Do you really want Azamara to fail?

[avw]

On 4/19/2023 at 12:33 PM, donaldsc said:

Nobody who has cruised on Azamara wants them to fail. Those of us who have cruised on Azamara did so because they had a wonder product.  We cruised on them 5 or 6 times.  However that was then and now is now.  I have not cruised on them post covid but it sounds as if they are having problems keeping up their former high standards.  Fixing the apparent current issues is their problem and the fact that they are under new management is their problem and not ours.

 

DON

If you haven't been on Azamara post covid, how can you possibly form a valid opinion on how things are going? I have sailed on 3 Azamara voyages post covid. Everything was outstanding. In fact, I felt that the crew seemed happier than ever, and happy crew means happy guests. I leave in 4 days for another two b2b cruises on Azamara and I can't wait! Last night, I was with a group of 26 people and was asked the question (as a "get to know you" type game) "If you weren't here tonight (on a boat off Sanibel), where would you like to be?' My answer was "On an Azamara ship". My opinion is based on real life experience onboard 3 Azamara sailings in the past 10 months. Your opinion is not based on any real life experience.   

[avw]

I'm glad that I am not a serious drinker with devotion to certain spirits, mixers and beers! I never even heard of some of the brands that people can't seem to live without for a few days. The wines served by Azamara are usually just fine on my unsophisticated palate.

[Host Jazzbeau]

15 minutes ago, avw said:

I'm glad that I am not a serious drinker with devotion to certain spirits, mixers and beers! I never even heard of some of the brands that people can't seem to live without for a few days. The wines served by Azamara are usually just fine on my unsophisticated palate.

I quite agree – as long as they have FeverTree tonic!  🤣

[blag]

28 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

- as long as they have FeverTree tonic!  🤣

Interesting.

Would you feel that Azamara standards had dropped if they (consistently) did not have the Fever Tree tonic water?

[Host Jazzbeau]

5 minutes ago, blag said:

Interesting.

Would you feel that Azamara standards had dropped if they (consistently) did not have the Fever Tree tonic water?

a) it was clearly labeled a joke

b) taking you seriously: no.  They have never had FeverTree tonic consistently, so it would only be a continuation of their previous, prior-Covid, prior-Sycamore policy.  [But it would be a nice upgrade.]

[uktog]

2 hours ago, blag said:

Interesting.

Would you feel that Azamara standards had dropped if they (consistently) did not have the Fever Tree tonic water?

No because they were only serving Club Tonic, the standard cannot drop any further on that one - like all times when things are on the floor there is only one way back and thats up.

Lets hope the communication and IT is also on the up and better times are ahead

[combine]

4 hours ago, avw said:

If you haven't been on Azamara post covid, how can you possibly form a valid opinion on how things are going? I have sailed on 3 Azamara voyages post covid. Everything was outstanding. In fact, I felt that the crew seemed happier than ever, and happy crew means happy guests. I leave in 4 days for another two b2b cruises on Azamara and I can't wait! Last night, I was with a group of 26 people and was asked the question (as a "get to know you" type game) "If you weren't here tonight (on a boat off Sanibel), where would you like to be?' My answer was "On an Azamara ship". My opinion is based on real life experience onboard 3 Azamara sailings in the past 10 months. Your opinion is not based on any real life experience.   

Definitely!! we cruised 4 times last year on Azamara and have  3 booked for this year. I certainly would not have booked if I wasn’t happy with how things have panned out since covid. We all have choices.

We thought menus were greatly improved and whilst we had a chipped door at the vanity unit ( goodness some people made such a big thing of it ) it certainly didn’t impact on our enjoyment of all the cruises. In our everyday life at home there are shortages of items we like in supermarkets and not enough staff in restaurants but I’m not going to write to head office . We  can’t wait to board tomorrow. 🚢

[sunhat123]

Very interesting to read the comments here. I have never sailed with Azamara but have a booking for next Feb from Cape Town to Gran Canaria.  Have only paid the deposit, but looking forward to this cruise given the itinerary and timing.  Until now have exclusively been on Holland America, but want to try another product. 

I've been watching the website transition and not particularly concerned since our booking is months away.  However I know the website has a large impact on Azamara's ability to do business. Some booking sales will be lost. Shore excursion and onboard package sales will likely be badly hurt for sailings over the next few months.

My cruise booking does not show on the website.  All I'd really need to increase confidence would be an email every couple of weeks from Azamara indicating they have my cruise details and providing a progress report on the website implementation.  With silence from the company (I doubt my TA would be able to get much more info than I can by reading the Azamara groups on Facebook) the feeling is Azamara doesn't know what they're doing.  They are operating a business, but not very effectively.  I want them to be fully functioning well before it's time for me to go aboard, and hope that's the case.

[calliopecruiser]

On 4/19/2023 at 11:06 AM, uktog said:

In the scheme of things, where is trust?

It's hard to trust a company that is refunding, charging, and then charging something again to my credit card, with no explanation.  I find that kind of scary.  My travel agent was kicked off of hold after 3 hours (which is their max wait time) while she's trying to find out why I have several mystery charges of a few hundred dollars to my Visa.  I've not sailed Azamara yet (my first voyage is in August), but I'm already looking askance at the company......even if my on-board experience is good, how comfortable will I be if this is the way their shore-side business is run? 

[Grandma Cruising]

8 hours ago, sunhat123 said:

Very interesting to read the comments here. I have never sailed with Azamara but have a booking for next Feb from Cape Town to Gran Canaria.  Have only paid the deposit, but looking forward to this cruise given the itinerary and timing.  Until now have exclusively been on Holland America, but want to try another product. 

I've been watching the website transition and not particularly concerned since our booking is months away.  However I know the website has a large impact on Azamara's ability to do business. Some booking sales will be lost. Shore excursion and onboard package sales will likely be badly hurt for sailings over the next few months.

My cruise booking does not show on the website.  All I'd really need to increase confidence would be an email every couple of weeks from Azamara indicating they have my cruise details and providing a progress report on the website implementation.  With silence from the company (I doubt my TA would be able to get much more info than I can by reading the Azamara groups on Facebook) the feeling is Azamara doesn't know what they're doing.  They are operating a business, but not very effectively.  I want them to be fully functioning well before it's time for me to go aboard, and hope that's the case.

Did you complete a Request Support form?

[CHTobi]

I have been an extremely loyal Azamara customer since 2013 (I think that 37 sailings - 33 of which in top ten suites [paid for top ten suites, mind you - not upgrades!] qualifies me to say that...) Post change in ownership and post COVID, I have repeatedly voiced criticism of what has been going on at Azamara. I have made a clear distinction between the "old Azamara" and the "new Azamara" and continue to insist that the old was better than the new. In my opinion Azamara customers currently "pay more and get less" and that is not a good thing. Diehard Azamara fans do neither like to hear this nor do they admit to any flaws whatsoever. The enormous brain drain and departure of stellar legacy Azamara officers and staff compounds the problems that exist on the ships. With the current disastrous IT changeover and all its resulting problems, it becomes increasingly more difficult to defend the brand. My most recent experience really has solidified my loss of trust in Azamara. My credit card was overcharged to the tune of $3,182.40 when a final payment came due and was called in to Azamara (after about five hours to wait for a call-back) by my travel agent. Despite my agent's efforts to get this "right" - she had the Azamara representative who ran the payment repeat back the amount due multiple times - the mistake did happen (most likely due to issues with faulty and/or sloppy data migration) - not a small mistake, $3,182.40. Mistakes can happen - of course. BUT here we are, more than two weeks later (the mistake was immediately discovered and reported) and despite the alleged involvement of the Azamara Head of PR in the resolution of the issue, there has literally not been any action, communication or resolution. Except for an e-mail earlier today ("Good morning, Markus. - Due to the migration into our new systems, we are just now seeing your message [14 days after I sent it!]. Please accept our apologies for any frustration or inconvenience this may have caused. While we hope you were able to reach out to one of our agents via phone to get your initial inquiry resolved, we still wished to verify if all has been taken care of or if there's anything we can still assist with. - Kind regards, - Azamara Customer Service") An insult to my intelligence as the message implies that the issue has been resolved, which it - of course - hasn't. Instead of checking if the issue has been resolved they throw the ball back into my court. To call that customer service is ****! I have in the meantime involved my bank (filed a dispute for the erroneous charge). In short, I am working way too hard to get something fixed that Azamara messed up and I have no idea when this will be resolved. So, anyone who is still trying to tell me that things are all nice and fine at Azamara should stop doing so. And this is not about fears of Azamara being in financial trouble. This is simply about Azamara showing a level of incompetence, a lack of leadership, a lack of plans B, C and D that should have been in place because Azamara knew for years that the divorce from RCCL was going to happen eventually. With no good planning and lack of focused leadership, the resulting customer service disaster is a brand damaging epic failure that could very well eventually contribute to the downfall of the brand.

 

[sunhat123]

12 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Did you complete a Request Support form?

Yes twice! Two weeks ago for the most recent one.  No reply. They seem overwhelmed.

[hamrag]

1 hour ago, CHTobi said:

I have been an extremely loyal Azamara customer since 2013 (I think that 37 sailings - 33 of which in top ten suites [paid for top ten suites, mind you - not upgrades!] qualifies me to say that...) Post change in ownership and post COVID, I have repeatedly voiced criticism of what has been going on at Azamara. I have made a clear distinction between the "old Azamara" and the "new Azamara" and continue to insist that the old was better than the new. In my opinion Azamara customers currently "pay more and get less" and that is not a good thing. Diehard Azamara fans do neither like to hear this nor do they admit to any flaws whatsoever. The enormous brain drain and departure of stellar legacy Azamara officers and staff compounds the problems that exist on the ships. With the current disastrous IT changeover and all its resulting problems, it becomes increasingly more difficult to defend the brand.....

 

I cannot begin to comprehend how much you will have paid out for those types of suites x 37 cruises, and therefore respect your opinion!!

 

Speaking as a couple, far from enamoured with our two B2B cruises December 2019 just before COVID-19 put our world on hold, I cannot agree with your opinion of where the diehards sit right now. I was, totally unfairly, lambasted on these boards by various diehards for daring to suggest our experience was no better than the 'mass' cruiselines out there...despite the fact that truly was our experience.

 

Most of these diehards I refer to have admitted to the current Az flaws, at least one doing so quite robustly. We have decided to give Az another opportunity to wow us onboard, and care little about the current IT debacle which should settle down given time. Branding and marketing has no real impact on us as a couple, such things wash over us.

 

We remain excited about our upcoming May cruise and, as with our B2B cruises, I will provide honest feedback regarding our onboard experience in due course!

Edited April 22, 2023 by hamrag

[ChucktownSteve]

1 hour ago, sunhat123 said:

Yes twice! Two weeks ago for the most recent one.  No reply. They seem overwhelmed.

 

I did the second request too after they emailed me to say my account was fixed.  Still no word since then and still not fixed.

[laurieb]

On 4/21/2023 at 2:52 PM, sunhat123 said:

Very interesting to read the comments here. I have never sailed with Azamara but have a booking for next Feb from Cape Town to Gran Canaria.  Have only paid the deposit, but looking forward to this cruise given the itinerary and timing.  Until now have exclusively been on Holland America, but want to try another product. 

I've been watching the website transition and not particularly concerned since our booking is months away.  However I know the website has a large impact on Azamara's ability to do business. Some booking sales will be lost. Shore excursion and onboard package sales will likely be badly hurt for sailings over the next few months.

My cruise booking does not show on the website.  All I'd really need to increase confidence would be an email every couple of weeks from Azamara indicating they have my cruise details and providing a progress report on the website implementation.  With silence from the company (I doubt my TA would be able to get much more info than I can by reading the Azamara groups on Facebook) the feeling is Azamara doesn't know what they're doing.  They are operating a business, but not very effectively.  I want them to be fully functioning well before it's time for me to go aboard, and hope that's the case.

Actually, your TA should have received an email two days ago…

[blag]

15 hours ago, CHTobi said:

Diehard Azamara fans do neither like to hear this nor do they admit to any flaws whatsoever.Post change in ownership and post COVID, I have repeatedly voiced criticism of what has been going on at Azamara. I have made a clear distinction between the "old Azamara" and the "new Azamara" and continue to insist that the old was better than the new. In my opinion Azamara customers currently "pay more and get less" and that is not a good thing. Diehard Azamara fans do neither like to hear this nor do they admit to any flaws whatsoever.

Hear! Hear!

Edited April 23, 2023 by blag

[tucsonsuson]

Not true.  After every cruise we take, I sit down and thoughtfully write a letter to the President/CEO (currently Carol Cabezas) and cc the investor Company (Sycamore Partners) and I name the crew members who made our experience extra-special.  THEN, I lay out areas we thought could use some improvement.  I believe you don't present a problem without also presenting a solution.

 

What I DON'T believe in is trashing a truly wonderful experience on "social media" because they didn't have my favorite brand of 'spirits'.  I prefer to take my "whining" to the source.  Not out LOUD to people who can do nothing about my concerns.

 

If anyone's head is in the sand. . . . it's not the people who continue to go Back(to back) on Azamara!  

 

Spend your money elsewhere.  I'm sure Azamara will be the better for it.

 

Have fun elsewhere.  Bye-bye.

[Riocca]

1 hour ago, gymfreak said:

Not sure which thread to ask this question or comment on. We have not long returned from Japan Intensive cruise on Quest (loved it!)

Although onboard we were able to provide early comments on how the cruise was going and flag any issues, which were speedily addressed by our excellent hotel director Richard, we did not receive the post cruise questionnaire by email as has been the case on previous cruises.

Has anyone else who cruised recently had a post cruise questionnaire?

 

We completed our Onward cruise on the 4th April and received our post cruise questionnaire later that day.

[gymfreak]

11 minutes ago, Riocca said:

We completed our Onward cruise on the 4th April and received our post cruise questionnaire later that day.

Ok John, thanks for the response. Neither of us got one(checked spam folder also) after completion of our cruise on 3rd April on Quest. I do get regular emails from Azamara and have registered my email address so not sure if it’s a ship thing or we just didn’t get one!

[Ayden]

1 hour ago, gymfreak said:

Not sure which thread to ask this question or comment on. We have not long returned from Japan Intensive cruise on Quest (loved it!)

Although onboard we were able to provide early comments on how the cruise was going and flag any issues, which were speedily addressed by our excellent hotel director Richard, we did not receive the post cruise questionnaire by email as has been the case on previous cruises.

Has anyone else who cruised recently had a post cruise questionnaire?

 

We received ours after disembarking Pursit on April 8.

[molemaui]

2 hours ago, tucsonsuson said:

 

What I DON'T believe in is trashing a truly wonderful experience on "social media" because they didn't have my favorite brand of 'spirits'.  I prefer to take my "whining" to the source.  Not out LOUD to people who can do nothing about my concerns.

 

 

I am hoping on board will indeed be a "wonderful" experience. What I and others are responding to in this thread is the utter incompetence of Azamara's "front end". Our inability to communicate directly with AZ, our travel agency's inability to do the same, a website that is totally a joke along with the folks responsible for the migration. I do not believe any of could have done our jobs so poorly and remain employed. Even if the website is not working, an "all hands on deck" effort (from CEO down) could have been instituted to better communicate with customers and agents alike via phone and email. Next week I'm flying halfway across the world having  been unable to have some basic questions answered. 

 

We'll make it work of course but I think there needs to be a distinction between the actual cruise (excellent service, great crew, etc) and everything that leads up to this. 

 

The cruise likely will be fantastic but I will think twice sailing AZ again especially after so many perfect pre-cruise experiences with other cruise lines. 

[Grandma Cruising]

1 hour ago, gymfreak said:

Not sure which thread to ask this question or comment on. We have not long returned from Japan Intensive cruise on Quest (loved it!)

Although onboard we were able to provide early comments on how the cruise was going and flag any issues, which were speedily addressed by our excellent hotel director Richard, we did not receive the post cruise questionnaire by email as has been the case on previous cruises.

Has anyone else who cruised recently had a post cruise questionnaire?

 

We completed our cruise on 23rd March & got the usual email feedback form

[Leo_On_Geo]

Fairly certain it is a problem with your email address. Happened to me. got the feedback email for many years , but then didn’t. When I checked with loyalty, for some reason the address spelling changed so I didn’t get the email.

You can write your comments and email them to the loyalty ambassador. I did this several times during that period. In March got the email fine. Hopefully all correct now

[CHTobi]

11 minutes ago, molemaui said:

I am hoping on board will indeed be a "wonderful" experience. What I and others are responding to in this thread is the utter incompetence of Azamara's "front end". Our inability to communicate directly with AZ, our travel agency's inability to do the same, a website that is totally a joke along with the folks responsible for the migration. I do not believe any of could have done our jobs so poorly and remain employed. Even if the website is not working, an "all hands on deck" effort (from CEO down) could have been instituted to better communicate with customers and agents alike via phone and email. Next week I'm flying halfway across the world having  been unable to have some basic questions answered. 

 

We'll make it work of course but I think there needs to be a distinction between the actual cruise (excellent service, great crew, etc) and everything that leads up to this. 

 

The cruise likely will be fantastic but I will think twice sailing AZ again especially after so many perfect pre-cruise experiences with other cruise lines. 

The sad part is that Azamara knew literally for years that this divorce from RCCL was going to happen. Clearly the planning for this divorce and the need for proprietary systems and a clean data migration was beyond sloppy and as a result many of the (frequently very loyal long-term) Azamara customers (or their travel agents) are now confronted with a tremendous and mismanaged mess. That does simply not reflect well on the brand. And I get outraged when I see the very aggressive Azamara sales pitches on my social media feeds. They are selling more an more cruises and when it comes to managing and servicing the sold products they fail completely in many cases. I hate to say it yet again, an "accidental" overcharge in my personal case of $3,182.40 that remains unresolved and pretty much not responded to more than 15 days after it happened and was reported, is not a confidence builder.

[Grandma Cruising]

5 minutes ago, CHTobi said:

The sad part is that Azamara knew literally for years that this divorce from RCCL was going to happen. Clearly the planning for this divorce and the need for proprietary systems and a clean data migration was beyond sloppy and as a result many of the (frequently very loyal long-term) Azamara customers (or their travel agents) are now confronted with a tremendous and mismanaged mess. That does simply not reflect well on the brand. And I get outraged when I see the very aggressive Azamara sales pitches on my social media feeds. They are selling more an more cruises and when it comes to managing and servicing the sold products they fail completely in many cases. I hate to say it yet again, an "accidental" overcharge in my personal case of $3,182.40 that remains unresolved and pretty much not responded to more than 15 days after it happened and was reported, is not a confidence builder.

In terms of the planning, they bought in a reservations system - Seaware by Verizon. Its used by other companies, such as Explorer Journey. The main issue seems to have been the quality of the data transferred by RCCL. Looks as if they should have asked for a much longer handover period to allow the date to be interrogated more thoroughly.