Riocca

When you look at booking Azamara online you get an option to add flights: So it’s totally optional and you can see the flight details to make comparisons, incidentally we book directly with Azamara by telephone these days and have never been offered flights let alone that we have to book them. However there are a number of travel agents in the U.K. who package cruises with flights, hotels and transfers, with a number of cruise lines not just Azamara. Unfortunately shall we say they are not always as transparent as they should be and customers may believe they are having to accept these packages as the cruise lines insist. We are aware of the culprits and avoid them but others probably won’t be.

Absolutely, also if demand is high they want to please as many passengers as possible. We always book for 8pm but if we turn up earlier we’ve never had a problem getting a table. They work on the principal that the average meal time is 2 hours, but some will take longer some quicker, in very busy periods we have seen a table turned 3 times. That said we’ve never seen anyone pressured into giving up a table. As a comparison we are currently in a hotel owned by a well known U.K. celebrity chef, the restaurant is total chaos, last night we waited an hour between first and main course tonight they completely forgot about our dessert, and we weren’t the only ones complaining. Management disappeared when complaints happen and wait staff are like headless chickens, food ranges from weird to awful. We don’t know how lucky we are with the general standard on cruise ships.

We’ve experienced the Aqualina breakfast onboard Onward and Quest, it’s supposed to be relaxed with everything cooked to order so is slower than other breakfast venues. The menu does look to be limited but we found they could cater for any requests.

Not an area we used that often but think Azamara needs to think very carefully about that move.

No she was more taken with dogs running on the beach 😄

Unbelievably it’s only temporary opened at the beginning of October and closes on the 5th November took longer to assemble!

Took our 2 year old granddaughter to our local seaside resort, Weston-Super-Mare to see an art installation of a decommissioned oil rig called See Monster.

It’s not that you’re not allowed to criticise but you have to accept why others choose a cruise line. As they say there’s a cruise line for everyone you just have to find the one you like best and human nature is to defend your choice. We have tried almost 20 lines over the years and Azamara is the one that suits us best. Friends love NCL we really didn’t but that’s their choice and it’s fine, we’ve been on Viking both oceans and river wouldn’t rule them out but only for the right itinerary. For us as Viking have new bigger ships there is more space but we found them bland, management was weak and unresponsive and main restaurant food was always served cold, on the up side thought the Chef’s Table was fantastic.

As it only started post covid I’m not sure if that was the driver or it was the increased number of suites on Onward, that said we did enjoy the relaxed atmosphere. It’s certainly taken the load off of the Butlers who were often faced with a dilemma when multiple suites wanted breakfast at the same time. Princess have had this set up for many years now and I haven’t heard it referred to as elitist there, as you say it’s done discretely most passengers wouldn’t know it existed. In reality is any more two class than the in suite afternoon tea served by the butlers?

Very fair assessment of our experience of Viking versus Azamara, on Quest recently at the Captains Q&A we were told there’s always a plan B & C for every port especially those known to present potential problems where they may have a plan D as well.

Same for Onward, cut & paste brigade have been on duty, the description is copied from the original “3 sister meet” that was going to happen in 2020 😂 Embrace the musical traditions of Slovenia and make history in the process. Join us in Koper for a Grand AzAmazing Evening to celebrate our Destination Immersion® experiences. We will bring our three ships – Journey®, Quest® and PursuitSM – together in port for the first time for an unforgettable night. Available on our “Sisters Meet” voyages, we’ve pulled out all the stops for this once-in-a-lifetime event commemorating a decade of our commitment to Destination Immersion. We’ll transform Ukmar Square into an enchanting private venue, inviting guests from all three ships to an evening of fine wine, local cuisine, and live music starring Perpetuum Jazzile, an a cappella ensemble dedicated to preserving Slovenian vocal traditions. Revel in the enchanting melodies. Soak up the surrounding architecture. Savor superb cuisine and sensational sweets. As a special treat, we’ll debut an exclusive wine bottled locally for Azamara President & CEO, Larry Pimentel. On this occasion, we proudly honor our past while looking forward to a new era that will take our guests further than ever before. KRTM

It was planned to happen with 3 ships in 2020 before Covid stopped the world then there was going to be an AzAmazing Evening in the main square in Koper. From what’s being posted elsewhere this time it sounds like it’s going to be White Night on all the ships, hopefully the locals won’t object to the noise as we will be on Onward when it’s repeated next year.

Yes, currently 2 pm is the earliest embarkation for all but there should be a priority line for suites.

Someone on another platform was told it was to remove the ships from the RC Wi-Fi system, Onward was never part of that system as it was purchased after the sale.

Lee and Stuart both worked with Richard Twynam, we’ve met both over the years and although there positions are not directly customer facing we’ve found them extremely helpful.

Azamara have revamped the U.K. team and appointed a new Managing Director. https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/travel-agents/azamara-revamps-uk-sales-team-to-bolster-growth

Genuine question, who is actually looking at the test results Azamara or the Port Authorities? In fairness Azamara have never actually said a test is not required in Piraeus.

According to the website Azamara only require it if the port authorities demand it.

News of Bahrain only carried the story that visitors visas had been suspended on the 22nd September so it looks like cruise lines were thrown a real curveball. https://www.newsofbahrain.com/world/84215.html

Very good point, but U.K. travel agents will have collected the balances 120 days out while Azamara’s terms are 90 days this has created problems in the past when changes are made in the intervening period. Although in this case it does look like it’s well within the 90 days period, but some of the news reports that extra cruise ships would be positioned as extra hotels is dated mid September. Guess we probably will never know but the email did say Azamara were working on plans for those with tickets it will be interesting to see what that could be given the shortage of hotel accommodation.

That’s sound advice, a few years ago we booked Journey’s Monaco Grand Prix cruise, on race day sea conditions made tendering very tricky. Luckily we weren’t on an Azamara race tour and got ashore early as just after Captain Johannes suspended tender operations. Eventually everyone who had race tickets got ashore but it was touch and go, had we not been able to get ashore we would have had to take the hit for the unused tickets. We saved a great deal of money over the Azamara cost but it was at our risk but we accepted this.

Agree, previously Azamara have always suffered from being the poor relation of a mass market cruise line and I think we’re still seeing the legacy of that. I reserve judgment until Azamara are totally free from the restrictions of RC systems and for me that can’t happen soon enough. That said since the pandemic we have shifted from using a travel agent, who short changed us throughout, to booking direct. Other than the telephone system difficulties, which is improving, I have found the Azamara shoreside staff keen to help and any issues have been resolved positively. I really like that booking confirmations are emailed to you while you’re still speaking to the agent so I have been able to check all the details immediately, with our ex TA it often took months to get booking confirmations.

Sorry this referred to the Venice / Ravenna change that Host Jazzbeau mentioned, I should have made this clear. I do feel for those affected as it’s one of those “lifetime “ events, but agree with the dammed if you do comments Azamara have taken a lot of grief on here for announcing cancelled ports before the replacements have been established. This sort of thing seems to be happening more and more with local authorities making changes without a thought as to the implications to cruise ship passengers, I wouldn’t like to be running a cruise line at the moment.

My understanding is that originally Azamara were told that the ban would be for ships over 30,000 Tonnes and when the 25,000 Tonnes limit was announced they were caught out. They did try to see if there was any wriggle room but having originally thought they were going to be ok it put them behind the lines using larger ships who knew they would be banned.

Suites can eat in the speciality restaurants every night if they wish, but reservations can only be made once onboard and there’s no priority for suites.