Lookyboy

1 hour ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Just had an invitation to bid for our forth coming Cape Town to Canaries cruise on Pursuit. We’re in an Oceanview which we’re happy with so have put in a weak bid for a Verandah. Happy with what we’ve offered as prices are now higher than they were when we booked (despite the fact that when I did a mock booking, there seemed to be plenty of empty cabins.

I’ll come back & report how we got on.

We have just had the same for the cruise prior to your one. Is it just my imagination or is this a slightly different style of bid....giving us time to pay and if not, we retain our original booking? (Thus giving that element of choice which was missing before??)

1 minute ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

"Dear Wife"

Och.....sorry....

On 12/23/2023 at 5:03 PM, Scots Caz said:

that appears to be the list from the Ultimate package rather than Premium. Premium only has blends for Whisky

https://www.azamara.com/gb/booked-guests/onboard-packages#link-beverages

 

And you don't want a blend.....a single malt is what you want.

On 12/27/2023 at 11:00 PM, Traveling Fools said:

Thursday, November 16^th

Lisbon

 
I forgot to mention that upon returning to the hotel yesterday, we observed that Gucci store window had been smashed in a couple of places.  DW went into the store and asked what happened.  She was told tow teenagers who were part of a crowd of protesters hit the window with hammers.  DW said the employees and manager dismissed as teenage mischief.

 

 

This was a short day with plenty of personal time.

 

After breakfast, DW and I split up.  DW met with Arzu, one of our surrogate daughters from Kuwait.  Arzu is the daughter of Turkish diplomats and now lives in Lisbon full time.  Arzu, took DW on her own specialized tour of Lisbon, including a cruise on the river Tagus.  What I saw on land, DW saw from the river. 

 

 

 

My group drove to the riverfront and visited the Monument to the Discoverers, the Belem Tower, and other riverfront attractions, including a stop at the bakery that produces the Pastel del Belum pastries.  It, of course, was crowded with tourists!

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the riverfront we crossed the street to visit the Jeronimos Monastery and the very interesting Maritime Museum.  For those who didn’t know or forgot, Portugal has a rich history of exploration and navigation, including icons like Henry the Navigator and Vasco de Gama. The Portuguese empire stretched worldwide.  Of note is that in 1815, the King of Portugal transferred the Portuguese capital from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro.  The following photo is the little royal skiff that transported the royal family from shore to the ship taking them to Brazil. 

 

 

 

Following our visit to the Maritime Museum, we returned to the riverfront and enjoyed a good lunch at the Doca de Santo’s

 

After lunch, we returned to the hotel.  I chilled and napped. DW didn’t return from her visit with Arzu until after 8 PM.  We spent the rest of the night avoiding chatter and relaxing.

 

 

Sorry to ask...what is DW?

On 12/1/2023 at 7:49 AM, combine said:

If you search on the Azamara website for  March  2024 and 2025 you will see one each year, both starting in las Palmas and ending in Lisbon.

We sailed Las Palmas to Lisbon in March this year and I am pretty certain that before our voyage, the vessel had done one or two Canary Island circular type sailings.

On 11/17/2023 at 3:15 AM, Pvbgirl said:

Anybody know if Azamara docks in Gdansk or the bigger port in Gdynia?

Pursuit docked in Gdansk in August this year.

11 hours ago, excitedofharpenden said:

Have not long returned from a super Greece Intensive 11 night cruise on Quest. The old adage "it's all about the people" holds true.  We were lucky to have a great team in charge from Captain Johannes through to HD Tatiana Morello, new F and B Manager Ertan from Turkey and on to Cruise Director Darren Lynton who is just great. 

 

Service in Aqualina from Suraj was top notch, from breakfast in the morning to dinner in the evening. We had a couple of really nice meals at Patio served by Bafaati. An excellent and professional waiter. If any of you going on Quest are lucky enough to have Robert as your butler, you are in for a treat. I remember him as a waiter in the Specialty Restaurant. The guy is indeed special. 

 

All in all a wonderful cruise with very good food and the usual brilliant service from everyone. I see no decline in Azamara since the change of ownership. I felt the same way last Autumn. Looking forward to the next one. 

 

Phil 

Aw - well done Robert. Well deserved promotion for a loyal, hard working, lovely guy. Thank you for sharing such lovely news.

3 hours ago, uktog said:

When you are on the No 20 up to Old Aberdeen you will be on the student nostalgia route. The Union Bar and some of our classes used to be downtown but the others and our Residences were in Old Aberdeen. Union closed at 11 last no 20 1130 the party bus ….

Mmmm.....I remember thon party bus. Great memories of student days in Aberdeen.

3 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Have you tried ringing. Yesterday I got through to the Weybridge number straight away ringing at 2pm (they don’t open until 10am). What I found reassuring was that the agent I spoke to could see all our accounts on her screen and she sent me an email which included a screen shot of her screen showing my husbands loyalty level (which shows as zero in his account on the website).

Thank you, Denise. I will try that. Our (excellent) travel agent is having another go tomorrow, so I will see how she gets on and then phone. 😁

14 minutes ago, fruitmachine said:

Don't hold your breath.

 

I was booked (by my TA) with a different email address than I already had with Azamara.  Azamara or TA were able to quickly change it on the booking, but it took a written request from me to Azamara and a seven week wait for the booking to appear on my account.  Now it's always there when I look at https://seaware.azamara.com/touchb2c, but on https://www.azamara.com/gb/account/upcoming-cruises it seems to depend on what way the wind is blowing as to whether it's there or not!

We sail in 20 days and when I try both of your links above, I see what has been there for weeks and weeks now. Basically, our names are correct, no loyalty level, no flights, no transfers, but the correct stateroom. If the names and stateroom are correct, I feel our cruise details 'must be somewhere', but despite all the forms completed since April, nothing has changed. Trying not to worry.......

On 7/10/2023 at 12:30 PM, excitedofharpenden said:

In the good old days (sounding like I'm ancient!) it was most definitely run by Azamara. I used to get a call and they'd tell me what cabin category I could upgrade to and would even ask me which cabin number I'd l like. Realising the amount of time that took and really not practical, but I wish there were still some way of knowing and controlling the cabin they move you to. For me now it's not worth the aggravation. 

 

Phil 

We enjoyed those days also, Phil - the phone call from Azamara offering an upgrade. 

On 6/5/2023 at 11:04 AM, Grandma Cruising said:

Yes, we did!

and a good sized group for our Suez cruise in November too. 

On 5/9/2023 at 11:31 AM, Silver Claire said:

Got back to driech, cold and rainy Scotland yesterday after an amazing 21 nights away with 17 onboard Quest. Japan - Taiwan - Hong Kong - Vietnam - Singapore. Despite all the prior stress with the website issues we had an absolutely fantastic time. More than happy to answer any questions from anyone about the ship and/or ports of call.
It was our fist time cruising with Azamara and defiantly wont be our last. Really couldn't fault the service, food or our room (6020 - veranda). Quickly discovered that their excursions definitely aren't our bag so did our own thing in that respect after a painful experience at the only one we did initially book followed by a cooking class one that was completely miss sold and didn't go to the market or the cookery school specified. 
We are both 50 and were definitely towards the lower age group of guests but we met some fantastic people, fell in love with Azamara and Asia and enjoyed celebrating our Silver Wedding Anniversary. My husband brought his kilt and bagpipes and played up on the sun deck on every sail away and was honoured to be asked to play for the memorial service at 6am on Anzac day. 

Well done. That would have been simply magical. 

6 hours ago, Rosroz said:

Here in the U.K. if you cancel a cruise just because you’ve changed your mind you do not get your deposit back, you loose it, if it’s a cruise you can sometimes

get your deposit transferred to another sailing. We can’t chop and change as we fancy. This also applies to ANY holiday land or sea based , If it’s for illness etc.. then you claim it back on your Travel Insurance .

I also thought that in US, there was a charge for cancelling a cruise.

3 hours ago, hamrag said:

It's purely a guess based on FREE UP coding, but sounds possible to me!

We have FREE UP for our next one too. Simply meant that we paid for one verandah level and were upgraded to the next verandah level.

12 hours ago, uktog said:

I’m not even going to look at the website (as I’ve no need) until I get the email that it’s fully ready to use.
 

Obviously those who need to book or are about to cruise in the next few weeks that’s very different but whether my status is correct is such a first world problem (sorry) and if a cruise is missing (last time all my bookings were not there) there will be a saved archive they can restore from and I’m sure they know that switch hasn’t happened in every case. 

I’ve been through these sort of migrations at work. There’s always something that doesn’t connect over straight away. And for Azamara this is a separation and a migration - a once or twice in your career experience for most. And it’s no picnic. 
 

So I’m putting my patience hat on and leaving the call centre lines for those who really need to call 

We are sailing tomorrow and cannot get logged in to/ connected with Azamara, but all will be well, we are sure. 

7 hours ago, mdeegooden said:

This being our first sailing w/ Azamara, I unfortunately don't have perspective on the buffet other than what we experienced here as compared to those on other lines we've sailed.  While we chose to dine in Discoveries most evenings this cruise, we did check options.  I recall that Windows featured a country or destination each evening, although I'm not sure every app/entree/dessert was exclusively indicative of a specific country.  What I am sure of is how unexpectedly pleased we were w/the overall dining experience there the couple times we chose Windows for dinner.

Thank you. This is what I was wondering. 😁

On 3/19/2023 at 4:22 AM, mdeegooden said:

We recently completed the 12nt South African Intensive, our first cruise w/ Azamara, and were quite taken aback w/ Windows.  We don't prefer buffet dining for dinner but were genuinely impressed w/ Windows Cafe as an evening dining option.  With white table cloths and helpful wait staff, the quality, variety, and  presentation of cuisine were surprisingly pleasant.  We dined there and at The Patio three times during the trip; all very nice & enjoyable.  I would most definitely recommend you consider the options at both in comparison to Discoveries MDR each evening as you decide where you wish to dine.  I'm sure you'll be pleased w/ the choices!

Did the evenings at 'Windows' have a theme each time, or do you mean that 'Windows' has returned to how it used to be, with a daily high quality buffet with no particular country theme? We used to enjoy dining there prior to the change to a different country each evening.

On 3/3/2023 at 11:15 PM, Grandma Cruising said:

On our October Quest cruise the M &M was in half of the Drawing room. There were drinks but no officer attendance or microphone. It was well attended and people circulated and talked to each other.

It was most enjoyable. Well organised. Thank you. x

On 3/2/2023 at 7:01 PM, Grandma Cruising said:

And on Pursuit on Tuesday.

Have a lovely time, Denise. x

On 2/16/2023 at 2:08 PM, laurieb said:

No they do not.  If you need to cancel your cruise, Azamara will retain 150.00 per stateroom and will refund the rest, in the US at least.  There is not a discounted non refundable rate like other lines have begun to offer.  

Anyone know how Azamara handles cancellations in UK? Deposit only paid,  but it was a hefty £1000, via a travel agent.

37 minutes ago, uktog said:

Did you book direct?

No...via a travel agent here in UK. 🙄

3 hours ago, uktog said:

The email and or your location are red herrings - the issue is as Oddjob16 said in post 1053, you booked a Guarantee Cabin, even though you are now assigned a cabin on Deck 6 your booking is as a Guarantee (Y).  The terms of the upgrade scheme is you are not eligible to bid if you are Booked as a Guarantee (Y).  The only way you could be eligible is to have your booking changed from a Y to a V3 or whatever, pay the current price difference and then bid which is unlikely to be worth it.

We are not eligible either for our March cruise, booked a veranda.

On 1/26/2023 at 7:38 AM, Grandma Cruising said:

Not sure what you are referring to. Eating areas on Azamara are Discoveries main dining room, deck 5 aft, Windows buffet, deck 9 aft (includes sunset veranda seating area (and bar on Journey & Quest)). Patio just outside Windows on Deck 9. The two speciality restaurants are Prime C & Aqualina, deck 10 aft. Then there’s Mosaic cafe on Deck 5 just near the aft elevators which serves hot drinks and a variety of snacks throughout the day, and afternoon tea & early evening tapas in the Living Room on deck 10 forward.

Sorry, Denise - I have gone right back and read the whole thread.....I think someone was referring to a cafe on a Celebrity ship, and I missed that link initially. Thanks for answering.

On 1/17/2023 at 12:08 PM, lisiamc said:

I have found it’s really variable post-Covid and post-new ownership. Anything from10-60 days. There is a line on the screen saying that they will email me when it’s open, but they never have. I just keep checking back until online check-in is open.

On 1/24/2023 at 6:20 PM, jasardeax said:

I’m sure you will be able to check in at least 30 days before embarking. 
If not, when we sailed out of Civitavecchia in October, we didn’t check in online. We just showed up at the check in tent at about noon. Waited in a seating are with light refreshments. Only 497 passengers on that sailing. 
We were on the ship around 1:00 PM 

Our last cruise in November .... it was 7 days prior to our cruise before we could check in.

On 1/22/2023 at 7:41 PM, federalexpress said:

I was notified a month before on my cruise (which I'm boarding imminently).

 

I got an email and I think it had only just opened because I was able to get one of the first slots at 2pm.