Riocca

Thank you, that’s good news last time we booked onboard we were told this but our next cruise is the last using a TA and we want to book onboard direct with Azamara.

There’s also a discount for booking onboard, Explorer is 5% and Discover is 6%. Onboard bookings can be transferred to travel agents, but if you booked the cruise you are on is booked with a travel agent it’s supposed to be transferred to them.

When we’ve used days booking onboard it’s been quicker because they had direct access to the department that worked it all out. We also received the extra $100 OBC for booking in the first half of the cruise because that’s when we made the enquiry.

We booked directly with Azamara and the agent was able to calculate an approximate cost using the free days. We then had to book with the invoice showing the full price of the cruise while the booking went off to another department to add the days. It was about 2 weeks before we received the invoice showing the new payment amount, ours was more complicated because it was a booking moved because of Covid and was originally made onboard so those benefits had to be added as well. As I understand it if the updated booking is more than any prevailing offer you can still revert to that offer, but ours worked out extremely well.

It’s on Facebook on the Azamara Reminiscing group, presumably it’s from the information sheets produced on each ship.

Azamara Quest

Azamara Journey

Azamara Onward

The same was posted for all the ships , obviously it is only as it is when posted a few days ago but I will copy it over when I can.

Yes I did see a post about Ernest going to Celebrity Edge but it didn’t mention a replacement.

From Azamara Reminiscing on Facebook:

Maybe he had to pay for his own cruise 🤨

Right on the seafront by the Sea organ, this is Quest docked in Zadar.

Don’t think that the content of the Vlog was the issue it was the click bait headline that was totally unnecessary. In the past I’ve had no interest in anything these people produce but out of boredom during lockdown looked at a few and realised that most of them know very little and just have the ability to talk in a convincing way. They, like us, have things that they expect from cruising and it’s not necessarily the same thing so we will continue to do our own thing in the way we like to do and patronise cruise lines that provide it. Biggest annoyance for us is when these self important people enjoying cruises at the cruise lines expenses were given priority over fare paying passengers. This seemed to happen often under Royal Caribbean’s ownership as they deemed these people important, hopefully the new owners will not follow this trend and from experience on Onwards maiden I think it might be the case.

What has happened before is that you should receive an email with a FCC number and the amount. For the maiden the original email said that we should get the FCC email in 30 days so sometime next week. I did ask Azamara about the FCC for the change from Venice to Ravenna and was told to expect an email 30 - 45 days after disembarking.

Definitely in our CC suite on Onwards Maiden 🥂😄

Reasonable review but slightly at odds with his “live” blog from the ship, but I do think post pandemic we do need to temper our expectations in the short term. There is a danger that having had an enforced break from cruising our memories become of perfect cruises with no service issues, a bit like childhood summers were always sunny and hot. Certainly we had more service issues on Viking in 2018 due to lack of staff training because of a new ship introduction than we had on Onwards maiden. Lets remember even the experienced staff have had an enforced 2 year break and we all know how difficult it is to get back into the swing of things after a 2 week holiday. Add into the mix new owners and systems, new staff and last but not least covid protocols. Service issues are frustrating but it’s good to be back traveling even with the constant changes and restrictions.

This article proves the point, it’s a problem facing all aspects of the hospitality industry. Just because we’re ready to get back to cruising it doesn’t automatically follow that all the staff want to or will return. https://www.cruisehive.com/carnival-cruise-line-temporarily-closes-two-specialty-dining-venues/72164

Phil, our experience on the maiden was quite different as regards the HD we spoke with her at length nearly every day, she was obviously extremely busy dealing with issues during the cruise. We were apprehensive about what might be different post RCG but didn’t think there was a lot of difference, to us senior staff were more visible than on Pursuit’s maiden. Of course we’ve no idea of Sycamore’s long term intentions but we had two conversations with the head of hotel from Miami and he didn’t give any indication that there were changes afoot, but we didn’t ask either. It was very that the onboard management are much more involved in the decision making process than before. As to the pool deck & jogging track flooring it was obviously left from the Princess days as you could see the repairs where changes were made to the pool surround, looked to have been recently replaced by Princess but unfortunately the contractors had dropped wood stain on it in a number of places. Whether it was a cost saving exercise or that time didn’t allow it to be replaced I couldn’t say, but given the age of the ship and the money spent on more important things probably the former. Will say though that the red flooring material on the jogging track is the same as the other ships used to have and is much better for walking on.

I spoke to Captain Carl on Onwards Maiden about this, originally they were told any cruise ship ban in Venice would be ships above 40,000 tonnes so Azamara would have been ok, the 25,000 tonnes limit came as a big blow to their plans. Then the promised docking at Marghera did not materialise so the only real option left was Ravenna. The situation regarding Venice is ongoing but if there’s no suitable docking location near Venice for next year then Trieste is going to be considered as an option.

As others have said the basic problem is that Azamara are still using the RCG system and operates in the same way as Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. I’ve always thought it was a crazy way to operate given we all understand the onboard currency is US$. Because the exchange rate conversion is rarely in the customers favour the sceptic in me thinks that across the brands the number of transactions made in favour of the cruise line are a good earner for them. Being benevolent maybe they think we would prefer to see the cost of trips in our own currency but there’s not a strong case for this in my mind. Moving forward during the first quarter of 2023 we should be seeing Azamara unplugging from RCG systems and implementing their own, the system onboard Onward is the first use of the Azamara software. There were the expected glitches on the maiden, mainly in importing information from the RCG system, but as they’ve gone the route of using a tried and tested proprietary system customised to their requirements it looked promising. So I’m hoping that Azamara will listen and we will be seeing an end to this practice.

I’ve just read the review mentioned and it does sound like the person who posted the YouTube video, personally I don’t understand taking to social media rather than trying to address the issues with the onboard management. As others have said it’s all about managing expectations and Onward is not a new ship it’s 23 years old and that should be taken into consideration. We were on the Inaugural voyage so experienced the ship first hand, we know from experience that maiden voyages always have issues regardless whether the ship is brand new or 23 years old. Our cabin was near perfect the only issues were a missing lamp cover and a small mark on the headboard, so insignificant. Yes there were issues with somethings not completed and some supply issues, most of the uncompleted items were cosmetic and didn’t really impact on our cruise. As regards supply issues that’s something post pandemic we’re all experiencing, be it supermarket shopping or building projects delays and non availability of items is something we are living with and it’s no different for Azamara. We have two future Onward cruises booked and looking at a third and have absolutely no reservations about cruising on this particular Azamara ship.

If I’ve got a few hours to spare might phone Wichita and try to find out.

I think it was for all the cruises that were changed.

Eying up Onward for the end of May next year hoping to book on Quest in August but we have a backup plan 😊 hopefully all will be clear once we get the email.