We cannot put our fingers on it but.....

[shutterbug29]

I was an ordinary passenger on this cruise. I have sailed on AZ many times and found this cruise totally geared towards the brass from Miami and the top paying guests. In addition, the group of doctors had no idea what was going on. There was also a group from the Philippines who were very disruptive on deck, in the hallways and on excursions. This will not keep me from sailing again but....I'll stick to the sailings for us mere mortals.

[ceejilly]

It’s now a few weeks since the LVC cruise and still comments are coming in expressing views on its success and overall opinions. All comments seem to be weighted against personal experiences whilst on board whether agreed or not agreed on but my take on the cruise is a 50/50 response to our experience against what was expected and received from the ship whilst on board.

 

I will not bore you all with a long comment but will keep it short, simple and genuinely honest with my post cruise thoughts.

 

Azamara arranged the flights (with Emirates) and overnight hotel in Dubai (Hyatt Regency), absolutely no complaints on the score. On the morning of boarding we decided to take a taxi to the port instead of the pre-arranged coach, no particular reasons apart from a previous experience when boarding the coach was just a free for all, but that was our decision and all went off well. Having sailed with Azamara a number of times the boarding process/lunch/baggage arrival was up to expectations.

 

Following day was a pleasant visit to the Dubai sights, nothing spectacular but very enjoyable. Unfortunately, that evening on departing the port of Dubai was a huge let down. The email we received prior to the cruise stated that the departure time had been put back to 22:30 due to a ‘special media event on the quay side’, so a few minutes before 22:30 we were on deck expecting to witness an event and watch the sailaway from Dubai. This turned out to be the biggest non-event we have experienced.

 

All our ports of calls were outstanding and thoroughly enjoyable, but what stood out more than this was……where were the senior staff? they were not visible as much as we have been accustomed on previous cruises. We expected the crew to be dotting the ’i’ and crossing the crossing the ’t’ due to the top brass from Miami being on board but they did seem to be ‘on edge’ most of the time. The President and CEO Larry Pimentel and his VIP friends were on board, plus a large group of Doctors and a number of Asian guests. Whilst this did not spoil our overall enjoyment we found that Larry and Nicole Lukacs (LCV Ambassador) were not guest friendly insomuchas we did not see them around the ship generally talking to ordinary paying guests (maybe Americans do this a bit differently to the British!).

 

I requested Guest Relations to supply me with the figures of past Azamara guests (LCV) against first timers and ‘special’ guests, this request was not carried out for some reason.

 

In conclusion: We chose this itinerary because of previously living and working in this part of the Middle East for many years, the experience of revisiting these places was outstanding in all aspects and the service offered to us was well up to Azamara standard, but…………there was something missing.

 

This was advertised to be an exclusive inaugural LCV voyage, unfortunately this was never the case. We were both disappointed with this cruise and I hope Azamara understands their mistakes and arranges the 2nd LCV cruise bearing in mind this kind of response.

Craig

[marinaro44]

I've never seen a designated LCV cruise--2016 or 2017--advertised as "exclusively" for LCV members. We booked the 2017 LCV cruise long before it was named an LCV cruise...as did friends of ours separately. The May 5, 2017 LCV cruise was designated "LCV" a few months ago but was available for booking well over a year before that.

[uktog]

I've never seen a designated LCV cruise--2016 or 2017--advertised as "exclusively" for LCV members. We booked the 2017 LCV cruise long before it was named an LCV cruise...as did friends of ours separately. The May 5, 2017 LCV cruise was designated "LCV" a few months ago but was available for booking well over a year before that.

 

The word exclusive was used in some of the PR material - I am not sure now if it was the cruise line or an agents. The problem is I think it was meant to mean that it was going to be a special experience but could also have been interpreted as being exclusive to LCV members.

We too had booked this first cruise before it became the LCV cruise so had not made a conscious decision to be part of it however I know others had.

[florisdekort]

I always interpreted "exclusive" as that there would be special, unique events. It was pretty obvious to me that there would be many first timers on board as well, as there are every cruise.

 

There were plenty special, unique events but most if not all came with a hefty price tag that I was willing to pay, but lots of people understandably were not. There were a lot of "top tier" events as well. If you weren't willing to pay for events and were not top tier, there wasn't much left except the Q&A with the President, the Azamazing Evening and White Night - with the latter two featuring on all sailings so not being that "exclusive".

Edited November 30, 2016 by florisdekort

[shutterbug29]

I was not on your cruise but what you experienced seems very similar to my experience on a Fathom cruise to Cuba. We wanted to be one of the first and paid a premium for it. There were so many travel agents and head office staff on board that paid almost nothing for the cruise yet received preferential treatment. They had complimentary wine pairings, specialty dining, wine and paint etc. The tours were not as advertised and I felt like we had to do a lot of the leg work to experience what we wanted to experience. At those prices, everything should have been perfect or at least close to 90%. It was far from it.

We had great expectations ...but were not given recognition as a full premium fare paying customer. Instead they focused on the media/travel agents and home office staff.

It sounds just like my Fathom cruise. I was one of the only full paying aboard as well. To add insult to injury, we never made it to Santiago de Cuba. The ship broke down out of Miami. We went back in the middle of the night, got repaired, and headed back out. I must admit that the tours I took in Havana through the cruise line were wonderful in both ports. I am hoping that some cruise line will pick up the slack and stop in more ports.