hubofhockey

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.

Wait, what? You mean two people can be on the same cruise, similar cabins, spend similarly, and have totally different opinions of their vacations? I’m shocked. 😄 Seriously, frame of reference is so important. My preference for types of cruise ships has totally changed as I have gotten older and my tastes in itineraries has changed.

Thanks, I know very little about about the Panama Canal and what I would see from the Celebrity Beyond and what I would see from the Journey. This is great info. We’re doing the Millennium for Japan and really like those M class ships. Oceania has a Panama Canal itinerary that ends in Peru. I just don’t understand their pricing and a bit nervous about Peru, at the moment. The Journey ends in Panama, an easy flight home to South Florida.

I am considering both lines for the Panama Canal. We loved our Southeast Asia cruise on the Quest in October of 2019. We bid and got an upgrade to the low level suite and loved absolutely everything about the cruise. As to dining, we loved Prime C, but thought Aqualine was meh. The Indonesian Rijstafal dinner was pretty bad too. Maybe caught a bad night. Thinking about booking a regular verandah cabin with a dining package. Agree on service on Azamara. On a typical itinerary, I just assume book Celebrity as there is more to do and like Aqua class, but thinking right now that Panama Canal on a large Celebrity ship (they aren’t even using M class) would fall far short of Oceania or Azamara. Tough choice on this one between the two.

You have the choice of the Spa items on the menu, but the ones not designated as Spa, well, all bets are off. I kind of wish they would offer keto / low carb choices. I can always find some, but knowing what dishes are would help.

I should have said wholesale clubs to better identify them. I don’t believe Cruise Critic allows for the mentioning of sellers of cruises. The smaller one has $25 specials on memberships. I believe the larger one is in the 60s for regular membership and 120s for executive membership. With executive membership at the biggest wholesale club and using its Citi Visa Card, you get 5% savings on the purchase and around 8% on the store credit (gift card). It’s 13% you won’t get from Celebrity. If people like the convenience of booking direct with the cruise lines, I get it, but that’s a very expensive convenience.

Wholesale Clubs. There are two in particular. One sells Kirkland products.

The big box store will get Celebrity to honor the price adjustments. The one I booked already had a $400 increase for our cabin, so not a big deal, but if it drops, I really don't expect them not to get me the price drop. I will have to ask and track it, but I always did that with TAs. I trust the box store to stay in business a lot more than I trust any online TA. I feel as if I get the same peace of mind that I would get by booking with cruise line. My gift card (store credit) is $735 on an $8,625 or 8.5%.

Yikes, all of those prices are pretty high. What are they charging for specialty dining package of 5 nights?

I think ours was that much for 11 nights and the difference was about $2,000 at the AI rates. If it weren't M Class and Japan, I'd have booked a regular verandah cabin. I figured out of 11 nights, one night we will eat in Kyoto and specialties for 2, leaving 8 in the MDR and just didn't like that split. Also, with three days at sea ("cruising"), we'd use the Persian Garden and eat breakfast at Blu. Right now, thinking of booking Panama Canal with either Oceania or on the Beyond. That would be no Aqua. Tough decision.

My view is that on M Class, where there isn't a big choice of specialty dining, then Aqua (Blu) makes so much sense. Blu is great. The food a decent step up from the MDR and the service is several steps up from the MDR. I would book it for S or E class if the pricing was $30 per day per person as well.

If you book directly with any cruise line, you are leaving real money on the table. Even the big box stores will get you 8% value in a gift card and then add on member savings if you have executive membership (worth it just for your cruise).

M Class doesn’t really have a lot of specialty dining so the difference between Blu and MDR means more. Doesn’t the additional price also include drinks, wifi, and gratuities? If the veranda doesn’t include that, then it’s much less than $2k.

You're correct. A $10K cruise (I usually spend 10 or less) would get 50K points. At 1.3X value, it is $650. Even at a penny, it's $500. With Costco Citi, I would get 5% with Executive Membership (3% for credit card and 2% of executive membership) or $750. I would still use my Costco Citi and book with them though. They also give store credit in a similar amount. AMEX Platinum does provide gratuities on Oceania if you book with them, so not bad.

It's a penny a point to me. If you want to stretch it to 1.3 cents, I'm okay with that. You can transfer points to JetBlue at 1.3 and they would give you $195 credit for the $15K spend. If I used my Costco Citi card, I would get 3% cash back or $450, so why would I use my Amex on this Oceania offer?

If you take a $15,000 cruise with Oceania, that's like getting $150 back. It's not terrible, but also not motivating. The Celebrity offer seemed much better, but not targeted to everyone.

What type of card do you have? Maybe it's either targeted or not marketed to Platinum. The only cruise offer I see is 5X points for Oceania. I've been meaning to try them, but 5X points certainly doesn't motivate me to do that. If I were booking an Oceania cruise, I'd use my Amex, but I'd probably use it anyway.

I have the platinum card and didn’t get the offer. Some say it’s one of those targeted offers, not made to everyone.

I’d rent a car and drive. A taxi would cost more than two flights. We live in Bonita, halfway in between Tampa and Fort Lauderdale and are lucky that we can drive to either side in a couple of hours.

I’d book Aqua on an M Class ship, because of Blu and like the Persian Garden. On other classes, I’d just assume pay for specialty restaurants since there are more.