Harrietq

Wow. So much for “no nickel and diming”. I don’t even care, as I don’t drink alcohol. Viking has loudly and proudly touted “wine and beer included at lunch and dinner” since forever.

Thank you for your insight. Right now, we feel Viking doesn’t have itineraries that are interesting to us. We have six river and seven ocean trips on Viking. We’ve found Azamara’s itineraries very much to our liking. I’ve said I’d have my dream cruise line with a Viking ship and Azamara crew, itinerary, and food. Regent is nice, but more “fussy” than I like. It is spendy, for sure. Happy travels to you!

I watched as each level booked excursions and I started checking MVJ four hours prior to DV booking availability as Viking’s times just after COVID were often open early. (They now run exact to the minute.) I had the bookings I could choose complete by 10 minutes past the opening. Also, the fact that this is part of a grand tour and those boarding at Vancouver were able to book earlier than those taking this segment was working a bit against me. But, I know how Viking works and did my best. My wishes to you for continuing safe and fulfilling travels!

We leave October 9 for “Far East Horizons” Tokyo-Hong Kong. Offered included tours with the 1-day stop in Taipei are “Highlights of Taipei”, a superior 5 hour tour and “Taipei in Brief” the usual 4 hour bus-drive death-march, take your pictures through the windows tour. The better tour wasn’t even available on PV booking day, as far as I can tell. Long gone for us in DV steerage. Most paid excursions were gone (with a few popping back up after assiduously checking MVJ daily. 🙄) for DV booking. I can’t imagine what slim pickings were left for V. And Japan does not have a great deal of third party (Viator, etc.) choices. Yet more reasons I’m glad to be concluding my business with Viking after this trip (vouchers) and cruising with Azamara, Explora and Regent.

I can’t confirm- sorry. RCCL was my final contact. They were still addressing questions at that time. Good luck.

As do I. All I can picture is a caricature type with a shiny shirt and thick gold necklaces dangling in his chest hairs (Dan Ackroyd could portray) loudly offering twenties so everyone can see what a high roller he is. And I hope he goes back to Carnival.

I concur this is not an Azamara strong point, and I find it odd given their “immersion-“ based itineraries. Even Viking provides a brief history, overview and practical (money, language, public transport, etc.) tips at each new port. I bring along a trusted guide book so I can give a port talk to the undivided attention of my DH. 😄 I usually take short notes on my phone if I want more detail after tours and the book(s) help with that. We had a Covid delay in Barcelona and the guide book I brought was invaluable as we spent 11 days we didn’t know we wanted in Barca. (No restrictions or isolation requirements 🤷🏻‍♀️ in Spain this past April.) Short story long, bring along or download your own research. You may or may not need it, but I’ve never regretted having it.

Last Winter, we experienced the same issues and finally, in exasperation, booked additional days in BA just to be sure. We ended up canceling due to Omicron and our aversion to an Argentinian quarantine, plus the details that emerged about the pecking order for excursions that not only went by cabin class (okay, we get that about Viking) but also by some pax being “more equal” than others. We’re blowing the vouchers on a Japan trip next year (we hope), booked Antarctica with Nat Geo and will finish up our business with Viking after Japan. We’ve tried and tried, there are many things we like about Viking, but the accumulated negatives have beaten us into the ground. Please, oh please, let Japan be open by next year. . . I hope you have a wonderful trip despite the Big V jerking you around. We feel and know your pain.

While I’ve not stayed in the particular cabin, I’ve never noticed any noise transfer between cabins except faint noise of toilet flushes, and that only if happened to be in the bathroom. No hallway/door noise. Also, being “financially challenged” (I hear you!) can actually be an advantage- on deck 4, you have cabins above. We chanced into a suite on our last cruise (super last-minute deal), and some (not us) had noise with scraping chairs/food cart noise from the pool deck above. You’re safe on 4! Enjoy your trip!

Based on our experience with Azamara dealing with positive tests on board, it’s no surprise to me a letter of recovery isn’t accepted. Azamara’s own third-party provider (medconteam) letters of recovery are rubbish. Once we got them to fix simple clerical errors, they still contained the basic untruth we had been medically supervised by medconteam. We never saw, nor spoke to, a medical professional we did not engage ourselves in our COVID recovery. Also, I met people in checkin lines at the airport heading to the US, who said “we just tested until we got a negative.” (These were NOT Azamara pax.) Passengers deserve clear, consistent messages. Yes, we are traveling in a pandemic. But, the travel providers are calling us back to resume spending our money with them. The governments across the globe are doing a fine job of throwing roadblocks to travel, then changing them on a dime. Travel providers shouldn’t add to that confusion and stress.

Azamara contracted with a company who provided a translator to us. She was a very kind person who was a skilled translator, but had no medical training. Her access to the company (I’m declining to name them for reasons attached to our specific circumstances) was not very quick and communication quickly became garbled untimely and ungainly. We had no contact with any local medical care that we did not locate ourselves. Again, I cannot disclose the extent of our opinions and facts about this company due to our particular situation. Azamara, so far, has chosen not to return our calls to either Azamara agents or RCCL guest relations (allegedly still handling customer care since the sale of Azamara). All I can say is Azamara is, at least, being ripped off by this company. At most, AZ is complicit with a company that is issuing inadequate to virtually illegal COVID documents. But I cannot confirm that as Azamara chooses not to talk with me regarding the third-party situation. Sigh. I’m glad our experience is helpful to others. If we never get any apology from Azamara (seems likely we won’t), at least we can give others some food for thought. Happy, safe travels!

Our rooms were very pleasant. We had a zillion channels in nine different source programming/languages. I spent most of my tv time fascinated by Arabic/Dubai programming I normally do not see, in addition to brushing clots of rust off some European languages I used to know better! Daily life also consisted of a LOT of time on the phone trying to get the correct (or the closest semblance of) information. Spain (at the time) did not have a quarantine/isolation requirement. However, during the most communicable portion of our case, we self-isolated. When my husband was first sick, we only met outside. Once we were each past six days after diagnosis and symptoms, we followed CDC guidelines that allow health-care providers to return to work. We returned to going out in public, masked everywhere even though Spain only requires masking in medical facilities and public transport. Our rooms did not have opening windows but the air remained fresh with an effective yet not annoying fan system. Our wi-fi was good, the TV allowed you to enable any streaming service you might have (we are the last people on earth who don’t stream tv 😆). The hotel had one restaurant with a good basic room service menu that wasn’t cheap, but a decent value in that we could share an entree and each have more than enough to eat. Breakfast was an expense-account blowing €28 each. Cold cereal , pastries and fruit did us just fine. We were within a 15 minute walk of lots of good restaurants, both chain and local. By the last days, after my husband had returned home, I existed on cold groceries and things I could make with my kettle’s hot water as I had been eating cruise then restaurant food and I had had enough. Our COVID experience was far from the worst, but the disruption to our everyday life with a 25 day “vacation” for DH (2 week cruise then COVID) and a 32 day for me was substantial and one I don’t need to repeat. A great deal of our “good”experience was due to our own resilience and persistence in finding out our own answers, and questioning everything we heard (and read, come to that). And, as my long-ago original post opined, I’m truly disappointed in Azamara’s lack of concern about their handling of the situation at the time and now, in the aftermath.

Ivi, I agree wholeheartedly with everything you say. How beautifully and sensitively written. We reminded ourselves during the ordeal that we were so grateful that we didn’t get very sick, we had nice lodgings in which to ride out the infection, and we were able to return home which is in a safe, peaceful area. We shared our hotel with some Ukrainian refugees who told us many personal, heartbreaking stories. It truly brought what we thought was so terrible into sharp focus as more of a passing cloud. I know we all look forward to the day when we can see COVID as a manageable nuisance rather than a danger,

Thank you for your kind wishes. It was a poor mix of us fending, a third-party company hired by Azamara (exceptionally useless) and a brilliant staff at the hotel. For nearly $5,000 USD for a total of 21 nights (I had my own room until I became sick), at least they did their very best to help us. Airfare wasn’t an issue as United was very accommodating because we were traveling on full-fare business. We hope to be reimbursed for meals and hotel by insurance; I had to have a number of doc visits and prescriptions filled (I only planned for 10 days, not 17). I hope we will be reimbursed by my stateside medical insurance. If not, it’s almost another $1K. The Quest contacted us three times, but as their medical staff didn’t know what guest relations was doing, and vice versa, they really couldn’t help. Basically, because AZ was depending on the third-party “medical contact” team, Quest/Azamara became just another hour on hold phone call. Depending on what our insurance coverage is, this could be a very spendy experience. We did our best by taking every reasonable precaution we could. We traveled successfully in October on another carrier with much more stringent protocols. We got burned (and learned) this time. And, I’ll say it for you all: Yes, we got ourselves into this by traveling in “these times.”

We masked constantly; certainly more than most on board. Yes, we shared a cabin. I am NOT saying I did not get COVID from my husband. But being shoved into a cab with ANOTHER positive case didn’t improve my chances of staying negative. I feel Azamara acted with indifference, at best.