Rare uktog Posted September 9, 2021 #1 Share Posted September 9, 2021 (edited) There has been the most wonderful thread from Huntingdon, who as a first time cruiser on Azamara took time to tell us so much about the first cruise that sailed on Quest post pandemic. You can find it here Well after a lot of humming and thinking we have been inspired by how normal that cruise seemed and so will be jumping onto Quest this weekend. So we will do a semi Live from (so long as these boards allow) Not going to cover anything Huntingdon did, but will pick up on any other special questions and also reflect on any differences in the experience now given that we know well what "Old co Azamara" was like. Will also comment if anything seems to have changed from a few weeks ago. We are flying out British Airways but on a flight that lands at 2am Saturday (eek) having done our own flights. Two reasons for DIY - Azamara was a mortgage job for their flights and seemed to be offering transits in Europe, although the agent was not sure (we fly from Scotland) which we thought could be fun (not) if testing challenges arose. To manage the risk, we booked using Avios in Business class - avois flights are fully cancellable and business class avoids being crammed in. We will sleep for a while in the Sofitel (too late to trail anywhere else even allowing for the 2 hour time difference) and using Welcome Pickups https://www.welcomepickups.com to get us to the port for our mid afternoon testing appointment. What I have learned if travelling to Greece Unlike many countries where you cannot do your Passenger Locator Form to enter the country (often referred to as PLF) until just before the flight, Greece is the OPPOSITE! You have to do them at least 24 hours before flying. In fact you can do them weeks ahead of your arrival. You do one per travel group (not one each) After submitting this, you get the return form a short time after, we were about an hour but it can take up to a day You do not have to upload any documents for the PLF application What I have learned already if flying British Airways They use Verifly on almost all flights TO the UK but only on a very few leaving the UK and Greece is not on that list now Three days before (literally 72 hours before your flight) if you scroll down your Manage my Booking page on BA, you will find a section to Upload your travel documents. The email to prompt you to do this comes out quite a bit later, but it is a good idea to be proactive and start earlier rather than wait for the reminder. You have to upload information separately for each traveller and it is easier if you use individual email addresses The upload asks you first to upload evidence you are fully vaccinated, then it asks for proof of a PCR test BUT DO NOT WORRY if you are fully vaccinated, your answer is N/A and the reason you enter is "fully vaccinated" - you have to give a reason to move to the final section where you upload the copy of your PLF. That second question about the PCR was a heart stopping moment until I went back and reconfirmed that was only for non vaccinated travellers and how to deal with this. You get first an acknowledgement from BA Digital Services that your documents have been received - thats a good time to allow them onto your safe senders list or your later confirmation might land in junk.. It seems they are manually reviewed, about 5 hours later, overnight, we got our emails saying our documents were approved and when online check in was open we were free to use it. We used online check in this afternoon no problem. Given the time sequences and we hate to be stressed last minute, we are glad we started the Greek PLF early and then the BA upload right at the beginning of the 72 hours period. Suggest others try and follow that route as you cannot check in online without the document clearance. We will be carrying both paper and scanned copies of everything tomorrow and we also have things on our phones. Next update will tell you how it all went and how safe (hopefully) we felt on the plane. If anyone has any questions they want answered about life onboard that Huntingdon did not cover (he did so well, he covered so much) post them and I will try and get the answers. After 21 months away from Azamara I think you can guess how excited we feel tonight (although packing was stressful, we have lost the skill for overseas trips). It will be special to go home to our sailing family. Edited September 9, 2021 by uktog 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
takemewithyou Posted September 9, 2021 #2 Share Posted September 9, 2021 @uktogThis is so exciting that you will do some reporting from Quest!! So happy and excited for you to be onboard again! 1. If you dine in specialties or Patio, I would love to hear what you think of the food compared with pre Covid sailings. 2. Also comparison of variety of menu offered in main dining room and food quality 3. evening entertainment reports Thank you so much for offering to do this! Safe travels and hope you have a great holiday aboard Quest! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare uktog Posted September 9, 2021 Author #3 Share Posted September 9, 2021 5 minutes ago, takemewithyou said: @uktogThis is so exciting that you will do some reporting from Quest!! So happy and excited for you to be onboard again! 1. If you dine in specialties or Patio, I would love to hear what you think of the food compared with pre Covid sailings. 2. Also comparison of variety of menu offered in main dining room and food quality 3. evening entertainment reports Thank you so much for offering to do this! Safe travels and hope you have a great holiday aboard Quest! We certainly hope to dine around the ship and try and do a cruise like in the past - enjoying the food, finding entertainment we like so we will certainly report on that and how we find the Destination Experience onboard and the "White Night/Sparkle night" whatever they call it. Regarding the Destination Experience, when we were last onboard in the Caribbean, we had our Azamazing evenings onboard, so we have already had a different type of evening, but it will be interesting to see if they have developed the concept further. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Skip Posted September 9, 2021 #4 Share Posted September 9, 2021 UkTog, hope you have a wonderful time... we too seriously considered joining Quest on Saturday, but just couldn't make the sums add up for the mortgage of flying via Heathrow (we actually considered driving overnight there) as well as everything else including many last minute arrangements and a return home hours before the dreaded back to work 😞 .. but a wee land trip to Croatia with direct flights from Edinburgh will hopefully be a welcome break...and a bit of a comparison. Have a great time ! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
takemewithyou Posted September 9, 2021 #5 Share Posted September 9, 2021 Looking forward to your thoughts on the White night and Destination experience. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malcliz Posted September 9, 2021 #6 Share Posted September 9, 2021 We too are on this cruise and very excited to be back on Azamara! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Georgeven Posted September 9, 2021 #7 Share Posted September 9, 2021 @uktog... So good you'll be doing this :-). Maybe we meet on-board, don't hesitate to say hello if you see us around the ship... we are so excited to be back after a little bit more than two years non voluntary cruise break. This time around we are just looking forward to relax and enjoy the ports in a relaxed way... and enjoy the Quest tranquility 🙂 Safe travels and see you around 😷 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs.Dukes Posted September 9, 2021 #8 Share Posted September 9, 2021 Wishing you a wonderful trip. Hope your travels go smoothly. Enjoy! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
takemewithyou Posted September 9, 2021 #9 Share Posted September 9, 2021 Oh…another thing! Hope you don’t mind me asking for another topic…..would love to hear what you think of the current included wines on offer. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare oddjob16 Posted September 9, 2021 #10 Share Posted September 9, 2021 Have a great trip, Ann. We contemplated this one as well, but we never got off the fence…😎😎😎 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
royallondon Posted September 9, 2021 #11 Share Posted September 9, 2021 Hope you have a great cruise uktog and look forward to reading your postings and findings. Regards 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riocca Posted September 9, 2021 #12 Share Posted September 9, 2021 Ann & Charles, have a fantastic time, wish we could be joining you but not brave enough to fly yet. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Huntingdon1701 Posted September 9, 2021 #13 Share Posted September 9, 2021 That's fantastic. I hope you have a wonderful time! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChucktownSteve Posted September 9, 2021 #14 Share Posted September 9, 2021 (edited) @uktogI'm really looking forward to your posts. While I enjoyed the first time reports of @Huntingdon1701and found them quite good and informative, It will be interesting to hear your prospective from a seasoned Azamara aficionado who's so knowledgeable. I hope you have a great sailing! It's the combination of posts by you, @Huntingdon1701and @excitedofharpenden that caused me to book Azamara again for Greece in 2023. It had to be that far out because our cruise dance card was already filled through 1/2023. Edited September 9, 2021 by ChucktownSteve 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Host Jazzbeau Posted September 9, 2021 #15 Share Posted September 9, 2021 It will be great to see your reactions, since you have a solid base of 'old Azamara' memories to compare. Really hope you find that Sycamore is living up to its promises! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baynanno1 Posted September 10, 2021 #16 Share Posted September 10, 2021 Have a wonderful time Ann! Look forward to reading your posts. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laurieb Posted September 10, 2021 #17 Share Posted September 10, 2021 So happy you’re going on this cruise! I’m curious to know if they are having best of the best. Looking forward to reading about your cruise 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
excitedofharpenden Posted September 10, 2021 #18 Share Posted September 10, 2021 Safe travels and have a great time Ann. Phil 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckylamby Posted September 10, 2021 #19 Share Posted September 10, 2021 Have a safe journey and a great cruise - we are really looking forward to sailing on Azamara again soon - looking forward to reading your reports from onboard Anne and David 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Miggins Posted September 10, 2021 #20 Share Posted September 10, 2021 So delighted for you. Looking forward to your informative and interesting posts. Have a great time. Ann Feeling rather jealous. Can't wait to be back onboard Quest in April. Pam 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malcliz Posted September 10, 2021 #21 Share Posted September 10, 2021 Morning Ann. Can I ask how you got on with the TrustOne testing app? I’ve managed to register via the website so we have a QR code but can’t login to the app at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindy028 Posted September 10, 2021 #22 Share Posted September 10, 2021 So, so jealous, we would have loved to be on this one, however DH needs a hip replacement and could not cope with a plane journey. We are booked on Pursuit in March and would be interested in how you find the plane journey, that bothers us much more than the cruise. When we booked our March cruise, I was so excited to actually have something to look forward to, you must feel like kids on Christmas Eve! Have a great cruise and safe travels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Huntingdon1701 Posted September 10, 2021 #23 Share Posted September 10, 2021 (edited) 57 minutes ago, malcliz said: Morning Ann. Can I ask how you got on with the TrustOne testing app? I’ve managed to register via the website so we have a QR code but can’t login to the app at all. The app itself never opened for me - but it was never necessary. It just seems to hold the data for you so that you get the email results. They just need the QR code. Edited September 10, 2021 by Huntingdon1701 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malcliz Posted September 10, 2021 #24 Share Posted September 10, 2021 1 minute ago, Huntingdon1701 said: The app itself never opened for me - but it was never necessary. It just seems to hold the data for you so that you get the email results. They just need the QR code. Oh thank you. We thought we must be doing something wrong as the email from Azamara suggested downloading the app. Even reset the password and it still wouldn’t open! Glad to know it’s not necessary. We so enjoyed reading all your helpful reports! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Huntingdon1701 Posted September 10, 2021 #25 Share Posted September 10, 2021 Yes, I kept trying to restart the thing before sailing but it's never done anything more than sit there. Interestingly, MSC are using it for their Med cruises too. Hope you have a great trip! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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