wcc19

We were on that November cruise as well.

The low water level was unfortunate as it caused some difficulties including pulling off the Azamazing Evening in Manaus, but they did it.  All in all it was a very good experience and we enjoyed it very much.  Had no problems with bugs and no need for a YF vaccination.

I would not be surprised if they stopped going there as Captain Johannes was not impressed with the level of corruption there.  It seems that they were constantly being shaken down for things like loading fresh water, unloading grey water, provision of tenders etc.  The terms would suddenly change from what was agreed on.  When inspectors came aboard they made up violations to collect fines. The captain said he was writing a letter to the local officials warning them that they would stop coming unless they cleaned things up. 

The email I received is very clear that the 5% obc applies to the cruise you have booked:

"The onboard credit will be available on your booking as soon as you pay..."

What I get a kick out of is that it applies to "cruises greater than 180 days before departure."  When I received the email yesterday we were 178 days from departure so couldn't use it anyway.

14 hours ago, M109 said:

I have a serious issue with Azamara sailing that part of the world where the weather is very unpredictable and the sea can become extremely rough, when the ship is effectively only able to operate one screw and they can’t heat the ship correctly.  Just completely bonkers and tells you a lot about the financial status of the company when they are not prepared to cancel a cruise because the ship has mechanical problems.

The ship has 4 screws.  On our cruise before the current one, 3 screws were operating and one was not.  It is unclear whether the fourth one has been fixed yet or not.

For our cruise in May on Encore, the original debarkation port was Istanbul.  That was one reason we booked it as we wanted to visit that city.

A month ago they changed the itinerary so we are now debarking in Athens.  Very disappointing.

We are in Veranda Plus and I read that one of the perks is 120 minutes of complimentary internet.

However, it seems that the 120 minutes is regardless of cruise length.  So on our 22 day cruise we would get 120 and a person on a 7 day cruise would also get 120 minutes.  This seems odd that there is no proportionality based on cruise length.

Does anyone know if this is actually how it works?

On 6/25/2023 at 10:46 AM, silkismom said:

I booked our air thru ChoiceAir back in Feb. Our outbound flts on UA show ticketed, but return ticket with different booking locator show in UA website but don't show ticketed. Should I be worried?

You should definitely be concerned IMO.  Make sure everything shows correctly.  My air problem only became evident when I found something amiss and raised the alarm.

3 hours ago, mj_holiday said:

We had flights through Azamara (made by our TA) and the flights were very good.  Yes, they were not cheap, but when I was looking for flights the costs seemed to go up every time I looked, so the AZ flights were cheaper.

Yes, our flights were through Azamara, made by our TA, and were very good and were cheaper.  So we were very satisfied with that, and were shocked when that arrangement was cancelled.

We are being told that AC cancelled our flights because they were not paid in time by Azamara.

Terrible, unfortunately.  I looked at air for a November cruise, and the fares were really high.  My TA managed to negotiate the AZ air department and got us flights that were almost half of what I could get elsewhere.  Good flights too on AC.  So we booked that and got the airline confirmation code.  Checked on it recently and the air booking with AC has disappeared.  No one knows why.  AZ blames AC but who knows.

Now in the process of trying to get flights again, but the cost is going to be significantly higher.

On 4/6/2023 at 8:50 AM, LACruiser88 said:

The disembarkation was a breeze!  We had a meet time of 7:50 in the Wheelhouse.  They called our Pink 2 tags at 7:45 and by 8:00 we were curbside.

 

We are almost home!

 

Thank you all for following along! Until the next time (July 6th, Emerald Princess, 16 day Hawaii). 

 

 

 

 

🍷

Interesting you say disembarkation was a breeze.  You must have been among the very first to get off because actually it was quite a disaster.  There were 4 customs agents for 1700 passengers.  We got off the ship at 8 and it took us 45 minutes to get through.  We had a disembarkation excursion and it had to be shortened by an hour due to the wait for other people well behind us in the line.

And we were the lucky ones, because by the time we got to the head we could see behind us that the lineup was all the way to the back of the luggage hall.  I can't imagine how long it took those poor folks to get through.

That's what I like about the Port of Vancouver.  There are obvious signs that tell you not to tip the luggage handlers.  They are longshoremen and they already have a fabulous wage and benefits package.

Now really confused as my TA has just given me a bunch of those mid deck 9 cabins as A1, not A2 as shown in the deck plan.

So somebody is confused - the O deck plan or my TA.

Maybe I'm going too colorblind to detect the different hues on the deck plan, but it seems to me that the higher categories of A1, A2 etc are at the ends of the ship, mostly aft.  Usually they are in the middle.

Anybody else notice this?

Similar experience here - login page came up and told to change my password.  Tried to change the PW but then it went down again.

It is interesting that there is not a lot of discussion about this topic on the boards here.  The main discussion is going on over at Facebook.

I borrowed an account just to look at it (I don't do the socials).  At least Mark Conroy has now admitted that it is a malware attack.

I'm pretty concerned as to what of my personal information has been compromised.  No comments yet from SS on that topic.

We also cruised in Asia last year and had the included excursion in every port.  I was concerned beforehand but the included ones were good and we were very satisfied with them.  I'm looking forward to this change.

12 hours ago, john watson said:

 

I seem to recall a Major Melanie Thrak in the Durham Light Infantry, would that be her?

This made me laugh.  Brilliant!

As I pointed out on a different thread, on our Marina cruise a couple of weeks ago there was a guy right beside us in the GDR at dinner who was wearing a T shirt, non-formal jeans, and sneakers with no socks.

Then at dinner in Toscana there was a guy wearing a beer logo T shirt.

So my advice to those who don't want to dress up is - don't worry!  Wear whatever you want because there is no enforcement.  Heck, go to dinner in your bathrobe if that makes you happy.

My sentiments exactly.  Can't pin this one on noro.

Definitely off topic but if anyone cares about dress code (I do) there definitely isn't one.

Sat beside a guy in the GDR last night wearing jeans and a T shirt.

Tonight in toscana there was a guy in a beer logo T shirt (Carlings!).

It is the inconsistency of the infection response that gets to me.  Many examples but I'll give one

When you go on an excursion, everyone goes to the lounge and hands their paper ticket to the guy and he hands back a laminated bus ticket. Honestly,  he might as well be shaking hands with everybody. And you can't tell me that they disinfect all of those bus tickets between ports.

But in the dining room you get a paper menu that gets destroyed after you touch it.  Makes no sense to me.

All restaurants are definitely open. The only difference is the table settings that I mentioned earlier. 

They are doing some things better than our last noro cruise experience. For example they did not take away the snacks at baristas and the concierge lounge. They have a crew member there handing them out. I just got a sandwich in the concierge lounge and I can assure you that this crew member is not enjoying having to do that job.

I'm comparing the protocols on this cruise to our previous experience with the great noro cruise on the Riviera a few years ago. 

The one that I'm really stymied with is this- when you go for a meal in any dining room on the ship you sit down at a table that is completely empty. Just the table cloth.  Then they slowly bring out plates, glasses, cutlery etc.

What possible reason could there be for this in infection control? If anybody can think of any reason for that...  it's truly inexplicable to me. And yes, it is part of the protocol.

We often see crew with masks and full plastic aprons delivering meals, presumably to the infected cabins.

Yes I'm on the ship.  No I'm not sick.  Yes they have initiated all of the infection protocols, which significantly diminish the cruise experience.

I'm surprised that no one has posted so far about the noro outbreak on the current Marina cruise.  We are definitely in the midst of it right now.