yogagal47

The official Azamara website describes the Atlas bar on Onward as follows: Atlas Bar is an exclusive venue found only aboard Azamara Onward. Atlas Bar is a unique concept offering artisanal cocktails created using the latest one-of-a-kind techniques. These crafted beverages are as delightful to drink as they are to watch being made! In addition, an exotic menu of small plates, both hot and cold, will be offered. These small plates will be served with great panache and prepared with premium ingredients. Atlas Bar is a specialty venue and is not part of Azamara’s complimentary offerings. What is the additional cost for this experience?

We disembarked Journey this past Monday. While the Captain had announced a 6 am arrival the night before there was apparently some issueswhich delayed our entrance into the port. I believe we actually did not dock until 7:30. A friend who was awake early told me that some pax were panicking as they had fairly early flights to catch at Athens Airport. Many passengers were waiting on Deck Five and at 9 am the cruise director Stephen made an announcement that EVERYONE had to get off, this despite the fact that our #12 luggage tags were designated independent and gave us until 9:30. This was awful as many people were crowded into one single, narrow stairwell at the front of the ship or waiting in lines for elevators. Not ideal IMHO. We had pre-arranged for a private driver to meet us at 9:15. Once in the terminal we were able to locate our bags then go out and find our driver. We arrived at the airport around 10:30 am and it was pretty congested. There were insanely long lines for every airlines if you were economy. We were flying business on Aegean to London and were checked in very promptly and given fast track for security. The Aegean lounge was beautiful by the way.

Wondering how the "bottle packages work?" What if you have a long cruise and choose to buy, for example, a 10 bottle package and you have have the bottle left after your dinner. Do you bring it back to your cabin or will they hold it for you?

We just got off Journey yesterday and were told your cruise had a fairly small number on board. Also heard rumors that an official Greek Health Officer would be onboard and that masking would be strictly enforced. Wondering if it was due to positive COVID’s onboard…

Just off 10 days on Journey- Greece Intensive. There were no age restrictions on tours and they were all described as various levels including easy, moderate and strenuous with a fairly clear explanation of why the trip was rated that way. A boat trip in Mykonos was rated as strenuous , likely because you had to be ambulatory and fairly fit to move around the boat, go down Steep stairs to use the Loo and go down a steep slippery ladder sort of thing to enter the water for three different swims that were offered during the boat ride. We did another tour rated Strenuous because it involved walking up a steep set of stairs to reach a monastery in Meteora. We took a tour that involved a somewhat bumpy off-road ride in a four-wheel-drive vehicle(it was air-conditioned and a comfortable Land Rover) and also involved walking around a winery going up and down steps for the tour etc. we had a full day tour at Marmaris Greece that was rated strenuous because we had to get on and off a local style boat, walk a bit of a distance up a dusty trail to some ruins and then a longer walk back down again to the boat, then had to get off the boat and walk a distance along the boardwalk to go to the beach and then back again to the boat. So for folks who consider themselves fit, it was not strenuous but by describing it as such, they kept people away who would have been miserable, particularly with the extreme heat one finds in Greece in summer.

On Journey now in Greece we have been told Greek authorities require us to wear masks on the ship when we are indoors and even outside it is recommended however most folks are ignoring this and doing their thing. It seems that the mask wearers are definitely in the minority. I will ask my friend that it is like after her tour today Thankfully no mask policing going on that I know of! So if you feel that a mask can protect you you wear it and then you will be protected. If you prefer to enjoy your cruise without a mask on, yes you can do that and take your chances. Nice to know that there is room for choice on board. Personally I never take the elevators and use doing the steps as an opportunity to get a little bit of extra exercise! Sure, there’s some coughing on board but Pre-covid , how many of us came to the theater, concert or opera and noticed how many people are coughing!!!

so kind of you too say- so far had a lovely sea day yesterday. Even though ship is at just under 500 pax, pool area was packed. Atmosphere on board is relaxed and upbeat. Pax mostly Brits and Americans ( around 220 ish each) with Belgian, French, German and Ozzies making up the rest. Apparently some Greeks as well although the cruise director saidthey were “ the captain’s family.” LOL. Today in Port at Kavala which looks quite nice.

In many cases including the previous requirement upon returning to the United States via air, they stopped excepting the QR code because it was too easy to cheat, but in Athens it seems they like to see the QR code as to them it seems very official. Still there is a letter that they email you that is signed by a doctor that is quite detailed about the date time status of the test. I will show that also just on your phone and not on a paper.

There continues to be a discussion because what happened to you is not happening on Azamara cruises departing from Athens. It is extremely upsetting to know that folks like yourself had no problem while in Athens many of us are challenged and questioned and being forced to pay $59 for a test offered by the contracted company in the port and we have clearly complied with the pre-testing rule. I observed that not a single Azamara crew member came ashore to manage the chaos, save for one lone fellow who was upselling Chef‘s table dinners. He had a captive audience as we were in the pre- boarding “sauna “ and a large family group was very interested and signed up for several dinners, only to be told once they were on board that there was no availability. Those of us who are recording our actual experiences Will be discouraged from doing so in future if we are judged and challenged by folks on this board. Just saying…

If you are doing an Emed test for boarding in Athens they seem to like showing them the documented letter from Eemed and Navica on your phone. A friend Printed it out and they rejected her and made her get a Covid test and then tried to tell us that we should not have been approved. I showed them the documentation from Navica and they seemed to like that better. Obviously all of this is hit or miss and company that is taking care of the Shoreside check in process is getting $59 per test so…

Whether it is first world, Second world, Or third world problem The expectation with Azamara is that they can and should do better. There was no staff from the ship on shore to assess what was going on. There were people With health conditions that made waiting for an extended period of time in the “ holding sauna” very challenging. People were putting their luggage on seats to keep themselves distanced so most of us had to stand. I met a couple That had their initial verification of their Covid test completed and waited till at least one and a half hours past their boarding time before their group number was finally called. This occurred while people who needed Covid tests were taken away and their boarding process prioritized ahead of those of us who came prepared(perhaps because they were paying the $59??). when we finally got to the second tent where we were to begin the check in process We were all put into one snaking line only to find out when we got to the head of the line at last, that if we had done pre-check in and had printouts or screenshots of our checkin code we could do our check in with personnel who had iPads. If there had been two lines-One for those who had already completed online check-in and one for those who had not, it would have been more efficient. I witnessed a woman in a mobile scooter Who received no assistance to detour around the required steps down to this second building, Wait her turn to check in, only to be pulled out of line and told they were unable to board her. She was in tears, nearly hysterical. I never did find out if she ultimately was able to board. I met a couple at my hotel who had 430 check in time. They were going to take a taxi to the terminal at noon and I cautioned them that they might be turned away so they went to the beach instead. I saw them later and they were so happy because they had a nice afternoon at the beach and when they showed up for check-in it took them only a couple of minutes. so far things seem fine on the ship although much of the crew is on their first contract. We had dinner last night by the sunset bar- we wanted to sit outside and watch the sunset which was gorgeous. It was an à la carte menu with limited options but I found the experience to be very relaxing and pleasant and noticed that the tables outside and inside were pretty full.

At present we are in the Cruise port terminal in Athens waiting to board the journey and it is a total disorganized disastrous mess. If I face my satisfaction with Azamara on this experience this will be my last cruise on Azamara.

Good idea! Today when we came in on the ferry from Aegina a very aggressive taxi driver grabbed us inside the port and took us to his taxi and told me it would be €15 to the Alex hotel. We had paid €10 on the way there several days earlier and I told him I would pay 10 euro. When we arrived at the hotel he kept insisting I had to give him another five and I flatly refused. He was very rude and drove us around to the back of the hotel instead of driving us up to the front because he had seen an attractive young woman who had tried to hail his cab a few blocks away and wanted to circle back to her. We were very happy that we prebooked a driver to pick us up at the airport and also meet us at the port at the end of our 10 day Greece intensive cruise. Way less stressful!

How is your cruise going?

Thanks for this info!

Amazing how much miss information is out there!

Phil is there a nice beach nearby after you finish exploring a bit on your own?

Hey AZAMARA: I for one am happy to have you join with Viking and drop the testing requirements!!!

I've been hitting the "unsubscribe" bell for most of these bloggers-many of them are annoying and their videos, a complete waste of time.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-10/cdc-to-lift-covid-test-mandate-for-flyers-to-us-starting-june-12. Best news I've heard all day and yes, Would love to see them list requirements for testing pre-cruise. A friend was recently on a 2 week Viking cruise where they were spit tested every day and it had to be by 9 am or the "gendarmes" would come looking for you. So much for "sleeping in" on your vacation. Meanwhile plenty of covid cases on board anyway...

I used one before boarding a short Royal Caribbean Cruise last December no problem. Hoping it is not an issue when we show up in Athens next Saturday!

Apparently she fell around 2 AM and others either passenger or crew saw it happen and threw a life ring to her to no avail-just awful.

On the Journey what are the outdoor options for dinner?

Gary's piece was fair and balanced although a "sausage instead of bacon" at breakfast does not rise to the level of going downhill fast IMHO. I've been looking at quite a few of the cruise YouTube vloggers lately and find that they use "clickbait" headlines to bring in more viewers/subscribers which is how they make their money. In the case of his Azamara review, the headline simply did not match the actual facts reported.

Wow! That is a huge discrepancy in passenger numbers! I wonder how many will be on the June 17 Journey Sailing??? 45 Minute wait for a table is just not ok.