lisiamc

I hope this is the case! We are on Journey now too, and while the internet has been mostly present, it has been pretty feeble. Having experienced StarLink on Onward, I will be thrilled to have it on Journey.

We arrived in Cape Town with our friends as a group of six with two different check-in times. No asked to see what those times were. We were all given the same number, and boarded together.

We are currently on Journey, and have one of the new, heavier, non-clingy shower curtains. I’ve taken a close-up of the texture, if anyone would like to know. And if the curtain really annoys you, you can always just pull it completely back and pretend it’s a wet room.

We boarded Journey in Cape Town on 4 March. Boarding began a little bit before 2pm. Our cabins were available upon boarding, and we could have lunch right away. For the first time since May 2022 (our first post-shutdown Azamara cruise) we had a full-ship muster drill at 5pm. I really liked the small-group drills we had prior to this, and will miss them.

Whispering Angel always calls me! 😁

Some speakers are better than others. There is one we’ve had a few times who is very personable, but his presentations are… not the best. He tends to use materials from the local Chamber of Commerce or Tourist Board, or photos he took 40 years ago. We went to one presentation where he showed a photo of a statue of some minor dignitary that only locals would ever have heard of, and added “but the statue’s no longer there”.

Fortunately pinotage doesn’t taste like soap the way cilantro/coriander does to me!

I’m not sure the input for Which? was weighed for those with more than one experience with Azamara, or whether those who answered the survey had actual Azamara cruise history. The sample size seems unreliably small, and may be skewed for various reasons.

We love transatlantics and have done several. Some have been as smooth as a millpond, and a couple of times the seas have been pretty lumpy. On our most recent one, the same one as @DS, there was a day or two of rough-ish seas as the Captain changed our course and we went through the edge of the stormy weather. At the same time, we were getting reports of what a rough trip Journey was having, just trying to get out of the Mediterranean! It really is the luck of the draw. We are both lucky enough to not be affected by rough seas, but if you are prone to seasickness, bring your medication of choice. From what I hear, they do offer tablets at the Reception desk, and apparently the doctor has a magic jab he/she can give you, but if you have your own, you can stay ahead of any queasiness.

Very well, apparently. Wè were chatting to a fellow passenger who was doing some work from the In Touch computers because the screens were larger than his tablet. He was really happy with the speed he was getting. I think I’ve read that they’re still running an antique version of Windows, though. Starlink won’t help with that, sadly, if that’s the case.

I totally agree with you! Some of the independent excursions in some ports are 8-9 hours, to a place 2 hours away by coach. I always suspect that there is something charming to see or fun to do much nearer the port. (With a few exceptions, of course. Some of the ports are near enough to bucket list attractions to be tempting.) About 5 hours into a tour, I can feel the will to live draining away through the soles of my shoes, (especially if part of the tour is a guided visit to a museum 😄) and I’m ready to head back to the ship.

I did take my absolutely standard tape measure, shown in the photo above. 😁 The bed (measured once in a Club Continent suite, and once in a balcony cabin,) was exactly as measured, 172cm.

@ghstudio, I’m sorry you’re disappointed about missing the deadline. In fairness, Azamara have a lot on their plate with changeover of the IT system, and I sure a lot of things are going to be harder to see and to use until the changeover is complete. As @uktogpoints out, the loyalty benefits are certainly not make-or-break. They’re better than no benefits, but not up there with some other cruise lines (although better IMO than Viking’s loyalty benefits, and I speak as someone who likes Viking a lot.) Thankfully, the state of the website and IT areas does not speak for the overall product. I’d much rather the IT side was iffy and the at-sea experience was excellent than the other way round.

The bar is in the location that is The Drawing Room on the other three ships. All of the drinks offered are part of the Ultimate package, or can be paid for one by one for those not wanting that package. There is a drinks menu that is now offered in The Den on other ships. The drinks don’t speak to me or DH, (we’re happy with G&T or Champagne) although others like them, but it’s the ambience we like. Due to the size of The Drawing Room, it’s a small, intimate venue. edited to add: they also offer food early in the evening (tapas type offerings) which are charged for, and we’ve never tried. The tapas in The Living Room are free, and fine, IMHO.

So pleased to know that my efforts were not wasted! 🤣🤣

Civitavecchia is definitely not Rome, and if you have a few days pre-cruise, stay in Rome and see all the famous sites. However, if you have done your sightseeing and want to stay at the port the day before you sail, Civitavecchia has things to recommend it, including nice food and wine. There are a few good hotels and some nice B&Bs. Our personal favourite B&B is La Casa Sul Mare. We have stayed there a few times, and can recommend it. It’s clean, comfortable and friendly.

A few years ago, when the very kind and helpful Bonnie MacLaird was Azamara’s Social Media Officer, she posted some advice from Azamara about submitting quite a lot of information (Full name, date of birth, country of residence, complete street address, home phone, mobile phone, and loyalty number,) as well as email address. Although it seemed somewhat intrusive, since I really don’t want paper or phone marketing efforts, I supplied it anyway. Did it make any difference? Absolutely none. On the bright side, I never received any marketing flyers or phone calls, either.

Sometimes I get emails from Azamara, more often I don’t. My travel agent doesn’t normally get them either. I’m hoping the change to the new IT system, when it comes, will improve this. In the meantime, I’m grateful for this board!

Definitely horses for courses! This is exactly the sort of itinerary I love. I’d prefer to visit Ascension too, but if it’s cancelled, it’s cancelled.

In some places it has been really good, recently! It depends on the ship and the area.

The guide was actually very good, and except for the very real feeling of dicing with death on the bus, we enjoyed the excursion!

I think the cruise lines try very hard to allow most hair-styling appliances. A blanket ban would not be well-received, I fear!

Veering slightly off-topic, but since we’re speaking of Royal Caribbean, we had our very worst experience with a Royal Caribbean shore excursion some years ago (2016?) in Grenada. The bus was full to bursting, and the only seat left for us was on the engine block, on a loose piece of plywood, with our feet stuck straight out in front of us. Of course there was no seatbelt, as this was not actually a seat. The engine block was also quite hot, and the plywood did not fully insulate our sizzling bums. If the driver had braked suddenly, DH and I would have gone straight through the windscreen. Our choice was to accept this “seat” or decline the excursion by our own choice, which meant that no refund would be possible, according the person coordinating the excursions at the port. We went, but only under protest. Once back on the ship, we had meetings with several people from the excursion desk, who tried to tell us that the clause in the excursion description page, along the lines of “we make every effort to provide the best local transport available, but it may not be up to the standard provided in other areas.” meant that the seats offered were acceptable. It took a meeting with the Hotel Director to get the point across that these seats were not acceptable in any way, and receive an apology and a refund. The refund was nice, but we really wanted RCCL to be aware of the risk to passenger lives! This was the low point of any ship’s excursion we’ve ever taken, and a strange side effect is that it would take quite a lot before we felt another excursion was worth complaining about!

There are US style-plugs with 110v by the desk in your cabin. Your new appliance should work just fine.

The drinks on the Atlas menu don’t appeal to us, but you can also get other drinks. We normally get Hendricks and sugar-free tonic, or a glass of Champagne, not very adventurous but still delicious! I find the rum selection lacking in all the bars on Azamara. I really like a shot of Diplomatico with one ice cube as a dessert, but I haven’t been able to persuade the powers that be to stock it yet. With the political situation in Venezuela dragging downhill, I may never achieve that goal.