crusinbanjo

Very interesting

Mrs Banjo and I are 15 days away from embarking on the Dawn and still not been assigned a cabin. But, as long as we get in the level we bought or better, we will be 😊 happy. Getting excited!!!

You know that, we might know that, but SS doesn’t know that, (for sure). But, hey, if they offered me a Silver Suite upgrade, I would certainly not turn it down………. ……So just enjoy it and maybe they will do it again on a future cruise…. I am so jealous, (just kidding), you deserve it!

I think they are teasing you with that upgrade and hoping once you experience a Silver Suite, you won’t be able to go back to a regular cabin. After all, you do cruise frequently on SS and they do want to keep you VERY happy! I know on another line, they did that for Mrs Banjo and myself, it was almost impossible to go back once you experience the “suite life” .

You can always call and ask. The SS rep may be able to find out for you. Personally, I try not to worry about it, once it was very close to embarkation day. It is always good, just being on the ship!

It’s not uncommon, Mrs Banjo and I have not been assigned a cabin for our cruise in a few weeks, and past cruises were not assigned until just a few days before embarking.

They would still need to pay a coupon rate comparable to market rates in order to sell the bonds. I suspect the rates today might be higher than what they are paying on older bonds, but admittedly, I’m not an expert in cruise line finance.

This is nothing new, SS has always catered to the two groups that buy up the silver suites and higher value cabins, the SALT tour pricing is just more obvious. Where it is most noticeable is when you travel in a veranda suite and you travel mates are in a higher class suite, then often the different treatment is easily seen.

Same here, Mrs Banjo and i will be on the Dawn for the first time in October. We love the smaller ships and in fact most of our SS cruises have been on the Wind and the Cloud, (both before conversion to expedition ships). We have also cruised on the whisper and enjoyed it very much……. But we are not hard to please.

If the S&P and the Dow Jones averages go down enough, I’ll be a buyer, but this week’s volatility is just that, up today, down tomorrow

Mrs Banjo and I use the port to port whenever it is offered. For us Blacklane does not operate in our area, I can also get transfers at lower costs. With air, I can also usually get better routings and comparable rates. But, there are downsides, the cancellation fee is high, but I buy travel insurance to cover an unexpected cancellation or trip interruption. All in all, my preference is the Port to Port

You are correct Terry, if the delay / cancellation is weather, the airline is not responsible, but Lois, it is worth asking and I agree with Terry, your travel insurance should come into cover for the interruption. Glad you are home ok. I know airlines delays are a pain, but as a pilot, bad weather like we had recently makes for very dangerous flying conditions. So safety first. After that, the airline schedules are a mess for a while. Sounds like a pain, but you came through it and all is well.

I went through a similar situation on Delta a few months ago. I was flying to Oklahoma City for Banjo Museum business, with a return flight the next day. 3 days later, I returned home on AA, after 4 flight cancellations. sorry you had to go through this Lois. I hope you made it home ok.

I have asked for and gotten deviations to direct flights on many occasions from SS, but it usually is a negotiation. On one cruise, they wanted to fly Mrs Banjo and I from Boston to Hong Kong via Dubai with a 10 hour layover. I found a direct, nonstop flight with a nonstop back from Tokyo. It took a few phone calls, but they managed to get our business class reservation moved to the nonstop flights. more recently, I am just handling my own flights and transfers, that way I am assured to get what I think is best for me without the negotiation.

That seems odd that they will over sell in advance of the cruise. Personally I would be pretty disappointed if after spending $$$ for a selection of special restaurants and then have them tell me sorry, there is no space left.

I bought the 3 table tour with the Chef’s table, but I didn’t see any link to make a reservation, guess I’ll go look again.

So…….. What if you bought the dinning package that includes the Chef’s Table, then when on board, it is all booked out. What happens then?

Just to update this post, I was able to make my first of two final payments by calling the US number. The wait time was not unreasonable, less than 5 minutes, and a very helpful customer service representative was able to send me a screenshot from her computer showing the correct OBC so I will have proof when we board in January. Final payment went smoothly from there and the website is updated to reflect final payment and $0 balance. So, it does appear that progress is being made in the right direction! Let’s all hope this trend continues!

OK today I received an email from Azamara, (the first since I made this booking in March of 2023), providing me a link to make my final payment....... So good, right? (Guess they didn't loose my email address after all). So, I click on the link and it takes me to an error message saying that I am not authorized to access customer information! So, Just how does AZA think this will help me make a final payment? MY WORD this is very sloppy IT work!

I generally book direct. This cruise is no different. Quite honestly, I would like to have a TA, but I have been burned twice, and honestly, it is pretty easy to do myself, so I have been direct booking for the past 10 years, +/-.

Not sure if this is the right thread for thi, but just in case Azamara management is reading, here goes. This week, the first of my two final payments are due, and I will make them on time, but there has been absolutely NO communication from Aza at all. No reminders of upcoming payments, no emails on excursions, no communication about OBC that was promised, no promos for future cruises, nothing. It is like I fell off the radar or maybe they lost my email address? I don’t know, hopefully all goes well, but Aza is not making a good first impression!

Mine still shows a coupon with no value.

Have you made final payment?

Yes that is quite interesting. One that I found interesting was a large canvas painted in bright yellow, with a small red square in the lower left corner, https://www.guggenheim.org/audio/track/conoce-al-curador this reminded me of a canvas I painted for my niece, (when she was about 11), wow, so many years ago. Anyway, My painting was all white with single black dot in the field. I titled it, “Polar Bear in a Snow Storm”. I have often thought that it could hang in the Museum as well. 😇😅😎

We did the same when we were there. Had fabulous lunch & shopping, then on the the Guggenheim museum for some “MODERN ART”??. But really it was quite interesting…… (I think one of my more famous painting should be on a wall there). Haha 😂