Warning: Azamara cancels our cruise two days out: Gaurantee is not a guarantee

[travelberlin]

Could someone from Azamara please explain how did it happen that a guarantee cabin would not be honored?

I agree that at the end Azamara has provided a good solution.

Ivi

[oliveau]

Those of us who know and love Azamara would I'm sure make 3 points:

1. Clearly someone seriously goofed and the original foul-up is not typical of Azamara.

2. Once Bonnie got involved there was the sort of resolution that one would expect from Azamara. [i suspect Larry P. said "I don't care what it takes - Sort it!]

3. To those potential Az cruisers who are now hesitating - Please don't be put off. There isn't a person born who hasn't ever made a mistake.

 

Lahore, enjoy your cruise

[indychristine]

Don’t worry, I did lose my mind. I still didn’t sleep last night for the second night in a row even though everything is sorted now, just too much adrenalin coursing around. Once I actually get on board I will probably sleep for the first 48 hours! I feel pretty haggard just at the moment I can tell you.

 

To everyone: I won’t have time to address every kind comment and every insightful comment in relation to business practices that have been made on here before I embark. I also want to try to put this behind me for the duration of the cruise, but once I disembark I will write back and let you all know how everything went, and with the benefit of hindsight make some reflections.

 

Thank you all so very much once again, most especially Bonnie.

 

For those of you who were on board, here is a photo from our hotel room of Journey coming into Sydney yesterday.

 

 

 

 

 

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I am very happy for you both that this situation got sorted out. I’m so sorry and horrified to read what you had to go through.

We are booked on our 15th cruise in 23 days on Celebrity. This will be our first celebrity cruise. We have a concierge guarantee stateroom, with assignment already. I never considers this happening. I can’t fathom how they can do this 2 days before a cruise. I just don’t get that.

I am so happy it resolved for you. But I’m anxious for those without a social media platform. This just shouldn’t even be a concern. Canceling a few weeks before is one thing- 2 days. Wow. Incomprehensible.....

 

Having said all that- I hope you and your DH have a blessed cruise!

 

 

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[rallydave]

Those of us who know and love Azamara would I'm sure make 3 points:

1. Clearly someone seriously goofed and the original foul-up is not typical of Azamara.

2. Once Bonnie got involved there was the sort of resolution that one would expect from Azamara. [i suspect Larry P. said "I don't care what it takes - Sort it!]

3. To those potential Az cruisers who are now hesitating - Please don't be put off. There isn't a person born who hasn't ever made a mistake.

 

Lahore, enjoy your cruise

 

 

 

Actually for the past year or so Azamara has been doing things. Similar to this but less devastating and at times actually repeating things they have been called out on with too much regularity. This one was imho the icing on the cake.

 

Just look back on some recent threads and see what regulars who have cruised multiple times per year have said and are doing.

 

 

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[digiweb]

I'm glad that it worked out in the end.

 

I just put a deposit on a 'guaranteed' cabin for an August cruise with Azamara last week. Now, I'm second guessing myself if I should move forward. My wife and I plan are planning to fly 2 days pre-cruise but if Azamara cancels within 2 days of departure, it will totally mess up my vacation and I might even miss their notification.

[TravelBugM]

digiweb - We did a Guarantee on our last cruise and had no issues. And the cruise was sold out.

[jkadventures]

Actually for the past year or so Azamara has been doing things. Similar to this but less devastating and at times actually repeating things they have been called out on with too much regularity. This one was imho the icing on the cake.

 

Just look back on some recent threads and see what regulars who have cruised multiple times per year have said and are doing.

 

 

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Agreed. After our first (and just ok AZ) experience last year, I was willing to give it another shot next year with a nice B2B. Lo & behold the second half simply disappeared, from the website; apparently another charter. Thankfully no money put down yet. These hassles along with other things often brought up (such as having to bring one’s own drink mixers onboard because the tonic is so bad) have led us to booking another line.

 

 

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[Grandma Cruising]

Hello there! I happened to find this thread today and was shocked at the situation, but delighted to see how Azamara resolved it. After our cruise to Costa Rica last month, I came away with only Azamara on my mind for future cruises. I've never had an onboard experience like it!

 

Host Grandma, your help, advice and kindness both here on Cruise Critic and also in person on that cruise we're a blessing to me and others. I think early on in this thread, a few misinterpreted the intent of your words, but I understood them because of my own experience with Azamara, and with you. I admit this case concerns me for future cruising, because the reasons behind it are unknown and therefore I don't know how to prevent it, but I join you in sharing that my experience with Azamara so far was great - in fact, it was the best.

 

Pam

 

Thank you for your kind words, Pam. It was great to meet you on the Quest in January. I hope we meet again on another cruise.

[Spursgirl]

This can happen with any cruise company, as Host Jazzbeau posted. In fact this seems to be the very first time this has happened with Azamara, but has been reported on CC with other cruise lines.

 

 

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It would be nice to think this has not happened before on Azamara but in reality we have no way of knowing.

 

If someone else had suffered the same experience as the OP but are not members of Cruise Critic no one would be any the wiser.

[snowbird1]

This can happen with any cruise company, as Host Jazzbeau posted. In fact this seems to be the very first time this has happened with Azamara, but has been reported on CC with other cruise lines.

 

 

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In fact right now Princess has oversold an upcoming South America cruise. They are sending out offers for people to give up their cabins. Keep in mind this is exactly 1 week before sailing.

 

 

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[uktog]

Bonnie, It is my understanding that a fully paid guarantee booking is the same as a normal booking, except cabin number to be allocated at a later date. Could you please confirm that this is the case and that a guarantee booking is not at increased risk of cancellation over a normal booking (both fully paid)? This would put a lot of nervous passengers' minds to rest.

 

Thanks for asking this question as it concerns me. I have not booked a guarantee for a while but I have heard of this happening before on Azamara a way back so I would like an understanding of how it operates if the ship is oversold.

[CoasterGuy]

Please don't be put off. There isn't a person born who hasn't ever made a mistake.

 

For me, it's not about the fact they made a mistake. It's about the horrific way this all came about in the first place. Being notified a measly two days before embark, no reason given, and a hardly any compensation offered.

 

 

For me, by the time it's two days before embark, we're talking flight tickets there and back that I cannot cancel, a hotel reservation that has already been paid for and again likely non-refundable, paid time off from work that now serves no purpose, those who have pets will likely either be having them boarded or have petsitting arrangements made.

 

 

Even if you have travel insurance that compensates you... What a HASSLE. After pre-planning the vacation for months! If cruise lines are going to overbook, they should have a better system in place for dealing with oversold cruises. Compensation packages offered at least a week before like some of you have mentioned on other lines. Not what apparently happened here.

[lisiamc]

I know that overbooking happens, but it’s such a shame they don’t make “move over” offers. We’re retired, and timing and destination is not always make or break for us. If we’d been on that cruise and received a good offer for perhaps the next cruise and some help to change the airfare, we would have been very interested. I bet we’re not alone and there are others that would consider an alternative offer. Then everyone could be happy,

[excitedofharpenden]

For me, it's not about the fact they made a mistake. It's about the horrific way this all came about in the first place. Being notified a measly two days before embark

I agree. It’s totally unacceptable and I’m beyond words to think how Azamara think this would be an acceptable way to treat their guests. It’s revenue over reasonable. I really hope a long hard look is taken by the company and they learn from this. Put a proper system in place and for gawd sake. Two days before the cruise? Crazy.

 

Phil

[rallydave]

I agree. It’s totally unacceptable and I’m beyond words to think how Azamara think this would be an acceptable way to treat their guests. It’s revenue over reasonable. I really hope a long hard look is taken by the company and they learn from this. Put a proper system in place and for gawd sake. Two days before the cruise? Crazy.

 

Phil

 

Perhaps they will suggest calling Nicole like Larry did to the website problems where people can't get on the email list and those that eventually get on get kicked off more often than not.

[AJCM]

We'll hasn't this been a learning experience for many of us. I always assumed the only downside of a guarantee booking was that you had no say on which cabin was allocated. I didn't once think that you were going into some kind of raffle where you might not get to actually go on the cruise you both booked and paid for. So, lesson number one is don't book a guarantee. Talk about false advertising. I'd like to see various countries' consumer protection agencies and/or the travel insurance industry take this one on.

 

I've found, over and over again, that shoreside Azamara has a knack of getting things wrong and forcing me to take matters further - from the something passage thing we bought on board our first Aza cruise, which on land they then refused to allow on our next 2 cruises, until I kicked up a fuss through our TA at the second refusal - never bought that passage deal again - to applying for the LCV upgrade, missing out, then discovering several people with lessser claims got an upgrade - one first timer for free. With the exception of the wonderful Nicole, who has really delivered several times, dealing with Azamara can be pretty stressful. If it wasn't that the cruise experience is so good, we would have given them the flick many cruises ago. Lesson two is that on land Azamara is not very good - expect difficulties.

 

On the other hand, they have a proven record for being fantastic if things go wrong; as evidenced by their treatment, without hesitation, of guests on cruises where there's been an unavoidable and unforeseen calamity. Azamara has been just wonderful in those circumstances. In fact, sending multiple staff to Shanghai to take care of their guests showed them to be a wonderful and efficient organisation in a crisis. So, credit when it is rightly due.

 

I'd like to think that rectifying this current terrible decision is another example of the true Azamara. However, we don't know if this was just an admin stuff up or whether someone else got a significant upgrade or financial incentive to free up their cabin (and I suspect we will never know). So, the concern remains that RC has placed Azamara under profit target pressure and things may only get worse. Looking forward to reviews in the coming months. I might read a few while on Seabourn in July.

[uktog]

Excellent post. Sums it up well.

 

We can see on these boards an example of putting things right - but let’s not go overboard on praising their actions, the issue should never have arisen. I’ve also directly encountered another stuff up by shoreside (see posts about Singapore embarkation point). Now that one is very very worrying, it’s a relatively minor thing affecting guests on two cruises who could be heading to the wrong place, but there is an underlying problem it happened last month as well, guests fed back and the lesson has not been learned and no apology offered to date - sorry is a hard word it seems in some quarters.

 

If lessons are only being learned on big things, that’s a recipe for disaster because then it’s an endemic problem throughout the operation. You don’t want to be an organisation that basks in glory from correcting one big mistake whilst littering the path with others in your wake. The only way there can be confidence lessons are learned are if every lesson is learned.

 

We cannot carry on forgiving shoreside for their mistakes (and I won’t detail all for our March/April trips because in the words of a well known Irish comic ....and there’s more....) so we may one day soon be beside you on a different line.

 

To Azamara before you do thing, write things, send things out PLEASE stop, check it and constantly ask yourself “how would I feel if I was my aunt/ cousin/ friend if this happened to them - what would they think about us, how would they feel, would they be happy” - thinking about it happening to me is not appropriate as your judgement is clouded by inside knowledge and related benefits.

 

 

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Edited February 9, 2018 by uktog

[excitedofharpenden]

We'll hasn't this been a learning experience for many of us. I always assumed the only downside of a guarantee booking was that you had no say on which cabin was allocated. I didn't once think that you were going into some kind of raffle where you might not get to actually go on the cruise you both booked and paid for. So, lesson number one is don't book a guarantee. Talk about false advertising. I'd like to see various countries' consumer protection agencies and/or the travel insurance industry take this one on.

 

I've found, over and over again, that shoreside Azamara has a knack of getting things wrong and forcing me to take matters further - from the something passage thing we bought on board our first Aza cruise, which on land they then refused to allow on our next 2 cruises, until I kicked up a fuss through our TA at the second refusal - never bought that passage deal again - to applying for the LCV upgrade, missing out, then discovering several people with lessser claims got an upgrade - one first timer for free. With the exception of the wonderful Nicole, who has really delivered several times, dealing with Azamara can be pretty stressful. If it wasn't that the cruise experience is so good, we would have given them the flick many cruises ago. Lesson two is that on land Azamara is not very good - expect difficulties.

 

On the other hand, they have a proven record for being fantastic if things go wrong; as evidenced by their treatment, without hesitation, of guests on cruises where there's been an unavoidable and unforeseen calamity. Azamara has been just wonderful in those circumstances. In fact, sending multiple staff to Shanghai to take care of their guests showed them to be a wonderful and efficient organisation in a crisis. So, credit when it is rightly due.

 

I'd like to think that rectifying this current terrible decision is another example of the true Azamara. However, we don't know if this was just an admin stuff up or whether someone else got a significant upgrade or financial incentive to free up their cabin (and I suspect we will never know). So, the concern remains that RC has placed Azamara under profit target pressure and things may only get worse. Looking forward to reviews in the coming months. I might read a few while on Seabourn in July.

That is a super summary of my experience too. I can't say enough good things about Nicole. She has helped me out on a number of occasions, but these sort of mess ups shouldn't be happening. More frustratingly I have found numerous mistakes in their pricing via the website. I've emailed Azamara and indeed posted about them here. They get fixed with a thanks, but it really shouldn't happen. These mistakes make a difference of 100s of £££. Confidence for me is low here and I agree. It may not get any better.

 

Phil

[The Stones]

I would encourage you to give it a try. You will see a totally different side of Azamara. The onboard experience is great.

 

 

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Dear "Grandma Cruising"

 

This has nothing to do with this horror story but thank heavens Bonnie came to their rescue. I find the Guatemalan Head Office of Royal Carribean/Azamara useless and nothing surprises me. I had no idea that this could happen, we once had a guaranteed cabin on a last minute booking for a 2016 Med Cruise and all went well. We have sailed many times with Azamara and since discoverying them are loathe to try elsewhere. I am one of the many that log into this site before a holiday but rarely comment. Anyway enough of my rambling - I type as fast as I speak - I note that you have just come off Quest. Jodie/Jodie (not sure of spelling) is no longer with the line and I wonder if they ran any Zumba classes. I need to know as if they are not I will not pack my Zumba shoes and only take trainers. Every luggage weight counts! I have tried to e-mailing Azamara direct but get the usual your contact means so much reply and then nothing! Useless!! Anyway I am so happy that lovely "Lahore" is now on board, Journey is such a happy ship.

 

Belinda

[Riocca]

Dear "Grandma Cruising"

 

 

 

This has nothing to do with this horror story but thank heavens Bonnie came to their rescue. I find the Guatemalan Head Office of Royal Carribean/Azamara useless and nothing surprises me. I had no idea that this could happen, we once had a guaranteed cabin on a last minute booking for a 2016 Med Cruise and all went well. We have sailed many times with Azamara and since discoverying them are loathe to try elsewhere. I am one of the many that log into this site before a holiday but rarely comment. Anyway enough of my rambling - I type as fast as I speak - I note that you have just come off Quest. Jodie/Jodie (not sure of spelling) is no longer with the line and I wonder if they ran any Zumba classes. I need to know as if they are not I will not pack my Zumba shoes and only take trainers. Every luggage weight counts! I have tried to e-mailing Azamara direct but get the usual your contact means so much reply and then nothing! Useless!! Anyway I am so happy that lovely "Lahore" is now on board, Journey is such a happy ship.

 

 

 

Belinda

 

 

 

Guatemala is not a Royal Caribbean/Azamara operation but a contracted call centre operated by Xerox. I think that it’s an abject lesson in not contracting out a key function that’s core to your business.

 

 

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[Grandma Cruising]

Dear "Grandma Cruising"

 

 

 

I note that you have just come off Quest. Jodie/Jodie (not sure of spelling) is no longer with the line and I wonder if they ran any Zumba classes. I need to know as if they are not I will not pack my Zumba shoes and only take trainers. Every luggage weight counts! I have tried to e-mailing Azamara direct but get the usual your contact means so much reply and then nothing! Useless!!

Belinda

 

 

I’m so sorry Belinda, but I can’t answer your question. It’s not something that I would have been interested in (and there wasn’t much spare time on our cruise either - it was very Port Intensive) so I didn’t notice if there were any Zumba classes. Maybe Mimi,combine, Host Jazzbeau or any other CC member who was on the cruise might be able to give you an answer.

 

 

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[DYKWIA]

There was some mention earlier that cruise lines only sell Guarantees when they are oversold. That is not our experience - on the UK website we have seen Guarantee cabins being offered whilst "pick your cabins" were also available.

 

This thread has had a notable effect for us - my wife and I were looking at Mediterranean Cruises with Azamara this summer - the shocking approach by Azamara has temporarily put a hold on that until we see the final outcome of this terrible situation. Just because it's a "fact" that other cruise lines do it doesn't make it any the more acceptable.

 

I wonder if the criteria on who is bumped is more to do with the contractual arrangement / consumer laws that come into play on the person being bumped.

 

I can't be the only one that finds a small cash compensation and promise of a free future cruise is pretty terrible. A bit like getting a free meal offer from a restaurant after a bout of food poisoning.

[combine]

I’m so sorry Belinda, but I can’t answer your question. It’s not something that I would have been interested in (and there wasn’t much spare time on our cruise either - it was very Port Intensive) so I didn’t notice if there were any Zumba classes. Maybe Mimi,combine, Host Jazzbeau or any other CC member who was on the cruise might be able to give you an answer.

 

 

 

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I've been trying to remember Denise. Can't say it rings any bells and as you say we were so busy!

[bob278]

There was some mention earlier that cruise lines only sell Guarantees when they are oversold. That is not our experience - on the UK website we have seen Guarantee cabins being offered whilst "pick your cabins" were also available.

 

This thread has had a notable effect for us - my wife and I were looking at Mediterranean Cruises with Azamara this summer - the shocking approach by Azamara has temporarily put a hold on that until we see the final outcome of this terrible situation. Just because it's a "fact" that other cruise lines do it doesn't make it any the more acceptable.

 

I wonder if the criteria on who is bumped is more to do with the contractual arrangement / consumer laws that come into play on the person being bumped.

 

I can't be the only one that finds a small cash compensation and promise of a free future cruise is pretty terrible. A bit like getting a free meal offer from a restaurant after a bout of food poisoning.

One of us is missing something. I think the final outcome has been posted. Lahore got her money back plus is being comped on this cruise with some OBC added. She had been offered her money back, some expense reimbursement (insufficient in my opinion), anda free future cruise before Azamara came up with a cabin on this one so all that might have gone away.

 

As I see it, she got a free cruise now plus some cash to spend so she doesn't have to try to schedule another one. Azamara caused her some extreme stress and worry, but in the end, she lost nothing material. In compensation for mental anguish (a wonderful lawyer-like phrase), she got a cruise worth several thousand dollars plus a stipend to spend on board. What more do you think should be given?

 

While I think allowing this to happen is nearly unforgiveable, the end result for the affected party seems somewhat fair to me. However, Azamara still has some work to do to address the very valid concerns of the many people who now distrust them. While I do not expect them to reveal too many details, I think it is in their best interest to at least:

 

Identify how this happened

Release how they found a cabin for the OP (was someone else simply bumped or did they pay someone to move to another cruise?)

Publish steps taken to ensure involuntary bumps never happen (or at least not after final payment)

 

As others have said, a wonderful product on board can cover up terrible corporate policy/execution only so long. Over our 15+ years of cruising, we have migrated from RCL to Celebrity to Azamara (with brief stops on NCL and Oceania) and now see a much higher likelihood of moving away from Azamara than I would have thought possible only a short time ago.

[excitedofharpenden]

 

I can't be the only one that finds a small cash compensation and promise of a free future cruise is pretty terrible. A bit like getting a free meal offer from a restaurant after a bout of food poisoning.

Read the resolution part of the thread again. This cruise has been given free and $250 OBC. It's not a future cruise credit.

 

Phil