lisiamc

We did this cruise in March from the opposite direction, and had a great time. We didn’t get any bites, but we did use repellent in some places. You might consult your GP about anti-malarials too. We had some, and did take them, but stopped when we were a few days out of the malaria areas with no bites. You may also need a Yellow Fever vaccination certificate to go ashore in some countries. If you’ve ever had that jab, it’s good for life.

I doubt it, but I bet it was popular among young cruisers who might have asked for some of those classic cocktails.

Yes it does!

We were just in several Norway ports with Viking last month. There was no hint that alcohol might be limited, and indeed, it was not limited. We had their add-on drinks package, and had no trouble getting our money’s worth! 😊

I have heard about NCL ships not serving alcohol in some ports. I think it’s a rule that’s exclusive to them, and I am not sure why they do that. Maybe a tax thing? I have never sailed with NCL, and I haven’t encountered that strange rule with any other cruise line.

I’ve been doing Duolingo for years, but Busuu is a great companion to it. I love learning at least some of “the rules” and Busuu is better at telling me (gently) WHY I need to say something a certain way. They also slip in a few more idiomatic phrases, which are quite handy.

Probably that depends on whether they will make me a nice drink! And what would a robot like as a tip? Maybe a shiny new bolt? 😁

I’M barely aware of drinks popular in the 1950’s and I’m 66, so not exactly a spring chicken. I certainly wasn’t drinking in the 1950’s, but some of those are classics, and had a revival when Madmen was on the air.

I agree. Not our experience in any of our Azamara cruises, pre- or post-Covid. I’m a picky foodie snob, and while not every dish I ordered was a perfect fit, I found plenty to enjoy.

The phone numbers are on the Contact Us page. I used the UK number since that’s where I am right now, and it’s a local call instead of a toll call as the US would be from here. The UK office opens at 10am, British Summer Time, and the US office opens at 8am, Central Daylight Savings Time. I think all calls are routed through the Kansas call centre as that is where the customer service agent that I spoke to was located.

I know that I can be a bit of a cheerleader for Azamara, but today I have a good reason to be. My travel agent has been helping me change two currently booked cruises into a b2b2b for different dates and itineraries. We had got as far as getting booking numbers for the three new cruises, but I needed to pay an adjusted deposit amount. My TA got an urgent call out of town, and we are going to be travelling all day tomorrow for a different holiday, so action was needed quickly to keep these new bookings. I have always booked through a TA, and let them do all the heavy lifting. And under the RCCL umbrella, customer service was not allowed to do anything to a booking made by a TA if the customer made contact. It had to be the TA. Since my TA has his hands full at the moment, I thought I would see what I could do, and I made my first ever phone call to Azamara. I called when the office first opened, and was on hold for about 5 minutes. A very helpful customer service agent helped me pay the extra money, and carefully double-checked all the booking numbers, the deposit amounts, the date the deposits were due (tomorrow), updated the bookings, and gave me transaction reference numbers. She was knowledgeable and very pleasant to deal with. It didn’t matter that the booking was made by a TA, and it didn’t matter that I was contacting them directly instead of the TA, she was still able to help me. I think I may have hit the magic day when the new system is starting to work the way it should. It was a very positive experience. I will still continue to book through a TA, because I’m a great believer in not having to to the legwork myself, but I was very impressed today.

I’m sure it won’t be. We’ve been on two cruises since March (when that transatlatic sailed) and there were shuttles everywhere they were needed. Part of the problems with berths and shuttles could be that Azamara doesn’t call very often in some of those ports, especially Cape Verde. When there are other ships in port that day, that call more frequently, they are likely to get a better allocation of any scarce resources. There have been a few conversations lately about Viking Ocean sailing in Alaska. They are the new kids on the block, and are not getting some of the plum allocations yet. It’s not that they don’t want them, or don’t try to get them, but there are only so many ships that can be handled well in a given place on a given day.

Thank you for seeing (and talking about) both sides. I’m really glad that your cruise is off to a good start!

That explains a lot, really. Especially the persistence of the unloved Royal Club mixers.

Yes! How could I forget to mention my favourite dinner venue.

Shorts are ok in the Windows buffet, and for breakfast and lunch in Discoveries. For dinner in Discoveries, Prime C or Aqualina, men will need long trousers.

My favourite rosé, on board or ashore!

If I were going to hire a car, I think I might go to Ostia Antica, rather than Orvieto. It’s possible to do it on the way from the airport to Civitavecchia, or even to stay near there and then make your way to the port the next day, A few years ago, we stayed at a very quirky B&B, part of the Rodrigo de Vivar resorts, very close to Ostia Antica. It was well worth the effort, IMO.

I’m an outlier. I know a lot of people make the effort to stay up and go to bed at the normal time for the new time zone. But when I fly west to east, as in from the USA to Europe, I will have a shower and go to bed as soon as I can get to a shower and a bed. I will normally sleep for three or four hours and wake up ready for the rest of the day, and seem to be in the right time zone from then on.

I think Covid is going to be with us for the foreseeable, and everyone’s acceptable risk threshold is different. I will keep getting every jab offered, and keep taking my chances on cruises.

If you go to any of the places with monkeys, don’t take any food with you. They are very endearing from a distance, but they’ve had too much contact with humans who feed them, even when advised not to. Up close, the little so-and-sos will mug you, eat your food, steal your sunglasses, your hat or your handbag, and scratch you with their dirty little fingernails. They can and occasionally do bite also, with their surprisingly large and pointy teeth.

We did an itinerary from Cape Town to Lisbon in March 2023, our 19th Azamara cruise, and had a great time. If your friends were complaining that there is no casino, no kids club, no two-tier, ship-within-a-ship for suite passengers, and no cohort of 2,449 other passengers, you might not be happy on Azamara. But if you’re looking for a lovely small ship that can dock in places where the big ships can’t, with fellow passengers who are fun to sail with, unusual itineraries, very good food, and friendly, helpful crew members who will do everything they can to ensure that you have a great time, you are very likely to enjoy your cruise.

ApplePay and GooglePay are also widely accepted, which is very handy. Even better if you tie it to a card that doesn’t charge foreign currency fees.

Azamara does supply umbrellas, but they are big ones. If you’re doing any walking around in cities with narrow pavements, it can be awkward. We take our tiny fold-up umbrellas, and it’s so much easier, even with the few extra ounces they add to the suitcase.

We had a Viking transfer to Bergen airport last week, and it could not have been any smoother or easier. There were plenty of porters to get the suitcases out of the terminal and onto the bus, and even more porters laid on specifically for the Viking transfers, waiting for us at the airport with a row of trolleys. One loaded our suitcases on a trolley and wheeled it inside for us. There was someone waiting inside to point out the right place to get the luggage tags (ours were from a print-it-yourself machine) and to help us print out the tags and attach them. We even had a dedicated channel through security! It was a masterpiece of helpfulness and organisation. As one of our cruise friends said, “If you want something done right, get the Norwegians to do it!”