AJCM

I don't recall any debris Jenny but you were at the same Azamazing. This was the crossing where we met when you did a great reading at the dawn Anzac Day ceremony conducted onboard - very moving and memorable.

I assume any of your onboard expenses will be billed to the one person and that the people/cabins are on the single booking number. Even if they’re not, I can’t imagine you'll have any problem. Once aboard, speak to Guest Relations. If you don’t get what you want, escalate to the Hotel Director.

Brings back great memories of our Indian Ocean crossing a few years ago. Same Azamazing night. We had great palm readings - both of us are going to live healthily and happily into our nineties. Cheered us up no end.

We’ve needed to claim ANZ Platinum insurance twice over the years on international travel. They were fantastic. Other than a slightly higher excess they provided cover as good as any other travel insurance. You’re dealing with (at the moment) Allianz, so there’s really no difference once you lodge a claim. Interestingly, with the latest changes they are quite explicit that you should contact them before you spend any money. I assume some people may have spent considerably more, in anticipation of reimbursement, than the insurance will cover. So, they’ll only reimburse what they would have been prepared to spend if you had contacted them first. Seems fair enough to me. They’ve also increased the excess from $350 to $500. We’ll still use them because fundamentally the insurance is free and we know from experience that it’s effective.

Buyer beware. Many of us experienced the hassles and delays of getting our money back from flight, cruise and accommodation providers due to covid cancellations. Another serious pandemic is still an ever present threat in my view. The current world political environment is increasingly unstable and look at how some cruise lines, including (or especially) Azamara, are deferring cancelling as long as possible - see Roll Call on 3 May Indian Ocean cruise. It also seems there have been increasing cancellations by cruise companies, due to “operational reasons”. All of these factors necessitate finding new bookings, usually at a premium due to late booking; and paying penalties to change/cancel flights and accommodation. So, we’ll forego a 10% and, most certainly, a 5% discount for early full payment. We cancelled our Indian Ocean booking for May prior to final payment and we have avoided a lot of the stress that others have recently been experiencing. I doubt if that would have been so easy if we had prepaid 100%.

We were just on Journey and it is now impossible to attach a HDMI cord, unfortunately. At least they now provide around 15 movies in demand.

Who would know on the price until you ring. I don’t think you both have to be in the same package but don’t actually know. We booked a Feb 25 cruise while on board.Thanks to the inside info here I contacted Sydney and applied for the ultimate package, at the prevailing rate of USD26.95 and had on board credit applied (and received a follow up, updated booking confirmation). I assume it will be honoured, even though it’s obvious the price will be considerably higher by then. The phone rep couldn’t apply the loyalty discount; so we’ll try when we’re on board. After recent experience, I’m not confident that the new Azamara will honour that; given that we’ve paid at the old price. Still, we’ll have a crack.

It’s not really clear and I didn’t push.

Yes; they’ve scaled back our charges to 26.95 less loyalty. No; the cost profile has increased since moving away from the buying power of RC; so the cost will be increased across the fleet. This is just another instance where Azamara on land can be quite poor. You’d have thought they would be coordinated on an issue like this but maybe they’ve just been testing the response on one ship before committing to a 50% price rise. Who knows - maybe they’ve found it’s too much and the rise might be lower when implemented fleet wide.

I’ve had a win, so thanks again

Thanks uktog - it’s very helpful to have an Azamara document on side. I’ve been back to guest relations. The young woman checked with someone responsible who confirmed that the price change was effected on Journey from 21 Jan but hasn’t yet been implemented across the fleet. I’m now waiting for someone in authority to speak to me to explain why it’s fair that we’re charged USD13 per day more than other Azamara guests.

I can assure you it’s USD. They immediately put an AUD holding charge to my credit card, which reflected the exchange rate for USD39.95 (less loyalty discount). But sure, maintain denial of reality if you prefer. As there is presently an anomaly, I recommend anyone who has a cruise booked without the essentials package thrown in and wants the ultimate package; book it now. Someone in their organisation will soon realise and the chance will be gone.

Thanks guys. We booked a Feb 25 NZ cruise onboard. ASAP I checked the add ons and was able to purchase ultimate for the old price; fully covered by OBC. I wouldn’t have even tried if not for your sharing of actual a experience. Much appreciated.

We’re on Journey; currently in Adelaide, on a very good cruise. It’s USD39.95 before loyalty discount. The price is printed in documents on board the ship and guest relations absolutely confirmed there has been a price change. If you’ve been able to pre-book a package at the old rate, I would expect that will be honoured. If any Azamara rep stated to me that it’s $27.95, I’d request a confirmation email, so I had something tangible to argue with once I was onboard. The old price was actually $26.95, so I don’t think you can rely on what that rep told you; and I also doubt any confirmation email would help, given that obvious error.

Currently in Adelaide and had a fantastic azamazing night last night - James Morrison quintet in the Adelaide Town Hall. Just great musicianship and James is a wonderful, humorous front man. Everything went very smoothly. Apparently this is usually held in a large room at Adelaide Oval, but they had a cricket match last night and we were undoubtedly the beneficiaries. We've been to many aza ok shows - this one was truly azamazing.

just to clarify, we received the 20% discover plus discount.

I checked with Guest Relations this morning; in the vain hope that the USD39.95 was an error. Nope. The price has changed. You’ll all be just as disappointed as we were.

The beverage package pdf has now been removed from Aza’s website. We also cannot rely on cruise prices on line at present as glitches have been found (according to the on board cruise sales person). After I queried a pricing inconsistency between her numbers and the website’s, she said she was aware of the glitches because her colleagues had all been querying inconsistencies. So, the website problems continue. The new owners haven’t exactly been kicking goals.

I'll just add that we're again having a very enjoyable Azamara cruise. Kangaroo island tomorrow (we're anchored just offshore at present, so there'll be pool deck dancing after the late show tonight. Adelaide for 2 days follows, including Azamazing off ship, for The James Morrison quintet (jazz).

Thanks for the tip, uktog. Bar manager has been in touch and we’re getting looked after in wine selection; so, a good result for the squeaky wheel, but I think such action should not have to occur - they need to be proactively much better than this; irrespective of supply line issues (which are overt and need to be planned for).

On Journey right now. Signed up for ultimate and was shocked at USD39.95. Still went with it but then found there’s no Whispering Angel or Shiraz on the ship. Chilean Cab Sav. If we’re paying this amount, we’ll certainly factor it in to any price comparison with Seabourn cruises in future. I asked for a replacement shiraz in Aquilina last night and was only offered the one they supply as included. Allegedly supply line issues. I’m more than prepared to believe it’s all part of profit margin maximisation, which is evident in Windows also. I assume their website still shows the old ultimate price, as it did just before we started this cruise.

I suggest you don’t put your luggage out on the last night but disembark with it. In Oct, the luggage was coming out in order of disembarkation time. Ours didn’t arrive in the expected category and we had to wait around for quite a while until they could confirm ours were still in the ship and coming soon.

We were in a similar situation in Oct. The advice was it was too tight. We changed our plans and stayed overnight in Tokyo, then caught the Haneda airport bus from Shinjuku next morning; with no stress. We wouldn’t have made it on demarkation day.

Azamara’s prices are very high in some instances. Roll Calls in cruise critic are very active for Azamara and you can usually arrange or join a small group at a better price. In our experience they are usually more enjoyable in a small group. It does seem, however, that independent tours are pricier than pre-covid; so that is a contributing factor in present high Azamara prices. When we look at cruises where we think it will be necessary to do excursions at most stops, we have previously booked Regent (Alaska and Japan) and, this year, Silversea (Norway). Once the price of an Azamara suite and excursions is factored, we’ve found little price difference.

Short walk from Holiday Inn.