ECCruise

Numerous interactions with customer service in the last few months. Booking excursions and dining packages, questions on visas, etc Smooth and seamless, a total contrast of the nightmare dealing with Celebrity in the same time frame.

Keep checking, and ignore the "Excursions coming soon" tag that is on all sailings on the website. We have excursions available for our mid-2025 sailings.

That is basically all a dry dock of this length likely will accomplish. Maybe some refreshing of soft goods here and there and some technical upgrading (e.g., rewiring data cables) but likely nothing earth shattering. I would be surprised if they gutted the Drawing Room and installed the Atlas Bar in those kind of time frames, but ya never know.

Ditto, here!

Sounds like a typical Churrascaria. Salad bar (and I guess with sides) which is fairly typical. Waiters roving with spitted meats, generally some chicken, Brazilian sausage(s) such as Linguica and lots of beef, almost always Picanha and cuts from sirloin to filet. And generally some lamb. That's the way most Churrascarias do it, and the way it's been done in Moderno on NCL for probably 15 years. Which we have enjoyed, as well as quite a few land based Churrascaria. But doesn't sound like Princess is winning fans with their take on the concept. But generally little (or often, no) fish.

Can't answer the other questions, but can tell you that the walk from the terminal to Recoleta would be every bit of an hour. In questionable surroundings at the port. Taxis and Uber are cheap in Buenos Aires.

Have done quite a few northern crossings over the years (but usually including a number of ports on the crossing, e.g. Iceland and the Maritimes). Very different from southern crossings. No way possible to predict weather/seas. We've had fairly smooth but cool and very rough with cancelled ports. You are just past the peak of hurricane season, and in September/October some (or the remnants) make it northward.

I think it is brand new. The agent I was working with said something like "it is supposed to work now (charging OBC) so let's see" And voila, it worked.

No, you definitely can now use OBC for dining packages. Did it on Monday. Received a new invoice in minutes showing package charged against OBC.

I was going to mention Oceania, which we have always found to be more expensive than Azamara for excursions. But it is important to remember that all this discussion is about ONE port for ONE day that is over a year and a half away. And yes, that food tour is ridiculously priced, but it is a choice. If when the rest of the tours are rolled out (we are on the same itinerary in August, 2025) and if they ALL are that expensive, then it makes sense to highlight it. Otherwise, way too early. And, as I said, we have quite a few tours that we took this year on Azamara (4 sailings in completely different parts of the world) and quite a few more on 2 sailings next month, and none would I call horrendously expensive. And that's real life.

I assume you are being sarcastic here, but plenty of first time Azamara cruisers have lots of OBC available to them. Recent bookings received up to $1000 OBC. And any guest can purchase an experience more package that can provide between $300 and $700 credit toward shore excursions. Book a B2B and you get $400 OBC for each leg, first timer or not. Our loyalty for nearly 20 Azamara sailings yields us a whopping $0 in OBC.

Honestly, sounds fairly normal to me. That is one of the reasons that people take private tours: The often lower cost. Plus, remember that the a large percentage of those booking Azamara tours likely have some (or a lot) of OBC, whether from booking bonuses, purchase of an Experience More Package perhaps, reducing the net price a great deal. That definitely factors into our decision process.

I think making the assumption that prices for one day, in one port, are the "norm" for Azamara is a mistake. Anymore than me making the assumption that since we are taking an 8 hour guided tour to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay including a 3 course sit down lunch at a cost of $169 each, then returning to the ship for a 3 hour Azamazing Evening (at a cost of $0, BTW) makes Azamara's excursions underpriced. Cause that is good value on any cruise line, honestly. And I'd be happy to cite 4 or 5 tours in the same number of ports on that B2B sailing next month that I consider reasonably priced. Not a steal, perhaps, but not too hateful. Especially since we booked those after investigating private options first, as always.

Our experience has been that if a tour has anything to do with food or "foodieness" there will be a premium. And that goes for every cruise line, not just Azamara.

Pretty much all the same with the other providers like WithLocals and GetYourGuide.

Yes, you will either need a Yellow Fever card within the last 10 years, or the official exemption. And yes, they check and yes they will not let you board without one or the other.

I would wait until all the tours are available before deciding about cost vs. value. Yes, there are definitely times where Azamara tours trend to the pricey, but not always. As an example, we will be in Montevideo twice in the next month or so, once on Quest and once on HAL Oosterdam. In that port, as an example, the Azamara tour prices are equal to--or in a couple of instances, less--than on Holland.

Yes. All Carnival Corp, so they've made the decision.

Holland and Princess have both announced the changes on their World Cruises which avoid the Red Sea and sail south around Africa.

There are places where we do not expect (nor have had) fast access even when we are on Starlink (I am surprised that they didn't switch to the old antenna when access is that poor as we've had a few times). We will be in Punta Arenas in about 3 weeks and expect we will find the same lack of fast access due to it's remote location.

In the past, that never was possible. Now that they are combining B2Bs in a single booking ID (if yours was booked after that change) it may be possible, like being able to roll over OBC from one sailing to the next.

We called and booked what we always do on board, Chef's Table Plus Two. Used onboard credit at the old price ($145 each). Since this is on Quest and we know individual Specialties are now $49 per, the Chef's Package definitely would be more on board.

RIght. Azamazing value for only a $1000 a night. A 40% increase is way excessive. Nowhere in the world is inflation 40% per annum except maybe Argentina.

Thank you for the timely (and factual) updates.

Here you go.... Cruise Timetables