We could not get off so join us in the Caribbean

[florisdekort]

13 minutes ago, uktog said:

Hi Floris

Good to hear from you. The Ultimate package is $21.95 but as a Zenith you get 25% off. 
I am attaching the wine/bubbly list. I’m drinking the Nicholas as I type and am very partial to a lunchtime Whispering Angel.
 

Am less keen on the included Rose (Marius) or the bubbles (Duc de Lec). They are ok but as we’ve credit much prefer the other stuff 

 

Hope this helps 

That’s brilliant, thank you!  We love Whispering Angel for daytime drinking (I’m sounding like an alcoholic now 😝).  Not a huge fan of NF but if sure beats the other bubblies on the list. Again - thanks!  I’m getting enthusiastic about returning to Azamara after a 2 year absence. 

[uktog]

As you will know I was trying to make Lemonade out of lemons today.  This became even more important last night because it was very disappointing how some fellow guests behaved on the ship and that spoilt things for many others. There are reports on other social media sites about behaviour both of a racist and inappropriate behaviour nature I don’t want to comment more on them here other than to say that the reports elsewhere are from what we saw very correct.  

I believe the ships staff worked extremely hard yesterday particularly those on the pool bar and also the poor maintenance staff who were still trying to fix problems inflicted on others by fellow guests at 4 am this morning. I feel for them and for the officers trying to keep them motivated they are not to blame for the Guest mix on board. But it does spoil the cruise experience for those of us that paid the full figure and it has caused us to rethink again whether we would ever keep a booking on a significantly undersold cruise again when we got to final payment date. In the past you did because you thought well that my increase my chance of an upgrade under the old system obviously it does not under the new system where the preferred method is to move the unsold cabins to 3rd parties to sell them. Lesson learned on that one. 

Anyway  I had done my research late yesterday and worked out that it was probably possible to take my husband to the Kensington Oval (note it’s Kensington not Kennington here in Barbados.) It was actually about a 20 minute walk from the ship (sorry for us it was a 40 minute walk those of you who know me know my mapreading skills - not). 

we were delighted to find that we could have a full stadium tour for $10 each it was really good. It’s not a sophisticated tour along the lines of Lords or MCG but what you do get the sense of is the absolute passion for cricket in an island where big money and sponsorship it’s not something they enjoy they have to work really hard even to run a few minor games a year here. 

We were last at this ground in 2004 so it was lovely to see the new stands and the developments they have put in since then and we hope our photos show you a little of what today brought for us. Obviously dear husband did not meet the cricket legend he hoped to on the ship tour but I think he’s happy for now with his slightly weaker lemonade. 

The weather is a little bit unpredictable today and we have come back to the ship to find that they have taken the decision to move the colours of the Caribbean in to the Cabaret lounge tonight I’m not sure how this is going to go but I’ll let you know in due course. 

There are three ships in port, Journey, Summit and Queen Mary 2 so the port area is very busy - as an aside we met people in the terminal who had been on an enjoyable tour of the rum distillery that we were told was closed and hence why according to Azamara out tour was cancelled. I am just not sure what to make of that any more but I’m delighted I managed to salvage something of the day and give my husband some memories

[greykitty]

What happened to the offending guests? Stern talking to from the captain? Confined to cabin?  Put off the ship?  Clearly, I don't know the situation referred to or its severity, but be interesting to know how the line stands up for their crew. Thanks.

[hiccups]

On 11/30/2019 at 7:03 AM, hamrag said:

So, finally it is boarding day....and so beautiful here in San Juan....we hope to be boarded mid-day at latest, and are really buzzing now with anticipation!

We debarked Celebrity Summit on Saturday, and because we had a late flight home, took X's "Old San Juan on Your Own" tour with airport transfer.  As we waited for the 1:30 bus to take us to the airport, we saw the Azamara shuttle bus pull up.  A few people from X attempted to hop on, thinking it was the X bus!  I was (pleasantly) surprised that Azamara had transportation to Plaza Colon, as I assumed with the docking location, it would be considered walking distance.

Had it not required an additional two vacation days compared to a Thanksgiving week cruise, we would have liked to taken one of Journey's Caribbean cruises.  At least we got a very good deal on Celebrity, with all the perks thrown in.

[Grandma Cruising]

Our TA cruise was also quite a different demographic from any previous Azamara cruises we’ve taken. Less than 100 US and over 400 UK cruisers, many from the north of England. We presumed that the empty Verandah cabins (of which there were quite a lot at final payment date) had been sold on to a TA in the north. We didn’t see any significant problems such as those you mention, thank goodness.

[jj6961]

I just read about this situation on an AZ Facebook group.  It's pretty disturbing.  I will be boarding on Saturday and though I was happy to get a good deal on these cruises I'm now concerned that these cruises may be vastly  different than all the other Azamara sailings I've taken.  Glad you were able to salvage your Barbados day.  

[uktog]

Colours of the Caribbean had to be brought indoors- wise decision as it rained whilst Show 2 was on. I think this is a problem with this Colours concept  - a deck event is so weather dependent and from a logistical perspective you have to run two shows so everyone can attend. 
 

The show time food had been changed from what was offered on the deck last week, probably to make it easier to offer as canapés in the Cabaret lounge but some of it didn’t quite work. I always read canapés should be two bites, some were more like 4-6 bites and too big to handle. 

 

The show was very good and remarkably transferred to the Cabaret lounge extremely well. In fact there was the added  excitement of the stilt walker who had no head clearance. The narrator was very good and as a result you really understood the background to the dances. The evening ended with lots dragged up

to dance. 
 

I know Colours isn’t a planned replacement for the Azamazing evening. I did miss the fun over the last two cruises of going ashore and having the sense of a night out. The entertainment was on a par and logistics were probably easier for the ship. It’s not my preferred approach and wish we’d had Azamazing evening but understand why and as you can see had colourful entertainment again tonight. 

[retird]

Uktog, what happened at the pool yesterday or early this morning.  I’m on this cruise and hadn’t heard of any problems.   I’m curious what happened now that you and jj6961 have reported it.   Thanks

[uktog]

There have been instances of very inappropriate behaviour onboard of a type I’ve never seen on Azamara before. We saw it only in one venue (not the pool) - I really don’t want to post about what I did not see or hear first hand. The officers are closely monitoring the situation and recognise this cruise has a very different client group than what they are used to. 
Unless I’m directly impacted I won’t commit again on this until the end of the cruise. I have my views on why it’s like it is but will wait to see what transpires over the week. 
 

[retird]

1 hour ago, uktog said:

There have been instances of very inappropriate behaviour onboard of a type I’ve never seen on Azamara before. We saw it only in one venue (not the pool) - I really don’t want to post about what I did not see or hear first hand. The officers are closely monitoring the situation and recognise this cruise has a very different client group than what they are used to. 
Unless I’m directly impacted I won’t commit again on this until the end of the cruise. I have my views on why it’s like it is but will wait to see what transpires over the week. 
 

But in your post  you specifically mentioned racist behaviour and specifically mentioned an incident occurring at 4am.  So I believe you have already injected yourself and (views)(opinion) into the discussion.   As stated by someone else, throwing out a teaser like that leaves the rest of us wondering what you heard.    More details would definitely enlighten others of us onboard who may have a concern

[uktog]

There have been reports of inappropriate comments of a racial nature being made to bar staff (I cannot substantiate but do not doubt the source) and inappropriate finger snapping and feedback to hard working bar staff when guests felt service was slow (I saw that, staff were working flat out and it was uncalled for). As I type this I’ve just heard a guest bark an uncalled for comment at a server whose making more coffees in 5 minutes than I’d manage in an hour. 

The reference to 4am relates to the fact that for the second time guests were not following instructions re not flushing items, normally maintenance can fix it quickly but this time two decks did not have flushing toilets for 6 hours and the blockage was so bad staff had to work in the corridors on our deck through the night to resolve the issue. 
 

I appreciate not everyone reads all social media sites, the details there are more graphic but as it’s somewhere that cruise critic rules prohibit full cross referencing this is as far as I will go. 
 

 

[Grandma Cruising]

Thanks for that uktog. It doesn’t sound nice. I know I said our cruise was different too, but we had behaviour of that sort, than goodness.  As you say Azamara staff work very hard and that sort of behaviour is way out of order.

[ellbon]

4 hours ago, uktog said:

There have been reports of inappropriate comments of a racial nature being made to bar staff (I cannot substantiate but do not doubt the source) and inappropriate finger snapping and feedback to hard working bar staff when guests felt service was slow (I saw that, staff were working flat out and it was uncalled for). As I type this I’ve just heard a guest bark an uncalled for comment at a server whose making more coffees in 5 minutes than I’d manage in an hour. 

The reference to 4am relates to the fact that for the second time guests were not following instructions re not flushing items, normally maintenance can fix it quickly but this time two decks did not have flushing toilets for 6 hours and the blockage was so bad staff had to work in the corridors on our deck through the night to resolve the issue. 
 

I appreciate not everyone reads all social media sites, the details there are more graphic but as it’s somewhere that cruise critic rules prohibit full cross referencing this is as far as I will go. 
 

 

On Quest I heard people being rude to DJ. He had to use Mic to tell them not to drink on dance floor. It was one woman. Another night the man did not like the music. Yet same man was dancing until he did nit like the music. I asked nicely what was wrong with it? He said can you dance to this. So I got up and dance. We never saw those two again.

 

Before my cruise Quest had many toilet problems due to wrong products. I question if people just do not care or know.

 

not sure on Pursuit but on Quest captain did not speak of smoking rules, Fire, toilets etc. the CD spoke during the pre drill warnings but no one in the new Den was listening. That included me. Just to loud.  Not enough info in hand washing  or toilets and maybe once in the daily,s.

 

so your cruise has rude people who do not treat crew with respect.  This happens but the same person then time to report them.

[uktog]

Today we headed out on the land discoveries trip which was part of an effort to use up on-board credit. The excursion was to a beach it was sold as glittering sands and beach barbecue.($74 each).  
Beach was nice and when we first arrived it was very quiet it became rather crowded around lunchtime when several little minibuses form tours run by Celebrity and Cunard arrived to use the place as a short lunch spot. 

Beach chairs were provided as was one drink on arrival and one at lunchtime-  there was a little bit of confusion as to whether beers were included or not but that was resolved. For future reference a beer can be chosen as a complimentary drink. 
you could also hire an umbrella for $3 actually we kind of regret doing that because they did not put our umbrella up properly. It was not even a windy day but our umbrella suddenly was blown out of its holder  and smacked me right across the face. Anyway I will be the person on the ship tomorrow who probably looks like she was in a little fight the night before as I do have a rather fetching bruise developing on my face but fortunately I’ve also packed a lot of concealer expecting to have to use it to cover up sunburn. 
But you have to agree it is a lovely beach 

[uktog]

So no Dominica due to pre election riots well done Journey three hours after they were told they could not go they have Martinique all set up. That’s Azamara for you! 

[uktog]

As Captain Johannes said last night destination immersion does not include riots participation so the switch to

Martinique. 
They managed to set up several half day excursions all fairly priced $ 49-65. Getting tickets was well organised. We opted for the trip Dapaz distillery and St Pierre. 
First we stopped at Balata Sacre Coeur built to replicate the name sake in France. We saw our first Advent candle ring and such a beautiful font. 

[uktog]

We passed Monte Pierre glad it’s been quiet since 1902 and through a beautiful but twisty rain forest drive to the DaPaz rum distillery. Ahead of us was a very large tour group from Seabourne. 19 was a much more comfortable number. Im sure the bean counter wanted more but it was great if a little rushed but enough time to

enjoy the surroundings and splice the mainbrace three times 

We then headed to St Pierre to the eruption memorial- sad to learn only 2 people survived the 1902 eruption because although they had plenty warning signs they were put down as nothing to worry about. The melted cathedral bell and room with all the victims names was particularly haunting 
Glad to see a much more sophisticated monitor station now in place! 
So we did well seeing things on this “unexpected visit” to Martinique 

Edited December 4, 2019 by uktog

[Gordoncruickshank]

On 12/2/2019 at 6:28 PM, uktog said:

As you will know I was trying to make Lemonade out of lemons today.  This became even more important last night because it was very disappointing how some fellow guests behaved on the ship and that spoilt things for many others. There are reports on other social media sites about behaviour both of a racist and inappropriate behaviour nature I don’t want to comment more on them here other than to say that the reports elsewhere are from what we saw very correct.  

I believe the ships staff worked extremely hard yesterday particularly those on the pool bar and also the poor maintenance staff who were still trying to fix problems inflicted on others by fellow guests at 4 am this morning. I feel for them and for the officers trying to keep them motivated they are not to blame for the Guest mix on board. But it does spoil the cruise experience for those of us that paid the full figure and it has caused us to rethink again whether we would ever keep a booking on a significantly undersold cruise again when we got to final payment date. In the past you did because you thought well that my increase my chance of an upgrade under the old system obviously it does not under the new system where the preferred method is to move the unsold cabins to 3rd parties to sell them. Lesson learned on that one. 

Anyway  I had done my research late yesterday and worked out that it was probably possible to take my husband to the Kensington Oval (note it’s Kensington not Kennington here in Barbados.) It was actually about a 20 minute walk from the ship (sorry for us it was a 40 minute walk those of you who know me know my mapreading skills - not). 

we were delighted to find that we could have a full stadium tour for $10 each it was really good. It’s not a sophisticated tour along the lines of Lords or MCG but what you do get the sense of is the absolute passion for cricket in an island where big money and sponsorship it’s not something they enjoy they have to work really hard even to run a few minor games a year here. 

We were last at this ground in 2004 so it was lovely to see the new stands and the developments they have put in since then and we hope our photos show you a little of what today brought for us. Obviously dear husband did not meet the cricket legend he hoped to on the ship tour but I think he’s happy for now with his slightly weaker lemonade. 

The weather is a little bit unpredictable today and we have come back to the ship to find that they have taken the decision to move the colours of the Caribbean in to the Cabaret lounge tonight I’m not sure how this is going to go but I’ll let you know in due course. 

There are three ships in port, Journey, Summit and Queen Mary 2 so the port area is very busy - as an aside we met people in the terminal who had been on an enjoyable tour of the rum distillery that we were told was closed and hence why according to Azamara out tour was cancelled. I am just not sure what to make of that any more but I’m delighted I managed to salvage something of the day and give my husband some memories

Almost every time we have been in Barbados (almost exclusively with Celebrity) it has been a Sunday with nothing open. We have walked round to the Oval but it is always totally deserted. Got a few pictures of the outside but that was it.

[uktog]

Today was the last new port of our adventure for us - Nevis. Typically the day started with sharp showers but once off the tender it was dry, just two short sharp sprinkles all day otherwise beautiful weather. 
Taxis are easy to get and we took one to Pinneys Beach going it was just 2 of us so $10 back because it was a full van share $5. We went to Sunshine’s on the recommendation of the driver chairs were $5 each no umbrellas but the trees gave adequate shade. The speciality cocktail Killer Bee which includes rum punch honey grenadine and freshly grated nutmeg is very very good but we are glad we just had the smaller $5 size. 
We had a short walk in town before tendering back. Given how much was in walking distance or cheap cab ride away no wonder most land discoveries were again cancelled. 
We found a new bus home for the Geordies and also loved him Christmas here involves wrapping palm trees in white, red, green and gold fabric 

[ellbon]

On 12/3/2019 at 4:47 PM, uktog said:

So no Dominica due to pre election riots well done Journey three hours after they were told they could not go they have Martinique all set up. That’s Azamara for you! 

One Rossini’s to pay the higher price. Magnus had to deal with three missed poets on his first cruise back from Holiday and we gor one port moved and two added. Other cruise lines give you a sea day.i will pay the price to get the port vs the sea day. As we all know dock fees  and space factor in.

[uktog]

Last night was White Night. which was its usual enjoyable entertainment  Having had a couple of evenings of unpredictable weather that caused events to be moved indoors over the two cruises it was good that this was a dry but humid evening so it was held outside. 
The buffet last night was extremely good far better than the one at the conclusion of the colours of the Caribbean. Then I think the problem was that those who had gone to the format of buffet first show second had run them out of items and by the time we got to eat after the first show there was a lot of substitutes that went as appealing as the original items that were being served. 
we have noticed that in an attempt to cut down wastage which we certainly support they are still trying to get the balance right also in windows at lunchtime and we’ve had to have them hunt for deserts around half an hour before the it was supposed to close and the substitutes are often not as nice as the original items but there’s always the naughty ice cream 😀

 

As you can see from the photo everyone had a good time last night and the applause for the crew was particularly loud which was good to hear.
 

Just one minor little things that we have spoken with Heike about and she agrees needs looking at our favourite spot when we are not part of a group on white night is on deck 10 looking forward if at all possible. Unfortunately a large banner has now been purchased to go around part of the deck and that means if you are sitting at these tables  you can see nothing of the stage. They could use the banner at the other end of the ship which actually would make a much better backdrop for everyone’s photos facing forward to the stage and would not cause issues as they do not put tables up there. Anyway this was our view last night if we did not stand up so we just did up whenever we needed to see what was happening. 
today is Saint Barts as we were there last week we are probably not going off the ship but will have to sadly spend some of the time packing as our 32 day adventure is coming to a close

[Xport]

18 hours ago, uktog said:

Today was the last new port of our adventure for us - Nevis. Typically the day started with sharp showers but once off the tender it was dry, just two short sharp sprinkles all day otherwise beautiful weather. 
Taxis are easy to get and we took one to Pinneys Beach going it was just 2 of us so $10 back because it was a full van share $5. We went to Sunshine’s on the recommendation of the driver chairs were $5 each no umbrellas but the trees gave adequate shade. The speciality cocktail Killer Bee which includes rum punch honey grenadine and freshly grated nutmeg is very very good but we are glad we just had the smaller $5 size. 
We had a short walk in town before tendering back. Given how much was in walking distance or cheap cab ride away no wonder most land discoveries were again cancelled. 
We found a new bus home for the Geordies and also loved him Christmas here involves wrapping palm trees in white, red, green and gold fabric 

s

 

Both Celebrity Reflection and Celebrity Summit were docked at St. Kitt's yesterday...  About forty guests--equally split between the two ships--did a tour to Nevis...

 

It was a treat to see that Journey--complete with a few Azamara crew members I recognized from the past--was at anchor while we were there... 

[uktog]

Some random shots of today. OK I typed this added the pictures in the order I needed but this silly site has other ideas! So apologies I’ve re changed the post it’s not logical I know! 
 

Shot 3. if you remember last week I spoke about the gap in the hills that the planes have to make a steep downwards  landing in Saint Barts we are a little distance away from that gap but this is the image the plane actually has to land about half a mile from where it currently is at sea level and before the high hills in the distance which are actually on another island. You can see why the millionaires prefer to come in by sea!

Shot 2. In front of us is a rather spectacular yacht  and if you look to the left there is another strange looking vessel. Captain Johannes explained that the yacht on the left is the toy ship- it contains all the jetskis helicopters cars et cetera that the guests on the right hand yacht will call for whenever they fancy,  it is also the sleeping quarters for most of the crew we have seen people going back and forth between the two. We wonder whose chartered it this week. 

And finally shot one from inside in windows. As part of the new environment considerations they are no longer serving marmalade, jams etc in  jars or little containers except on room service. Instead we have this pump system by the  toast station and little quantities of these five preserves including a delightful chocolate hazelnut spread. Peanut butter is also available pre spooned into little egg cup sized pots. A good move! 

[Jimmycruiser]

To be clear, With the Ultimate beverage package can you order any of the wines listed above ( post #51) at both the bars and restaurants for no additional cost?

Edited December 6, 2019 by Jimmycruiser

[uktog]

Absolutely and sometimes sommeliers substitute other bin ends as well