Belfastman

17 hours ago, DavidTheWonderer said:

Many posters on the AZ boards mention what debcip called "the vibe".  Although important it is, of course, very subjective and opinions differ for different people. One can also do some quantitative research using, say, Wikipedia.  There are 2 numbers that are easily available.  First is space available, which is roughly the gross tonnage (GT) per passenger (the higher the better). The second is the number of passengers per staff (the lower the better).  Both space and staff cost money. Here are some examples:

 

Regent Mariner:  69 GT / pax, 1.6 pax / crew

Azamara Quest: 44 GT / pax, 1.7 pax / crew

HAL Eurodom: 41 GT / pax, 2.3 pax / crew

Majestic Princess: 40 GT / pax, 2.6 pax /crew

 

Not included above is Celebrity, which has been mentioned repeatedly on this thread.  This is in part because they have two classes of passengers, and I don't know how to separate them in my calculations. I met some folks on Azamara who had considerable experience with Celebrity who had positive things to say.  And some dear friends and cruise buddies are currently booked with Celebrity and I'm looking forward to hearing their report when they return.

 

Of course, I can't comment on whether more space and more staff to look after you is worth the extra money to you.  But for math geeks like me, finding these numbers is a fun way to while away the time until I get to get back on a ship.

Interestingly most of the Celebrity ships have a similar or higher GT than Azamara. Here are some figures I have obtained

Azamara Quest 42 GT

Celebrity Solstice 42 GT

Celebrity Summit 46 GT

Oceania Riviera 51 GT

1 hour ago, tring said:

 

Thanks for the reply - sounds very civilised.

 

I assume there will be a choice of times withing a range - if so what sort of range can we expect?  Also, about what time would we need to be out of cabins and when does breakfast normally finish.  I do realise things can and will change at times, but a general guide would be very useful to us. 

Normally if making your own transfer arrangements then you can leave anytime between 7.00 and 9.00am without having to specify a time in advance.

41 minutes ago, excitedofharpenden said:

Really?  I never have. I thought it was built into the price. What makes you say it isn't?

 

Phil 

When I have make a booking with the 10%saving it is taken off at the end.

I believe that you still have to take the 10% of the price shown.

9 minutes ago, Salf777 said:

First

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE INPUT!

 

The Oceania cruise we are taking in December is on the Riveria (Is that an R Class? I dont know the difference)

The Africa sailings are on the Nautica which I believe is smaller than the Riviera.

We got a really good deal for the Caribbean Oceania, a penthouse suite for $2000 a person. We live in Ft Lauderdale so its an easy drive to Miami port.

 

No the Riviera is an O class which is bigger than the R class ships . It carries 1200 people compared to approx 700 on the R class but is more than double the size.

20 minutes ago, uktog said:

As a matter of interest how prevalent is late itinerary changes or port changes on Oceania?  I’m meaning the kind of late changes for unexplained operation changes not the totally understandable weather related changes.  

Just trying to get a sense of reality from folks who have sailed on both as I still can’t gauge how  reliable the 2020 Azamara itineraries are. 

On all of our Oceania cruises we only ever had one port change which was minor (Portland changed to Newport). This was notified about 9 months before the cruise departure date.

This is only my experience I know there were changes last year on other O cruises in the Caribbean due to the hurricanes.

36 minutes ago, Lottie A said:

 

Although the speciality restaurants on Oceania are “free” you do have to share tables with strangers. You don’t on Azamara. 

 

 

Having completed many cruises with Oceania we have never had to share a table in the speciality restaurants.

There has been a suggestion that MJM are trying to buy Harland and Wolff perhaps through the administrator but do not want the current workforce.

9 hours ago, uktog said:

There is another shop of that chain in Nice for anyone stopping there and looking for something white.  I’m sure I also saw one in Cannes so it must be a very French thing as I’ve not seen it elsewhere in the Med.

Enjoy the shopping! 

This chain of shops is also found in parts of Italy in particular Northern Italy.

6 hours ago, laurieb said:

There are V1, V2 and V3 on decks 6 and 7; verandah plus are all on deck 8

There are also veranda plus on deck 6 and 7, at the front and rear between the big suites.

4 minutes ago, ellbon said:

Which I think after years of loving them is wrong. Not s huge amount if different between the price point.take away a couple officers and there is room. 

The two spa suites are usually four people therefore all the officers would need to be removed to accommodate the spa suites.

13 minutes ago, laurieb said:

Are spa suite guests included in best of the best?

No they are not - only the club ocean and club world.

5 hours ago, uktog said:

Interesting never had it. AND was charged for pressing on Pursuit last November so either it’s new or it was yet another thing our inadequate new butler (newly promoted from being a waiter nice guy but lacked the finesse or skill as a butler) got wrong. 

If only I’d known but I will but it to the test on the b2b coming up

Pressing 2 items per person has been a perk for suites for many years.

1 hour ago, norn iron said:

 

This might make me upgrade to the Ultimate Drinks Package. Maybe not for a Hendricks (although the Advisor is very partial), but for a Tanqueray 10

Yes Tanqueray 10 and fever tree so much better than Gordon's. 

10 hours ago, LHT28 said:

 That would be  a great 

Maybe they have done away with the dinners  at those events  during one of their reinventions

at one time  they did bus loads of people to a place   & set up dinner 

I have attended quite a few Azamazing evenings from its early days and have never known a dinner as part of the event. At each event nibbles and wine is usually supplied.

I have cruised quite a few times on both Azamara and Oceania (Marina and Riveria) and both have positive points. On Oceania there are four speciality restaurants while on Azamara there are two (complimentary on O while you have to pay $30 pp if not in a suite). In my view the speciality restaurants on O are superior in food quality and variety. Service on both lines is about the same. 

The Azamara ships are smaller and are destination focused while there is more public space on the Oceania ships (O ships) meaning there is more sitting places on wet sea days when it can be difficult to get a seat on Azamara. The one area that the O ships win hands down over Azamara is the guest staterooms - they are much bigger on O, have better storage space and have bathrooms that are much better throughout all categories.

Azamara crew are generally more friendly than Oceania and the officers are more visible throughout the ship especially when they get to know you.

14 hours ago, Lookyboy said:

We use Azamara as our booking agent for our cruises.... so on our recent cruise  (June 2019), we thought we would try out the new upgrade system.....as we don't receive e-mails......we took the initiative.....and went into the web site as suggested..... NOT ELIGIBLE .....

I assume you mean you don't get marketing emails - do you not get emails from Azamara such as your invoice for a booked cruise and a reminder close to when final payment is due? I book with Azamara and do receive an email invoice and final payment reminder. It is with these that the email about upgrades is generated.

1 hour ago, nokewood20 said:

Cruise is 86 days off, full amount paid.

Just tried to log onto upgrade programme. Reply states " not eligible".

I,m Discoverer Plus, paid appropriate fare and am registered on the Azamara system. 

Don't understand the rejection.

Has anyone else had this response?

 

Unless I'm missing something, you need to be invited to bid not go looking for it. This is how it has worked for my last couple of cruises. You get invited by receiving an email inviting you to bid if you want to.

8 hours ago, ellbon said:

Done a few with O. Bored at night and no late nights in port. Plus you need a drink package. Better lines out there vs Oceania.

Done quite a few with O had several late nights in port (incl overnights). All of my cruises had drinks included at no extra cost.

On 6/25/2019 at 10:49 PM, Lottie A said:

I would very happily pay for it onboard. May have to follow someone else's example and "recycle" some cans from the BA lounge in July! 😂

Alas BA have now removed Fever Tree from lounges and planes. They now have Schweppes.

9 hours ago, hiccups said:

Wow... it wasn't like there was much of a choice to begin with, but no free movies?  We don't really care for the entertainment on Azamara and so often spend the evening in our cabin watching a movie.  That's something I always commented upon in our end-of-cruise survey.
 

There were two channels showing movies when I was on Pursuit in May this year. Channel 35 (I think) gives the list of movies for the day. 

13 hours ago, marinaro44 said:

Apparently Pursuit will do something in the Caribbean not involving Cuba starting March 23 and ending April 5, then head for Lisbon arriving April 18. The next month she'll likely do the western Med, Portugal, and France's Atlantic ports on the way to Southampton May 24.

 

I will do something else.

Pursuit sails from Lima on 23 March ending in Miami on 5 April then TA to Lisbon. How will it get from Lima to Caribbean if not this?

2 hours ago, excitedofharpenden said:

Have you heard this will definitely happen?

 

Phil 

I understand that they plan to do this in mid to late 2020 according to a senior Azamara source.

Wonder what will happen when the Silversea loyalty program is incorporated into the LCV program!!

47 minutes ago, neilrr said:

We are travelling on Sirena next month and everything I have read on Oceania points toward ships docking in Cadiz.  After a discussion on our ships' thread, someone mentioned that the ship will be going up the Guadalquivir river and docking in Seville (not Cadiz).  Has anyone had this experience?  I have not seen anything on it before.  I hope they are correct. If so, is it in a central location of Seville, as we have an overnight? Thank you

I have been on 'R' class ships that have gone up the Guadalquivir river and docked close to the centre of Seville. From the dock it is a 20 minute walk to Seville centre. Often there is a shuttle bus to take you to the centre if you don't want to walk.