Le Club Voyage Thumbs up or down

Now we know the changes thought I'd start a new thread to avoid losing feedback in the old thread - what feedback do you want to give Azamara

Here are the changes

http://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/our-ships/le-club-voyage/new-versus-old

And my first impressions, unless I am missing some details are :(

Internet mattered a lot to us, I doubt the discounts will cover the cost of minutes we will need

Loss of laundry on b2b again an issue

Anyway I wait to hear the maths, I don't cruise for the benefits but do I want to incur even more costs if I can help it

Thumbs down from me. The stateroom upgrade which was of interest has so many terms and conditions attached to it that I don't think it will be of much use to me. It doesn't apply to guarantee bookings or those made within 120 days of departure. It has to be flagged when the original booking is done outside of this time frame.

They can't spell. It's receive not "recieve". This announcement is a slap in the face for me at least. There's no free stuff anymore and you have to spend to save. I'm Discoverer Plus and as Elite Plus on Celebrity working toward some nice benefits as Zenith. Nothing here to excite me toward Discoverer Platinum. The T & Cs for complimentary nights are there too.

This has put me in a bad mood this morning, but I'll get over it. The love will still be there on the ships.

Phil

An initial negative response from us - the loss of internet and laundry against the possible benefits - but we will need to study the small print. Nothing extra for Discoverer Plus as far as I can see and Platinum is a long way off.

What are 'quarterly savings'?

Thumbs down from me too I'm afraid. How "cheap" for them to remove the internet minutes.

Surely they have it the wrong way round; an open passage is where you do not know the ship/date and a reserved passage is when you do.:confused:

Thumbs DOWN from us as well. As usual Phil's comments (always 'quotable') are perfect and I agree with all of them. No, not for us. Back to Celebrity? Seabourn?

OK, we don't cruise for the benefits, but I do like to feel like a VALUED GUEST, not as a 'revenue opportunity'. John

Thumbs down...We liked the free wifi minutes and the free bag of laundry, never interested in any other "perks" of LCV.

Thumbs down. The only useful benefits were the free internet and laundry. Since we will move to Discoverer following our December 2014 cruise we probably won't even get the complimentary nights.

Thumbs down from me also.

You do not enhance a benefit by removing previous perks.

Not bothered about wine tasting but all others were a nice enhancement which I thought meant that Azamara valued us as a customer/client/guest rather than a money making opportunity.

Sayonara

Sayonara

Japanese for 'goodbye'; however, it carries more finality. Instead of being used at the end of a day, as in "Goodbye see you tomorrow," it would be used in situations where you will either not see the person for a long time, if ever again.

Sums up my feelings or possibly "Say no to Azamara"

Any recco as to where next

Oceania or Viking???

Top tier member currently.

Thumbs down from us also. We are Discover plus, already so no free nights for us for a while. We always counted on and used the internet minutes and the bag of laundry. Those were the most important "thank you" benefits to us. Not happy at all that they re going away. Not being substituted with anything of any value for us. As loyal Azamara Cruisers with 11 cruises to date a big THUMBS DOWN from us

Thumbs down from us too!

Never had a welcome home prezzie after any level change anyway. We will never get to the next level given the new points structure, so no 'free' nights.

Bit pointless having a loyalty scheme for those under Discoverer level unless they can afford the amount of sailings, time and money you would need to spend to move up! In which case a couple of nights perk means nothing.

Given the terrible internet access on board, paying for minutes, even discounted is not going to happen.

The free laundry made me happy, don't know why, it just did.

The sparkling wine was pretty cheap but it was a nice touch.

I think whoever came up with this has many Azamara lovers wrong, got me very wrong, more like something that would impress another line in this group, not me...never mind maybe it's me that is wrong for Azamara now. I will get over it:rolleyes:

Oh dear :(

We have never cruised for the benefits, although like others utilised them to the best of our ability.

Sparkling wine on arrival won't be missed, it was poor quality and we only drank it once, (we got it swapped once for a bottle of Kiwi Sauvignon).

Welcome home gift - useless, and a cheap gimmick. The P&P costs were probably higher than the value of the gifts.

Free laundry will be missed.

Complimentary wine tasting will be missed.

Free internet will be missed. This really is a cheap penny pinching idea, and I can clarify how far this goes in terms of cost.

Two years ago on Celebrity Solstice a mistake was made(and it couldn't be fixed at the time when I made guest relations and the IT team aware) with my free internet, and I ended up on the crew system, I also ended up with the entire crew minutes used for that cruise on my account. Celebrity were very good about it and the issue was resolved before disembarkation. However the crew pay 0.05 cents per minute to use the internet, and it is possible that this may well be cost price.

So based on 237 (or thereabouts) minutes that I get from Azamara that works out at $11.85 or at todays sterling £7.13. So I reiterate 'Penny Pinching'

I have read it a bit more and digested comments by others too just to be sure I'm not missing something. You know the biggest frustration? Azamara think we are stoopid. They laud this long awaited announcement up as something extra special. Club communication and social media engagement as a listed benefit, but taking away free internet and laundry that we previously enjoyed? All this and it will be implemented 15 months after the announcement of the new higher levels. It makes you shake your head as to what the thinking is at Azamara at the moment.

Phil

I felt stoopid reading it and patronised to be honest.

Not sure what to do, DH is insisting the next cruise is on Azamara. So many issues around it, price, sailings going missing, now this!

I will not be told I should be grateful when I am paying... That's the bottom line. At least I feel I can now properly look elsewhere without guilt. Those T&Cs are killers.

I just worked out it will take me, based on my booking pattern while we are not retired and still carers, somewhere between 65 days and 40 days sailing to get to the next level, based on the new points. We can only do 7 days and never know if we can go until close, it will take us at least 6 years to achieve the next level and by then who knows what will be happening.

Grumpy Yvonne

So, in spite of paying generally more for an Azamara cruise than a Celebrity cruise, the benefits accorded to Le Club Voyage members are considerably less than to Captains Club members.

The 50% discount on shore excursions - gone.

Yes, I know the discount on shore excursions wasn't an LCV benefit but it's gone nevertheless.

Free internet - gone. :(

Free laundry - gone. :(

Free sparkling wine - gone. :(

Free wine tasting - gone. :(

Valued much?

Just glad that I don't feel that I owe any brand my loyalty, but I love the 'R' ships.

Well, in their announcement, they did get it right about "mixed reactions", although the actual mix may not be what they anticipated.

All of this seems like a net loss. As others have pointed out, the only perks we really cared about were the complimentary internet and laundry.

As for the internet, I think they perhaps had initially set the bar too low for the first level of free minutes.

Perhaps there will be some effort to improve the physical network. On the other hand, with higher costs perhaps more bandwidth will magically become available.

Have they really considered the loss of productivity on board as we hound staff concerning convenient WiFi spots in each port? :)

Uktog makes an excellent point concerning 7 day cruises and laundry. Surely it would be inexpensive to offer a free service on a b2b.

Concerning the wording of the announcement, it's typical PR boilerplate. Although it would be nice if, as in the on board experience, Azamara would deviate from that norm.

Ok. Help me here. I keep reading this and only get more confused. It says no more free laundry for 7 night cruises. They say 7 night and not just no more free laundry. Does that mean there will be free laundry for cruises over 7 nights? That would help since we usually do B2bs. That would make more sense to us and I will calm down a little if that is so. We do not need laundry for 7 night or shorter cruises, but it sure comes in handy for longer cruises.

I agree with everything that Phil and others have said. I loved the free laundry and internet minutes. I never drank my wine, I tried someone else's and didn't care for it, I wish I'd realised I could change it.

Due to various irritations I've had over the past year and also reading problems others have had, I've decided to try Crystal I sail in less than 3 weeks time. The pre-cruise experience so far has been excellent I still have another cruise with Az this year, one next and 2 in 2016, but if my despondency continues, I may be changing my 2016 booking over to Celebrity.

Sayonara may well be what I will be saying soon.

G :(

Ok. Help me here. I keep reading this and only get more confused. It says no more free laundry for 7 night cruises. They say 7 night and not just no more free laundry. Does that mean there will be free laundry for cruises over 7 nights? That would help since we usually do B2bs. That would make more sense to us and I will calm down a little if that is so. We do not need laundry for 7 night or shorter cruises, but it sure comes in handy for longer cruises.

I could be wrong, but I read it as no more free laundry. I believe the old LCV benefits had it as a a free bag per 7 nights so if you were on say a 14 night cruise then you'd get 2 coupons. That was the way it worked for me at least. So I think they are saying no more free laundry in a roundabout way.

Phil

I agree with the comments others have made. I appreciated the internet minutes and the laundry. since the internet is so slow, I do not want to pay for minutes and be frustrated watching the $ add up as I wait for sites to upload, or to print a boarding pass.:(

Am I correct in thinking that the old rules apply for the remaining 2014 cruises?? Will I still get my internet minutes?

All these little changes do make me rethink booking future Azamara cruises as compared to other cruise lines. My next cruise for 2015 is booked on Celebrity since a two week Caribbean cruise was less expensive than one week on Azamara.

I could be wrong, but I read it as no more free laundry. I believe the old LCV benefits had it as a a free bag per 7 nights so if you were on say a 14 night cruise then you'd get 2 coupons. That was the way it worked for me at least. So I think they are saying no more free laundry in a roundabout way.

 

Phil

Yes, unfortunately you are correct. Azamara Joel stated it on another thread and said they will clarify it. Again I do not sail for the benefits, but the free laundry sure helped in packing and the free internet minutes sure helped being away from home for so long on B2Bs. I will have to see if Celebrity is going where I would Mike to go next March/April and maybe rebook.....

I didn't think even Azamara could do something this stupid. If you think the laundry room is a zoo now...

Maybe the next step is coin-operated washer-dryers.:rolleyes:

We have never sailed Azamara but have sailed Oceania a number of times and Celebrity 20+ times and are Elite + with darn good benefits.

We were planning 2 Azamara cruises: the new TA from Southampton to Montreal and Rome to Dubai in October, 2016.

Like most others, we do not cruise for benefits but they are a nice added feature, and show respect for the loyal cruise customer. Unfortunately, although Azamara has some decent itineraries (but honestly, none that are not, to a large degree, available to us from other lines) we will not both pay a premium price and not receive worthwhile benefits. We were looking forward to the benefits of Discover (or Discover + if it was direct transfer). Now to have to pay for internet access (at a discounted price or not) and laundry service when both are available in good quantity on Celebrity is just not acceptable.

To the loyal LCV members, go back and look at what happened with RCCL's attempt to gore Diamond level benefits in 2009. There was such a groundswell of opposition that RCCL almost immediately backed up and made a number of changes that satisfied most Diamond level cruisers (first, a "Diamond Event" nightly and then adding Diamond lounges, with access, on virtually all the ships that didn't have one).

We aren't LCV members so have no right to complain, but those who are...

Another thumbs down here too. We mainly sail on Celebrity and although we are still a long way off from Zenith (Celebrity) / Discoverer Platinum (Azamara), we are happy to see at least we will continue to accrue points on both lines - that is "until further notice" and "subject to change" according to Terms and Conditions.

My thumbs down, like others, is for discontinuation of free internet and laundry. We would consider these significant losses for us as these are the main benefits we would use. If sailing Azamara, we would likely be on 10+ day cruises or b2bs, so hopefully laundry will continue for cruises over 7 days including b2bs. Unfortunately, I think Phil is right in his assessment of no free laundry. Will Azamara retain self-service washers and dryers, even if they become coin operated again?

Although wine tasting is a nice-to-have benefit, it would not be significant loss for us; and, we wouldn't consider the discontinuation of the bottle of sparkling wine a loss, unless it were champagne from Champagne, France like Celebrity gave us on our spring TA cruise (and that was the first & only time for that as the "sparkling wine").

I am very disappointed we waited so long to hear about the new benefits at the two new levels only to see that valuable existing benefits are being cut across all levels.

We have never sailed Azamara but have sailed Oceania a number of times and Celebrity 20+ times and are Elite + with darn good benefits.

 

We were planning 2 Azamara cruises: the new TA from Southampton to Montreal and Rome to Dubai in October, 2016.

We aren't LCV members so have no right to complain, but those who are...

You would become members on any future Azamara sailings as the program stands now. Call Azamara LCV to ensure you are a Discoverer Plus member for any future Azamara sailings.

Kathy

I agree with everything that has been said. I really valued those free internet minutes. We never drink the wine provided in the stateroom on the first day, so no loss there. I did use the free bag of laundry so will miss that. I don't drink and my DH only has a glass of wine with lunch and dinner so we are already paying for something we don't get full value from- our choice I know. Azamara's prices have increased considerably in the last year and I feel they are penny pinching and actually do not understand their guests at all- shore side, so much hype but very little delivery. I have full confidence in and appreciation of the on board experience and staff, its why we have kept returning and why up to now Azamara has been our cruise experience of choice but loyalty can be taken too much for granted. We have 2 cruises booked with Azamara over the next 3 months and these may be our last as the chartering of Quest in 2015 & 16, therefore reducing our choice of itineraries, the booking of large groups to fill staterooms and the fact that the shore side experience is so abysmal means we too shall be looking elsewhere.

Hilary & Colin