hubofhockey

Wanted to add that the ports of call boards have a great area for the Panama Canal cruises. I realize the Celebrity M Class ships don't have the wow factor of the newer class ships or even the Solstice class, but they really are one of my favorite classes of ships on any cruise line. Because they are smaller, they can do better itineraries and dock at better locations. Also, Celebrity always updates these ships to conform to the newer classes. In comparison, Princess has some smaller ships and doesn't update them. If you're looking for a typical Caribbean cruise, don't book M class, but for something like the Panama Canal, Japan, other Asian regions, or even unique Med ports, M Class hits the sweet spot. We would have done Panama Canal with X but timing didn't work and found a great deal on Azamara, but I would never do it on the Beyond.

My guess is that this ship is too big to do the inside locks. I would do Panama Canal on an M Class ship or use another cruise line. When I saw it was this new large ship, I decided to book on Azamara, which had a pretty good deal on December 2024 itineraries.

Didn’t realize this, but no foreign transaction fees for the card either.

I sucked it up and paid the $175 to get the three authorized users in my family for the Platinum benefits. Not sure of the value, but I also get AMEX to give me a retention incentive to offset that ridiculous $695 per year. I'm using the $20 per month in streaming, the Saks $100 (meh), $200 airlines benefits, TSA Global for 4, and the occasional Uber. I use the Blue preferred for supermarket shopping and Costco for restaurants, gas, and most other things. I love lounge access, but wondering how much is that worth, especially now that I use RSW (Ft Myers) as much as BOS (Logan). The Azamara $300, in my case, is probably worth $150, what I would have gotten if I had used Costco Citi Visa. American Express has always been good to me. Customer service is great and I feel like they always have my backs and I can't say that about the banks.

That’s usually the goal of PE firms, especially the good ones. I don’t think anyone suggested they would run Azamara into the ground. However, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that they aren’t in this for the long haul. The decision to do larger and more standardized tours might have little to do with their overall intentions. So many Azamara passengers are seasoned travelers and the demand and percentage of sold excursions per passenger may be much less than other cruise lines. It may just not be a focus for current management. The options will remain in place for those who still want the excursions, but maybe the experiences will be a little different.

My cynicism is solely related to the fact that Sycamore is a PE firm and how PE firms and their investors act. Good for them that they got Azamara, it’s business model and loyal customer base at a bargain basement price. Hopefully, they turn it around and grow it, rather than squeezing out the last dollars out of older ships. It will be interesting to see.

A PE firm driving up profit margins? Ha! That's what they do, and they'll keep doing it until the value of the investment goes up enough and then they sell. The only question I have about these guys is whether they are going to expand the fleet and do new builds to compete with Oceania before they sell to one of the cruise lines or another PE firm.

Host Jazzbeau’s point here is very incisive. The AMEX Platinum cruise benefit can be great, but it also might not be as good as the Costco Citi Card. If you are an executive costco member and book with them, always consider their gift card, 3X cash back and the 2% rewards. It adds up. The AMEX $300, alone may not offset that without an agency refundable OBC, The higher the cruise fare, the less value that $300 has. You need to book at least a V3 to get the 300. 10 days on the Journey through Panama Canal just worked perfectly for us. For Japan on X, used the Costco Citi and much better results. Flights will be a different story.

The cruise I used it on was $5700 for a 10-day cruise, so the Platinum card use 300 on 5700 made a lot of sense. I have the Costco Cit Visa. It just made no sense here.

The bottle of wine, when they give you the essentials/premium drink package, is a bit ironic. I love the Platinum card and they usually give me a nice retention benefit to maintain the card because I spend enough. The $300 Azamara and $300 Amex will be spent on Chefs Table +2 package and spa/gym. We’d do those anyway. My favorite other perk of the card is $20 a month credit against Disney+/ESPN+/Hulu package. Oh, have a great time on your first AZ cruise.

We have only been on one Azamara cruise and it lived up to everything its loyal followers write on Cruise Critic. The service is outstanding. The atmosphere is relaxed and the food is pretty good. I would book all of your specialty restaurants as soon as you board, per advice of the regulars on the CC Azamara forums. Last advice - Relax and Enjoy!

While I find it weird that someone is hesitant to take their first cruise on Azamara because of a lack of perks, I don't walk in their shoes. If you really can't get excited about an Azamara cruise and have a negative attitude going in, it's probably not worth your time booking with Azamara and living with that angst. We have future cruises booked on X and Azamara. It would be great if both would count for loyalty points for both, but it is what it is. We'll have a great time on both and not worry earning points.

I saw something online that indicates that you are correct and that it's an AMEX promotion they do with cruise lines, so non-refundable. Right now, both the essentials package $300 (free with current promotion) and the AMEX are showing up as onboard credit for a total of $600. I am going to see if it lets me use it for Chefs Table + 4 dining packages.

Thank you very much for clarifying. I doubt we'll be walking away with much cash from our $1,075 OBC. Between specialty dining, spa/gym, extra device for WIFI, we'll be well into the refundable amount provided by the TA. If we walk away with $200, I'll be surprised. We have only been on one Azamara cruise (15 days in SE Asia), but you're right about that crew. They deserve extra tips. They really are so much of the difference between a cruise on a larger line and Azamara.

I just booked a cruise with my Platinum card, which provides a $300 Onboard credit. If you have received the AMEX credit, do you know if it's refundable? Azamara is already providing $300 nonrefundable OBC and agency is providing $475 in OBC, which thankfully, is refundable. Quite honestly, all of the OBC is a reason we didn't book a suite because figuring the $300 will go to specialty restaurants. I am pretty sure the AMEX credit is not refundable, so that's $600 we need to spend.

One of the online internet agencies I am looking at is charging a booking fee of $19.95. I suppose they get burned on doing all of the work, only to see customers cancel. I would only book with this one because if offer the AMEX Platinum. He told me that he believed my entire deposit is nonrefundable at all times, so I am probably better off booking with someone else.

I would highly recommend Victor Cheung or Hong Kong, and you can email him at victorcheung10@hotmail.com . He’s young and one of the best guides we used 3 years ago. I know he may have been looking to move to the US, but it’s worth a shot emailing him. One of the best guides we had.

I wasn’t a fan of Aqualina and wouldn’t go back there. Prime C is very good and the Chef’s Table is outstanding.

Thank you so much for that information. Perfect.

I am thinking of booking an Azamara cruise that goes from Miami to Fuerte Amador, Panama. I am assuming that this is a partial transit, but that we could easily do an excursion once in Panama that would do the locks on the other side. Is this correct? If not, maybe three is enough and we'd do something else in Panama before flying home to Florida.

Thanks, both lines are great for us, so probably just booking Azamara for the itinerary.

Is there any advantage to going on the smaller ships like Azamara or Oceania vs the M Class on Celebrity? I do see that Celebrity will be sending the Beyond in 2024 and that’s probably a non-starter for us. Thanks. Looking right now at Azamara Journey 10-day from Miami to Panama City and it does the three old locks. It includes ABC islands and an overnight in Cartagena, Columbia.

Good to see the old X cruises count. Understandable the new ones don’t. I suppose that will hurt a lot in getting to next levels as we will still go on both lines.

We had a great Azamara itinerary canceled about 4 years ago. They split it up into two smaller itineraries and charged 50% more to do both. Offers to us? NONE. It was over a year away. Left a bad taste in my mouth. We took our deposit back and booked a similar itinerary to the canceled cruise on Celebrity. The “old” Azamara could be very frustrating.

You’re really comparing two totally different types of products here. Time and a place for each and we’re happy on either, depending on the type of cruise we’re looking for.