Azamara Journey – March 3 Sailing - Cancelled

February 27, 2014

2:15am E.S.T

On February 25, Azamara Journey sustained damage to one of the ship’s two propellers, caused by debris. Unfortunately, due to the time needed to make the necessary repairs, it is necessary to cancel Azamara Journey’s next voyage, which was scheduled to depart Shanghai, China, on Monday, March 3.

We do not take any decision that impacts our guests’ vacations lightly, and are deeply sorry that this unexpected development has affected guests’ upcoming vacation.

Azamara Club Cruises will be contacting guests on the March 3rd sailing personally, or through their travel agent, to discuss the details regarding their cancelled sailing. We will also update this information by noon tomorrow, EST.

Again, it is regrettable that this incident occurred and spoiled our guests vacation, but we will do everything we can to assist them from this point forward.

Thank you, Azamara Club Cruises

So sorry to all concerned:(

Phil

February 27, 2014

2:15am E.S.T

 

On February 25, Azamara Journey sustained damage to one of the ship’s two propellers, caused by debris. Unfortunately, due to the time needed to make the necessary repairs, it is necessary to cancel Azamara Journey’s next voyage, which was scheduled to depart Shanghai, China, on Monday, March 3.

I've been on Journey since 3 February and learned of the cancellation via the e-mail sent from Miami earlier today and have still not heard the same news from anyone aboard ship... Indeed, I was amazed!

So sorry to all concerned:(

 

 

 

Phil

Ditto

Lousy news so close to sailing

Hello All,

My name is Raul Parquet and I work with Joel & Signe at Azamara. I manage social media and international business for the brand. My team and I have been posting the updates for the recent events that have transpired.

Thank you for your support of Azamara for many years, with Bill Lieber as Chief Blogger we have followed all of your conversations for many years and we would not be where we are today without all of your constant feedback and communication.

Regarding the Journey incident, I will try to be as transparent as possible with all.

Larry Pimentel our President & CEO along with Bert Van Middendorp arrived at Kansai, Osaka and will actively engage the Azamara Journey upon its arrival tomorrow.

The repair to the ship is not difficult and fairly straight forward. This kind of repair is generally 2 to 4 days. The issue with our situation was finding a shipyard, in the region, that had space to do the work under the timeline we have in place regarding the departure of 3rd March voyage.

Given the wait for a proper yard to repair the ship, we decided to cancel the forward cruise 3rd March. This was very frustrating and disappointing to all of us.

It is so disappointing to affect our guests holiday because of debris (wire cables) wrapping around the shaft and damaging the prop. The Journey is safe to operate but at low speeds we can not make the itinerary as scheduled.

We completely understand your situation as valued guests and thank you for your continued patience.

The operational teams are taking care of the guests onboard the Journey. This is mostly onboard operational at this point, although our shoreside teams are involved as necessary.

Shoreside we are fully focused on the cancelled voyage - March 3 out of Shanghai. The details of the compensation is our number one priority and is being finalized as we speak. We are in constant communications with our various internal & global teams to communicate with travel agents and consumer directs. There is a certain complexity level to the situation, as some guests have already arrived in Shanghai.

We should be ready to broadcast compensation details and do call outs in the next hour from our global offices.

The Azamara Journey will be back in service for its scheduled voyage on 17th March from Hong Kong, China.

Thank You, Raul Parquet

Azamara Club Cruises

Raul

I appreciate your posting however the situation for us personally is far worse than it was this morning. Then we had identified a cruise we wanted (indeed two cruises) both of which needed us to start our journey tonight if at all possible.

However all this clowning around with sorting out the compensation deal has meant Azamara UK is not able to make the bookings until the compensation deal is communicated from Miami. I understand that as at 1745 - well beyond your hour - they had still heard nothing and of course the office is now closed.

You have missed the point, for many guests at present any compensation is secondary to getting some holiday in place and this delay has now as far as I can see totally blown it for us both now and, if it is my husbands vote, also for the future for both Azamara and Celebrity

You have to wonder what the holdup could be......should be pretty straight forward full refund and 30 % off future sailing. Since this was so close to the sail date should be some compensation for out of pocket expenses of airline penalties etc.

UKtog and Others,

We can assure you we have not missed your point or the level of seriousness involved in this process. We are not clowning around, in situations like these there are processes and procedures that are in place that must be followed as a Global company.

We apologize that we might have missed the window of a future sailing you would have liked to book. I have been in constant communication with the UK office and they will be reaching out to you, if they have not already, to work on your specific situation and do what we can to rectify it.

Again, an unfortunate incident has occurred, that was out of our control and can be chalked up to just plain bad luck. Nonetheless, we take full responsibility and will take care of all guests who have been displaced. The Azamara onboard and shoreside teams have worked tirelessly within the last 24-48 hrs to communicate and address all guests concerns that have been affected by this incident.

Thank you for your support, Raul Parquet.

Azamara Club Cruises

You have to wonder what the holdup could be......should be pretty straight forward full refund and 30 % off future sailing. Since this was so close to the sail date should be some compensation for out of pocket expenses of airline penalties etc.

The figures are incidental IMHO whatever they are has no bearing on peoples current plans, the issue is that they have not thought about those guests who wanted to rebook something today and were not dependent on the reimbursement to pay for a replacement holiday. If you follow the patterns from Celebrity, at this late stage in the process, I would expect a higher level of compensation but that is a different debate. My issue is that the rules have stopped us recovering the situation

UKtog and Others,

 

We can assure you we have not missed your point or the level of seriousness involved in this process. We are not clowning around, in situations like these there are processes and procedures that are in place that must be followed as a Global company.

 

We apologize that we might have missed the window of a future sailing you would have liked to book. I have been in constant communication with the UK office and they will be reaching out to you, if they have not already, to work on your specific situation and do what we can to rectify it.

 

Again, an unfortunate incident has occurred, that was out of our control and can be chalked up to just plain bad luck. Nonetheless, we take full responsibility and will take care of all guests who have been displaced. The Azamara onboard and shoreside teams have worked tirelessly within the last 24-48 hrs to communicate and address all guests concerns that have been affected by this incident.

 

Thank you for your support, Raul Parquet.

Azamara Club Cruises

Thank you, unfortunately as you will be aware the office is now closed. I suggest that in future you do look at your policies and processes and in particular how those guests who have been affected and wish to make a quick rebooking can be helped.

I apologise if the word clowning has caused offence, it was just that from the customer's perspective we believe we have lost more than one cruise now and given our current circumstances elsewhere, we are at breaking point and that word came out

We do recognise the level of communication has been appropriate and thank you for that

:(Still nothing from Azamara, same situation as above, I'm looking at a replacement holiday and need some clarification to move forward. Guess I'll be looking at Oceania in the future......

What makes you think Oceania would be better at dealing with this particular situation?

Azamara Journey – March 3, 2014 Sailing Cancelled

February 27, 2014

2:26 p.m. E.S.T

Unfortunately, due to the time needed to make the necessary repairs to Azamara Journey, it is necessary to cancel the March 3, 2014, voyage.

We do not take any decision that impacts our guests’ vacations lightly, and are deeply sorry that this unexpected development has affected those guests’ upcoming vacation.

Azamara Club Cruses will provide each guest with a full refund of the cruise fare paid. Azamara Club Cruises would also like to have another opportunity to show guests booked what the Azamara experience is all about. We will be providing guests with a future cruise certificate for 75% of the cruise fare paid for their March 3, 2014, Azamara Journey sailing.

If guests have any additional questions regarding Azamara Journey, they may call us toll free 1-855-292-4636 from the United States and Canada. Outside of North America please contact your local Azamara Club Cruises office.

Thank You, Azamara Club Cruises

Thank you AZ Joel! I just heard from my TA . My only concern now is my upgraded airline tickets and a non-refundable hotel. I have contacted the hotel so I hope they will be understanding.

I was not planning on sailing AZ again for a while but now I guess I will have to try Asia again on AZ.

Kathy

Kathy9 & Others,

More detail here on the compensation details related to airfare and Visa's. This is content from the letter that is sent to all affected travel partners and guests. Regarding hotel's booked on your own, contact our customer service below and we will work with you on a solution.

Thank You, Raul Parquet

Azamara Club Cruises

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Clients who booked their air transportation through Azamara Club Cruises will receive a full refund. If you did not purchase air transportation through Azamara Club Cruises, we will assist by paying for any airline change fee, up to $500 per person. We suggest that guests whose airfare change fee exceeds $500 contact their travel insurance provider for additional assistance.

Additionally, if you purchased a visa for the March 3 sailing, we will provide you with a refund of that fee. Guests should send a copy of the receipt for the airline change fee and visa, along with a brief note explaining that they were booked on the March 3, sailing of Azamara Journey to the following address:

Azamara Club Cruises, Customer Service – JR March 3, 1050 Caribbean Way, Miami, FL 33132-2096. Please ensure that you include full name and reservation number with their receipts. Guests may also or scan their receipts and e-mail them to AzamaraGuestRelations@AzamaraClubCruises.com

If you have already traveled to Shanghai, we will work with you directly to get back home.

Again, we sincerely apologize for this unexpected development and its impact on you vacation. As always, we thank you for your ongoing support of Azamara Club Cruses.

Sincerely,

Azamara Club Cruises

Hello All,

We're happy to report that the Azamara Journey and guests have arrived in Osaka, Japan, where they were met by Azamara Club Cruises CEO and President Larry Pimentel, VP of Operations Bert van Middendorp, and 30 Go-team members.

The Go Team is a group of highly trained individuals who work within corporation assigned to incident response. They will manage the logistics, planning, organization and reservations of all guests onboard in conjunction with teams from Miami.

Guests will enjoy 2 days in Osaka and Kyoto, Japan. As we have noted earlier the ship is operating safely and guests onboard can enjoy their time in Japan as planned.

Most guests will disembark the ship on 2nd March and fly to Shanghai, China, overnight 1 night, then return to their scheduled travel plans.

The Azamara Journey will sail to Korea after the guests have disembarked. The propeller will be repaired at Korea's Orient Shipyard Gwangyang, and the ship will resume service on 17th March.

Thank You, Raul Parquet

Azamara Club Cruises

I think what has been missed by Azamara is that those booked on the March 3 cruise needed to be dealt with yesterday. While non-refundable hotels and other penalties can be dealt with tomorrow, there seems to be no understanding that even if the company is offering up to $500 in airline change fees, these passengers who had not yet departed needed to change those airline reservations immediately. They can't change the reservations if they do not know where they are going.

Btw, I dealt with this with Azamara a number of years ago (first with one ticket using FFmiles and another booked direct, and then one direct and another using Choice Air). In our case the ship was redeployed and we had more notice but it took a MONTH for them to straighten out our booking and rebook the Choice Air ticket, while we had to change the direct booked ticket and hope the other person could get on the same flights (and the reason the ticketing was done this way brings up another customer service issue with Azamara).

Their reasoning at first was that their IT person was out and it was a computer problem...

Per my TA as of this noon Chioce Air has not cancelled our tickets to SHA which was due to depart at 840 this am. I am unable to cancel these flights as I did not make the reservations. AZ told her they would wait to cancel all flights at once. Seems a strange way to do business to me.

Kathy9,

Journey 3/3/14 bookings will all be cancelled early next week (mass cancellation) all payments on the bookings will be refunded that includes = voyage fare, taxes, air, pre/post hotel, transfers, Land Discovery Tours, amenity orders, etc.

No need to worry, our customer service and air planning teams are on top of the situations and you will be refunded fully.

Thank you, Raul Parquet

Azamara Club Cruises

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to take a moment to clarify the use of Future Cruise Credit certificates for close-in sailings. Unfortunately there has been some confusion on this topic.

I can confirm that you are able to use your Future Cruise Credit certificate for close-in sailings. All you - or your travel agent - need to do is to call your local booking office during regular hours, and they will handle it for you. This process has been clarified with all of our booking offices.

We are really sorry that this became so difficult! Hopefully it is not too late.

Best regards,

Signe Bjorndal

Director of Global Marketing

Dear Raul,

I'm sorry Azamara's cancellation information is spread all over Cruise Critic's web site when you could be using Azamara's own site. As Le Club Voyage members, we use myAzamara.com to manage our reservations, yet there isn't a peep on there about this issue.

Ourt of frustration, I went to Cruise Critic's web site and found these several threads regarding the March 3 cruise (and the follow-on March 17 cruise) my wife & I are booked on.

I'll repeat what several other Azamara clients have said ... Azamara just doesn't get it. You said Azamara will communicate directly with us or through out travel agent. Well, Azamara did send a blanket notice to our travel agent (but not to us) reassuring them they will still get their booking commissions.

Our travel agent was told that we could communicate directly via e-mail to emergencyteam@rccl.com ... two e-mails later we're told that the e-mail went to the wrong Azamara office ... I don't believe Azamara has an Emergency Team working 24 hrs 7 days a week to resolve client consternation. And why must Azamara depend on travel agents contacting clients? My travel agent is not Azamara's client ... I am ... and Azamara has our e-mail, phone numbers, and emergency contact name in our myAzamara.com profile.

In short, we arrived in Shanghai last Friday (Feb 28) afternoon and are staying at Hotel Indigo on the Bund. The hotel has our room 2503 phone number, we have internet connectivity, but 40 hours after our arrival, we have had no direct communication from Azamara. I plan on going to the Shanghai docks tomorrow to find an Azamara representative.

In my humble opinion, Azamara's emergency communications, with those of us that support the business, sucks! As a guy in his late 60s, I don't use that term lightly.

Dr. Carlos M Talbott, D.Sc.

Hi,

we arrived in shanghai on 2/26 from Philadelphia. On 2/27 a friend already in shanghai called our hotel to inform us about the cancellation. why he was contacted by azamara and not us or others is a mystery. our travel agent did not even know when we called them via skype!

we could not reach azamara, not on a sunday on their toll free number. their telephone message said to press one if you are flying today. I pressed one and the message said to call back monday!!! we left for a planned trip to xian on 3/1, where we are now on 3/2. will return to shanghai on 3/3. our t.a. got us 4 nights at same hotel because we could not get a return flight home that did not make us fly with many stops and nightmare flights on an airline i did not trust. We don't plan to go to the cruise terminal and waste our time waiting forever for service on 3/3.

If anyone wants to contact us to talk, my e mail is gailhraznov@gmail.com.

Many of us who were already in shanghai have a different set of issues and added expenses that will need to be resolved. let's work together and share info and strategy if azamara is not fair to us.

(forgive lack of capitalization ==typing on difficult keyboard). Gail and Jerry

Dr. Carl and Gail, Hope AZ will get in touch with you both soon. My TA was not notified till well into the day on Thursday( around noon time) of the cancellation. I was notified by text at 0100 on Thursday.

Gail, I don't see how after flying all that distance they can expect you to hop on a plane and fly home.

Dr. Carl's situation like a few other is different because they will be joining the next sailing out of Hong Kong on 17MAR, are they expected to fly back to the USA or where ever and then fly to Hong Kong again?

Hopefully AZ will work out a satisfactory solution to these issues.

Kathy

It is common knowledge that only a small percentage of cruisers are members of CC.

I hope that Azamara are treating all passengers equally, not just those who are posting their circumstances on here.

It is a desperate disappointment to lose a much anticipated cruise, but far far worse when stranded thousands of miles from home, so I pray that all affected will soon get peace.

DrCarl,

I brought your contact information forward to our team in shanghai. They have advised they have been in touch with you. The information on the Journey incident has been on the front page of our website since the first post regarding the debris that effected the ship and has been updated frequently. I apologize it was not also posted within our loyalty section of the site, MyAzamara.

captailsail, we have a team at the Hyatt on the Bund in shanghai that is working with guests who were already in China or in transit when the decision was taken to cancel the 3rd March voyage.

These individuals will be contacting you, shortly.

Thank you, Raul Parquet

Azamara Club Cruises