lisiamc

It’s a sort of moveable feast. The loyalty programmes split as of 1st Feb, but some things will remain in flux, like the IT system. Some things have already split.

I agree, and I hope you do get to Pompeii and Herculaneum on another visit. And then you’ll need a third day to see the Archaeological Museum in Naples, where all the treasures from Pompeii are kept. We finally got to the museum last year after umpteen visits to the area, and it was definitely worth it. And of course, while you’re in Naples, you should also make sure to try the coffee and the pizza, both of which are considered (certainly by Neapolitans) to be the best in Italy!

As Hank says, there are no porters at the railway station. You are responsible to get yourself and your luggage to the ship, by taxi, on foot or by connecting with the shuttle. At the pier, however, there are porters in the sense that when you walk up to the terminal, someone will take your bags and start them on their way to your cabin, leaving you free to check in or go back out of the port into the town. In fact if check in has opened, you will probably be able to do both. Depending on which pier your ship is docked at, it could be a short walk back to town, or a much longer one and you might want to ride one of the shuttle buses.

I could be wrong, but I remember the Celebrity M class ships being billed as Panamax. So the newer ships must be larger? If you have ambitions to see the new locks, that could be a good thing. If you wanted to see the older, historic locks, then I think you might be out of luck. I’d stick with Azamara!

I’ve been wondering the same thing. I’ve received an offer to bid on the following cruise (25 Mar 2023), but not the 4 Mar 2023 one. According to the website, there are a few cabins available in every category except Spa suites. If they upgrade someone to, let’s say, an Owner’s suite, that creates vacancies further down.

No, I’m not completely sure, but what I have heard/read is that Royal Caribbean took on atmospheric levels of debt to weather Covid. Selling off Azamara was, or at least became, part of their survival strategy. Sycamore bought Azamara at a bargain basement price, which I think has turned out to be a good move, for them, and certainly for us as cruisers. At least one of Sycamore’s businesses (a winery) probably did quite well during the pandemic. (I know we bought quite a bit of wine while we were in lock-down!) They have a proportionally small investment that they would like to either keep or sell off as a going concern. They stayed on course with the purchase and refurbishment of Onward, and there is talk of wanting at least one new-build ship. I think I have reason to be optimistic about Azamara getting out from under the heavy yoke of RCCL.

Our view of the food on Azamara in 2022 has been just the opposite, we found the food has been even better on the 5 cruises (2 different Azamara ships) we took last year than in previous years. And for the most part, service has been excellent. Different strokes, I guess?

Sometimes, but mostly I’m lazy/cheap and I want the ship to pick up the nice new wines, and save me the hassle of carrying bottles back to the ship. I’m in favour of sometimes bringing back what I’d term as a good balcony wine - lovely for sitting and sipping one afternoon, but not worth the effort of bringing back more than a bottle or two, and not worth paying corkage. We have occasionally been ashore and run into the sommeliers visiting the same wineries that we are visiting. That’s always a nice feeling.

I like the idea of picking up extra wines in suitable ports and having something new to try rather than always having exactly what’s on the Ultimate Package list, month after month, no matter how good they are. I’ve really enjoyed some of the post-Covid substitutions, and hope to drink a few of them again.

The number of days pre-cruise seems very random. Maybe they release them in groups? A week’s worth of check-ins at once?

We have taken more than 20 Celebrity cruises, the first one in 1999, and last one in 2019. Over that period of time, Celebrity moved so far out of our desired cruise experience that we will never go back. The last couple of years of Celebrity cruises were in Aqua class cabins, with dinners in the very civilised Blu restaurant. We started cruising with Azamara in 2007, and over the years did more and more there, and fewer with Celebrity. I think Discoveries is a very close second to Blu, and knocks spots off the Celebrity MDRs. Prime C and Aqualina are streets ahead of the very average Tuscan Grille, IMHO. We always loved the Martini Bar on Millennium and Solstice class ships. The Edge class experience looks somewhat different, although we never tried it, so it could be better or worse. The Atlas Bar on Onward fills that Martini Bar gap for me, although in a quieter, clubbier way. It is what Michael’s Club should have been, but never quite got there before the change to The Retreat. Entertainment on Celebrity is better, if you like bigger production shows with more singers and dancers. They don’t have anything that compares to the Azamazing Evenings, though, or even the Destination Celebrations, or White Night. We haven’t been on Quest for a few years. I’ve heard a couple of reports that she could do with some extra maintenance. Pursuit is looking pretty spiffy now. Onward had a steep curve to get where she is now, and she is looking very good. I expect Journey will be as well next month. For us, Azamara offers many of the things we used to like about Celebrity (minus most of the things we didn’t like) with the plus points unique to small ships.

Yes! I was able to do so as well.

I saw some Don Julio on Onward in December. The shape of the bottle caught my eye.

We ended up with a litre of Gordon’s but that was fine since we like Gordon’s better than Bombay Sapphire.

Yes, that’s what we had on Onward. We were able to trade the three small bottles for one larger bottle of something we liked much better.

That’s not too bad in my view. We’ve certainly had worse. The Starlink speeds on Onward were much better, and I hope they can roll that out to all four ships soon.

We are doing 2 cruises B2B, 4th March and 25th March. I’ve had an invitation to bid for an upgrade on the 25th March cruise, but nothing for the 4th March cruise so far. I also haven’t been able to check in for the 4th March cruise yet, although the page says check-in is open from 18th January. My travel agent says online check-in should be open from 30 days before sailing date, and I should be patient!

Starlink is present on Onward, (or at least was in December and January) may be in the future for the other ships?

Now for some Schweppes sugar-free to go with it!

Another reason not to book anything for the last night is the amazing Indian Buffet, very often held on the last night. I would hate to miss that!

I would do it myself if I were particular about time and day. If you have a suite, you should be on board a bit before other cabins, and you can use that chance to secure the times, days and restaurants you would like.

On our three Onward cruises in November and December, we had several spontaneous chats with various officers, including the Hotel Director, the Captain, the Staff Captain, the Loyalty Ambassador, etc. Not because of any complaint or issue that we had, but just because they were making themselves available for conversation. It was a plus point in our opinion.

The “replacement” library on the port side of Onward is very pleasant. It’s a quiet place to read on a sea day, but with a better view from the windows than the Drawing Room had. There are lots of books, although the travel guides are now in The Den, near the Shore Excursion desk. Full disclosure: I am an unabashed fan of the Atlas Bar. It’s my favourite place to be on Onward. But: I am also a fan of any library, including the one on the port side of the Living Room.

It’s fortunate that those who feel that Celebrity is a better fit have choices available to them.

On the Christmas Onward cruise, there was quite a large sign outside of Discoveries about shorts, flip flops,torn jeans etc. It astonishes me how people can still manage to be unaware that they’re not dressed properly.