Werangels

Why have the comments querying which cruise I was unhappy with been removed from this thread please?  Jazzbeau our moderator had commented but is now removed.  It makes my first comments nonsensical…..

17 hours ago, MamaFej said:

What was so disappointing about the cruise, please? We have one booked as part of a two month  trip. I'm okay with the cruise paling in comparison to the land portions of the trip, but I am concerned about it being a disappointment, 

 

Thanks. 

Firstly, just to clarify for everyone when I referred to being disappointed I was referring to the Azamara cruise.  
 

Mamafej, it was as you say ‘paled in comparison to the land portions of the trip’.  I think when you were bear in mind that December is Winter everywhere in South Africa except Cape Town and it was cold (blankets by the pool rather than towels), rainy and we had many sea days with F8 seas, it wasn’t what we were expecting.  Probably our fault for not doing enough research…..  From booking, ports were changed due to unrest (which is fine) but left us with only 3 ports apart from Cape Town.  Durban and Port Elizabeth are shockingly rundown, unsafe with many, many homeless so tours are imperative.  None of the ports are pleasant on the eye.  We had a couple of excellent safari excursions and enjoyed the 2 nights on the ship in Cape Town but in hindsight we could have had a far more immersive experience on land than sea for the 13 nights of the cruise.  We didn’t visit Mossel Bay which we would have liked to but wasn’t included on our cruise.  Our land safaris meant that we were able to do early morning and night drives which obviously you cannot do from the ship.  Everything we did from Cape Town ie, Kirstenbosch, Table Mountain, Cape Peninsula, Franschoek, Stellenbosch could have been done from a hotel so, the reality is we spent 13 nights on a ship for 3 ports.  We felt like the cruise didn’t really scrape the surface of South Africa however, as you are there for two months, you will have an amazing time. 
 

The sunset cruise at Vic Falls was lovely.  A very lovely small boat experience with canapés, hundreds of hippos, birds and a croc or two!  In fact, we were the only passengers which was fabulous.  
 

The Zambezi Queen and Chobe Princesses are owned by Accor Hotels not AMA Waterways and from that we took amazing lifetime memories.  

There were things we found disappointing on board also but that appears to be common with a number of other threads on here. I am not wanting to put anyone off and hope you enjoy your cruise and get better weather than we did.  I think it has taught us to really consider whether a cruise is the right way to see some places or not.  We love the immersive nature of AZ when there is a port each day where you can just step off the ship and be surrounded by wonderful villages and towns to explore.  
 

I hope you have a wonderful time. 

1 minute ago, wjfan417 said:

We’re thinking about doing a couple days in Victoria Falls on our own before joining the pre-cruise.

If you can I would do more.  Just to give some context - we did the sunset cruise on our first evening.  We walked the falls the following day.  We did the helicopter over the falls and the steam train dinner on the bridge.  We also did two night game drives which were fabulous as well as shopping (lots of local craft shops) and pool/relaxation time.  Seeing the falls from every perspective allows you to see the enormity of it.  
 

I will be honest, the cruise was the most disappointing part of the holiday.  We were there for a month.  

We did our own thing which included 5 nights in Vic Falls overlooking a water hole in Vic Falls game reserve. There is so much to do including safaris in the game reserve.  Saw all the big 5 including lion cubs and a rare genet as well as being roadblocked on the road to our accommodation by 2 bull elephants having a stroll! 
 

We did the Zambezi Queen, the same boat as Jazzbeau and loved it.  Loved Chobe and had wonderful elephant sightings.  We would go back in a heartbeat. 

On 4/20/2024 at 9:32 PM, uktog said:

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. I’m kind of glad the reason ran late so that our peak viewing was in quieter places and not in the Sakura frenzy of Tokyo 

Thank you.  I understand.  

I have really enjoyed reading this.  Thank you.  
 

Was there as much cherry blossom as you expected or more/less?

Hi Jill

i just came across your post as I was searching AMA for the Mekong.  We stayed on the Zambezi Queen in January and it was fabulous.  We enjoyed every minute of it.  Going out on the little boats to see the wildlife is wonderful.  We could happily have sat all day long watching the herds of elephants coming down to the river to drink and play.  Our only regret was that we only had two nights.

34 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Our hotel in Cape Town told us it was not safe to drink the tap water!

How odd! 

On 3/12/2024 at 1:22 PM, travelberlin said:

Apparently water is oft a problem on the cruises in Africa and India. Someone mentioned that the bottled water on those areas is not always purified but just plain tap water. The recommendation was to drink sparkling water instead.

 

Cape Town has some of the best quality tap water in the world.  They are in the top 1 so I doubt using tap water for bottled water would be the issue here?

4 hours ago, Dynacruiser said:

I travel to Miami at least once a year.    I usually book mid-level hotels, I am not a party animal, like to sit and read by the beach, and love good restaurants.  Here are my personal views as a visitor, not as a local:

 

Areas:

Airport.  No, this would be my last choice.  Nothing to see or do there.

 

Downtown.  I stayed there a couple of times and would not be my first choice.  Downtown is more business oriented, more office people traffic.  Brickell (is it part of Downtown, or just next to it?) may be a good choice if you want a quieter area away from the famous Miami Beach, but I absolutely prefer Miami Beach.

 

Miami Beach. This is the place I keep going back to and I am not a sun worshipper.   It is a 9- ile long beach, so I will divide it in three areas:

 

1) The northernmost I would stay is around the Hotel Confidante.  Decent beach, uncrowded, but not a lot of pedestrian traffic and a long walk or an uber to the more pedestrian areas.   Stay in this area only if you want to be near the water but in a quieter place away from the crowds.   Lots of residential buildings nearby.

 

2) The area around Lincoln and Collins.  Use the Ritz Carlton as a marker (of course it’s not a budget hotel).   This is my favorite area and the one I recommend to everybody.  This part has a lot of pedestrian areas (Lincoln street is great for walkers.  I would not recommend the restaurants on Lincoln for the food but to people watch).    I believe this area is already considered South Beach.

 

3) Southernmost part:  Use Lummus Park as a marker.  This is probably the noisiest and perhaps most fun area in Miami.  I have never stayed here, as it is a bit too crowded and noisy for me, but my friends tell me that there are plenty of budget hotels.  I do like to walk this area, though, love the art deco architecture. Some famous restaurants and clubs in the area, some famous people late at night (when will I run into Messi?), but be careful, many affordable restaurants are just tourist traps with bad food.    

 

 

Warning: Miami is expensive.  You get what you pay for.  Don’t expect a nice room, ocean view, nice pool grounds, nice beach access, unless you are willing to pay for it.  A budget hotel will be quite spartan, no luxury, may smell from countless large families bringing wet towels into the room, your view will be the wall of the building next door, etc etc.   A while back, I went to pick up a friend at a budget hotel in South Beach near Lummus Park, and it was very budget, almost looked like a hotel by the hour; it only had two folding chairs at the lobby.  Research your hotel very carefully.

 

If the OP is still around, I will gather my list of hotels I’ve stayed and restaurants, and will continue this post later.

I am not the OP but this is really useful for us as we will need a hotel later this year and it’s a very, very long time since I was in Miami.  Thank you.

4 hours ago, iana1212 said:

I thought that would be the case. I have also reached out to Azamara to try and get official confirmation before I book flights (still too early to book them).

I don’t think they will commit.  We asked a similar question about leaving early and they said you need to ask on board as they cannot say what the port authorities will allow.  

People did this on our South Africa cruise this year.  

25 minutes ago, Scotswoman said:

Does anyone know if the laundry room and the pool on the Pursuit have now been re-opened, as passengers were hoping when they embarked?

I read that the laundry room has been reopened today for a short time. 

All of the Pursuit cruises from the Xmas cruise onwards have had norovirus.  The Xmas cruise, the buffet, etc was self serve from about half way through the cruise.  The last cruise had the pool and spa closed for the whole cruise and I understand this had also happened on the previous cruise.  There was no insistence of using sanitiser purely the captain asking for people to on a daily broadcast.  We sanitised everywhere, never touched lift buttons or handrails, etc.  I only saw the handrails being cleaned once; that isn’t to say it wasn’t being done more regularly. I have to say that in my opinion and before the virus got hold, I was aware that the ship wasn’t as clean as I would expect.  
 

Apologies but thought it worth giving some detail to Pursuit this year.  

22 minutes ago, Mrs Skip said:

We had $600 OBC. I phoned up, the $600 OBC was applied and I paid the rest by credit card.  Within a few minutes the Experience More - Short Voyage was showing up on the voyage planner detailing what was included.  Not yet seen or tried to use the individual OBC (for Shore Excursion & Spa), happy to do that on board.

For me the differential from the 'old' days is the package can be purchased in advance using OBC.  And based on previous experience, will be waiting until on board to schedule the Chefs Table

That’s great news.  I shall have to telephone to do the same. 
 

Thanks.

29 minutes ago, Mrs Skip said:

On the basis of this knowledge, we decided to buy the Experience More - Short Voyage which is for voyages of 7 days or less.  With Ultimate Drinks at $39.95, even with 20% discount, that would be just short of $450 (US), add on the 2 lots of Onboard credit that come with the package ($300) , and 1 extra lot of laundry, and it just about pays for the $799 (US) cost gives us a 'free' Chefs Table.  The wifi part of the package is pointless for us, we have that anyway,

We had been on the 'cusp' of not buying the 7 days package, i suspect others may be inclined to purchase in advance now.

 

Let's See !

 

PS - I phoned up on Saturday afternoon to use our $600 OBC and the call was dealt with quickly & professionally.

 

 

Did you use your OBC to purchase the package?  We found a package the best value for South Africa but had to wait until we were onboard to purchase the package using our OBC.  I have put the enjoyments package into my basket for a future cruise along with excursions and if we could sort this now, that would be great.

Incidentally, on our last cruise, they had included the $250 spa credit towards our excursions which was very useful. 

4 hours ago, Ithikan said:

It was a "special," sorry to report -

I had it as a special pre-order on Pursuit.  There were 6 ordered that night.  So clearly very popular.

7 hours ago, roberts2005 said:

Did you get the Hendricks because of an upgraded drink package?    I was told no last time I asked.  

I’m not sure.  We did have ultimate but it wasn’t mentioned and we only had the one bottle not two? 

I requested Hendricks which we got.  We also got Fevertree tonics and ginger beer.  I also had a glass of champagne delivered with the afternoon canapés.  The butlers trolley had many glasses of champagne that he was delivering! 

I had the same thing happen on our last cruise.  The TA stood firm, had recorded telephone conversations, etc with Azamara where they had checked and rechecked the price so Azamara had to back down and accept it.  I think it helped that the TA is one of their biggest clients and my personal agent is very, very experienced.

Glad you got it sorted. 

7 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

You can book excursions beforehand, and packages, it’s only dinner reservations you can’t book beforehand.

I wanted to use OBC to pay for the package so had to do it on arrival.  We would still have had to queue at guest relations to sort the Wi-Fi out and the queues were huge.

On 12/28/2023 at 8:57 PM, Traveling Fools said:

Saturday, November 18^th

Depart Lisbon Aboard the ONWARD

 

 

With no reason to rush, DW took our time getting breakfast and repacking.  We left the hotel just after 11 Am and arrived at the cruise terminal at about 11:30. We were among the first there and, after checking our luggage, had to wait until 12:00 before being able to check-in.

 

Check-in was a breeze.  They assigned us a group number and section to wait in until the actual boarding took place at 2:00.  We burned up the time texting, reading, and visiting the duty-free store.

 

As many had told me here on CC, boarding was quick and painless.  However, there was no table near the boarding area to make specialty restaurant reservations.  That was to be found on deck 10 inside the Aquilina.  I dropped my hand carry off and immediately went to deck 10.  There was only one couple in front of me when I got there.  I waited 5 or so minutes before it was my turn.  I had to book three Chef’s tables and specialty dining to coordinate with White night and the Best of the Best dinner.  That might have added a minute or two to my reservation experience.  When I stood and turned around to leave, I was stunned at how long the line was.  It stretched from the restaurant all the way out to the elevators.  

 

That entire goat rope could be eliminated if Azamara implemented on-line restaurant booking and reservations.  Regardless that some Azamara veterans’ opinion that it is a breeze to make reservations after boarding; the fact is that it is only a breeze for those first in line.  Period!   And, oh by the way, having a suite doesn’t mean your butler will be able to secure the dining times you want.  Two of our Travelling companions countered the long line and choice instead to have their butler them for them were not able to book their desired dinning times.

 

Next on the agenda was unpacking and enjoying some bubbly while in the process. We then chilled for a while before making our way to the Sunset Veranda where we were supposed to meet some of our CC shipmates. 

 

The original plan was to meet there for cocktails for a sail-away.  Once there we learned because the airport had been fogged in most of the day, the ship’s departure was delayed until passengers on those diverted aircraft arrived.  So, a twilight sail away morphed into a dark evening one; one that conflicted with our, and I’m sure others’, reserved dining time.  We met a couple of our CC shipmates, but just in passing.  The meeting didn’t take on the life I think many of us expected and everyone moved on to dinner or other venues.  On our Roll Call, we had discussed holding a couple of different types of cocktail get togethers, none of which happened.  This meant the bottle of French Costco vodka and a bottle of white port bought specifically for one of those gatherings would be going home with me.  Too bad, I was really looking forward to the port and cheese gathering.

 

Dinner on our first night was at Prime C. I was full of great expectations.  DW ordered Steak Diane and I ordered a filet.  The appetizers and salads were very good, as was the dessert.  However, our main courses really sucked!  Our waiter totally screwed up our orders.  I was served a New York Strip that was so gristly I couldn’t finish it and DW was served a cut of beef that didn’t come close to being Steak Diane.  We left very disappointed.

 

After dinner, we roamed the ship and checked out the bars and theater and decided to call it a night.

 

Just a quick review of the Enrichment Journey Lisbon Excursion. 

 

Our guide Tiago was excellent!  Ask a question and a comprehensive answer followed. Transportation was very good and comfortable for the 12 of us. The NH Collection Lisboa Liberdade hotel where we stayed was not as fancy as the two Moroccan hotels, but the rooms were spacious, the service was great, and breakfast was outstanding.  If you needed a cab, front desk personnel would give you an estimate charge, go out to the street hail one, and tell them where you wanted to go.  Cabs are metered so it is difficult for the drivers to rip you off.

 

For the amount of time we had in Lisbon, I think we visited and saw the most pertinent attractions.  On our last full day in Lisbon, the tour operators should have adjusted our pick-up time from 2PM to 12PM.  They need to take into consideration how seasonal changes affect sunrise and sunset.

 

The meals included in the Excursion were good to great.

 

I give the Excursion an A…..I would have given them an A+, but for late hour we arrived at Sintra and Cape Cape Roca.

 

Would I book another Enrichment Journey?  Yes, and already have two future ones booked. 

 

The first is in March 2024.  A 27-day excursion, 5 in Rio and 22-days aboard Oceania’s Marina from Rio to Miami with stops along the Brazilian coast, up the Amazon, and onward to Miami with stops at Barbados and Antiqua.

 

The second is in Jan and Feb 2025 to South Africa.  10-days in various locations, including Johannesburg, Victoria Falls, 2-game drives in the Kamapa Game Reserve, and excursions in and around Cape Town.  Following that we will board Azamara’s Quest for a 12 night cruise to South African and Mozambique ports.

We had a similar debacle in booking specialities on the cruise we are currently on.  We were also 2nd in line and there was only one desk for well over 5 minutes and the line grew and grew.  Our check in was based purely on who the terminal staff judged had been sat there the longest and we were then sent for the safety briefing on boarding before being able to do anything else.  That in itself would work beautifully if priority boarded first and/or had been able to book ‘stuff’ ahead.  We actually spent over 3 hours on our first afternoon trying to sort dinner reservations, packages, excursions, Wi-Fi not connecting, etc.  When you consider what you have paid as part of your holiday for that afternoon, it is ludicrous,  We ended up completely stressed and exhausted before the ship had even left port.  

30 minutes ago, Laganlady02 said:

These are no longer available as l have reported before. Have you checked with the future cruise staff on board?

?

 

 

I am aboard and it is the future cruise desk who suggested it.  

15 minutes ago, uktog said:

If you mean you pay a deposit and that secures you your loyalty discount booking off ship I’d say they are worth it. We’ve done some great better priced bookings if the pricing onboard wasn’t right. Most often we get them when like you we can’t commit to dates which happens more and more these days 

Yes, that is what I meant. Thanks.  Good to know you think they are worth it. 

I am considering buying a future cruise credit whilst onboard as we cannot commit to dates to book yet.

What are people’s thoughts are on these?  Are they worth it?

Thanks.