Currently on Journey and missing The Den

[excitedofharpenden]

I look forward to the day that Journey takes out the useless space that's currently the Casino and puts in The Den. A classic case in point. We are about you start six sea days (today we are in Kauia) and we thought we would pop upstairs to Living Room for the advertised afternoon tea and the place is mobbed by afternoon trivia.

 

At least with The Den you have an extra venue to hold trivia for those that enjoy it.  It's such an intrusion into what is a lovely space. 

 

Ok. Rant over. 

 

Phil 

[Jim in OR]

I agree that the current casino space is too lightly used to remain a casino. I used to enjoy the social aspect when there were live dealers but I’ve only used the current electronic tables for one hour this cruise even though we had five sea days.  Despite winning a little more than $300, I doubt I’ll use them during the six sea days coming up this week. Without real people, it’s just not the same.

 

Time to repurpose the space.  

[uktog]

October will make a huge difference to Journey 

[tv24]

Oh, Phil...I do so grieve the loss of the live person casino to the extent that we may not be returning to Azamara.  But on our last crossing on the Journey we found the current casino machines to be a total disaster.  Taking them out would be a big improvement and would add much-needed social space on what can be a crowded ship.  No one used the machines, they are ugly and the staff were visibly stressed by them.  So buh-bye machines.

[hamrag]

As Az newbies in December, we did notice the casino area on Journey is virtually unused for its' intended purpose. That said, we also noticed a group of trivia fans at times sitting within the atrium end of that area near the large wall screen.

[newmexicoNita]

7 hours ago, Jim in OR said:

I agree that the current casino space is too lightly used to remain a casino. I used to enjoy the social aspect when there were live dealers but I’ve only used the current electronic tables for one hour this cruise even though we had five sea days.  Despite winning a little more than $300, I doubt I’ll use them during the six sea days coming up this week. Without real people, it’s just not the same.

 

Time to repurpose the space.  

I have never seen a casino used so little anywhere, any time. Our daughter went to a TA meeting on our last Journey cruise last month. Plans are to close the casino, but I am not sure when. She would probably remember. 

[Mackdogmolly]

12 hours ago, excitedofharpenden said:

I look forward to the day that Journey takes out the useless space that's currently the Casino and puts in The Den. A classic case in point. We are about you start six sea days (today we are in Kauia) and we thought we would pop upstairs to Living Room for the advertised afternoon tea and the place is mobbed by afternoon trivia.

 

At least with The Den you have an extra venue to hold trivia for those that enjoy it.  It's such an intrusion into what is a lovely space. 

 

Ok. Rant over. 

 

Phil 

I so agree. We really loved the Den on Quest last summer. It’s a nice alternative in the evening too.

[sunlover33]

Looking at the information on journey, it seems to indicate there is still a roulette table and card table available as well as the electric machines, is this not the case? 

[hamrag]

31 minutes ago, sunlover33 said:

Looking at the information on journey, it seems to indicate there is still a roulette table and card table available as well as the electric machines, is this not the case? 

Context alert, I have never used a casino or any form of gambling for that matter.....we shared a dinner table one night, and befriended the couple the remaining days of our cruise. We found them most nights in the casino, I believe at the table you describe, and it looked to us like it was an electronic roulette table with a huge screen right above it.....unless I am much mistaken. They bemoaned the fact it was a poor substitute for what they described as the 'real thing'!

 

I don't recall seeing any human being servicing anywhere in the casino in the way we have on most other cruiselines, certainly no-one playing with cards.....everything there seemed electronic, and it was mostly deserted apart from that couple.

Edited January 15, 2020 by hamrag

[sunlover33]

Thanks for your reply, I agree an electronic machine cannot replace the real thing! We may Save a fortune 🤣

Edited January 15, 2020 by sunlover33

[laurieb]

7 hours ago, newmexicoNita said:

I have never seen a casino used so little anywhere, any time. Our daughter went to a TA meeting on our last Journey cruise last month. Plans are to close the casino, but I am not sure when. She would probably remember. 

Dry dock is in October; the casino will go away at that time 

[gkm]

Phil, we are presently on the Pursuit and agree with you about the Den.  This is our first cruise on an Azamara ship that has one and it’s lovely and very popular.

 

Garry

[takemewithyou]

1 hour ago, gkm said:

Phil, we are presently on the Pursuit and agree with you about the Den.  This is our first cruise on an Azamara ship that has one and it’s lovely and very popular.

 

Garry

Can not wait to experience the den for ourselves on Quest this summer!

[excitedofharpenden]

21 hours ago, tv24 said:

Oh, Phil...I do so grieve the loss of the live person casino to the extent that we may not be returning to Azamara.  But on our last crossing on the Journey we found the current casino machines to be a total disaster.  Taking them out would be a big improvement and would add much-needed social space on what can be a crowded ship.  No one used the machines, they are ugly and the staff were visibly stressed by them.  So buh-bye machines.

Yes Tom. I totally understand that some will miss them and also agree that the casino as is on Journey in its current form is hopeless and the room just lacks the atmosphere of The Den.

 

Phil  

[Host Jazzbeau]

On 1/15/2020 at 2:19 PM, sunlover33 said:

Thanks for your reply, I agree an electronic machine cannot replace the real thing! We may Save a fortune 🤣

 

And that says it all...

[sunlover33]

6 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

And that says it all...

Except for the last few cruises we have paid our ship account and had cash to spare!  We don’t spend lots of money, win in the first few days and then play with casino money. I guess we are just lucky and know when to walk away. But we also love trivia so will look forward to the progressive trivia sessions instead and read lots of books. 

[Ithikan]

On 1/15/2020 at 7:09 PM, excitedofharpenden said:

Yes Tom. I totally understand that some will miss them and also agree that the casino as is on Journey in its current form is hopeless and the room just lacks the atmosphere of The Den.

 

Phil  

We are joining Journey soon and are sad to hear from friends that the Living Room has become something of a "chair hog" venue, as Trivia fans gather, spread out, play, and then stay through Tapas Time and into the evening.

Last summer's experience on Pursuit demonstrated that the Den is much needed and appreciated as a public space.  There, the Trivia teams were well served, the bar was active and very popular, travel books tempted next to comfortable seating and Shore Excursions were right there with info, etc.  Then, the Living Room beckoned for those seeking a quiet drink and stellar views - something for everyone.

 

[bbqoug]

We will have to try another Azamara cruise to see for ourselves if we enjoy having the Den instead of a casino.

As it is, we are looking forward to visiting the casino on our first Oceania cruise on Sirena (R class ship) this April.

I guess we're in the minority in that we utilized the casino quite often on our Quest & Journey cruises in the past.

 

Having said that, I will say that in my opinion the regulars in the Azamara forum are much friendlier & more helpful than many of the regulars in the O forum. I also realize how great it is to have Bonnie in here to answer questions while the O forum has no such support from Oceania.

 

[newmexicoNita]

On 1/17/2020 at 11:22 AM, Ithikan said:

We are joining Journey soon and are sad to hear from friends that the Living Room has become something of a "chair hog" venue, as Trivia fans gather, spread out, play, and then stay through Tapas Time and into the evening.

Last summer's experience on Pursuit demonstrated that the Den is much needed and appreciated as a public space.  There, the Trivia teams were well served, the bar was active and very popular, travel books tempted next to comfortable seating and Shore Excursions were right there with info, etc.  Then, the Living Room beckoned for those seeking a quiet drink and stellar views - something for everyone.

 

We too experienced the chair hogs. One day we were arriving to play trivia: a young lady who was lying down on one of the sofas and appeared to be sleeping, let us know, in on uncertain terms the chairs were reserved for her family Obviously she was not sleeping. I guess, no matter where one is or what line chair hogs exists..

[Redtravel]

Miss the casino?  Some of us do

[marinaro44]

8 hours ago, Redtravel said:

Miss the casino?  Some of us do

Not at all.  Too much space used by too few people.

[doubled]

15 hours ago, Redtravel said:

Miss the casino?  Some of us do

We also miss the casino.  We especially missed the casino on our last cruise which was a transpacific and had many sea days.

[Redtravel]

Transpacific...wow!  How many sea days?  Haven’t done anything that has more than 2 sea days together.  As much as I love smaller ships, I wouldn’t pick a small ship for a long trip across an ocean.  There are other cruise lines ditching casinos.  Just did b2b on Windstar Star Legend.  210 guests. Casino removed. We were told that the casino was run by a private concession.  They didn’t make enough money. Only one sea day out of 14. Nice weather except for the sea day. Rough seas.  Outside decks were shut.  A casino might have been welcomed.  

[excitedofharpenden]

We have started another sea day as I travel on Journey from LA to Auckland. First part was rocky, but perfectly ok. Calmed down now. These are pictures of Spirits and the casino now and it's been like this the whole time. Complete waste of a space.

 

I think we have a total of 16 sea days across these two cruises. Highly unusual for Azamara, which is mainly port intensive with a lot of late night stays. Just makes total sense to me. 

 

Phil 

Edited January 25, 2020 by excitedofharpenden

[oddjob16]

Spirits should have some audience no matter what. Hopefully. We love to drop in there after the shows.