‘Live From’ Spirit of Discovery, 5th-12th September.

[Mackdogmolly]

23 hours ago, cinnamon said:

I’m sorry for the large print!  I wrote it offline and copied it to the thread. This has not happened before so I’m not sure what happened. Hopefully I’ll be able to do better tomorrow. 😉

 

5 hours ago, Medeba said:

Also following along.  Very much looking forward to reading your blog.  Bon voyage!

Also following along!

Betsey

[Mackdogmolly]

Another Azamara cruiser following along! Enjoy your cruise!

Betsey

[cinnamon]

Well we had number 3 boarding cards and we’re called at 2.10. The ship is beautiful, what we’ve seen so far. After dropping off our carry-ons we went up to The Grill for the ‘tea’. We found a few savoury items amongst the sandwiches and cakes but for someone on a low-carb diet it was a bit of a nightmare. 

 

At 2.55 we went down to the Specialty restaurants to book Coast to Coast, booking opens at 3.00. The queue was already long and we waited half an hour. By the time we got to the front our friends had already booked us into The Club for tomorrow and you’re only allowed to book one restaurant so we’re waitlisted now. 😏. The line was twice as long as we left and I doubt we’ll get a booking but we’ll see. 

The system for Specialty restaurant booking is seriously floored. 

 

Our luggage had arrived as soon as we boarded so then went to unpack. Unfortunately, despite the information available in advance, there are 6 sockets in the cabin, all 2 pin Continental!  Phone calls to reception and the cabin steward still haven’t helped. We could so easily have brought adaptors but even the info onboard says they are not needed. DH pretty fed up that he can’t use his laptop but hopefully they can provide one. 

 

Its 4.30 now and we don’t know when Muster Drill is due to happen. Info just says ‘when everyone is onboard’ but I think Sailaway is 6.00 pm, not 5.00 as expected. 

 

Ah!  Steward has brought an adaptor. 😀. 

Now for a cuppa somewhere. 

[cinnamon]

Friday, 1.10 pm.

We arrived at Dover port at 12.40. Security was fairly simple with no requirement to take the laptop out of our carry on. The queueing system for check-in is a little chaotic. About 6 different lines with no indication of which to join and pot luck which will move fastest as apposed to a central queue. Only a few minutes to wait for us though. A photo is taken of us and the passport but no record of our Credit Card. We will need to register this onboard. 😏

 

The downer so far is that boarding w

Edited September 5, 2019 by cinnamon

[cinnamon]

Correction to earlier post. It was the Suites passengers who had priority boarding, not Britannia Club members. 

[cinnamon]

We’ve found the Library, just along from our cabin on E deck. So spacious and with wonderful coffee machines. Muster Drill at 5.15. 😄

[Glenndale]

Oh dear....

What an omission, no 3 point sockets, that’s crazy.

Afternoon tea was always going to be a carb fest but there should be consideration for those of us who restrict our carb intake.

Hope in spite of these initial setbacks you have a great cruise.

[cinnamon]

[cinnamon]

Apparently other cabins do have Uk sockets but not ours. 😏

[cinnamon]

6 minutes ago, Glenndale said:

Oh dear....

What an omission, no 3 point sockets, that’s crazy.

Afternoon tea was always going to be a carb fest but there should be consideration for those of us who restrict our carb intake.

Hope in spite of these initial setbacks you have a great cruise.

I’m sure we will. 😄

[cinnamon]

Terrace on deck 7, E deck, just before Sailaway. 

[hermioneb]

1 hour ago, cinnamon said:

Apparently other cabins do have Uk sockets but not ours. 😏

How strange!  The only two pin socket we had was the one for the kettle, so we had to unplug that in order to use the hairdryer. All others were 3 pin. Have a wonderful cruise. 

[christine848]

Hi Corinne! 

Really looking forward to following your cruise...hope your weather is better than ours in June. Your cabin looks very good.

With love to you both, Christine X

[Azamazingal]

I'm following too as we will be on Spirit of Discovery next April,

Hoping to pick up lots of advice.

This will be our 40th cruise with ten completed on Azamara.

Saga are flying us from Glasgow to Gatwick with a transfer to Dover.

A

[Schmoe38]

Corinne

 

We will be following you on this cruise. Thank you for sharing your experience with us.

 

Till we meet in August 2020.

 

Randy

[cinnamon]

Just watched a great show, The Ayoub Sisters. A classical music duo. Their first cruise and they were excellent. 

I tried to post earlier but the WiFi was too slow. I may have to only have photos when I have 4 G ashore. 

[cinnamon]

When we met our cabin steward he gave us a little card with a choice of fruit to choose. We opted for bananas, tangerines, grapes and bananas. He has just delivered the basket. 

 

Just getting ready for dinner and and will head down to the MDR around 8.00 pm. The two shows tonight are at 9.45 and 10.00 pm. 

One of the ship’s singers doing his own show in the Lounge but I think we will try to go to the theatre to see The Ayoub sisters. 

 

Photo of fruit won’t upload, WiFi too slow. 

 

PS. I wrote this last night Butter it couldn’t post because I tried to add a photo of the beautiful fruit bowl. 😏. 

[cinnamon]

Good morning. I’ve just tried a photo again but it failed to load. The WiFi is free so of course the signal is probably weakened by lots of users. 

 

We went to the MDR around 7.50 last night. The ‘last’ table for 6 was available which we shared with a party of 3. It was right next to the main entrance to the kitchen and obviously not a good location. I imagine if we had been a few minutes later we would have had to wait until someone finished dinner. Apparently the dining room starts dinner at 6.30 pm, not 6.45 as advertised in advanced. 

 

The food and service were very good, almost up to Azamara standards, but not quite. 

I had Bellini Cream (a cold fruit soup) walnut and blue cheese salad and Duck for my main. DH had veg and barley soup, the salad and Prime Rib for his main. I loved the cheeses I had from an extensive trolley but the others had their desserts quite a while before the trolley appeared for me. 

 

I mentioned last night the really really good show we saw at 9.45 in the theatre. Afterwards we had a brief sojourn is The Club, listening to a singer then retired for the night. 

It has been quite choppy during the night and now is grey and gloomy for our day in the North Sea. 

 

[cinnamon]

 The bathroom has grab handles next to the loo, in the shower and in front of the sink. We’re moving around a fair bit and I was glad of them when getting ready!

[Lolou127]

10 hours ago, Azamazingal said:

I'm following too as we will be on Spirit of Discovery next April,

Hoping to pick up lots of advice.

This will be our 40th cruise with ten completed on Azamara.

Saga are flying us from Glasgow to Gatwick with a transfer to Dover.

A

Azamazingal, I didn’t realise there was an option to fly down to London, is that because you are more than 250 miles from Dover? was that included in your cruise or is it an optional extra! We live in NW wales and are also more than 250 miles away, it would be easier for us to get to Manchester and fly down to London x

[cinnamon]

Very pleasant breakfast in the MDR. Only found out at the end that they have a proper bean to cup coffee machine and had the ordinary stuff. Therefore now on Library having excellent ☕️ coffee. After Azamara I can’t get over how spacious this ship 🚢 is. 

 

Side note.

The in cabin TV has loads of regular tv channels plus on demand movies. Not first run, some classics and others a few months old. 

[Werangels]

Following.  Interested in your opinions.  Thank you.

[cinnamon]

Just met the Captain on our way back to cabin. Very personable. Told him we were Azamara fans and that I loved the spaciousness. He said if this size ship was Azamara it would have 1,800 guests!  No sure that’s quite accurate but the passenger/space ratio is certainly a big plus. 

 

The sea sea is rough, winds Force 6-7. I am feeling the movement but coping ok. 

[cinnamon]

There is an excellent system for the stewards to know when to make up the room. There are switches to show Do not Disturb or Make up Room. Outside there is then either a small circular White or Red light. Very easy for the staff to see. The benefits of a newly designed ship. 

[christine848]

Good morning! An interesting comment from the Captain about Azamara...I agree...not sure about that!

i was wondering how we let the state room attendants know the appropriate time to make up the rooms on our Viking cruise...new ship etc. I've completely forgotten!