Carnevale

Thanks so much for the great info and for responding to all the questions that came your way. We are much more excited about our Sapphire cruise after virtually following along with you on your sailings.

This is way too little. How many guests (like me) do not use Azamara’s FB site? Why hasn’t an email gone out to all guests? Why send us to a FAQ section that is woefully inadequate? Where, for example, is the FAQ for the question of why my account shows an amount owing when all is paid in full and I have some OBC left ? Where’s the record of my OBC? I could have missed it, but I have not seen any answers to these questions and they are important questions. Where is a timeline for when I can access full, correct information about my booking? When should I expect to be able to see and book excursions for my sailing? And, why is there no apology?

I agree entirely. I spent over 30 years helping organizations in North America and internationally develop and implement strategies to improve customer experiences and, in turn, their satisfaction and loyalty. Getting out in front quickly and honestly is critical or satisfaction and loyalty start to drop. This needs to be an apology that recognizes the negative impacts that have been experienced and clear statements to manage customer expectations about what will happen and when (not promises of dates that clearly could not be met). Further, when things can’t be resolved quickly (as is the case here with a significant, large migration), and when the impacts are particularly negative (as is the case for all booked guests but especially those with cruises in the next 4 months) two things become important. First, they need an effective Plan B and they need it now as posting incomplete and, even worse, wrong info should not be an option. At a minimum they need to remove the parts of their site that currently contain errors. Second, responding with public recovery efforts is now essential. This could be a small amount of OBC, a small % discount on a future cruise, etc. Recovery efforts are usually less about the amount of the offer and more about demonstrating that customers matter and have not been served the way the organization intends. I hope Azamara is monitoring this site to understand how negative the situation is.

Wonderful blog! Many thanks for sharing all this great info. If possible, can you please post a bar menu? I understand prices went up in February so I’m curious about the costs of different drinks now. Keep having a great cruise! I’m envious when I see those menus and your food pics!

I am beyond annoyed. We paid for our July cruise in full and all excursions booked so far have used OBC (with a little bit still available) yet when I go to Manage My Booking it says we owe over $1000. They should take the site down until it is populated with correct information as they are creating very high levels of customer dissatisfaction. I can’t imagine ever wanting to book with them again unless they do something dramatic to win back good feelings about their brand.

What does it mean? A quarantined cabin??

Many thanks LACrusier88 for the info on Vines. Not that many options considering so many things are sold out. I have trouble understanding how Princess can’t seem to get enough wine onboard since we had the same shortage problem this past October on Regal. It shouldn’t take too many cruises for the logistics people to get a feel for how much wine is needed!

Many thanks! It’s great to hear you have been dancing. We have enjoyed dancing in the Wheelhouse on other ships especially as the floor is wood (the piazza floor is harder on our legs). Sorry to hear about the lack of so many wines. That happened on our fall cruise too (which departed from Rome but had very little Italian wine onboard). I can’t understand how a ship departing Buenos Aires where there is so much good wine can run out of things. Maybe it’s time for Princess to move to more regional wine lists so it is easier to get more wine onboard.

What a fabulous blog! Many thanks for sharing all this information. Getting photos and the daily events is great. We just booked a Sapphire cruise from Buenos Aires to Santiago next February (2024) and found this info so helpful….makes thinking about being on board much more exciting. We have a few questions that we hope you can help us with: - if you can post any wine menus (by the glass) that would be great. We will have the premier pkg and are wondering what wines we can get. We are mainly interested in what Vines and the MDR have but seeing a recent menu from any location will be helpful. - have you noticed any ballroom style dancing in the piazza? We love to dance but the canned music in Fusion most nights might not work (on Regal in Oct few people went to the canned music dancing as it was boring but we enjoyed the occasional opportunity to dance in the piazza) - is there any dancing in the Wheelhouse? Many thanks in advance for any of the above you might be able to help us with!

Is starlink on all Azamara’s ships? We will be on Journey this summer sailing around Iceland and are wondering how good the connection will be. Thanks!

How strict are they regarding adherence to your scheduled boarding time? I ask as there can be a gap between hotel check out times and boarding making it preferable to be able to go from check out to boarding directly but that might be earlier than one’s scheduled time.

Thank you for the mocktail list. I was hoping for a few more options. I might ask them to make something out standard bar ingredients and see how it goes.

Are there any mocktails on the basic included drinks list? If so, does anyone have a copy of the list that they can share? Thx!

Does anyone have a sample mocktail menu for things included in the basic pkg? I know about the soft drinks but am hoping there might be some interesting alcohol free mixed drink options.

Many thanks for all of the recommendations! It was so helpful to have this input. We were amazed at how many hotel options there are in Reykjavik in what we think is the main downtown area. We ended up liking the options that the Center Hotels have (they have several properties in the main area). We have booked the Center Hotel Laugavegur and are looking forward to spending our pre-cruise time there. Thanks again!

Many thanks! This has given me some good leads and I am looking forward to digging into these options. From our own digging so far The Davenport seems to be a possibility as we have ruled out being in the Temple Bar area (we expect it might be too noisy for us as we are light sleepers). Thx again!

Many thanks Grandma Cruising and Mackdogmolly. It’s great to know that we can bring Aperol and Campari onboard! And we appreciate having our many questions answered!

It’s been a very long time since we cruised on Azamara so we are out of touch with how things work with regard to the included beverages. Are special coffees included? Ex. Cappuccinos, espresso, etc. Our favourite drinks are an Aperol or Campari spritz. Are they included? If not, does anyone know what they cost? I see that Azamara notes nightcaps as included. Does this mean port or cognac? If not, what nightcap drinks are included? What sparkling water is included? Our preference is San Pellegrino so if it isn’t included it would be nice to know the cost. Can we bring Aperol or Campari onboard to consume in our stateroom? When and where are the included wines available? Thanks in advance for helping us understand how all of this works!

Do all Azamara cruises have a white night? Is it mainly the ladies who dress in white or do a lot of men get into the theme too?

We need a hotel in Reykjavik for two nights before our cruise in July. If anyone has any recommendations I would really appreciate them.

If anyone has a hotel they like in Dublin I would love to hear from you. I am having trouble figuring out where to stay after a cruise that ends there.

Sorry for the confusion! I have looked at too many cruise offers but you are right….Journey is what we are considering.

Many thanks for all the replies! Sounds like we might have a few opportunities and that we should talk to the CD early on (even though that strategy didn’t work last time). Some mentioned an area called the Living Room. Does that space exist on Insignia or might there be a similar space with a different name?

Many thanks to all who contributed to this discussion. Seems that if we decide to book on O we will have to expect none to a few opportunities for ballroom dancing. We have cruised a lot on other lines and, as a result, have learned to go with the flow and dance to a broad range of music as long as the beat works ( e.g., we had a great set of Argentine Tangos on Princess when a violinist played in the atrium….not a traditional dance arrangement but it worked very well).

Thx. That was our experience but we were hoping it might have changed. I hadn’t heard of the new Crystal so will have to explore that as we really enjoyed great dance time on the old Crystal.