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It’s not allergies coughs. They aren’t typically coughing fits. They are very different and for the last week we’ve beyond the areas affected.

Next to the funnel is shuffleboard or a walkway

Fortunately we didn’t have to cancel any but I wish the guests who had hacking coughs had

Cabanas would likely have issues up there - everything has to be secured on Deck 11 whenever there is any breeze or when sailing in open seas.

Lunchtime pool deck music used to be pleasant eg piano player from the Den or a guitarist. The use of the band from the living room only works if they play at half the volume they assaulted our ears with. Yesterday it averaged 130 db of music that wasn’t the more relaxing popular stuff for over an hour. Today there is no music, it’s a beautiful day and everyone is relaxing. I don’t hear anyone saying this needs music 🎶

Sadly no. Manoj seems to be the lead sommelier just now

This is the confusing picture that we currently have in journey in other words very much depends on the excursion what the cancellation deadline is. I believe it has been quite forcibly applied from what I’m hearing and also that guests who were unwell were not given a refund unless they visited the ship doctor before the excursion Sadly this meant a large number of excursions had guests who should not have been on the bus. There are no repeated statements that if you have a cough cold or unwell you should not join the tour. There is also no freely available masks eg at Guest Relations. This Cruise the amount of coughing and I mean really bad coughing that is now prevalent is the worst I’ve ever seen in over 40 Azamara cruises. We sat on a bus for 10 hours with a woman who should have been in her bed and who did not even have the courtesy to wear a face mask or cover her mouth when she was having coughing fits. The guide was very uncomfortable with this and offered her medicine sweets to try and stop her coughing

She’s the hostess in the Speciality restaurant if that’s who you’re thinking of

Kobe Day 2 This was a half day in port. Again shuttles were provided downtown but many people either stayed onboard or went a short stroll around the harbour area. And then there were those with no sense and decided to max out sightseeing and head on the Best of Osaka tour which left at 0745. Well you’re possibly only here once etc! We were on one of the four buses of early rising lunatics 😃 Our first stop was at Sumiyoshi Taisha in Osaka. This is a shrine part of which dates back nearly 2000 years and has 2 million worshippers every year particularly at the New Year time. Sailors and those associated with the sea including ship builders come here and companies make offerings for which flags are placed each month to offer their prayers to the gods for safe passage and prosperity in the coming period. The shrine is incredibly tranquil after the busyness of the previous day and we were very lucky to be on a bus with an excellent guide - she was a former school teacher and she told us that she would be checking our understanding of places to meet and times as she would her school class. It really worked very well. She was also a fount of fantastic knowledge. One hint that nearly caught people out later at the castle the guide did make it clear what tree we were to meet and on the way in that seemed obvious but on the way back there were an awful lot of similar looking trees. So suggest a quick pic of the immediate surroundings might calm nerves! After enjoying time at the shrine on our own in the peace after thr initial introduction to all the main parts we headed off to Osaka Castle This is of course we entered the parking lot as usual 15 to 20 minutes walking from the castle and encountered the crowds though not as bad as the previous day they were still extensive. The castle is a restoration of an original castle as always they managed to burn down the previous versions as we have frequently discovered throughout Japan The most significant artefacts are on two floors where you can’t take photos but what is great for pictures is the view from the top of the castle over the Osaka area but it is an 8 storey climb. The second type of cherry blossoms are coming to bloom and they made for some lovely photo opportunities We returned to the ship just before sailing traffic was really bad, but of course it was no problem. The ship would wait. The barbecue was in full swing when we got back very crowded and very noisy. The band was far too loud and unfortunately completely drowned out the beautiful brass band that had come to play to send us off. That was a very much a fail by Azamara. We had a leisurely afternoon the loyalty event which was very well attended and a pleasant evening. We really enjoyed the evening evening entertainment creweoke which featured members of the crew performing really well one lady in particular should be given a slot in the Den in my view.

There is no shade on deck 11

No

It has on Journey some were also 72 hours ahead - also a high number are non cancellable eg where lunch is included

Today on Journey was an example of what we hate about live music on Azamara. We find the current band to be fronted by a screamer and they play unrecognisable sounds - maybe known in their country but what we could call grunge. It was the deck BBQ. (Also virtually no loungers for our only afternoon sailing in warmer weather). The noise was unbearable spoiling lunch for us. The lunch food was good. What made the assault on our ears worse, it was sail away - a local brass band had come to send us off as is the custom in Japan - they were virtually ignored and drowned out. It was a bad result all round in our view.

Kobe Day 1 It’s hard with an overnight to know how much to try to do. Kyoto is a 90 minute drive (or 40 minute Shinkansen) from the port. We did the 10 hour tour to Arashiysma, the Golden Pavillion and Fushima Inari shrine (10000 tori gates though you only go through 1000). It goes by bus each way and was the only way we could find to see these three places. I wish Azamara had charged more, used the Shinkansen and allowed a little more time at each spot. The problem was in each spot we stopped nearly half the time was spent walking from parking lots to the actual site. It was a Sunday so super crowded though we were ok with that - some weren’t As is often our challenge we were on the bus with the less competent guide. Ours was incapable of giving clear instructions on where/when to meet - thank goodness our bus had a ships escort!! Anyway despite the guiding chaos we achieved our aim of seeing the three amazing sites The bamboo forest The Golden Pavilion The tori gates And shrines

I’m ok with the sun deck as it is. There are lounger chairs and sofas and is a nice/different ambiance to the pool deck which on Quest suffers grunge Muzak during what should have been a relaxing sail through beautiful scenery yesterday. Deck 11 was a great escape