federalexpress

That was a nice review of your cruise, enjoyed reading it. Last time I was in Norway, I found it eye wateringly expensive and I guess a cruise is a pretty cost effective way of doing it.

If you call at La Gomera, this is a beautiful island, been twice and I don't usually repeat visit places. I don't know how long you stay but the Garonjay National Park is very lovely, some fantastic trails if you like walking and superb scenery.

Yes that is very good to know, it is a pretty decent quality dessert wine. The lists you kindly post are interesting. I doubt I'll need to indulge if I'm already on a package (unless there is a deep discount) but it's quite eclectic. As far as I can tell, with a few exceptions, they seem to apply roughly a flat £20 mark up on retail making the more expensive wines very fair value. The Caymus wines for example. Or at the ultra high end, the Ornellaia and Inglenook wines are actually not far above retail, if indeed at all above it, as are the two flagship champagnes, Dom P and Cristal. The problem is, you need to find 200 bucks plus to access this value! It also means at the cheaper end, say around $30-40, you are basically paying the normal 2.5 to 3 times mark up. Still, if all stays the same, it looks like I'll have some decent reds and dessert wines to choose from. The whites, a little less so, The Wairau River SB being the best of the bunch. And I guess there is always the champagne...

Thanks, very helpful. That Merlot is decent enough but it is a definite step down in quality- or price at least- from the Matanzas Creek. But then the Patio is more informal I think? So maybe the MC wine is offered in the other restaurants. If you can bear all the posting, I'd be interested in any other comments and feedback on the wines provided during your cruise partly because I'm weighing up whether to bring my own stuff onboard and how much of it. So if they have a dessert wine on the package, at least I won't need to bring much if any of that on with me.

Thanks, yes I saw that. A bit strange as it isn't on the Ultimate drinks lists people have so helpfully posted. Maybe it's a case of asking!

So you got the SB dessert wine with the Ultimate package? That's good to hear. I know that wine, it's not bad, as you say a little less sweet than Sauternes ( probably because it lacks the Semillon in it). Sad to hear none of the reds are taking your fancy. Without wishing you to disturb your holiday too much, I'd appreciate it if you can advise if the 3 wines I've seen on the website for the Ultimate package are still offered. They are Matanzas Creek Merlot, Penley Phoenix Cab Sauv and Sokol Blosser Pinot Noir. They're decent enough wines I'd be happy enough with. Hope you're enjoying your cruise.

Is that available on the Ultimate package, do you know?

Thanks for that be interested in any further feedback you have. Can I also ask, do they have a dessert wine (other than port) on the ultimate package? I think not so I'm considering bringing my own.

What do you think of the quality of the wines on the Ultimate package? What were your favourites?

Interesting. My TA was clear in her email to me that I could use my OBC against the Indulgence package but she might have got it wrong. Will find out soon enough! Is it also possible that some OBC is different? I recall reading somewhere that TA supplied OBC can be used slightly differently to Azamara supplied OBC. But not totally sure about that. I'm in a suite so maybe that changes things? For example, I would not need to buy speciality dining (other than chef's table). Given the uncertainty, I'll report back when I try to buy my Indulgence package and let people know if it proved possible.

Everyone's different. Some like to plan, some go with the flow. I tend to be in the former camp. Nice surprises are good, bad surprises not so much. Soft drinks/mixers bother me not one iota but wine very much does. Hence I have elsewhere enquired about the provenance and quality of the complimentary wine onboard because this is not detailed on the website. Since they appear to be pretty mediocre, it means I can take action ahead, for example buying a package and/or bringing some of my own wine onboard. I'd personally sooner do that than discover on the first night that the house red is lousy!

FYI my TA claims you can indeed buy the packages up front, and actually suggested doing so. I haven't actually bought it yet so she may have been wrong. I was using $1000 of my OBC to buy a $1499 Indulgence package. It appears I just pay the $499 difference in cash (or more specifically, card). Possibly Azamara don't sell them direct but TA's can get them on your behalf? Or maybe someone is incorrect in what they are claiming..

I'm also in a suite (CC) but the complicating factor might be that I am a first time cruiser with Azamara and I think (but I'm not sure) that some of the above you can either get heavily discounted or maybe even free if you have cruised a lot with them. So I'm not so experienced but I think with a suite I get speciality dining free but not the chef's table. I believe I get 240mins internet but that won't last long on a 17 day cruise and I think the 240 mins is maybe for only one of you, this is for 2, unlimited. I think I also get at least one free bag of laundry but this is many more and I gather the laundry bags are not very big at all, so it would be nice to have stuff clean. Finally I just have the basic wine, like everyone, but I've read they are pretty mediocre. The Ultimate package gives me wines like Whispering Angel and Matanzas Creek- decent quality stuff. I'm not a spirit or cocktail drinker but I love my wine. This costs me an extra $550 over what I already have and I could roughly divide that up as $10 per person per day for the drinks, $4 per person per day for the internet, $5 per laundry bag and $20 each for the chef's table. Looks fair to me! Hope I've explained that ok.... Post edit: I should point out I had $1000 of OBC anyway but this package includes $700 for excursions and $250 for spa. That is pretty much how I'd have split it anyway, outside the package- we're buying some tours direct. Hence you can see where I got the $550 extra from for the additional items. Actually I'll only be paying $500 extra (or the sterling equivalent)

My TA says they can be bought beforehand and yes, using OBC, the balance in cash if it's more than your OBC.

I think if you booked the steak night and they took the booking as such, then withdrew it when you got there a week or two later, you might well be within your rights to ask for the $20 steak, albeit they might refuse it. To be fair, I think a premium cruise is a bit more considered purchase than a night in the pub and will be booked with much longer notice (at least for many people) and of course requires a deposit to be paid. As I say, it really shouldn't be a matter for m'learned friends but one might argue that at the point that deposit is paid, a contract exists. Now I suspect that contract allows them to change pretty much anything, not least your itinerary, but regardless of the small print, it's not good for brand image to change content after contract, if it's just to extract more money from you. I'd also agree with the earlier poster, if you are buying their ultimate package, that should surely include corkage not least because you are effectively saving them money by drinking your own purchase in the restaurant, rather than the Whispering Angel or Matanzas Creek they are buying at a not insubstantial price. In my case, it won't matter that much, just means I'll not take any to the restaurant and drink their wines instead.

The package I have my eye on is the Indulgence package, at $1499. I already have $1000 of OBC so for a small extra sum, that delivers a lot, close to the original $1k of OBC for tours (700) and spa(250) which I will use, then on top for your extra 500 bucks, you get Ultimate drinks for two for the whole 17 days, chef's table(once), internet for 2 for the duration and free laundry. Not bad!

Actually I wonder if that would be the case, it might depend on the extent of the increase. Put it another way, if you booked a cruise and they then decided your food was not free, would that be challengeable? Or introduced other conditions such as requiring only Azamara tours to be taken. I think it might come down to defining what is a price increase and what is a policy change that changes the basis on which you have bought the product/service. Not that lawyers should be anywhere near this but Azamara need to tread carefully, the ill will created will be greater than the small revenue gained, if indeed there is any net gain, as per my previous post.

That is moot but whatever else, I don't think whacking on a 50% increase is reasonable. Worse still, some have claimed that it is, in fact, now $25. That is not even gouging, that is a change of policy and I question the ethics of doing that, after people have already booked. Even more so when I will in any case be buying their ultimate package at a substantial daily cost. That should really accommodate any corkage fees. In fact, if it did, I would imagine they would still make more net profit that way than opening relatively expensive bottles of wine they have bought for my consumption, rather than ones I've bought onboard with my own money.

Yes, that is what I mentioned about others feeling differently about their health risk, I realise others will fear the virus more than I. For example, a very close relative of mine is at much greater risk due to a serious medical condition, hence I have to be more circumspect than I otherwise would be about my own contact and behaviour. But on top of that, even those who face no serious medical risk like me face the risk of having their holiday not just spoiled, but potentially turned into a horror story. I base this on the harrowing account of a poster on here who was taken from the accommodation they had booked, seperated from her disabled partner and made to stay in an airless room for the best part of two weeks, with a somewhat mentally deranged fellow passenger housed next door, banging on the walls. The poster may have been exaggerating for effect, but I somehow doubt it. That scenario, albeit sounding somewhat less likely at the moment, made me question whether to cancel, especially if the safeguards that might reduce the risk, like pre cruise testing, are abandoned.

I'd very much agree with that. I'm not personally concerned about the medical effect of Omicron, having had it recently only mildly ( I realise others have health conditions that make them feel differently) but the fear of isolation and a ruined cruise costing £10k plus is enough. I said previously, I feel the cruise lines are outsourcing the risk to us here....

I'd agree with you. It's a pain to organise testing and it costs money but if it plays a part in keeping you from catching it and away from isolation, it's a price worth paying.

Thanks for that. I'm somewhat re-assured that they are not simply removing people from their booked room to what, based on account from another poster on here, sounded like imprisonment. If I had Covid with symptoms, I'd be OK staying in the cabin I booked until they cleared and I'd be careful on interaction for a few days after (e.g. wearing a mask) but I suspect people may have been spooked by extreme isolation policies and so, if you are not actually so unwell as to have to stay in bed, I can see why people might cheat, even if I disagree with that course of action. It doesn't help they seem to have stopped the pre cruise testing in most places, that might have at least kept the base case level lower. Anyway enjoy your cruise!

Do you happen to know if they are still removing those Covid infected from their booked rooms and sent to small isolation rooms, or just leaving them where they are? Also do you know if the isolation policy is still no release until a negative test? Actually I suppose the first question is whether there is still an isolation policy...

I saw that. I hope that doesn't apply to my forthcoming cruise. I chose Azamara precisely because it claimed not to nickel and dime you but to go from $10 corkage to $25 is gouging, not nickel and diming and leaves a very nasty taste. It is even more unacceptable if you are already buying their ultimate package. I'm checking this with my TA and maybe this forum's posters might also find a way to complain, otherwise they'll hope we don't notice.

If they have jacked it up to $15 from $10, I think that is somewhat out of order. Low corkage was only a small reason I booked but it was a factor I was aware of, given other lines charge rather more. I'm buying the ultimate package anyway so I regard it as a bit unsporting to be whacking $15 on a bottle I take to the restaurant. It means I drink less of their more 'expensive' wine.