do it that way either as they don't have access to the system.  Its quite a specialised one - a 9 hour tour “Highlights of Kyoto by Shinkansen Bullet train” so I'm really keen to know if we can do it or not. 

[uktog]

10 minutes ago, Silver Claire said:

Has anyone managed to book any excursions via the new website or by calling them? We sail on the 18th and I really want to book one of the ship's excursions for the 20th. Can't even see them online and when my husband called them they said they couldn't do it that way either as they don't have access to the system.  Its quite a specialised one - a 9 hour tour “Highlights of Kyoto by Shinkansen Bullet train” so I'm really keen to know if we can do it or not. 

No excursions can be booked they are saying, but bookings seem to be working fine onboard, no reports of people having difficulties getting what they want

[Silver Claire]

1 minute ago, uktog said:

No excursions can be booked they are saying, but bookings seem to be working fine onboard, no reports of people having difficulties getting what they want

Thank you, that's reassuring. I wouldn't even be worried if it wasn't the first port or if it was something we could do on ourselves but it's not something I'd even consider attempting on our own. Just kicking myself for not booking it at the outset as its the only Azamara tour that we definitely wanted to do. 

[uktog]

2 minutes ago, Silver Claire said:

Thank you, that's reassuring. I wouldn't even be worried if it wasn't the first port or if it was something we could do on ourselves but it's not something I'd even consider attempting on our own. Just kicking myself for not booking it at the outset as its the only Azamara tour that we definitely wanted to do. 

I would go to book excursions as soon as you board to make sure.  In the meantime I would keep trying online and possibly call again later next week just in case they have a quicker fix

[laurieb]

10 hours ago, Riocca said:

I understand the concern of those who are cruising in the next month or two but some others are creating problems, there was always going to be problems as RC’s system dates from the 1990’s and is most likely written in a totally different way from Azamara’s new system. So the likelihood of data conversion being flawed was always high add to this the fact that however much you test a new system once in the hands of the general public they will find errors, just look at what happens with Apple’s iOS releases.

If you have an existing booking you should have a booking confirmation with the correct details and any Shorex bookings will have been confirmed by email. We booked onboard Onward and the trade booking engine was working fine so travel agents should be able handle bookings even if the website system is not quite right at the moment.

Yes in an ideal world the transition would be seamless and currently it’s worse than expected but if you’re not traveling for a few months hence just let Azamara sort things out first before adding to the workload.

Very well said!!

[aussie travel bird]

You used to be able to 'Add a reservation' to your upcoming cruises with the provided reservation number, seems you cannot do this anymore.  It was definately a feature that was very handy.

[wjfan417]

Every time I’ve tried to reset my password, I get a response saying I’m not authorized to view that site. I finally set up my husband’s new password today. All of our cruises are showing, all of our balances are correct, and our account numbers are the same. It does show my husband has moved up a level with an extra 2000 points than he actually has. We’re also missing a bunch of onboard credit. Since our next cruise isn’t until mid-July, I’ll try again in a couple weeks.

[takemewithyou]

My next cruise is mid June but today I received my final docs and boarding passes via e-mail.  I would say something is working right!  

[LT Hambone]

15 minutes ago, takemewithyou said:

My next cruise is mid June but today I received my final docs and boarding passes via e-mail.  I would say something is working right!

 

 

Our upcoming cruise is early June, we have not received anything via email and we still do not see our cruise when we log into the website. I've clicked through the Request Support link multiple times over the past week, but no luck. Sigh.

 

 

If anyone out there is reading this thread and thinking about trying an Azamara cruise, my advice would be..... give Azamara a try! Do NOT let this website SNAFU be a reason to pass over Azamara - once you get to the ships you will be quite pleased! Also - be very lucky you didn't have tp try and deal with the old website, what a piece of junk!

 

 

Counting down the day until our next cruise, will keep clicking away on Request Support!

[john1970]

I agree with you. Azamara at sea is totally different from Azamara on land. Also if you can, find a good travel agent and allow them to deal with all the admin. Then you can just worry about enjoying yourself.

[lisiamc]

14 hours ago, Silver Claire said:

Thank you, that's reassuring. I wouldn't even be worried if it wasn't the first port or if it was something we could do on ourselves but it's not something I'd even consider attempting on our own. Just kicking myself for not booking it at the outset as its the only Azamara tour that we definitely wanted to do. 

We are not super-adventurous, but going to Kyoto on the Shinkansen and seeing the sites is one thing we have done on our own. The Japanese make it incredibly easy to be a tourist. Getting tickets for the train was simple, and there is a specific public bus route in Kyoto with all announcements, stops, etc in English as well as Japanese, and it stops at all the popular tourist sites. If you are not able to do this through the ship, the way you would prefer, you really could easily do it on your own as a back-up plan.

[The Salties]

Oh dear the 3 upcoming cruises that were shown on my account a couple of days ago have now disappeared. Will not fill in form yet,, hopefully will all settle down soon, and they have withdrawn it whilst they work on it. First cruise not until November.

[JM0115]

11 hours ago, LT Hambone said:

 

 

Our upcoming cruise is early June, we have not received anything via email and we still do not see our cruise when we log into the website. I've clicked through the Request Support link multiple times over the past week, but no luck. Sigh.

 

We sail in May. Same here! No emails, no ability to see our cruise, no response to the support form. Don’t understand how they can have such poor, actually, no communication. I realize it will all work out on board but very frustrating as a first timer trying to try out AZ!

[JM0115]

3 hours ago, lisiamc said:

We are not super-adventurous, but going to Kyoto on the Shinkansen and seeing the sites is one thing we have done on our own. The Japanese make it incredibly easy to be a tourist. Getting tickets for the train was simple, and there is a specific public bus route in Kyoto with all announcements, stops, etc in English as well as Japanese, and it stops at all the popular tourist sites. If you are not able to do this through the ship, the way you would prefer, you really could easily do it on your own as a back-up plan.

Agree. Train system in Japan is the best in the world and pretty easy to navigate. Kyoto train station is one of my favorites. Many places to eat! 

[Travels with Lisa]

3 hours ago, The Salties said:

Oh dear the 3 upcoming cruises that were shown on my account a couple of days ago have now disappeared. Will not fill in form yet,, hopefully will all settle down soon, and they have withdrawn it whilst they work on it. First cruise not until November.

My disappeared as well and I thought the same thing.  It's back, loyalty still incorrect and we still owe $2 million for our shore excursions.  Nothing has changed.

[silkismom]

Mine also disappeared.

[tgg]

My two upcoming cruises are now listed correctly on the website. My Azamara Circle level has been corrected. This has happened without my getting in touch with Azamara or my travel agent.

 

I'm sure they'll straighten out the incorrect OBC amount listed.  With hard copies of invoices, I don't expect to have any problems.

[JM0115]

I called Azamara this morning, and was asked if I wanted a callback rather than wait on hold, did ask for the callback and received it almost exactly 5 hrs later. The CSR, I think her name was Kayla, was very nice. She apologized for the inconvenience and confirmed that we paid in full, but told me that we may not be able to log in or pick shore excursions prior to boarding our cruise at the end of May. They are hoping to have that fixed before that but no promises. She was very nice and clearly as frustrated as the rest of us but really was not able to do anything other than tell me that we were paid in full. 

[knitter]

Well, 916 mouse clicks later, I know I was born on a Sunday! My account does not have my August cruise, and I followed the link to report it. The birth date box won't let you just type in a date in box- I had to click on a calendar all the way back!!!!😄

[JYDCruise]

58 minutes ago, JM0115 said:

I called Azamara this morning, and was asked if I wanted a callback rather than wait on hold, did ask for the callback and received it almost exactly 5 hrs later. The CSR, I think her name was Kayla, was very nice. She apologized for the inconvenience and confirmed that we paid in full, but told me that we may not be able to log in or pick shore excursions prior to boarding our cruise at the end of May. They are hoping to have that fixed before that but no promises. She was very nice and clearly as frustrated as the rest of us but really was not able to do anything other than tell me that we were paid in full. 

Thanks, this is very useful information! Our cruise is early June, so we're in pretty much the same boat (well, probably a different ship, but the same boat . . . ).

 

The problem is that if I have to wait until I board to sign up for Azamara excursions . . . I won't sign up for Azamara excursions. Rather than spending hours of my first day on board doing so, hoping that the excursions I want are still available, I'll just sign up for 3rd party jaunts. This has the ripple effect that in addition we won't buy a couple of Experience More packages as the $700 excursion credit would be worthless, we won't spend as much on beverage packages, etc. It's going to cost Azamara some revenue, maybe $2-3k in our case; trivial if only a few people do the same, but could be significant if many do so.

Edited April 10, 2023 by JYDCruise