uktog

We have done that trip with no issues at all very smooth seas. It’s a great itinerary so many different contrasts along the way

Excellent news thanks for sharing it

The advantage depends on your loyalty level the discount is between 5-10% and you pay a reduced deposit. https://www.azamara.co.uk/loyalty/azamara-circle/onboard-benefits A UK agent will be happy to take over the booking and you should be able to negotiate a small benefit from them, but do not expect to see the $000s of onboard credit guests in America get. Remember, transferring to an agent means you lose almost all your control of the booking, for which they get the benefit of commission from Azamara usually for virtually no work given you booked onboard

It is exactly how it is on Azamara. You can also join a table to share where you know no one at the start as well as making up your own groups And you can sit in any location you want Enjoy!

Indeed we are all different, I absolutely hate clutter especially when I am on a ship and things can move so I either want things on shelves (as in the smaller suites and below) or put away. I also know the attendant has to move things to meet the daily cleaning tasks and do not feel its fair they have to work around "stuff and makeup" as DH calls it. Around the sink is toothbrush, paste and mouthwash only for me, it is the same at home. I remember the first time in the suite in the photo - I spent for ever pulling at the towel rail believing it to be a drawer, then called for housekeeping to come and fix the jammed drawer.😂 When there is two of you double sinks is a godsend at times - I suppose they have designed these bathrooms for couples who are minimalists - we tick that box

Here is the place for afternoon tea https://mimisbakehouse.com/locations/leith/ They also have a place on the Royal Mile but it has limited seating. I know you can book Leith and I would recommend you do, need to check what the position is re Royal Mile. If you can find the City Art centre when you are in town if you are having a days sightseeing - its below the Royal Mile towards Princes Street that is also a good stop for a coffee and cake. They are a genuine family business with the next generation, now in their mid 30s taking Mum and her ideas to places she never imagined. (My sons school friend married one of the daughters, he loved the wedding reception - they had a cake fest)

I found them very useable. Wind does not always come to you head on and certainly during sea days when the ship was moving along we were able to lie out front happily. If you are lying down the solid balcony gives you some protection. The butlers are good at knowing where to suggest you have a table for each wind direction if you opt to sit out to eat, though to be honest on the windiest days when we could still sit out, we ate any room service at the table

Edinburgh is very proud to have the Yacht and will address the issue again in terms of the surrounding area. The Queen wanted the Yacht to be in Edinburgh and so her wishes were absolutely fulfilled. She also commented that she thought integrating it somewhere that people were going to day by day was excellent. Unfortunately, times have changed and now, almost 30 years on, the Mall itself needs help. But that will come. There were not exactly a huge number of suitable places the Yacht could be safely berthed in Edinburgh and inside the lock at Leith was the perfect solution. But it was a living, working area hence the link to shopping centre. Actually although it is empty of many of the stores that used to be there, and therefore a depressing shopping experience, it is a real community hub with shop units being used as Warm Spaces, for community groups, and there is a Ukrainian Centre in one unit. I think the Queen would approve!

Absolutely and dare I tell you I am not sure when you were there but the mall is even worse now, Marks and Spencers have closed now and other retailers are pulling out. It is very depressing, attaching Britannia experience to a Mall was a good idea..... and they attracted two large flagship stores (BHS and Debenhams) for either end of the Mall, both have now failed and so the footfall has dropped and the other shops have left. Currently the biggest occupant by square footage in the retail space is the NHS Vaccination Centre. Very sad and something commented in local Press a lot.

Thanks. The waiting times have certainly improved that’s good to hear

Makes no real difference Boxman is right with his timing. Amsterdam is poor for priority lanes. Lauries advice is sound on considering a night before stay at the airport or an extra day in Amsterdam

All I can say is $199 is an outrageous price unless there is much more added to the tour It is absolutely correct Britannia is adjacent to where the ship docks (though you have to walk round a longer route to get there it’s about a 10 minute walk through a shopping mall. It will cost you £18.50 (c$20) to visit and you get all the guide information for that price. It’s so easy to DIY but in the summer you do need to book ahead. I’ve put the link below. Maybe they are also adding in afternoon tea at the Fingal for the price. It’s nice but overpriced if anyone wants a good afternoon tea about 10 minutes walk on from Britannia just ask and I’ll post a link to a fabulous family run place but again one you need to book https://www.royalyachtbritannia.co.uk/visit/?gclid=CjwKCAiAxvGfBhB-EiwAMPakqq6P6iSh4_ykQKekiz5KF9tOPfFjuriWnPEP1Xr_d0I7UMlL4X5vGBoC2fgQAvD_BwE

Everyone can get no name sparkling water. Only ultimates get “nice name”

It is interesting, I am following some of the developments on the new cruise line Explora Journeys. They have released information about some of the excursions on their initial cruises. I am seeing no standard drive around excursions but I am seeing lots of very different and interesting excursions involving activities, cooking, music at a price not far different from Azamara's drive around offerings

A different table and chairs would be lovely 🙂

People forget there are merchant fees wherever you use your credit card both at home and abroad. At home it is just a "cost of sale" the seller has to take. However when you are overseas there are the usual merchant fees plus they pay a handling charge for currency conversion. If you look closely those cards that do not pass a handling charge often convert your transaction at a marginally less good rate (I am talking about 5 c different (eg 1.1235 rather than 1.124) you hardly notice but over all the transactions they put through for everyone globally it recovers cost. In EU law the seller cannot charge a different (higher) price if you pay by card. People say use cash to avoid charges - well usually purchasing cash gives you an even worse rate -if the card was converting at 1.235 you might buy cash at around 1.195 so it does mount up (Note I am not saying these are todays rate just figures to illustrate!) I continue to use my card as it gives my some protections in law and some providers give additional protections however, I work with one card at home and one abroad for lots of reasons a. One card (Amex) gives me lots of protections but its overseas fees are way above the Nationwide card I use abroad (for UK guests to Post Office also has a zero rate card like Nationwide) b. I do not use pre loaded currency cards, far less protection if one gets lost or cloned c. Despite Nationwides regular offers to increase my limit well into six figures I will not allow them to increase it to six figures That way I have limited risk of theft or cloning. We do take the Amex card with us, it has lots of holidays in the ship safe, but it is with us incase we had to pay out something big unexpected (the sort of thing like flights or medical that insurers would ultimately cover. So with cards as with all things do your homework, ask around and be informed when making decisions and remember things are different abroad.....

Getting my places muddled. We were in Koper in 2022 for the four ships. If it’s Kotor four ships can’t dock there two would need to tender

First of all tours are priced in dollars so if you are looking at anything that involves a currency conversion that can be all over the place changing. Secondly, yes you do find prices get revised not by demand but by recosting. And it is extremely common to see the onboard price being higher than pre sailing. All in all, I tend to book as soon as I know I want a particular tour

I have stayed in both Deck 6 and Deck 7 - they each have their own advantages. On Deck 6 you did have a slightly deeper balcony but whilst there was no noise from the cabaret lounge that we felt it was the noisier room re anchor sounds and during docking - but you may well be up then anyway. My recollection is that the bed is angled both Deck 6 and Deck 7 - I need to check my photos. Deck 7 was a little quieter but with the marginally less deep balcony. We loved both decks its hard to choose between

The 10% discount only applies for a future cruise not the current cruise and it’s 5% for less than 3 excursions per person. So I doubt given the timing the discount is relevant for the OP

Laurie has highlighted why I loved the suite. I don’t know how the butlers do it. We are very light sleepers and never heard them ever but it was so lovely when our alarm went off there was the hot pot of coffee on a beautiful set table. We had no issues using the balcony on any of our cruises either in hot or cool climes but balcony isn’t the driver it’s the space we take the big suites when we are spoiling ourselves. They are really lovely suites enjoy!

I have no problem with no butler so long as the general support from cabin staff and others is attentive. I struggled to work out what value my Yacht Club butler added over the cabin attendant. But he was very visible last day and on disembarkation (tips were prepaid but that didn’t stop him😀)

If you pay for the package before boarding our experience on the previous systems was the shorex credit showed up immediately and we could use it. Not sure what their new system will do and whether any transactions you did will be impacted if there are changes. I believe way back you could also phone to book excursions and use Onboard credit. They could manipulate the system if there were problems not sure if that’s still the case.

They promised things this year but then the only four ships event was the sail in and the focus was on the marketing people putting drones up for images. It was a very damp squib for guests, but loved seeing the crews of the four ships reuniting

It’s one of these unknowns. I’ve done 4 transatlantics on Azamara and 4 Bays of Biscay (a known one for swells) two on Azamara and two on Celebrity Eclipse. Our Azamara experience re the TA is exactly as @vanman the north route does rock and roll. We had to change ports enroute each time to avoid storms. It seemed worse going East to West each time (done two each way) but that was just probably unfortunate weather circumstances. Interestingly on the Bay of Biscay each time we’d pretty rough weather and Azamara faired far better than Eclipse. So size didn’t seem to matter! What I did feel was Azamara captains really closely study wave forecasts and look for deviations if they can.