50% Off Shore Excursions... Need Assistance, Please

[Angiet2]

Looking for help from fellow CC'ers that have utilized Azamara's 50% discounted shore excursions.

In researching my July 6th, 2012 Journey excursions, the prices appear to be full price and not discounted. When I attempt to make a faux booking to see if the discount will be applied at checkout, the price remains the same.

Can someone chime in, who has utilized Azamara's 50% discount promotion, explain how it works? Thanks!!

I sure hope that the prices that the prices shown, are NOT supposedly already at 50% off... Gulp! Choke!!

BTW.... I am loving Cowboy's 'live from' thread! Thanks to him, now I am even more excited about our July adventure, or should I say, Journey?!

[candkd]

I downloaded the excursion brochure for my August 1 trip and on page 6 it states that the fares reflect the 50% savings. I also called Azamara and they confirmed this

And I completely agree that these prices don't seem to be a real 50% discount. Don't know how many of their excursions I will use--can do much better on our own.

[MightyQuinn]

Originally Posted by Angiet2

Can someone chime in, who has utilized Azamara's 50% discount promotion, explain how it works? Thanks!!

It all depends where you are seeing the shore excursions pricing:

1) If you’re in My Azamara account, shore excursions show up at higher (full) prices. Once you select any excursion to purchase, the 50% discount is applied and your balance owing will show at the reduced rate at the bottom of the screen.

2) If you’re looking at the .pdf document that shows all the shore excursions for your cruise, prices are already reduced by 50%, so the price you see is the price you pay.

Hope this helps.

[davwen81]

[quote=Angiet2;32371481]Looking for help from fellow CC'ers that have utilized Azamara's 50% discounted shore excursions.

In researching my July 6th, 2012 Journey excursions, the prices appear to be full price and not discounted. When I attempt to make a faux booking to see if the discount will be applied at checkout, the price remains the same.

Can someone chime in, who has utilized Azamara's 50% discount promotion, explain how it works? Thanks!!

Hi, we are off on the Quest on Feb 29th and we booked 2 excursions online and it does show the full price when you book them, but when it comes to the payment page, the price was 1/2 that shown. All done on Azamaras website! We are in Australia, so dont know if that makes a difference, as they seem to vary everything so much between countries. Good luck!!

[Mally60]

The same question occurred to me yesterday ahead of my cruise on Journey later in the year. I got my TA to call and check today. The answer, believe it or not, is that the prices you see on the shore excursions brochure have already been discounted by 50%!!!!!!!! It looks like I will be going ashore on a fully independent basis this cruise.

[excitedofharpenden]

I went online today to book a few excursions for my trip on Quest later this month and can confirm that when you go through the booking process the initial price shown against each excursion is the full price and when you actually book it using your credit card the price is reduced by 50%.

Phil

[hrhdhd]

I asked this in another post, but no one replied. Can someone give me an idea of the price range for Azamara-led excursions? I know the cost can vary based on length, whether a meal's included, exotic-ness (is that a word?), etc., but if someone can provide a couple of examples, that would be helpful. Thanks.

[excitedofharpenden]

Just as an example of what I have booked today and giving you the 50% off price in £££s, half day panoramic tour in Nagasaki was £39.75. Full day tour in Taiwan £62.50. Half day tour in Hong Kong £32. Half day tour in Ho Chi Minh Vietnam £27.50. Fairly standard sightseeing tours.

Phil

[hrhdhd]

Thanks. Those prices don't seem so outrageous. Am I missing something?

I need to use up > $1,000 in OBC, so I'll be booking a few AZ excursions.

[uktog]

Originally Posted by hrhdhd

Thanks. Those prices don't seem so outrageous. Am I missing something?

I need to use up > $1,000 in OBC, so I'll be booking a few AZ excursions.

The problem is unless they have fixed it is if you are using OBC you cannot book until on board and therefore have to pay full price which makes things very expensive

[plymothian]

I have just checked 'My Azamara' as we have booked excursions for the end of the month/early March. I will give prices charged below BUT what I found was my 'account' is charged in GBP as I am in the UK, and underneath each GBP entry was the 'equivalent' cost in USD (at twice the conversion price of what I actually paid in GBP), so per person price charged -

Historic Salvador 22 GBP (equivalent shown 70 USD) should be 34 USD

Highlights of Recife 28 GBP (equivalent shown 89 USD) should be 43 USD

Belem River Tour 40.50 GBP (equivalent shown 129 USD) should be 62 USD

Clearly I paid 50% of the price quoted in USD. This discounted price WAS the price listed on the Shore Excursions programme that I had printed off from Azamara's website.

Hope this helps and I think that the tours we have booked represent good value for money. There is one final tour we booked in Barbados with Azamara that is offered by many other 'providers' including the tour supplier themselves, and the 50% discounted Azamara price was just below the cheapest online price I could find WITHOUT THE COST OF TRANSFERS TO AND FROM THE SHIP.

[excitedofharpenden]

Originally Posted by uktog

The problem is unless they have fixed it is if you are using OBC you cannot book until on board and therefore have to pay full price which makes things very expensive

Yes, that's the rub. You won't be able to use up any of your onboard credit for the 50% off tours because it needs to be booked before you go.

Phil

[hrhdhd]

I get that I can't book until I'm onboard, but $700 of my credit is AZ's way of apologizing for changing my itinerary twice (I was on the former Quest transatlantic), so that's basically $700 that fell into my lap. I'd rather spend it than not!

[Jujuju2]

Originally Posted by hrhdhd

I get that I can't book until I'm onboard, but $700 of my credit is AZ's way of apologizing for changing my itinerary twice (I was on the former Quest transatlantic), so that's basically $700 that fell into my lap. I'd rather spend it than not!

hrhdhd, let me put it this way. I am booked on three sequential Quest cruises, with a good number of ports, and I am an avid pursuer of private shore excursions because the ship's (usually Holland America) tours are almost always way overpriced. What I am finding with the Azamara 50% off promotion is that it is very hard to better the half off price with a private shore tour. The full price shore tours on my three cruises are running from a low of about $55 for a half day excursion in India to $200 in Jordan. Their full price shore excursions seem to be in line with what other cruise lines generally charge. If anything, I would say their full-price shore excursions are probably a bit lower than what I see on Holland America. If you have SBC you must use, then you won't go badly wrong with paying Azamara's full price for the excursions you want.

[almostnewtocruise]

I too have a question concerning the 50% discount on shore excursions.
(maybe somebody has already asked this , but if so - I must have missed it..)

What happens if you book an excursion online for "half the price" and then - when you're already on board the ship - they let you know that, for any reason( like not enough participants) your excursion is canceled?

I understand that you'll get your money back - if you so wish,,
But what about an alternative excursion? Will you get the same discount, even though you must buy it now on board the ship?

I hope that either Andy or Bill will know..
Miriam

[uktog]

Originally Posted by almostnewtocruise

I too have a question concerning the 50% discount on shore excursions.
(maybe somebody has already asked this , but if so - I must have missed it..)

What happens if you book an excursion online for "half the price" and then - when you're already on board the ship - they let you know that, for any reason( like not enough participants) your excursion is canceled?

I understand that you'll get your money back - if you so wish,,
But what about an alternative excursion? Will you get the same discount, even though you must buy it now on board the ship?

I hope that either Andy or Bill will know..
Miriam

This is an easy one as it happened to us last month on Journey. Shore Excursion knew from their records we had only paid 50% and when we were booking the replacement excursion, we were automatically offered it at the 50% price

[Jujuju2]

Originally Posted by uktog

This is an easy one as it happened to us last month on Journey. Shore Excursion knew from their records we had only paid 50% and when we were booking the replacement excursion, we were automatically offered it at the 50% price

Oh, that was an excellent question, and an even more excellent answer.

[almostnewtocruise]

Originally Posted by uktog

This is an easy one as it happened to us last month on Journey. Shore Excursion knew from their records we had only paid 50% and when we were booking the replacement excursion, we were automatically offered it at the 50% price

Thanks uktog !

Now I can start booking my excursions without qualms..

[excitedofharpenden]

Originally Posted by Jujuju2

Oh, that was an excellent question, and an even more excellent answer.

I concur. Thanks to almostnewtocruise and uktog.

Phil

[whynotme]

Originally Posted by MightyQuinn

It all depends where you are seeing the shore excursions pricing:

1) If you’re in My Azamara account, shore excursions show up at higher (full) prices. Once you select any excursion to purchase, the 50% discount is applied and your balance owing will show at the reduced rate at the bottom of the screen.

2) If you’re looking at the .pdf document that shows all the shore excursions for your cruise, prices are already reduced by 50%, so the price you see is the price you pay.

Hope this helps.

We booked our shore excursions through the pdf document, which is on the Azamara site under the title 'Plan your Voyage' - land explorations, and these are shown at half-price (I did not realize this at the time) and then, at your suggestion, I went to 'Community' - My Azamara login, and then went to shore excursions listed in the left hand column and found that these are listed at full price. I would not have thought to look in two different places.

This is very confusing but you are right about the prices. Thank you for clearing this up.