Azamara Cutting Back on Cruise Critic Party??

[seasheils]

We are on Quest from 6th September and hope to enjoy a CC meet & mingle - I say hope because our previous experience on Celebrity Mercury out of LA on 11th May was a bit dissapointing due to being a morning meet with no alcohol and no ships officers except the Cruise Director's assistant (coffee, tea biscuits and orange squash not juice). We did get to meet a few others from the roll call, other than that poor show.

 

I don't think sharing the Navigator with smokers and other sundry people actually helped.

 

I think you'll find that there will be a much better party on the Quest. Azamara is a bit more upscale and the staff and officers really go out of their way to make the Cruise Critic members feel welcome. In fact, they are amazing at making each and every passenger feel welcomed and important. I don't think you will be disappointed.

Have a good trip on the Quest,

Sheila

[Queen Bear]

The party in the suites hosted by Sheila and Andy, Alicia and Dustin was great.

 

Kathy and Mike

[Burdell]

We didn't have but 23 sign up so we got the email cancelling the party just before departure; however, on the night before our sea day, the party was scheduled and posted on the nightly ship news. It simply said "Cruise Critic".

 

Only 5 of us showed up. The Captain and his entire staff was there. The party was one of the highlights. We met the other CC people and managed to arrange bridge tours, control room tours and galley tours.

 

At the party the hotel director confirmed that Celebrity Cruises reads cruise critic daily and pay close attention to the comments.

 

Be on the lookout for the party announcement and go to it. IT will be great. BTW, we were on the Quest.

[greeneg]

We are on Quest from 6th September and hope to enjoy a CC meet & mingle - I say hope because our previous experience on Celebrity Mercury out of LA on 11th May was a bit dissapointing due to being a morning meet with no alcohol and no ships officers except the Cruise Director's assistant (coffee, tea biscuits and orange squash not juice). We did get to meet a few others from the roll call, other than that poor show.

 

I don't think sharing the Navigator with smokers and other sundry people actually helped.

 

Actually, for our May 16 sailing's party on the Quest, the lounge was posted as "closed for private function" and the smokers were elsewhere during the party.

[shoshona2]

Hi All,

 

We were on the following cruise after Joeinsb. Azamara hosted two cruise critic parties for us -- one right after departure in Michael's for cocktails and one for breakfast in the area near the Casino. Phillip, the hotel director, and John, the cruise director, were fabulous. They couldn't do enough for any of our 34 cruise critic members. It was a wonderful cruise -- fabulous food, wonderful service, good entertainment and a brand new itinerary for Azamara. The Captain did a great job of informing us of any possible problems -- we had none. He circumventing areas with storms if at all possible. He even had to head back to our last port earlier than planned because of a very sick passenger who had to be evacuated to a hospital.

 

Well done, Azamara! We were so pleased with our first Azamara cruise that we booked another cruise for next year while aboard. The people at Azamara/Celebrity DO READ these boards. They are ready to change anything possible to make the cruise a wonderfull experience. Our cruise had only 180 English speaking passengers out of 700 passengers and I'm sure that might have been a different experience for the line. They handled it perfectly!!!

 

Sheila

[j!m]

we have jus returned from the june 15 sailing on journey. there was a c/c cocktail party, and a tea get together on second last day. the crew could not have been nicer to us. many snr officers attended the cocktail party.

 

tours we offered to the bridge, galley and control room.

 

all crew go out of their way to make sure everyone happy and all seemed genuinely interested in maintaining and improving quality

 

thanks, journey crew

[vival]

we have jus returned from the june 15 sailing on journey. there was a c/c cocktail party, and a tea get together on second last day. the crew could not have been nicer to us. many snr officers attended the cocktail party.

 

tours we offered to the bridge, galley and control room.

 

all crew go out of their way to make sure everyone happy and all seemed genuinely interested in maintaining and improving quality

 

thanks, journey crew

 

Hi J!m - glad you enjoyed your trip. We're on 12th July sailing and getting very excited. Were the tours of the bridge etc available for all or only at c/c party? Also would love to have a more detailed review of your trip and any advice you or anyone else would have.

Thanks Vivien

[j!m]

vival

 

the trip is wonderfull, great ports except for helsinki (imo) berlin was interesting, tallin a hiddem gem and SP amazing.

 

the crew are a great group and cant do enough to makes sure you are having a good time.

 

as for the tours of the bridge, galley etc dont know who all was invited just know we were and dont know why. could be we are elite members or maybe our room, honestly dont know.

 

heres a few tips

 

copenhagen and stockholm are very expensive cities dont expect to eat cheaply or find bargains also their money is not worth a whole lot outside of the country so use a c/c for large purchases and do not buy a lot of the local currency, same thing in russia

 

be patient, the first day in SP it takes a while to get off the ship

 

tallin is lovely, do a tour of the old city

 

expect crowds in the SP sites, there are lotsa tourists

 

do a canal tour in SP see the city from a different perspective

 

do a canal tour in stockholm

 

expect to have a great time, we did and were not disappointed

 

hava great cruise

[vival]

Hi J!m

Thank you so much for your promot and informative reply - it just helps to add to the anticipation. I was particularily intrested that you liked the canal tour in St P. We haven't included that in our tour but have the option of adding it on the ground so to speak if we decide we want to do it.

Vivien

[izzyis]

I was interested in your comment about a cruise critic party(or gathering) on ship. I am sailing in September and have read a few comments on blogs about this. I am wondering how do I go about seeing for my cruise if anyone is gathering or when it is, does the azmara web site give me this info. or do I get it from cruise critic web site? Any info. is appreciated.

[greeneg]

There really are two sorts of "Cruise Critic " parties: one is sort of official which is pretty much what is being referred to in this thread. It is sponsored by the cruise line and usually occurs on the first sea day. You should register for it and you will find a link at the top of this page ( click on register for a Azamara/Cruise Critic Meet & Mingle). You will be taken to a page on the cruise line's site where you will be asked for your reservation number, your last name, and your sailing date as I remember. Input the requested information ( the line will not share this with anyone) and you'll receive an email that you have registered and another when the required minimum registration number has been met. These are usually very nice and well attended by your fellow Cruise Critic Members as well as the ship's senior officers as a general rule.

 

A second type of get together is usually much more informal, and un-sponsored; this usually involves the people who have been posting on the sailing's roll call and who want to meet each other face to face. These often occur at sail away by mutual consent and are usually fun. You can find about these by checking out the roll call for your particular sailing on the roll call pages.

 

Hope that's useful.

[izzyis]

That was very useful, thank you very much.

[TravelerThom]

Parties are fine, but I don't see how they contribute to "getting business" or to developing loyalty. Who would actually choose to cruise on a particular line just to attend one short party? EVERY line and many travel agent consortiums offer cocktail parties. It didn't start with Cruise Critic.

 

Consortium-sponsored parties often offer the most unrestricted amounts and types of free drinks, from my experience.

We are just back from the 30 June Journey Baltic cruise. A CC cocktail party the first evening and a coffee on the last sea day. It was very pleasant way to meet many of the ship's officers and our fellow roll callers (and finalize some joint plans). A CC party by itself would not buy my business, but as an addition to the wonderful ship and service it is certainly another factor that increased my enjoyment of the cruise. Despite opinions to the contrary, these parties develop loyalty and business for the cruise line.