ghstudio

We always book on board and transfer to a TA for additional perks but we do it within 60 days.  I would be wary of any agent telling you that even after final payment, they can transfer your booking, keep all your perks, your cabin and still give you additional perks.....BUT....this is azamara where their back office seems to be pretty much broken, so it may be possible.  Just make sure you are using either a very large TA or a TA that's very well known. (recommendations are not allowed here).  I wouldn't trust a local small agency.

I always ask the TA receiving our booking to check the prices and deals.  On our December booking on Azamara, the on board price was $12500....Checking the price, our agent booked us for $7500 with all the same perks.  (It's a mystery)

I can handle the wine....I have a problem having to otder the dessert with the rest of the meal.  No good restaurant does that....it's really a poor service model aimed at not giving you a nice meal experience, but rather at getting you out as soon as possible.  I'm not sure I've ever been in a land based restaurant that asks you to order your dessert in advance.

call your TA (or Azamara, if you booked directly).  We called to check on the price of an already booked reservation and our price was lowered by almost 50% (we're still not sure how that was done...but we're not arguing).

6 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

We’re excited to extend an exclusive invitation to all our Azamara Circle Members. Join Dondra on the CEO Loyalty Panama Canal Cruise in December for a unique opportunity to meet her in person. This cruise will not only allow you to connect with her but also enjoy exclusive onboard savings on future cruise bookings, CEO hosted shore excursion, special onboard activities, and much more.

We are already booked on that cruise (12/3 on the Journey) as part of a B2B to/from Panama from Ft Lauderdale. Nice unexpected enhancement to that cruise.

On 5/14/2024 at 2:02 PM, LuAnn said:

I have to wear sun glasses most of the time due to an eye disease so I usually add to my "sunnies" collection when I'm board and have credit to use!! 🙂

I have a pair of $350 Prada sunglasses (that I never wear) from our last Azamara cruise...bought with OBC.

The price of distilled water is $2.95 IF you buy pre-cruise.  If you buy on board, it's $6.95.

On 4/30/2024 at 11:09 AM, sherryf said:

We have never bothered to make reservations in the MDR, and have never waited more than about 5 minutes.

On last month's oosterdam cruise, the wait was 35 minutes for a table around 7pm on day 2.  Other nights, no wait.  

ah yes....starting with a bang.  We just started to sail with Azamara after the cut off of transfer of points....so although we should be top members, we are somewhere around the lowest.....and yes, we are still bitter about that incredibly poor marketing decision.  Way to go new CEO....rub it in.

All Px cabins are on deck 8, below the potentially noisiest deck with the pool, buffet, etc on deck 9.  Strangely (to me at least) is that the Vx cabins which are identical in size but with fewer "perks" are on deck 7 which would not have noise from deck chairs, etc being moved around.  As a result, I'm thinking of "downgrading" our cabin from a P3 to a Vx (just for location) and giving up the 2 meals and laundries (don't need the bottle of liquor).

Looking for advice on this seemingly backward pricing and location....or did they add the perks and create the Px category to help them sell the less desirable deck 8. .

On 5/2/2024 at 10:41 AM, Sea42 said:

But it wasn't closed every sea day. It was closed some of the evenings on the cruise, for the most part during dinner hours.

Do you really think HAL would close the Crows Nest during the canal transit? That to me would warrant "outrage" but I think this is more to stir the pot than a valid concern.

It is hardly to stir the pot.....the crows nest was closed five of the first six nights including the sail away.  You may not be familiar with the Oostendam....closed means you can't get specialty coffees, you obviously can't sit and enjoy the sail away or just sailing indoors, you can't have a quiet drink before dinner enjoying the view...and you can't get to games either....excursions had to sit in the hall to discuss/book excursions.  One day closure is understandable, 5 days of closures, all during sail away hours on this port intensive cruise, is unacceptable.

Good luck on your Oosterdam 1/2025 South America & Antarctica cruise.... I guess you can hope that the crows nest won't be closed as you sail the Antarctica, the beagle channel or in and out of those ports. Guess you'd be OK with that....right? 

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

On the Volendam, our first HAL cruise, in 2007 the Park West phony art auctions were held in the Atrium in the Oceans bar area during the day only. This was a Panama Canal cruise and the Crows nest was our favorite place for viewing. Can't imagine the outrage if the Crow's Nest was closed every day for these art sales.

That’s the fear that caused me to cancel a booked cruise on HAL ($17000)

23 hours ago, Wehwalt said:

I'm still not clear on the exact sequence of events. On April 23, I went through the Navigator and found that it stated the Crow's Nest would be closed on four nights, the last of which was the 26th. Another individual stated that it had already closed two additional nights, which makes six. When the paper daily program for the 26th came out, there was no mention of a closure (which was supposed to be 4 to 8:30). So I'm guessing five took place. But at least from what I could tell, there were never any more scheduled except for the shortened one on the 26th. 

On day1, when told we had to leave at pm, we were told that the crows nest would be closed every night for Park West.  I suspect that they quickly had a barrage of complaints and worked, without telling passengers, to find a solution.  When I corrected the post about 4 nights, I checked the daily schedule and found that the crows nest would actually close at 2 PM (if I recall correctly) and not reopen on the 26th. As it turned out, it stayed open and remained open for the rest of the cruise.

18 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

At some point even the bean counters have to say, "whoa, did we make a big mistake?".

 

As I wrote in an earlier post in this thread, basically the same thing happened when NCL closed off the observation lounge on the Prima, also for Park West. And if HAL goes by the same precedent, they will not try to repeat this mistake on future cruises. Just like NCL, they will learn from their original mistake.

I wish I could believe that you’re right.  I did cancel a booked cruise based on the experience…already replaced with a cruise on another cruise line while on this cruise. We have another Hal cruise fully paid in August so we’ll see how we feel after that cruise.  We have a couple of longer Hal cruises booked. That will still be cancellable.  To date, Hal has not even felt the need to apologize or provide any sort of compensation for the closing. 

Based on passenger feedback, the Park West group was moved to an interior bar…and the crows nest was open for the second half of the cruise.  Cudos for reacting to the complaints, but it’s not at all clear that this won’t happen again on a future HAL cruise…and what if this was a scenic cruise…Norway, chile, etc….and you were kept out of the crows nest..one of the prime viewing areas.

2 hours ago, Wehwalt said:

Our regrets that you seem so focused on this one thing. It's a great cruise. Everyone we speak to is having a wonderful time, and the main regret seems to be that everyone has to get off in Athens because of the charter. We'd stay longer if we could. 25 days is not enough.

I can multitask 🙂 we’ve been on since Ft. Lauderdale as well and we will continue our trip on land.  

Per a meeting with the hotel director, HAL has decided that there will be no compensation for the Park West private use of the crows nest for 6 nights of our 11 night cruise….and he told me that the CEO is aware of the situation and agrees that no compensation of any kind is necessary.  I guess those of us involved (over 100 complaints, per a post on another forum) will see the reaction to our final comments on the cruise as well as letters sent directly to the HAL executives which may include future booked cruises cancelled as a result of this business decision that impacted our cruise. We always felt that HAL valued us as repeat and loyal customers….now we feel more like just a number on a spreadsheet.

17 hours ago, Wehwalt said:

It is not every night of the cruise. Looking through the Navigator App, on this 11 night cruise, embarking April 19, the Crows Nest is listed as closing at 4 pm on April 21, 23, 24 and 26, on the last of which it is scheduled to reopen at 8:30. Of course, the listed hours might change, but the Crow's Nest has already been open full time three of the first five nights of the cruise (it is night here now. Or almost).

Let’s try to at least be accurate

the crows nest has been closed on the 19, 20, 21,23. And is scheduled to be closed on the 24 (today) and 26th.  It has been closed for the first three nights of the cruise and 5 of the first six nights of the cruise.  Those include the first night sail away time and the scenic departure in Naples passing mt Vesuvius …let me repeat THE CROWS NEST HAS BEEN CLOSED FOR FIVE OF THE FIRST SIX NIGHTS OF THIS CRUISE.  Just for the record, I was told by the manager of guest services last night that HAL will not be offering any compensation per his communications with HQ.  

11 hours ago, SusieKIslandGirl said:

Any spies in the crowd who could check on how many people are actually "behind the curtain"? Is it actually worthwhile-are people showing up for whatever is going on?

11 hours ago, SusieKIslandGirl said:

Any spies in the crowd who could check on how many people are actually "behind the curtain"? Is it actually worthwhile-are people showing up for whatever is going on?

Based on a sheet I saw with what I think is park west’s ‘valuation’ of each piece of art, it could be very valuable to park west if any sell any at even half the valuation….vs prices I found through google for the same prints (many of the works are prints, not unique paintings…so you can find some of those values using google).  It may or may not be valuable to the buyers ….

On 4/21/2024 at 12:11 PM, julia said:

Every single evening??  From 4-9pm??  When, pray tell, are these folks planning to dine?!

They set up the room at 4…move all the furniture, put in seats and art on easels…it stays that way all evening, everything returned to normal at 9 pm. The buyers don’t sit there the whole time, but the art and furniture says there.

1 minute ago, LonelySaxophone said:

Oh lord that sounds horrific - any response from HAL on board? 

They can’t do anything. It was a corporate decision.  I’ve escalated and we’ll see what happens.  Many are unhappy including the officers on the ship…but all they can do is listen to the complaints

We are currently on a 9 day cruise on the oostradam with 100+ park west group.  They have taken over the crows nest for every night .. we can not watch any sail away, get a drink before dinner or specialty coffee until 9pm unless we want to sit in the arts and crafts room.  Every night 4-9.  No notification   This is todays HAL .. they don’t seem to care about non group passengers very much.  We are deciding if we want to cancel some future Hal bookings.

The Crows Nest bar....the only place on the ship to sit quietly for a drink/specialty coffee and the only place to sit with a view forward....has been reserved (closed to the public) for a private Park West group (selling artwork).  The Crows nest is one of the quiet venues for drinks and the specialty coffee area on the ship where you can sit and just look at the water or chat with folks.

We have cruised with groups on board many of our cruises on many cruise lines, but they haven't impacted us...their events are held in private areas or in a part of a larger area....in this case, HAL has blocked the entire room/area.  This is a first...and unwelcome change.  I think we all understand changes due to mechanical issues, weather, unreachable ports.....but this is just Holland America marketing prioritizing a group over their other 1800+ passengers and many many of us are 3,4,5 star frequent cruisers.  Many passengers as well as the ship's officers and crew are unhappy about this new change and the officers are recommending that we voice our concerns to HAL HQ...because there's nothing they can do..it was a corporate decision.

Be very careful booking a Holland America cruise.....especially if you are going on a scenic cruise because you may find that the only place to view out the front of the ship is closed to you. 

We have some future HAL cruises booked that include scenic cruising (Chilean fjords, etc) and we are thinking of moving those cruises to a different cruise line....due to this HQ decision to allow private groups to take over major areas during their peak use hours for the entire cruise.

First cruise 1950 Bull Line SS Puerto Rico ... NY to San Juan

Be grateful that the the FAA continues to ban the use of 'voice over data' calls on airplanes.....

We have 19 day b2B cruise booked in Dec in the Caribbean.  We already have $2200 OBC which is almost impossible to spend.  On our last trip, my wife and I bought Prada sunglasses just to use up some of the OBC on that trip. What would we would even do with another $600 OBCC? (no real interest in buying jewelry which is the obvious).  I'm actually not even sure how we wound up with that much OBC...booking on-board plus some special offers that we seem to have  qualified for.  I think we'll pass (and yes, I am in the camp that says they are having cash issues and worried about cancellation, bankruptcy, etc).