Thank you for the Cruise Critic INSIGHTS!

I find the cruise community discussion and input very valuable. Debating diverse topics and different opinions continues to be insightful and educational. This is especially true of the Le Club Voyage commentary and the comments about our crews, itineraries and destination orientation. I view the boards frequently and participate in social media to a greater degree than most in my position. I may not always agree, but I do listen and rarely will I react without a complete analysis and understanding.

Your comments have allowed me to gather eight colleagues to evaluate all comments, including numerous comments outside of the Cruise Critic community. We also reviewed program benefits and found very useful notions you provided about singles, suite guests and too much distance between the Discover Plus level and the Discover Platinum level. We will make changes in these areas.

Nearly every angle and perspective was viewed and compared to our key competitive set. I'm very happy we've done so and would like to thank these caring colleagues for an extra ordinary effort..

Their effort along with your comments and that of many others, has lead me to a number of very positive decisions:

a) a dedicated full time Le Club Voyage Ambassador will be announced on September 16 who will embrace our one-to-one relationships with the club members,

b) we will publish a Club newsletter by October 1 of this year to insure more and better communication,

c) we will announce a few material enhancements to the new program by October 9,

d) we will establish a 2015 Cruise Critic Advisory Board to gain insight on all matters concerning Azamara Club Cruises, Applications for those interested with be posted in October and selections will be made by November.

As an aside, we have hit record high load factors, record revenues and best bottom line results in the brands hisrory. The advance bookings are even better and we contribute to the corporations profit. Some of the conversations I've read, reading our financial health, are so off base and completely incorrect.

Finally, selecting a cruise line is a very personal decision based on many factors. In decades of research, guest loyalty programs, while very important have never been the top reason to select a cruise line.

Stay tuned for more news in the coming weeks!

Thank you,

Hello Larry,

Thanks very much for sharing your insights, and for appreciating our members opinions. I'm eagerly looking forward to your October update.

All the best to you, and everyone at Azamara !

Thank you for coming by to tell us you have listened

Look forward to hearing the planned revisions in due course

At least 90% of the "issues" with the new program dealt with 1) laundry and 2) internet.

Why sir did you not comment on the main issues?

Thanks Larry, for listening and posting here. We all will be awaiting October 9 with great anticipation. However, I note, by its glaring absence, any reference to the internet/laundry issue (you mentioned specifically the singles, suites, and upper tier distance) which, if comments here on CC are any indication, are very important to us. I hope there will be some movement on this in your October 9 announcement.

p.s. I think the CC Advisory Board is a wonderful idea as long as they have real input.

At least 90% of the "issues" with the new program dealt with 1) laundry and 2) internet.

Why sir did you not comment on the main issues?

Why not wait for the details before blasting him? He may be gun shy about another round of too-early statements.

Having a CEO of a corporation open a thread like this seems very positive to me. If you don't like what they have to say, then, by all means share your thoughts. But why criticize the attempt to let us know they are rethinking things?

Hello Larry,

I wanted to say a special thank you for the advisory board creation. I've always thought that a group of your passionate guests, sharing their insights, is a wonderful idea ! I'm highly confident there's valuable information to come, from those selected.

If I may kindly suggest... as the decisions of the next few weeks may be important to re-shaping the LCV plans, perhaps you might consider moving up the timeline for the applications and selections, so that the advisory board can be in place, to share their insights. Just a thought.

Over the past few days, I've felt as if I was the only one remaining, who thought LCV changes were a possibilty. I'm very pleased this prediction proved to be accurate :)

My sincere thanks to you and everyone in Miami, for caring about what's said by our wonderful and passionate Azamara community.

At least 90% of the "issues" with the new program dealt with 1) laundry and 2) internet.

Why sir did you not comment on the main issues?

Sorry, but that's totally unfair. Why not give Azamara a chance to make things right ? Being that Mr Pimentel came on here, shared his insights, and listened to the feedback... IMO, it's only fair to allow him and his team some time to address the concerns.

We fly tomorrow to join Journey for a B2B.

We are Discover level so we don't need to worry about staying in touch with family and other essential communications as our loyalty internet minutes cover that.

We also don't need to concern ourselves with packing too much as our included laundry will keep us smart and presentable.

Do these things matter when booking our cruise experience? The answer is YES because these benefits form part of the overall package that make Azamara our cruise line of choice.

Of course we love the onboard experience but we have to be practical and consider the whole package value and now sadly this seems to have diminished greatly.

Anyway must attend to our last minute preparations . We look forward to celebrating my husbands birthday on Sunday and our Anniversary the following Saturday whilst on Journey. We shall await further news before booking our 2015 travels rather than booking onboard this week as we had planned

Vicki and Charlie

We fly tomorrow to join Journey for a B2B.

We are Discover level so we don't need to worry about staying in touch with family and other essential communications as our loyalty internet minutes cover that.

We also don't need to concern ourselves with packing too much as our included laundry will keep us smart and presentable.

Do these things matter when booking our cruise experience? The answer is YES because these benefits form part of the overall package that make Azamara our cruise line of choice.

Of course we love the onboard experience but we have to be practical and consider the whole package value and now sadly this seems to have diminished greatly.

Anyway must attend to our last minute preparations . We look forward to celebrating my husbands birthday on Sunday and our Anniversary the following Saturday whilst on Journey. We shall await further news before booking our 2015 travels rather than booking onboard this week as we had planned

Vicki and Charlie

Have a wonderful cruise !

Sorry, but that's totally unfair. Why not give Azamara a chance to make things right ? Being that Mr Pimentel came on here, shared his insights, and listened to the feedback... IMO, it's only fair to allow him and his team some time to address the concerns.

Have to agree with you here Host Andy.

Whilst we all have our own opinion regarding these changes and it's very apparent that virtually everyone wants to see the return of the free Internet and Laundry, let's hold fire on shooting the messenger until they deliver the news.

I really appreciate Mr. Pimental's attention to the many comments made on this board and believe that he is taking positive steps to deal with our concerns.

I will wait and see what happens. His last line gives me the wait and see.

Finally, selecting a cruise line is a very personal decision based on many factors. In decades of research, guest loyalty programs, while very important have never been the top reason to select a cruise line.

I find this comment from Larry disappointing and it does not leave me feeling too positive about change. It might not be the number one factor. I am sure location, timing, ship and ambience and for most of us overall value for money are at the top ,however if all is fairly even then the little perks can and do influence decisions.

The most important though is that returning guests are made to feel wanted and valued and that has been the main missing element so far.

Finally, selecting a cruise line is a very personal decision based on many factors. In decades of research, guest loyalty programs, while very important have never been the top reason to select a cruise line.

 

I find this comment from Larry disappointing and it does not leave me feeling too positive about change. It might not be the number one factor. I am sure location, timing, ship and ambience and for most of us overall value for money are at the top ,however if all is fairly even then the little perks can and do influence decisions.

The most important though is that returning guests are made to feel wanted and valued and that has been the main missing element so far.

Tony, thank you for saying so perfectly what so many of us are feeling.

We've been traveling in Africa for the past month and missed the news about changes to the LCV program. Azamara says they anticipated mixed reaction to the changes but it seems they now realize they have crossed a line with their "loyal guests" and something needs to be done. It's encouraging to know that revisions will be made to LCV in the next few weeks. I hope Azamara will look at things from their "loyal guests" perspective and stay true to the words they used in the LCV announcement: As a Le Club Voyage member, we never want you to question your value to us ... or our desire to create value for you.

Much appreciated Mr. Pimentel and awaiting the new communications and enhancements.:)

Larry, I appreciate you coming on here and posting.

Whilst I agree that the loyalty programme isn't a top reason to choose a cruiseline this situation does demonstrate the strength of feeling when you take benefits away and replace them with spend and save items thinly veiled as "enhancements". This strength of feeling has been heightened because of the way the new scheme will work disadvantages the top tiers, especially Discoverer Plus and Discoverer Platinum created last year.

I await the material enhancements you speak of.

Phil

Mr Pimentel - Thank you for responding to the comments on CC on the LCV changes. Although we had an initial negative response to the announcement, on reflection the changes are not enough to stop us sailing with Azamara if the itinerary was attractive. We will wait with interest to see what the proposed revisions are when they are announced in October. We will be on Quest again later this month and are looking forward to being enveloped in the warmth that is the on board experience.

My primary reason for choosing a cruise is the itinerary and price but loyalty benefits also have a degree of influence in my final decision. I am in the top tier with both Princess and P & O but the benefits offered by Princess are far superior to those of P & O. I have only completed 5 cruises with Azamara, with a 6th booked for later this year. I am unlikely to ever gain enough points under the new LCV scheme to qualify for upgrades/ free nights etc, so as from next year I consider the LCV benefits totally worthless to me. Although I do not use the internet a great deal when on holiday the free minutes were extremely useful for checking in on-line for my homeward flight, saving time and hassle at the airport.

Therefore please consider re introducing the free internet minutes, even if you reduce the number available.

I would bet a significant amount that part of the discussion about how to change the program considered what percentage of a cruise cost the laundry and internet represents. Somebody (probably a person who has never cruised) said "Laundry and internet cost in most cases less than $150 on a two week cruise. Who would get upset over less than 2-3% if we characterize these new benefits well?"

Emotion aside, there is logic in that assumption. If I like a product and am willing to spend $8 - 9,000 for two weeks, $150 - 200 is a pretty insignificant number. But people are genrally far more emotional than logical and this company is not much worse than many others in losing sight of that fact.

If these benefits get reinstated, those who say that Cruise Critic represents too small a percentage of the cruising population to matter will have been proven completely wrong. I hope that's the case.

We also reviewed program benefits and found very useful notions you provided about singles, suite guests and too much distance between the Discover Plus level and the Discover Platinum level. We will make changes in these areas.

Mr. Pimentel,

Thanks for posting.

Thank you for posting, Mr. Pimentel. It's heartening to see that you are listening to what your free market research company (Cruise Critic) has to say about your product. I look forward to seeing what revisions are made.

Most cruise lines go to the same destinations so we choose based on our loyalty level ...why go with Oceania to the same area and relative price when we get free internet on Azamara...so yes loyalty does in fact rank high on our choice list...

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