Riocca

We’ve cruised on R ships in the Princess days and not had a serious problem however when Azamara refitted the CC suites the baths were higher which means it became problematic for taller people. Originally Azamara were going to make all CC suites walk in showers but it was down to objections from some on Cruise Critic that it became 50/50 baths and showers. If you look at bookings on cruises now the showers nearly always sell first, maybe this is why Azamara doesn’t listen to the vociferous minority on Cruise Critic these days.

We’ve had quite a lot of interaction with Azamara recently and have not had to wait longer than 10 minutes to speak to anyone. We have just made an onboard booking, talking to Future Cruise onboard he agreed the trick is to always choose new booking from the options you’re going to speak to the same people who can deal with any problems. There has been a lot of new recruitment recently which is improving the situation, but my opinion is that the limitations are that it’s still Royal Caribbean’s phone system and choosing the other options send you into a queuing process.

We were in there last night at about 6.30pm sitting near the bar didn’t think it was any different from the volume level on Quest in September. Possibly could be the positioning of the speakers on Onward creating hotspots volume wise.

Currently on Onward, the music is just quite background music if they had live musicians then it would be yet another entertainment venue which is not the point of the Atlas bar. At the moment they have musicians showing on the video wall but they can have destination videos or a roaring log fire.

Seems random, all future cruises disappeared then 3 came back with 2 missing including the one that starts on Saturday. Now they’ve all gone again, not the first time this has happened this year so must be a system error, possibly to do with migrating information to Azamara’s new IT platform?

Wasn’t until we came over to Celebrity / Azamara in 2010 that we came across the Meet & Greet concept, didn’t happen on P&O and never saw it advertised on Princess. I did organise one on Princess afterwards but it was like pushing jelly uphill, wouldn’t do it again. So it seems to me that only the RCG companies take it seriously most other lines, not that we’ve been on them all, leave it to the Roll Call to organise a meeting. I stand to be corrected we’ve been on 14 different lines but there’s plenty more we haven’t had experience of. Possibly Azamara are moving this way, when you think of it logically most Roll Calls are about organising private tours the very thing cruise lines are trying to sell you. I think CC meetings will still be facilitated but not in the high profile way it has been in the past.

This has always been a problem with most of our Azamara cruises that the get together has clashed with sail away, some ports it’s not a problem other than it’s better to be on deck that in a dark venue often the Show-lounge. We board Onward on Saturday only a short cruise but no sea days, next March on a 10 day cruise there’s only one sea day on day 5 and October another 10 day cruise with no sea days. On Quest in August it was scheduled an hour before sail away, with the latest version of safety drills maybe that’s the answer, although again many, including the ship, weren’t ready for it.

You would get $300 pp OBC and possibly an event ( Best of the Best meal is currently not happening) otherwise it’s just the extra space.

As I understand it’s the cruise after yours that’s been chartered the 14th October cruise has been changed to return to Istanbul for the charter rather than Athens.

This was the information posted: We're writing to inform you of some important changes regarding your client's 8-Night Greece Intensive Voyage scheduled to depart on October 14, 2023, on Azamara Onward. The Azamara Onward, has been chartered by a private group which has required us to alter the dates and/or ports of call of some voyages. Theirs is among those impacted. Their journey will now conclude in Istanbul, Turkey, and in place of the Greek islands of Chios, Rhodes, Nauplion, and Athens, we will instead make stops in Mykonos, Patmos, and Canakkale, Turkey. Rest assured, they will still have the chance to travel to some of the most breathtaking islands in the Greek Isles and end their trip in the same city where it all began: Istanbul. With more than 2500 years of history, culture, and extraordinary landmarks, they now have the option to extend their journey if they prefer to explore it at a slower pace.

I have seen comments on another forum that Onward has been chartered, the 14th October cruise still exists but with a changed itinerary, the following cruise is cancelled.

Vueling is a budget airline and part of the IAG group so a sister airline to BA and Iberia.

Here’s a link to the page on the U.K. website: https://www.azamara.co.uk/azamara-upgrade-programme If you don’t qualify you should get a message to that effect but it might just be that upgrade bids aren’t open yet.

But most other cruise lines with smaller ships restrict the number of times you can use speciality restaurants by cabin grade including suites and also give priority booking by grade. If Azamara have to restrict each table to only being used once per evening then that’s going to happen on Azamara as well.

Spot on Phil, we seem to have lost the perspective that these are specially restaurants not main restaurants. I don’t know of any cruise lines where you don’t have to book speciality restaurants in advance in fact with many you have to book months before you even board the ship. Azamara main restaurants are anytime dining, if you are in a suite of any grade and want to use the specialities as your restaurant then you need to follow the rules.

Probably very relevant to this topic, Onward has an additional 18 CC suites over the other ships so a 40% increase in the number of suites having access to the speciality restaurants. Veranda Plus also have one free night per seven days but that’s the same for all ships. Back when the upcharge was $5 pp the speciality restaurants were often quite very quiet but when they increased the cost they became much busier. So originally it was not difficult to get a time that suited, now to cope with demand they’ve increased the number of tables and introduced times to allow table turns. We usually book for 8pm which gives a window of 7.30 - 8.30 which works fine for us, we are quite flexible. Over the years we’ve noticed that quite a few cruise lines try to work the same way with speciality restaurants not only to meet demand but to maximise their revenue.

No we will be boarding Onward.

Press release on another thread says they will be using Fusina and Chioggia, hopefully ours stays as Fusina as it works better for the hotel we’ve booked.

There’s a ferry from Fusina to Venice, website says it takes about 30 minutes and the cost is only €2.

Our cruise is the 4th October 2023 starting in Venice (Fusina) we booked direct with Azamara so all communication comes to us. For anyone booked with a travel agent the email will have gone to them so there can be a delay. Fusina might not be Venice but it’s better located for Venice Airport than Ravenna, we’ve booked a nice villa hotel in Mestre pre cruise.

Email just received from Azamara. October 17, 2022 Dear Azamara Guest, We're writing to inform you of an important update regarding your voyage scheduled to begin and/or end in Venice, Italy. We announced earlier this year that we were no longer able to dock our ships in the heart ofVenice for our 2022 season due to new regulations adopted by the Italian government and, many of the guests who have booked voyages that included Venice in 2023 questioned how this would impact their travel arrangements. Due to our long-standing relationship with local officials and port authorities of Venice, we are thrilled to announce that we will be able to stay in this historic canal city in the neighboring town of Fusina, where only smaller ships can visit. By taking a ferry across the South Lagoon, you can go from Fusina to the heart of Venice in just under 30 minutes. In the meantime, we kindly ask for your patience as we finalize and prepare to share more information on our pre/post transfers and land experiences. We will contact you with more details soon. As always, we take great pride in bringing you and every Azamara guest unforgettable experiences both on board our ships and within our destinations. We can assure you that your future Azamara vacation will deliver the highest standards of service and quality for which we are known. Should you have any questions, please contact your Travel Advisor for more details specific to your country of residence or visit https://www.azamara.com/contact-us for your local Azamara call center number. Sincerely, AZAMARA®

We were on Onwards maiden and return to the ship in a couple of weeks so it couldn’t have been that bad. Regarding the deck rails they were being finished with teak oil not varnish, this is a longer job as they have to be stripped right back but long term maintenance should be easier. We preferred the matt finish looked much better than high gloss varnish in our opinion. We were in a CC suite and the USB ports were on the bottom of the bedside light fittings and easily overlooked.

Our White Night starts with a social drink at the Pool Bar then a meal in whichever speciality is open then back out to join the party, I know many enjoy the deck buffet and we respect this but it’s not our thing. As someone who doesn’t look good in white I would prefer something like a Bright Night, would mean not having to take something to wear for just one night. We were caught out on our first Azamara cruise as we knew nothing about it actually wore black and nobody batted an eyelid 😁

Thank you, shame I love a discount 😁

Any idea how long this will be running for? We board Onward two weeks today with plans to book a 2024 cruise.