boxman52

Living nearby Conwy is both a nicer castle and town than Caernafon 

I know this is almost an impossible question to answer because who knows the weather

We are on the Encore Trans Atlantic Southampton to Miami

We are thinking of the Vibe but we know the weather is going to be iffy for at least 6 of the 12 days.

Does anyone have experience of if the bar in the Vibe is still open and covered enough even if the weather is bad to make the pass worthwhile for those first 6 days?

It's interesting to see how Virgin Voyages as a new cruise line handled the status question.

They matched status but also have an accelerated reward scheme of the their own. 

After sailing twice in 23 we now have an extremely generous set of benefits. Of course this was a key factor in us sailing again at least once next year. It's also a brilliant experience!

I suspect soon once they have built up their own loyalty scheme the status matching might be dropped as more people benefit from the VV scheme.

Amazara could have done something similar and restructured their loyalty scheme as part of a relaunch under new ownership.

On the bigger picture all travel companies are IT businesses with a bolt on service offer - airline, cruise, hotel etc. If the IT isn't working simply the business isn't

I enjoy Azamara but I do think their offer is dated & stale and they can't grow the business without evolving their offer to new customers. The ships are great but getting too old and I fear in a crowded market they lack a compelling competitive offer for growth.

They need to define what they need and want to be.

Istanbul is one of the finest cities in the world to visit

Turkey as a whole has some superb places

Food is brilliant (and bar scene), people are very friendly and transport easy and modern.

There are an endless number of very reasonable priced tours you can book on a number of well known sites and reviews can be checked. Istanbul has some of the world's most iconic sites.

Thought for balance this would be useful to post

We've been recently on multiple Azamara,Virgin and Viking cruises.

Two of these are on Gary's top list and Azamara is in the bottom category. I think I'm in a good position to compare

Firstly VV is a totally different product. It's a worthy top of the list for sure.

Viking is more comparable with Azamara and I do think it's a few rungs higher. However because I look for deals Azamara offers better value for money.

I'd say the gap between the three doesn't justify his placing. However I do think Azamara could learn from both to modernise their offer. As an example of Azamara speciality dining was half as good as VV included it would be a major step up for them.

Playing virtual Cruise CEO game for a bit!

It would be interesting to see what they go for. 

Can't see a new version of what they currently have paying 

To make it pay it might well be larger and have more upcharge venues

It could have children facilities to attract more families

None of that would be popular

The alternative is to charge more and go towards Viking. My experience is that if I wanted Viking I'll go on them as they do it very well.

Or Azamara position the ship at Seven Seas market - is that viable?

I'd like a more modern version of what they have now of course with a better entertainment venues and a more modern approach to the specialist restaurants that are now dated 

Interesting to compare my Azamara experience (pre booking) with the two I've got planned with Virgin and NCL.

We had to cancel with Virgin one of our party. Called them answered immediately processed the change and refunded instantly. I understand onboard it relies on the app and it's performance isn't great, but we'll see.

NCL absolutely perfect so far. App works well pre cruise and when I wanted something different used the online chat. Answered with no wait, answered query and sent confirmation instantly.

Azamara has to get to these levels to be recommended to friends. 

We have B2B out of Barcelona on the Vaillant Lady. Does anyone know if we can bring the bottles of wine on for the second week when we fist board, so 4 bottles in total?

Having been to Barcelona many times we were planning on staying onboard on the turnaround day.  

5 minutes ago, topnole said:

But what does this have to do with someone feeling something isn’t hot enough for them (even if it is served at proper temperature)?   I’ve experienced seeing others return piping hot food many times simply because what is scalding to me seems only warm to them?

Ha ha. Now I know you are just a troll

The idea that you have seen many times something I've never ever seen and I travel for a living, so I eat in many restaurants, is farcical

Fair play you are funny

13 minutes ago, topnole said:

Let’s try this again.  Here was your first sentence I replied to.  
 

It's not subjective if food is hot or cold. It's either one or the other. 

 

Here is my logic.  It is subjective.  This isn’t complicated.  What tastes hot to you may not taste hot to someone else (regardless of the appropriate serving temperature).  For some folks their soup is cold while for others that same soup might be too hot.  It is most definitely different from person to person, and thus it is subjective.   This is different than fish being frozen in middle which is obviously and objective issue, yet the soup scenario surely happens quite often so it is quite relevant.   Pretending everything is objective on this is silly and inaccurate.  

 Can't believe I'm replying to this but here goes.

Every single professional kitchen will know what the correct template is to serve food. Regardless of the food type.

It is absolutely nothing at all to do with customer preference. People who work in kitchens will know if food goes out below a certain temperature it will not be well received

This is why kitchens have a "pass" and that is where you will find the head chef or section head monitoring the food before it goes out. They also work on the timings so the food isn't left standing as it goes guess what cold

I can only think you have some sort of financial interest in Royal or the cruise industry in general so illogical is your thinking 

14 minutes ago, topnole said:

My wife says stuff is cold all the time and yet it is way too hot for me.  She literally calls hot coffee cold when I can’t even drink it.  There is certainly subjectivity to hot and cold and humans have wide and varying tolerances to it and thus preferences.  That is a fact.  

You are talking about preferences. Food temperature can be measured with a simple thermometer.

Every chef and kitchen will know the correct temperature to serve food. It's really really simple.

On to preferences if food is too hot for a customers preference then they wait a very short period of time and it cools down 

If it's too cold then unless they have a mini microwave next to them what can they do? This is why you never get good sent back for being too hot but you do for too cold 

I'm genuinely at a loss as to the logic behind your post.

4 hours ago, Meekacat said:

We were on the same sailing.  Main dining was the best we've had in 11 Oasis class sailings.  There are many galleys servicing main dining on mega ships so we just request to move to a different section/galley if we encounter food issues.  I know Royal should be more consistent but why stay and complain every night 🙂  

 

btw- lots of complaints on this sailing (and the Wonder inaugural) about YouTube folks disturbing other passengers by making chatty videos in intimate settings like these guys in the main dining room during dinner service.  Royal probably needs some guidelines as common decency isn't prevailing   

It's not comfortable for lots of British people to complain, not all but lots of people like my wife would rather suffer and say nothing than make a complaint.

I'm not sure it's up to guests to be Royals quality control system. They should be able to serve food hot it's kind of the ABC of running a kitchen

As for the vloggers I can well understand that. Although these days people don't care, they have their music playing loud at the pool, videos for the kids blurring out at dinner or facetime calls at breakfast. It seems more and more people are have little regard or courtesy.

Sorry for the off topic rant!

It's not subjective if food is hot or cold. It's either one or the other. If it's too hot for your taste wait a minute and it will cool down. But really no-one ever says please send my dish back it's too hot!

As for Ben & David they don't give negative reviews and I'd say they are honest

Also if a sauce has separated it's not subjective nor is a bland dish.

Being realistic this new menu has been introduced so they can cut down staffing levels in the food & beverage department. Staff morale, being overworked and other cuts will be behind the poor food 

If people want to pay more for less, or defend private company profiteering it's up to them. Others can give poor reviews and make other choices for vacations.

I hope Royal pays attention and understands that a brand takes a long time to build but is quickly ruined

Egypt is a world-class destination although not without its challenges

A Nile cruise is fine but you really need a land tour to fully appreciate it

Cairo with a private guide is incredible but I'd wait until the new Egyptian museum was open.

Luxor area staying by the Nile is excellent. You can take a boat downstream from there

Other areas are The White Desert although this needs very careful planning with locals to the area but it's one of the most spectacular places on Earth. And Sanai has Sharm where there are some great hotels and sea life as well the mountain

I like Azamara but I do understand why others would be very disappointed

The shoreside service is not great

The entertainment for some lacks imagination and very much goes through a tired slightly hackneyed program

The restaurants while I really like them, when was the menu last changed? It's a bit dated on the food offer

The premium package included wines aren't great

The cabins aren't luxury, I mean the shower curtain alone would have some people I know horrified

The pool area, I really like, but I can see why others would say it's basic

The gym is not luxury

Now I'm painting the extreme and I think it's a great value product with a huge number of pluses. But if people don't do their research, like the two vloggers who kept referring to "I wouldn't expect this on a luxury cruise line", I do understand the disappointment 

I'd say Viking in overall experience is far far ahead of Azamara however so is the price

We are about to go for the third time on Onward and again we have picked it for ports and value. It cheap!

Azamara aren't helped by the view that it's a luxury cruise. It simply isn't or if it was it's not anymore

Maybe their strap line should be a cruise line for people who like to imagine they are having a luxury experience

I work in Amsterdam and use the airport on almost a weekly basis.

It's much improved from the dark days directly after Covid

There are no guarantees ever with travel but I'd say 2.5 hours max, less if you have any type of priority 

Having been on Azamara twice and going again soon I like the line because it offers great value for money when you take OBC deals into account & has good itineraries

However I'm bewildered as to why people say it's a luxury cruise line.

Leave aside if you think it is or not look at the price per night v Viking & upwards and Azamara is much cheaper

Look at MSC Yacht club or NCL Haven prices again Azamara is cheaper 

I went on the Oasis bought a drinks package for $80 + tax & tip ppn. I added on an unlimited dining package. The result was a more inclusive perhaps "luxury" cruise than Azamara, however at a much higher price per night 

You can say you don't like mega ships but that's nothing to do with luxury. Im sure many mega ship cruisers would take one look at an Azamara bathroom, gym, entertainment, non changing speciality menus ( they need a revamp!) and walk straight back out saying not good enough 

Like that recent vlog with them saying I wouldn't expect this from a luxury cruise line, there are unrealistic expectations for the price paid. 

Azamara isn't better or worse it's a great value, high service small ship experience.Just my view and of course others will differ.

There is no excuse for poor customer service. That's more than likely a culture issue within one department. The staff might feel their job is to push back on requests

That might also be wary of vloggers there are a lot 

On the Onward one lady in guest relations was being hugged by lots of passengers at the end of the cruise

My main bugbear is the repeated claim Azamara is a luxury line. The ships are very old & have few of the facilities of a luxury line. They push more the destinations  then the luxury of the ship 

This is reflected in the price. Simply compare the price per night with the inclusions plus OBC of Azamara and it's comparable with a standard cruise line. Viking is normally 2x as much and the the likes of Silverseas etc 3 or 4 times. Oceania is more too

This NYE/White Night on Onward  music was good as was the night, bar the too cold food.

In fact it seemed to liven up the rest of the cruise from what was till then to be frank becoming a little moribund in atmosphere. I think people realised there were others who enjoyed a bit more life

I agree that the whole entertainment needs a fresh look at as for me it shows a lack of imagination & is a little lazy.

Azamara needs to decide what it wants to be in this area. I spoke to a number of first timers who were shocked it was so quiet & wouldn't be coming back. I know people say that's Azamara, fair enough but it needs to market itself in that way so as not to have disappointed customers 

As an aside all businesses need to grow & unless they update the entertainment offer I doubt they will 

We visited this port on an Azamara cruise this week

Heard lots of grumbles about the ship excursions

To be honest the port itself is not much

We booked a tour with Euris at Samana Tourist Services & was very happy

Good communication & pick up & an excellent tour to 3 beaches by boat

I'd recommend him if you are visiting Samana 

Hopefully this helps the people visiting this quiet port

Coming to the end of an enjoyable Christmas & New Year Cruise on the Onward.

The ship is in better shape from when we were on board in August

Staff from Captain downwards have been outstanding. I'd say the less experienced are in the Windows in the evening.

Food has been excellent with just one or two meals being a little below par. My main gripe was the White Night food was none too warm. 

I'd say the atmosphere picked up as the cruise progressed. The early nights in the Living Room were quiet & people remarked on that. NYE seemed to invigorate people. It was an excellent night

The ports we have enjoyed with our independent tours seemingly better than the ship ones from talking to people

Downside still remains for me the lack imagination in the activities & entertainment. Same goes for the lecturers. For me reading the bullet points off one slide after another isn't acceptable

We are looking forward to coming back on the Onward at the end of March in Spain 

People seem to take it as an absolute extreme. Either silence, bean bag/bridge tossing as the main afternoon event or bellyflop competitions and a zoo around the pool

Something in the middle that caters for all should be found. Day before yesterday on a sea day the band played at the pool for 45 mins. The atmosphere lifted. I'd suggest they should have come back a couple of hours later.

Currently and Azamara don't advertise as a "silent" cruise, the balance isn't correct in my view. This cruise is advertised as a holiday cruise so you'd expect to have something a little more then long hours of nothing 

Another example of the "lazy" approach to the entertainment is the slides of the lecturers. They must be 25 years old. Anyone who does presentations for a living would be embarrassed to show them

The ship since we were on in August has improved in many ways. The staff and food are excellent.

A number of people have remarked & used the word "boring"

At the end of the day it's up to the cruise line

As an aside I've been on many different lines & go back on the Onward in March.

2 minutes ago, takemewithyou said:

The lack of piano player is an interesting story.  There was a substitute one brought onboard our 12/12 cruise.  He was not to Azamara standards, I do not think.  We heard that from a number of guests and it was his first contact.  I don’t know if he was supposed to stay longer, but we noted he was on his way to the airport when we disembarked 12/22.

They have obviously decided not to bother at all

The hotel director did a show yesterday. Then there was the violin player doing a turn but the sound wasn't good. Anyway that's not really the same as a professional pianist 

The ship looks much smarter from our last cruise in August. Soft furnishings all upgraded

Service & food I think very good

The ship is coping well with the high numbers.

They aren't enforcing their stated policy on sunbed hogging which is annoying

Entertainment is not good at all. Nothing around the pool all you can hear is a couple of guests with loud voices booming across the deck. No piano player in the Den.

Shows are very Butlins

The daily activities, well bean bag tossing every day as a highlight sums it up. It must be a good number to be a CD on this cruise as it seems you don't have to bother. Others will think differently I'm sure