Consequences of attacks on shipping in the Red sea

[Peter Lanky]

I feel particularly let down by Azamara, because I need an accessible cabin, and most ships have so few that it's impossible to secure one late on in the day. By hanging on, the chances of finding a replacement cruise in May are dwindling, when almost everything is Mediterranean based. Oceania may well be getting quite a few new customers as a result of these delaying tactics.

[Kayena Kevin]

Option A - peace erupts in Gaza and the cruise goes ahead as planned - seriously unlikely and even if it does go ahead the ports of interest in the Red Sea will probably be removed from the itinerary and most customers would want to cancel and many crew would expect danger money for Red Sea transit (already being paid to some merchant seamen)

Option B - cancel cruise and steam around Africa (can they get from Singapore to Athens in 26 days stopping only for refuelling?) with no passengers and skeleton crew. Most likely option. Delaying this decision is going to seriously inconvenience passengers and further damage the Azamara Brand

Option C - make some changes to the cruises prior to the Spice Voyage cruise on May 3 so that the ship arrives in Singapore 15 days earlier. This would mean they would have 41 days to go via Africa and could break that down into two cruises (the first ending in Capetown) with a good number of ports. Highly unlikely option as it would disrupt several cruises perhaps causing more customer dissatisfaction BUT it would avoid a 26 day period with no revenue. It goes without saying that an option such as this would need to be announced asap to give current and alternative

passengers time to adjust plans.

Azamara will keep "monitoring the situation" and announce a decision "as soon as they have made one". Meanwhile passengers are becoming more annoyed, and their options more limited. It must be worse for those booked on the other Azamara ship which is due to transit the Red Sea a fortnight earlier.

[Ethel6666]

32 minutes ago, Kayena Kevin said:

Option C - make some changes to the cruises prior to the Spice Voyage cruise on May 3 so that the ship arrives in Singapore 15 days earlier. This would mean they would have 41 days to go via Africa and could break that down into two cruises (the first ending in Capetown) with a good number of ports. Highly unlikely option as it would disrupt several cruises perhaps causing more customer dissatisfaction BUT it would avoid a 26 day period with no revenue. It goes without saying that an option such as this would need to be announced asap to give current and alternative

passengers time to adjust plans.

well hopefully they are not plotting option C as we are boarding tomorrow and expecting to go to Hong Kong! With accommodation and non refundable airfares home booked.

[Kayena Kevin]

have a great trip Ethel! There is no reason to suggest that your cruise would be changed in any way.

[Ethel6666]

53 minutes ago, Kayena Kevin said:

have a great trip Ethel! There is no reason to suggest that your cruise would be changed in any way.

Thank you Kayena. I originally had a similar thought that the route through Asia might be shortened, but I’m fairly hopeful now that we are so close - surely we would have told by now if there was a significant change. Must be frustrating for those on the later legs waiting to find out.

[BWSWB]

An update for all going through the Red Sea.

 

We have just finished a call with Azamara, as all of us know they are monitoring the situation and the cruise is still going ahead.

The news is that if you cancel there will not be any penalties and charges, 100% refund or rebook.

 

We thought this would help anyone considering canceling.

 

[java spot]

Interesting news for everyone.  Did they specify at what point of the journey this would kick in? 

[BWSWB]

No they didn’t, I was referring to the Journey 26 day cruise departing Singapore 03/05/24

 

hope this helps

[IslandThyme]

I'd get that in writing, if I were you. And if you do, please post it here. I think we'd all be interested in seeing it.

[souths]

3 hours ago, BWSWB said:

No they didn’t, I was referring to the Journey 26 day cruise departing Singapore 03/05/24

 

hope this helps

Thanks for the info, in the process of trying to get Azamara to write to our agent indicating that information. There appears to be different information from different customer relations agents with Azamara. I wish they would stop monitoring and make a decision like all other cruise lines.

 

 

[shadow10]

5 hours ago, BWSWB said:

An update for all going through the Red Sea.

 

We have just finished a call with Azamara, as all of us know they are monitoring the situation and the cruise is still going ahead.

The news is that if you cancel there will not be any penalties and charges, 100% refund or rebook.

 

We thought this would help anyone considering canceling.

 

 

2 hours ago, IslandThyme said:

I'd get that in writing, if I were you. And if you do, please post it here. I think we'd all be interested in seeing it.

 

The information posted by BWSWB is correct.

We cancelled our May 3 26day Spice Route Cruise 10 days ago and have already received a full refund without penalty back to our credit card.

 

I will emphasise that we booked direct with Azamara Australia, not through a TA or online agency. 

Lesley 😀

[fruitmachine]

On 2/29/2024 at 4:42 AM, Kayena Kevin said:

Option A - peace erupts in Gaza and the cruise goes ahead as planned - seriously unlikely and even if it does go ahead the ports of interest in the Red Sea will probably be removed from the itinerary and most customers would want to cancel and many crew would expect danger money for Red Sea transit (already being paid to some merchant seamen)

Option B - cancel cruise and steam around Africa (can they get from Singapore to Athens in 26 days stopping only for refuelling?) with no passengers and skeleton crew. Most likely option. Delaying this decision is going to seriously inconvenience passengers and further damage the Azamara Brand

Option C - make some changes to the cruises prior to the Spice Voyage cruise on May 3 so that the ship arrives in Singapore 15 days earlier. This would mean they would have 41 days to go via Africa and could break that down into two cruises (the first ending in Capetown) with a good number of ports. Highly unlikely option as it would disrupt several cruises perhaps causing more customer dissatisfaction BUT it would avoid a 26 day period with no revenue. It goes without saying that an option such as this would need to be announced asap to give current and alternative

passengers time to adjust plans.

Azamara will keep "monitoring the situation" and announce a decision "as soon as they have made one". Meanwhile passengers are becoming more annoyed, and their options more limited. It must be worse for those booked on the other Azamara ship which is due to transit the Red Sea a fortnight earlier.

Option D - they go through the Red Sea, but without any passengers (or non-essential crew).

 

Getting insurance (at an affordable cost) must be a significant part of the decision.  A quick transit with no passengers and minimal crew would surely make a significant difference to that by hugely reducing third-party liability risks.

 

Perhaps I'm doing too much lateral thinking (!), or it's a totally unrealistic option, but wouldn't this minimise their disruption and keep the maximum number of paying passengers happy?  There is still quite a bit of commercial shipping transiting the Read Sea. 

[souths]

We sadly cancelled yesterday and are receiving a full refund no penalties from Azamara. A three way call between my TA , Azamara Aus rep and myself  solved the issue. I then rang Viking and brought forward a river cruise to fill the void. Unfortunately it will cost extra for flights from Singapore. Just could not wait any longer for Azamara to make a decision. Good luck all

[uktog]

I wonder if the World Cruisers are an extra challenge re Onward. They are already on board and the South Africa route might give vaccination challenges 

[souths]

3 minutes ago, uktog said:

I wonder if the World Cruisers are an extra challenge re Onward. They are already on board and the South Africa route might give vaccination challenges 

Other lines have either cancelled this leg of the cruise and sailed around Africa without passengers or drastically changed their itinerary around Africa. However vaccinations are a problem . Given Seabourne cancelled the last leg through the Red Sea leaving May 2 , it’s should be a no brained for Azamara.

[Riocca]

18 minutes ago, uktog said:

I wonder if the World Cruisers are an extra challenge re Onward. They are already on board and the South Africa route might give vaccination challenges 

Royal Caribbean’s World cruise has rerouted via Africa after putting it to a vote with their passengers and are now trying to organise the necessary vaccinations and any visas required for their passengers. 
It looks like it’s now only Azamara and HAL with their 2024 World cruise who are prevaricating about transiting the Red Sea. 
Our cruise that transit the Red Sea is not until October so we have plenty of time to replan but I feel for those with cruises starting in April & May. Could it be that now independent Azamara lack the resources to quickly replan the effected itineraries?

[roberts2005]

4 hours ago, Riocca said:

Royal Caribbean’s World cruise has rerouted via Africa after putting it to a vote with their passengers and are now trying to organise the necessary vaccinations and any visas required for their passengers. 
It looks like it’s now only Azamara and HAL with their 2024 World cruise who are prevaricating about transiting the Red Sea. 
Our cruise that transit the Red Sea is not until October so we have plenty of time to replan but I feel for those with cruises starting in April & May. Could it be that now independent Azamara lack the resources to quickly replan the effected itineraries?

HAL has rerouted their 2024 world cruise.

[Kayena Kevin]

You would think that, if Azamara made a prompt decision to reroute both the ships scheduled for a Red Sea transit and take a longer route around Africa,  there would be time to organise vaccinations and visas. There would even be time for vaccinations to be done on board between Singapore and southern Africa?

[Riocca]

6 hours ago, roberts2005 said:

HAL has rerouted their 2024 world cruise.

I was basing information on this article https://www.cruisehive.com/the-impact-of-red-sea-tensions-on-cruising/120792

 

That being the case Azamara appears to be on their own on this one, hopefully they will announce something soon.

[uktog]

7 hours ago, Kayena Kevin said:

You would think that, if Azamara made a prompt decision to reroute both the ships scheduled for a Red Sea transit and take a longer route around Africa,  there would be time to organise vaccinations and visas. There would even be time for vaccinations to be done on board between Singapore and southern Africa?

Some cruisers may not be able to be vaccinated and South Africa has already shown they’re inflexible on this. Others can have reactions that lay them low for several days which they won’t want to experience onboard. They’ve got a high % on Onward who are world cruise guests who have paid and expect a lot. Azamara are possibly “scared” of the comeback from some of them 

[blag]

19 minutes ago, uktog said:

Some cruisers may not be able to be vaccinated and South Africa has already shown they’re inflexible on this. Others can have reactions that lay them low for several days which they won’t want to experience onboard. They’ve got a high % on Onward who are world cruise guests who have paid and expect a lot. Azamara are possibly “scared” of the comeback from some of them 

I am wondering what vaccinations are likely to be a problem. I know that South Africa is strict about their Yellow Fever policy, but if the cruises are travelling westwards, this may not be an issue, because the South Africa Yellow Fever vaccination requirement applies only if one is travelling from a country where Yellow Fever is endemic.

I realise that as one progress northwards along the western side of Africa, there are other countries that prohibit entry to those without YF Certificates. 

Of course, it is true to say than any other World Cruise faces the same issues, and one would expect that they have solutions to the vaccination issues. Azamara, surely, should be able to organise things... 

I realise some may not be willing to take the YF vaccine, but I feel that this is best left to another thread. 

Edited March 2 by blag

[Riocca]

45 minutes ago, uktog said:

Some cruisers may not be able to be vaccinated and South Africa has already shown they’re inflexible on this. Others can have reactions that lay them low for several days which they won’t want to experience onboard. They’ve got a high % on Onward who are world cruise guests who have paid and expect a lot. Azamara are possibly “scared” of the comeback from some of them 

Probably the reason Royal Caribbean put the options to the vote so that the World cruise passengers would buy into the change and the potential problems it would create.

 

On the yellow fever topic, we are on Quest Rio to Lisbon in two weeks time and receive an email yesterday saying that Cape Verde is now requesting valid yellow fever vaccination certificates if guests want to go ashore in Mindelo. We have received two vaccinations in the past 22 years so according to WHO have lifetime coverage, it’s perplexing that South Africa wouldn’t accept this and something we will have to think about when choosing future itineraries.

[uktog]

@Riocca - we’ve already abandoned plans to revisit Africa and this trip to South America may be our last. It’s not only the need to get the vaccine it’s the lateness of information coming out. Even if you want to get the vaccine we would struggle to get one in such a short time frame never mind recover from reactions 

[blag]

27 minutes ago, Riocca said:

We have received two vaccinations in the past 22 years so according to WHO have lifetime coverage, it’s perplexing that South Africa wouldn’t accept this

What makes you say that they wouldn't accept this? Plus... SA is only insists on YF Certificates if you have recently been to country where YF is endemic. We flew in from London last February and were not asked for our YF certificates on landing.

Azamara were also somewhat disorganised about checking vaccination certificates on embarkation, and later during the cruise. On the Cape Town to Lisbon cruise (Feb/Mar 2023) there were guests who were not asked for Certification, there were those with forged Certificates, and there were those who were not allowed to leave the ship at at least one port-of-call.

Edited March 2 by blag

[blag]

10 minutes ago, uktog said:

recover from reactions

If any...

I know I 'opened the door', but please let's not start a debate about the risks from, or side-effects of, vaccines.

Edited March 2 by blag