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Carol Cabezas is leaving Azamara

uktog

By uktog,
in Azamara

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uktog "Live from...." Rare

uktog

Posted
Posted

Travel Weekly is reporting Carol Cabezas has left.

 

Dan Hanrahan is taking a leadership role with Dondra Ritzenthaler ex Celebrity as CEO

 

https://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Dondra-Ritzenthaler-to-join-Azamara-CEO?fbclid=IwAR2O9om-xsNhVgnDwA8xlNf9WxtyADEGH32Ev10NSoUydMbh7svqeecl3L4

 

 

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LuAnn

LuAnn

Posted
Posted
24 minutes ago, uktog said:

Travel Weekly is reporting Carol Cabezas has left.

 

Dan Hanrahan is taking a leadership role with Dondra Ritzenthaler ex Celebrity as CEO

 

https://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Dondra-Ritzenthaler-to-join-Azamara-CEO?fbclid=IwAR2O9om-xsNhVgnDwA8xlNf9WxtyADEGH32Ev10NSoUydMbh7svqeecl3L4

 

 

Good news?

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ghstudio "Live from...." Rare

ghstudio

Posted
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Finally, there's a chance Azamara won't just disappear.  Carol should have "left" months ago.Hopefully, the new management team will get the web and back office under control and travel agents will start to be positive about Azamara.They have made so many blunders to date.....starting with the cut off of a group of aging cruisers on Celebrity/RCL who can't transfer their captains club status....great way to cut off a pool of easy future passengers.  One of the first marketing steps  they should think about: Azamara should recognize frequent cruising levels attained on other cruise lines.(yes, each cruise line is different, but in a few days someone in Azamara HQ could figure out the mapping).....a cheap way for customer acquistion.  Of course, fix the web site has to be at the very top of the list....since cruise operations are already sub-contracted.  Azamara is a marketing company....time to start marketing. 

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alcpa1

alcpa1

Posted
Posted

This should act as a firm committment from a holding company not truly aware of Azamara's unique place in the cruising industry.

Perhaps the rumors of new builds now have a chance. We love Azamara just not the bathrooms!!!

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Proc04011981

Proc04011981

Posted
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I do

5 hours ago, ghstudio said:

Finally, there's a chance Azamara won't just disappear.  Carol should have "left" months ago.Hopefully, the new management team will get the web and back office under control and travel agents will start to be positive about Azamara.They have made so many blunders to date.....starting with the cut off of a group of aging cruisers on Celebrity/RCL who can't transfer their captains club status....great way to cut off a pool of easy future passengers.  One of the first marketing steps  they should think about: Azamara should recognize frequent cruising levels attained on other cruise lines.(yes, each cruise line is different, but in a few days someone in Azamara HQ could figure out the mapping).....a cheap way for customer acquistion.  Of course, fix the web site has to be at the very top of the list....since cruise operations are already sub-contracted.  Azamara is a marketing company....time to start marketing. 

I doubt that. This simply shows that their efforts are focused on marketing. They might switch the president, but they're maintaining the hotel operations, IT, etc.

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PirateWife

PirateWife

Posted
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14 hours ago, ghstudio said:

Finally, there's a chance Azamara won't just disappear.  Carol should have "left" months ago.Hopefully, the new management team will get the web and back office under control and travel agents will start to be positive about Azamara.They have made so many blunders to date.....starting with the cut off of a group of aging cruisers on Celebrity/RCL who can't transfer their captains club status....great way to cut off a pool of easy future passengers.  One of the first marketing steps  they should think about: Azamara should recognize frequent cruising levels attained on other cruise lines.(yes, each cruise line is different, but in a few days someone in Azamara HQ could figure out the mapping).....a cheap way for customer acquistion.  Of course, fix the web site has to be at the very top of the list....since cruise operations are already sub-contracted.  Azamara is a marketing company....time to start marketing. 

I don't understand why Azamara should recognize cruising levels from other cruise lines. Airlines don't recognize status from other airlines. I thought Celebrity/RCL cruisers were given an opportunity to transfer their status. 

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ghstudio "Live from...." Rare

ghstudio

Posted
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12 minutes ago, PirateWife said:

I don't understand why Azamara should recognize cruising levels from other cruise lines. Airlines don't recognize status from other airlines. I thought Celebrity/RCL cruisers were given an opportunity to transfer their status. 

what's one of the best ways to attract your targeted most desired passengers....past frequent cruisers.  They had a natural feed from RCL that they completely blew in the transition....

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marinaro44

marinaro44

Posted
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3 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

But the cruise experience seems as good as ever!

I don't understand all the whining.  If someone has never cruised Azamara, why should that someone get the same status as someone who has 30, 40, 50 or more Azamara cruises?  Cruising mass-market lines like Royal Caribbean and Celebrity is not cruising Azamara.  If Azamara had not started as part of Celebrity and therefore had to share the loyalty program, it would have been cleaner, better and would have recognized the significant differences in cost and cruising experience..

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PirateWife

PirateWife

Posted
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I have rarely talked to customer service over the years we have been cruising with Azamara. However, this spring/summer we had an issue and I called many times. However, I now believe most of these issues were caused by a new TA assigned to us who was not familiar with Azamara or us. Customer service from Azamara has been great in the last two months. Questions have been answered, refunds on cancelled excursions have been paid, and transferring to a new TA has been expedited.

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boxman52

boxman52

Posted
Posted

It's interesting to see how Virgin Voyages as a new cruise line handled the status question.

They matched status but also have an accelerated reward scheme of the their own. 

After sailing twice in 23 we now have an extremely generous set of benefits. Of course this was a key factor in us sailing again at least once next year. It's also a brilliant experience!

I suspect soon once they have built up their own loyalty scheme the status matching might be dropped as more people benefit from the VV scheme.

Amazara could have done something similar and restructured their loyalty scheme as part of a relaunch under new ownership.

On the bigger picture all travel companies are IT businesses with a bolt on service offer - airline, cruise, hotel etc. If the IT isn't working simply the business isn't

I enjoy Azamara but I do think their offer is dated & stale and they can't grow the business without evolving their offer to new customers. The ships are great but getting too old and I fear in a crowded market they lack a compelling competitive offer for growth.

They need to define what they need and want to be.

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Thequietone

Thequietone

Posted
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54 minutes ago, PirateWife said:

I have rarely talked to customer service over the years we have been cruising with Azamara. However, this spring/summer we had an issue and I called many times. However, I now believe most of these issues were caused by a new TA assigned to us who was not familiar with Azamara or us. Customer service from Azamara has been great in the last two months. Questions have been answered, refunds on cancelled excursions have been paid, and transferring to a new TA has been expedited.

Who has been your contact within Azamara ?

 

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macmax

macmax

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I find this to be a very interesting and hopefully a positive move.

This will reunite Dondra and Dan who were with Celebrity when it was truly one of the best

premium cruise lines.  I think that they were there when Celebrity started the Azamara division.

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nordski

nordski

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, PirateWife said:

I have rarely talked to customer service over the years we have been cruising with Azamara. However, this spring/summer we had an issue and I called many times. However, I now believe most of these issues were caused by a new TA assigned to us who was not familiar with Azamara or us. Customer service from Azamara has been great in the last two months. Questions have been answered, refunds on cancelled excursions have been paid, and transferring to a new TA has been expedited.


I called AZ yesterday about flights. Once I got through the instructions the call was answered within seconds.

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