uktog

What confuses me is the shore excursions for our particular voyage which ends on May 27th includes end of cruise activities (at a cost) including transfers from Milwaukee to Chicago. I really need to hear from AQV as there are timing issues I need to factor in being an international traveller

Do we have a time line for this, the change in disembarkation point has a significant impact for guests who have other plans made based on the original itinerary

Same here but it took 8 weeks and several phone calls

Sorry to hear the plans aren’t quite coming together. It is now tougher in many countries to disembark early as the availability of immigration and customs agents is less and rules are tougher than ever. At least you got an answer so know the score from proper sources

There wasn’t last time we were there (pre pandemic just) we used a little pedicab each way. 10 euros each trip for 2. It was too far without. In Greece in October there were a few ports where we were quite far out and we were surprised there were no shuttles - the reason then was still covid.

I wonder if the fact that some Azamara junior officers and some travel agents who are serial cruisers “host” facebook pages is contributing to the move away from Cruise Critic and the various structural changes has hastened this.

Did you ask why no shuttle this time? Worries me a little for the future this shuttle situation- don’t want to drain the tank just getting into town

Today is possibly the final milestone in Azamara coming out of lockdown - the start of the Japan Intensive on Quest. As someone who hopes to be on this itinerary next year I can wait to hear how it goes. Really hoping for a “live from” or post’s telling us about the ships tours, shuttles etc. After a few years there’s a gap in knowledge on this so fingers crossed for good information as this one off we all want to get right! Hope everyone has a fantastic cruise on this iconic itinerary which is such a once in a lifetime cruise for most cruisers.

Thank you so much that is exactly what I wanted to hear. So excited at the variety of tours available especially the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Funny we went to the Grammy Museum in Cleveland Mississippi on the last ASQ cruise on their Hop on Hop Off so we can complete the double. Fudge seems the perfect take home present so that is another tick

Check with the Spa Manager at the Spa once you get onboard

Bear in mind the Spa pool is not available to Club Continental suite guests on every Azamara ship. You need to check up the rules on the individual ships. (It used to be available on all when there were just three ships)

We are doing the reverse Toronto to Chicago (well that’s what we have booked, who knows what is happening at the end! - one day hopefully very soon we will be told). I have questions @Springfield6 some of which I think I know the answers 1. What if any are the laundry options - we are away for three weeks in total so have to think about that 2. Any advice on must sees on the inclusion tours - or things to avoid! 3. We are thinking of the Premium tour at Niagara. This is a once only visit for us. Did you hear any reports about it, good or bad? Thanks so much. We realise our trip is only 8 weeks off but as usual we have zero information. It’s worse because AQ work through a UK handling travel agency who then links to our TA so everything comes so last minute. We did the Mississippi last year on AQ - that’s what convinced us to see the lakes this way remembering school geography and embellished teacher’s stories. I have to agree, embarkation was shambolic also in Memphis made worse for us due to agent ignorance. They’d never seen Scottish covid passes so couldn’t understand how to read them and because the don’t say the word booster (it said 4/4 vaccinations Doh) we were denied boarding! It was the most stressful non customer focussed four hours of our life in three different lines with a very aggressive supervisor pleading our case. We had to take to Twitter to get head office help. But we like the onboard experience and the hop on off principle so are back for more

Explora Journey 1 started her sea trials today

I'll go for an albatross

I loved that talk by Captain Antonio you really got a sense for his passion about navigation and sailing in it. We were on Pursuit the very first time he did it, he’s so modest he wasn’t even sure people would be interested

I’m on that cruise. I was planning to practice shots at the penguins. What you mean I can’t Get me my lawyer

Yes I suspect the tax issue is because although a currency conversion has been done, it is still looking at the pricing structure of the US site

Playing around on the new website it looks like the upgrade bidding programme is getting linked into the website. It was not clearly mentioned there in the past but has its own (still inactive) tab under "booked guests"

I have very much enjoyed the onboard ones and recognise the off ship ones tied up staff in so much logistics to make it happen that it maybe deflected their attention from other things on the day of the event. Never mind some of the quality control issues they had ashore - (Im thinking the cigarette smoking servers in Aquaba and the singer in Columbia who was clearly high and we heard back stage "stank" 🙂 ) I loved many of the offshore events but maybe life has just got too complicated for them. I noted last cruise we had one "Destination Celebration" plus two local groups onboard on other nights so maybe a new focus would give us even more I think we may see quite a few minor changes coming through on the new website as Azamara strike out on their own

I wish in Windows there was a mix of the buffet option and the table served that we enjoyed immediately post pandemic. I just dont like the buffets and all the associated hassle jumping up and down and sharing serving spoons but I know some do like being able to be really pick out exactly what they want in terms of ingredients and quantity. Wouldn't it be nice if we could have both 🙂

Had it post covid also. In fact they just brought and left the bottle (not in a suite)

Its also a great idea to have a photo of the front page with you when you are ashore so you have access to the port agents details, location name of the dock etc. Bits of paper can get lost!

There’s absolutely no mandate to wear white. You can wear what you like. It’s not unusual to be someone who has nothing white in their wardrobe

Depends on the decision made by the Cruise Director and what exactly the show is but the most usual timing seen is 2015 and 2130

Even then it depends when the custom authorities are scheduled to attend the ship. @ECCruise is correct you need to ask and get confirmation from Miami. Don’t rely on random “oh I’ve done it” here. Yes you can do it but not in every port. Contact head office and get the agreement in writing. Good luck. You look like you have a fantastic holiday set up there