GlobalMethod

We're glad Heike got what she wanted ... she always went the extra mile for us. Explora is around $700 a night.

Well said TF. One benefit of cruising versus other types of travel is this ability to salvage 'something' out of a change in circumstances. In other travel you can be immobilized in a location for days or weeks due to political changes, weather, etc. With Azamara this 'something' can still be a pleasant cruise voyage, perhaps not to the port a particular cruiser hoped for, but somewhere that can be explored. We get great value for our travel euros in cruising with Azamara!

It is the ambiance of the ships plus the Azamara crews which bring us back. We have been fortunate enough to know quite a few of them for many years. They tell us they are well treated by Azamara and that is what brings them with their great customer care experience back to the ships, year after year.

We so miss her!

The waiter really has a significant impact on the overall dining experience, where ever it may be. We prefer the more relaxed atmosphere in the MDR generally, where we can usually find a waiter with a sense of humor. That said we also usually have a SDR meal at least once a week, (we do a lot of b2b on Azamara) just for a change of atmosphere.

Not that I know of ... https://www.greek-*****/cruise-ships/cabins.asp?c=celestyal-cristal/XD

The thing with Celestyal is they have a low base price but everything else is additional, like room service. This is handled with an extra charge. So understanding that, you can eat on your balcony but with this extra charge. There is no room fridge. I probably should have rated the buffet "fair" and not "barely passing". I really isn't bad for breakfast. As you can tell we are not really "buffet" people. We didn't leave the ship at every port since we had been to most of them several times. WiFi had an additional charge attached but we didn't feel we needed it on board since it was always available right off the ship in most ports. Embarkation is never too bad on a smaller ship with fewer passengers, so we had no complaints. No washer/dryer area like on Azamara but they will do your laundry, but of course, for extra charges. Noise levels were never a problem anywhere on the ship, including our cabin. (except for blasting announcements loudly in several languages) In summary, we think Oceania is a lot more like our regular cruise line, Azamara. It would be our preference but Celestyal is great bang for the buck to see the Greek Islands ... just don't expect it to be a direct competitor to Azamara/Oceania in overall quality. We thought it was worth a "fling"!

I forgot to comment on the port of Milos. This was the only port we hadn't visited previously on this cruise. We did the paid excursion and were so glad we did. If you every wondered what it would be like to walk on the moon then you would have a good feel for it after visiting Milos. It is just a different type of volcanic reaction that occurred there with the volcanic ash. Very unique.

Santorini is always extremely crowded. We have been many times and didn't want to fight the crowds on this visit. We had other passengers tell us they regretted walking down the path to the tender port, which is steep. The cable car's pricing keeps going up and up. The actual time in port was 'different'. 4:30 PM to 2:00 AM

We just returned from our 1 week Celestyal Crystal. Every cruiser is different but for us our overall rating was "good". (using excellent, good, fair, barely passing, and avoid, as criteria standards). Considering all our cruises recently have been with Azamara, who we consider the best match for us, we were surprised at our overall impression being "good". As I've written earlier in this thread, my previous research on Celestyal had caused me to have some basic concerns. Thus we considered this to just be just a "fling" cruise. If it worked out great but if it didn't this was the lowest pricing we've ever had on a cruise, so no big deal. Specifically food in dining rooms (not the buffet which was "barely passing") was varied, always hot, and well prepared. We were shocked at how good it was. (excellent) Of course, Greek food was emphasized and we love Greek food. Wine, beer and selected spirits are included. Whisky was J.W. Red Label, Smirnoff Vodka, Bacardi Rum, and Beefeater Gin. There were about 500 guests and way too many crew on board to service 500 guests, so a lot of standing around. All were friendly, helpful, and courteous. The variety of entertainment for us was was 'good' and also a real surprise as it was much better than expected. However, about 1/3 of the songs performed were in English, 1/3 Greek and 1/3 Spanish. The items mentioned above in this comment are the most important to us. The items below were not positive but relatively minor. The interior of the ship was kept very clean ... but ... there were dirty outside windows throughout ship caused by accumulated dirt on the outside windows over time. This constantly bothered us. I finally was able to ask an officer about this and was told only that I wasn't the first to mention this. They were trying to hire people for this outside work. ???? (barely, barely passing) It has been mentioned that the ship is "dated". However, this was not really a big deal to us as on the whole. Everything was neat, clean and organized. However, our cabin only had two electrical outlets which did cause some logistical issues. (fair) As a whole the cabin seemed dated in the size of items in the cabin. I am 6 foot 2 inches and in the bathroom everything seemed designed for a much smaller person including a very low bathroom toilet seat. (barely passing) We had been spoiled by Azamara on not needing a cruise card for anything except boarding. With Celestyal we had to show the cruise card for every drink (even ice water). Very annoying. (barely passing) Most cruise companies do announcements in the language of the last country they were in and English. Celestyal does four or five languages loudly for each message throughout the ship and inside your cabin. Very annoying. (barely passing) All in all we do plan on doing another Celestyal cruise. They do provide a compelling quality/value offering. We hope they can work on some of the mentioned minor issues. I have written to Celestyal directly.

We're taking a "fling" on June 11th ... it is hard to find current reviews on Celestyal but we saw enough to take a "fling" with them ... after all, we live in Athens ... we're prepared for a reduction from the standards of our regular small ship cruise line, Azamara ... so ... bring on the Jim Beam! ... 🙂 ...

I strongly questioned the decision on our b2b bonus and they pulled the "fine print" ... some written rule that I'd never seen or heard of previously.

I've written a post on this subject. In our case, our usual b2b bonus was not paid since they said the 'last minute' price (cruise purchased 6 weeks ahead) I paid was so low. Previous b2b was purchased 5 weeks ahead and I got the b2b bonus.

Music is so personal it is hard to get it right for everyone. We had the best cruise music ever on the Quest in December ... but ... it was live music at the pool area by the 4th Element band. They played classic rock almost every day. We hope we can find something like that next week on the Pursuit.

We' re doing a back to back with Azamara starting this Saturday. AFTER booking we found out that the usual $400 back to back bonus we received from them in the past was eliminated for us on this cruise. We were told this was because we booked these two cruises too close to embarkation. We booked this b2b 6 weeks prior to cruising and the previous b2b 5 weeks in advance. (we received the b2b bonus then with no problem in December of last year) ... We were told this was because we received a special low last minute rate and that eliminated our eligibility for the b2b bonus. This stung since I like to use the b2b bonus for an upgraded drink package. We have since decided to book our next Cruise journey with Celebrity for a transatlantic rather than the Azamara transatlantic cruise we were planning. As you say, I think we all know the real reason for these additional assessments. If they would announce them prior to charging you, and/or, taking your money, that would be different. Doing it after you've come to a cruising agreement with them is a huge negative.