ECCruise

Just like this. This is Deck 8 on the hump but Deck 6 is same configuration.

30+ Celebrity, about a dozen RCCL. For us, it is all about the itinerary and the length of the sailing. A 7 day Celebrity in the Caribbean at holiday time is going to be lots more active and in-your-face than a 14 day in Europe in the shoulder seasons, especially on Vision or Radiance Class. As for food, Celebrity marginally better. Entertainment goes strongly to Royal. Service pretty much a wash. FWIW, we no longer sail the Caribbean or on any sailings less than 10-12 days so that would determine much of our choice there.

We had exactly this situation in Lisbon and although we weren't actually disembarking early (only taking our luggage to an apartment in Alfama) they required us to notify Guest Services of our intentions, and even after doing that stopped us at the gangway with our luggage and had to get notification from GS before they would let us go. Let Azamara know in advance and while you are on the ship.

None of these places want to ban tourism, which is what some imply with "without the tourist" as if it is wall to wall or nothing. None of these cities wants NO tourism. What they want, as do cities worldwide including my poor inundated city (90,000 population and 13 million annual tourists) is to keep the amount of tourism reasonable. Like most things, in the middle lies the truth. The places that want to restrict tourism (save Venice, perhaps) are real, living cities with real living inhabitants. They do not exist solely for tourism as do most beach towns, ski towns, Kissimmee and like places.

That is precisely the focus. Which is why they are working hard to discourage weekend bachelor and hen trips from the UK, rowdiness in the Red Light district, etc. They, along with many other cities, are trying to get their arms around the rampant overtourism that is ruining their cities. At some point, the often negligent net value of the tourism is far outweighed by the local's desire to live something even remotely resembling a normal life.

They kind of implemented that in 2019, when they began charging a per capita tax on cruise visitors on one day stays but exempting embarkation/disembarkation calls from the tax It caused at least a couple of cruise lines to jettison Amsterdam and move their one day calls to Rotterdam, where there is no tax. And yes, one day port calls add very little or nothing to a city's character or coffers, while turnaround calls add a good bit (save those who fly in day of and out day of).

Living in the epicenter of horrible overtourism in the USA, I sympathize with Amsterdam's (and Barcelona's, and Venice's, and Dubrovnik's and.....) pain. In the final analysis, excessive tourism almost always detracts far more from a city than it adds to it. Amsterdam doesn't want to END tourism, it wants to get it's arms around it. These changes, and others being considered, were triggered when tourism reached 18 million per year. The final determinations and their effects may not be fully known and implemented (as @cruiseaholic78 said) until some time in the future.

This is almost exactly what we did this May. Private tour for just the two of us. Our own driver and our own guide, both with us both days. Stayed at the Steigenberger in an upgraded room with a huge balcony overlooking the Nile. All entrance fees included. Lunch both days included. After seeing what they could do for us, and the price, never considered the ship's group tour, even with a bunch of OBC. The advantage of controlling our own time, rather than being controlled by the pace of others, sealed the deal for us.

Yes, have experience with this twice in the last year. First time we were able to upgrade at a reasonable cost. Caveat: The ship sailed with only 184 pax, so obviously a factor. Second time the offer was in the stratosphere and we refused (ship was at about 85% occupancy). As far as we could see by walking by, the cabin we offered to upgrade on stayed empty for the entire 24 nights.

Don't expect anything extensive on the drydock. It occurs April 1-15, 2024 when we disembark in Lisbon. 2 week dry docks are rarely anything more extensive than hull cleaning and painting, examination and maintenance of propulsion and mechanical systems, and occasionally, some general freshening of soft goods. To some degree it will depend on how much of that freshening they are able to accomplish during our crossing from Rio to Lisbon.

Yes, ours too, although it is dependent on cruise length.

It is $400 for each sailing. The Experience More OBC referenced here (the current early booking promotion) can only be used for shore excursions. Other OBC promotions can be different.

We are on Pursuit for 37 days in November and December so fingers crossed that they offer it on at least one of those sailings.

The Rijsttafel (Rice Table) is offered intermittently and we are always surprised to see it. I think it has been offered but 2 or 3 times in 15 or so Azamara sailings. It usually is served at a very long table near the Windows starboard entry. Maybe 12-16 guests as I recall. Lots of Indonesian food, like 8 courses. It would be mentioned in the Insider and fills up quickly. We are hoping for it on one (or more) of our upcoming Azamara sailings.

Quest goes into dry dock on April 1, 2024 when we disembark in Lisbon. It is a short, maintenance dry dock since it sails again 2 weeks later. Other than required maintenance (marine growth removal and inspections) and probably painting the hull and maybe some dry good replacements like carpeting, it is likely that not a lot else will be done. Except I would not be the least surprised if the Drawing Room is jettisoned in favor of the Atlas Bar.

I think that is the issue for us over here. None of the Viking sailings we've priced have included air. Deals on air, yes, but on your dime.

Hoppa. Used it many times without a problem. Designed to do exactly what you want to do.

Have been to Europe at least once (and often two or more times) a year every year (save COVID) for the last 20 years. How crowded? Never seen it this crowded before. Virtually everywhere. Advice? Pack an extra suitcase and fill it with patience. If you do that, you will likely smooth your way.

Wonky is exactly what we thought. For example, our $300 Experience More Shore excursion credit for a B2B cruise, a total of $600 shows, on the invoice: $150 Name #1 Name#2 Name#1 Name#2 Meaning each guest gets $150 x 2 names x 2 sailings which equal $600. But not listed that way at all. Same thing with the B2B credit ($200 x 2 names x 2 sailings which equal $800)

Although sailing on a ship with this kind of pax load <50%, as we have, is heavenly, I am reading too many reports of less than full (or considerably less than full) Azamara sailings. Even with their pricing, those are not sustainable numbers.

Perhaps that was the problem, yes. We were in Asia, Middle East and Europe and almost everywhere was very good. Occasionally spotty service but that happens here in the states, also.

How long ago was that? We've used T-mobile in about 15 countries so far this year and the download speeds probably averaged around 2-3 MPS, fast enough for most streaming. Even after we went through the 5 Gigs each that are included monthly and it ramped down to around 256mb it was slow, admittedly, but quite usable for email, web browsing (non-video), etc.

My thoughts on the situation: We are booked on the Dublin-Reykjavik-Montreal B2B sailing. We will be on Azamara in November, also. We are Discoverer+ as you are. Although these sailings are pricey, I expect them to rise in price between now and November. No guarantee of that but a real possibility due to their popularity. That may mean losing the 7% D+ discount. We will wait until November to see how it shakes out, since we have several other sailings that may be advantageous to reprice/rebook. As far as a TA dealing with Azamara now, our agent literally raved about the new system when booking our sailings on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Another post on here today related how their agent felt that the new Azamara system will be the benchmark for the entire industry. Dealing with a TA would be the least of my concerns. Good to hear that you are very healthy, so best wishes for staying that way.

That's good, as long as they continue to honor that. My fear is that the IT algorithm might automatically cancel a reservation that was not at zero balance (with a final payment) by the due date.

If you delay, the response you get may very well be a cancellation of your reservation, unfortunately.