Booking Early can be a Hassle

[Hlitner]

My experience has been that when the SBC is offered to new bookings only there is no savings to cancel and rebook as they cruiseline expects the new booking price which has always been more than our original booking so the SBC is worthless. Be careful when cancelling and rebooking to get an advertised SBC. Be sure you are getting your old booking price and not the new price with the SBC offered. The cruiseline usually offers a SBC incentive as an enticement to book but at a higher rate. Happy Sailings!

 

Good advice and yes, we were careful. The interesting thing about this exercise in unnecessary work was that after our TA did all the work (cancel, dealing with refunds, new deposits, re-booking) we got the same cabin. After all the work the only difference was the new SBC. In an aside, three days ago we noticed a really big price reduction on balconies for our upcoming Brilliance of the Seas cruise and called our TA. Within 10 minutes we had the lower price ($700 savings) with no problems, no re-booking, no refund of deposits, etc. Just one quick phone call, a little computer time by our TA and that was that! We also noticed that on our Azamara cancellation (and re-booking) the Celebrity folks quickly refunded our original deposit but somehow felt the need to process the refund by giving us three seperate credits to our credit card (totaling to the proper amount). So, I guess Azamara and Celebrity have found some wisdom in doing multiple credit card credits, processing re-bookings, changing booking numbers (creates one more hassle in getting our stockholder credit) etc etc. Time is money and Azamara is wasting their own time, my TAs time, and my time by following these ridiculous procedures. I guess they see this as a "reward" for early booking.

 

Hank

[PianoGary]

The consistency seems to be the problem here with Azamara.

Two weeks before our 8/11 sailing, the price was reduced by $200 p/p. (we found it).

We called our TA, who called X, and the refund was applied to our CC within six days!

A fantastic, great, experience!

[bubbie617]

...the Celebrity folks quickly refunded our original deposit but somehow felt the need to process the refund by giving us three seperate credits to our credit card (totaling to the proper amount).

 

Hank:

 

We have cancelled cruises in the past for various reasons and when they refunded our deposit, it has always been shown as two or three credits. I believe it has to do with taxes, port charges, and commissions paid to the travel agents. Their bookkeeping has it broken down that way. As long as I get my whole deposit back, I don't worry about how many line entries it takes them to do it.

[fog1]

I do not understand the customer relations and booking attitude we continue to find at Celebrity, but they need to go back to "customer relations" school where they used to teach that the customer comes first. Yes, we like Celebrity (and hopefully will like Azamara), but it has reached a point where we dread dealing with their customer relations/booking folks. The irony to us is that we have never had any hassles when dealing with RCI (we also like to cruise on this line) who is supposed to be step-down from Celebrity/Azamara.

 

Hank

 

While we were on one of the earlier Azamara cruises, the lack customer service and smirkly attitudes of both those in Miami and on-board the Journey have left me with a new attitude...no more Azamara and no more Celebrity. Fortunately, all of my crusing with RCI was great, so the company will continue to receive revenue from me.

 

If I were a stock holder, I'd be one of those gadflies that would keep things stirred up as to why things are like this.

[Ol' Salty Dog]

We recently found how "friendly" Azamara is to early bookers. We had booked a March 2008 cruise (18 days) during a period when prices seemed pretty good. A few days ago we discovered that Azamara was now offering a $200 ship board credit for the same cruise, but this was advertised as "new bookings only." Our TA spoke to the Azamara rep and asked that we be given the credit since it did no make sense to penalize early bookers. Azamara refused to give the credit unless our TA cancelled the original reservation and than rebooked. This created additional paperwork, new deposits, credit card refunds, and took TA time and effort. Since we are well outside the final payment period (and still in the period where we can get complete refunds) this was just an exercise designed to create hassles and make life a bit inconvenient. We have run into similar situations with other cruise lines (we have been on more than 50 cruises) and have seldom run into this problem. Its a very unfriendly policy which in the end costs valuable time for the TA, Cruise line staff, and even the traveler.

 

Hank

Hi Hank,

We recently moved to PA and are looking for a travel agent for a possible July '08 cruise out of Copenhagen on the Azamara Journey. With your knowledge and experience, we would be grateful for your recommendation. Thank you.

Paul

[Hlitner]

Paul. Its against the board posting rules for me (or anyone else) to recommend a TA by name. But, for what its worth, we do not use any TAs located in PA. Over the years we have simply developed our own "short list" of cruise specialty agents that we access via the internet or 800 number. We generally shop around with all of our short list and go with the best price which is what we did with our March Azamara booking.

 

Hank

[Ol' Salty Dog]

Paul. Its against the board posting rules for me (or anyone else) to recommend a TA by name. But, for what its worth, we do not use any TAs located in PA. Over the years we have simply developed our own "short list" of cruise specialty agents that we access via the internet or 800 number. We generally shop around with all of our short list and go with the best price which is what we did with our March Azamara booking.

 

Hank

Hi Hank....Sorry. Should have known that was not allowed. Thanks for the information you were able to supply. Will check it out. This looks like the only ship I could find able to visit the smaller ports of Norway.

Paul

[Hebe]

Hank

 

You never said if the cruise that had the new booking was higher in price than what you originally booked. Sometimes I find they will not rebook at your original rates if it is lower. So sometimes these special deals really cost you more money.

 

We just rebooked a room because the price was the same and we were on a ship to get an onboard credit. It was very tricky for our travel agent to do since our room had a waitlist and we did not want to lose the room when it was cancelled and rebooked. Yes -- we did have to put down another deposit and wait for our refund.

 

I agree with you that it should be a simple refund.

 

 

Paul

 

We live in PA and I have an excellent cruise agent who is also in PA. He is available online or by phone. If you are interested -- you can email at hebeeast@aol.com.

 

Deb

[kelmac]

While we were on one of the earlier Azamara cruises, the lack customer service and smirkly attitudes of both those in Miami and on-board the Journey have left me with a new attitude...no more Azamara and no more Celebrity. Fortunately, all of my crusing with RCI was great, so the company will continue to receive revenue from me.

 

If I were a stock holder, I'd be one of those gadflies that would keep things stirred up as to why things are like this.

 

RCI owns Celebrity and Azamara. Same company, same training. Azamara and Celebrity are the upscale versions of Royal Caribbean. :rolleyes: :)

 

Enjoy!

Kel

[capegranny]

I am SO relieved to see that others had a bad experience with Celebrity/Azamara Customer Service. I had a horrendous interaction with a rep who insisted that there were NO airline spots available from Boston to Miami on the date that I thought we were booked. She was downright rude. I asked for her supervisor, and have to say that within 15 minutes, the supervisor had straightened things out for us with the dates/times we'd requested, was pleasant and helpful, and managed to actually cheer me up! So they CAN do it!! The first interaction, though, had me ready to cancel.