uktog

But the devaluation works in favour of tourists. The currency was devalued against the dollar that means the locals have to pay more pesos for every dollar. You are turning up with dollars so you get more pesos.

Yes read its a two month fill in. I suspect she will be on when we are there. Wonder if she will be more engaging with guests there

If you think the scheduling was illogical on our sailing you should have seen them the sailing before - these were certainly the work of the departing manager. The male singer was so unprofessional and was the only “host” who repeatedly walked past guests without acknowledging them And professionals (applies to both “singers”) don’t need iPads onstage to remind them of their words and music

Last orders were being asked for at 2145 in the lobby with Natalia playing until 2230. Unfortunately the trio as it was in the Astern played intermittently each night due to lack of customers ( the bar was open) and the Explora lounge bar stayed open but the other piano player stopped before 2200. The whole entertainment schedule was illogical. I’ve no idea who came up with it but it gave the impression either they’d never scheduled entertainment on a cruise ship, didn’t talk to the beverage manager to coordinate opening times and entertainment and/or were not looking each day at what guests were hanging around looking for. Total lack of entertainment management despite the fancy job title. As soon as Heike the general manager identified the disconnect on our cruise she did initiate changes though the entertainers still seemed not to have the full message! This was an example of an entertainment fix that didn’t need budget or new performers just a bit of scheduling nous. Make sure the entertainment and bar hours are coordinated and put one place with something that goes on until 2300 in addition to the disco - as we have on Azamara, Viking etc. An easy one to tweak.

At least they’ve pushed it 45 minutes from how it was in November based on feedback. We were impressed that our feedback that the bar should be open when Natalia is playing was acted on immediately mid cruise

In November and early December the muster was as described, watch video in room then go to muster station at 5pm in our case and watch how to put life jacket on. Life jackets are not in your room, they are handed out at the muster station (though this did not get tested as part of the drill). It was a pretty thorough briefing all in compared to some lines. Its adequacy was no concern to us. @Stickman1990 yes crew drills happened 3 times in 19 days maybe due to the high level of new joiners in Barbados and Miami. They were very extensive, lasting well over an hour with full simulation (eg fire hoses run out). The announcements and alarms were frequent and loud and there was some disruption to guest services during the period. If as in one port as we had done, you had opted for a peaceful ship day, well it certainly wasn’t during the drill. I think you had to be there to appreciate the noise (also crew communications with each other that were loud and at times agitated). That said, it did give a level of reassurance to guests how seriously they take this training. Our issue was that announcements weren’t clearly prefaced this is a drill and we saw guests who’d come back from ashore mid drill becoming very concerned on hearing the first announcement after reboarding.

Sorry got my ships muddled I see a joint task force has been established tonight to try and aid securing the shipping lanes. The economic impact of the diversions will be massive for Europe so the problem has to be resolved quickly

I think the OP is talking about a segment of the world cruise not another cruise so it’s the same for that voyage. Too early to tell World Cruises always carry the highest risk these days. The days of the Cunard cruise leaving Southampton for a genuine round the world experience and completing it as advertised are long gone.

These used to be called shoe bags 🙂 I remember when the Azamara bags were the size of those on the left however I am an expert at compression and creating a lethal punchbag that could contain upwards of 50 items 🙂

I would expect that cruise lines would take a "wait and see approach" until early Spring as to whether this becomes a more permanent re route or not. I would see the Suez Canal authorities and Egypt playing a part in how the wider safety of the shipping ways in the region shapes up. The typical solution would be to reroute itineraries via South Africa with some cruises either pre or post the Far East being significantly altered to allow the ships to return by that longer route. Roughly similar was the Black Sea and St Petersburg cruises that had a major revamp. Unfortunately the communication of the decision may not be "well in advance" I would be prepared for disruption and possibly disembarking in Dubai if your cruise goes ahead on the original dates.

The cruise after yours had a lady who talked about leach port prior to arrival. Very nice "chat" mainly google derivative material and certainly not an in depth destination talk but then she was only allocated 15 minutes! (She may well have known a lot more to be fair) The week after this was changed to a 15 minute talk and 15 minute Q and A. I was disappointed given that the titles were "luminary" how superficial the other talks the frist week were. They were scheduled at a bad time (no idea what was in the Entertainment Managers thinking when she did this) - typically when most people are getting ready for dinner or having a pre dinner drink - and whilst there was catch up available on the TV I only discovered this by accident it was never communicated. There was nothing innovative in the offering (e.g. the usual how to use your Iphone was the only offering week 2) This is an area EJ could really up their game on and "be different" but for that to work they have to recognise a goodly % of their paying guests are actually aged over 50 and have attention spans that are not restricted to "three clicks and I am off" and do not see Google as the fount of all knowledge.

However during the current sale period the onboard discounts were not given on any sale cruise

I did not see the comments by @FengShui@Sea as a complaint and I’m glad they posted here to highlight the issue they found. I was expecting the same indoor conditions on a cruise to the polar regions as I’d enjoyed on another line which has even more windows and natural light. For whatever reason Azamara cannot maintain that temperature in some rooms just now. At least thanks to the post I know to modify my packing given the number of sea days which I had planned to spend a higher percentage of time in our suite than usual.

Whilst it’s a feature in that part of the world, one of the delights of our northern lights cruise above the arctic circle on Viking in the winter was how beautifully warm our rooms were. As a result you didn’t have to wear thicker tops indoors. Looks like my packing list for February might need revision 🥲 as I’d assumed Azamara indoors would be as warm.

No he is on leave

A question for anyone who brought hair straighteners- do they still work on reduced power? And is phone charging etc slower?

Oh dear. Looks a bit sad. What if you wanted to take a photo out the window?

I beg to differ re Starlink. That’s not my experience at all. I think relying on the ships wifi for entertainment or work, rather than simple surfing or emails is very high risk. We also had no wifi at all going through Suez and in ports like Aquaba on three separate cruises as there was external interference. Only in simple hop round Spain have I been within cellphone range on Azamara , certainly not in Asia Im afraid.

In November it was about 10 minutes including docking time. Hopefully these pictures help one from the ship and one from the shore

This may be controversial but I wonder if Azamara have decided that Cruise Critic Socials as they called them are part of a "budget cut" or a plan to "move on to recognise times have changed". There are also issues on one ship (Onward) re finding a venue and with some itineraries its hard to find a convenient time to have the event if there are no sea days. The socials were more popular when it was an opportunity to get a drink without paying which does not apply on Azamara. It used to allow interaction with officers - that no longer happens and in any event, on Azamara there is plenty of opportunity anyway The roll calls for my forthcoming cruises are very quiet but some facebook groups are busier. However when it was a large group, you could not connect with many people in any event. Cruise Critic predates Facebook and maybe the "need" for organised socials today is so much less less. I have been on two cruise lines recently that do not provide events but do have roll calls. Each line's ships are slightly above the capacity of Azamara. In both cases, we connected with roll call members no problem without a get together - and we also connected with many other non cruise critic guests. There was no problem re excursions as we had exchanged names and room numbers anyway so could leave messages if needed. Maybe its time to look after ourselves, privately set up get small togethers if we want, go with the flow and stop looking for Azamara to provide anything.

I wouldn’t recommend Azamara for a cruise of that length with teens. The Wi-Fi isn’t good enough to support game play and with no sports court and only a tiny pool it’s going to stretch even the most adaptable teen. I’ve just returned from an Explora Journey cruise - their itinerary might not match but their facilities for teens for a small ship were excellent. Teens kept asking to go to the club rather than be with parents. In addition to the Nautilus club (full of games both boxed and electronic) there’s a sport court, three pools (a 4th is adult only) and a full sized snooker table in a partioned corner in the Astern lounge so kids play whilst adults listen to the band. It was win win for multi generational families who didn’t want large boat, wanted great food everyone would like (eg Pizza oven producing fresh offerings all service) and facilities for the youngsters

Colin this is a really good balanced assessment of your experience - I am just finishing mine but there is a lot of overlap in our experiences and thoughts going forward.

I hope this has a very positive outcome for the person involved

Ginger ale was readily available as a mixer last week.

We sensed generally the captain is very cautious (no bad thing). Docking and undocking generally were much more cautious and slower than we’ve experienced in the same ports with other lines even in no breeze