Hamwen3839

Needing help from any Australians who has disembarked  FROM CRUISE SHIP in Istanbul and gone straight to airport to fly out—- did you need a Turkish e-visa? The only advice I can see on line is that if you are staying less than 72 hrs in Istanbul  and only going to areas near city you do not need an E Visa. Even the Turkish Consulate in Sydney does not seem to know definitely, they just quote the 72 hr rule.

Appreciate any instances in recent times .

Thank you. We are Australian Citizens.I don’t think we are on the “No visa required “list but for our situation it is a little unclear.

Does anyone know if you need a Turkish E Visa if you are alighting a ship In Istanbul but going straight to airport for international flight?

We thought we were going to have the dubious honour of last person refunded especially as we have been waiting since 16 March, however we have just received  about 3/4 of our refund from T.A. who has been holding those funds for about 8 days now. Balance is still being chased up and no idea how long that might take.

So take heart anyone still waiting from the same time frame.Really looking forward to closing this matter as it has been so frustrating.

Foxie02, we were booked on exact same cruise and requested refund on 16 March.I suspect your T.A. used same wholesaler as our T.A. After despairing of ever seeing a refund we have been advised that a first payment of a large proportion of our money has been received by T.A. and  will be paid to us this week.They say they are chasing up balance.

We do not have the money yet but it looks more hopeful.

All I can suggest is that you advise your T.A. of what we have  been told and keep at them to follow up.

Sorry, what is BDM ?
 

Thanks Baynanno1, grateful for any suggestion. Have bypassed T.A. and sent email with all details to Azamara  direct over a week ago. Not even the courtesy of a reply.It takes a few seconds to respond even just to acknowledge .I KNOW someone from Azamara reads these posts.

1 hour ago, jhepf1222 said:

Hamwen 3839,

our cruise was cancelled on 10th March due to sail on 17th and not a penny back yet we keep onto TA but same old, same old they have not received it yet. We did get our Emirates flights back very quickly.,

 

I know how you feel. These  were the first two cruises cancelled I believe.We did receive a generic email from Azamara some weeks ago assuring us we would be refunded and I think it said within 45 days, I don’t know if they mean 45 days from that email or 45 days from cancellation.
I cannot understand why the first cancellations were not dealt with first.We did not pay with credit card so cannot dispute but will certainly do so if and when we cruise again.

I am convinced that the very early cancellations ( March 24 cruise cancelled by Azamara 15 March )have  been Lost. There is no other explanation as we continue to wait for ANY refund.
T.A say they keep asking only to be told repeatedly “ another two weeks” . Well that time frame has come and gone many times.I have emailed Azamara myself but of course no reply.

There is absolutely nothing we can do other than continue to mention it on this forum in the hope that someone from Azamara reads it and decides to pull our request for refund out of the bottom draw.

Very pleased for you  Madam33B  that you have got back most of your  money. Our cruise was the one before yours Sydney to Singapore cancelled by Azamara .We have not received a cent refund yet. T.A. keeps saying be patient and I have also contacted Azamara Customer Service but no response.
I just don’t understand the randomness of the process.

Yes jhepf1222 our cruise of 24 March was cancelled by Azamara 15 March .We applied through T.A. 16 March for refund and to date have not received a cent.So frustrating when we see much later cruises being refunded.

I would not mind if I saw an orderly,chronological process for refunds but the present “system” just leads to doubts and suspicions.

Thank you Charlie Chan and Baynanno1 for your words of support.I am sure it will come through eventually.I think part of the problem is that we paid the T.A. who then went through Cruiseco which adds another layer.

Really happy you have received your refund Riocca.We are now at 11 weeks since Azamara cancelled and still no refund  (cruise of 24 March).I now see that a further 10 cruises have been Cancelled through to end of July.

I really hope those cancellations don’t end up In a heap on top of our one. !!!

I am referring to  Bali living post for 24 March Journey Cruise.

Happy to hear you have received your refund.We were booked on this cruise too. I checked in again with our T.A yesterday and was told no refund yet, they will enquire again in 2 weeks.I think for my stress level I will put this completely aside for the time being .

So happy to hear you have received your refund Baynanno1 for your earlier cruise.That gives us more hope now that we will soon be refunded for the 24 March cruise.We booked and paid through our T.A.  and she seemed to be of the view that as we were apparently part of a “group rate” we would have to wait up to 12 weeks!!!

On 5/11/2020 at 9:47 AM, Baynanno1 said:

 

You are quite right that it is not easy being patient, especially seeing day by day others whose cruises were later cancellations and indeed many who have cancelled their own much later cruises being paid out!

 

We elected FCC for that cruise and it arrived a month after cancellation 14th April, but still no $$ for fees, ports & taxes which are considerable due to going through the Suez Canal.

 

Nor have we received the 100% cash refund owing for the cruise before that one which was cancelled several days earlier, now over 60 days ago.

Our Azamara Journey cruise of 24 March was cancelled by Azamara on about the 12th March I think and we applied for a refund on 13 March. Nothing received yet although we can see later cancelled cruise being refunded. we went through a Travel Agent and she says she is keeping an eye on things but I suspect she gets less information than we do. Not sure how much longer to wait before we escalate matters.

2 hours ago, Phylhering said:

I was on the April 5th Pursuit out of Miami and it was the first to be canceled.  As soon as the link was on Azamara website, I put in my request for a refund.  On May 2nd I received the ChoiceAir and taxes refund.  The cruise ticket was short $715.  I called them last Thursday and they had the total right but could not tell me where the $715 was.  I called today and it is coming but probably in 2 installments.  They only process refunds on Sunday night, so need to wait until next week to see.

I think our cruise 24 March from Sydney on the Journey was the second to be cancelled and Baynanno1 cruise  17 March was the first to be cancelled .From what I can see from the posts we both applied immediately for refunds are have received nothing yet. That  is what is most frustrating .

1 hour ago, Baynanno1 said:

 

It is good to know that someone is out there working, so thanks for adding your experience to the thread. 🙂

I think our cancellation has also been lost in all this, Cruise due 24 March from Sydney cancelled by Azamara about the 13th ? March. If there was some order to the refund process it would be far less concerning.

5 hours ago, rallydave said:

A word to the wise, just like the other cruise lines, escalating issues like this to higher ups at the cruise line are useless as the higher ups are the ones controlling the money and delaying payment for owed refunds.

 

Believe the only way to get the cruise lines attention and your refund is to dispute or what you call it in Oz to your credit card company.  Did that recently and within a couple of days had a prliminary credit on my credit card account and if the cruise line does not respond to the dispute within a set amount of time the credit becomes permanent and this will get their attention and if it doesn't you get the money anyway,  IMHO the cruise lines saying disputing the charges will delay your refund.  That is simply not true and a scare tactic as you have no control over Azamara but, the credit card company does.

 

Trust me, trying to escalate at the cruise line is useless and all that will do is to delay your refund.

Thanks for that advice.When I said “ escalate” I had something similar in mind, I.e. through the credit card .I think our problem is that as we paid the travel agent and they have not received a refund, they simply do not have the money to pay us.As others are beginning to get a refund we will wait another couple of weeks I think.

49 minutes ago, Baynanno1 said:

 

You are quite right that it is not easy being patient, especially seeing day by day others whose cruises were later cancellations and indeed many who have cancelled their own much later cruises being paid out!

 

We elected FCC for that cruise and it arrived a month after cancellation 14th April, but still no $$ for fees, ports & taxes which are considerable due to going through the Suez Canal.

 

Nor have we received the 100% cash refund owing for the cruise before that one which was cancelled several days earlier, now over 60 days ago.

Our Azamara Journey cruise of 24 March was cancelled by Azamara on about the 12th March I think and we applied for a refund on 13 March. Nothing received yet although we can see later cancelled cruise being refunded. we went through a Travel Agent and she says she is keeping an eye on things but I suspect she gets less information than we do. Not sure how much longer to wait before we escalate matters.

Similar story, our March 24 Sydney to Singapore cruise was cancelled by Azamara approximately 10 days before the cruise and we immediately asked our T.A. to apply for refund NOT FCC. She was on to it  straight away and advised we would get the refund  within 30 days then that became 60 days.

Overnight we received the same e mail as RedBlu (and others) from Azamara saying they had notified our T.A. about our FCC!!!

Not sure what is going on but we are of course contacting our T.A. and  hope this will be resolved .We are prepared to wait a reasonable time given the circumstances but do not like the games Azamara appear to be playing.

Totally agree. This was to be our first taste of Azamara after some recommendations.The way Azamara has behaved when most other cruise companies are doing the right thing by their passengers has totally floored us.We are apparently still going on a Sydney to who knows where cruise when EVERYONE will have to scramble for accommodation and flights home from who knows where.Time will tell but back to Oceania for us.We are most likely  to give Viking a go  just to reward their ethical behaviour.

Further to my comment, we have just had an email from Azamara which would seem to indicate our cruise is going ahead with revised health requirements including that if over 70 at time of embarkation you will need a letter from your DR, clearing you to travel.

BUT absolutely NO mention of where they are going to dock to let us off now Singapore is closed. REALLY ????

Who is making these decisions ? Beyond angry now.Just do the right thing Azamara.

We have just had an email from Azamara indicating that our cruise Sydney to Singapore arriving 11 April is going ahead. It covers updated health issues and that if over 70 at time of embarkation  you will need a letter from your DR. clearing you to travel.

BUT absolutely NO mention of where they are going to throw us off given Singapore is now closed. REALLY ????