An AzAmazing Voyage to Mediocrity

[Grandma Cruising]

4 hours ago, Carnevale said:

With apologies to the Azamara cheerleaders who my post may offend, I have to say that we continue to struggle to understand the comments on CC that say that while the pre-cruise experience was bad, the onboard experience was good. That was not our experience on Journey in July.  While the public spaces looked good our stateroom was very worn and unacceptable. The food was not good. Some of the ports and the process of getting off and on the ship were very poorly handled with long lines we had to wait in. As the weather was bad the indoor spaces were extremely crowded - we have never felt as crowded on any of the other line we have sailed on including much larger ships. Compared to other lines (e.g., Regent, Viking, Princess) the onboard staff did not do much to respond to or follow up on issues. It felt like they were overwhelmed dealing with the issues people arrived with regarding their accounts, loyalty status, etc.

 

Bottom line: we cruise once or twice a year but Azamara won’t get any more business from us.

So sorry to hear that you had a poor experience on Journey in July. We’ve never had that sort of experience onboard Azamara in our 11 cruises, but we haven’t been on the Journey for a while. Pursuit in March and Quest last October/November were fine for us. We”re due to be onboard Journey in November so it’ll be interesting to see if our experience measures up to the other two ships we’ve been on.

[Mrs Miggins]

We were on Journey Spain Intensive in June.  Apart from a problem with one shore excursion we had a great time.  Very similar experience to our previous Azamara cruises.  I do not recognise any of the issues highlighted by Carnevale.  

Perhaps the itinerary and the weather impacted the "getting off and on the ship".  This has never been a problem with Azamara for us.

[hamrag]

8 hours ago, Carnevale said:

.....As the weather was bad the indoor spaces were extremely crowded - we have never felt as crowded on any of the other line we have sailed on including much larger ships....

 

🤔 Erm....in my experience much larger ships = more indoor spaces = less crowded, as there are numerous venues available! Why would you expect an 'R' class ship to not be crowded indoors, with inclement weather? 🤔 🤔

Edited September 9, 2023 by hamrag

[manc]

We got off journey yesterday after b2b. No problems. A shuttle in Greenock to the station for Glasgow would have been great. Food was better than pre covid. Service great. Staff wonderful. Only concern is that cases of covid on board were observed but no official reports.  Within hours of getting home my husband was confirmed with it. He had no symptoms until we reached home. A reminder of the disease still being around may have prevented the spread. We were extremely careful on board and used every hand sanitiser on board. 

Edited September 9, 2023 by manc

[commodoredave]

11 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

It's not that I'm discounting the concerns, just your hope that your email will make a difference.  I don't believe Azamara management is unaware of the problems, or not engaged in trying to solve them.  But heh – go for it:  if it helps, we'll all benefit.

I get it. Today, very few if any senior cruise line execs follow their board on Cruise Critic and see our comments -- good or bad.  In fact, if a cruise line has its own FaceBook page, it's more likely that our comments will be seen there, although they tend to cancel anyone who criticizes them.

But it wasn't always that way. I recall when Regent was taken over by Apollo (who at the time also owned Oceania and a minority stake in NCL), there was lots of criticism about it on Cruise Critic. To his credit, Frank Del Rio, who was appointed CEO of the newly acquired Regent, responded to a bunch of comments on the Regent Board. Everyone was impressed by this as it made a loud statement that Del Rio cared about what people were saying about his cruise line, and that he was listening. I think we need more Del Rios in today's cruise industry. 

[Carnevale]

5 hours ago, hamrag said:

 

🤔 Erm....in my experience much larger ships = more indoor spaces = less crowded, as there are numerous venues available! Why would you expect an 'R' class ship to not be crowded indoors, with inclement weather? 🤔 🤔

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect Azamara to better manage the use of space when bad weather forces everyone indoors. This clearly happens often enough that I expect them to have better backup plans. 

 

For example, why did they close the MDR so early and fail to open it for lunch when the ship couldn’t dock? On those days the buffet was too busy and room service wasn’t able to keep up yet the MDR sat unused. Likewise, why didn’t they have a better plan for White Night when it had to be indoors?  They tried to squeeze everyone into the theatre when they could have had an additional offering of something in the Living Room (e.g., split up the entertainment staff into two groups and have some canned music and dancing in the LR).

 

 I understand that space is limited on the R class ships but when what is available is not used as effectively as it could be it creates customer dissatisfaction.

[aliaschief]

Spent most of June on Journey. We enjoyed it and considered it pretty close to being a perfect cruise. 

[cruisemom42]

I'm back on Azamara (last cruise with them was in 2018) for a BTB in October on Onward. 

 

I have a "wait and see" attitude. I cruise with a number of different cruise lines and honestly every single forum has the same complaint about the difference in service onboard vs. shoreside. I get that Azamara has taken a beating over the whole separation/website communications process and probably rightfully so. But I'm willing to wait a bit longer and see if these teething issues will resolve, especially if the onboard experience is good. 

 

For me, the bottom line is that I like small ships and at least in the past liked the vibe on Azamara. Small ships affordable for solo travelers with good itineraries are not exactly falling from the trees. I will go with an open mind and see what happens.

 

[lisiamc]

17 hours ago, Carnevale said:

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect Azamara to better manage the use of space when bad weather forces everyone indoors. This clearly happens often enough that I expect them to have better backup plans. 

 

For example, why did they close the MDR so early and fail to open it for lunch when the ship couldn’t dock? On those days the buffet was too busy and room service wasn’t able to keep up yet the MDR sat unused. Likewise, why didn’t they have a better plan for White Night when it had to be indoors?  They tried to squeeze everyone into the theatre when they could have had an additional offering of something in the Living Room (e.g., split up the entertainment staff into two groups and have some canned music and dancing in the LR).

 

 I understand that space is limited on the R class ships but when what is available is not used as effectively as it could be it creates customer dissatisfaction.

I’ve been on board when they split the White Night party in various ways, and there were A LOT of complaints. I don’t think Azamara can win that one. 

[ChucktownSteve]

On 9/8/2023 at 5:49 PM, commodoredave said:

Wishful thinking I guess. Fixing some of their onshore service issues is not rocket science. The CEO just has to make it a priority.

Or maybe she's too busy job hunting? 😆

[commodoredave]

2 hours ago, ChucktownSteve said:

Or maybe she's too busy job hunting? 😆

That might eventually become the case if revenue and net income suffer because of the onshore managment problems. Private investment companies are notoriously impatient when it comes to the  financial performance of their assets. It doesn't help that far too many people have had negative experiences with Azamara management in the past 2 years, and that some travel agencies have started to caution people about booking a cruise with Azamara. These two factors have and will continue to impact financial performance on Azamara until they are successfully resolved, which could happen if the CEO makes customer service a top priority. But the outcome is clearly in the CEO's hands, and she has a limited amount of time to address it. 

[DreadPirateRobert]

Only one Azamara cruise for us so far but I had no complaints. Perhaps Az veterans can see differences . We were on the Ireland intensive in June and had a wonderful time. The crew was very friendly and efficient, food was great. Yeah there were a couple of shoreside glitches but they were quickly resolved once we were on the ship. Enjoyed it so much we’ve booked a B2B  for August of next year. 

Edited September 10, 2023 by DreadPirateRobert

[commodoredave]

On 9/4/2023 at 1:53 PM, Host Jazzbeau said:

Some people are naturally suspicious and pessimistic.  I'm glad there are some of us who were born the other way.  Life is so much better!

Some people have lost their life savings and homes by not being pessimistic. Life is so much better by being careful!

[Host Jazzbeau]

1 hour ago, commodoredave said:

Some people have lost their life savings and homes by not being pessimistic. Life is so much better by being careful!

False dichotomy.  "Trust, but verify."  Moderation: due diligence, but not conspiracy theories.

[commodoredave]

11 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

False dichotomy.  "Trust, but verify."  Moderation: due diligence, but not conspiracy theories.

Due diligence is all that is required. The recent performance of Azamara requires it. Conspiracy theory? Kind of a weird statement in the circumstances of this thread.

[Host Jazzbeau]

57 minutes ago, commodoredave said:

Due diligence is all that is required. The recent performance of Azamara requires it. Conspiracy theory? Kind of a weird statement in the circumstances of this thread.

That's about the posts that say, based on some particular experience, that this must mean they are in financial trouble.  Nobody on this forum has any clue about how Sycamore views Azamara's recent financial performance.

[commodoredave]

13 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

That's about the posts that say, based on some particular experience, that this must mean they are in financial trouble.  Nobody on this forum has any clue about how Sycamore views Azamara's recent financial performance.

My general comment about private investment companys and their expectations for their assets is based on dozens if not hundreds of newspaper stories about how these types of companies operate. There is plenty of evidence out there if you look for it. With respect to the financial performance of Azamara, nobody including me knows precisely how they are doing. But judging from comments on the Azamara board and the story mentioned in the original post, they are clearly good at something: giving refunds. That can't be good for the bottom line. 

 

 

[IDLnyc]

Just back from 8/29/2023 10 day Ireland Intensive.  First time Azamara cruisers.

Had many problems precruise with shore-side services in May- June when our final payment was due (invoice amount wrong, couldn’t process final payment until it was six weeks late, couldn’t reach a phone agent, no precruise checkin process).  Even had a backup plan in mind if we couldn’t board in Dublin (take the train west).

But we were on the list, embarked as quickly as we ever have on Seabourn, and had a great on board experience- possibly the friendliest crew we’ve ever encountered and food at the level one would expect from an above-premium line.

People have been saying that the on-board experience has not been affected by the shoreside problems.  I can confirm that was the case for us this summer.

[ECCruise]

On 9/4/2023 at 12:18 PM, donaldsc said:

 

Azamara's problem is that 98% of their customers and potential customers do not use CC and they book either by calling Azamara or through their TA.  From what I read here the booking experience for Azamara is horrible so the potential say "forget it" and go to another cruise line that has a better front and back office staff.  They never get to enjoy the Azamara onboard experience.  These potential new customers are gone forever.

 

Any comments?

 

DON

I would say that our most recent booking experience was the best we've ever had on 100+ sailings. 

Literally 15 minutes after we solidified the booking with our TA, we received the following from Azamara:

A welcome email.  An invoice detailing the booking price with OBC clearly listed.  Our Guest Ticket Booklet (what you used to receive to initiate the "doc dance").   A detailed itinerary. Directions to the embarkation port.  Boarding times by group. Our boarding passes. Additional information related to the sailing.

 

For a cruise that does not leave until 12 July, 2025.

 

Pretty impressive, IMHO. 

[Mackdogmolly]

Not my experience, but I do have the itineraries in my account and my loyalty status is correct.

[ECCruise]

23 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Not my experience, but I do have the itineraries in my account and my loyalty status is correct.

When did you book?  This was a booking only a month or so ago.

[Mackdogmolly]

2 minutes ago, ECCruise said:

When did you book?  This was a booking only a month or so ago.

I booked one last week and the other one in July I think 

[ECCruise]

15 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

I booked one last week and the other one in July I think 

That's strange.  Our TA forwarded us everything (actually 2 B2B sailings combined) from Azamara in minutes after she enacted the deposit. 

[the_dylaness]

1 hour ago, ECCruise said:

I would say that our most recent booking experience was the best we've ever had on 100+ sailings. 

Literally 15 minutes after we solidified the booking with our TA, we received the following from Azamara:

A welcome email.  An invoice detailing the booking price with OBC clearly listed.  Our Guest Ticket Booklet (what you used to receive to initiate the "doc dance").   A detailed itinerary. Directions to the embarkation port.  Boarding times by group. Our boarding passes. Additional information related to the sailing.

 

For a cruise that does not leave until 12 July, 2025.

 

Pretty impressive, IMHO. 

 

My cruise leaves in 11 days and I still have NONE of those items 😞 I am glad they are doing well looking forward but I feel caught in the middle.

[ECCruise]

Just now, the_dylaness said:

 

My cruise leaves in 11 days and I still have NONE of those items 😞 I am glad they are doing well looking forward but I feel caught in the middle.

We were in the same boat on all the ones we did in the last year, most of which were booked on the old system. Got all the info a week or so before sailing, but that is too late.