marycruz

8057 is not good

 

 

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Thanks. That one looks like it's under the grill. Maybe that was why?

We were upgraded to 8063 and were never negatively impacted by noise from above.

Thanks. Good to know.

I’ll jump in re Maitre’d in Luminae. It is currently Yasin and on September 9th the fabulous Charles will board and replace Yasin.

 

 

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Thanks! That's great news. We've never sailed with Yasin but we love Charles!

We have been lucky to get the upgrade and bathrooms well worth it. Space in cabin even the small amount more makes a difference on a cruise more than seven days.

Restaurants with out a doubt are more personal.

Butler one or two breakfasts and fixed mistakes quickly, helped get bed fittings I need for comfort.

On very stormy days when all were asked to stay in cabin he was quick to provide snacks and hot tea. Made the day pleasant as we played games in room and watched the storm.

How about noise from above? Anyone experience noise being under the pool deck or restaurant?

No need to go to guest relations for new card. Anastasia will get one for you. My dh went thru 4 of them last week.[emoji38]

 

Fabien was awesome. Very knowledgeable and warm.

 

Kumar was our waiter for the entire cruise but we chatted with Gede who we met last year on Summit and Infinity in 2016.

 

The maitre d is leaving after this cruise for a month off before heading to the Edge to get luminae in order there.

 

Love your dinner attire!!!

Enjoy your cruise.

 

 

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Was the maître d Charles? He was great back in May. Do you know who was taking over?

What is the minimum for hand dealt blackjack on the Summit? Are the shoe games a regular one or a continuous shuffle machine?

They had the machines when we were on Summit in May.

I think we only saw one $5 table the entire cruise and only some of the time but mostly the minimum bet on the tables was $10.

FYI, I just recently received an email from X re: Vegas - "Captain's Club Select and Elite members receive complimentary M life Rewards Gold tier membership", and I believe there is 20% hotel discount too. Good luck in Vegas, hopefully you can bank some winnings to fund a future "Edge Sailing".

 

 

That's fantastic.

 

 

I'm going to try the Constellation in the fall - I've never been on an M Class ship, so I'm excited yet uneasy at the same time (I hope I don't miss the S class ship features too much!). Despite there being some 'noise' on the threads about Celebrity pricing getting too high, or X product decreasing (I've commented in this regard myself), I still do love their product and experience I have onboard.

 

I'm looking forward to hearing actual reviews from people who try the Edge, given the pricing is so high. I hope the Edge pricing comes down as their next ship Apex is released.

 

I can't believe you saw a Crystal sailing less expensive than 7n on X! I am still considering MSC (Yacht club is the way to go, from what I'm reading), but I'm hesitant due to the large size (the Seaside class is almost double S class capacity) and potential smoking issues as I'm allergic. I would sail Princess again since I enjoyed the Regal sailing. I think you'd like the Royal Class ships since you like the S class X ships. Their new ship Sky Princess is coming in 2019...

Smoking issues? Where do they allow smoking on MSC?

Yes it tends to change a little bit based on the region the ship is sailing in. This was Sojourn and Ovation.

Thanks! I'm going to go look for a Seabourn cruise now.

On our recent Seabourn cruise Thomas Keller was 6 pm, the Restaurant (main dining room) 6:45 pm, the Colonnade (buffet, with table service during dinner times and a stunning outdoor deck) 7 pm and the Patio also 7 pm.

Thanks. I suspect the times may be different depending on which ship one is on. Which ship were you on?

No, on our recent Odyssey cruise, the MDR always opened at 7pm, which I know is later than AZ, but we didn’t find it inconvenient, just gave us a bit longer to enjoy our cocktails in The Club.

Thanks. That's a bit better.

We have almost 300 nights on Azamara and still enjoy going back, but ever since our first cruise on Seabourn in 2015, Seabourn has been our first choice. Trying Seabourn made us realise that our main reason for sailing Azamara is it’s people... Captains Johannes / Carl / José, Hotel Director Heike, Cruise Director Eric - who does not want to travel with these amazing, warm, engaging people? They really make ever cruise special.

 

That said, we prefer Seabourn because:

- A Seabourn veranda category stateroom is superior to an Azamara Club Continent Suite. It’s newer, more spacious, has a bathtub and a separate shower, a double sink, lots of storage space, etc. And if you splurge and book a Penthouse Suite on Seabourn (the smallest “premium” category), you’re really in for a treat. I find them superior to Azamara’s Club World Owner’s Suites.

- Seabourn Square, the heart of the ship. What a wonderful venue to spend time and socialise.

- Much better included wines (proper Champagne to start with) and spirits. I realise I now sound like a snob, but the plonk Azamara serves just gives me headaches. In fairness however, many people seem happy with it. Plus, Seabourn has 15+ whites and reds available every day, Azamara only 2. Premiums brand spirits (like Hendrick’s gin) are all inclusive on Seabourn as well. You won’t find long threads on the Seabourn forum discussing “is cocktail such and such included?”.

- Although I would say the food is generally a tie between both lines, Seabourn’s Colonnade is far superior to Azamara’s Windows Cafe, in variety, quality and service. Seabourn’s Thomas Keller Grill is also superior to Prime C, but we always miss Aqualina when cruising on Seabourn. They offer nothing like it.

- Seabourn’s enrichment programme beats Azamara’s. Entertainment is in our option a tie, although we’re not happy with the recent changes on Azamara.

- Officer engagement is also a tie, except for Captains... they are much more visible on Azamara. We do like Seabourn’s “open house” on the Bridge though, when everyone is welcome to just drop in.

- Seabourn Ventures - the absolutely amazing Expedition Team. Whether it’s Norway, Alaska, Antarctica, Canada / New England or New Zealand, the naturalists, guides, zodiac drivers, kayak leads, etc. make for truly unique experiences Azamara simply does not offer.

 

Regarding dress code, people make too much out of this in our opinion. Seabourn’s formal night only requires a dinner jacket for men in the Restaurant (the main dining room) - it’s not more complicated than that. And if (like us!) you don’t want to pack a dinner jacket, there are 4 other restaurants to chose from that evening. (We always book Thomas Keller Grill on formal nights and leave the dinner jackets at home.)

 

Will you enjoy Azamara? I think yes (and we still do as well). Just manage your expectations and don’t expect a Seabourn experience. You do have to book a Club Continent Suite or better however; there’s no way someone who is used to Seabourn real estate can switch to Azamara’s balcony cabins [emoji846]

 

I hope the above is helpful!

 

Cheers,

Floris

We have been on Azamara several times but never on Seabourn which I would like to try. The deal breaker for us is the dinner times. Did you find that all dinner venues start at 7:30 PM?

I book the Summit Interior GTY, we were assigned CAT 9 7052, connecting cabin with 7048. request change of cabin to CAT 9 8174, the change was denied because our cabin is double and the requested one is triple (sofa bed). I only make this comment so that you take it into account when you want to make a change. I'm still happy because I save $1,220 (difference between GTY and CAT 9)

This must be something new or the person who told you this is incorrect because we have done it. As a matter of fact it was a guarantee also. As long as it was the same category you could change to it if it is available.

We sailed on Summit May 13-20. We docked approximately 8 am. They did not even start walk off disembarkation until 8:45 am (it was originally scheduled for 8:15 am). We had tag blue #9 and we got off an hour later at 9:45 am (original time said 8:55 am so almost an hour late). Disembarkation was very slow for some reason. By the time we got our luggage and got through customs we were at our car around 10:25 am.

 

I don't have any idea what time the last people got off but had to be after 10 am since tag numbers went up into the 20s.

We were on the same cruise. Heard that the delay was because the luggage was not in the terminal at the time the ship was cleared. Everyone had to wait, including the walk off folks. Not sure why but when we went by Michael's club the line was wrapped around there and all the way down the hall with the walk off people and it was after 9:00. We were B2B and were supposed to be in the Randavous Lounge at 9:30 but they told us to come after we heard them call number 26 (there were 31 numbers). We went there close to 10:30 and there were still folks getting off the ship!

Electrical questions make my brain hurt, but surely, if all electricity on the ship is supplied at 60Hz, very few things plugged into the 220-240v outlet would work correctly? Even simple things like clocks would go wrong. The ships and those outlets pre-date the era of phone and camera chargers that work well on either voltage and both frequencies, so the 220-240v outlets would have been fairly useless in 2000. I would expect that the 220-240v outlet uses 50hz frequency.

Same here, especially when our last cruise on Journey after the refurb when they put in the flat screen TV's and my hair dryer that I always take on cuises blew the fuse and we lost power to the TV and the outlet that was on the same circuit. According to the ship's electrician there was too much power and the ship has a safety shut off in place that did shut us down. He put it back on and suggested we turn off the TV when using the blow dryer.

I never had that problem before and hope it doesn't happen on our upcoming cruise.

BTW my dryer is just a standard Remmington (I think 1500W).

Curious- Is the Casino opened while in Bermuda?

Yes, it opened at 9:00 PM each night while we were in Bermuda.

Same issue recently AllisonJ on both Mac and PC. Tried clearly my history and cookies to no avail. I ended up calling to book and spoke to a really helpful guy, miguel, and was off the phone within 10 mins, and had email confirmations immediatly. Really easy transaction and great customer interaction. David

The website just went back to the same problem I had last month. It cleared up for awhile but now all I can get to are inside cabins. I was trying to see what the price for a verandah was since they are now offering $2000 OBC for those. No luck.

 

What was your cabin number? We are in 6031--I hope we won't have this issue! :o

 

We were just in 6115 on a B2B cruise. They actually moved the smoking area down and directly under our cabin. We never smelled any smoke from there. Cabin 6031 is nowhere near the smoking section but who knows if they move it again.

 

We were told they moved the chairs down because people complained about the smoke coming in the door by the men's room.

I just play slots....on other cruiselines you just stick your cruise card into the machine and, BINGO, money is deducted from your onboard account! Easy, peasy! Well, guess it might be too easy for some people, but I have just a pre-determined amount that I'm willing to "donate" to the cruiseline. ;p

 

Princess and Celebrity require you to use your cruise card for slots....no cash accepted. As a matter of fact, everything on those cruiselines is "no cash" except for gratuities to specialty restaurant staff on Princess (or maybe table games, I have no idea about those). So, on my first O cruise, I was pretty surprised when I saw the slot machine wanted cash. Pretty old school. But, I guess it will keep me from donating to Oceania. :')

Just off Celebrity Summit and definitely put cash in the slot machines. You do put your card in to build up points that you can use to play the machines but you can put cash in. Also used OBC that we had to play either slots or table games.

The standard gratuties for a Suite are $18pppd vs AQ or Concierge where they are $15pppd, the $3 is for the Butler.

 

Why would you say that a Butler expects more? What makes he or she any different that your cabin steward or dining staff? Do you think they expect an extra tip if they do any more than the minimum? Our experience has been much different.

Personally, I don't think the butler expects an extra tip but I know ours appreciated the tip we gave him. We don't always tip the butler extra when we are in a suite but if they do something special like this one did, then we will. We also tipped the cabin attendant extra because he was wonderful. Others are correct that the butlers tips are included in the $18 per day per person gratuity but suites.

The ferry times to St. George have been 9:30 am and 11:30 am for as long as I can remember and we have sailed to Bermuda every year for the past 6 years. I believe they have changed the times to Hamilton. This year they left at 11:15 am instead of 11:30 am.

That's what the staff at the ferry dock told us also. However, I know when we went last year we took an 11:00 ferry to St. George and got there just in time for the reenactment which had started at noon. Maybe that was a special time change for the ferry when we were there last year.

Was there any problem getting on the ferry to St George on Wed? Or was it the ferry to Hamilton that was so crowded?

We had no problem getting on the ferry to St. George but there was a very long line and we found out that they changed the time. It used to be in the mornings at 9;30 and 11:00 but now the second morning ferry is leaving at 11;30 so we thought we would miss the reenactment in St. George but they changed the time last week for the activity to 12:30 so we saw the entire reenactment. We got on the 11:30 ferry.

The Hamilton ferry was fine also. We went the week before but coming back everyone had to wait at the end of the pier in Hamilton instead of where they normally pick you up (where the benches are). I don't know why but we took the Bermudian back instead of the normal ferry which is much larger. Some people sat in the park and waited because the ferry was late also.

Thanks for the report. Glad I wasn't the only one who felt the water tasted off on May 13th cruise.

Looks like there was definitely something off with my sentence. I was supposed to write that there was definitely something off with the water the first week.

I believe that the water was bad. We just got off Summit on Sunday and we had plenty of plumbing problems with our stateroom bathroom. The ship really needs an total overhaul This is the 4th stateroom (on 4 separate Summit cruises) we have had either water leaking in our bathroom or toilet problems. The only time I drank any of the ship's water was in the MDR at dinner and while it wasn't horrible it did have an off taste to it, especially after drinking only bottled water for the majority of the cruise. So glad we had the Classic Beverage Package.

We just got off B2B on Summit yesterday. The first week the water did smell bad in the restaurant and also in the Aqua Café. I could not drink it, not because it tasted bad but because of the smell.

However, you'll be happy to hear that the second week the water problem just went away and hopefully they did something to fix what was wrong but I would say there was definitely off with the water on our first week (13 May) of the cruise.

Thanks to all. TA came back with $810 total for the upgrade. Tough choice, but stuck with the AQ Aft 1141 cabin. Deciding factors: We spend a lot of time on the balcony, already have the classic drink package which is fine for us, we cruise to get away from the internet, and already have $750 in OBC. Hope I don’t kick myself later for not going for the suite.

 

 

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I think you totally lucked out. Last year in the Luminae restaurant we met two different couples during our cruise who had purchased a guarantee sky suites and ended up with accessible suites which they were very unsatisfied with.

It really shows how poor the GM and ships officers are running the ship - by not taking control of this issue. Who was the GM on your voyage??

 

To the original OP -- very balanced review. We are also finding that O is dumbing down the food to suit more older pallets. The good thing in most of the restaurants you can ask for the dish spiced up. Especially found that as you did on the Indian food.

 

Also concur about your experiences in Polo. Last two cruises had 1 good meal and have found the same experience about overcooked meat.

In Toscana the Chef was Italian and everything that left his kitchen was Al-dente.

I do not know who the GM was on the ship. Also, I don't know if anyone in charge cared because I am pretty sure that the person who told many of us we had to clear out of our lounge chairs so they could set up parties for this group was in charge of something since he was directing crew members throughout our cruise..