Christmas On Azura

[Boatmans Lady]

Hi all, newbie here :)

We have booked on the 15 night cruise starting and finishing in Barbados.

We have our cabin number and we are on C deck.

 

Please bear with me, but I have a number of questions, which may seem silly, but being out of my comfort zone, I'd rather ask ;)

 

I see that we already have our flight number, but it says, no seat selected.

Do we get the opportunity to select our seats, and is this chargeable?

 

Secondly, hubby opted for freedom dining, but what happens on Christmas Day?

 

Thirdly, when do the excursions appear, and do you pay for these on booking?

 

I'm sure I will have lots more questions as the months roll by, but any tips, if anyone has done this cruise, would be welcome :)

[HomelessBear]

Hi and welcome.

 

We've just returned from our Azura Xmas/new year cruise and had a great time overall. Will do a review later.

 

Flight seats will be opened for booking approx 12 - 14 weeks before you go. They open at midnight for booking so keep your eye on the personaliser. I got "caught" once when they were released a few days early.

We paid £20pp each way for the economy seats. Those in Premium also have to pay to book seats.

Extra leg room ones are £50pp each way I think.

They usually block out a few rows of seats that you can't book, presumably for disabled or others, but I'd suggest booking your seats when they come out if you want decent ones.

 

Xmas day and New Year's Eve are fixed dining. This cruise it was 5.30pm or 8pm. Other cruises have been different times so maybe it depends on the Maitre d' of the cruise?You'll get an email a few weeks before your cruise, asking you to choose your sitting and table size. No tables for two on this list, ours offered 4, 6 or 8. There are no guarantees that you will get what you request though. Seems this in some way depends on when you booked your cruise and first booked get first dibs.

When on the cruise you'll get a card in your cabin telling you the restaurant and table number, and ours also indicated the table size. We were really lucky to get a great table for two and kept it on both evenings, although I noticed that some larger tables had a change of guests between the days.

In the past they have advertised a date and time for folks to meet with the Maitre d' to request changes to what they were given for these evenings, but didn't see that advertised this time, maybe due to use not arriving until late on 23rd or maybe I'd just not seen it as we were happy with our allocation.

We were also allocated a specific restaurant from the 2 freedom dining ones and it was odd that for these two evenings only, we'd been allocated the opposite restaurant than we were normally in.

 

On previous Xmas cruises they had shut the buffet and the special restaurants on these 2 evenings but on this cruise, all were open as usual. In fact they were advertising a discount in Sindu for Xmas day evening.

Be aware that these are also both formal evenings.

 

Excursions usually released after cruise has been paid for. You can book them online and you pay for them at the time. You could wait until on the ship but popular ones can sell out quite quickly so be aware that if you leave it you may be disappointed. An example was the Kennedy Space Centre Up Close tour (as this cruise was from New Orleans) which sold out quickly. The tour was fabulous by the way.

If you book tours on the ship then you can use any on board credit to fund these but booking before you pay at the time on your card.

 

You'll love your C deck balcony if you have one, as these are about twice the size as those above and are half covered. Sorry if I've got this wrong and you're inside in which case it will be totally covered.

 

I hope this info is useful to you and don't worry about any questions or queries you have, as there are lots of helpful folks on here who can answer them. We've all been in your position so don't worry about asking "daft" questions as I'm sure we've all done it. At least I know I have over the years.

 

One tip I would offer is don't expect perfection on your cruise. If you do you may be disappointed. Go with a positive outlook and don't let little issues get to you. Then you'll have a great cruise I'm sure.

 

Happy cruising.

 

 

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[SoupPlease]

You should have a wonderful time. Seeing a decorated Christmas tree on a Caribbean beach is a great experience...enjoy.

[Yesrock52]

Excursions usually released after cruise has been paid for. You can book them online and you pay for them at the time. You could wait until on the ship but popular ones can sell out quite quickly so be aware that if you leave it you may be disappointed.

 

 

I would just add that excursions are a little cheaper to book before you go. Recently the price on board has been about 5% more than the shoreside price.

Edited January 11, 2017 by Yesrock52

[jenny wren]

Just to clarify....If you want to use on board credit for your excursions you have to wait until you're on board......Booking before you go you pay by credit/debit card (and maybe incur charges on credit card...Not sure).

[mickey89]

Hi all, newbie here :)

 

Answers to all your questions can be found by visiting https://ask.pocruises.com and the answers will be up to date and accurate.

 

When you get to the POcruises site just type the question you wish answered, like - "when can I select flight seats"

- It will tell you the release time of your flight which is 14 weeks prior. Higher Peninsular Club passengers will be able to reserve their seats 2 days ahead of the rest. Caribbean Charter flights - Standard seats will cost £20/pp/ew and Emergency Exit seat will cost £60/pp/ew (They are no Extra Leg room seats on either Thomson or Thomas Cook flights) The cost is the same for reserving both Economy and Premium Economy seats.

Keep an eye on the flight page of your Cruise Personaliser, the box which will say UNAVAILABLE but will change to SELECT SEAT and turn GREEN when seats are released.

 

For all your other questions go to the above web site and keep an eye on your Cruise Personaliser.

 

A good tip when returning from Barbados Airport is to reserve the EXECUTIVE Lounge.

The airport general lounge is always manic, very crowded and hot. You can escape all the hassle for £22pp by booking the executive lounge. goto http://www.loungepass.com

Edited January 11, 2017 by mickey89

[Boatmans Lady]

Thank you for all your replies, they are most helpful :)

 

Sorry HomelessBear, but have probably just asked you the same questions on you great review of your Christmas/New Year cruise :rolleyes:

Feel free to ignore me :D

[HomelessBear]

No problem and glad the review was useful Boatsmans Lady.

Happy cruising [emoji3]

 

 

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[vinoblanco]

When we booked our 2016 cruise on Azura we requested fixed dining late seating table for 2. We were allocated anytime dining which we liked. We weren't invited to specify our preference for Christmas Day and New Years Day.

 

Once on board we received a notice that we had been allocated a table on the early dining i.e. 5.30pm sitting. We went to the Peninsular restaurant that morning as it is open for breakfast and joined the queue of people asking to change. We were allocated a nice table for 2 with excellent service.

 

The tables for 2 are quite close together so you can chat to your neighbours, however, you're not obliged to like on a bigger table.