coldweathergirl

I was due a refund from MSC not long ago and it only took me four phone calls and seven weeks to get my money. During that time our Canadian dollar gained a fair bit so I lost extra due to the exchange rate from usd and the delay.

It's working well for me on my iPad with safari.

Thanks for the replies about my adjoining stateroom. My daughter will be celebrating her 27th birthday on board and traveling with her boyfriend. We thought it would be fun to travel together and when the TA said the adjoining room received suite benefits with the exception of the go best we decided to jump on it.

Now I'm definitely thinking I better confirm all of this in writing otherwise I'll be rethinking this cruise. Don't plan on shelling out a fortune for an edge suite to pay extra for them to dine in Luminae but I also don't plan on dining in the MDR if I've paid for a suite.

I agree and I just don't understand why they don't improve this, or invest in this area.

 

I've posted previously that I would be happy to pay a surcharge on each booking that goes to investing in a better website! ;) (like airlines added a fuel surcharge when gas prices went up lol).

 

Imagine: $1/day/person surcharge.

Equinox - 2850 passengers x 365 cruising days/year = over $1,000,000 in 1 year - wouldn't that be enough to improve the site!? Thats just one ship.

(I realize not all ships are full all the time, so my numbers are really meaningless... just making a point that they should have the resources to pay to fix this darn site!) [emoji12]

I'm sure the cruise line has web maintenance built into their fare. The problem with the airlines now that they added the fuel surcharge, as soon as the price of fuel went down they kept the additional fee but changed the wording to just surcharge.

I would call Celebrity or your TA and inquire. We have booked a suite on the Edge and our daughter is in the adjoining inside room. Our TA has confirmed that she will have suite privileges of luminae, the retreat lounge and sun deck.

It is essentially becoming a two bedroom suite.

There is a work around, but only for cruises in 2017. You book excursions ahead, then when on board cancel and get a refund, then rebook using your OBC. Bonnie has said that Azamara will soon have a system in place to use OBC to pre book excursions, but no-one seems quite sure when it will start other than’soon’.

 

 

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Unfortunately with the fluctuation of our Canadian dollar, this is one option I don't want to do as it often comes at a significant cost for us. If you have a USD credit card this definitely sounds like a reasonable option.

I can feel you pain. I had a similar thing happen with Azamara. Price dropped by over half after final payment and they wouldn't let me upgrade. I think they're tightening up all their rules.

You could always try calling captains club and speaking with them.

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I am going on a Viking Cruise later this month for the first time and had a couple of small queries. I think the difference is that there is a local UK office as opposed to Azamara where you have to phone some godforsaken place in South America who rarely get anything right. On our last sailing in September I telephoned AZ to find out where we were docking in Bordeaux and was given the Lisbon docks address!!!

It's very sad how big businesses now outsource so much to overseas. I've currently been on the phone for over 30 minutes trying to sort out something with "Canada's department store" the Hudson's Bay Company which has their call centre in the Philippines. Recently I had problems with Bell Canada and was speaking with India and when my Scotiabank card gave me grief it was Columbia that I spoke with. Even our local mine has moved their warehouse purchasing to India.

When will businesses realize that outsourcing so much to overseas countries although they save some money on wages ultimately end up with very poor customer relations.

If you haven't made final payment why don't you cancel and rebook at the new price. My opinion is this isn't a credit card issue but a contractual issue over your booking.

There are self-service laundries onboard that are free.

 

Additionally, suite guests and those of Explorer loyalty level and above receive a free bag of send-out washing every 7 days.

 

With the reciprocal benefit system, as Elite Plus on Celebrity, you will be Discoverer Plus on Azamara so you’ll receive the one bag every 7 days for free.

 

 

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Just wondering, does the complimentary laundry come back pressed and on hangers or is it wash and fold like Celebrity.

Got to agree, book the Conrad on the Executive level and have Roger look after you. Great value for money (buy a few drinks in Singapore and see the cost), lovely staff and nice bedrooms. Our choice always.

Yes you literally don't have to leave the executive lounge to eat elsewhere if you don't want. Breakfast, afternoon tea, very substantial appetizers in the evening and food in between as well. No shortage of excellent alcoholic beverages either.

Service at the hotel is amazing as well.

We stayed in the Singapore Conrad. Stayed in a room with executive lounge access and it was fabulous. Short walk to places.

Looking forward to hearing more. So glad you had a fabulous trip.

We recently had to make the same decision about our Infinity cruise and we opted for AQ. Blu won out. We love the extended balcony but decided we love AQ more.

 

Here is my list of cons...a very odd list in my opinion!

*i have never experienced "last call" on a ship before... Not even on a river cruise! The blink the lights and everything - every night.

*casino closes even though still in international waters... I guess taking money from just a handful of people isn't profitable enough.

*drink service is slow... From coffee and juice in the morning, to pool side and at the grill. I guess when it is included there is no reason to expedite. The selection of what is included at the various levels is also incomprehensible and there were no local choices included, which seemed counter-intuitive to the immersion approach.

*while I was a first timer on this line, my status on another line translated to this line, which was nice. But the returning guest reception required us to return almost two hours early from the port. If you like the port, don't come back early for the reception. You aren't missing much. They even took away already poured drinks rather than give them out. Maybe they would rather dump them out, but I couldn't help but think they were recycling them.

*as someone already mentioned, you have to seek out port maps instead of providing them in room. Strange approach.

*the time on port seemed off. Ports where there were many things to do time was short. Where there wasn't much the departure was late. When I say there were things to do, most of what I refer to is activities we would plan on our own. The excursions were geared towards a much older crowd. No beach excursions, no volcano/hot spring excursion which were things we had found on our own but couldn't schedule due to departure times.

*no storage in the bathroom. Two women sharing a cabin doesn't work with this bathroom configuration.

 

Overall, a good experience, but not a luxury line.

I guess if those are the only complaints we'll have an amazing trip in January since we don't gamble, aren't nighthawks, can swing by a bar if we want a drink in our room, and can grab a cab to the beach if that's our plan or research the local area before arriving in port.

We've been invited to loyalty events on Celebrity that are also during time in port. Unfortunately sometimes there are so many events scheduled, especially if there are very few sea days they just have to schedule them when they can. The nice thing is you can either choose to attend or not.

I wonder if they dumped the drinks because they'd been sitting out for a period of time. I think they'd rather give someone a fresh cocktail or glass of wine rather than one that has been sitting and either diluted and warm from melted ice or just warm from sitting out.

Is this the article?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/betting-on-a-shore-thing-four-megaship-veterans-try-cruising-on-a-smaller-scale/2017/10/12/418546ac-a526-11e7-8cfe-d5b912fabc99_story.html?utm_term=.e9cb6e2a1584

Depending on where we are going, but if it is warm/hot weather my jeans stay at home. They are too hot to wear when it is warm/hot. If we are going to the Arctic, they keep me warmer.

 

I have no issue taking a dressier pair of slacks to wear to dinner. It just seems to be more respectful to those around me.

 

John

We'll be also taking dress pants but the jeans he wears are nice dark designer jeans that probably cost more than a lot of people's dress pants. No Old Navy or Gap for this guy.

When we go to very nice restaurants here in Canada, a lot of people are seen to wear dark jeans with a dress shirt.

No disrespect ever intended if he shows up in the dining room with jeans.

I was just confused because on the Canadian website under the FAQ for dining says they're not allowed so it's contrary to what has been said. Maybe it's just Canadians that aren't allowed to wear jeans lol. ;)

We've received $120 CAD off per stateroom per cruise for a balcony booking.

Phone and ask them for the B2B discount.

Glad I did a search on CC and found this thread because when I read the FAQ on the Canadian Azamara website it says no jeans. Ted likes to wear jeans now and again...good jeans; designer jeans. Not sure how smart they are but they're nice... maybe because they're Canadian :D. Based on what I had seen on the website I wouldn't have really packed any jeans.

Do men also wear sports coats in the specialty dining rooms as outlined below?

https://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/en-ca/discover/frequently-asked-questions

• What is the dress code?
  In all of our dining rooms we encourage guests to follow a “resort casual” dress code, following good taste and common sense. Bare feet, tank tops, baseball caps, bathing suits, shorts, and jeans are not allowed in the main dining room or two specialty restaurants. When dining at Windows Café guests must wear footwear and a cover-up or shirt.
  In Prime C, Aqualina, and Discoveries Restaurant, many guests enjoy dressing up. Formal evening wear (ball gowns and tuxedos) is not expected. We recommend that men bring a sport coat or suit; for women, dresses, skirts, blouses with pants and capris are all appropriate attire.
  

It was the pricing and itinerary that convinced us to make the switch to Seabourn. Plus, I just disliked the AZ policy of not giving those who booked in advance any type of consideration to upgrade. I do want to sail on Azamara in the future. However, it will be on a last minute cruise deal.

Your new cruise sounds fabulous. Friends have raved about Seabourn so I'm sure you'll have a great time. All the included wines and liquors are premium quality and they said the food and service was fabulous.

Since there's no destination I absolutely have to sail to anymore, but enjoy being on a ship for the pure pleasure of sailing I think I'm going to save myself a lot of aggravation and turn into a last minute booker once these cruises are over.

We were notified yesterday that our WestJet flight on Dec 15th was cancelled. Looking at other flights but cost is $2,000 more than what we paid. Did WestJet help you out in any way?

Consider flying to FLL then using JetBlue to SJU.

Walking through the isles looking for free samples.:evilsmile:

This made my day. 🍴

I've never seen a tour organizer leave within fifteen minutes of a scheduled tour if they still had clients to round up especially if barely any passengers had disembarked which would be the case if the arrival hadn't been announced.

The bad part of this thread is that if someone takes the post at face value, Celebrity and Costco both get a bad review.

Thanks Nashana and everyone else.

Looking at prices on Azamara's website they're in line with prices from when I booked with the exception that they now have guarantee categories which are substantially less. The fire sale is listed with a big online TA which I had booked with. I wouldn't have noticed the promotion but a friend is now considering coming with us and I was helping her with booking the cruise. She's now able to get a balcony for much less than we paid for the OV.

We usually sail in a balcony at minimum but with our poor CAD exchange we were ok with booking OV. We were comfortable with the price we paid but it's like anything you buy, you sometimes have buyers remorse when you later see the item on clearance.

Thanks everyone for letting me vent and putting up with me. It's over and done and nothing to do now but look forward to a couple of great cruises.

This is why, I am thinking of canceling and rebooking after final payment.

 

 

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I was tempted to cancel my bookings before final payment because sales were very slow but because there was some obc associated with the booking I decided our obc would offset any potential last minute discount. Never in my wildest dreams would I expect the price to drop by so much and be unable to move cabin categories.

I guess it was a tough lesson for me today. My TA said he tried his best but had no luck.

If I were you I would count vacant cabins just before final payment and then if there were a high percentage vacant cancel with the hopes that prices will fall. I suppose bookings are always a gamble when it comes to price.

I'm going to put this behind me now and take it as a lesson learned as I don't want it to potentially negatively impact my trip. It sounds like Azamara will be a wonderful experience and I'm still looking forward to our sailings in January.

Thanks everyone for listening.

Annwyl

As our Host says, you / your TA should reach out to our Customer Service department.

Thanks Bonnie. He did and received this reply:

"I called Azamara and they advised me that those promotions are for new

bookings only and you will have to cancel and assess the current 50% penalty

to get the new rate with the balconies. Also, the new rates do not come with

any onboard credits and are not combinable with the back to back onboard credits. "

I guess if the price difference was only a few hundred dollars it wouldn't bother me but when I subtract the B2B booking discount and obc from what I paid, the new price for a balcony is over $1,250.00 pp USD cheaper than what I paid for my obstructed OV. Even the suites are showing much less than what I paid for my OV. Lesson learned. I will probably wait until after final payment for Azamara unless it is a sailing I absolutely have to be on.

I guess I should be thankful enough that I'm fortunate to be sailing around Central America on the B2B instead of up here in the frigid north and not worry about the price drops. I'm still very much looking forward to sailing on Azamara.