Seaware Strikes Again

[Host Jazzbeau]

Windstar uses Seaware for their website and it is totally unusable [banner at top warns that your cruise booking is 'read only' and doesn't include anything but the basic booking] for almost a month now.  

 

So that makes 3 that I know of:  Azamara, Explora Journeys, and Windstar.  The Seaware website show lots of other cruise lines using them, but these three new ones are all disasters.  

 

Does anybody know of an alternative for these independent cruise lines?  Or are we all going to be stuck between mega ships with decent IT and small ships with ...

[Riocca]

A few cruise lines use ibs software although their main business appears to be aviation. One of those cruise lines is MSC so it’s possibly saying something that they chose Versonix for Explora Journeys.

 

Once you get the hang of the Seaware software it’s actually not that bad problem is that being a generic system there are limitations to things we had before mainly cabin availability and booking tours with OBC online, if those things can be resolved then customers may be happier. Lack of familiarity with the system and the use of unclear graphics doesn’t help, hopefully in time things will settle down.

 

As we have a hole in our vacation schedule having cancelled our Pursuit October Red Sea cruise I am looking at alternative options, and of the websites for other cruise line and tour operators are absolute shockers making Seaware look good. This includes RC/Celebrity which is continually saying my password is incorrect, once updated it’s ok for a few days then denies access again.

 

 

[uktog]

I think there’s an issue with “Seaware” out of the box which leads to a less than ideal experience however once cruise lines pay for customisation as Azamara seems to be doing - hence changes coming on stream in the summer and further releases beyond then based on the CEO webinar- it will start to fit better for the guest. 
It’s got all the advantages of an integrated system so the very important management functionality filters down to be a guest benefit in time (such as better knowledge about each guest’s preferences, improved inventory control, less inventory wastage etc etc)

Seaware was a change for us all, our baptism with Azamara was very poor, they know that, however it’s going to be the future for many lines (Veronix also have hotel management systems and other leisure related packages) so we need to accept it and move on. 
At least Seaware brings combined intelligence to the software developers from many cruise lines and guests aren’t  at the mercy of home build patch and bridge systems Azamara struggled so much to migrate away from. 

[Marylebone37]

Havila also uses Seaware and I’ve had nothing but positive experiences using their customized variation. I suspect it was well designed from the start, properly configured, and thoroughly tested prior to rollout — which is something it seems these other three lines failed to do.