Azamara Cruises was founded in 2007 by Royal Caribbean International in the hopes it would give the company a deluxe cruise division that could compete in the upscale travel segment.

In the beginning, the strategy seemed to be working, especially when savvy cruise veteran Larry Pimentel took over as CEO in 2009 and implemented some innovative ideas. But since the COVID-19 pandemic, Pimentel’s resignation in 2020, and the sale of Azamara to private investment group Sycamore Partners in 2021, the cruise line has been drifting into mediocrity.

Starting a new cruise line is never easy, especially when the aim is to compete for the business of discerning, upscale travelers in the luxury-end of the market. But that’s exactly what cruise giant Royal Caribbean International (RCI) did when it decided to diversify its mainstream cruise line business into the luxury segment in 2007.

At the time, the competition was steep. The market already had several ultra-luxury cruise lines including Seabourn, Crystal, Regent, and Silversea. And most of their ships were new and purpose-built for the luxury market.

But RCI saw an opportunity for a cruise line that offered an experience somewhere between the ultra-luxury and premium cruise line segments. And they decided to do it with used ships that could be refurbished into a “deluxe” cruise line that could offer voyages at fares below the luxury cruise lines. That’s how four of the ships built for Renaissance Cruises between 1997 and 2001 eventually ended up in the Azamara fleet after Renaissance went bankrupt in 2001.

When Larry Pimentel joined Azamara as CEO in 2009, he was already a cruise industry leader with stints at the helms of Seabourn, SeaDream Yacht Club, and Cunard. As a result, he had a good grasp of what the competition was offering, and how he could differentiate Azamara.

Shortly into his tenure as CEO, Pimentel seized on the idea of making Azamara a destination-intensive cruise product with more “out-of-the-way” destinations and longer port stays – a breakthrough in the industry. He also created the cruise line’s AzAmazing Evenings — a special experience offered free of charge during each cruise, such as a private classical concert in the ruins of Ephesus, Turkey. Richard Fain, the Chairman of Azamara’s parent company RCI at the time, later called Pimentel’s ideas “a defining breakthrough for the Azamara brand – and, eventually, the industry.”

With Pimentel in charge, Azamara seemed to be delivering a superior product and building a loyal following. But then the COVID-19 pandemic brought the cruise industry to its knees in 2020, and RCI responded in 2021 by chopping 26 per cent of its shoreside employees. In an internal memo, Fain said that Pimentel was stepping down to help Azamara “bear the impact” of their share of these job cuts.

Later that year, RCI sold Azamara to Sycamore Partners, a private investment group. The sale was not surprising given that RCI had purchased ultra-luxury line Silversea Cruises in 2018 and needed to shore up its cash position as a result of massive losses suffered during the suspension of cruise operations in 2020.

Since then, Azamara has struggled to steady the ship, and its customer service has suffered as the story below told to this writer illustrates.

In November of 2022, a couple from Toronto booked and paid a deposit for an 18-day cruise with Azamara scheduled for the winter of 2024. The cruise, the couple’s first with Azamara, was to sail from Cape Town, South Africa, to Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands.

One of the reasons the couple chose the cruise was that it looked like a good deal. At the time, they were offered an Early Booking Bonus of CA$4,000 (20 per cent) off the posted fare (CA$9,999 per person), plus a complimentary “Experience More Essentials Package” (inclusive of US$300 shore excursion onboard credit, unlimited WiFi for one device, and a premium beverage package for two). The invoiced net fare with taxes and fees for two people was CA$16,688.

According to the terms and conditions of that offer, the cruise was also combinable with an additional back-to-back voyage with additional benefits. 

On May 31 of 2023 the couple asked about adding a seven-day back-to-back segment to their cruise from Gran Canaria to Lisbon, which would extend their voyage from 18 to 25 days. The revised fare for the combined 25-day cruise was quoted as CA$12,152.36 pp and they were offered a “Buy 1 Get 1 50 per cent Off” discount, which should have been CA$6,076.18 off the second fare. Instead, the 50 per cent discount applied on the second fare was just CA$2,076.18 (CA$4,000 short of the advertised discount), bringing the total net fare, with taxes and fees for two people to CA$23,111.12. And the “Experience More Essentials Package” had been removed.

In addition to the basic problem — an inflated fare – the Azamara invoices were rife with errors including a failure to apply on-board credits and describing the “Package Type” as an “18-night cruise” when it was now, in fact, 25 nights.

From June 2 to August 1, the couple tried repeatedly via their travel agent, with Azamara Reservations, and with a sales representative at Azamara to resolve this situation.  Despite several nudges in June and July, and with the exception of a short email in early July, they heard nothing at all until August 1– more than eight weeks after raising the issue. At that time, they were provided with another invoice. Incredibly, the new invoice was worse than the May 31 invoice; it removed the Buy 1 Get 1 50 per cent Off benefit and the price was increased to CA$25,187.80!

Following several more follow-ups with Azamara in early August, the couple were ready to cancel their cruises with Azamara. However, their travel agent asked them on August 11 to wait another week while the issue was escalated to a VP of Sales for Azamara. On August 18, their travel agent advised that the issue had been escalated again, this time to the “Area Vice President for Azamara Cruises.” On August 21, an Azamara “Business Development Specialist” advised that he had “reached out to our revenue department.” Another nine days went by without any communication from Azamara to either the couple or their travel agent.

Finally, on August 30 the couple pulled the plug and cancelled their cruises with Azamara.

In an email to their travel agent, the husband said: “I am through with the run-around. If there were any true desire to resolve this issue, it would have been resolved weeks (or months!) ago. Instead, I have wasted more than three months waiting for Azamara to fix an obvious error.”

The travel agency who booked the cruise for the couple is one of the largest luxury cruise retailers in the world. But despite the intervention of senior people at the agency, nothing could be resolved with Azamara. The agency was so let down by the lack of customer service from Azamara that in an email to the couple an executive wrote: “To say this cruise line has been a disappointment to deal with, is an understatement.”

Equally important for anyone contemplating a cruise with Azamara, the bad service experienced by our Toronto couple does not appear to be an isolated incident.

In a review of Azamara posted on Cruise Critic, a recent past passenger says, “Between the time we booked the cruise and the time we actually started the cruise, our experience with Azamara was nothing short of nightmarish.”

In addition, a recent thread on the Azamara forum on Cruise Critic called “Has Customer Service hit rock bottom?” is filled with complaints about poor service at the cruise line. So is another thread called “Hello Carol Cabezas (CEO), What on Earth is Going On?”

The irony here is that Azamara once had a reputation as an excellent cruise line, and by some accounts its onboard service is still very good. It also has a capable CEO in cruise line veteran Carol Cabezas, who was previously the line’s Chief Operation Officer.

However, if Azamara’s onshore management continues to deliver such AzAmazingly bad service, the cruise line’s reputation will continue to sink.

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This is David’s 101st post on Gentleman’s Portion. The SEARCH function at the top works really well if you want to look back and see some of his previous stories.