uktog

Yes it is (as of 24/9). We had one trip in July when it wasn’t because they were having to do check in onboard so couldn’t have the Caberet Lounge. It’s a good improvement the small group activity one positive covid change

Ship Journey 24 Sept Captain Filip Adelfoukakis Staff Captain Dario Guerrieri Chief Engineer Miles Minchev Hotel Director Tomasz Jadcyk Cruise Director Darren Lynton Assistant CD Grace ODonnell-Clancy Chef JP Keane A lovely mix of old and new faces. Also back for one contract is João for LCV. Great to see him again

Correct just boarded at Athens today. My £44 yesterday for 2 tests was unnecessary but hey ho. So no tests needed for Athens 😀😀😀

Doubt I will be upgrading my drinks package then 😔. If they genuinely were going to change they’d have done it by now

TAs cannot get restaurant reservations on Azamara. It’s not about clout it’s about the systems they apply

Worrying sounds very like IHG last week. That turned out to be a ransom hack. They too had no maintenance notification

I think it also depends on when the agency releases the funds to the cruise line (for those where payment is made to the agency which is virtually all UK and European passengers)

I am hoping it is any time (which is what I was told).... we will be having a test about 11 tomorrow (which is 1300 Athens time) on the way to the airport, but will not check in at Athens until 1400 I will let you know after Saturday if I hit a problem

We will test Athens on Saturday but last time we sat and sat and sat. Eventually immigration arrived about 1410 having been "booked" for 1400. Ryzard went mad when after setting up all their computers..... they went for a "cigarette" break. Eventually boarding started about 1445. Hoping for better but prepared for the same or worse!

It is highly unlikely you will be able to board before 2 as that is the current protocol. In some countries to tie in with this the immigration officers do not arrive until just before 2 so regardless of reason its a no. In terms of luggage, its an absolute lottery again depends on the port people and also they do not start the delivery in the ship until a certain point in time. First night reservations in a speciality are very rarely a problem - you should go straight to the reservation desk (currently they are operating them on Deck 9 windows as Deck 5 is being used for muster and other activities . I would make my own rather than wait to meet your butler. If however there are no spaces (highly unlikely as I say) ask your butler to see what arrangements can be made - one option they could offer will be seating you in Prime C but serving you the Aqualina menu

You would have to pay full fare and it would only be possible if all the local rules allow it. For a specific answer you would have to ask Azamara. A few years ago we disembarked early from a cruise in Peru then reboarded at the embarkation point in Lima for the next cruise. It was only possible because both ports were in Peru but there was a lot of paperwork. I think getting off early is more likely to be allowed than getting on late. We only had carryons when we disembarked I know they checked that would be all we would take off

Azamara always requires their land agent to vet every place guests stop at whether they are eating or not. That does not 100% guarantee there will be absolutely no problems but it greatly decreases the risk. I think the advice given even in these places (no ice, salad leaves and be cautious about any fish dish is an absolute must). We did the ships tour day trip to Luxor. The lunch was lovely it was a buffet. There were many coaches from the ship in including two crew tour buses and I’m not aware of any problems Enjoy your trip it is special

We were the first bookings our agent had done so he had to set up an account but that was easily done. He did it through his MSC account manager

about 30 days before and you can choose your check in time at the port then

I think some Azamara staff set up social media pages elsewhere which duplicate much of the information sharing of cruise critic. Maybe that has found more favour with management as I see from some trip reports they get hosted meetings

Do not worry about White Night. Some people go absolutely over the top about it. It’s a pleasant evening, the buffets a bit crowded for me, the foods fine though with outdoor dining inevitably a bit cold and whilst you sense some fashion police are trying to big up the white theme it’s not a requirement. I may have a white top on for my cruise nights it might just be a white hair band. Personally I preferred when it was called bright nights immediately post covid (and yes there was a buffet but access was more restricted again something I liked it was far easier to get your food). The bright or sparkling dress code was much more relaxing! And I liked that they did not allow access to the pool deck until around 6. Immediately pre pandemic it had become a joke people staking out claims to tables at 1630 - it was worse than pool chair hogs 😂😂

They do not want larger vessels coming up the river on environmental grounds

I think it was only happening in two places (and it still carries on today in one)the "crew benefited from non refundable OBC 1. The speciality restaurants where the accounting system previously seemed to accept gratuities within the total account and billable to non refundable credit - that has been stopped 2. The spa where there is the 18% compulsory gratuity and scope for additional gratuities and both of these can still be debited to non refundable credit I think the whole thing will get clearer when they get the new IT

As of now it is

Thanks Beatnix that’s what I though but wanted to check

Please, I do not want this thread to descend into a you should/I won’t debate This morning I was checking up on my highly trusted source of travel information (UK FCO aka official government website) as to whether I needed to fill in any forms before arriving in Greece (I don’t). I came across the section re mask wearing in Greece and it states there were only a very few instances masks were required but one was “ indoor spaces on boats” I will be on a Greek intensive soon, my question is to those currently cruising in Greece or recently returned what was the requirements as opposed to guest preferences when you were in Greek ports. (only reason I’m asking is it impacts on how many and what sort of masks I pack)

We certainly used non refundable obc for specialty restaurant tips for years. Then after covid, the letter you got sent around day 2 detailing your obc was different and very specific. It had a new sentence, can’t quite remember it, that emphasised the non refundable could not be used for any gratuities. I never previously used obc for the crew fund, always cash, so I can’t say on that one. Leo is right, the television account onboard is very confusing as it infers your obc has been applied to gratuities. We found out when we checked a printout from guest relations after all the shops were closed, so did not as a result use all our obc and still had a charge to our credit card.

Viking are very quick to cancel stops. In our experience much quicker than other lines who are better at finding alternatives. (We had sea days whilst others found docks in Norway and twice watched Viking have sea days whilst we went to alternatives in Italy and Greece). So from our experience they have a much lower tolerance of sea conditions and far fewer Plan Bs than others. Our onboard cancellation we were unaware of as the announcement was made whilst ships tours were still ashore. No letter was issued and they refused to give us one onboard so we could claim on our missed port insurance. Eventually got one from the head office but what a hassle

No it can’t. Please never tell Charles it can 😂😂😂😂

Stupidly if they actually had a decent range of merchandise in the shops I would be happy with obc. Our upcoming trip due to a price drop after final payment we’ve a ridiculous amount of OBC now even after booking high end excursions- we don’t want to be on tours every day though so we are still left with more than can be spent on over priced tat.