ECCruise

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.

I do understand your pain, honestly. I don't get why the combining of the 2 bookings into 1 caused all these problems. When they combined our B2B, the single booking inherited the first bookings Reservation#, but all of Azamara's OBC from both was added to the single booking, including both B2B OBCs. It is hard to read on the invoice now, since it shows a single amount, but with my name twice. I also don't understand why your TA would not honor the total of the 2 OBCs simply because of a single #. The invoice from my TA shows the breakout of OBC for each of the legs so the total is as we originally agreed. And I do agree about pushing the final payment up to the date of leg #1 isn't right.

I assume you are in the States or Canada. On the website the contact # shows as: North American Region Reservations, Information, & Customer Service : 1-855-680-3233

I guess the many posts that have related actual experiences of dealing with issues prior to sailing that are handled onboard somehow get lost in the interwebs. Over and over I hear anger and frustration even though virtually everyone who has these issues gets them handled onboard (automatically as it was with one of our sailings, no time needed) or with a couple minute stop at GR to confirm. This is what we found onboard: Our loyalty level record: Up to date and accurate Our loyalty benefits: All delivered with zero problems Azamara OBC: No problems whatsoever (although none showed prior to sailing) TA OBC: The one trip (5 minutes or less in 40 days of sailing) trip to GR and handled 2 days later. IMHO, ALL of the problems originated, and continue to originate, from the conversion from RCCL to Azamara. We booked 3 sailings this week (which would be totally on the new system) and everything showed accurately in our account (Loyalty, early booking bonuses--e.g. Experience More package specifics, etc.) literally in a matter of minutes. Our TA said the experience (and this is someone who had a number of problems in the past) and booked it right through her Travel Agent account at Azamara and "was a breeze!" Honestly, we listened to those who were sailing just before saying "don't worry about it" and never spent another second looking at (or agonizing over) anything on the new website.

Yes, have booked 3 under this promotion and all show "Essential Package." Which means the OBC only for shore excursions applies.

Solely for shore excursions, which is why they designate it as such.

Never seen that on any of our 4 crossings with Azamara either.

Probably won't be that difficult. Delta and Finnair fly to Reykjavik through Boston. Icelandair flies there through Seattle and Boston. United through Chicago.