Azamara Reintroduces Itself as It Readies To Restart Full Fleet

Boutique, destination-immersive cruise line Azamara is reintroducing itself with a wide-ranging advertising campaign as it emerges as an independent company.

The upscale four-ship line this week launches a multi-platform branding and advertising campaign, “Change the Way You Sea.” The creative campaign will emphasize how Azamara moves beyond the traditional cruise experience, offering longer stays and more overnights in popular and lesser-known destinations.

Azamara was sold by Royal Caribbean Group just about a year ago to Sycamore Partners, a private equity firm focused on growing the brand.

The deal closed on March 15, 2021, the same day the company added a fourth ship, the former Pacific Princess, to the fleet. That ship – a sister to Azamara’s three vessels – was renovated and will officially start service as Azamara Onward on May 2 in Monte Carlo.

The timing seems perfect to reintroduce the company to the travel advisor community and traveling consumers.

“We feel we have a fresh start,” Azamara President Carol Cabezas told TravelPulse. “This is a really fresh time for us to come out and say we have a new ship coming out of the gate and we’re so excited to be welcoming guests in a couple months. We had time do some introspection and examination on how we really want to present ourselves to world as Azamaza. We went through that whole process over the past year, really digging in deep and talking with our guests on everything about this campaign and what they think is relevant and important to them.”

The new creative campaign will reach audiences via print, digital, social media, and streaming TV.

While Azamara didn’t pinpoint the dollar investment into the campaign, Cabezas did confirm that the company is “putting some extra fire power behind it” and trying other ways to spread the message to the trade and consumers.

“Something we are doing a bit differently is making sure to try different mediums that we haven’t done before. We’re going to jump into more streaming. I think we might’ve toyed with it a little bit once or twice in the past, but we’re going to jump in a whole lot more with streaming. Actually, via our travel partners – of course we are so involved with our travel partners – they are going into some other media as well, both TV and radio. Which are not areas where we typically jump in – we’ve always been a lot more on the direct mail as well as the digital side – so this campaign in particular is going to have a much broader way of getting into the marketplace.”

Right now, Azamara Quest is operating in the Caribbean. “We wanted to make sure that our largest audience, which is North America, had a ship in their back yard, so we made sure to have Quest come back here,” Cabezas said. “And we extended the season so there would be plenty to choose from for any of our guests in North America and even our British guests, who love coming into the Caribbean during the wintertime.”

In fact, she said, “they got Quest back up and running and did not miss a beat.” Since then, the ship has received its highest engagement scores ever.

“It was the right place for us to make sure we had a dedicated ship,” Cabezas said. “Within the next three months, we’ll have the full fleet of four ships operating.” They’ll all be operating in Europe this summer, starting in the Mediterranean and then Azamara Pursuit and Quest will move into Northern Europe.

Azamara Pursuit is scheduled to begin operations on March 25, followed by Onward on May 2 in Monte Carlo, and Journey on May 26.

The four Azamara ships are sisters, originally built as the R-class for now-defunct Renaissance Cruises. They all carry roughly 700 passengers.

Azamara is remaining true to its “Destination Immersion” core foundation and is expanding on it with its first World Cruise and intensive voyages into single countries. These new options are helping to satisfy the demand of the post-pandemic traveler. Azamara calls its ideal guests “Curious Explorers.”

“There is an even greater interest in folks for small-ship cruising, in almost like a super-sized way,” Cabezas said. “People don’t just want to take this one 10-night cruise in the Med, now they want to take maybe three cruises that let them see the entire region. Something we’ve actually seen onboard is they’re not just booking their next cruise, they’re booking up to six more cruises at a time. They are more than super-sizing what they want to do now that they’re coming back to travel.”

Set to sail in 2024, Azamara’s first five-month world voyage will visit more than 40 countries on six continents, highlighting immersive experiences of the World’s Wonders, including the Great Wall of China, Great Pyramids of Giza, Chichén Itzá, Taj Mahal and more.

More single-country-intensive itineraries explore places like Italy and Croatia. A highly anticipated Black Sea-intensive itinerary also will debut, assuming geopolitical events allow such travel to operate safely in that area.

“We are doing more of them now,” Cabezas said. “It is something that we started in 2019. So many of our guests have traveled all of these different places, but what they were asking for is to really dig into one single country. They really want to get into the nooks and crannies of these wonderful places, so we created these single-country intensives. Certain places have been complete stars. Scotland — people can’t get enough of that country. Croatia is very attractive, and people are really clamoring for that. Norway. Those stand out but, of course, Italy always a great crowd-pleaser.”

For 2023, Azamara is offering 95 itineraries in all, and 35 of those are single-country-intensives.

The company also is launching new pre- and post-land explorations, called AzAmazing Journeys, that include an adventure aboard Switzerland’s Glacial Express Train followed by a day excursion to Mount Rigi, a sunset cruise in Lucerne and more.

New maiden destinations include smaller, unique ports only accessible to smaller ships, including Alta, Norway; Brest, France; Cesme, Turkey; and Fredericia, Denmark, among others.

Azamara ships are likened to an intimate hotel at sea with inclusive amenities such as gratuities, select beverages, exclusive cultural events and more.