JYDCruise

I am truly glad that this worked out for you, though that being on hold for "only" 45 minutes indicates improvement just shows how bad things have been. And not all of us are having even this much luck. I called in this morning, and got the cheery message that "we're shutting our phone lines down to handle the customers in queue, call back tomorrow" - hours before the nominal shut down time. Yes, I am still expecting to have a wonderful time on board (though have resigned myself to having to spend a number of hours of my holiday on board sorting out and booking excursions, etc.), but this has tainted the experience. From IT to PR to customer support, the Azamara executive staff has mismanaged this at every single turn, and frankly Sycamore should replace the entire existing Azamara C-suite.

Exactly . . . which is why Sycamore/Azamara should have planned better (or, frankly, planned at more than just a Gantt chart wish-list). Not just in IT, but at some point in the process someone should have raised a flag and said "hey, Carol, this migration isn't going to be ready on time - not even close - and we'd better have more customer support in place because the phones are going to start ringing!".

If the data transfer process and timing was not built into the purchase contract, then Sycamore Partners' shortfall is as bad as Azamara's. As this was not Sycamore's first rodeo, I discount that possibility. And again, that Azamara didn't bother to do any testing before rolling out the product cannot be debated.

Yes, there certainly can be challenges in these efforts, but it's simply not up for debate that Azamara failed to do even the most cursory testing before rolling out the new website to their paying beta testers . . . er, customers. That's why all this work gets done behind the scenes before going public. Sure, a few anomalies or corner cases may slip through, but not in the same galaxy of what we see, and continue to see. If you look up FUBAR in Wikipedia, there's a pointer to the Azamara website.

Just when you might think that things couldn't be handled any worse . . . As a recap, we now sail in just a few weeks. We've gone through the "cruise doesn't show/then cruise shows but incorrectly reflects a massive balance due/now shows paid in full" cycle and are currently at the "can't book excursions because there's no pencil icon, and it also doesn't show OBC" phase. A couple of weeks after submitting a form regarding excursions, they actually emailed me a brochure. Last week, to my surprise, I got a follow-up email from one of their customer service reps offering to arrange a time to call me and help book packages, excursions, etc. AWESOME! I suggested a time last Friday and provided my phone number, and received a email back from the rep confirming that they would call me at the requested time. AWESOME-ER!! Of course, the call never came, and we have not received any further communication despite my sending two gentle emails asking to reschedule. I'd ring the 30-day priority call center so proudly touted by Carol Cabazas . . . but that phone number seems to be hidden away with the aliens in Area 51.

Fully agreed, but it's more than that. Right now, Azamara should be doing high-dives into cups of water to generate goodwill, rather than the opposite.

We also got this. It's well written and acknowledges the problem, outlines what they're doing to fix it. Nice job, even if this should have all taken place a couple of months back. Carol, do you know the coolest part of your email? It's where you say that you have added a dedicated call center option for sailings within 30 days! Hey, that's us!! Carol, do you know what would make this even better? IF YOU TOLD US HOW TO CONTACT THIS AWESOME DEDICATED CALL CENTER! FYI, I called the normal support line and there was no specific option for sailings in the next 30 days. (sorry, just getting very frustrated . . . )

Ah, now we see where Azamara is getting their support model. 😄

Nothing has changed for us in the past couple of weeks. I can log in, see my cruise (which at least now shows as "Paid in Full"), but cannot book any add-ons/excursions/etc. I've gone into "manage my reservation" on multiple browsers under multiple operating systems, yet no pencil icon appears anywhere. So it's costing Azamara directly, as instead of buying the Experience More package and booking excursions through Azamara, we're going 3rd-party. Not everyone in our party will upgrade beverage packages as would be the case with Experience More. We won't spend the money in the spa that would have come with the package. We may decide to only use Prime C/Aqualina twice instead of 3 times as in the package. Each is minor but it all adds up, or rather subtracts from their revenue stream. And if we were still in the exploration phase? How many of you are either holding off booking with Azamara, or giving your business to other lines, or are at least more seriously considering alternatives? Someone (who knows, maybe me?) should make Sycamore Partners aware of what's going on, if they aren't already, of what's happening at their investment. Based on the glacier like progress to date in resolving the IT fiasco, the lack of communications, the absence of any meaningful customer support, etc. etc. etc., they need to step in and take direct control.

I'm in exactly the same boat (maybe even on the exact same boat . . . ) .😀 Like you, I received a similar email yesterday but I've tried different browsers, different operating systems, and still no visible OBC, nor any way to purchase addons or excursions. Their emails just remind me of:

My main issue is that I can't even see the excursions/packages, or the OBC. Yet in Ms. Cabezas' most recent email, she claims: "Currently, all guests can book shore excursions directly on Azamara.com . . . " which my experience (and apparently others) is simply still wrong. Book them? I can't even see them!

We're sailing in June, and I don't see my OBC, nor any way to purchase excursions/packages/etc. despite being paid in full. See screenshot below from "Manage My Reservation" - I have no "pencil icons" to click. Does anyone have any suggestions?

This has been handled so ineptly that a fair number of people, including some very senior executives, should be polishing up their resumes if they are wise. And they will probably want to edit it to claim that they left Azamara sometime last year.

For those whose reservations don't show, refresh the browser window and see if that works. My upcoming trip appeared after I did so. However, while the website at least now correctly shows that we paid in full (though the payment date is off, likely showing when it was corrected rather than the actual payment date), it STILL doesn't let me book excursions/packages/etc. I simply don't get the pencil icons after clicking on "Manage Your Reservation", though I can see the categories listed. Any suggestions? As for the letter, though far, far overdue (what has their PR team been doing all this time??), it was well written. I can sort of understand why it doesn't include any admission of guilt (well, mindbogglingly gross incompetence) just to avoid anything that could be construed as legal liability. What she says, though, is more wishing-upon-a-star than anything resembling reality.

A few hours after getting this email, I re-re-re-re-re-rechecked my account and (drum roll . . . ) it now shows as "Paid in full"! A major breakthrough! Of course, I grabbed some screen captures, just in case. That's the (very) good news. On the other hand, for whatever reason it STILL won't allow me to book any packages, excursions, etc. nor do I see my OBC. There's no "pencil icon" to click under Manage My Reservation (multiple O/S, multiple browsers tried); I'd think I was just missing something, but Occam's Razor points to Azamara as the cause.

Two weeks ago, I submitted the online form regarding the "Balance Due" error on my early June cruise (which was paid in full in February). I just now received a response from loyalty@azamara.com: Due to the migration into our new systems, we are just now seeing your message; please accept our apologies for any frustration or inconvenience this may have caused. While we hope you were able to reach out to one of our agents via phone to get your initial inquiry resolved, we still wished to verify if all has been taken care of or if there's anything we can still assist with. Good news, right! I checked online and . . . nothing has changed. It still shows the full amount as due. I'm also confused as to why they thought I would "reach out to one of our agents via phone" - isn't not having to call the entire point of the online form? The circus continues.

You might try using a different browser. For example, my June cruise is visible when I use Chrome, but only sometimes when using Firefox (e.g. right now it doesn't show, yesterday evening it did). Both (when visible) still show that I owe the entire balance due, despite payment in full two months ago. More fun'n'games with the Azamara update!

Never mind, asked and answered. Have a great time in Egypt!

The website won't let me do so, presumably because it thinks we have a balance due. Note that in the FAQ, it states: "Please note that a payment must be made on your cruise before you can book shore excursions." Of course, we've been fully paid up since February, but . . . Maybe I'll make a payment of $0.01 and see if that unlocks the treasure trove. ETA: Nope, it wants the full payment, and won't let me input anything else.

I live in the US, have a cruise within the next two months, and have received no communications whatsoever. The email itself is really not acceptable. They could have acknowledged the problem without accepting liability, something like "the migration has not proceeded to the standards to which we hold ourselves, and we understand your frustration. Rest assured that we are doing everything . . . blah blah blah". The fact that this bare bones email took weeks to craft really just compounds the issue. I'm personally extremely frustrated. My booking shows that I still "owe" the entire cost of the cruise, despite having paid in full months ago. I've filled the form over a week ago and . . . nothing. Until this gets resolved, I can't book excursions, packages, etc. and at this point am expecting to spend my first hours onboard waiting in a very, very long line at customer service to get this resolved, with a knock-on effect of finding dining times/opportunities booked by the time it's all done.

Thanks, this is very useful information! Our cruise is early June, so we're in pretty much the same boat (well, probably a different ship, but the same boat . . . ). The problem is that if I have to wait until I board to sign up for Azamara excursions . . . I won't sign up for Azamara excursions. Rather than spending hours of my first day on board doing so, hoping that the excursions I want are still available, I'll just sign up for 3rd party jaunts. This has the ripple effect that in addition we won't buy a couple of Experience More packages as the $700 excursion credit would be worthless, we won't spend as much on beverage packages, etc. It's going to cost Azamara some revenue, maybe $2-3k in our case; trivial if only a few people do the same, but could be significant if many do so.

You may have clicked on "Shore extortions" instead of "Shore excursions".

I have a (fully paid up despite what the website shows) cruise in 2 months. No email from Azamara; maybe they're trying to save postage by not sending it to everyone? I've submitted a query form, and will see what, if anything, that accomplishes.

I really do wonder if Azamara is monitoring this forum/thread.

Given the Keystone-Kops* nature of the website migration and rollout, I'm really quite surprised that after a few weeks there hasn't been some PR management effort on Azamara's part. Even just an email from the CEO to people with existing bookings would be nice, stating something to the effect of "We understand there are issues with the new Azamara website. While we're excited about sharing our new online presence with you, this complicated process hasn't proceeded to the standards we hold, and that you rightly expect from us. Please understand that we are working around the clock to resolve any and all concerns." Blah blah blah . . . or put a banner on the website itself. Is the Azamara PR team too busy trying to craft the next "BEST OFFER EVER!!" to slap something like this together? *Sorry for the US-centric reference. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_Cops