Despite the changes, still a good value

Understand the feelings of the very loyal cruisers from the past. We are newcomers, only one cruise with Azamara and a second booked for next March. We book travel strictly for the best value for the money spent, and despite the "higher" prices of today, Azamara generally prices out well below other lines we look at like Regent, Oceania, Seabourne, etc

Understand the feelings of the very loyal cruisers from the past. We are newcomers, only one cruise with Azamara and a second booked for next March. We book travel strictly for the best value for the money spent, and despite the "higher" prices of today, Azamara generally prices out well below other lines we look at like Regent, Oceania, Seabourne, etc

Well said.

I, too, think the recent LCV changes are really stupid, but the cruise experience is still the best--better than Regent and at a lower price point. And I can't imagine cruising Celebrity instead, as so many seem to be. It's just another mass-market cruise line but with a pretentious dress code and ships the size of which makes you just another anonymous passenger. Yuck.

Well said.

 

I, too, think the recent LCV changes are really stupid, but the cruise experience is still the best--better than Regent and at a lower price point. And I can't imagine cruising Celebrity instead, as so many seem to be. It's just another mass-market cruise line but with a pretentious dress code and ships the size of which makes you just another anonymous passenger. Yuck.

The best alternative on Celebrity, to our thinking, is Aqua Class: no pretentious dress code and a separate restaurant. That being said, it's not Azamara.

I agree with the OP, I can't make the numbers work on Oceania, Regent etc., and their loyalty programmes aren't much more attractive.

I think the reciprocity between Celebrity and Azamara is an issue, and perhaps this is the beginning of a decoupling.

I think the reciprocity between Celebrity and Azamara is an issue, and perhaps this is the beginning of a decoupling.

It sounds like they are going in that direction with 50% on Azamara required for the "free" nights benefit.

Can anyone explain if this is suppose to be points or actually nights onboard, and only those accumulated in the last 3 years, or are they only counting the points starting 3 years ago?

We have done one R cruise in 2011 and loved it but we think they have become very pricey for us...O by the time we add alcohol gets very pricey...we also do the larger cruise lines if the price is right and we got a helluva deal for Dec out of FLL...balconey, taxes, fees and gratuities, airfare, alcohol package, and one hotel nite for 2700 dollars total for 6 nights...we could not pass that up for a nice lil getaway! Our next AZ cruise is Panama Canal Caldera to Miami in March

I don't know, I am seriously looking at other options. The on board booking changes are enough for me. For a solo traveler there is a reduction in OBC, so it is a overall reduction in benefits from the current practice. I do have an open passage certificate and I assume that the $200-600 discount will be honored after Jan, 2015?

If their goal is to move traffic to Celebrity (where a solo traveler get double points for a booking!), they are succeeding. However, I am more than ready to move away from RCCL altogether.

Understand the feelings of the very loyal cruisers from the past. We are newcomers, only one cruise with Azamara and a second booked for next March. We book travel strictly for the best value for the money spent, and despite the "higher" prices of today, Azamara generally prices out well below other lines we look at like Regent, Oceania, Seabourne, etc

I agree. AZ is good value, especially when they have a promotion such as the double upgrade or BOGOHO. Too bad the new LCV programme is such a sham - I don't like being conned. Hope our January cruise will be as great as usual.

I think the reciprocity between Celebrity and Azamara is an issue, and perhaps this is the beginning of a decoupling.

To have suggested that the Celebrity/Azamara linkage is a source of the issue on this forum during the past several days...

Dan Hanrahan created full reciprocity between Celebrity and Azamara when Azamara was created in 2007 and he was tapped to serve as leader of both until Larry Pimentel was hired to lead Azamara [Dan has since left RCCL]...

The hope--apparently successful given the large number of Azamara guests with substantial Celebrity cruise histories--was that guests would "move over/move up" to their boutique, usually higher priced line but not create perceived impediments to sailing both interchangeably... The lines still--I now suspect to Azamara's consternation; they'd have otherwise had no reason to add loyalty tiers when Celebrity changed Captain's Club last November if they then had an inkling as to how the revised LCV might evolve--share a loyalty accounting system...

I'm sure it all seemed like a good idea at the time... And certainly, Azamara has benefited richly from the fully reciprocal/cross-accumulating loyalty scheme over the past 7+ years...

To my mind, it's not Celebrity but rather RCCL Corporate leadership and lack of consistent strategic vision/commitment to the brand... Azamara (smallest and of questionable profitability; even if profitable the contribution is chump change in a larger entity with mass market roots and a mass market mentality)--is furthest down the food chain in terms of securing rationed budget dollars/resources of an overhead nature operated under a "shared services" model... There is seemingly no recognition--and if there is, there is surely no love--for the concept that more specialized, boutique operations sometimes require more than their proportionate share of those resources [and Azamara may in fact be heavily subsidizing the larger Corporation] to be successful, while still being profitable, with the comparatively different guest demographic that is Azamara's mainstream...