MissyMom

12 hours ago, uktog said:

Hi

Thanks MissyMom - can I just check, the OBC credit you used, was it OBC for your Antarctica cruise or OBC for the future cruise.

i know Bonnie said you couldn’t use OBC on the current cruise.

We used only the OBC corresponding to each future cruise. The Antarctica cruise OBC was for the Antarctica cruise only, as Bonnie said.

Most of our 10 future cruises were booked soon after being announced. Realizing Azamara needs time to add excursions, especially for new ports, we booked the 3 needed for the 10% discount when we booked each on board. We also added a few more at home, via the Azamara web site, again using cruise specific OBC.

Being able to add more excursions to any cruise while on board any of the 3 Azamara ships makes the process very helpful. And time saving -- while extremely busy" searching for Antarctica penquins and whales or cruising by a 20 mile long x 8 mile wide iceberg.

We thought we could only book discounted excursions during the cruise when we booked the new cruise. Not sure how we decided that but it isn't true. And, some of our 10 pre booked cruises were so far in the future, there weren't any or many excursions available - so we couldn't even hope for discounts.

On our last cruise, friends booked excursions on a cruise they had booked on a prior cruise and received a 10% discount when booking 3 excursions or more. The excursion folks printed out lists of excursions for a couple of cruises a day to help us book excursions on our 10 pre-booked cruises.

It kept us busy between viewing Antarctica ice bergs. We used up all our on board credit and charged the rest on our registered credit card. It was fun to review our next 10 cruises again and anticipate the excursions while saving 10%.

7 hours ago, MissyMom said:

A white Azamara T-shirt is a clue to all the crew (and guests in the know) that your luggage went missing. The Concierge maintains a T-shirt and sundry supply and works with the shore authorities to locate luggage. And the shop keepers knew Joan might want several clothing items without her asking.

 

So, if your luggage goes missing, wear your white Azamara t-shirt proudly! 

A woman, sharing a cabin with her sister on a transatlantic cruise, didn't get her suitcase before the ship left Europe for Miami. She (I'll call her Joan) was given a white Azamara T-shirt, toothbrush, etc. Both sisters were about the same size and could share clothes but...

She had trip insurance so went to the shop where they searched all their markdown racks for her size and sent them all to her room to try on.

During lunch on White Night day, Ryszard sat down with Joan and a few friends, including our friend, and asked Joan if she had something white to wear to the party. Our friend suggested the white worker/ painter coveralls.

After determining the proper size, she found one on her bed after lunch. Ryszard also arranged to have her "evening attire" washed and pressed daily and returned to her room by 4pm. The coveralls became her evening attire for the rest of the cruise. Happy Joan, happy Azamara ending. Thanks Ryszard. 

A few times, a second announcement was made in a language other than English. This was when a large group of French or Spanish guests were on board and they asked! Crew with this language as a first language were asked to go to the bridge to make announcements after both the captain and cruise director made announcements

. . . plus a few other times.

On 8/22/2018 at 10:20 PM, irisbax3 said:

 

Thanks so much for your helpful response. This information will help in making my decision.

A few times, a second announcement was made in a language other than English. This was when a large group of French or Spanish guests were on board and they asked! Crew with this language as a first language were asked to go to the bridge to make announcements after both the captain and cruise director made announcements . . . plus a few other times.

How about adding this as a sticky!

Then when people say it's my first Azamara Cruise, etc, and what can you tell me, they can be directed to this sticky thread.  I assume other posts of similar thoughts can be added as they appear on any thread. Sounds like work but so is responding to several requests for insights every year. And it's fun to read every so often how others feel.

We did one in Barcelona. We had so many tapas during the wine tour and tasting of 7 wines with the sommelier, we wondered if we could eat again. Not to worry. The dinner, including duck eggs the chef found at the market, was special. We had the wines the group voted for and the sommelier bought for the meal at the Vinyard. 

For many cruises in the past, the event was canceled for lack of interest. We're glad to read people are interested now.

Our first Azamara cruise was years and many Azamara cruises ago. Our agent suggested we try the line after mostly Norwegian cruises.

The first night we sat in Mosaic after dinner in Discoveries to wait for the show. A single woman came to the opening near the dining room but stood frozen.  One of the two waiters came to greet her. She said she has a balance issue. That the chairs faced into the room so there was nothing to easily hold onto.

The waiter asked her to take his arm and he would walk her to the theatre. She said she just needed to get to the glass walls of the stores.

As they strolled by, he asked her if she planned to have dinner at the same time each night. He said he'd look for her each night. When she protested that his job was to serve coffee. He said his job was to assist guests and he hoped she'd share a story with him about her day.

I turned to my husband and said "I think we've found our new cruise home".

Persuit is not included on drop down list of ships on form to request a private tour. Not sure if it's a required field.

Thanks in advance Bonnie for forwarding this to IT.

https://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/shore-excursions/customize-local/book-now

During rough weather guest relations provides free 2 pac of sea sick pills, red apples and green apples (depending on what you believe), sugar coated ginger (also at entry to dining room).

Rolling items before putting them into the laundry bag side by side gets you 6 to 7 more items per bag.

We each received a Tiffany brand luggage tag for our top cruiser gift this year:D. :D

Carnival "copes" with more than four brands. NCL hasn't merged Oceania and Regent. More rank speculation.

We take ship excursions because we don't enjoy doing lots of research anymore, the excursion staff help us select which will meet our interests, we have done before *and* we are able to do (they will email for clarification if needed). We want to do something together with the non refundable on board credit we somehow accumulate for each cruise.

Also Azamara strives to find interesting and unusual excursions in several ports so we're not repeating basic panoramic tours.

Our Regent Cruise free tours was a basic panorama tour in each port. Few others were offered. Maybe because many people only took private tours, took a taxi to lunch or just stayed on board.

Which advertisements? I haven't seen any.

I'm sure you have.

The "signature" field was intended for well, your signature, your contact information, or nothing. However some manufacturers install words like

"Sent from my Ipad (or Iphone) using Forums"

in the "signature" field so their ad shows up at the end of every email or post you make.

These ads also waste space in posts with lots of returns before the manufacturer's ad.

Aren't forums supposed to be ad free?

"Sent from my iPhone using Forums"

While we are waiting for an answer, how about everyone deletes these advertisments that appear at the end of their emails.

A big issue in the upper floor dining rooms is they cannot accommodate more than one group with 8 in a group per night. And that's in pretty tight quarters. It's similar to the main dining room and the buffet before.

Guests at a birthday party last night near us were commenting on their tight space while the two of us sat in almost the same space and we're so far apart on a 4 to 6 round top table that we had trouble hearing each other.

We asked and the upper floor restaurant manager is looking forward to the flexibility of accommodating from 2 to more than 8 with the new arrangements.

We had a new clock with 2 USB plugs in our big suite. It was easy to set the alarm but had directions were there to read (encased in plastic). It could play music from a device; not for a specific brand. (We didn't use that so I can't comment more.)

Head of Housekeeping asked us for our input as 10 new clocks were just put out that cruise for the big front and back suites - in the Caribbean, Dec 2017.

We also liked that the clock letters were huge enough to see easily from bed but not bright enough to keep you awake. And especially loved that the clock numbers light lit up the room just enough to get to the bathroom safely. In some big suites the light from the two thermostats - one in each room - does double duty of lighting the way from the bed all the way through the bath to the toilet by the front door, if you remember to leave the bath door by the front door open and the sliding door hasn't closed from the sea motion. ;p ;>)

I'm a huge fan of leaving the 2nd toilet in the Persuit refurb. I don't want company using my toilet and sink. Also, I can leave reading material or other things by my private toilet and sink. And we can get ready quicker before morning excursions.

In my view Azamara missed an opportunity to really spec the cabins up when they refurbished them. There are some odd omissions like the provision of USB points that the other cabins on the ship have. I find those really useful. Phil

We had a new clock with 2 USB plugs in our big suite. It was easy to set the alarm but had directions in plastic too. It could play music from a device; not for a specific brand. (We didn't use that so I can't comment more.)

Head of Housekeeping asked us for our input as 10 new clocks were just put out that cruise for the big front and back suites - beginning of Dec I think. Forget the ship name but it was the Caribbean in Dec 2017.

We also liked that the clock letters were huge enough to see easily from bed. And especially loved that the clock numbers light lit up the room just enough to get to the bathroom safely. In some, but not all, big suites the light from the two thermostats in the 2 rooms does double duty of lighting the way from bed all the way through the bath to the toilet by the front door, if you remember to leave the bath door by the front door open and the sliding door hasn't closed from the sea motion. :hearteyes:;>)

I'm a huge fan of leaving the 2nd toilet in the Persuit refurb. I don't want company using my toilet. Who knows what reading material or other things I might leave by the toilet that's none of their business.

Forgive me but i have to say this. Thousands of people in Puerto Rico have little food and water and no jobs. Some cab drivers wasted their gas driving to the port to take passengers to the airport to make some money to feed their families and to make visiting their island easier and more normal . . . and you are asking if there is a FREE bus so none of the cab drivers will make any money again. We should all take cabs and help them out with huge tips. It's a tiny amount compared to the cruise, etc costs.

No, I don't share your view. I'll often visit the buffet at the beginning of the meal to get a salad. Totally impractical to stop it happening and I can't see a problem. What about all the people walking through The Patio who aren't dining there? Do they spoil the ambience too?

 

Phil

I'm with Phil. The ability to raid the buffet is a big plus for The Patio.

Is the charge still $35.00 pp Ann? LuAnn

Was $30 in August.

The president of Azamara was correct to tell you to take a tour and it's not just to make money for the company.

Cuba is a Communist country and if you don't go on a tour of some sort, you'll go away thinking it's all pretty music and old cars. You'll know nothing about their lives and daily struggles like:

ration books good for 2 weeks of food, if available; the quantity or quality of goods and food; pay scale; what the government did to buy gasoline from the USSR and then Venezuela; why there are few doctors and engineers left in country; what men do after "free" schooling; how children are selected for educational opportunities; the "upside down economy" where doctors make less than gardeners; etc.

It's something like other communist countries but not completely. Cuba has an unusual twist.

I’m an LCV member and didn’t get an email!

Nor did we.

I liked that you can select more than one month when viewing cruises. Thanks Paul for sponsoring my request.