takemewithyou

I was very happy when Dan Hanrahan was in charge of Celebrity. Those were the good old days of Celebrity.

Thanks. They do take up quite a bit of space and may have been removed for other equipment that is used more often.

@jazznrubyThanks for your reply. I am starting to hear of some cruise ships acquiring reformers. Maybe O will get a few one of these days.

I think I have seen Pilates classes mentioned as available in the spa/fitness area. Does anyone know if they have a Pilates Refomer machine available? Thanks

Yes, the beds are firm. If I remember correctly, the cabin attendant put a comforter on as a pillow topper and that helped. I much prefer the Azamara beds. I don’t remember the pillows, but don’t remember having any trouble so they must have been ok. I did like the bathroom and the heated floors.

That’s good. We missed two ports on a shorter cruise on Viking. We felt similar to the way you felt about the food and the included excursions. Another common complaint are the beds being very firm. How did you find them?

How long was your cruise and did you miss any ports?

We took one Viking cruise….it was a good opportunity to try out Viking as it repositioned from Vancouver to Los Angeles. We paid a lot of money for a PV. Loved the heated floors in the bath, the layout of the cabin. But one of the reasons we went with a PV was because we had read the lower level cabins have very little storage. Before we left, I read the Viking forums and read remarks about the very firm mattresses. …..not something we like and depending on how firm they are, can not tolerate. Some people even recommended to bring mattress pads to put on top of the bed! Really? We were so concerned that I talked with Viking and got the name of the mattress brand and found a furniture store that carried them so we could try them out. We did that and hoped the mattress on the ship would not be any firmer than what we tried. ,we made it through the cruise, but the bed was not great. Oceania had (on the one cruise I have been on) the most comfortable bed I have ever slept on!! I can see why some passengers come home and purchase the mattresses and the fabulous bedding! Our verdict on the Viking cruise? Never again. For quite a few reasons we will not book again with them. We found the food to be mediocre, the “included shore excursions” were not good and one was a disaster, and we missed two ports….both for weather reasons. One of those missed ports we really didn’t see a weather reason as to why we missed it. We also did not like the Scandinavian design of the furniture. It is a clean look but doesn’t function well as it is very uncomfortable!

So about these pizzas….are there any alternative crusts like Cauliflower? I looked at the pictures…..perhaps I need to go look at the copy of the menu again on your website. Those pics look like it’s a pretty thick crust. I prefer thin crusts and preferably cauliflower, even though I am not gluten free.

Ok, I was going to invite you to join the roll call for the Christmas cruise. I was waiting to see if someone else might answer your question, but I do not believe Azamara opens those dividers for people, but I am not certain. let’s see if someone else knows for certain.

Are you on the 16 day Christmas cruise?

I loved the classes so much on my first O cruise, that I knew to book very early and I have 3 coming up on my TA. can’t wait 😛

I suppose, if someone had a big suite and wanted to offer up their suite for a party, you could host a Cruise Critic gathering there and the butler would help supply appetizers, etc. It would have to be planned with the butler and done on some other day, rather than on embarkation. Individual invitations could be sent to cabins if participants were willing to give out their cabin numbers. It’s a lot of work and effort to organize.

On my Pursuit cruise in June, Ireland Intensive, we didn’t sail the first night. We overnighted in Dublin. I wasn’t sure how that would impact attendance. I think it did affect it somewhat, but we still had a good crowd. I do agree that if the weather is good and you are sailing out of a scenic port, the meet and greet being held at that time of sailaway, is not good. People want to be out on deck. At this point, Azamara is just doing the perfunctory gesture of putting out a time and offering a place to meet in the newsletter. That is it. Many other cruise lines don’t even do that. So, that’s why I say…it is what it is. And yes, I remember those earlier meet and greets where officers were there and the Hotel Manager or Cruise Director used to lead the event, but those days are gone.

It’s sort of like how they provide a time and space for other get togethers, like singles, Friends of Bill, LBGTQ+, etc. These are unhosted passenger led groups that are given a place and time to meet.

I never liked the “Club” designation ,on the website either. It’s interesting they removed it from the Header, but then, as you noted, it’s still in the body of the description! It is interesting that Larry P never answered your question on it, either!

No, there is no way that I know of to coordinate this! As I have said, Azamara always provides a space and a time. It is on embarkation day and it is 5 pm generally. It IS listed in the insider. Tell your roll call members to keep an eye on the Insider and show up for the time listed in the Insider on embarkation day. It is what it is……! Edited to add: @ GrandmaCruising ‘s info, that you show, is outdated. there is no way to register anymore since Azamara updated its web site. And since you can’t register anymore, there is no invitation to the Cruise Critic party or social anymore! You just have to show up at the time listed in the Insider on embarkation day.

Yes, at least they still provide a mention in the Insider for a time and a space on embarkation day and that is it. It’s up to us, as Cruise Critic members to make something of it, or we will probably lose that. If you have an active roll call, and in my experience that takes some work on at least one members behalf to keep the roll call going, (by keeping track of the people posting on the roll call and updating the list once weekly) then you can actively promote the current time and space that Azamara is providing and make the best of it. Once you board, if you happen to meet the beverage manager, or seek them out, you may be able to make the experience flow even better….icing on the cake!

I wish you good luck with that. Don’t think you can find anyone to handle that. Azamara is no longer involved in meet and greet. You are on your own. Make it what you can on your own. 😀

@tgg My roll call was very active for Pursuit Ireland Intensive in June. We had a really good response from everyone. Probably 40 people were there during the duration of the meet and greet. I just went with the time that Azamara sets up on embarkation day. Believe it was 5 pm. It was in the Living Room opposite from the card area. That was a good space for us…..better than the card room! I happened to meet the Beverage Manager that day, by chance. She was very friendly and I told her we had a meet and greet up there at 5 pm. She said she would make sure they were ready for us and offered to have special cocktails made up. When I arrived they were all on trays, along with red and white wine. She also had extra servers up there to take care of us. It made for a very nice party. I had brought name tags. Snacks were the usual appetizers supplied in the LR pre dinner. So you might seek out the beverage manager that day. We never had any officers or CD that showed up.

Thanks for your first hand report! I wonder how that would work if the couple can’t agree on one type of alcohol. I like gin and DH likes rum…….we couldn’t be farther apart..! 😀 Wonder if we could have two smaller bottles to accommodate for each others preference? I guess we can just ask and see what can be done? I much preferred the 4 small bottles that offered a variety.

@sofietucker I wanted to add that my experiences have been recent….last sailed 6/23 and before that 12/22. Azamara has never lost one of my bottles that I had left with them for storage. It’s always been retrieved pretty quickly when I requested it. It is stored by your cabin number.

You can certainly take your bottle that you didn’t finish along with you …to a venue or back to your room. I do that all the time because my spouse doesn’t drink wine, so I never finish a bottle at a meal. II also have them store my wines sometimes for another night. I do use a vacuum device to preserve the wine. I have that I’m my room. I take the bottle away with the cork and then switch to the cork in my cabin used with the vacuum device. I also have a travel aerator that I bring along to use in my room. I have never taken it to the restaurant, but you certainly could. I would say you need to make friends with the sommeliers onboard. You can certainly request that they decant your wine before your meal, especially in a specialty restaurant so it can breathe. They could have the wine ready at your table for you because you have a reservation there. Otherwise just bring your aerator and ask them to use that to pour, if you dine in Discoveries, Patio or Windows where you do not have or need a a reservation.

Also, you do have some liquor provided in the room. It used to be 4 small bottles (like 375 ml size) that were provided. Now some report you will be provided with one larger bottle. Mixers are in mini bar. Mixers are free.

You can go to a specialty restaurant for dinner every day, if you wish….need to make reservations. One nice perk is that suites can go to Aqualina specialty restaurant for breakfast. As to drink questions, someone else will have to answer those for you. I have never tried to have drinks delivered to the room because the bars are so close….I just bring one to my room.