paremata2

Seems to me there are gradations in between that one might like to see. For example: Leave the outdoor part of Windows as part of the buffet and add an Asian restaurant in the evening where the pool grill is now.

You have my vote exactly as above.

However they will have to spice up the area where the pool grill is now, as it's pretty bland.

I am Darryl from NZ - Paremata, Wellington to be precise. In my opinion, the 6 March 2017 Auckland - Sydney cruise is the best itinerary ever put together for a cruise around our country. Kaikoura? To the best of my knowledge no cruise ship has ever tendered there. You will be blown away with the setting and will almost certainly be able to go whale watching very in expensively and see a number. As I said earlier, this is the best itinerary of our country ever, and Kaikoura is just one of the fantastic places to be visited, so you might even see us on the ship!

This Elephant Seal was seen resting on the grass verge between the sea and the road 15 km's south of Kaikoura as I drove past week. I was no more than two metres away when I took this photo.

I agree with the above posting 100%. If you want to change something, reduce the size of the bar and give us a little bit more room. I think most would agree. Darryl

Thank you Larry,

We love your ships and can't wait to see the upgrades but they won't have been done before our 25 Aug cruise so we will just have to wait.

Loosing the outside area of windows for breakfast or a late afternoon drink is a negative but gaining an Asian restaurant is a plus, as is gaining an outside poolside restaurant if I have read it carefully. Improvements to the other public areas, also sound interesting as are the upgrades to the staterooms.

One little or large piece of advice that I would like to give is; go out and buy another R Class ship, upgrade it to the same standard and offer us even more exotic locations to visit. I say that because my wife and I are now having trouble to find somewhere we haven't been with your current schedules during the period that we are able to travel.

We absolutely love Azamara and want to stay on board for ever, but one can't keep going around in circles.

Just do it, buy another R Class.

We used them too, for a shore excursion to Rome. Because we were on a back to back cruise where over 90 % of the passengers were either leaving or boarding the ship it took for ever to get others to join us as our Roll Call was of no use. However we ended up with a family of Mum and Dad and two kids from a different ship that was in port the same day. The driver coordinated the picking us up from the different ship perfectly gave us a great day in Rome. Everything went off without a hitch and we saw even more than was promised because of the drivers expertise in getting us around the Eternal City.

You are 100% correct. It is Bartin. Have you ever seen a smaller port? Then again, that's the wonderful thing with Azamara, they can go where most others can't.

We were scheduled to tender at Amasra but were redirected to Bartin. It worked out ok as we had a private tour to Safranbolu organised and Bartin was a little closer.

No not Sinop. You are very close. Remember, we were diverted there.

Hi Workingtocruise-59, no it's not Trabzon, but it is the port that we visited immediately prior to our visit to Trabzon.

Now that's a big clue!

Hi Gareth, no it's not Kas, but it is in Turkey.

It's time to help you out. Excitedofhapenden is close but it's not in the Aegean!

My mistake. "Earlier this year" does mean "within the last twelve months".

A good guess, but both answers are incorrect.

As a clue the mystery port is a very long way from Central America or Vietnam.

The picture is too small to identify anything even when clicking on it. I'll guess anyway: Port Hastings in Nova Scotia?

Hi Floridiana,

I am sorry that it's so small. Clicking on it makes it a little larger but not good enough. Adding to the problem, the photo was taken on a cloudy day not long before dusk, when we were about to depart.

I put it up using my iPhone. I wont do that again!

Sorry the answer is not, Port Hastings in Nova Scotia.

A little bit of trivia for the New Year.

Earlier this year whilst on the Quest we were diverted to this tiny port.

The photo was taken from the ship.

What is the name of the port and where is it?

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Azamara, I absolutely love what you deliver on-board.

Now that you have listened when we, your greatest selling tool, have asked you to.

I feel that I speak on behalf of many of us, when I say that most of us will now continue to "sell" the fantastic experience that you never fail to deliver.

Once again, thank you Larry, for listening and responding.

Also Bonnie and Host Andy and all the CC Members for saying it, the way you saw it.

Darryl

Thank you everyone for your responses regarding my question, "where can I find out what my latest tier level is?"

Xport I have sailed with Celebrity once, so I will check it out immediately.

Darryl

The difference is the "loyalty" reward is only for those who book again while onboard. If a "loyal" cruiser books other than onboard, they have essentially lost their benefits!

That's the way I read the "detail" too.

If we get back "today" what we had, I will be happy.

On a slightly different subject, can anyone tell me where I can find out what my latest tier level is. I know what it was when I was onboard the Quest earlier this month, but I would like to know if I have moved up to the next level or not, after completing another wonderful 12 days on my favourite ship.

This further erosion of the very small things which made Azamara special is disappointing and worrying. In dollar terms not so earth shattering but in convenience and customer retention very vital. Laundry made it possible to travel with cabin baggage for a 7 night cruise to circumvent strict airline rules and expense relative to travelling with suitcases in Europe especially. This will now no longer be possible so the added expense is significant as well as the inconvenience. Please also do not publish these new arrangements as a benefit. We are not stupid and it is a universal reaction that these changes are detrimental. You took away our lovely harpists before dinner and now take the laundry and internet. Slippery slope business tactics and it will impinge on future bookings. If you want to stop something stop the Azamazing evenings. I have never been convinced that gulping an early dinner or a late dinner in order to attend a mostly fairly ordinary event was worth the hassle (for passengers) or expense (for Azamara) Return the harpists, free bag of laundry and internet and all will be forgiven.

Exactly my thoughts too.

Well said, clear and concise.

Whilst I enjoyed the Azamazing evening in Batumi, on our recent 20 August Quest cruise, I would much rather have the free internet minutes and everything the way it was.

Darryl

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Yes, this was on the Quest and it was Nice to Rome end of April until May2 2014.

 

Did you want my cabin for Oct 2014 ;-))

No, but we are booked on the Quest for August, in a guarantee too, so who knows what we will be allocated!

Hopefully the problems will be rectified by then.

We have done four cruises on the Quest over the last four years and have never seen or had a problem other than our toilet blocking which was fixed promptly so here's hoping for August.

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portofinoitaly,

Can I take it that the experience you describe above is from a very recent cruise? Which ship was it, Journey or Quest? What cruise was it?

A 50% discount for the second guest is our preferred option.

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Thanks Everyone. I shall warn my husband about the size of the stateroom but other than that, they sound pretty similar.

 

Can you tell me about the Specialty restaurant on Azamara? Is it worth booking and is it hard to get a reservation. We are sailing over our anniversary but I'm not too concerned which day we try it. I believe there is a cost of $25 pp, is that right?

 

Much as we love Seabourn, I wante to try something different this year and the itinerary looked great. it's not Azamara's fault about the situation in Ukraine but I am hoping that they at least acknowledge that many passengers only booked for those 3 ports. We shall see because at present nothing has been announced so I'm still going to Sevastapol along with the Russian fleet!

Casperthecat, we are also waiting to see what Azamara's intentions are regarding the Ukrainian ports as they are a key part of the Black Sea cruise for us too.

In fact if they delete them we will be cancelling. The problem though, is that decision has to be made by mid May and the situation doesn't look like settling down by then.

My friends tell me that we are mad to be even still considering going there but I see it as part of the adventure!!

Do join the roll call ( assuming that we are both talking about the 20 August sailing) and we can have further discussion on the situation as we await Azamara's intentions.

Darryl

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Two years ago when tendered in Sorrento it seemed to only take about 10 mins for the tender to go back and forth.

Even better you should be able to meet your driver only a few metres from where the tender berths.