uktog

23 minutes ago, Bobreg said:

Let me say that I have not the same opinion as yours. There are two ways to see it.

We are just off the Quest and mid cruise, we spoke with a server in the windows cafe about if a good reference help with promotion. He told us that it is still helping but that selling wine is more important now. We experienced it on the last dinner night when after 45 minutes we had finished our complementary glass and when the server finally brought our entree, we asked for some more wine. He replied that his assistant would come. His assistant was busy with a neighbouring table that was ordering wine like they had OBC to spare and never came to our table. We waited 10 minutes and left the dining room.  Sure the restaurant manager chased after us to apologize.

The point is that if selling wine in the venues is important for the company, they will just find the balance between drinkable wine that will not bring too much complaints and of enough low quality to encourage some to spend money on a better wine.  Let's hope I'm wrong and that they listen to their customers.

My comments were not about new focus on selling wines, the focus was on getting the right included wines. 

33 minutes ago, candkd said:

Does anyone know if box lunches are available?

No unless the ship provides them for an excursion as part of an arrangement. Many countries prohibit bringing food off the ship and fines if detected (usually by a sweet little Beagle) are significant 

2 hours ago, Sololux said:

Are you able to have more choice if you are booked into one of the residences.  I’m thinking about Pimms, for my English side, and French dry white wine and crème de cassis for a kir, reflecting that I live in France.

 I am not sure anyone can accurately answer this question for when you are on board. The reason is that all the time they are tweaking and adjusting what is there is not part of their inclusions in terms of spirits in each class of suiteet cetera.  My advice is just ask your Butler host -  if you don’t ask you won’t get, if you ask you might well get

I think you have to work on that basis for now.

Eric de Gray has posted he is moving to Pursuit in September for two years. He also indicated the Captains will be Carl and Michael with Ryzard and Tony as Hotel Directors so musical chairs is happening again 

The very pink rose is milder than it look implies

From all the new CEO said, they are looking closely at the wine offerings and I would bet the family nest egg that it’s on the new Head of Hotel Operations to do list.  So what we are seeing as the offerings today may not be what is onboard down the line. I wouldn’t be surprised if they test out some wine options in the coming months so if you like or don’t like something say so (and not just to the server, use the more documented feedback routes eg the onboard forms). 

1 hour ago, Grandma Cruising said:

I agree with you, their IT is not good. We had a similar issue with getting into our accounts. After three sets of back & forth emails my account now works, but my husband’s doesn’t.

However there’s not much to see on the account and there seem to be no ‘Destination Experiences’ (shore excursions) available for our April 25 cruise, despite having just had a general email from them saying they now have ‘Destination Experiences’.

The account and booking side of the website is Veronix Seaware, which Azamara are also using. It works better on Azamara, but it took a long time for a Azamara to improve it and it still doesn’t work properly for everyone.

Given there are no destination experiences for our September and November cruises you are in for a long wait 🤣

26 minutes ago, Riocca said:

I understand the problem cruise lines have with Fever Tree, with Royal Club coming from Heineken and Schweppes from Coca-Cola with bulk buying the cost is going to be very low. But Fever Tree as an independent brand is going to be very expensive in comparison, a compromise for Azamara would be to offer it with the Ultimate Package as they do with the premium bottled waters. I’ve seen this working with another cruise line where fountain Coke was included on the basic package but cans on the upgraded package.

 

 

I don’t know how many times I have suggested that both pre and post pandemic to no avail however with someone from the UK now heading up Hotel Operations in Miami I’m a little more hopeful he understands speciality vs run of the mill G and T. 

UK prices are up again this morning- I suspect ahead of a “promotion” so they stay the right side of the law. 

4 minutes ago, futian said:

 

Oh dear  ....... the mysteries of Fever Tree and cruise lines.....(they seem to treat it like gold dust)

Azamara Quest in April this year and the first response from bar waiter was "Sorry we don't have this onboard!". After pursuing this with barman I found they did have it onboard and was able to have Fever Tree for the rest of the cruise no problem.

 

Seabourn recently and same initial response ("not available)" from waiting staff....spoke to Bar Manager and Fever Tree was available for the rest of the cruise no problem.

 

Saga at Xmas and New Year, same thing, had to speak with bar manager to get success.

 

Oceania Vista ....Just off after 3 weeks and guess what...initial response in Horizons lounge  was "sorry not available" followed later by "well we only stock it in our mixology bar!".....spoke to Bar Manager and hey presto, it was now available in Horizons lounge for the rest of the cruise.

I should also say that in all 4 cases, they all kept the Fever Tree under the bar counter and was never on display. (Very precious stuff that FT)

So the motto of this story is ask and escalate to the bar manager.

And once located always have your +tonic in the same bar 

Same at Buenos Aires 

It was on Quest and Journey recently 

51 minutes ago, tonyl1956 said:

Not sure I understand the reference to a 20% discount for early booking. My TA has given me prices, which seem OK. But is she missing a trick....?

I don't think she is 🙂 

15 hours ago, vslparis said:

This might be true for those insured in the UK. However, in my experience both personally and in my over 30 years in the travel industry, most Trip Insurance companies in the U.S. require you to pay for any medical expenses and unexpected flights first and then you will reimbursed after your claim has been approved. 

Medical expenses may be automatically billed back to the insurer in the UK however flights, hotels etc it’s the same as the UK. You have to pay and claim back. This can be rather expensive (last year we needed to pay £12k in that connection, all eventually reimbursed) so one of our cards we bring has a high unused limit. 
 

I can’t see any valid reason in this day and age in many parts of the world not to use cards. And certainly I do as asked at check in to avoid delaying others behind. If they ask for my card, they get it. I saw someone decline to do so in Norway and the whole checking in got stuck with supervisors needed etc 

8 minutes ago, Lookyboy said:

Not on Onward this last week...missed both Scottish games.....maybe missing the first one was a blessing, but would have loved to see last night's match.😃

You might also have enjoyed the game at teatime today for other reasons 🙂

53 minutes ago, KevintheIrishDJ said:

There is a link for 20% early booking; however, I don't see a discount.

Speak to your travel agent they have all the pricing 

Watch out for the service doors on Deck 6. There’s a few of them that seem to be used quite a lot by staff and can slam a bit (well certainly on Onward). We also found if we were too near the aft we were sharing the attendant (there’s now only one) with the big suite that got priority and in our case had demanding occupants. It seemed the single attendant was really stretched there - much more than the team on Deck 7 and 8 (he was very good just over stretched) 

For the extra I would take a V2 at least. 

5 hours ago, luv2travel90266 said:

Make a request when on board!

They need to buy special licence feeds for big sporting events. I know it ran into £000s to get the World Cup games. It’s not something they can fix onboard if the game isn’t being shown within their regular package 

Yes they are. I suppose the distances involved mean sea days. I’m ok with a few sea days. I think it’s 5/16 days 

13 minutes ago, PrivateIdaho said:

And that is why you don’t book inaugural cruises. See you in Dec EJll.

 

The inaugural was originally late June but was pushed back once before.  You would have thought guests on 2nd September would have been clear of problems

34 minutes ago, BuddyR said:

If you purchase an Experience More Essentials package pre-cruise (not as a booking promotion), can one of you upgrade to the ultimate package onboard for $8 per day, less any loyalty discount?  Does anyone actually have experience doing that when it was not a booking promotion?  Also, does any upgrade to the ultimate package have to be done during the first half of the cruise now?  On the Onward in December, people were burning onboard credit and upgrading on the last day or two.

Yes we did this both for packages we bought and for promotions given and had our loyalty discount applied.  No need to do this on Day 1 we only did it from a few days in 

I hope they look after affected guests (as opposed to hangers on and influencers) better than they did with their even later cancellation of Explora 1 last year

3 minutes ago, roxette said:

Is this the same, that you just pay the difference, both if you have purchased the Premium package or had it included in a booking promotion (Experience more)? I have been looking forever on the Azamara site, but have not really found anything. 

 

Have never been on Azamara before, but will in August and December. Really looking forward to it.

 

Thank you all for all the great info on this site

Yes ours was a booking promotion package that we upgraded 

They are building a strong new team 

We fired the gun on Monday when we got notification. We are going to have to think tactically about flights but from the UK we’ve discovered flying east first even as far as Istanbul brings up good African prices