Riocca

When we booked onboard Onward recently using the new system there was a deck plan visual of available cabins that we were shown so it’s definitely there in the system. Question is at what stage as booking onboard your details are already in the system. I did think that this might be a problem as when they announced that they were going with Versonix Seaware I looked at a few other companies using the system and they were all best available in category. Works well for hotel bookings but not cruise ships, of course it does benefit the cruise operator as they aren’t going to be left with the undesirable ones.

We completed our Onward cruise on the 4th April and received our post cruise questionnaire later that day.

I presume this would have been done under “Lift & Shift” which had different t&c’s in different markets and there were cut off dates that changed as the pandemic progressed. So it would be a complicated situation at the best of times but given the current situation regarding the system migration it would take some time to check and resolve.

Could it be the networking within the ships themselves that holds the key to this particular problem? Just seems strange that the original 3 ships bought from RC have a problem whilst the newest ship which had the whole network replaced in dry dock last year doesn’t. Possibly Onwards network was installed with a specification that supports the speeds possible with Starlink. If this theory is correct then it’s probable the networks of the other 3 ships will be upgraded next dry dock

Obviously none of us can actually know what is happening but in view of the payment date given by the OP the booking would have been with Choice Air which is a Royal Caribbean entity so is it Choice Air that’s failed to pay the booking or should the booking been transferred to Azamara and that’s not happened. There are too many black holes appearing in this data transfer, probably most should have been anticipated but now’s not the time for recriminations but to get it sorted especially for those who are travelling in the immediate future.

If you sign in to your account then go to the drop down box on the left hand side you can see communication preferences.

Our October cruise had an incorrect balance but showed a charge for the AzAmazing Evening, so as an experiment I cancelled the booking for the AzAmazing Evening and re booked as it showed as £0 on excursions. Balance immediately changed and is now almost correct just £0.03 in our favour, I’m sure everything will be ok in the end, I made sure we had up to date invoices and OBC totals before the change so can wait to sort out any discrepancies.

Our emails went to the junk folder which is strange as it’s the first Azamara emails to do so.

I understand from reports of a TA webinar in another platform that 52000 of the bookings migrated from RC contained errors, that’s a lot of bookings that have to be manually checked. The email is carefully worded so as not to blame the quality of information on the old system, out of 5 bookings I have one that has an incorrect invoice amount however although the other totals are correct the invoice information is incomprehensible so I think there’s a lot more information that needs correcting.

The meeting on our recent Onward cruise was very well attended, many had signed up but these days that has no effect as there are no longer invites in your cabin. As with many other cruise lines it’s down to the roll call to ensure participants know when and where to look for the information in the Insider.

The registration on the old website was a Royal Caribbean thing and I don’t think anything like that will appear on the new website. Based on recent experience Azamara will continue to facilitate un hosted meetings it’s going to be a matter of looking in the Insider to see when. With port intensive itineraries it’s often on embarkation day so it’s important to look at the Insider for that day.

Rules are quite complicated and vary country to country, if your itinerary is all EU then the VAT charged throughout the cruise is that of the country of embarkation. Rates vary between 10% & 22% some apply it to goods in the shops only others include drinks and other services. One exception to the non EU port rule is Spain, even if your itinerary includes a non EU port Spanish VAT will apply to shop purchases while the ship is in Spanish territorial waters.

Same here iPad shows correct points but iPhone is showing more at 2550, before Easter I could get into all my bookings on Safari but now I can see the bookings but not get into them. However using Chrome for iPad I can get into the bookings, details of our October cruise looking better although invoice amount is still a little out possibly because it’s showing a cost of £30 for the AzAmazing evening. Had a look at my Celebrity account and it’s showing the Azamara cruise we completed last week although it’s not showing any future Azamara cruises so there must be some data sharing between the companies. I’m sure it’s all going to be resolved soon but it must be an epic task to check all the accounts and bookings.

I don’t think unless it was done manually onboard, which the ships probably didn’t have the resources to do, the old system could differentiate between the different types of OBC, over the years we’ve used Shorex OBC for other things many times without problems. However looking at our current bookings our OBC is showing in two categories general & Shorex so I have a feeling the new system once fully implemented is going to be a bit more pedantic.

I understand the concern of those who are cruising in the next month or two but some others are creating problems, there was always going to be problems as RC’s system dates from the 1990’s and is most likely written in a totally different way from Azamara’s new system. So the likelihood of data conversion being flawed was always high add to this the fact that however much you test a new system once in the hands of the general public they will find errors, just look at what happens with Apple’s iOS releases. If you have an existing booking you should have a booking confirmation with the correct details and any Shorex bookings will have been confirmed by email. We booked onboard Onward and the trade booking engine was working fine so travel agents should be able handle bookings even if the website system is not quite right at the moment. Yes in an ideal world the transition would be seamless and currently it’s worse than expected but if you’re not traveling for a few months hence just let Azamara sort things out first before adding to the workload.

It’s supposed to represent well traveled luggage although it’s only a covering for the original ceiling, currently onboard Onward tonight is White Night and the Atlas Bar is extremely busy must be a good revenue source for Azamara. Our favourite bar would love to see it on all the ships.

Four out of five future cruises now show the correct final payment and date although the invoice details show things included like insurance and Shorex that shouldn’t be there. The only incorrect booking is a very complicated one that includes free days and future cruise credits, balance not due until July so no need to worry for a while yet.

Website and account was shut down when we boarded, Express pass not required nor luggage label, no issues with saying cruise had an outstanding balance, correct OBC showed up overnight first night as usual and tour tickets in room as booked.

I think you need to disconnect what’s showing on your online account, we’re onboard Onward and despite being in transition the information on the ships system was completely correct.

From another thread, should have gone to TA’s and direct bookers.

Just been looking at my bookings on my account, the one made onboard this week on the new system is 100% correct but all the ones brought over have errors, to me this confirms where the problem is. I know Azamara are working on it but just think how many bookings are having to be manually checked, it might be frustrating but give them time if your cruise is in the future wait don’t phone it only makes matters worse.

Future cruise on Onward is Ke Wu, she is fully up to speed with the new system and extremely efficient. We were impressed with the speed of booking with the new system possibly helped by the good wi-fi connection. With the old system it often took a while before we received a quote then another day before the booking confirmation, this time we were working in real time could check all the details on screen including cabin availability. Booking was done deposit paid and confirmation printed within 15 minutes biggest delay was us choosing which cabin we wanted.

Having spoken to people onboard it’s the reverse, Versonix Seaware is a respected IT company that has experience with a large number of cruise lines however having been promised a clean data package from RC what has been provided is anything but. Apparently RC’s system is decades behind and a lot of the data is corrupt meaning Azamara has to manually update the information. If anyone is incompetent it’s Royal Caribbean for providing poor quality unusable data. Good news is Azamara’s back office operating system is working fine has been running for over a year now and we’ve no problems onboard certainly not gone hungry or thirsty, for those boarding soon don’t worry online check in is unnecessary and won’t cause any problems. Just turn up at the times Azamara has indicated and enjoy the onboard experience.

We’re on our way to deck 10.

Lisa, we’re watching the white night chairs being put out, off to ours is sailing out of Seville in a couple of days time. Atlas bar is as good as ever 🥳