earth117

Thanks for the info, I was hoping some landings might be ok. Do you know when the March 15 sailing passengers were informed? I heard that they were told South Georgia was still in the itinerary, as of March 5 at least. But I guess they got a bonus of the Antarctic Peninsula at least.

The World Navigator sailing of March 15-29 was supposed to go to South Georgia - did that change? On marine traffic ship locator sites the ship is shown enroute from the Antarctic Peninsula (not on the original itinerary) to West Point, Falklands. It was supposed to be in South Georgia yesterday. Anyone know info about this? We can also use this topic more generally for any Atlas itinerary change - it's good to keep up to date!

Oh Azamara, what have you wrought?! A clearly labeled vegetarian dish in the Windows buffet had huge chunks of ham in it.

Aboard the Journey: All passengers had Covid antigen tests yesterday. Rumor says 14 tested positive and are quarantined in their cabins for 5 days. The test requirement comes from Angola authorities and you must carry a letter on shore showing your negative result (though no one checked me off the ship). Luanda is less than impressive and I've heard a number of complaints about the tours quality (I just walked on my own along the shore promenade and to the Iron Palace by Eiffel). It's a real shame as Azamara put in our cabins a list of gorgeous waterfalls, canyons, lakes, wildlife reserves within about 70 km but offered no tours outside the Luanda area. Regarding vegetarian food, there is a vegan menu one can order from. I gave up on it after realizing that the entrees were things like quinoa cake, chickpea cake, rice cake on successive nights. Azamara is the best cruise line I've seen on pervasiveness of vegan food, but they need to up their game on imagination. (I had been excited by the vegan menu online but have seen few of those choices offered.) There is no vegetarian choice on their "classic" menu, i.e. offered every night. And they don't seem to understand vegetarian food can be anything on the main menu, made vegetarian; I'd love to have the featured Thai dish with tofu, Italian dish without sausage, etc. Anyway, that's why I usually go for the Windows buffet for dinner. And I do want to really praise the Indian food, which is varied and tasty when available (often for lunch).

Aboard the Journey: Azamara, alas, is plunging in performance. For the second night, the dinner buffet in Windows had no vegetarian main. It's a buffet, it's not that hard! For the Gambia visa Azamara stated USD 56 would be charged to our accounts, but we were each charged USD 112. Why? Because we took the ship's tour "Exploring Senegal" we re-entered Gambia. Apart from getting a (1) visa that clearly states "multiple entry", there is the issue that this is not what Azamara wrote to each cabin (indeed stated $56 clearly) and also did not say it when selling the shore excursion. We're just talking basic communication here.

Aboard the Journey: Takoradi Ghana today. I took the Kakum National Park tour. It's nice to see, but frankly too little for the long time (9 hours total). It's extremely rare to see animals on the canopy tour, and this was exacerbated by a "bridge ***" - a guide with two private clients who were terrified of the swaying bridges (so why were they there?), who yelled loudly at everyone ahead of them not to stop (e.g. to take pictures) but to get off the bridge. We all ignored him, but the yelling would have scared off any animals. With three days at sea in between every port, the middling shore excursions are a bit disappointing. The Ghana countryside itself is picturesque (but 9 hours is overkill). Three hours after sailing time, we're still in Takoradi, apparently waiting for some container (provisions?). On the missed ports, I'm not sure from whom I would get a straight answer, but I'll try.

Aboard the Journey: slight correction to my previous info on the Exploring Senegal excursion from Banjul Gambia: "By the way, onboard accounts are charged USD50 for the Gambia visa and USD56 for the Ghana visa (for most nationalities)." I got them backwards - it was USD56 for the Gambia visa (for citizens of Bulgaria, Czechia, Iceland, Portugal, South Africa, Switzerland, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, US - presumably other nationalities are either free or weren't represented on our tour). Note the Gambia visa is multiple entry, allowing you to get back to the ship after entering Senegal! Ghana visa was USD50, no nationalities indicated so presumably all nationalities represented needed. For the future, we are told that Namibia visas will be done through the ship for those needing (only Bulgaria, Czechia, Poland, Turkey listed) for USD135. Visa fees are charged directly to your onboard account. It's nice that Azamara does not seem to charge an extra fee for its part in the visas.

Aboard the Journey: report on "Exploring Senegal" excursion from Banjul Gambia. But first, shockingly there was no vegetarian entree at the Windows buffet for dinner. When I asked, the server pointed to the peas and carrots. Exploring Senegal: Fathala Nature Reserve was good, with some caveats. It took more than 5 hours (on what was supposed to be an 8 hour tour) from the meeting time to reach the nature reserve. Lots of delays first at Gambian immigration entry, then the ferry, then the Gambia exit was reasonably quick (the guide brought all the passports to the officials), then Senegal entry was fairly efficient but long because of long lines. At Senegal entry you had to show yellow fever and covid vax certificates. Several people ignored the 10+ times this was said, and had to go back to the bus to get theirs. A couple people had ignored all previous notices about certain nationalities requiring visas and had to go through the visa process at the border, delaying everyone else. The nature reserve is mostly low story forest - if you've never seen African animals you will enjoy it a lot, if you've been to any East or Southern Africa game parks you'll yawn (well, maybe not, they are still impressive animals but in nowhere near the numbers or setting of those game parks). We saw roan antelope, waterbuck, eland, giraffe, red colobus monkey, zebra - all in small groups. The return was faster, though we still had the border stops (so 6 passport stamps in a day!), but in the end the ship sailed 2h20 late. Clearly their 8 hour estimation for the tour was a guess (first time Azamara has done this tour; some staff came on the tours). By the way, onboard accounts are charged USD50 for the Gambia visa and USD56 for the Ghana visa (for most nationalities). p.s. the vegetarian selection on the excursion was a scoop of rice and steamed carrots. Fortunately this could be saved taste-wise by the bottle of West African yellow pepper sauce on the counter.

Senegal is a really strange case for the cruise. Azamara Journey dropped the port of Dakar, but runs a shore excursion from Banjul Gambia into Senegal ("Exploring Senegal" tour to Fathala Nature Reserve). No visa required for US/UK passports. Apparently the port has different rules than inland. I'm doing that tour tomorrow and will report how it goes (if I get back!).

Aboard the Journey: For the second time in a few days, the vegan dinner came as the meat version of the dish. At least this time they caught it before serving it.

Aboard the Journey: apparently 23 passengers debarked after the yellow fever exemption letter issue.

Here is the official Azamara Journey letter about yellow fever exemption letters. Our hearts go out to those on whom this was suddenly sprung, to great disappointment no doubt.

Aboard the Journey: Funchal Madeira today. Due to the late start from Lisbon, the on shore time was cut from 9 hours to 4.5 hours. On the positive side, the predicted all day rain did not arrive so it was pleasant.

Notice delivered to all cabins today saying to go to Guest Relations if you have an exemption letter. My guess is so they can transmit it to the immigration officials. If you have the vaccination shown on your yellow card, you don't have to do anything more.

Aboard the Journey: We are finally sailing now, Dec 1, a bit later than the Nov 29 date. It's great to be at sea! 520 passengers boarded (capacity is ~700). Rumors are a few of them got off before sailing because of the yellow fever requirements. Over 100 people had to get YF shots - so it was "fortunate" we had an extra day in Lisbon due to the strike. Grandma Cruising's tip on the Energizer smoothie was great - very tasty and gingery (especially good to help getting used to the sea motion). The smoothie bar can put the ginger syrup in any smoothie you want, or you can have it neat. Candied ginger at Guest Relations desk. For the vegan dinner menu, now I'm told there's no need to order in advance.

Aboard the Journey: Below are the dinner themes for each night. Note the White Night in Namibia. They have not yet scheduled the (onboard) AzAmazing Evening (since the Tenerife port stop was canceled due to late departure from Lisbon from the harbor pilot strike).

Aboard the Journey: Thanks for the smoothie tip. The smoothie bar has about 4 different choices, as well as a choose your own ingredients - I forget which one I've had so far but will try them all! Regarding yellow fever vaccination waiver letters, the outcome seems to be that Azamara will move forward with them, but of course the final decision comes from the port immigration officials. More room for improvement on communication: they added back a Banjul shore excursion "Exploring Senegal: Fathala Nature Reserve" that had been taken down from the online Voyage Planner for the last couple months. The order form put in the cabins says "Please check with Shorex Desk for the visa requirements to cross the borders into Senegal." Shorex was closed all day for some reason, only open before 9am and after 6pm. Many people went to Guest Relations and were told we could book the excursion there but only Shorex has information on the visas, so we were on edge canceling our previous tour and paying for the (capacity limited) Senegal tour then waiting hours to see what the requirements were. Huge line at Shorex at 6pm only to be told by them that they never have anything to do with visas and have no info, have to talk with Guest Relations! The concierge then called the ship's immigration protocol officer. They said to talk to Shorex! But apparently only the Shorex manager knew the situation, not the desk agents. In the end the manager said that nothing special needed to be done for many nationalities (e.g. US). So several hours of concern for a lot of people waiting in lines only to go in circles could have been avoided with clear communication initially. Note for veg people: I ordered "chile lime tofu shrimp" off the vegan menu and they brought me actual shrimp. After I pointed this out (and waited 20 minutes) they brought the vegan version.

Aboard the Journey: Vegetarian food - good selection, especially in the Windows lunch buffet and Patio. Buffet has a vegetarian / plant based meat section, in addition to a salad bar (and pizza etc.). The Indian food today was excellent, delicious dal, achar, chutney. Vegan meatballs also very good. Discoveries dinner menus have one veg main each night, so far not very inspired (quinoa patties last night, chickpea crepes tonight). Some confusion on the separate vegan menu, with some waiters saying you should order from it a day in advance, others saying you can order on the night but may have to wait a bit longer for your meal. I haven't tried it yet. If you dine in a specialty restaurant, the hostess advises you to consult with her the day before your reservation so they can come up with something especially to your taste (will try later). For breakfast there's a smoothie bar as you enter Windows.

Update on yellow fever vaccinations for Journey. Because we are still in Lisbon today due to the pilot strike, people who had none (nor waiver) can get them at the clinic in Lisbon for 240 euros or 250 USD (the ship is arranging group transport to the clinic). I'll post later about the waiver situation when I hear. For Gambia and Ghana visas, there were notes under each cabin door about coming to Guest Relations to show documents (passport, yellow fever vax, Covid vax) again, with a long line at GR (where you turn in the passports to them). GR says they don't know how much the visas will cost, which seems strange. I've heard on Seven Seas Voyager they cost around USD 60 each, so we'll see. Oddly, Azamara added back in a shore excursion from Banjul to Senegal (the Fathala Nature Reserve), despite the ship not being allowed to dock in Senegal (rumored to be Covid related). The excursion is limited to 100 people and you'll need a visa for Senegal, but again they couldn't say how much it costs. Separately, 3 trivia games today! General, astronomy, and UK music.

Currently on Azamara Journey, Western Africa Voyage 29 Nov sailing. The ship won't leave Lisbon until early morning Dec 1 due to harbor pilot planned work stoppage for 29-30 Nov (and 6-7 Dec). Everything and all staff on the ship are very good; everything dockside... less so. Big praise to the Guest Relations desk team on board, the most expert and competent I've seen on a ship, with special praise for Jomari. Dockside: yesterday we were told we could check in at noon, though not board until 1pm. There were ~50 passengers in line. Then we were told 12:30. Then we were told their computer system was down and they had no idea when it would be up and we should leave. Many stayed however. Around 1pm they said we could go through the airport-style security and wait in the boarding terminal. At 1:45pm they had us line up for check-in. Check-in was agonizingly slow, with some agents taking 15 minutes to process one passenger! They seemed particularly confused the yellow fever vaccination certificates, not knowing how to read them. Those people who had waivers instead were given a lot of hassle, and eventually allowed to board provisionally while they consulted with headquarters (results should be heard later today). Once on board there was good buffet lunch available. Note that shore excursion prices on board are quite a bit more (5 - 25%) than what we saw online before the cruise. Internet is quite slow, even at 6am. The World Cup matches on the bar TVs were unwatchable as the picture froze every 2 seconds. If internet is included in a purchased package, it doesn't show up automatically when you set up your account, there was a long line at Guest Relations of everyone getting it set up by GR by hand. Again, the GR team is incredibly competent. Due to be a rainy day in Lisbon, more later!

Is Abidjan still the next port on Voyager now, before Takoradi? The Marine Traffic site seems to indicate that Regents Seven Seas Voyager will be skipping Abidjan, Ivory Coast. It shows it as en route from Banjul to Takoradi, though less industry insider sites still list Abidjan. I'm curious because I'm on this route with Azamara in December.

After writing AzamaraCustomerService twice in the last 10 days (and having my travel agent also contact them) about the port cancellations and anemic substitution on the Western African Voyage for Nov 29, I just now received a rather terse reply from Azamara: "At this time there has been no announcement to change the current itinerary." I hope someone else who registered their dismay with them over the poor port substitutions has stronger influence.

Others besides the November 29 roll call members might be interested in knowing that Azamara just cancelled two ports on its Western Africa (Nov 29) cruise. Azamara email on Oct 26: "Port authorities in Senegal and Ivory Coast have advised that their ports will remain closed to cruise ships due to their COVID-19 protocols. Therefore, we will now call in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria and have an additional sea day. By adding a day at sea, we were able extend our time in Banjul, now departing at 5:00 p.m." I'm quite disappointed that we lose 2 of the 7 continental Africa ports - the main reason I chose this cruise. I know the loss is outside Azamara's control, but I wish they could have come up with a better substitute than a Spanish port and a day at sea. For example, Cape Verde Islands and/or possibly Togo or Benin. I'm not sure whether this will affect the March 4 Western Africa cruise.