Pizzasteve

Yes, but my comment was aimed at a situation specifically where the cruise line changed the booking to a different room, but to one in the same fare category (but not the one booked). What I tried to explain was that sometimes this situation is unavoidable, lets call it an 'act of god' and that this might be the best possible service available (the room change). The contract we agreed to ( and common sense) suggest that receiving the same category of room, when that is the best room available, is meeting the 'certain level of service your hard earned dollar paid for.' Expecting more, or demanding upgrades, or complaining and being unhappy about it is something that most likely just makes it worse for everyone, yourself, the staff and other passengers. Anyway, that was my hoped for point. The cruise contract has the cruise contract terms in it. But i hope we are all satisfied as well. If customer service is not doing their job, we agree.

It would be nice to extend this to first responders (not my job) who were actively helping deliver services during the pandemic.

Bummer. Strictly speaking we should all be prepared for something like this as a possibility. For example, suppose a double booking error, or unsolvable room problem like plumming or immediately prior active Covid case. While an upgrade would be nice, one may not be available and I certainly dont want 'my room' with a problem like unsanitized after a bad illness onboard quarantined there. Put yourself in a desk agent shoes. Purchased upgrades have filled all the better cabins, not much else one can do. I might try to negotiate for a dinner or something at least, but honestly a comparable cabin, that isnt under a noisy area wouldnt ruin my holiday. Again sorry that your party was inconvenienced. With rising fuel, food and labor costs and skilled labor hiring challenges, I think we all are going to neef to manage our expectations or risk dissappointments. We can not live in the past. Those prices and circumstances are gone.

I think the pandemic cost them their experienced call center staff as jobs paying better in other industries snagged them. I am assuming there will be poor service from ill trained phone staff for a while. My contacts via phone and email for have not received promised results (phone call guy sayed issue 'taken care of' when his responses suggested he probably dindt fully understood the issue (raising of gratuities after my booking and desire to prepay at promised grandfathered rates), and a promised email on second request. Also emailed about same issues and no response after 2 weeks. They werent big deals, so giving up and will just enjoy cruise assuming only vanilla automated online transactions like restaurant resv via app are possible.

Title of thread should be update to `near` instead of 'in.' it has been posted that violence in Mazatlan is false information.

Sorry, my wife corrected me that Tony gave the talk about the pirate attack. My bad. Congrats to him on the promotion.

I noticed a heavily discounted Onward cruise around Canary Islands (would need to get there of course) at the end of March. Are they ending Carrib. season that soon?

If that is Martin, dont miss his talk about fending off pirates.

Sad to hear that. On the transatlantic, I think it was Vassi, who was amazingly talented and awsome.

Agreed. I was far from impressed by the wines onboard, expect perhaps by those served with the chefs table dinner and it does impact my perceiption of the brand. For example, the wines included with a recent Regent and Celebrity cruise were excellent and on Oceana I can bring my own for a very reasonable price, so the option to not buy or prepay for drinks but instead bring a case+corkage is very appealing to us.

Speculating, but maybe the Meiomi was what was left open from our final day chefs table (Arab) so they served it.

Had the Meiomi at chefs table. Felt it was a pinot for people who dont like pinot. Lots of sweet american oak and for me seemed to have megared addative qualities (for that popular, no objections, type generic higher end house red by the glass, but wineries use megared for a reason). Several folks liked it a lot. My wife and I didnt care for it. Estancia didnt seem to be available on Onward.

Agreed. We bought three nights of chefs table (book early) and wines by the bottle as the best value, and included basic bevs for the rest of the time. Most of the included wines were pretty weak, but usually something was drinkable. Had an Italinan sav blanc and French rose until they ran out on TA. Chefs table pairings pretty good and Som was a likable lady, working her best with what they had. William Fevre Chablis was a decent option with food in several cases so we bought a couple bottles.

A friend used to be Education VP at C St M. If lucky you folks may see their Joint venture reisling made with Dr Loosen called Eroica. Their Washington State Reisling and Cabs can be very nice. If you happen to be in Wash State, Google Joel Butler and visit his wine shop. Among Americas most distinguished MWs. Maybe Azamara’s team will read this and consult with him. Would be happy to make an intro. Easy flight from So Cal for a VC team junket trip.

Onward Transatlantic White Night Rocked (several days ago). Shortly after this photo about 50 people dancing.

I was told second hand that 2025 pricing onboard was almost double current pricing, but that is hearsay and apparently none of the attractive offers are currently extended that far out.

It may not be as easy as you assert. Financial payments and the accounting systems necessary to link them properly to a highly regulated service like travel is a non trivial task for a variety of complex reasons, for example refunds, matching partial payments, ensuring proper amounts are collected vs invoices, payment card industry compliance requirements, fraud prevention, etc. We are not buying a book to be shipped via Amazon, with a $5 cost. We are paying thousands of dollars for a service linked to service contracts and global compliance matters of high complexity. They need to confirm links to the contract or a verbal agreement are in place, etc. Not to excuse them, but I helped manage a financial payments service people thought was ‘simple’ but the actual complexity was quite impressive. I helped this organization fix things that leaked millions of dollars a year from fraud and accounting missmatched transactions related to refunds and prepaid refundable and non refundable services. I am sure they would like better capabilities but may also be trying to avoid bone headed problems. Also, they may be trying to stay lean in the hopes of a future merge into other better systems, planned for a later date.

To add a thought, there is both a global surge in travel and staffing shortages across the board as the industry pays less than their competing industries. We recently finished a river tour with a reputable company, and while the ship was beautiful, some services, especially food were marred by inconsistent results. example: a raw pizza sent back (2-3 at same time on various tables), chef comes out and apologized as kitchen staff didn’t know he was supposed to close the oven door while pizzas cooking. I kid you not. And this line is expensive. Hummas not puréed properly, without any tahini or oil. Basically chick peas put in a food processor, and seeming to be put into half the meals. Did no one taste it? Nobody was eating it. I guess a lot of canned chicken peas were in the pantry, but hummus is not a decorative throw away food. Nearly all of the call centers have staff that are new, under paid, and likely working from home, so no experienced staff at the next door cube to consult for answers. So calls take longer, hold times expand, etc. the whole industry is not what it was and we either adapt or expectations or be disappointed. Hope your issue works its way out to your satisfaction.

Anyway, glad to discuss respectfully. I have smoked cigars and on cruises find them fine in the right settings. That said if people are clearing out rooms because of me, I might move to the appropriate lounge.

Fair enough. Then you could see how a powerful odor, which cigars are, will definitely impact others. If one has a powerful negative association with that smell it can be very unpleasant. Ever met people for whom cilantro tastes like a bad soap? I love cilantro but would never force someone to eat it that has that genetic marker. Trying to make a comparison. Things like alcohol and tobacco smoke are poisons that make children ill, but adults acquire tolerance over time and may grow to enjoy it. I included alcohol because it is something I enjoy. (edit) but not trying to lobby for any SS rules one way or the other, just pointing out that cigar smoke is very unpleasant to some of us.

No offense, but I have found that people who smoke cigars often have very insensitive sense of smell and taste, not necessarily causally linked to the cigar itself. I have Master of Wine friends and a lot of experience with related research about taste and smell. One can’t assume their perception matches those of others and research supports this, sort of like sunburn sensitivity. Some painfully burn in a few minutes, others bronze painlessly for hours. This is why some sensitivity to the impact we have in others is important. For example, I can smell people smoking in their cars, windows down , from behind them on the freeway. And it can bother me. I have a very sensitive sense of smell, not always a blessing. Anyway, good information in the thread about SS and odor ventilation. peace

Look forward to seeing you onboard Kent. We will be on this cruise. Weather as said is unpredictable. We have had great weather this time of year on anther sailing, but a more southern route and less great weather going east in spring, but still parent of nice days. Layers and some flexibility. Let’s hope for sun. We are doing, like you, about 3 weeks of road tripping in France before flying to Lisbon. We spend a similar amount of time touring last fall, before a regent Splendor TA (which we loved). Maybe we can discuss our French experiences and share ideas onboard.

Agreed. On another carrier we noticed several people leaving a show (due to strong cigarette smoke infiltrating our seat area). We informed management after the show. It turns out a door left open had allowed the outside smoking area a clear path to flood stage left with smoke. It was corrected by the next show and I hope the performer was told that people didn’t leave mid show due to dissatisfaction with the show quality, rather their smoke sensitivity. An example where a polite complaint helped fix an issue and likely made a performer less sad at leaving patrons near the stage.

I was able to go to the program web page and enter my confirmation number and last name in the fields titled something like ‘lookup to see if your cruise qualifies.’ After doing this the upgrades available and minimum bids were shown. If clicked on a slider allowed bid adjustments and after a was bid entered the next page was an enter payment details page. Didn’t finish as my partner didn’t want to bid, but an email offer wasn’t needed that I could tell, though some rooms and rates may not have an upgrade available. For example, spa suites and owners suite were not available for a bid.

I brought a guitar onto a Princess cruise. No one did anything and I used the music room to practice.