Message for Kruzseeka

Have you sneaked off to the Caribbean and not told us Kruzseeka? :D

Just looking at some old posts and found one that said you would be in Tortola in January, so guess you gave already gone!

If you have, then have a wonderful time and we look forward to all the info on the Azura when you get back :)

If you haven't gone yet, then have a good time anyway, whenever it is you are going:confused::D

Have you sneaked off to the Caribbean and not told us Kruzseeka? :D

 

Just looking at some old posts and found one that said you would be in Tortola in January, so guess you gave already gone!

 

If you have, then have a wonderful time and we look forward to all the info on the Azura when you get back :)

 

If you haven't gone yet, then have a good time anyway, whenever it is you are going:confused::D

Kruzseeka is off to the Carribean - can't remember exactly when though. Hope you have a fantastic time Kruzseeka xxx

Thanks both. Left at the weekend. In a very hot and steamy Grenada today. Sadly geo...... my favourite bar has gone up market, lost its character and doubled its prices.:(Must make up for it tonight and drown my sorrows! :D

Will let you know how it all goes. So far so good - it's a big ship though!

yay! kruz...I didnt even know you were cruising:cool:

thats the best thing about the caribbean ........ just as you are thinking you've missed the last bar.....three more come along at once;):)

have a fabulous time

Keep on having fun Kruzseeka.............and a drink or two.:D

Welcome home Kruzseeka :) Not sure if you get back Saturday or Sunday! Looking forward to hearing all about the Azura :). Still hoping to go on her sometime ;)

Welcome back, Kruzseeka

Hope you have had a great time!

Welcome back Kruzseeka.

Would love to hear your tips and recommendations, as we go at the end of March. Don't think we have all of the same ports, but any advice for St Barth, Tobago, Dominica, St Lucia, Antigua,, St Kitts, St Martin, and other places I can't remember would gratefully received.

Thinking of doing Thomson Piton cruise in St Lucia, but can't decide if that's best. Also Tobago a dilemma as both the rainforest trip and the beach trip both appeal. Why can't they do a whole day so you could do both

By the way, we thoroughly enjoyed our cruise on QE and our time in Istanbul. Many thanks to those who helped with ideas. I did a LOT of walking and came back much fitter!

Sweby

Welcome back Kruzseeka.

By the way, we thoroughly enjoyed our cruise on QE and our time in Istanbul. Many thanks to those who helped with ideas. I did a LOT of walking and came back much fitter!

Sweby

Sweby - isn't Istanbul just the most fantastic city? It has to be my favourite city - I just love the atmosphere & everything about it. Where did you go & what did you do there?

Jules :)

Hi all. :) Just back. Great trip, islands lovely as ever (even with a few tropical downpours!), food very good, very comfortable and quiet cabin and entertainment surpassed our expectations.

Although much bigger than other ships we've been on, we really weren't aware too much of the ship being crowded except for some entertainment events when clearly the venues can't accommodate all those who might wish to attend. I felt the public spaces especially the outside deck space not significantly more than ships carrying about 2000 (about 1500 pax less). As with all ships/cruise lines there are pluses and minuses but we had a really good cruise and wouldn't hesitate to travel on Azura again for the right price and itinerary.

Anyone interested in anything specific just ask.

good to have you back kruz:cool:

any new/different ports on azura?

i'm guessing you mostly did your own thing but, did you do any shorex with p&o? did they appear reasonable value in your opinion? (when compared to thoms)

pleased you had a great trip:cool:

Welcome back Kruzseeka.

Would love to hear your tips and recommendations, as we go at the end of March. Don't think we have all of the same ports, but any advice for St Barth, Tobago, Dominica, St Lucia, Antigua,, St Kitts, St Martin, and other places I can't remember would gratefully received.

Thinking of doing Thomson Piton cruise in St Lucia, but can't decide if that's best. Also Tobago a dilemma as both the rainforest trip and the beach trip both appeal. Why can't they do a whole day so you could do both

By the way, we thoroughly enjoyed our cruise on QE and our time in Istanbul. Many thanks to those who helped with ideas. I did a LOT of walking and came back much fitter!

Sweby

Thanks Sweby :)

Hi - hmmm....... tips - hard to advise. Re the ship, one thing I think you need to do is plan your evenings carefully if there are any particular entertainment events you want to get to as there are a number of venues and timings can clash - also they can quickly fill up. Sunbeds are at a premium!!!!!! so it's the usual scramble on sea days. We're not big pasta fans but if you like Italian, the Verona restaurant at night got good reports. Its one of the self service venues but carries a small cover charge at night but well worth it apparently.

Haven't been to St Barth's and we only stayed in port at Tobago when we went there climbing up to the fort so unable to offer much help there either.

St Lucia, in common with lots on here I could recommend Cosol tours if you wanted an island tour including time for a swim at the base of the Pitons. Reduit Beach is good if you want a beach day - if you want more info or travel advice let me know (we went on the local bus @ $1p.p. each way!)

It really depends on what you best like doing. Antigua is one of our favourite islands. Again if you want a good beach I can recommend Valley Church - also easy to do on local buses or if you want to see more of the island Shirley Heights and Nelson's Dockyard are worth seeing. You can pick up local tours dockside.

Dominica is best known for the tropical vegetation and waterfalls. We did a ship's trip to Mero Beach which we enjoyed. It's black volcanic sand but quite fine and the swimming good. Some folks from our ship did it by taxi but paid $40 each way for the taxi (4 of them) plus beach furniture hire costs. We got a rum punch included too - the other people said it had cost them more than us - the only difference being they were able to stay longer.

St Kitts we did a beach transfer to Carambola beach resort which suited us well. The train is the big excursion there -probably best done through the ship though as carriages are pre booked by the cruise companies so availability may be an issue (I think there is a tight tie up with the train firm and cruise lines) and I've heard in the past that fellow travelers did it independently but it cost them more but someone said the opposite last week!!l

St Maarten we did what we always do - there were a lot of ships in but we just got the water taxi to the beach and walked left away from the centre and there were plenty of sunbeds available. Best prices in Philipsburg for lots of things. :)

If you have any questions or if I can help just ask.

So pleased you've enjoyed your Eastern Med trip on QE - we did too. Yes Istanbul is a great port of call.

good to have you back kruz:cool:

 

any new/different ports on azura?

 

i'm guessing you mostly did your own thing but, did you do any shorex with p&o? did they appear reasonable value in your opinion? (when compared to thoms)

 

pleased you had a great trip:cool:

Hi geo.... thanks, nice to be back in some ways but could have happily stayed another couple of weeks! :)

Only new port for us was Bonaire which i didnt have high expectations for having researched it fairly thoroughly. Apparently its a snorkeller/divers paradise. One couple we spoke to were waxing lyrical aboutbthe best snorkeling ever including the Maldives. But we picked up a local taxi $50 for the two of us (plus $10 tip) for a three hour tour of the island which was really interesting and we enjoyed immensely. The town is small but with quite a few touristy shops and bars/cafés and the typical colourful buildings of the Dutch islands.

We did one shore ex in Dominica (found the personnel rather wanting re specific advice/knowledge at the desk although the presentations were good) and thought that one was good value - £24 for beach transfer including beach furniture and drink. The guide was good and the half hour transfer very interesting. Only problem was that we would have preferred the beach stay to be a bit longer but the trip was good value we thought. Yes we did go independently in the main but thought the trips were very similar in price to Thom's. Drinks prices likewise!

Incidentally it was a Thomson charter flight on the Dreamliner which we were impressed with and we heard many other passengers making very positive comments too.

But another great cruise in the Caribbean - can't be bad! ;):)

Glad you had a good time and liked the Azura, Kruzseeka :) Still hoping to go to the Caribbean again. I am looking at November/December this year, as I remember there were some bargains last year at that time. A friend told me yesterday that November/December is still hurricane season, not sure if that is true?

Anyway, I will see what P&O are like next month and then start tracking for next winter ;)

Looking forward to hearing more about your cruise (when the washing etc is done:eek::D)

Welcome back Kruzseeka. Look forward to hearing more when you've unpacked etc.

Very pleased you enjoyed your Caribbean cruise, Kruzseeka. Am looking forward to reading about your experiences. I would love to cruise the Caribbean again someday and try a different cruise line.

Well need a break from the ironing so for those who are interested, here are a few random thoughts about our time on Azura....

Pluses:

- Cabin comfortable (basic inside) with plenty of storage and walk-in closet, adjustable (reliable) aircon

- Decent length of times in port despite a vague set of timings pre-cruise

- Good ports - enjoyed all of them

- Entertainmnet very good - surpassed our expectations and best we've experienced except for Thomson - not up to Thomson's standard in terms of frequency or quality of shows (at least those we've seen in the past).

- Food very good indeed - good comprehensive selection in mdr (three main courses on 'stand-by' menu; salmon, sirloin and chicken plus about 4/5 on the daily changing menu), nicely presented and good quality

- Good pre-cruise info and prompt feedback to queries

- Excellent flight on Thomson chartered Dreamliner with good luggage allowance 23Kg + 5kg (no free drinks in economy though, and no choice of main course for dinners - does that still happen on Thomson's own cruise flights? But these will be negotiated specifically by P&O for their charters I guess)

- Bonded luggage as with Thomson flights to Caribbean - BUT beware if you are offered a scheduled flight e.g B.A. you will have to collect your luggage in Barbados and go through check-in on the way home too as you are treated like an independent traveller)

- check-in pretty efficient given large numbers arriving at about the same time

- one tender port - got off quite early given size of ship

- excursion prices much like Thoms

- also drink prices

- liked the freedom dining option

- theatre impressive and great views

- some nice alternative eating places thoigh we didn't try them but those who had been were impressed (including one self service which did Italian at night for small cover charge)

Less impressed with: (these are not complaints - I am not moaning!!!!)

- Definitely in need of refurb (in next month or so), carpets grubby in public areas - light colour so doesn't fare well but some upholstery more worn than any other ship we've travelled on! But that will be addressed soon.

- self service areas - poor flow around counters, cramped and frustrating. Small ares for number on board at pressure times

- pool areas cramped

- insufficient deck space - counted 100+ spare loungers stacked but no room to put them out

- promenade deck too narrow for loungers - just chairs

- entertainment venues not big enough for demand for some shows

- rather impersonal service

- lacking in activities for those who didn't want to sunbathe on sea days or didn't wish to go to some event whose main purpose seemed to be to sell you something (art-work, cosmetics, spa treatments etc)

- one lecturer on board - boring and worst presentation of any we've seen.

- destinations staff not too helpful although the presentations were good

None of the above bothered us much but may be of interest to others.

There were few children on board but there appeared to be good facilities for them - kid's clubs etc.

But I must confess this was our first time on such a big ship (3,500) and I couldn't see a lot of advantages over ships carrying about 2,000 and clearly there was far more pressure on facilities. The public spaces, eg.coffee shop, self service and pools etc seemed no bigger than on ships with far fewer pax. Some 'features' like the sea screen were a bit of a white elephant I thought. Irritiating in the afternoon if you wanted to laze around the pool and had a film commentary going on and one evening we went out to discover about 20 people watching the film. Seemed under-used at night.

There was quite a bit of variety of good evening entertainment, resident bands, guest acts and shows but clashes and lack of space in some venues a bit frustratiing. I suppose it would work if people sptread themselves evenly throughout the ship - but that really isn't going to happen.

These are just observations in the context of other ships/cruiselines we've travelled with. Never had a bad cruise - and this was no exception however it's impossible not to draw comparisons. So these are mine for what they are worth.

Overall - we had really good trip - the cruise delivered what we wanted; comfortable cabin, good entertainment, enjoyable destinations and very good food. We would travel on the Azura again for the right price and itinerary.

(But I ust confess to having some very nostalgic thoughts when we saw Celebration in St Kitts! The wonderful Filipino crew and entertainment take some beating!)

Thank you very much Kruzseeka. While you were away we have booked with P&O so I was interested to hear your views.

At least the foods good....that's the main thing!:rolleyes:

(no free drinks in economy though, and no choice of main course for dinners - does that still happen on Thomson's own cruise flights? But these will be negotiated specifically by P&O for their charters I guess)

thanks kruz...thats great info:cool: (not just the above quote...the rest of it too)

we didnt get a choice of main on dreamliner at christmas either, it was chicken & rice or nothing!:( the complementary bar only came around once, but we did stock up on miniature bacardis by asking for 2 each...we shared the can of coke and kept the other one for secret swigging at the sailaway later:o;)

Thank you very much Kruzseeka. While you were away we have booked with P&O so I was interested to hear your views.

 

At least the foods good....that's the main thing!:rolleyes:

Which ship happy v ?

Yes the food was very good - we've realised that is quite important to us after a disappointing experience. We've been on three P&O ships now and we have found them good value with many positives. My reservations about the size are just an observation and are not enough to stop us going back - you just decide what you want to do and find your little corners you enjoy hanging out - much the same as any ship. We really enjoyed our trip and hope you will too. :)

Which ship happy v ?

Yes the food was very good - we've realised that is quite important to us after a disappointing experience. We've been on three P&O ships now and we have found them good value with many positives. My reservations about the size are just an observation and are not enough to stop us going back - you just decide what you want to do and find your little corners you enjoy hanging out - much the same as any ship. We really enjoyed our trip and hope you will too. :)

It's the Oriana, though we have booked entirely for the itinerary (Solar eclipse and Northern lights), it will be nice to have some good meals too.

It's the Oriana, though we have booked entirely for the itinerary (Solar eclipse and Northern lights), it will be nice to have some good meals too.

Just replied on the other thread - spotted where you're off to on there. Wonderful - I'm quite jealous. What an experience that's likely to be! ;)

Just replied on the other thread - spotted where you're off to on there. Wonderful - I'm quite jealous. What an experience that's likely to be! ;)

It will be if we see them.;)

Great review Kruzseeka. Making me want to go on her now. I'm surprised she is in need of refurbing though, as she is barely 5 years old :rolleyes:

Great review Kruzseeka. Making me want to go on her now. I'm surprised she is in need of refurbing though, as she is barely 5 years old :rolleyes:

You wouldn't think so Linda but when you think of 3500 pax up and down corridors, public areas, stairs etc, it's had a pretty heavy footfall over those years. Part of the problem is thst the carpet is basically a biege background so tends to look grubby - had it been a darker colour I'm sure it would have fared much better. But interestingly the upholstery of the chairs in the Planet Bar was in worse condition than any I'd seen on any ship! I think the refurb is rather overdue tbh but clearly the ship will look so much smarter after the refit. I'd like to see it afterwards - I think it will look good.

I forgot to mention that the Atrium is quite impressive - light and airy with clean lines and lots of glass and marble but does take up a lot of space! Makes for some nice photo opps though!