Webinar with new CEO

[PirateWife]

When we were on an Azamara cruise several years ago, the crossword puzzle of the day was extremely difficult. This was because the clues were for example "the coach of the football team of a town in England in the 1980s." We tried, having no idea who coached football any place in Europe. We have played trivia on all of our cruises and have always found the questions much more European centric. We try to partner with Europeans, as much as possible.

[nordski]

4 hours ago, Whitby100 said:

Back to the comment about AZ staff gleaning info from this chat board, I didn’t think they monitored it any more.  I seem to remember someone did a decade ago?  Maybe that’s an idea to be put forth to the new CEO.

 

Good suggestion. The first CBO (Chief Blogging Officer) was much beloved and respected and left big shoes to fill when he was replaced.

 

It was a role that, in terms of information, separated Azamara from other cruise lines and should be reinstated.

[avw]

16 hours ago, blag said:

Personally, this made me cringe!

Each to his/her own. 

I realise that Azamara is a US-based cruise line, but I hope that the new CEO will recognise that on many itineraries US citizens are a minority.

In fact, US guests may be only a tiny proportion. For example, on a recent cruise, with 645 guests onboard from 24 Nations, only 4 (yes, that is 4) guests were US citizens. 

In particular the crosswords provided are US-centric. Quizzes often have much content which relates to US culture.

If you are talking about the Tokyo to Singapore cruise in April (which I was on), that "4" was very clearly a typo. There were more Aussies than Americans, but USA was the second with the number of guests onboard. 

[ChucktownSteve]

It doesn't matter to me where someone is from when I'm sailing, it matters more to me what type of person they are when I meet them. If I don't run into them, I don't care what type of person they are. 😃

[Grandma Cruising]

Azamara used to have a Chief Blogging Officer. Just before COVID this was Bonnie McLaird who was terrific.

[uktog]

I’d like to see a role that was akin to the original information officer which focussed on facts and had a route in to informed sources of information so could clarify issues quickly. His route for information was often direct to the ships captain. 

Whilst a blogging officer was nice this role was only plugged in to marketing and couldn’t answer many questions (I’m not meaning questions about individual bookings more questions like clarification of port information, details on specific shorex etc). The other problem was some of the blogs they were directed to post came direct from marketing and were factually inaccurate (I still wince at the garbage spun about Edinburgh). As a result the blogging officer could come over as ill informed. 

 

So I would certainly welcome a conduit if Cruise Critic is still a key part of their communication strategy (maybe it’s not, maybe it’s Facebook twitter and instagram who knows) but please can it be a fully plugged in information officer. 

[nordski]

8 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Azamara used to have a Chief Blogging Officer. Just before COVID this was Bonnie McLaird who was terrific.

I regret not making return of the CBO one of my suggestions prior to the webinar. That was an oversight.

 

Not that my position on the issue will be determinative, but rather it should become one of the requests that all of us should consider prioritizing.

[Grandma Cruising]

4 hours ago, nordski said:

I regret not making return of the CBO one of my suggestions prior to the webinar. That was an oversight.

 

Not that my position on the issue will be determinative, but rather it should become one of the requests that all of us should consider prioritizing.

I just emailed Dondra suggesting they reinstate this role.