Janet&Carl

There is three levels of choice when pricing your cruise ranging from very cheap to very expensive depending on what you choose. Ranging from lowest to highest...... first choose the cabin - inside, ocean view, balcony or suite. next choose the level of service, Bella, Fantastica, Aurea, Yacht Club - each come with their own inclusions - the more you pay the more included. Only Yacht Club includes drinks as a standard inclusion. Then check on any specials/ deals - for slightly more cost you may be able to choose a package that includes drinks/ wifi/ gratuities etc.... as an add on at any of the cabin or service levels.

I would check in the excursions for your cruise - I know there is one on ours

I have received an email from Azamara which has confused me and would appreciate any advice from recent Azamara boarding procedures. Can anyone tell me if current testing is required? The problem I have is I am going from one cruise to another with a very short time frame inbetween and having disembarked in Savona I am boarding Azamara in Rome. I thought that Azamara and stopped requiring a negative covid test on boarding. I received an email this morning which states that testing is required as follows ;

For me the issue is flexibility which you dont get with set dining times as opposed to any time dining. Why should I have to book in advance - (lets say at least 10 nights in advance on a 12 night cruise) when I dont' know what time I will want to eat - I'm on holiday - I want to be flexible. I might be ashore having a late lunch and then not be ready to eat at a booked time of 6.30 - or I might book for 8.30 and have missed lunch and will be hungry and want to eat earlier. Its about flexibility and being able to use the facilities I have paid for at a time convenient to me.

I have just checked in and have a couple of questions - the boarding information states " Your arrival time is an appointment to complete the required wellness screening prior to boarding. At the Terminal We’re doing everything we can to ensure our ships sail with healthy guests and crew by implementing wellness checks for all guests." What is a wellness check ? do I need any documents for this ? and Do you still have to book into the specialty restaurants for a specific time if you are in a suite ? Our cruise is not fully booked to date there is approximately 150 rooms occupied - will this make the availability for dining different as we prefer "any time" dining when we are in port and I was surprised to read that there were set time sittings

Thats also what we found - I could have booked my cruise cheaper the following month. $500 cheaper. I booked when there was $1000 OBC which I can spend anywhere and the following month the cruise was $500 cheaper but the OBC was also $500 less and could only be spent on excursions. I am happy with the deal I got and kept it - although now I am trying to spend loads of OBC with very few excursions that we want to go on. 🙂 swings and roundabouts, smoke and mirrors - they basically turn out the same. Just book when there is a deal you are happy about.

I have been watching Azamara sales for a while - we too are new to the company and have booked our first cruise - I tried to get friends to join us but the same deal was not available however a new deal was. The next month the same deal was available again. It appears to me that each month is a different deal and if you wait long enough a better deal will come up. The price of the cabins appear to remain the same but the additional benefits like OBC, Wifi and upgrade deals change every month. If there is plenty of time before your intended travel I would be inclined to wait and see.

And "for comparison" sake - what was the difference in price - say a 7 day NCL owners suite with a 7 day Royal Suite in YC - I'm sure there is a difference ~!! For comparison I did a dummy booking for 1 week Caribbean cruise in October next year - NCL $20,533 YC $14,208 You are going to pay over $6k a week more on NCL

let me know what currency the price is and I will make sure I bring it 😉

sounds like our kind of thing - much prefer this to sitting on a big tour bus with a group of french people with a french guide and shoppers who don't stick to the timetable - last costa cruise we hardly had any english speaking guides and lots of people who couldnt tell the time which resulted in us waiting for them after stops and missing half the itinerary

We are also looking at DIY so let me know what you are up to and we will see if we can join you.

Lucky for you you dont have long haul to get to them 🙂 we would cruise much more if we didnt have to fly (usually) more than 30 hours to get there and back. The flying takes some getting over. Living on a island at the bottom of Australia can be a drawback sometimes.

We like MSC have had 10 cruises with them - their suite experience far surpasses Costa. We get to try both in the next 6 months as well as an Azamara cruise, so we'll see which one we stick with. Like @BVILady we primarily book for the itinerary but the price has to be right too as we have to book airfares from Australia which are lengthy and expensive.

unfortunately, I got the same result. I will ring them again and let them know that I still cant book but others can. If all else fails maybe I can book onboard.

No not at all - I get this when I click on the "Activate the package" button

Have you tried to book it ? - I get a message that it is unavailable - would be interested to know if it can be booked. I just tried again with no luck.

The restaurants will have a more extensive wine list that is separate from the bar list that is posted above. There will be different inclusions for each level of drink package. There is also a Wine Bar onboard most Costa ships and a Sommelier to help with choices. All wines in the wine bar will not be in the lower level drink package but some will be included in the premium package. I hope this helps 🙂

The difference is in the color of the dot at the start of the list - if there is only a brown dot it is only included in the premium package.

I rang them in June as I was unable to book - and was told that these excursions are not offered on cruises between 8 and 12 nights long.. Are you looking at the cruise that starts on November 7 ? We are on that cruise and I am still not able to book this package.

I think their new rules regarding the loyalty status has also had an impact. I know it did with us. Although we have kept our next cruise which under the previous conditions would have seen us sail with Perla Oro. It is now impossible for most to achieve any level of loyalty status with them - if you book an inside you have to constantly travel more than a world cruise continuously to maintain status. We have returned back to MSC at least their status and benefits are achievable.

On our port visit to Salalah we caught the local bus right from where the ship docked and went into town - we paid $1 USD each for the ticket and it took us right into town - we had a lovely day - shopping, visiting the mosque etc... doing touristy stuff. I bought some lovely clothing for my grandies. Its not somewhere that is on my list to visit again - its not hugely interesting but I never felt unsafe. I cobbled together this info I hope it helps......... Re: New bus service in Salalah 27 Jun. 2019, 9:31 am Save we did our trip to Salalah and used the new bus service. It was excellent. we were told as we got off the ship that there was no bus by a taxi guy. we could actually see the bus at the bus stop as he said it. We didn't have any problems, the services seems to run pretty much to time table, we did get to the stops 5 mins early just to be sure, one bus was early, one was a bit late. it was clean and the driver was nice. would recommend it to everyone.

Not yet - It is a relatively quiet cruise with only 139 cabins booked. We are trying out Azamara as trial for a World cruise so will possibly stay in the balcony as I wont be able to afford a suite for the big one 🙂 however, if we do bid I will let you know.

Mine shows up too - but it is an Azamara promotion OBC not from a travel agent. They have had many promotions recently where they have been offering either $500 plus a discount or $1000 OBC. I booked during a $1000 OBC promotion and it appears as yours does in the top right hand corner. I am able to use this OBC to purchase shore excursions before I sail and for anything else such as specialty dining, drink packages etc... There have also been promotions offering OBC for shore excursions specifically. I believe this OBC needs to be used onboard only.

We received and upgrade email for our November 19th 11 night cruise on the Pursuit. We are currently booked in a Veranda and were offered the following minimum bids - the prices are Australian dollars upgrade to Veranda Plus $150 pp upgrade to CC $610 upgrade to Spa Suite $3210 upgrade to Ocean Suite $3830 upgrade to World Suite $4290 This will be our first Azamara cruise so have no loyalty level.

Hello, tried to find a luggage storage near Seattle Pier 91 port terminal without any luck. Can anyone tell me how early I can drop my bags off - then taxi to the nearest shopping centre for some much needed retail therapy before all those sea days .