john1970

Well this will be a good test to see how the new owners manage a project. I hope it all goes smoothly but I will be taking a copy of my cruise history and keeping it safe!

I can't see how you would be considered to be in transit. A transit visa is usually for air travel when you connect to a another country without leaving airside and not crossing the border. Have you emailed visa central who Azamara have a deal with in the UK? azamaracruises@visacentral.co.uk

I don't know when your cruise is but hopefully the ship will either be able to get a group marine visa/dispensation or the Indian and UK government patch it up and again start the e visa access.

I have already booked for 2024 with a competitor. If they can get it together I'm not sure why Azamara is unique apart from the age of the ships and the environmental regulations. Still selling Black Sea cruises for next year is a joke.

I would book in advance as they do sell out. You book on the website. It will offer you different ticket types and you can pay extra for a seat assignment. They will just email you the details once paid for.

We booked a club class mini suite which I think are sold out now. I agreed to leave the upgrade option but now am worried you could get an 'upgrade' to a non balcony window suite. Is that something that could happen as I definitely want a balcony.

National Express are reliable and have a very comprehensive network. You can also get a train from Waterloo in just over an hour. It might be more convenient if you are staying around that area. Of course at the moment we have lots of train strikes and if you have a lot of luggage it isn't that easy.

I just booked the April 3rd Solar Eclipse on Discovery. I was amazed at how busy it is already. I booked an M1 mini suite. I hope we get to see it as it's a trek from London to LA!

They seem very slow releasing the bulk of 2024. It seems silly to allow the competition to snap up the cruisers that like to book early and already have 2023 planned. 

If you want to stay at the airport the Miami International Airport Hotel is in Terminal 1. It offers day rooms and hourly rates but not sure it will be any good if you want a pool. Alternatively, find a couple of hotels that you like near the airport with the facilities you want and then email them. Hotels do not often load day rooms on their websites and the specialist websites in my experience don't have a vast choice. 

I think that a lot of UK passengers will pay a premium to avoid flying even if it's only one way.

I know travel is in turmoil at the moment but this is just not acceptable service. What sort of company is unable or unwilling to allow customers to pay their bills. I am hacked off on your behalf. 

There was an app but it was very limited and I seem to remember it only worked for Pursuit. I guess now they are working on the IT systems for the fleet they may try again. I wouldn't expect anything soon to be honest. 

2 hours ago, Rustyman said:

We fly to Rome from Edinburgh via Schiphol, Amsterdam as that was a “free” light through Celebrity, in less than 2 weeks. I note that the airport is a mess just now, all passengers transiting through Schiphol have been told that today they can’t travel with hold luggage due to problems at the airport, so cabin carry on only. Furthermore they have said to ensure you have a long time between transfers due to problems at the airport, Celebrity have given us just over an hour! So looks like hand lagged only may be required and we’ll miss our Rome flight anyway!

Anyone else facing similar concerns? Booking a direct flight is very expensive just now so not an option. I can see us spending a day or 2 to get to Rome vis Schiphol and arriving at the cruise having lost our hold cases, oh the relaxation of a holiday in the summer of 2022 😎.

If you are spending some time in Rome before the cruise you might consider sending a case to the hotel using one of the luggage transfer companies.

We did it by uber when we had luggage and it was surprisingly cheap and fast. We went from the Ibis styles to Monaco and it was 62EUR. This was in 2019 and non rush hour. No doubt prices have gone up. 

We have had a mixed bag of tours with Azamara. Some have been great and really made a difference to our port of call. Some really poor value and a waste of valuable time. What I have noticed is that once they started to give lots of OBC the prices shot up. 

I would call them and not book on the website. I use a trusted travel agent but I know that is a personal choice. It may be that the upgrade is only on certain staterooms. On your voyage you may get an outside for the same price as an inside but not a balcony for the price of an outside. It's hard to judge when a sale is a sale when you know they will come out with another offer next week.

I think only Azamara will be able to answer. I am guessing it would be wise to get something in writing from them. They have so much out of date/factually incorrect/unclear information on their website it's hard to know what to believe. Maybe try loyalty@azamara.com I tried facebook to ask a question in March and am still waiting for a reply so I think that route is a waste of time. I love them at sea but the back office is not the same standard.

 I guess all the lines are modelling what the consequences are of easing the restrictions. Could it encourage more people to cruise and give them more revenue? Could it give them a small group of very sick people onboard that they have to look after? I think they will work on the data whilst watching closely what happens with Viking. My guess is that now one of the lines has moved they will all start to slowly adapt. I just hope that they also think of the crew and their welfare. 

We were booked on the Black Sea cruise at the end of June. They took a fair time to come up with a new itinerary that really didn't look to me that exciting. They did make sure it started and ended in the original port but they wanted to keep the original pricing which was far higher as commanded by the Black Sea. They offered no incentive to stay with the changed itinerary. We decided we wanted to cancel. We had only paid a deposit. They tried to tell our agent that we needed to take a FCC. I then reminded the agent that this was a major change as per the UK package travel regulations and I was entitled to a full refund. Azamara confirmed a full refund of my deposit and we cancelled. call me a cynic but once we got into full payment window the prices dramatically decreased which I didn't think was very nice for people willing to take the new cruise. Now I only book with flexible air or air miles tickets as it is too uncertain. I held off cancelling my air ticket with BA and they then cancelled the flight so got a full refund without their £35 penalty. I am now going to Devon for the week as I cannot face the airport experience at the moment. We will consider Azamara again but probably last minute as most of the pricing seems inflated unless it is a very unique cruise. 

I just checked the FCO website and it says this for Slovenia. 

There is no longer a requirement to complete a Passenger Locator Form before entering Slovenia.

I think having an ATOL protected package isn't really relevant in these circumstance. Package holidays in the UK have protection from things like major changes and insolvency. As far as I know they would never help with covering illness/covid which is where travel insurance or the cruise with confidence scheme would kick in. If you want to take advantage of the cruise with confidence policy then Azamara should point out where in the FAQ or terms it says that air isn't refunded. I am assuming that somewhere it says that only flexible air is refunded and non refundable air is down to the airline. In that case it would be the cruise cost in FCC and a separate claim to travel insurance for the air. What makes it more complicated is that the cruise lines don't sometimes follow local rules and advice. I hope you get it all sorted out in the end.

As someone in the UK with lots of chance to visit Europe I would like to see more Panama Canal and USA and Australia.

If it helps. I am in the UK with a cruise booked from Sydney in February next year. When I look at the website I can upgrade classic alcohol 18+ promo to premium alcohol 18+ for GBP8.64 a day which I am guessing is around USD12. I also have another box which says upgrade to premium beverage package for GBP12.10 a day. Makes no sense to me!

I wonder if Bologna will become the airport of choice as it's much nearer to Ravenna. Bologna is also a beautiful place to visit with amazing food. 

We cruised in April and had a free test before boarding. When I did online check in it said we would be emailed to register for the test. No emails were ever sent and it just another case of out of date information on the site.