Price Help Required

[holidaylover10]

Hi, A little about us, we are early 60's and always cruise with Celebrity, we just book a standard balcony as that is in our price range. We love Celebrity but have been looking at a cruise with Azamara for May 2025 (Islands of the Mediterranean 12 nights) We would only be able to afford inside or ocean view at a push but the price seems so high. 12 nights cruise only inside cabin just over £3000pp. I looked at same cruise for 2024 and around £800pp less. Does this price seem excessive for inside. Don't want to book if the price is likely to drop as here in UK we usually don't get price drops honoured. If I booked the inside and price dropped is there the possibility to upgrade at the new price? 

[Dr H]

Regarding price drops, your crystal ball is just as good as mine. Prices on all cruise line seem to be going through the roof - part of it is to make up for losses during the pandemic, and then there is world wide inflation. That said, we are Azamara lovers, and have been on two Celebrity cruises in the past year and a half. Consider this, however. Azamara IS all inclusive. They won't be asking you for $17 per person, per day for gratuities. Alcohol is included, that's wine, beer, hard stuff lunch, dinner, probably breakfast. We were in the Italian specialty restaurant on Celebrity - and hit with a $60 pp surcharge, and dinner did NOT include wine, and more insulting, a cup of coffee was an additional $5 pp. Ice cream - there is a surcharge. Cake and pastry - a surcharge. Self service laundry - not available; free (including soap) on Azamara. If you wish to carry alcohol on board Azamara for consumption in your room, no charge. When we did the Celebrity arithmetic, our cruises were less expensive than Azamara, but not by much. As for upgrades/price drops, that has been the rule for us here in the US. Prices have dropped, the new price has been honored. We are on a 12D Med cruise this November. I booked an inside room, and within a month or so, Aza announced a sale, I upgraded to an unobstructed Ocean View, and still had about $1000 come off my final price. Will it happen again? The crystal is murky, but I doubt it. One last note re Ocean View - I strongly advise AGAINST the obstructed view cabins, regardless of the price. The rooms are glorified closets. They are great for a single traveler, not a couple. We did it once, never again. Final point, since price is an issue. We prefer Veranda cabins, but for port intensive cruises, you will not get the opportunity to use the veranda very much. There is a huge savings booking OV over Veranda. And the OV room is modestly larger than the living space in the Veranda cabin. Final final point: The only difference between a V1/V2/V3 cabin is the physical location on these relatively small ships. No difference in amenities/service/size. That can also be a huge financial savings. We once had a Veranda V3 cabin two doors down from the Owner's Suite at the back of the ship. Same minimal rocking, but the owner shelled out about $12,000 more than we did. Have a great trip, whatever you decide.

[Huntingdon1701]

It's a high price if you just consider the cabin, but with the wider Azamara on board experience I would say it's decent, although not brilliant.

 

I'm UK-based and can confirm that you do get one price drop honoured with Azamara, if that gives you some extra confidence to book. They would also consider the upgrade option. 

[holidaylover10]

Thank you both for your response. I will seriously give this cruise some consideration. I will perhaps check with the travel agent to confirm the 1 change policy.

[hamrag]

4 hours ago, holidaylover10 said:

Hi, A little about us, we are early 60's and always cruise with Celebrity, we just book a standard balcony as that is in our price range. We love Celebrity but have been looking at a cruise with Azamara for May 2025 (Islands of the Mediterranean 12 nights) We would only be able to afford inside or ocean view at a push but the price seems so high. 12 nights cruise only inside cabin just over £3000pp. I looked at same cruise for 2024 and around £800pp less. Does this price seem excessive for inside. Don't want to book if the price is likely to drop as here in UK we usually don't get price drops honoured. If I booked the inside and price dropped is there the possibility to upgrade at the new price? 

The cruise is a Perry Golf Themed, in case that bothers you. Most non-golfers report it doesn't impact other passengers.

 

Theme Cruise: PerryGolf Cruise - Azamara stands alone in the cruise industry in offering a seamlessly integrated golf cruise program to many of the world’s finest destinations. Our extensive, worldwide portfolio is provided in partnership with PerryGolf, a leading operator of international golf travel, and delivers a highly refined and fully hosted all-inclusive experience, from start to finish. PerryGolf’s staff on board and ashore arranges every aspect of the golf program from daily pairings and competitions to social events and handling your golf clubs which you’ll find set up at each course awaiting your arrival from the ship.

[Host Jazzbeau]

2025 cruises aren't on sale because Azamara is still getting the early bookers [like me] to pay up.  That's probably why the 2024 cruise is cheaper.  £250 pp/nt sounds like a pretty good rate to me.

[Grandma Cruising]

13 hours ago, Huntingdon1701 said:

It's a high price if you just consider the cabin, but with the wider Azamara on board experience I would say it's decent, although not brilliant.

 

I'm UK-based and can confirm that you do get one price drop honoured with Azamara, if that gives you some extra confidence to book. They would also consider the upgrade option. 

As I understand it in the UK you get one price drop honoured only if you booked the cruise onboard. However, sometimes it’s worth cancelling, losing your deposit & rebooking - we once did that & still saved over $1000.

[uktog]

Yes it can frustrate UK guests to hear about the ease that those from other countries can access price drops without penalty 

[The Salties]

Yes I agree it is very galling for us Brits that we cannot re-book at the cheaper price. In the past I have paid the £500 (fine) deposit to save £1500. I think it is very short-sighted of Azamara to not allow, one re-booking. As a result I do not book too early and wait to see if a cruise I am interested in, "drops in price". We really enjoy Azamara but there is always an alternative available these days. If Azamara allowed the "one change" they would get more bookings from me, early on. I would acceprt the loss of deposit if I cancelled totally. It should make no difference that it was not booked "on board".

[paf225]

That seems very unfair to our U.K. cousins.  The cancellation fee in Canada (and I believe in the U.S.) prior to final payment is $75 USD.  Several days ago I noticed the price of a cruise I have booked for March 2025 had dropped by about $2,000 CAD for the same stateroom category on Azamara's website.  This was an onboard booking that I had already transfered once without penalty.  Today I had my TA contact Azamara to try and get the cruise repriced.  The first rep she spoke to said they would have to cancel the original booking and I would lose my OBC and then the connection dropped.  My TA called back and got a different rep and after a hold so the rep could confer with an Azamara supervisor the cruise was repriced at $3,000 CAD less then the original fare and I retained my OBC.  I think Azamara needs to apply the same flexibility in repricing a cruise to all its markets.  Regards, Paul

[excitedofharpenden]

On 9/11/2023 at 7:14 PM, holidaylover10 said:

Hi, A little about us, we are early 60's and always cruise with Celebrity, we just book a standard balcony as that is in our price range. We love Celebrity but have been looking at a cruise with Azamara for May 2025 (Islands of the Mediterranean 12 nights) We would only be able to afford inside or ocean view at a push but the price seems so high. 12 nights cruise only inside cabin just over £3000pp. I looked at same cruise for 2024 and around £800pp less. Does this price seem excessive for inside. Don't want to book if the price is likely to drop as here in UK we usually don't get price drops honoured. If I booked the inside and price dropped is there the possibility to upgrade at the new price? 

My personal view?  There's just no way I'd pay £3000 pp for an inside on a 12 night Med cruise. Much as I like the Azamara product, that to me is not worth it. I'd hang on and keep checking.  Pricing of individual cruises is very fluid (and sometimes hard to fathom). If you are able to hang tight that is what I'd do.  

 

Phil 

[Riocca]

39 minutes ago, excitedofharpenden said:

My personal view?  There's just no way I'd pay £3000 pp for an inside on a 12 night Med cruise. Much as I like the Azamara product, that to me is not worth it. I'd hang on and keep checking.  Pricing of individual cruises is very fluid (and sometimes hard to fathom). If you are able to hang tight that is what I'd do.  

 

Phil 

It’s a Perrygolf cruise which usually pushes prices to the higher end of the pricing spectrum.

[excitedofharpenden]

29 minutes ago, Riocca said:

It’s a Perrygolf cruise which usually pushes prices to the higher end of the pricing spectrum.

That's why I say wait. I've been on a number of cruises that are Perry Golf and have not paid this kind of price. Maybe when the Perry Golf spots have been well sold the price will come down. The ship isn't full of golfers. I'm not certain of the number because you'd never know they were there!

 

Phil 

[The Salties]

Thank you for your support paf225. As I stated Azamara really miss out as we do about 6 cruises a year. Since being (fined) I do not book Azamara until I think the fare is reasonable and if some thing crops up with another line, off we go. Had I had the opportunity for 1 rebooking I would have booked with Azamara and they would have had the booking for that cruise or another I felt was a reasonable price. Regarding the original question I think it is a little too expensive for that cruise even allowing for the fact I do not mind paying a bit extra for Azamara as we enjoy it more than the other lines.

[holidaylover10]

Thank you all for this interesting thread. Even though I would definitely love to book this particular itinerary I have decided to to monitor the price for a while longer to see if the price drops, if it stays high I will look at a different Itinerary, I have seen a couple of others that may interest me . What would you say is a fair price for an inside cabin around the Mediterranean in Sterling please. 

[Belfastman]

1 hour ago, holidaylover10 said:

Thank you all for this interesting thread. Even though I would definitely love to book this particular itinerary I have decided to to monitor the price for a while longer to see if the price drops, if it stays high I will look at a different Itinerary, I have seen a couple of others that may interest me . What would you say is a fair price for an inside cabin around the Mediterranean in Sterling please. 

You can get Med cruises on Azamara in an inside cabin for about £120 - £170 pp per night.

[holidaylover10]

11 minutes ago, Belfastman said:

You can get Med cruises on Azamara in an inside cabin for about £120 - £170 pp per night.

Thank you, very helpful.

[fruitmachine]

3 hours ago, holidaylover10 said:

Thank you all for this interesting thread. Even though I would definitely love to book this particular itinerary I have decided to to monitor the price for a while longer to see if the price drops, if it stays high I will look at a different Itinerary, I have seen a couple of others that may interest me . What would you say is a fair price for an inside cabin around the Mediterranean in Sterling please. 

Use cruiseplum.  You get the US prices, but can easily compare relative per-day rates and can see the graph of this over time for each cruise on the cruise detail page.

If you find one you're interested in, you can then click-through to Azamara's own website and see the UK pricing.