travelberlin

I will not take those cabins not even as solo cruiser. I would rather take an inside cabin which cost less, and are larger. Ivi

Azmara Pursuit Cabin Number - 6053 Month/Year sailed - January 2023 Would you choose this room again? - yes Is noise an issue - Non whatsoever Room type - standard balcony (category V3) Ivi

Sorry to hear about your bad experience with shore excursions. Unfortunately that department is not the strongest at Azamara and independently how much you complain on feedbacks, it does not change much. I am not sure if they are independent providers. On the ship you have the possibility to escalate your complain to the hotel director. If it is something related to attitudes from personnel, you can also give the feedback to the Human Resources manager. One possibility to get an answer to your email could be to try to post it to the loyalty or next cruise officer onboard and ask them to pass your request. We used to have a person on this boards appointed by Azamara which was very helpful with any issue. Unfortunately she is not there anymore. Ivi

Of course the inside cabin in all ships is extremely dark unless you turn the lights on 😉 Ivi

Rick Steves is not that young anymore and has learned to value what it means to spend on things that make your life easier 😀 Ivi

Yes. It is terrible to fly nowadays with any airline. LH accepted my booking with a partner alliance Avianca in business class. Every thing confirmed. Before the flight, Avianca changed planes and suddenly there was no business class. I was downgraded to economy for a 4 hours flight. And the conpensation was US 18.- I used to enjoy flying. Before discovering cruises, we did twice around the world with the one world alliance. Every thing was fine. Now lots of cancelations and reroutings and strikes. It is a chaos. By the way we flew Eurowings Discover from Panama to Frankfurt. If the plane is the Dreamliner, then the Business class is good. Young crew, very friendly and attentive but still learning. Ivi

Lufthansa has removed champagne from their business class flights. Serving a sparkling wine instead. I wonder how much money they are saving 🧐 Ivi

Looking forward to your impressions. Amazing that you got good business tickets. We are struggling with the prices from Europe to South America. They are now the double than last year and unfortunately lots of cancellations, strikes. etc. Ivi

Good point. I know several solo friends who cruise alone. But those solo cabins from the new Crystal do not come at the same price of the per person fare at double occupancy. Which means your assumption is not correct. Two people (couples other friends) will pay less in a cabin with double occupancy than in two solo cabins. Ivi

With OBC I would use Azmara transfers. They are very well organized and I think they run directly under guest relations and not under shore excursions so that the prices are reasonable. Otherwise maybe you could also look at welcome pickups. Ivi

Is an optical illusion 😂 Ivi

Mein Schiff cruises have associated with Tim Raue, a chef that holds two Michelin stars. His restaurant in Berlin is listed among the 50 bests of the world. On the Mein Schiff ships his restaurant is called Hanami and is Asian/ Peruvian. Once in a while he boards one of the ships to the delight of the passengers. The food at Hanami is special. The setting wonderful. They offer also very good Sushi but it is mainly a starter. Ivi

One thing is for sure, pure Japanese cuisine is not what Nobu offers. I have found definitely more similarities in Lima to Nobus offerings than in Japan. But maybe it just me 😉 Ivi

From Wikipedia: “ Nobu Matsuhisa Nobuyuki "Nobu" Matsuhisa (松久 信幸 Matsuhisa Nobuyuki; born March 10, 1949) is a Japanese celebrity chef and restaurateur known for his fusion cuisine blending traditional Japanese dishes with Peruvian ingredients. His signature dish is black cod in miso. He has restaurants bearing his name in several countries…“ Remember his „tiradito“? 100% Peruvian inspired. Nikkei-Peruvian is fusion. By the way Peru has the best food in South America and it has restaurants listed among the best of the world. I travel once in a while to Lima just to enjoy the food there. Unfortunately at the moment too many political problems 😔 Ivi

Cruise lines that big are not docking any more in the usual Venice ports (for example Statione Maritima). Most cruise lines are now docking in Gioggia or Fusina. The answer to your question can only be given by Crystal itself. Ivi

Nobu was not sushi. Although most people call Nobu a Japanese restaurant it is not that. It is a Fusion cuisine between Peruvian and Japanese. This is what makes Nobu special. Umi Uma served also sushi. Ivi

Sorry in my post above (409), I did not mean Azamara. I meant Crystal. Ivi

From an economist to the other, limited supply shall lead to raising prices of those “solo cabins” since for sure there are many solo passengers who were happy to book Crystal and might compete for those cabins. And if the demand is high, the prices might go on. This if Azamara will also be acting rationally after having read economics 101. I do not intend to contribute to the rise of the prices of solo cabins because my preference curve (also economics 101) does not include the location of those cabins. As there is free competition (free market) for sure this homo economicous (myself ), will look for alternatives since other cabins from Crystal, which would be in my preference curve, do not come with prices to make them fit there. At the end for me is not important if there is a discount or not. It is the per diem price that determines my decision. Per diem which I determine comparing price/value relationship. Ivi

I have booked with Explora Journey with a low solo supplement a midship balcony cabin. Explora Journey is the new luxury offer from MSC cruises. They had in addition a temporary offer for Diamond members from MSC which was an OBC of US 500 per cabin and a two category upgrade. I think this offer is still on but I am not sure. I was able to benefit from that offer. Maybe some of you, solo travelers, would like to have a try with this company. It is capacity control and not in all itineraries but it might be interesting for some of you. Ivi

We are having good opinions on single fares on this thread but unfortunately they get lost because the thread created is on a different topic. Would it be possible if we post also those comments on the “single fare” thread created by Observer? Ivi

Check the new Explora Journeys. They have good solo deals in apparently beautiful cabins. We do not know how Explora will be but it might be worth it to give it a try. Now, one thing that we have to remember is that Cruise Lines do not offer solo deals in all voyages. I am Ok with that. The Crystal we knew had lower solo supplements for all its voyages I believe. The new company is showing clearly that they will no follow the same policy. No return of the old Crystal… Ivi

The profitability is not against of a solo friendly policy. The message we are getting from Crystal is that they do not want solo cruisers unless those take less desirable cabins or pay for two people. Ivi

Vince thank you. Are you sure you are not diplomatic from profession? I guess you are right about the money sitting somewhere and I have followed your advice a long time ago and filed a claim. Ivi

How do you know? I am still wondering where my money of my solo full paid cruises which never happened went…who paid Crystals bills? Apparently no one otherwise it would have not gone bankrupt 😁 Ivi

I have never heard of anyone booking a “guarantee restricted ocean view”. I do not think that is possible. Usually when you book guarantee it is either guarantee inside, guarantee ocean view or guarantee balcony. “Guarantee” means that you will get a cabin in at least the category you booked. If location is not important, you could get a good deal. Ivi