Disappointed related to Shore Excursions

[Emdee]

Bill, I guess then that I am out of luck for relying on your statement that there would be half price excursions into 2012. I was away part of Feb and March so didnt get your retraction. On my return I booked before March 31 expecting that it would entitle me to half price excursions. In fact if that was not the case I would have been in no hurry to book as now I have lost both the Choice air credit and the half price excursions.

 

Lesson for self - DO NOT EVER BOOK AZAMARA IN ADVANCE. I felt the half price excursions were enough of an advance booking incentive but now my 'deal' has slipped through the cracks.

[Jade13]

Bill, I guess then that I am out of luck for relying on your statement that there would be half price excursions into 2012. I was away part of Feb and March so didnt get your retraction. On my return I booked before March 31 expecting that it would entitle me to half price excursions. In fact if that was not the case I would have been in no hurry to book as now I have lost both the Choice air credit and the half price excursions.

 

Lesson for self - DO NOT EVER BOOK AZAMARA IN ADVANCE. I felt the half price excursions were enough of an advance booking incentive but now my 'deal' has slipped through the cracks.

 

How was a Choice Air credit for a 2012 cruise a loss? Was that originally for 2012 and has been retracted?

[Emdee]

Jade,

 

After we booked the cruise we went ahead and booked our air. The choice air credit was not yet announced as of that time. If we did not believe we were getting the 50% excursions we would not have booked our cruise prior to March 31. In that case we would been able to avail of the choice air credit which was announced subsequently.

 

Now we have received neither credit!!

[tgg]

Jade,

 

After we booked the cruise we went ahead and booked our air. The choice air credit was not yet announced as of that time. If we did not believe we were getting the 50% excursions we would not have booked our cruise prior to March 31. In that case we would been able to avail of the choice air credit which was announced subsequently.

 

Now we have received neither credit!!

 

This is so very wrong in so many ways. Come on Azamara. Make things right. Everyone is watching and waiting for you to consider individual situations that YOU created - and fix them. Those of us who love your at-sea product (we leave for our 9th and 10th Azamara cruises next month) want you to succeed. It gets harder for us to recommend Azamara when our friends read about problems like Emdee's.

[luvmytigs]

How long was your cruise? It seems like you just left.

 

Sorry to confuse--we sail on Azamara July 19th. We were in Santorini two years ago on Celebrity. I was just weighing in on a previous post.

[Jade13]

Jade,

 

After we booked the cruise we went ahead and booked our air. The choice air credit was not yet announced as of that time. If we did not believe we were getting the 50% excursions we would not have booked our cruise prior to March 31. In that case we would been able to avail of the choice air credit which was announced subsequently.

 

Now we have received neither credit!!

 

We feel your pain as we booked direct and were never told about Choice Air or the credit, and went ahead and booked our air too. We have partial resolution (no help from Azamara) as one ticket was with FFmiles, so we canceled and purchased through Choice Air.

 

EVERY issue we have seen on these boards is a direct result of the marketing department promotions, including lack of attention to detail on the web site (people were confused by the Shore Excursion promotion even before the terms were changed). That also includes the errors in the brochures mentioned earlier this year with incorrect stateroom square footage. We are waiting to see what Larry Pimentel does to turn around the pre-cruise shore side experience.

[California Native]

This is so very wrong in so many ways. Come on Azamara. Make things right. Everyone is watching and waiting for you to consider individual situations that YOU created - and fix them. Those of us who love your at-sea product (we leave for our 9th and 10th Azamara cruises next month) want you to succeed. It gets harder for us to recommend Azamara when our friends read about problems like Emdee's.

 

 

Today, we were asked why we were now booked on another cruise line for 2012...

since we were booked with AZ originally for 2012

and all we did was go on and on and on about how wonderful our 24 days onboard AZ were

I was at a loss as how to explain this mess

I eventually said ...long story ...that will require Margaritas.

[Jade13]

 

We are all set other than working out a tour of the Vatican museums pre cruise.

.

 

We booked the museum tour directly through the Vatican. It was great. We bypassed a long winding line outside. Our name was on a list and they let us right through the gate, removing the rope to let us pass through.

[mzk90]

A friend of mine who is sailing later this year got the following on an email from Azamara in the UK back in February.

 

We hope that you are looking forward to your future sailing with Azamara Club Cruises in 2011. We are writing toremind you that shore excursions for your ports of call may now be available to pre book before you board.

We are also pleased to inform you that any tours booked before you board the ship will receive a discount of 50% offthe normal price. This offer is valid for shore excursions booked before 31st March 2011 and is for sailing's on the belowdates:

Azamara JourneyApril 17th through to December 27th

Azamara QuestApril 12th through to December 23rd

Not only can you get a discount by booking in advance, but it will save you having to book them once you are onboardand will obviously enable you to get your tickets secured in advance for the most popular tours.

Please note you can only pre-book shore excursions up until 5 days before your sail date, after this point you will haveto book onboard and miss out on the 50% discount. Not all shore excursions are eligible for this promotion.

If you have already booked shore excursions at the higher price, which would have been before 5th February, you canchoose to cancel your tours and re-book at the lower amount. This can be done online viawww.azamaraclubcruises.co.uk and at the top of the page you will see the 'Already Booked' tab, click on this and then'Shore Excursions'.

From here you can view and/or download the brochure for your sailing, which will provide details of the tours

offered. To book the tours you will need your cruise reservation ID, ship, sail date and the surname of the first guestlisted in the stateroom. Tours are paid for by credit card at the time of booking. Please note, full terms and conditionsapply to this promotion.

BENEFITS OF AZAMARA CLUB CRUISES LAND DISCOVERIES:

Convenience

1.We’ve done the work of planning the day – just choose which immersive experience to embark on

2.All details are attended to and tours include all items noted in the description

3.Tours leave from shipboard lounge or pierside with shipboard staff on hand to ensure all guests make it to their tour

Peace of mind/Reliability

1.Tours are operated with local, reputable and insured tour operators

2.When booking with Azamara Club Cruises, know that the tour guide will be on the pier waiting for guests and cruiseline staff is available to assist with any questions/concerns

3.If there are any unforeseen changes in itinerary or arrival time, we’ll take care of the details so guests can enjoy theirwell-deserved cruise vacation and not have to worry about making changes themselves

4.In the event a tour is cancelled during the cruise for any unforeseen reason, guests receive refund to their onboardaccount; no waiting or chasing down an independent company for refunds

5.The ship will wait for any guests on cruise line sponsored tours

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you a pleasant and enjoyable cruise on board the Azamara Journey.

Yours sincerely

Customer Service,

UK & Ireland Guest & Trade Services

Azamara Club Cruises

 

 

Sorry about the formatting, it is from a pdf he received as an attachment. ;)

[Jade13]

A friend of mine who is sailing later this year got the following on an email from Azamara in the UK back in February.

 

We are writing toremind you that shore excursions for your ports of call may now be available to pre book before you board.

We are also pleased to inform you that any tours booked before you board the ship will receive a discount of 50% offthe normal price. This offer is valid for shore excursions booked before 31st March 2011 and is for sailing's on the belowdates:

 

Azamara JourneyApril 17th through to December 27th

Azamara QuestApril 12th through to December 23rd

 

Please note you can only pre-book shore excursions up until 5 days before your sail date, after this point you will haveto book onboard and miss out on the 50% discount.

;)

 

One sentence is in total conflict with another (by March 31 vs. up until 5 days "or miss out on the 50% discount"). If this was in pdf form then the entire content/pdf came from the marketing/promotional materials.

[zennor]

We didn't get this. Did your friend book with Azamara direct or via a TA? If this had been sent to everyone it may have helped quite a few people even though it would have been no good for those whose excursions weren't yet announced.

 

It really does sound as though the 'book before 31st March' was added as an afterthought to the original promotion & resulted in this mess. As Jade13 says "Please note you can only pre-book shore excursions up until 5 days before your sail date, after this point you will haveto book onboard and miss out on the 50% discount. " makes no sense as 31st March IS more than 5 days before the first cruise on April 12th. Whoever wrote this deserves to be ....

 

Also excursions were definitely half-price on 24th Jan when I contacted Azamara to check about the deadline so why do they say excursions booked before Feb were full-price?

 

I haven't yet heard anything about the opportunity to book half-price excursions again.

[mzk90]

He got it directly to his email, even though booked through a travel agent. He reckoned it was because he had started his online check-in so they had his email from there.

 

I guess it is down to interpretation. The first statement is pretty clear cut, in that the tours needed to be booked before March 31 when the promo ended.

 

I am guessing what they were trying to say in the 2nd sentence is that the promo was not applicable to any tours you booked onboard, even if that was before 31st March, so book online if you want the discount.

[suec12]

I have more or less read thru this entire thread and it is not clear to me if the half price promotion is still available. I've read ALOT about some very nice excursions that folks took on sails that I am not on and it IS obvious that there has been ALOT of confusion and unhappiness about this situation but all I want is a simple yes or no as to whether these excursions are currently bookable with the 50% discount. I did book my upcoming (Oct. 2011) trip when the promotion was originally offered and at that time I'm pretty sure the March 31st date was NOT part of the promo. I have booked one excursion (prior to March 31st!) but am thinking about adding another if the discount can be applied. And after reading thru the board there is NO WAY I'm going to start by picking up the phone and calling Azamara as it is quite clear that the call center is often "behind the curve" as to any current situation.

[Jade13]

I have more or less read thru this entire thread and it is not clear to me if the half price promotion is still available. I've read ALOT about some very nice excursions that folks took on sails that I am not on and it IS obvious that there has been ALOT of confusion and unhappiness about this situation but all I want is a simple yes or no as to whether these excursions are currently bookable with the 50% discount. I did book my upcoming (Oct. 2011) trip when the promotion was originally offered and at that time I'm pretty sure the March 31st date was NOT part of the promo. I have booked one excursion (prior to March 31st!) but am thinking about adding another if the discount can be applied. And after reading thru the board there is NO WAY I'm going to start by picking up the phone and calling Azamara as it is quite clear that the call center is often "behind the curve" as to any current situation.

 

It was made very clear that the only way to do this will be by contacting the call center and having them take your credit card, and manually making the adjustment. One person did this on CC after receiving no clear direction while their cruise was departing within days. I know this can be done via email as some on my roll did (port cancellations/changes vs. missing any deadline), but this would mean you would have to send your credit card information on email, which most will not do. I am surprised that Bill posted a couple of weeks ago about the change, but there was no follow-up. He did make it clear he does not want to be involved in customer service issues. I thought perhaps people would receive information through their travel agents? Has anyone?

[luvmytigs]

It was made very clear that the only way to do this will be by contacting the call center and having them take your credit card, and manually making the adjustment. One person did this on CC after receiving no clear direction while their cruise was departing within days. I know this can be done via email as some on my roll did (port cancellations/changes vs. missing any deadline), but this would mean you would have to send your credit card information on email, which most will not do. I am surprised that Bill posted a couple of weeks ago about the change, but there was no follow-up. He did make it clear he does not want to be involved in customer service issues. I thought perhaps people would receive information through their travel agents? Has anyone?

 

My travel agent called last week and got the excursions booked for us under the 1/2 price promotion. We provided our credit card and all was taken care of. This would only apply to 2011 sailings and people who booked prior to March 31st (and who were not notified of the promotion change). The promotion itself did not reopen.

[Bill Leiber]

Hello,

 

Per my earlier post we have now opened the 50% off pre-booked Land Discovery program for a short time period to those guests that qualified for this promotion.

In order to ensure proper customer-friendly service and to provide the time required for Land Discoveries on voyages that depart later in 2011 to be made available for booking, there will be three phases (based in order of voyage pattern) to implement this offer. Travel Professionals and guests will be notified of their exact booking window by Azamara Club Cruises Customer Service.

 

Should you have any questions please contact Azamara Club Cruises Customer Service or your Travel Professional.

 

Sincerely,

 

Bill Leiber

__________________

Chief Blogging Officer*

Azamara Club Cruises

(*CBO is an authorized and compensated representative of ACC)

[uktog]

Thank you Bill for all your hard work on this one, that is excellent news. As a December traveller I expect to be in the final tranche, hope it does not arise when we are cruising elsewhere (I did tell DH this Celebrity cruise was not a good idea :) !)

[MSAtSea]

I signed up this morning for half=price excursions!! We are cruising July 2-14 in Baltic. Called cruiseline on Sat. to veriify cost/arrangements for St. Petersburg and agent told me that Journey passengers have this week M-F (10-6 EDT) to sign up for discounted excursions due to misunderstanding and missing Mar. deadline. Call LeClub 1-888-532-5828 and ask for Land Discoveries. I booked 5 excursions for my husband and myself. St. Petersburg car/van trips not included and all must be paid for at time of call. Hope this helps.

[pickypicky]

I signed up this morning for half=price excursions!! We are cruising July 2-14 in Baltic. Called cruiseline on Sat. to veriify cost/arrangements for St. Petersburg and agent told me that Journey passengers have this week M-F (10-6 EDT) to sign up for discounted excursions due to misunderstanding and missing Mar. deadline. Call LeClub 1-888-532-5828 and ask for Land Discoveries. I booked 5 excursions for my husband and myself. St. Petersburg car/van trips not included and all must be paid for at time of call. Hope this helps.

I'm so glad that Azamara has apparently made good on some of their advertised promises. I booked well in advance because of the promo I received last June/July (2010) for half off 2012 cruises, and have heard nothing. I have copies of my ads, so I know I'm not mistaken, but I guess they're calling it a typo. Anyone else?:(

[r&rd]

I have a brochure I got onboard the Quest last January that advertised the half price shore excursions for cruises through March 2012. I booked onboard for a January 2012 cruise and the statement I received states 50% off shore excursions if booked online. Since shore excursions are not available it will be interesting to see how they handle it.

[Jade13]

I have a brochure I got onboard the Quest last January that advertised the half price shore excursions for cruises through March 2012. I booked onboard for a January 2012 cruise and the statement I received states 50% off shore excursions if booked online. Since shore excursions are not available it will be interesting to see how they handle it.

 

Provide a copy/pdf of the brochure page showing through March 2012, as so far no one has found/shown anything showing 2012. It sounds like reps told people 2012, and you have materials supporting those dates. The website showed Europe 2011, but apparently that has been extended through December on both ships.

[Jade13]

I'm so glad that Azamara has apparently made good on some of their advertised promises. I booked well in advance because of the promo I received last June/July (2010) for half off 2012 cruises, and have heard nothing. I have copies of my ads, so I know I'm not mistaken, but I guess they're calling it a typo. Anyone else?:(

 

Provide a copy of the ad as I thought the typo was just in Bill's post.

[Emdee]

R & RD and pickypicky can you do me a favour and scan a copy of the ad/email for me as I too booked with the expectation of half price excursions . My cruise is Jan 29/12.

[r&rd]

Provide a copy/pdf of the brochure page showing through March 2012, as so far no one has found/shown anything showing 2012. It sounds like reps told people 2012, and you have materials supporting those dates. The website showed Europe 2011, but apparently that has been extended through December on both ships.

 

The brochure I have is a 10 page color brochure that I picked up onboard so it may only apply to onboard bookings. The cover states: Illuminating. Intriguing. Quite Irrististible. Introducing our April 2011-Mar 2012 Voyages with: 2 for 1 fares, 50% savings on pre-booked land discoveries. Gratuities included. Up to $600 additional off your voyage fare when you book onboard.

 

The fine print regarding the land discoveries reads: 50% Land Discoveries Series (LDS) is valid for full fare (including 2-for-1 fares) bookings for sailings from 04-Apr-11 (Journey) and 12-Apr-11 (Quest) through March 2012 voyages...

[r&rd]

R & RD and pickypicky can you do me a favour and scan a copy of the ad/email for me as I too booked with the expectation of half price excursions . My cruise is Jan 29/12.

 

I don't have access to a scanner right now but I will try to do so in a few days. At least the relevant parts