Lynda S

I think I found the best one yet - went looking this morning to see what the ship's tours are like for a Spain Intensive cruise on the Quest in Nov. The first tour listed for Gibraltar is 1 3/4 hr tour and the cost is $1099.67 CDN - it is entitled Accessible Rock of Gibraltar and it does not state that it is a private tour. I am concluding this is a mistake. 😀

This is very disturbing - we are going from Gran Canaria to Capetown this November and our Yellow Fever Cards are from 2006. Our doctor does not recommend that we get another shot (we are over 70). Did Azamara actually not let someone on board when you went on this cruise? I will get my travel agent to call Azamara in the meantime.

For sure what you are saying about pre-covid prices for some independent tour operators is correct - they have definitely gone up - way up! We will be in Barcelona pre-Quest in November and thought it would be nice to get a private guide on the day before we board. We have always done this and it works out well. I took a look on my usual go-to site 'Tours By Locals' and the prices I saw astounded me! I was seeing $1100-$1400 USD for a full day tour - and that was commonly for only 3 people! Hop on Hop Off Bus here we come....

Oh wow, that is so cool! It was indeed a wonderful trip - those 8 days at sea were heaven to me!

This is really 'old' information, but it is probably a fairly helpful bit of information as we seem to be in the same circumstances now. In 2001 we booked a two week cruise from Mombasa through to Athens for March 2003. Stops included Djibouti, Jordan, Egypt, Israel and then Athens. I even remember the price - it was $5679.00 USD each for an inside cabin including air fare done by the cruise line. A really good deal I thought. We pre-booked an additional 5 day safari from Nairobi to the Massai Mara with the cruise line. The cruise line was Orient Lines (anyone remember them? The ship was the Crown Odyssey, the sister ship was the Marco Polo). The first to get chopped, almost right after we booked was Israel; trouble started up there in November 2001. We were good with that though, said we would go someday in the future instead. We spent the year planning and researching all ports and was very excited about the whole trip. In Dec 2002 we got the bigger 'ouch'. They were cutting out Mombasa due to the attack on the El Al plane in Nov 2002 from a beach resort there, so this cut out the safari which was my biggest reason for booking this trip. I cried, but convinced myself that was OK, we would go someday on a safari. (and we sure have many times since then). They would let us know where we were starting from at a later date. Before they even got around to that though, the Iraq War was becoming a reality. Our agent called us in Jan 2003, right after the New Year. The whole cruise changed entirely as the insurance company for the ship (at the time it was Lloyds of London I heard) said NO GO to the ship through the Suez. So our lovely dream safari, and dream vacation of the Middle East became something not even remotely like the original. This happened to most of the cruise lines going through the canal, not just ours. They would fly us to Delhi India for a 5 day land tour of Delhi and Agra, then fly us to Mumbai to catch the ship. We would stop in Goa (India), the Maldives, the Seychelles, Mauritius, Reunion Island, 3 ports in South Africa with 3 nights overnight in Capetown, then Namibia, Cape Verde, Madeira, Tenerife, Lisbon, Cadiz, Barcelona, Nice and then disembark with 2 days in Rome. And certainly not in 2 weeks - I had to grovel to the boss and get 6 weeks for that little vacation, luckily both the employers of myself & my husband said yes. The war did start, the war was declared the day we arrived in India. But the best part? Not one additional penny was owed - they gave us that entire trip for $5679.00 USD each. It was an awesome adventure!

Thanks for the info, I am happy to read this! I have found the fine print for all of the different OBC's we received and every single one of them says it is in USD, so I am sure it will all work out. It's frustrating though that 2 customer service reps both said 'no, it's in CDN' to our agent.

Thank you everyone, this gives us food for thought 😀 - i think we wil pre buy one meal as it’s only a 4 night cruise.

Sorry I read so much the other day about cancelled cruises that it all became a blur - i think it was the Oct 2024 Journey ancient Civilizations Cruise through the Suez that I read (on the roll calls) was cancelled.

Do you have to buy an ultimate dining package to eat in the specialty restaurants, or can you purchase one night’s dining for a special occasion? If so, what is the cost for Chops? Or is it a la carte prices?

Yes, they offered us three choices - 1. switch to a different, but a specific cruise for $1000.00 OBC (we were in a suite, balcony or lower category was $500 OBC) at either our original price pro-rated to the new # of days, or if that cruise was priced lower, then the lower price. 2. switch to any other cruise at the going rate for whichever cruise we chose for $500.00 OBC (or $250 for balcony or lower category) 3. refund in full which would also include a refund (to a maximum ceiling) of flights, hotels & transfers These were very generous offers. We were not under final payment yet as it was a Nov 2024 cruise and we had not done our air yet, we were doing that in Jan. I think you should phone - somewhere I thought I read that the next Dubai to Athens cruise in the spring on the Journey was cancelled. Burt I have read so much today on both here and on Facebook I can't find it now.

I just logged in and went into 'Upcoming Cruises' in my Profile as opposed to going in thru my reservation number in Manage My Booking and came up with a little bit of hope. The OBC in Manage My booking is showing with the correct amounts - but makes NO reference to what currency it is at all. Under the 'Upcoming Cruises' in my Profile, the cancelled cruise is still showing, and it says very clearly USD for the OBC. But it is definitely for the wrong amount so it looks like what the TA found out was right. On the two cancelled cruises we had a total of $2100.00 offered to us and it shows $1600.00 USD only. $2100.00 CDN would be about $1600.00 USD. 😒 The newly booked cruise we switched to is also there, but it says "OBC - not available." .

Thanks! I was going under my reservation number in Manage My Booking, and it shows no currency at all - but I will try under my log-in in general.

The TA has offered to give us the difference from her commission, which I thought was an Amazing offer, after all, it isn’t her fault. Good idea -I will try to email Azamara because it really does not seem fair at all!

My TA just called me. She spoke with Azamara again and they said, the OBC is in Canadian dollars :-). So that means the $400.00 for each leg for booking a back to back is only $290.00 CDN each leg. And the $1000 OBC that was offered with the cruise? That's $740.00 USD to those of us who live north of the border, not the $1000.00 USD that those south of the border would get. I am SO disappointed! Our travel agent has offered to make up the difference, which is really nice, but I am disappointed in Azamara.

Thanks uktog! I will set my agent to asking them again as that really does not seem fair that we lose out just because we do not live in the US.