Anybody onboard currently?

[andrcan]

19 minutes ago, alfredo1 said:

Subsequent To my last post I have just viewed the topic below which totally illustrates the point.

Azamara drink packages and included drinks

 

 

Knowing that the taste for wine is individual and with only one AZ cruise under my belt, I should say the quality of included wine on my cruise was well above my expectations. My understanding is, the wine selection this year varies from ship to ship, from cruise to cruise, and that's the issue. Hope it's gonna be resolved soon. 

[Lookyboy]

11 hours ago, norn iron said:

Au contraire, I thought they were better, maybe less choice but an overall improvement.

I know. It is quite subjective. Trust me to book a cruise around Italy when I really can't drink Italian wines. 🙃 🙄

[Lookyboy]

On 6/30/2022 at 10:21 AM, norn iron said:

Au contraire, I thought they were better, maybe less choice but an overall improvement.

Aye....subjective. 🙄🙋‍♀️

[Aardvaark]

On 6/30/2022 at 1:46 PM, andrcan said:

Knowing that the taste for wine is individual and with only one AZ cruise under my belt, I should say the quality of included wine on my cruise was well above my expectations. My understanding is, the wine selection this year varies from ship to ship, from cruise to cruise, and that's the issue. Hope it's gonna be resolved soon. 

It's said that the sommelier goes ashore in several ports and brings back what he finds is good enough to bring aboard.  Thus, the selection will always vary around a constant group plus what is brought back.  We love trying unique things.

[andrcan]

37 minutes ago, Aardvaark said:

It's said that the sommelier goes ashore in several ports and brings back what he finds is good enough to bring aboard.  Thus, the selection will always vary around a constant group plus what is brought back.  We love trying unique things.

Being offered unique things on top of standard list of decent quality wines is always a nice option. This is what I do by myself as well when on a trip - try local. When with AZ, I can bring and consume local alcohol on board of the ship - something other cruise lines do not like their guests to do. I like to exercise this option not due to poor quality of included wines though.

[lisiamc]

55 minutes ago, Aardvaark said:

It's said that the sommelier goes ashore in several ports and brings back what he finds is good enough to bring aboard.  Thus, the selection will always vary around a constant group plus what is brought back.  We love trying unique things.

If that’s going to be the case, I will look forward to it. For the longest time, there’s been a focus on California wines, sometimes ok, but not always to my taste, and the stuff Italy and Spain are hoping to export because no native drinkers will touch it. 😉

Edited July 1, 2022 by lisiamc

[norn iron]

21 hours ago, Lookyboy said:

I know. It is quite subjective. Trust me to book a cruise around Italy when I really can't drink Italian wines. 🙃 🙄

Funny thing happened tonight. We had a bottle of Poggiotondo Chianti, and the advisor could not stop sneezing, and I was reminded that none of the wines served onboard Onward caused her to sneeze!

She even as much said, they were better wines on the ship. I'm not sure.

[Mackdogmolly]

On 6/27/2022 at 9:51 AM, kent4489 said:

Kymberly is awesome. She is on the Onward right now. Until Sep. 29, but she told us she may extend a month.

She really is awesome!

[marinaro44]

2 hours ago, Mackdogmolly said:

She really is awesome!

What is her position?

[Mackdogmolly]

5 minutes ago, marinaro44 said:

What is her position?

On Quest in December, she was wait staff in Windows and Discoveries. So charming, always remembers your name. We missed her this time, but loved Fanni

[marinaro44]

1 hour ago, Mackdogmolly said:

On Quest in December, she was wait staff in Windows and Discoveries. So charming, always remembers your name. We missed her this time, but loved Fanni

Thanks

[kent4489]

22 hours ago, marinaro44 said:

What is her position?

She was in Prime C on the cruise that returned on June 29.

[DS]

              We embarked the Pursuit in Copenhagen today for a (truncated) 10 night Baltic cruise.   In answer to some of the common questions on this board, I offer the following…

 There are 294 passengers on board, the smallest number of the 6 post-COVID cruises we have been on.  We arrived in Copenhagen yesterday afternoon after a relatively smooth pair of fights from Ft Myers, FL – especially given all the issues with air transport the past few months.   ( I’ll try to post another comment on the flights, especially our experience in Frankfort, later).

              Senior officers are Capt Antonio from Spain, Hotel Director Ngawhira, and Cruise Director Emily Love – I think she is relatively new at this position.

              The complimentary wines appear to be the Azamara branded wines (although it appears that there are only 3 reds available according to our waiter in Discoveries tonight, missing the Syrah that was on the Quest previously[SF1] ).   I’ll refrain from more comments until I can sample a few more, given that today is the first day.    I’ve no info on the contents of the upgraded beverage packages.

              The patio does not seem to open for dinner, at least thru tomorrow; no info on whether the Sunset Veranda in Windows is open…. Today was a bit chilly and windy as we departed and I saw no one out there when I walked thru, but I was not there the whole dinner time.

              I called this a truncated Baltic cruise because it is obviously not going to St Petersburg, Russia.   Instead, it is going to Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and ends in Stockholm.  Since we’ve been to St Pete, and never to any of the other ports/countries (except Copenhagen and Stockholm) we love the itinerary… but I guess a lot of people didn’t—witness the only 294 passengers…

              Re COVID test… Oslo Dutch posted in the roll call for this voyage (https://boards.cruisecrit, ic.com/topic/2815766-baltic-cruise-july-6-to-16-2022-on-azamara-pursuit/page/2/  , post # 40 about a place to COVID tests in Copenhagen for about $20.   We used it last night… walked in, were tested within 5 minutes, and had results 30 minutes later…. Very efficient, less than a 10 minute, only 1 turn, walk from Nyhavn .   Easily accepted at check-in.   Thank Oslo Dutch!  So far, masks are VERY few and far between amongst the passengers… Azamara seems to use all CAPS to say they are no longer required, and very small font to say “but highly recommended.”    We’ll see as we go along how the Captain handles any cases (on the Quest the Captains, especially Johanas, were very forthcoming about cases in their daily announcements… I’ve read that other ships have been less so…

              So, that’s the news from tonight…

 

             

 

---

 [SF1]

[Beamafar]

Has anyone experienced ’Bright Night’ as opposed to ‘White Night’?

 

Edited July 7, 2022 by Beamafar

[Scots Caz]

8 minutes ago, Beamafar said:

Has anyone experienced ’Bright Night’ as opposed to ‘White Night’?

 

on my last cruises...Quest (May) and Onward (June)...White night has been back...and what great nights..

(It was Bright Night on Journey in December)

[Beamafar]

3 minutes ago, Scots Caz said:

on my last cruises...Quest (May) and Onward (June)...White night has been back...and what great nights..

(It was Bright Night on Journey in December)

Thank you!   I thought so, but a link in an email from Az brought me to that page of the website.  It’s the one night I’m really looking forward to experiencing on Journey. 

[DS]

14 hours ago, DS said:

              We embarked the Pursuit in Copenhagen today for a (truncated) 10 night Baltic cruise.   In answer to some of the common questions on this board, I offer the following…

 There are 294 passengers on board, the smallest number of the 6 post-COVID cruises we have been on.  We arrived in Copenhagen yesterday afternoon after a relatively smooth pair of fights from Ft Myers, FL – especially given all the issues with air transport the past few months.   ( I’ll try to post another comment on the flights, especially our experience in Frankfort, later).

              Senior officers are Capt Antonio from Spain, Hotel Director Ngawhira, and Cruise Director Emily Love – I think she is relatively new at this position.

              The complimentary wines appear to be the Azamara branded wines (although it appears that there are only 3 reds available according to our waiter in Discoveries tonight, missing the Syrah that was on the Quest previously[SF1] ).   I’ll refrain from more comments until I can sample a few more, given that today is the first day.    I’ve no info on the contents of the upgraded beverage packages.

              The patio does not seem to open for dinner, at least thru tomorrow; no info on whether the Sunset Veranda in Windows is open…. Today was a bit chilly and windy as we departed and I saw no one out there when I walked thru, but I was not there the whole dinner time.

              I called this a truncated Baltic cruise because it is obviously not going to St Petersburg, Russia.   Instead, it is going to Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and ends in Stockholm.  Since we’ve been to St Pete, and never to any of the other ports/countries (except Copenhagen and Stockholm) we love the itinerary… but I guess a lot of people didn’t—witness the only 294 passengers…

              Re COVID test… Oslo Dutch posted in the roll call for this voyage (https://boards.cruisecrit, ic.com/topic/2815766-baltic-cruise-july-6-to-16-2022-on-azamara-pursuit/page/2/  , post # 40 about a place to COVID tests in Copenhagen for about $20.   We used it last night… walked in, were tested within 5 minutes, and had results 30 minutes later…. Very efficient, less than a 10 minute, only 1 turn, walk from Nyhavn .   Easily accepted at check-in.   Thank Oslo Dutch!  So far, masks are VERY few and far between amongst the passengers… Azamara seems to use all CAPS to say they are no longer required, and very small font to say “but highly recommended.”    We’ll see as we go along how the Captain handles any cases (on the Quest the Captains, especially Johanas, were very forthcoming about cases in their daily announcements… I’ve read that other ships have been less so…

              So, that’s the news from tonight…

 

             

 

---

 [SF1]

Last night I promised some details of the Frankfurt airport experience:  part me moaning, part warning for future travelers.

 

              We flew from Ft Myers directly to Frankfurt on Eurowings Discovery.   It’s a Lufthansa subsidiary that flies to/from Ft Myers a couple of times a week.   It’s the first time our travel plans matched with their limited service.   Its nice to get the long-haul flight done first, without first having to travel to Atlanta or Chicago or…    The flight was actually quite nice, newish plane.   Biz class and Premium Economy were full—but main cabin economy was almost empty… almost everyone for a set of 4 middle seats to stretch out in and sleep!   But a good flight overall.   We landed in Frankfurt on time, a few minutes before 10 AM and our connecting (FRA -> Copenhagen) was at 1:00 PM, so a leisurely 3 hours to get from gate to gate… or so we thought!  Actually we got to the second gate at about 12:15, just before scheduled boarding, after walking / standing in lines for more than 2 hours!  As you know, Frankfurt is a big, busy airport… walking from our arrival gate  for about a half hour (literally!) got us to security, which we had to go thru to get to connecting flights.   This line was about 20 minutes long.  Then another long walk to the next pier where our departure gate was—another 20 minutes or so.   Then we had to go through passport control… Which had serpentine lines for waiting… and was down an escalator with little room at the bottom, so they were letting only a few people down at a time, and the rest of us had to queue up on the upper floor in the pre-escalator line… but this line was almost the full terminal in length!  And took another half hour to get to the escalator, only to get in the passport line proper which took another 15-20 minutes!   And finally, another long walk out to (of course!) one of the last gates (A56) on the pier.    IN all, more than two hours to get from gate to gate.  I won’t even go into the boarding process which was delayed a half hour (even though the plane was at the gate when we got there??) and then how the captain said they were waiting for some connecting passengers whose luggage had already been loaded to board or they would have to unload that luggage.    Finally, they unloaded that luggage.    And eventually the purser came thru the cabin with the names of the “missing” passengers… all of whom were already on the plane (one was the guy in the window seat next to me who was there before we boarded!   Somehow these people had boarded but not been registered by the system!  At this point their luggage had already been offloaded, so it had to be re-loaded… but it turned out there were no baggage handlers available at the time, so we had to wait 20 minutes before they could start.   Finally we were ready to push back, but the push-back tractor had gone to another gate because of our delay, and we had to wait again for one to come back!   All in all, we were 90 minutes late in departure… so much for German Efficiency!

              So, the warning is to not try to make tight connections in Frankfurt (or probably anywhere in the current environment).   Never-the less, we made it to Copenhagen with very tired legs and only a relatively short delay.   But now we are on the Pursuit and others are taking care of us!   It’s great!

[Mackdogmolly]

On my Quest Lisbon to Copenhagen cruise last month (only 310 pax) also few  people masked. Captain Tysse did not mention any COVID cases, but I saw a crew member in full haz mat gear on deck 7 on one occasion, so I wonder. The Patio was never open for dinner, sadly.

[Port Power]

2 hours ago, Scots Caz said:

on my last cruises...Quest (May) and Onward (June)...White night has been back...and what great nights..

(It was Bright Night on Journey in December)

I guess the name was changed to differentiate the night, especially as it would be held over several venues to reduce crowding and allow social distancing. A less than full ship might not have needed that.  White Night is on the pool deck for everyone at one (although some will choose to eat in the MDR first).

[lisiamc]

2 hours ago, Beamafar said:

Thank you!   I thought so, but a link in an email from Az brought me to that page of the website.  It’s the one night I’m really looking forward to experiencing on Journey. 

If it’s your first White Night, I would advise you to go EARLY, especially if you are hoping for a table with friends. They start putting out the chairs and tables in the afternoon, and snagging one as soon as it is set up is not a bad idea. The first time we tried to attend, we went half an hour early, with two friends.  There were a few tables with one vacant chair, but nowhere that even two people could sit together at the rather full tables. As nice as the on-deck  buffet is, we now think it is a perfect night to eat in whichever speciality restaurant is open, and join the party afterward. The main dining room is also quite civilised, or another good strategy is to get dinner from the buffet and then find a seat in the Windows cafe, on the open back deck if possible.

[Beamafar]

3 minutes ago, lisiamc said:

If it’s your first White Night, I would advise you to go EARLY, especially if you are hoping for a table with friends. They start putting out the chairs and tables in the afternoon, and snagging one as soon as it is set up is not a bad idea. The first time we tried to attend, we went half an hour early, with two friends.  There were a few tables with one vacant chair, but nowhere that even two people could sit together at the rather full tables. As nice as the on-deck  buffet is, we now think it is a perfect night to eat in whichever speciality restaurant is open, and join the party afterward. The main dining room is also quite civilised, or another good strategy is to get dinner from the buffet and then find a seat in the Windows cafe, on the open back deck if possible.

Thanks a mil for the tip!  🙏  We are cruising with friends for whom White Night on Azamara will also be a first, so we will certainly arrange to follow your great advice.  👍

[tidespring]

2 hours ago, Mackdogmolly said:

On my Quest Lisbon to Copenhagen cruise last month (only 310 pax) also few  people masked. Captain Tysse did not mention any COVID cases, but I saw a crew member in full haz mat gear on deck 7 on one occasion, so I wonder. The Patio was never open for dinner, sadly.

You did survive though.

[uktog]

Bright Night and White Night. I could not tell the difference on Quest. Whatever it is if it’s your first you’ll have a great time

[roberts2005]

Has there been a start to Azamazing evenings ashore?

[lisiamc]

10 minutes ago, roberts2005 said:

Has there been a start to Azamazing evenings ashore?

There was a lovely one on the Onward Maiden, but that might have been an anomaly, because there isn’t one (at least that I’ve seen) on our August Pursuit cruise. Maybe it depends on regulations ashore? 

Edited July 7, 2022 by lisiamc