Transatlantic travels - Pursuit Lisbon to Rio 13 November 19

[Robson1]

Great stuff. We join Pursuit on the 8th Dec and Buizos is on the Itinerary. How long and often was the tour going? We are there on a Saturday plus one of the MSC monsters is in the same day so I'm a little worried about the hordes. 

 

Strangely I have been inundated with adverts over the last week on my Spotify account for Roberto Carlos concert tickets as well.

[Grandma Cruising]

On 11/30/2019 at 1:31 AM, Robson1 said:

Great stuff. We join Pursuit on the 8th Dec and Buizos is on the Itinerary. How long and often was the tour going? We are there on a Saturday plus one of the MSC monsters is in the same day so I'm a little worried about the hordes. 

 

Strangely I have been inundated with adverts over the last week on my Spotify account for Roberto Carlos concert tickets as well.

Not sure how often it went - we got off the tender at about 2pm and it went at 2:30pm. We booked then went and did a bit of shopping - Haviannias at a very reasonable price.

My guess is they will try and lay on extra tours if there are lots of cruisers wanting them. There are at least 2 companies offering this type of tour. Ours was offered at the tour office literally at the town end of the pier.

[Robson1]

4 minutes ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

Not sure how often it went - we got off the tender at about 2pm and it went at 2:30pm. We booked then went and did a bit of shopping - Haviannias at a very reasonable price.

My guess is they will try and lay on extra tours if there are lots of cruisers wanting them. There are at least 2 companies offering this type of tour. Ours was offered at the tour office literally at the town end of the pier.

 

Thanks

[Grandma Cruising]

We finally got home after nearly 24 hours of travelling. The flight from Rio to London Heathrow was fine. Lots of security about in Heathrow and we had our passports checked at the doors into the terminal by some big guys in black - not at a desk, just standing by the doors into the terminal (maybe being extra careful after the London Bridge incident). Got to our departure desk in time, got on the plane, then we all sat for half an hour with nothing happening, until 3 passengers got on half an hour after we should have departed - one of them was Will.i.am - so that’s who we were waiting for!

At Manchester we had the long trek from Terminal 3 to the railway station attached to Terminal 2 to get our train home.

We really enjoyed this cruise - our first ever transatlantic. We met some lovely people, had great weather across the Atlantic, proved to ourselves we can cope with heavy seas and saw some new and interesting ports.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Welcome home!

[Grandma Cruising]

3 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Welcome home!

Thanks - it’s good to be home, but we’re not enjoying the cold & damp. We saw plenty of rain in Salvador, but at least it was warm!

[Bloodaxe]

17 minutes ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

Thanks - it’s good to be home, but we’re not enjoying the cold & damp. We saw plenty of rain in Salvador, but at least it was warm!

 

You missed the worst cold and damp weather while you were away, at least it's mainly dry and bright this week, even though it's very cold.

Pleased that you had a good time, we have done several transatlantics and always enjoyed them.

[excitedofharpenden]

Welcome home. Hope it's not too much of a shock!  Glad you enjoyed the ta on Azamara. 

 

Phil 

[diana11]

On 12/1/2019 at 7:51 PM, Host Grandma Cruising said:

We finally got home after nearly 24 hours of travelling. The flight from Rio to London Heathrow was fine. Lots of security about in Heathrow and we had our passports checked at the doors into the terminal by some big guys in black - not at a desk, just standing by the doors into the terminal (maybe being extra careful after the London Bridge incident). Got to our departure desk in time, got on the plane, then we all sat for half an hour with nothing happening, until 3 passengers got on half an hour after we should have departed - one of them was Will.i.am - so that’s who we were waiting for!

At Manchester we had the long trek from Terminal 3 to the railway station attached to Terminal 2 to get our train home.

We really enjoyed this cruise - our first ever transatlantic. We met some lovely people, had great weather across the Atlantic, proved to ourselves we can cope with heavy seas and saw some new and interesting ports.

We arrived home yesterday afternoon after a great flight home. We had 2 nights in a hotel in Rio with mixed weather. 

 

It was lovely to meet meet you and Nick. I do hope he is feeling better. Tell him I will be looking out for him on our next Azamara cruise! 

 

Will.i.am was lucky that the Manchester plane waited for him. It was announced on our flight that as we were 20 minutes late in arriving, the Manchester flight passengers would miss their connections. One couple were eventually put on the 6.30 pm shuttle (6 hours after arriving into Heathrow) and got home at midnight. 

[Grandma Cruising]

Nick’s a bit better, but still suffering - hopefully he’ll be better soon. We enjoyed meeting you and Jimmy and hope to meet up again sometime on Azamara! Glad you had a good flight and got home OK.

[cheznick]

Lucky them.   We got home at 10am this morning having been transferred to the 7am flight this morning after staying overnight at grotty hotel near Heathrow.      BA never again.    And to cap it all when we got home was sent final  on board account from Azamara  and we were  billed 60 dollars for drinks we never had.     Complaints already in the pipeline

 

 

[travelberlin]

2 minutes ago, cheznick said:

Lucky them.   We got home at 10am this morning having been transferred to the 7am flight this morning after staying overnight at grotty hotel near Heathrow.      BA never again.    And to cap it all when we got home was sent final  on board account from Azamara  and we were  billed 60 dollars for drinks we never had.     Complaints already in the pipeline

 

 

What is going on with Azamara? Charging for something people have never consumed? It would be good for Azamara to provide an explanation for those irregularities on the Cruise Critic forum.

[cheznick]

6 minutes ago, travelberlin said:

What is going on with Azamara? Charging for something people have never consumed? It would be good for Azamara to provide an explanation for those irregularities on the Cruise Critic forum.

 

6 minutes ago, travelberlin said:

What is going on with Azamara? Charging for something people have never consumed? It would be good for Azamara to provide an explanation for those irregularities on the Cruise Critic forum.

Agreed and to make matters worse customer services weren’t interested.   Said if I was billed for the drinks then I must have had them !,,,,,Have had to try UK customer services.     Awaiting reply.  Will post result if I ever get one.  

[diana11]

I have not received a bill but I see charges on my credit card. It looks like they have charged me their exchange rate even though I ticked the box for my credit card to do the conversion.

 

Sorry to hear that you were so late in getting home. That is terrible after such a lovely cruise.

[gymfreak]

9 hours ago, cheznick said:

Lucky them.   We got home at 10am this morning having been transferred to the 7am flight this morning after staying overnight at grotty hotel near Heathrow.      BA never again.    And to cap it all when we got home was sent final  on board account from Azamara  and we were  billed 60 dollars for drinks we never had.     Complaints already in the pipeline

 

 

I feel your pain

we were bumped from two BA flights and had to hang around in Heathrow for 8 hours before our flight to Manchester after a long haul flight from Rio

Also we were overcharged by about £350 on our account, and they also did the conversion when we stipulated they shouldn’t . Huge discrepancy  and we haven’t seen the final account as they have failed to send it as promised so we have no idea what we have been charged for!

We have put the payment in dispute so it can’t be taken from us until it’s sorted

Spoke to Customer  services but haven’t heard back yer.,

Vicki

[Grandma Cruising]

17 minutes ago, gymfreak said:

 

Spoke to Customer  services but haven’t heard back yer.,

Vicki

Vicki, if you get nowhere with customer relations, I’d definitely write to Richard Twynam - you too Cheznik. It would probably be helpful if he gets several letters about this.  That would help him to take it up & get it sorted.
I just checked my credit card charges and mine’s fine. I expected it to be, as when I checked the app it showed that I still had just over $1 of my OBC left!

[cheznick]

5 hours ago, gymfreak said:

I feel your pain

we were bumped from two BA flights and had to hang around in Heathrow for 8 hours before our flight to Manchester after a long haul flight from Rio

Also we were overcharged by about £350 on our account, and they also did the conversion when we stipulated they shouldn’t . Huge discrepancy  and we haven’t seen the final account as they have failed to send it as promised so we have no idea what we have been charged for!

We have put the payment in dispute so it can’t be taken from us until it’s sorted

Spoke to Customer  services but haven’t heard back yer.,

Vicki

hi vicki  we only found out because we were checking for a cancelled shore excursion refund to our card, on checking it was short of approx 60     customer services told me it was because i owed them the 60 for drinks (spirits) unsure if they meant we spent it on spirits or in spirits bar. either way we didnt have them.  i emailed uk customer relations on the advice of my ta but they havent replied or even acknowledged my email. keep us posted how you got on 

[cheznick]

5 hours ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

Vicki, if you get nowhere with customer relations, I’d definitely write to Richard Twynam - you too Cheznik. It would probably be helpful if he gets several letters about this.  That would help him to take it up & get it sorted.
I just checked my credit card charges and mine’s fine. I expected it to be, as when I checked the app it showed that I still had just over $1 of my OBC left!

hi denise    see my reply to vicki, i wont hold my breath.    obviously there are several if not hundreds of mistakes on this cruise with regards to bar billing etc that we wont be aware of because they are not on cc.      perhaps bonnie can take a note also,   

[gymfreak]

2 minutes ago, cheznick said:

hi vicki  we only found out because we were checking for a cancelled shore excursion refund to our card, on checking it was short of approx 60     customer services told me it was because i owed them the 60 for drinks (spirits) unsure if they meant we spent it on spirits or in spirits bar. either way we didnt have them.  i emailed uk customer relations on the advice of my ta but they havent replied or even acknowledged my email. keep us posted how you got on 

I shall post or message you any further information or resolution.

I also think Denise’s idea of emailing Richard Twyman is a good idea so I may well compose an email to him

[cheznick]

3 minutes ago, gymfreak said:

I shall post or message you any further information or resolution.

I also think Denise’s idea of emailing Richard Twyman is a good idea so I may well compose an email to him

we were also thinking of emailing him , do you have his email address?????  i will give customer relations until tomorrow to at least acknowledge my email, oh by the way  immediately on return i filled in a Ba compensation claim form online and received an email back this morning informing us that we would be receiving a cheque for £1024 as we were delayed by over 3 hours to our final destination,    dont forget to claim if your flights were on the same booking reference with Ba 

[cheznick]

couldnt wait on customer services getting their fingers out and starting to do somethinig so ive gone for the jugular and emailed richard twynham already

Edited December 5, 2019 by cheznick

[gymfreak]

44 minutes ago, cheznick said:

we were also thinking of emailing him , do you have his email address?????  i will give customer relations until tomorrow to at least acknowledge my email, oh by the way  immediately on return i filled in a Ba compensation claim form online and received an email back this morning informing us that we would be receiving a cheque for £1024 as we were delayed by over 3 hours to our final destination,    dont forget to claim if your flights were on the same booking reference with Ba 

I believe his email is

RTwynam@azamaraclubcruises.com

Let me know what happens

I shall look for the BA form online because it was beyond a joke

Thank you

Vicki

[cheznick]

Just now, gymfreak said:

I believe his email is

RTwynam@azamaraclubcruises.com

Let me know what happens

I shall look for the BA form online because it was beyond a joke

Thank you

Vicki

thanks,    i just googled ba delay compensation but make sure you choose an actual ba page, the form is on it, we got 1200 euros compensations because both flights if booked at the same time on the same reference count as one. so our delay was a total of 18 hours on a long haul flight . yours should be the same if it was over 3 hours delay to destination on long haul,