ChucktownSteve

yes

The best time to book a cruise is when the itinerary if first released. I do that often and have never found a lower price no matter how many sales they've had after that! Never been able to lower my original price.

I understand exactly. I am Elite+; no biggie. During the pandemic I found three Regent cruises that were priced lower than Celebrity for the identical size suite pp pn. That wound up being an elevation for a better price. Celebrity was raising prices to gobble up all the FCCs they issued. Hotel, air, excursions and much more were included in Regent. Now their pricing has caught up so not as attractive since their ships are much smaller and demand picked up.. I sailed, Apex 2/2022, Reflections 12/2022; Regent 5/2022, 9/2022, 1/2023, and have two Azamara upper level cabins on the books. I'm not ruling out future Celebrity cruises, but what I experienced on their cruises were a lessening of product. So until they stop calling themselves a luxury cruise without putting their money where their mouth is, I don't believe them. I'm also now considering Oceania again as an elevation for Celebrity. I do miss what the Celebrity product was under Chandris and the five year contract stipulations once RCG took over. I realize it will never go back to the good old days, but now there are other competing considerations. I also realize there are others to take my place since people are moving up from the lower rated lines for the same reason I moved up from Celebrity. It's bottom line for them. As long as people will fill their cabins, the customer doesn't matter who they are. They look out for themselves. I look out for myself. That's basic economics.

I'm curious. How do you assign a ship's crew member to a job 40 miles away? 😄

Everyone has a threshold where they feel a cabin is approaching where it isn't worth the value. I'm trying to get a feel for what people feel is a good price (per person, per nite) before they experience mental price resistance and for which cabin category. I realize this is subjective so there is no wrong answer if you wish to share. Thankx, Steve

They don't access the closet when you're in the cabin so the answer is no. I suspect it houses a hose to wash down the balconies or spare balcony furniture.

After receiving Carol's email, I checked my AZ account. Our cruise is now showing after I made the second request. But it is showing! Yea! The only minor glitch is my Circle Club points. They seemed to miss my December Celebrity cruise which when the points are added would jive with Celebrity's total. I submitted another support ticket and am confident it will be fixed when they get around to it. Small potatoes in their grand scheme of thing. Mine too. Azamara's problem as I see it is they underestimated the transition problems and their lack of staffing to adequately handle the problems they encountered. Azamara could have avoided all this customer angst had they had a Plan B or C in place that would have sufficiently handled them. JMO.

I did the second request too after they emailed me to say my account was fixed. Still no word since then and still not fixed.

It's obvious the major Azamara problems are with Customer Service BEFORE boarding. I don't desire their demise however I'm not inclined to put myself into a stressful situation just trying to book a holiday. The one thing that would help solve AZ's problem is if they hired additional CS reps to handle the apparently huge number of problems quickly when they appear. Proper communication is a must if they expect to attract new customers and not lose existing ones. In the long run, if their customers are not happy with the pre-cruise experience, AZ will not be happy with the results...revenue loss. IMO, it will cost less to fix the problem on the front end then lose bookings and attempt to recover later.

All I can say is I'm very, very glad I cancelled our May Venice cruise after reading everyone's nightmare!!! I entered their web ticket because my booked cruise for next year and my circle program stats are nowhere to be seen. I received an email a couple of days ago that it's fixed and showing on the website so I should log in. NOPE. Not there. I know nothing serious at this point for me. However I WAS going to book another cruise in the Owners Suite Athens to Rome next year. That's not happening until I"m confident, Azamara has fix their monumental SNAFU and will still be in business next year. Sorry for all of you experiencing the angst trying to get your, hopefully soon to be, cruises.

TYVM. I don't know why I didn't figure it out. lol I've never not recognized a down menu before.. (double negative) Perhaps it may have been others expand when you scroll over them and this you have to actively click on the month then the year? Or perhaps it was a senior brain fart. 😄

Otherwise if the TA is participating with Celebrity on a promotional OBC, even though it appears to be coming from the TA, it's not so that will be NROBC. Make sure you ask your TA first if their OBC is R or NR.

OMG I have to fill out a Loyalty & Future Cruises Support Form because my future cruise and loyalty information is not showing. They require my birthday as a mandatory field.. However they don't allow me to directly enter the date. I have to click back month by month on their calendar to 1950!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The field is mandatory and no shortcut. I'll be damned if I'm going to click back soooooo many months, one at a time, to get to my birth year. Just ain't gonna do it. nope not gonna do it. Good thing I only have one cruise booked. Prevents me from wanting to book another!

Bo, Thank you for your response. However I suspect your post may all speculation. Are you familiar with how all the different state's Consumer Protection departments operate? Even if the end result is no difference in fare, they may be making the cruise line jump through hoops responding to the complaint. However depending upon state law where the OP is located, it may have a positive affect. One thing is sure. If you don't ask or try, you're guaranteed nothing will happen.

Have you considered calling your state's consumer protection agency affiliated with your State Attorney General's office?

Well it certainly looks like the new site was built by the IT people’s perspective and not the customer’s perspective. too bad they probably don’t book cruises online like we do. It’s functional in some cases but certainly not user friendly. They know what they designed, but the common users aren’t as informed as them.

I suspect they wanted to get the booking engine up and running as soon as possible. The rest should probably show up Monday at the earliest.

And that’s why TAs were created 🤣 reverting is illogical. It does not compute.

I figured out I had to do the forgotten password to change it and log in. I tried to do a reservation but in the category it ASSIGNED me a cabin. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to change it. I hate the frames within a frame scrolling small sections. Must be a work in progress.

Oh! is there anyone naive enough to believe they didn't raise the price 5% to give us that perk?

Regardless of the cabin cat, I always ask the attendant or butler to remove any non complimentary items.

Is your neck big enough?

Monaco is also one of the non European Union Member States. Here is a list of EU members who include the VAT. https://taxfoundation.org/publications/value-added-tax-rates-vat-by-country If your itinerary includes a state not listed, then I believe the vat won't be charged on the entire cruise.

Another thing for your consideration when purchasing the package once on board is to ask whether there are any local taxes that may need to be collected until reaching international waters. The VAT tax in Spain gets tricky and sometimes at FL ports. Some bartenders will hold putting the purchase on your account until after sailing to help you with taxes. It couldn't hurt to ask.

I concur if those were my three, that is the order I would place them.