Hello Carol Cabezas (CEO), What on Earth is Going On?

[Grandma Cruising]

7 hours ago, yogagal47 said:

Athens to Dubai 4 times! Wow! I am getting excited for our April '24 Singapore to Dubai cruise. Have you ever done that? Also-do you happen to know if AZ has decent options for vegans? Do they still do the buffet at dinner time? Asking for a friend who is a vegan, loves to cruise and finds buffets work best for him. Thanks.  Julie in Denver

We haven’t done Singapore to Dubai, but are doing Dubai to Singapore on Journey in November this year. Azamara do have vegan options and the buffet is open for breakfast, lunch & dinner.

[mj_holiday]

We have cruised Azamara post Covid and felt the service was impeccable, the food was very good, and enjoyed the ports. I have never had a faster check in on a cruise ship than I did with Azamara, luggage, turned up quickly, and we always found something great to eat and enjoyed the cruise.
 

Yes, the website is horrible. But I felt it was horrible before the transition.  I’ve encountered this format a couple different places, and everybody had problems working their way through it. As someone who managed the transition of a large system, I understand the trials and tribulations of working with a system that is, how many years old,  maintained by somebody that might have done undocumented short cuts, and things not tested. I am sure there were surprises around every corner and they just have to be worked off one by one 

[aimee0715]

On 4/23/2023 at 8:24 AM, cruisefam38 said:

Although the horse is taking a beating, it isn't dead, nor will the continued bashing and beating be sufficient to seriously harm Azamara.

Faults have been found, problems identified, points have been made.  For the seriously disgruntled, maybe, just maybe, it is time to consider moving on, figuratively and literally.  As for me, three excellent post-covid cruises with Azamara encourage me to continue vacationing with this cruise line in the future. 

 

Cruisefam, I just had to comment to give a shout out from Winston-Salem!  This is the first time I've seen Walkertown on CC.😊

[cruisefam38]

22 hours ago, aimee0715 said:

give a shout out from Winston-Salem! 

Hello, Hello.  There are at least two confirmed cruisers here in Walkertown.

It was nice of you to reach out, aimee0715.

Looking at your cruise history, I am reminded that my first cruise was on the Grand Princess.  Couldn't guess for how much longer, but she is still at sea. 

NOW to stay on topic:

Azamara good.  Azamara bad.  Something must be done!  Patience.  Everything will work out, one way or the other, in the end.

Edited April 28, 2023 by cruisefam38

[uktog]

We have just received global update communication email from the CEO. I’m sure someone will paste it here soon (can’t from my phone)

[LT Hambone]

Dear Azamara Guest,

 

It’s been two weeks since our last update and I wanted to share what we have been focused on to ensure we get back to serving you pre-cruise the Azamara way. I understand your frustration and appreciate your patience as we have been focused on stabilizing a full commercial system transition.   We are getting your pre-cruise experience back on track, and I assure you that the experience onboard remains as warm and authentic as ever. There have been four primary areas of focus as we integrate our new systems:   The biggest pain point we heard from you was the ability to access your loyalty account on Azamara.com. This access problem was caused by the creation of multiple profiles over the years. By completing the form, we have been able to clear the incorrect profiles and make your loyalty information available for viewing in your Azamara.com account. Another significant problem was access to future bookings in your account. The root cause was bookings that were missing your email address, which is why we added the form for you to complete allowing us to match your bookings to your account. Once in your account some of your shore excursion amounts did not look right or your onboard credits (OBCs) were not visible. As of yesterday, we were able to clear up the shore excursion amounts and your OBCs are now available in your account, ready to apply as you wish. Very importantly, we recognize that our hold times have been extremely long. We started recruiting new Contact Center team members as soon as our hold times challenge began. As of Monday, we have a class that was hired, onboarded, trained, and on the phones. Another class will join mid-May with two more scheduled for early and late June.   On an additional note, for those of you who booked air travel through Azamara the airline tickets are processed thirty days before departure (consistent to historical practices). While we do not anticipate any issues, if your departure date is within thirty days and there is no record of the ticket with the airline, please contact us for resolution.   While we continue to successfully book new reservations, we know that there are a handful of data issues still requiring resolution over the next few weeks. We are confident that these issues are impacting only a small percentage of bookings made in our former reservation system. Please rest assured that your complete reservation details remain intact.   Azamara has always stood by its product and made things right. We are as committed to that spirit as we ever have been. Thank you for your continued patience, understanding, and loyalty. I will share another update in the next couple of weeks.

[LT Hambone]

Here's the email!

 

 

What's interesting is two things.

 

First, all four primary areas of focus are four main topics on this board.

 

Second, Carol doesn't mention where these four primary areas of focus came from.

 

 

I'm wondering if she's watching these boards????

Edited April 28, 2023 by LT Hambone
Formatting

[Mrs Miggins]

Just received.  I wrote an email to Customer Services earlier today after checking my online account. I detailed the problems with the account information shown on my June 3rd Cruise

I have received the above email and am grateful that t=my OBC is now correct.

Except I have just logged in and apparently I now have no upcoming cruises.

Words fail me.

[G2G]

Well, what a load of nonsense that is. I received the email and logged in to check my account and lo and behold I now have no upcoming cruises and no previous history. So its definitely not been addressed for me 

[G2G]

2 minutes ago, Mrs Miggins said:

Just received.  I wrote an email to Customer Services earlier today after checking my online account. I detailed the problems with the account information shown on my June 3rd Cruise

I have received the above email and am grateful that t=my OBC is now correct.

Except I have just logged in and apparently I now have no upcoming cruises.

Words fail me.

Ditto, its a farce

[LT Hambone]

Just now, Mrs Miggins said:

Except I have just logged in and apparently I now have no upcoming cruises.

 

 

That happens to me on occasion. Also happened on the old web page. Just refresh and it should come back!

 

While things are not 100% great with Azamara support (web page, customer service, booked travel, etc.), I was really impressed with Carol's email. Here's a CEO that is acknowledging the problem areas and is laying out a plan to move forward. How many CEOs would acknowledge there's a problem?

 

 

[G2G]

Really, I would hope most CEO's would do this and in a more timely fashion. Also refreshing my account does not bring my details back.

[Huntingdon1701]

18 minutes ago, Mrs Miggins said:

Just received.  I wrote an email to Customer Services earlier today after checking my online account. I detailed the problems with the account information shown on my June 3rd Cruise

I have received the above email and am grateful that t=my OBC is now correct.

Except I have just logged in and apparently I now have no upcoming cruises.

Words fail me.

 

Likewise! 

[fruitmachine]

Just in... the message is getting through!

We are getting your pre-cruise experience back on track, and I assure you that the experience onboard remains as warm and authentic as ever.

Dear Azamara Guest,   It’s been two weeks since our last update and I wanted to share what we have been focused on to ensure we get back to serving you pre-cruise the Azamara way. I understand your frustration and appreciate your patience as we have been focused on stabilizing a full commercial system transition.   We are getting your pre-cruise experience back on track, and I assure you that the experience onboard remains as warm and authentic as ever. There have been four primary areas of focus as we integrate our new systems:   The biggest pain point we heard from you was the ability to access your loyalty account on Azamara.com. This access problem was caused by the creation of multiple profiles over the years. By completing the form, we have been able to clear the incorrect profiles and make your loyalty information available for viewing in your Azamara.com account. Another significant problem was access to future bookings in your account. The root cause was bookings that were missing your email address, which is why we added the form for you to complete allowing us to match your bookings to your account. Once in your account some of your shore excursion amounts did not look right or your onboard credits (OBCs) were not visible. As of yesterday, we were able to clear up the shore excursion amounts and your OBCs are now available in your account, ready to apply as you wish. Very importantly, we recognize that our hold times have been extremely long. We started recruiting new Contact Center team members as soon as our hold times challenge began. As of Monday, we have a class that was hired, onboarded, trained, and on the phones. Another class will join mid-May with two more scheduled for early and late June.   On an additional note, for those of you who booked air travel through Azamara the airline tickets are processed thirty days before departure (consistent to historical practices). While we do not anticipate any issues, if your departure date is within thirty days and there is no record of the ticket with the airline, please contact us for resolution.   While we continue to successfully book new reservations, we know that there are a handful of data issues still requiring resolution over the next few weeks. We are confident that these issues are impacting only a small percentage of bookings made in our former reservation system. Please rest assured that your complete reservation details remain intact.   Azamara has always stood by its product and made things right. We are as committed to that spirit as we ever have been. Thank you for your continued patience, understanding, and loyalty. I will share another update in the next couple of weeks.   Sincerely,     ©2023 Azamara. Ships registered in Malta. “Change the Way You Sea” is an international service mark of SP Cruises OpCo Limited.   Azamara, 3059 Grand Ave, Suite 205, Miami, Florida, 33133, United States

[Travelingwithstyle]

42 minutes ago, G2G said:

Really, I would hope most CEO's would do this and in a more timely fashion. Also refreshing my account does not bring my details back.

My 4 future cruises are not listed either.  I refreshed and they still did not appear.  I agree with you.  My husband and I have been very patient as so many have been. We have never said anything bad about this process.  We stayed positive and very optimistic.  After the letter today (which we have never received an update until today from The President)..... my humble opinion and this is my opinion ( I have been in high levels of management) if she worked for me she would be fired. 

[gowilk]

i got the “update email” and apparently miss carol remains clueless as none of what she says is remotely correct and as for their update on contact center hiring they wouldn’t have the problem if they had included contact center staffing as a component of their website transition. i haven’t called them even though

1. my future booking obc’s remain uncorrected

2. my loyalty points remain un corrected despite filling out a support form 

and despite all her attempted deflection, i didn’t create multiple profiles or fail to include my email in past or future bookings.

i reiterate if this mess relative to my account and the “routine” accounts isn’t resolved by the time my final payment is due, there will be no final payment as too much needs to be fixed on the ship.

 

i and many others are beginning to LOSE patience

[G2G]

2 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Be patient, once aboard you’ll love the product!

No, I’m beyond patient

[G2G]

1 minute ago, G2G said:

No, I’m beyond patient

People have been very patient & it is an insult to receive that email saying issues have been addressed when patently they have not. Some of us are due to sail within the next month and the same old platitudes are not cutting it. To be asked to be patient is for me saying my issues are irrelevant. They are not 

[takemewithyou]

I am losing my patience!

How does the President of Azamara put out that e-mail today which is obviously not true?

Is she totally out of touch as to what is happening at the cruise line she oversees?

[JYDCruise]

3 hours ago, Travelingwithstyle said:

My 4 future cruises are not listed either.  I refreshed and they still did not appear.  I agree with you.  My husband and I have been very patient as so many have been. We have never said anything bad about this process.  We stayed positive and very optimistic.  After the letter today (which we have never received an update until today from The President)..... my humble opinion and this is my opinion ( I have been in high levels of management) if she worked for me she would be fired. 

This has been handled so ineptly that a fair number of people, including some very senior executives, should be polishing up their resumes if they are wise. And they will probably want to edit it to claim that they left Azamara sometime last year.

[ChucktownSteve]

After receiving Carol's email, I checked my AZ account.  Our cruise is now showing after I made the second request.  But it is showing! Yea!

 

The only minor glitch is my Circle Club points.  They seemed to miss my December Celebrity cruise which when the points are added would jive with Celebrity's total. I submitted another support ticket and am confident it will be fixed when they get around to it.  Small potatoes in their grand scheme of thing. Mine too.

 

Azamara's problem as I see it is they underestimated the transition problems and their lack of staffing to adequately handle the problems they encountered.  Azamara could have avoided all this customer angst had they had a Plan B or C in place that would have sufficiently handled them. JMO.

Edited April 28, 2023 by ChucktownSteve

[Wheelhouse]

My account is now totally correct.  My one future cruise appeared yesterday, with all the correct details. As far as I can tell, my limited point total has always been right.  When I received the letter today I expected everyone else would be good.  I guess I was wrong.  

[takemewithyou]

22 minutes ago, Wheelhouse said:

My account is now totally correct.  My one future cruise appeared yesterday, with all the correct details. As far as I can tell, my limited point total has always been right.  When I received the letter today I expected everyone else would be good.  I guess I was wrong.  

It sounded promising, didn’t it?

If it came from the President of the company, I wanted to believe it.

That’s why I am so disappointed!

 

[gowilk]

so she sent an updated email which is still inaccurate and wants us to call the overwhelmed and under qualified call center to fix the onboard credit issues which are apparently nearly universal, they should just fire her now, she is clearly not qualified to be a leader.

[Carnevale]

Both of today’s emails made the situation worse IMHO.  They are incorrect and neither offered an apology.  Azamara needs to get better IT support and get it quickly.  They also desperately need to get some customer service consulting help onboard as what they did today only made me regret having booked with them.  There are ways of dealing with situations where an organization’s wheels fall off their truck but Az clearly has no clue as to what those things are.

 

And before someone tells me that the onboard experience will balance this mess out let me share that I have sailed with them before so I know what to expect.  It’s going to take some extra special onboard stuff to get me to the point where I will consider booking with them again.