Question about arrival into port and tour time

[Grandma Cruising]

Kathy,

I just had a look at your cruise on the Azamara website and I understand your concern about the time you get to Limassol. The itinerary shows the ship leaving Haifa at 11:00pm on May 10th and arriving in Limassol at 12:00pm on May 11th. I know that 12:00pm can be seen as being midnight, but it can't possibly get from Haifa to Limassol in an hour, so the person you spoke to in Customer Services must have got it wrong. As you say, it must be noon.

However, Bonnie did say that the excursions for 2018 have not yet been reviewed and are due to be soon, once the last quarter of 2017 has been done. I'm sure when they have done this the timings will have changed to reflect the actual arrival time into Limassol.

 

 

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[rabin1]

Bonnie

I originally asked you this question in April. It is now July and Azamara has done nothing as of the writing of this post to correct the issue. EVERYTHING Azamara has on the information on this particular cruise says arrival is at 12 pm but the tour in question still says leaving at 8;30 am. What if anything is happenning?

 

Thank you and have a great day

Kathy

[Grandma Cruising]

The Shore Excursions brochure for the cruise now has no excursions for Cyprus

 

 

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[uktog]

The Shore Excursions brochure for the cruise now has no excursions for Cyprus

 

 

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So it looks like the fix in the information for this cruise is starting as that is always the first step they follow.

[rabin1]

The Shore Excursions brochure for the cruise now has no excursions for Cyprus

 

 

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That is not true. I just looked on line and they are still there including the one I purchased leaving before the ship arrives

 

Kathy

[cpkcruiser]

That is not true. I just looked on line and they are still there including the one I purchased leaving before the ship arrives

 

Kathy

 

I believe that If you refresh your browser, you will find that it is true. They are working on it.

[Grandma Cruising]

Maybe there's a discrepancy between what it says via My Azamara and what it says in the brochure.

 

 

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[BBMacLaird]

I will ask again.

[Grandma Cruising]

Bonnie, when you look at the itinerary, you can see it shows the ship leaves Haifa at 11:00 pm and gets to Limassol at 12:00.pm. That can't be 12:00 midnight - surely it would be impossible to leave Haifa and be docked in Limassol an hour later. In that case it must be 12:00noon the next day, so the excursion that I think rabin1 has already paid for could not leave at 8:30am.

 

 

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[rallydave]

12 pm is noon time and. Not midnight and yes is confusing so should state midnight or noon or 12:01 am or pm. Bonnie this is confusing people and I provided 2 simple changes to avoid confusion for now and forever

 

Technically the time is correct but too many people confused so best to use either of the suggested changes. Also Azamara is also confused scheduling a tour 3 1/2 hours before arrival

 

 

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[rabin1]

Thank you Grandma and Rally Dave, Neither I nor my travel agent who between the 2 of us have called Azamara 7 times cannot get them to understand this. I even emailed customer service and this was the answer I was given which is also clearly wrong..............see my question and Azamara customer service answer below. Of the 5 questions I asked all were either incorrect or non answers.

 

5. I purchased a tour in Cyrus that leaves at 8;30 am but the ship does not arrive until noon?

> Azamara Journey will be arriving at twelve o'clock at night 05/10/18 in Limassol, Cyprus

 

Kathy

[rabin1]

Bonnie

You said you would look into this again. Any luck with a definitive answer to what I am asking?

Kathy

[Mrs Miggins]

Cruisemapper shows arrival time as 1200 (i.e. noon) departure at 1800.

[rabin1]

Cruisemapper shows arrival time as 1200 (i.e. noon) departure at 1800.

 

Thank you but please read back thru this thread to see what the real issue is.

Kathy

[Mrs Miggins]

Thank you but please read back thru this thread to see what the real issue is.

Kathy

I understand the issue. You have booked a shore excursion for the morning. Since the ship does not arrive until noon the excursion will have to be rescheduled. If it is a private one I can understand your frustration. However if it is an Azamara excursion then I am confident that, obviously, it will be rescheduled if the time in port allows. The cruise is still a long long way off. Planning should be part of the pleasure I know, but over planning and worrying this far ahead seems to be making you miserable.

Once onboard you will have a fabulous time and all your many and various worries will be in the past and you will be able to relax.

[rabin1]

I understand the issue. You have booked a shore excursion for the morning. Since the ship does not arrive until noon the excursion will have to be rescheduled. If it is a private one I can understand your frustration. However if it is an Azamara excursion then I am confident that, obviously, it will be rescheduled if the time in port allows. The cruise is still a long long way off. Planning should be part of the pleasure I know, but over planning and worrying this far ahead seems to be making you miserable.

Once onboard you will have a fabulous time and all your many and various worries will be in the past and you will be able to relax.

 

Mrs Miggins

Thanks and I know you and the others who have said kinda the same thing are correct. Being in the advertising business I am used to doing things correct and proof reading to make sure even the clients don;t mess up. It is a ship tour and as Grandma and RallyDave have said they don;t seem to understand their mistakes. I am so bad I even had to talk the hotel in Dubai to take my money already. I know I shouldn't do this type of thing but I can;t change the way I am or the way I work. Too old to change. Plus I am always on some kind of deadline with my business and now with this surgery coming up I only have X amount of time in a day. I talked to the TA again this morning and even he is at a loss. Also when someone tells me they are doing to do something then do it, don;t make me have to ask again. I know I have to or lose a client. What gets me the most is the fact that one person at Azamara says one thing and another says something else. I have never in my life dealt with such an unprofessional company. I booked this cruise for one reason only. Not the company, not the ship, not the people but the itinerary. I have been looking for this exact one for several years.

 

 

So again thank you for your advice. I wish I had the ability to not be so frustrated & relax. It isn't just this it is my life.

 

I have a little saying on a sticky on my computer I saw once. I say it at least 10 times a day. It says this.

I wouldn't have to control my anger if people could learn to manage their stupidity!

 

Thanks again for trying to help. I think I am going to give up on this and find an outside excursion. I am however going to watch to see how long Azamara takes to fix their mistakes

 

Have a Beautiful Day

Kathy

[procter]

Kathy

Y

 

I DO UNDERSTAND YOUR FRUSTRATION.

How are you going to book a private excursion when you do not know what time you dock.

Just try to go with the flow.

Getting frustrated just gets You uptight

 

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[rabin1]

Kathy

Y

 

I DO UNDERSTAND YOUR FRUSTRATION.

How are you going to book a private excursion when you do not know what time you dock.

Just try to go with the flow.

Getting frustrated just gets You uptight

 

Sent from my ME371MG using Forums mobile app

 

You are correct and great point...........

Kathy

[rallydave]

Mrs Miggins

Thanks and I know you and the others who have said kinda the same thing are correct. Being in the advertising business I am used to doing things correct and proof reading to make sure even the clients don;t mess up. It is a ship tour and as Grandma and RallyDave have said they don;t seem to understand their mistakes. I am so bad I even had to talk the hotel in Dubai to take my money already. I know I shouldn't do this type of thing but I can;t change the way I am or the way I work. Too old to change. Plus I am always on some kind of deadline with my business and now with this surgery coming up I only have X amount of time in a day. I talked to the TA again this morning and even he is at a loss. Also when someone tells me they are doing to do something then do it, don;t make me have to ask again. I know I have to or lose a client. What gets me the most is the fact that one person at Azamara says one thing and another says something else. I have never in my life dealt with such an unprofessional company. I booked this cruise for one reason only. Not the company, not the ship, not the people but the itinerary. I have been looking for this exact one for several years.

 

 

So again thank you for your advice. I wish I had the ability to not be so frustrated & relax. It isn't just this it is my life.

 

I have a little saying on a sticky on my computer I saw once. I say it at least 10 times a day. It says this.

I wouldn't have to control my anger if people could learn to manage their stupidity!

 

Thanks again for trying to help. I think I am going to give up on this and find an outside excursion. I am however going to watch to see how long Azamara takes to fix their mistakes

 

Have a Beautiful Day

Kathy

 

Hi Kathy,

 

Am similar to you in that I can't stand it when a company can't fix their errors even when it is clear what the problems are and how to fix them and understand your frustration as I am frustrated over the confusion on another thread about use of early booking OBC where one hand doesn't know what the other one is doing.

 

In all honesty, we will be using up the early booking OBC whether it is available just for excursions or for anything so while frustrated, I have in my own mind solved the problem whether or not Azamara ever gets that straight. If I were in your predicament, I would take the approach that the ship will dock at 12 noon and the ships excursion will occur by 1 PM or so. If I still wanted to do a private excursion, would plan it for about 1 PM as well solving the problem again whether or not Azamara ever gets their act together and avoids 12 AM or PM in their times as quite obvious many people are unable to differentiate that time into the actual time. Agree it is confusing which is why I provided 2 different ways to display the times that make it clear when those times actually occur.

 

Hope this helps and hope you have a wonderful cruise.,

[rabin1]

Hi Kathy,

 

Am similar to you in that I can't stand it when a company can't fix their errors even when it is clear what the problems are and how to fix them and understand your frustration as I am frustrated over the confusion on another thread about use of early booking OBC where one hand doesn't know what the other one is doing.

 

In all honesty, we will be using up the early booking OBC whether it is available just for excursions or for anything so while frustrated, I have in my own mind solved the problem whether or not Azamara ever gets that straight. If I were in your predicament, I would take the approach that the ship will dock at 12 noon and the ships excursion will occur by 1 PM or so. If I still wanted to do a private excursion, would plan it for about 1 PM as well solving the problem again whether or not Azamara ever gets their act together and avoids 12 AM or PM in their times as quite obvious many people are unable to differentiate that time into the actual time. Agree it is confusing which is why I provided 2 different ways to display the times that make it clear when those times actually occur.

 

Hope this helps and hope you have a wonderful cruise.,

 

Thanks Dave. Go to your thread about the OBC and see what I said to you

Kathy

[rallydave]

Thanks Dave. Go to your thread about the OBC and see what I said to you

Kathy

 

Yes, thanks Kathy. We cruise on various cruise lines and completely avoid a couple others that we previously cruised due to completely inept staff in the home office and senior management that doesn't give a damn about the customer. Seems that inept home office and customer service people who are clueless are pretty common in the cruise business. Also IT staff that cannot seem to manage their own website is pretty prevalent in most cruise lines

 

My theory about this is that the customer service people are low paid and poorly trained with probably a large turnover which is why the term HUCA is appropriate. That is hang up call again until you get a consistent answer as most answers are incorrect sometimes due to lack of training from the staff who make the rules. For IT, again low paid, huge turnover with people looking for and getting higher pay at other company types and some fresh outs where college graduates get their first job and as soon as they have some experience on their CV they are gone to higher pay. Not picking on any single cruise line as these appears to be across all of the cruise lines we have dealt with over more than 20 cruises on over 10 different cruise lines.

 

That said, while Azamara certainly has these problems, they at least are trying to solve these issues with people like Bonnie and posters bringing the problems and eventually fixing the issues. Not perfect but, certainly better than most of the others and why we are booked on our second of many cruises.

[rabin1]

Yes, thanks Kathy. We cruise on various cruise lines and completely avoid a couple others that we previously cruised due to completely inept staff in the home office and senior management that doesn't give a damn about the customer. Seems that inept home office and customer service people who are clueless are pretty common in the cruise business. Also IT staff that cannot seem to manage their own website is pretty prevalent in most cruise lines

 

My theory about this is that the customer service people are low paid and poorly trained with probably a large turnover which is why the term HUCA is appropriate. That is hang up call again until you get a consistent answer as most answers are incorrect sometimes due to lack of training from the staff who make the rules. For IT, again low paid, huge turnover with people looking for and getting higher pay at other company types and some fresh outs where college graduates get their first job and as soon as they have some experience on their CV they are gone to higher pay. Not picking on any single cruise line as these appears to be across all of the cruise lines we have dealt with over more than 20 cruises on over 10 different cruise lines.

 

That said, while Azamara certainly has these problems, they at least are trying to solve these issues with people like Bonnie and posters bringing the problems and eventually fixing the issues. Not perfect but, certainly better than most of the others and why we are booked on our second of many cruises.

 

Dave

I pretty much agree with you. When I spoke with my web guru about all the problems he said this. I email him some of the answers given and some not given............lol. He said that based on what he has seen and heard from me he does not think Azamara web is in house. He thinks it is farmed out. He said the airlines do this sometimes as well depending on time of day you call but he thinks Azamara all of the whole site is out sourced.

 

Go read my post to you about the can OBC be used for anything. You are going to find it a bit interesting.

 

Oh one other thing. Being from PGH I am a huge football fan and know more than most men. My favorite player is on the Texans. Bet you can guess who.....................Mr. Watt..............lol

 

Kathy

[BBMacLaird]

Hi Kathy,

 

Am similar to you in that I can't stand it when a company can't fix their errors even when it is clear what the problems are and how to fix them and understand your frustration as I am frustrated over the confusion on another thread about use of early booking OBC where one hand doesn't know what the other one is doing.

 

In all honesty, we will be using up the early booking OBC whether it is available just for excursions or for anything so while frustrated, I have in my own mind solved the problem whether or not Azamara ever gets that straight. If I were in your predicament, I would take the approach that the ship will dock at 12 noon and the ships excursion will occur by 1 PM or so. If I still wanted to do a private excursion, would plan it for about 1 PM as well solving the problem again whether or not Azamara ever gets their act together and avoids 12 AM or PM in their times as quite obvious many people are unable to differentiate that time into the actual time. Agree it is confusing which is why I provided 2 different ways to display the times that make it clear when those times actually occur.

 

Hope this helps and hope you have a wonderful cruise.,

 

The ship is scheduled to arrive Cyprus at Noon on 5/11/18.

I've reminded the tour team that the tours for Cyprus are not online.

[BBMacLaird]

Good news re tours in Cyprus - there are tours!

I've just received this information:

 

Tours for Cyprus have been created, although they may not be reflecting on the brochure yet.

Please direct the guest to view their My Azamara account for an up-to-date list of tours offered.

The following tours are being offered in Cyprus on the JR 4/26/18 sailing:

LM53 - 4X4 Jeep Adventure into the Cypriot Countryside

LM51 - Curium & Medieval Castle of Limassol

LM50 - Ruins of Curium & Wines of Omodos

LM48 - Journey To Paphos

[rabin1]

Thank you Bonnie I appreciate this very much. Definitive answers are a good thing.

Kathy