Interesting survey from Azamara.

Your passion about Azamara is appreciated! :hearteyes:

I have shared your comments with senior management.

Yep, current Azamara ships aren't big enough to accommodate different "classes". They don't have space for additional premium venues or cabins that are flexible enough to do it. As for reserved seating in the theatre, their size would lead to a lot of ill-feeling. I don't think it's even practical to do that for suites. Aside from that, on a ship as small I'd be embarrassed to be one of the "few". It's been said many times on this thread, but it's one of the things I like about Azamara. Everyone is treated the same way. Walking around the ship I wouldn't know (or care) what other people's cabin grade was. I just enjoy the service that comes to all of the guests.

 

 

 

Phil

My sentiments exactly. This feels very much like the wrong way for Azamara to go.

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We have sailed Azamara about a dozen times and love the "classless" atmosphere. This industry cruise trend of designating selected existing cabins as "special" with a few perceived added perks like roped-off area in the dinning room for $300-400 additional per person is aggravating and even depressing. Its simply a way to try to squeeze more $$$ out of guests but in reality its paying more for nothing additional. We periodically cruise the new Princess ships and even they have started designating existing "mini-suite" cabins as premium adding $$$ to the cost. Harkens back to the heyday of ocean liners where each class had its own dining, pool, and public areas, and never the classes mix. Maybe Celebrity should take the blame for starting this with Aqua. However, Aqua added a real difference with its access to the Spa and dining in "healthy" Blu, probably the best dining venue on the high seas. Azamara would lose us if they started segregating guests by "class." We have only sailed in CC cabins (upgraded once to an Ocean suite) as the spouse really likes the larger bathroom and CC cabin size. Still trying to figure out what the butler does other than bring canapés around the time we are off the ship touring. The specialty dining inclusion is great, however, we once were on a 17-day cruise and never ate in either restaurant since the dining room, special buffets and the different ethnic options in Windows were exceptional. The difference with Azamara are the crews and the feeling of returning "home" on embarkation. Don't screw that up!

Interesting post Globehoppers. Of course we do not know if the suggested new grade of cabin outlined in the survey is a fishing exercise or something that is already in the pipeline. Must admit do feel the heavy hand of the parent company in all of this.

With the introduction of Pursuit which needs to be completely refurbished in the lengthy dry dock, it would be nice to think Azamara would be creative and introduce some interesting new touches which doesn't take away from the ambience loyalists like so much.

Let's see but from what I saw in the survey can't think of a single reason why I would pay extra £££ to sail in a grade of balcony cabin which appears to offer little of additional value

Following on from Bonnies post...Az senior management...it ain't broke, don't try to fix it.

We thought the plan might be to offer balcony cabins with the perks suites currently enjoy as a sort of upgrade package. Not sure some of the other questions weren’t just fillers to test validity.

Questions were repeated with different phrasing which is normal practice, but it asked in different ways if it were offered would we book balcony plus instead of a CC which we wouldn’t.

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Theme cruises would interest me if they had top notch experts lecturing and offered special or intensive excurions. I'm planning on taking a Cunard cruise just for those reasons. Also, I like dressing up for dinner.

But, No, I would wouldn't pay more for the perks described. A window, a balcony, more room - those things matter. I don't have need of a butler as I'm not in the cabin much and sitting in a partitioned shared area is just ridiculous. I like that Azamara clientele is well mannered, friendly, intelligent and egalitarian. Hope it stays that way.

We like the informality. We don't want to dress up for dinner. We enjoy the lectures although on a recent trip there were none and we made comment on our review.

We've sailed Azamara once, with a second cruise booked for April. While all contacts about our cruises go through me, my husband was the one to receive the survey. We sail in OV because even regular veranda is out of our price range on Azamara, which my husband indicated. He did complete the survey and indicated what it would take to get us to consider booking the category, but he didn't tell me what that was. I said it was probably better Scotch :)

Very sad day if Azamara start to implement any of these proposals and change what is very well loved by loyal repeat guests. Coupled with the continuing price increases it seems to me to present two alternative options in that circumstance, Celebrity for choice and value for money, or Seabourn for really fully inclusive on new ships at around the same money. Is that really what Azamara want to happen. Time to get real!!

Wow! Just returned from a wonderful Costa Rica intensive cruise and decided to catch up on cruise critic and see this thread. I'm just shaking my head. I didn't receive a survey but would have responded in the same tone as most. It just sounds like Azamara is looking to increase profits anyway they can. Oceania's concierge class on its smaller ships offers no more than an opportunity to book the specialty restaurants earlier. Oh, and perhaps an upgrade in bathroom products. We booked the concierge class on Oceania because we wanted deck 7, but wouldn't have bothered otherwise. As Discoverer level on Azamara, we get plenty of perks and don't really need or want any more. We were upgraded to a CC on this cruise and loved the extra space and enjoyed the free specialty restaurants (but we would have paid for them either way) and really didn't use the butler (the one time we asked for snacks, poor Eyup kept thanking us for letting him do something!) Creating a class system on a ship this small would be dreadful and I, for one, would not be happy at all.

I didn’t get the survey, but I think this is a bad idea. Separate lounge and reserved seating in the theatre sounds suspiciously like Celebrity and not something I’d like to see coming the way of Azamara. The rest of the suggestions are either just fluff, something I can buy separately or as takemewithyou suggests dilute the offerings of the LCV loyalty program many of us already get. Without increasing the size of the footprint there isn’t much you can do to improve the cabins either. If I do get the survey I will reply forget the idea.

 

Phil

I could not agree with you more Phil. You have perfectly encapsulated my thoughts. Xx

We both got this survey. You do wonder why some get it and not others. I thought it was very strange and no way would I pay for "extra's" that aren't really there.

The idea of losing areas to a specific level customer is a complete turn off on a small ship.

they already do these in a way so as long as it wasn't a complete take over would we notice? On our last cruise which included Israel there were large religious groups and they do the perry golf cruises anyway.

Just struck me as seeing what extra people are prepared to pay, I think htere is a real need to be careful as the basic price is already high when you compare to other similar lines.

Julie.

If it was possible to install larger showers in balcony cabins I am sure it would already have been done on previous refits.

I hope this is not just another way to increase prices for very little extra value.

I completed the survey and could easily see them removing some services from standard veranda and below cabins to help distinguish this new category as they are limited in what they can offer on the smaller ship without incurring significant capital/dry dock time which they will not do.

My overall history with this type of survey is that the idea is pretty far along or a fine deal and the survey is just a rubber stamp so they can say they did it as part of the change process.

My thoughts.... stupid idea Azamara.... for their ships configuration/size.

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I received the survey and answered along the lines of many of you. I confess that DH and I enjoy the suite experience on Celebrity ;), but as many of you have noted, the size of Azamara's ships means that if certain spaces exclude others, there won't be much space left.

Also, for all of Azamara's focus on destinations, longer hours in port, etc., there is less time to enjoy the amenities in one's cabin anyway.

Like many of you, we truly appreciate the “class-less” feel of Azamara, really disliked the obvious class system on Celebrity. Got upgraded to concierge level the one time we sailed Celebrity and no way would we pay for any of those supposed “perks.” What I do wish AZ would consider is something like the O fares on Oceania that include airfare and a choice of a perk. Many of these seem to be a really good value particularly if you are going overseas from the U.S. Although I guess AZ would then have to get into the airfare booking business and considering the current issues with various aspects of the pre-cruise experience they probably aren’t ready for that!

Following the thread on Pacific Princess I’ve had another thought, if there is anything in the rumour and I don’t see why not the early R ships had a different configuration with more CC suite size accommodation on deck 8.

So maybe we have been looking at it from the wrong angle, what if instead of offering extra perks in a standard balcony cabin at extra cost the thought was to dispense with the CC suite grade. If this was the case it would mean that only 2 butlers would be required per ship allowing them to redistribute the existing staff over 3/4 ships. Point of the questions could have been if you currently book CC suites what of the existing perks are important or is it just space, and if you currently book balcony cabins would you be interested in larger accommodation as the price presumably would be lower than CC suites are currently, although I wouldn’t want to bet on that.

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I would be interested in that idea. We don't need a Butler and other perks but would appreciate more space and the better bathroom -- however we find the price differential between verandas and CC Suites (usually several thousand dollars for a couple) not something we are willing to pay -- especially compared to lines like Seabourn and Silversea which have veranda cabins that are comparable in size to CC Suites and recently on a number of cruises we have priced have had costs very close to Azamara veranda category and definitely less expensive than the CC Suite category. And more all-inclusive (especially regarding beverages) as well.

The survey was very clear about this being a potential veranda plus category but still having the existing cc suites. It was described as an addition cabin level without removing existing.

Similiar celebrity....same cabin size as concierge, veranda,etc.

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14.02.18

Another survey from Azamara, this time LCV Benefits.

I have filled it in with extreme difficulty, due to the GREEN font.

So not DDA compliant, poor show

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This one asked me if I was a member of any other cruise line's loyalty program. I answered that I wasn't, but nevertheless, couldn't go on until I'd compared the phantom program I'd said I didn't belong to to LCV. They're created with Survey Monkey, which is an easy app to use, but I'd suggest that they have a human being give the things a trial run prior to sending them out.

14.02.18

 

Another survey from Azamara, this time LCV Benefits.

I have filled it in with extreme difficulty, due to the GREEN font.

Completely agree. One of the things I noted was that it listed free Internet as one of the LCV benefits. Not in my experience, though a generous discount is applied depending on loyalty level.

The way in which these surveys are sent to cruisers always seems strange. We have sailed at least 12 times and never seem to be recipients.

This was one of the first we have ever had but as you can see from the other thread I started, it was pointless because it does not work so has annoyed me even more than not getting asked.

I use Survey Monkey all the time at work, there is absolutely no excuse for it not working, it’s got a full test facility if it was properly used.

This plus the fact that the designer had no awareness of the impact of colour or disability considerations ( basics when working with media online) all smacks of something really amateurish.

Not the image I would have expected Azamara wanted to display

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