Are Azamara ships sailing full?

[Jade13]

jade13,

 

I told my wife about her cruise on Monday. Yesterday, she left for Alaska for a few weeks for a photo shoot in places like Lake Clark, Redoubt Bay and Katmai. She won't be looking at the internet out there. In most places there is no phone either, unless you have a satellite phone with you.

 

I hardly ever travel anymore, did too much of it in a former job. Taking care of the dogs, digging holes (as my wife says) around our property with my backhoe, flying my little helicopter, that is my idea of getting away from the rigors of the office.

 

PG's Hubby

 

 

OT, I lived in your state for four years when I went to College.

[msu]

Is there room for others in the semi luxury small ship market place?

 

Obviously one would think so but I am seeing a trend Azamara ships are not filling up and are having re branding issues and Windstar has a financial issue and is re branding as well.

 

Windstar and Azamara both have many of the same European and Mediterranean itineraries.

 

Pricing is in part at the root of all this what can one afford to pay or is willing to pay perceived value. Lower prices to attract customers but then if you raise them to stay profitable will you retain the customers being many are cruising with you because of price.

 

In other words are all these sale prices bringing cruisers to upscale cruise lines who can not afford the normal pricing the upscale semi and luxury lines price at so they are occasional cruisers of this quality or one time cruisers of this quality.

 

( Please I am not being snobby. I am looking at this from a marketing sales perspective and management perspective )

[3418ahl]

I think a big part of ships not booking well is also the economy. Cruises are definitely a luxury item and one might spend the money, but not the semi--luxury type. Many of those cruisers are retirees and dependent upon investment growth income, of which there is none right nowl.

[piscean]

would interline rates apply if you work for those cos in the UK ?

Also we are getting spcials now daily from agents,but still same high lead in prices,but upto 1500$ obc and free flights

It won't be easy to spend upto $1500 obc with the inclusive wine!

[UKBayern]

We own a hotel. The travel business is growing again after the 2009 breakdown in holidays, but there are a number of reasons why business is slow this year.

Because of the Football World Cup, nobody booked or travelled in June, especially in Europe. For example, 83% of all Germans watched the soccer at home drinking beer, so nobody was reserving a cruise. The normal timeline statistics of filling the ship did not apply this year. Normally, after final payday, a number of cabins given back by Americans are booked by Europeans, who traditionally do not book as far out.

 

The other factor is the gigantic heatwave in large parts of the US and Europe. When it is this hot, all spending goes down, also clothes stores etc suffer. People do not have the need to travel to a warmer climate either, because they can enjoy it at home.

 

would interline rates apply if you work for those cos in the UK ?

When I worked for a very small Dutch airline, we also got interline rates. You do have to compare, because sometimes you are better off with a "normal" last minute deal. For Europeans, check out this site, and click the english flag. I used them 3 times in the past, twice for ourselves and once for my parents. They sometimes offer industry rates for parents or parents-in-law too. Unfortunately, no more industry rates or SA flights anymore for us... I am sure there are other ones, but this one is a really big one in continental Europe. Your internal travel department that issues staff tickets normally has this kind of information too.