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Anyone sailed with Ambassador?


wenlyn
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So just wondering if anyone has sailed on Ambassador now they have started operations. We're booked for Iceland in early June and I'm wondering what it's like on board. We usually do TA on Cunard so know it will be a bit different  but I'd love to hear how others have found it. TIA

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The ship is only on its first real cruise at the moment after the 4 day Maiden to Hamburg. I'm on a social media group where there have been a lot of posts from on-board. Very favourable feedback regarding food, service and entertainment. Most of the initial physical problems with the ship itself seem to have been resolved.

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I was on the Maiden cruise and loved it. The interior rooms are beautiful and although there was quite a lot of work going on with the decking and pools by the end of the four days it was looking good except for the hot tubs. The main problems were faults with cabins electric and plumbing. We had a fault with our plug but they were very responsive. 

Now the positives of which there were many. The officers and crew were amazing so friendly and helpful. Food was excellent our friend who travelled with us was a regular P&O cruiser as are we and thought the food just a bit better. The buffet was set out in food court style with different food stations with Perspex in front where you were served. Speciality restaurants apparently lovely but no food available late other than items brought round the bar by waiters. Drinks were extremely well priced.

The entertainment was top class, some of the best I’ve seen at sea and I’ve been on P&O, Cunard, Princess, Cruise and Maritime and MSC. There was something for everyone.

It is basically a reincarnation of Cruise and Maritime a three star cruise and as long as you don’t compare it like for like with Cunard you should enjoy it. We found it excellent value with a lovely atmosphere and are going again.

 

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We sailed on Cruise and Maritime twice. The first time was OK but the second was poor. The entertainment as amateurish and the food limited. The waitress in the dining room told me not to bother with the buffet as it was the same food as in the dining room. Having said that, I welcome the fact that they are sailing from Liverpool so I might give them a try.

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Good to hear that things have been fixed quickly and that people have enjoyed the maiden voyage. I'm looking forward to trying it, though worrying over what to take to wear in the evenings. I know it won't be as dressy as Cunard so trying to gauge what will be suitable and what would look overdressed is a challenge 🙂 I suppose it doesn't matter as long as we're comfortable. I know there will only be 2 gala nights but there appear to be casual and an inbetween designation and I don't know how many of either. Also never been to iceland before so working out clothes for the things we plan on doing there is also a challenge as I understand it can be changeable but with it being summer I'd hate to miss out on summer weather if we get it. I suppose as we'll get ourselves there we can take as much as we want - anyone have any idea how much space there is under the beds to store suitcases? 

 

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I guess that I'm a bit early with this, but I'm booked on the June trip to Greenland.

 

And 4 out of the 5 ports are accessed via tender.  I've never cruised before, so I'm wondering how this operator handles this and how it will affect the amount of time that I get onshore at each location -  given that I'm probably not going to book onto any of the, distinctly underwhelming, "Destination Experiences".

 

I'm also interested in hearing how smart I need to dress for the normal evening dinners.  I don't do this "dressing up for dinner" lark, and given that I'm going to have to take an extra suitcase full of winter clothes for this destination I wont have space for anything special for dining (do the people who make these rules even think of that?).  I'm just going to have to pass on the formal evenings.  I doubt that I'll starve by doing so, but don't want to miss every evening meal for the want of the wrong type of clothing.

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I've just come off the Norweigan Fjords cruise - 24th April - 1st May. I was initially very apprehensive about the trip after all the delays and cancelled voyages but we had an excellent time!
The food and staff are brilliant, and we enjoyed eating in both the MDR and buffet. The fish cooking in particular is great. We didn't try the speciality restaurants but heard they were very good. There is also a pool grill that serves burgers, hotdogs, terrible pizza and some lovely french fries. Afternoon tea is great, lovely fresh scones. 

There were still some issues going on which we expected as it was only the second voyage - our toilet wouldn't work properly for three days and the heating was quite cool the first few days and boiling hot the rest. 
We stayed in a Junior Suite, room 11146, and overall the experience was good - the room is lovely and big with a nice seating areas, and we liked the perks that were included such as daily canapes and a free bottle of wine. The balconies are quite small, and the bathrooms need renovating but the beds are very comfortable and there's plenty of storage for clothes. Our room was opposite a very noisy cupboard, and we were woken up very early each morning due to noise from the pool deck above, and staff moving past our door. Part of the suite perks are free breakfast room service - this isn't great and I wouldn't recommend it (usual price £8.95 per cabin). We ordered three times - first was cold, second lukewarm and third never arrived!)
Although the cruise line is aimed at over 50s I would argue this is more over 80s. The entertainment is quite dated, and although some of the shows were good, especially a theatre type production loosely centred on Chicago, some is not great including a slapstick comedy centred around a man juggling his wife and mistress at the same time. My mum is 66 and found most of the entertainment quite old fashioned. 
The main concern I would argue is there is limited outside space for cruises in warmer weather. The pools are tiny, and I'm not sure there would be enough seating on the pool deck for everyone. There are two hot tubs which were not in use during our visit, but apart from that, coupled with the lack of balcony cabins, I definitely wouldn't book a warmer cruise. I think a cruise to Iceland would be ideal for this type of ship. 

Both embarkation and disembarkation were very smooth, and we use the Tilbury train shuttle bus to arrive at the terminal which is very nice and easy to get too. However we did hear from other who have driven who had encountered issues. 

I hope you have a lovely cruise, it's a lovely ship and the staff are so welcoming and friendly!

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On 4/30/2022 at 5:01 PM, wenlyn said:

Good to hear that things have been fixed quickly and that people have enjoyed the maiden voyage. I'm looking forward to trying it, though worrying over what to take to wear in the evenings. I know it won't be as dressy as Cunard so trying to gauge what will be suitable and what would look overdressed is a challenge 🙂 I suppose it doesn't matter as long as we're comfortable. I know there will only be 2 gala nights but there appear to be casual and an inbetween designation and I don't know how many of either. Also never been to iceland before so working out clothes for the things we plan on doing there is also a challenge as I understand it can be changeable but with it being summer I'd hate to miss out on summer weather if we get it. I suppose as we'll get ourselves there we can take as much as we want - anyone have any idea how much space there is under the beds to store suitcases? 

 

 

Hi Wenlyn, for the gala night most people went all out and really dressed up, lots of men wearing suits and some beautiful dresses on show. However not everyone did, so I don't think it matters too much what you wear, but I don't think you need to worry about being overdressed as people definitely make the effort 🙂 
There is lots of storage in the cabins, and I could easily fit my large suitcase under the bed with room to spare! Let me know if you have any other questions, happy to answer or post photos 🙂

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On 5/4/2022 at 2:15 PM, tim_london0 said:

I guess that I'm a bit early with this, but I'm booked on the June trip to Greenland.

 

And 4 out of the 5 ports are accessed via tender.  I've never cruised before, so I'm wondering how this operator handles this and how it will affect the amount of time that I get onshore at each location -  given that I'm probably not going to book onto any of the, distinctly underwhelming, "Destination Experiences".

 

I'm also interested in hearing how smart I need to dress for the normal evening dinners.  I don't do this "dressing up for dinner" lark, and given that I'm going to have to take an extra suitcase full of winter clothes for this destination I wont have space for anything special for dining (do the people who make these rules even think of that?).  I'm just going to have to pass on the formal evenings.  I doubt that I'll starve by doing so, but don't want to miss every evening meal for the want of the wrong type of clothing.

From what I've heard so far, smart trousers and shirt are fine for the main dining room on nights other than the Formal Nights. On those, you will be able to eat in the buffet/food court area, 'Borough Market'.

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On 5/4/2022 at 8:12 PM, rosy6621 said:

 

Hi Wenlyn, for the gala night most people went all out and really dressed up, lots of men wearing suits and some beautiful dresses on show. However not everyone did, so I don't think it matters too much what you wear, but I don't think you need to worry about being overdressed as people definitely make the effort 🙂 

Thanks Rosy that's reassuring. I'm looking forward to being on board and discovering for myself. I really want to like it because it would be great to reduce our port commute from 3+ hours to 1.5. I'm sure I can pack enough to cover all eventualities as there are no flights involved 🙂 

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We have booked a cruise on Ambition from Liverpool in 2023 but had a few problems with the website:

The payment would not go through until I phoned customer services.

One of the phone numbers came back as no such number

When I logged on afterwards it said that the ship sailed from Tilbury, not Liverpool.

Hopefully these are just teething problems.

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We came off Ambience on May 11th.  We had a good time.  There were a few bits and pieces, but nothing much to complain about.,  It was a new crew so after a few trips they will be fine

.

Someone mentioned the entertainment crew.. wow they were good They were the best we have seen on any ship.

 

Re dress code.  There were three.. casual, smart and formal.  Casual seemed to be very casual, smart was casual smart ie going out to  restaurant for a birthday etc.  We wondered what the take up would be for 'formal' so we asked the Maitre 'd who more or less said   no don't bother so OH didn't wear his dinner suit but did wear a shirt and tie.  He likes dressing up on formal night so was a bit disappointed to find a very large take up of black tie.  We reckon over 50%  in dinner jackets, and 40% looked just as good in smart suits. .    The surprise for us was people wandering in on formal night  in jeans and trainers or similar.   This isn't a snobbish remark re dress code, just an observation that Ambience made the rules, ie no ripped jeans in MDR, and formal attire on formal night, but didn't enforce them at all.  The food was fine.. no complaints at all.

 

One thing I would say, and I have posted this already but just cannot remember where😂🙃.  I am newly partially disabled and need a small scooter in the evenings.   There was much discussion with Ambassador that if you need to use a wheelchair or scooter on board you must have an accessible cabin, which I wouldn't actually need.  They said anyone can take  a wheelchair or scooter on board for shore use, if in an ordinary cabin, but it being a small ship and because of Health and Safety Rules it must not be used on board .  I don't know how strictly this would be enforced but they were very adamant when we booked.

 

All in all it was really good,  well worth having a go with the new line.

Edited by indiana123
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thanks for the report indiana123


I would prefer formal dress code enforced in the mdr and certain bars - as it makes it more special.
P&O are good at this in my experience with them.

I’m looking forward to trying ambassador.

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1 hour ago, indiana123 said:

We came off Ambience on May 11th.  We had a good time.  There were a few bits and pieces, but nothing much to complain about.,  It was a new crew so after a few trips they will be fine

.

Someone mentioned the entertainment crew.. wow they were good They were the best we have seen on any ship.

 

Re dress code.  There were three.. casual, smart and formal.  Casual seemed to be very casual, smart was casual smart ie going out to  restaurant for a birthday etc.  We wondered what the take up would be for 'formal' so we asked the Maitre 'd who more or less said   no don't bother so OH didn't wear his dinner suit but did wear a shirt and tie.  He likes dressing up on formal night so was a bit disappointed to find a very large take up of black tie.  We reckon over 50%  in dinner jackets, and 40% looked just as good in smart suits. .    The surprise for us was people wandering in on formal night  in jeans and trainers or similar.   This isn't a snobbish remark re dress code, just an observation that Ambience made the rules, ie no ripped jeans in MDR, and formal attire on formal night, but didn't enforce them at all.  The food was fine.. no complaints at all.

 

One thing I would say, and I have posted this already but just cannot remember where😂🙃.  I am newly partially disabled and need a small scooter in the evenings.   There was much discussion with Ambassador that if you need to use a wheelchair or scooter on board you must have an accessible cabin, which I wouldn't actually need.  They said anyone can take  a wheelchair or scooter on board for shore use, if in an ordinary cabin, but it being a small ship and because of Health and Safety Rules it must not be used on board .  I don't know how strictly this would be enforced but they were very adamant when we booked.

 

All in all it was really good,  well worth having a go with the new line.

 

I think that is fairly standard on all ships.  I think it is general maritime rules, so anyone with disabilities and needs to tell the cruise line when booking and they have limits on number of passengers they can accept with disabilities.  It is because of evacuation plans in case of emergency.

 

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I entirely agree about the limits but have taken my buggy on Cunard and P and O and although I had to inform them and fill out the necessary forms I was able to have a normal cabin and not an accessible one..Mind you, I'm not complaining as the only cabin available with accessibility when we booked was a suite which was massive and we loved it.

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17 hours ago, indiana123 said:

I entirely agree about the limits but have taken my buggy on Cunard and P and O and although I had to inform them and fill out the necessary forms I was able to have a normal cabin and not an accessible one..Mind you, I'm not complaining as the only cabin available with accessibility when we booked was a suite which was massive and we loved it.

 

We had problems with a cabin on Fred a few months back and out in a disabled cabin.  We felt it was real luxury as twice the size of other cabins and they are a good size to begin with.  Enjoy the cruise.

 

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