woodlander1

We have just disembarked after 42 days in a verandah cabin deck 6 on the first 3 legs of the world cruise.   It was our first Azamara cruise for nearly 7 years so we were a little apprehensive that standards would have dropped.  We can happily say that all was really good & Azamara fits the bill perfectly for us still.  Staff excellent as always, food offerings good, for us Prime C had the edge over Aqualina but both great.  Some super entertainment as well.  Yes the bathrooms are on the small side but how long do you spend in there - worked fine for us.

No hesitation in going again which we are next year!

I also had this email - interesting marketing.  I would definitely fall into the work & wander category- taking my laptop & suitable paraphernalia to enable me to keep in touch with work.  
Not sure what is being offered as an “extra” to make this over and above what many people already do.

29 minutes ago, Werangels said:

Our TA emailed Azamara at the beginning of this month with our correct ID’s, etc as ours are still incorrect, one saying preview, etc, etc.  This was after me getting nowhere with them through the contact form and telephoning several times.  It still hasn’t been corrected.  

Hope you can get this sorted 🤞

40 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

I’ve taken screen prints of my booking!

Hmmmm - hindsight is a wonderful thing!

Well up until now our account has been pretty ok.  It even showed that we had paid to upgrade to the indulgence package for each of our 3 B2Bs.  Couldn’t book excursions online with OBC but I have rung up and it has been sorted.  

However I logged in today and our upgrade to indulgence is not showing 🤨. Another phone call coming up 🙄🙄.  I don’t have any proof that we have paid for it other than our credit card statement so hope that there’s a record of it somewhere on the system. 🤞

It shouldn’t be this hard Azamara …………

Agree it’s not really fit for purpose.  
Well I guess we could arrive at guest relations & find the excursions we have booked are full.  🤞they are showing as booked on our account if that counts for anything but will have to cross that bridge when we get there.
Makes a bit of a nonsense of the whole system.  We bought the upgraded package to get the excursion OBC & other benefits.  Will have to re think that strategy if they are not going to let you use the OBC in advance to pay for excursions.

The same principle must apply if you wanted to use the spa credit to pre book a treatment etc.  🤪🤪
 

I am posting about my experience re OBC & using it for shore excursions.  I am UK based and we had a $300 OBC credit as part of our booking promotion.  We have also upgraded to the Indulgence package which gives an additional $700 OBC.  So $1000 in total.

I have been unable to apply any of our OBC to the excursions I have booked on the web site so rang the UK number for Azamara.  Eventually got through to Kansas, US!  Very helpful assistance - so we went through each of our bookings and she could apply the $300 OBC but not the additional $700.  The upgraded $700 does not become “live” until we board the ship so we have to go to guest relations and ask them to apply it to cover the additional cost of the excursions.  As we are doing B2B I guess that the $700 will only become available at the start of each leg.  🤔

A point to note she could not even apply the $300 to the last cruise as the final payment date is still 17 days away.  So I will have to call again at the beginning of November to get the last bit sorted out.  She also had the complications of currency exchange - OBC in $ but excursions in £.  

To be honest the assistant was helpful but it’s a very cumbersome system and there should be some notice saying you can’t use OBC until after  final payment date and upgraded packages can only be used once on board.  Perhaps there is but I haven’t seen it.  
This element of the web site definitely needs some attention- a lot of people like to sort out excursions as part of the planning stage of their trip.

We have just pre - registered for our first Cunard transatlantic in 2025.  Very exciting

We have booked today😀😀. B2B out of Dublin - we thought the itinerary was really interesting & places we’ve never been too.

Thank you for those insights - very helpful.

I’ve finally found the Add ons available-  looks like it’s around £760.

Yes I’d forgotten the “specials”  on laundry! 
thanks again- back to the spreadsheet!

Apologies if this has been asked previously…..

We were given the Experience More  Essentials package as part of an early booking bonus in 2022 for our trip in 2024.

I’m just trying to do some sums as to what’s best for us on our trip as we will need additional internet, possibly upgrade drinks & laundry (I am not doing laundry on holiday😀) a bit of Spa & some sundries.  

If we were to upgrade from the Essentials  package to the Indulgence package would we just pay the difference in price of the two packages which is currently $900?

What do you  budget per bag of laundry these days - $40/50?

I also remember reading that to upgrade from the premium to ultimate drinks package was $7 per person per day but no loyalty discount was applicable.  Is this still the case?

Trying to work out the best way to go bearing in mind some loyalty discounts that will be available to us - we are Explorers at the moment but will move to Discoverer on the last leg of our trip.  

Any assistance gratefully received 👍

We are embarking on a Scenic cruise Lyon to Lyon in 2023 and we are just starting to think about flights etc.  Can anyone advise where the Scenic river cruise port is and suggest any reasonable hotels (happy for a taxi ride to port) in Lyon for a pre-cruise stay.  

Thanks in anticipation

On 1/30/2022 at 11:14 AM, woodlander1 said:

Thanks everyone for your replies.  Our travel agent has just rung & confirmed that the booking will open on Feb 1st.  Let’s hope we can sort something out - we will be standing by the phone!

Well we managed to get our booking sorted yesterday!  It was quite stressful - all suites are fully booked for segments 1-3 then we had to try and get the same cabin for all three legs.  Anyway got a good balcony cabin on Deck 6 - we are very pleased.  😀

Thanks everyone for your replies.  Our travel agent has just rung & confirmed that the booking will open on Feb 1st.  Let’s hope we can sort something out - we will be standing by the phone!

We haven't cruised with Azamara (or any other line for that matter) since 2017.  We are looking at the first 3 legs of the 2024 world cruise as a means to get to New Zealand to visit our family and be part of a longer visit to NZ and Australia. It would make a nice change from the 24 hr flight!

Does any know when booking for individual sectors might open up?  

Well, we have confidence that in 18 months time Pursuit will be fully integrated into  Azamara and with that in mind we have booked our trip to the Baltic in June 2020

We will look forward to it 

We are just thinking of booking a Baltic cruise next year on Pursuit and I thought I would just take a quick look at the boards to see what was being said about this ship.  We enjoyed a cruise to Norway on this ship when she was named the Adonia with P & O.  Somewhat worried therefore to read these comments.  We have been on both Journey & Quest and had great experiences and wonderful holidays hence our return to   Azamara. We enjoy the ships’ ambience,  relaxed atmosphere,  our fellow travellers,  itineraries and the excellent crew.  

Are we going to be disappointed in Pursuit?  It  made me wonder whether the time had come for to at least look at other cruise lines like Oceania, Viking etc.

Any thoughts gratefully received 

PS we have just returned from a land based holiday in New Zealand and we saw Quest moored up in Picton as we were catching the Interislander from South to North Island.  It was lovely to see her - she was looking great.  It made me rather nostalgic and left me wanting to book another cruise with Azamara but...............?.

Take a look at the Strand Palace Hotel. Very close to Covent Garden & theatre district. Right opposite the Savoy Hotel.

Just got home, phew!

We used Memphis Tours in Egypt

www. memphistours.com

And Via Jordan Tours for Petra & Wadi Rum

http://Www.viajordan.com

So, trying to change the thread of this thread ;)

Ports of call from our personal view point-

Crete - we opted to do our own thing - a gentle start to the trip

Suez Canal - top top - get up early and watch the sunrise over the desert - one thing we weren’t expecting was acrid air pollution at the start of the transit - gets in the back of your throat but clears as the day goes on.

Safaga for Luxor- our recommendation would be do an overnight tour if possible. We did a private overnight one but I know the ship did an overnight trip as well. The journey to and from the ship is long and certainly the last stretch of road between Luxor and Qena (pronounced Kenna) is hard work - zillions of speed bumps as well as buses, donkey carts, pedestrians etc etc.

However certainly Luxor is a highlight and not to be missed

Aqaba- another highlight. We did a private day tour to Petra with a trip to the Wadi Rum on our way back to the ship. Top tip -either leave ship early (our pick up was 6.30am) or stay in Wadi Musa - nearest town to Petra overnight. We were on our way back from Petra and we saw ships tours on their way there!

4 sea days very welcome after busy tours to Luxor & Petra.

Salalah, Oman - not a great deal to see but nice introduction to Oman and good to get off the ship for a few hours.

Muscat, my personal favourite apart from Luxor and Petra. A real surprise - has managed to keep the balance between old & new. Very clean and friendly people.

Dubai - big, bold and brassy! Enough said!

There were certainly additional security staff on board who were visible around the ship at certain times. I cannot comment on any other matters as I do not know.

However I think Azamara got the balance about right in terms of the ship’s security.

Grandma Cruising is quite right no restrictions during daylight hours. From sunset External lights are switched off and there is no access to Deck 5 & 10. You can access the pool deck but there is minimal lighting - great for stargazing!

The black out lasted for 6 nights.

Hope this helps

When we get back to the UK later this week I will post a bit more of our journey on the Journey! If you have any particular questions I will do my best to answer.

We are currently sitting in the Living Room enjoying a small libation with the skyline of Dubai in the background. :D:D Dinner in the Patio restaurant shortly.

We disembark tomorrow after a fantastic cruise from Athens to Dubai - what sights we have seen and the Journey, Captain Magnus, Eric and all the crew have looked after us exceptionally well as ever.

Thank you Azamara

We too are going to Petra and will probably use a carriage. I have also heard that the animals are treated somewhat harshly by our standards. We shall simply say that there will be no tip if the driver treats his animal badly whilst we are there.

However i think it raises a wider question about animal attractions in general when on excursions.

We did a cruise that included a trip to Ko Samui and we went on an excursion that had an elephant ride. Whilst there was no suggestion or evidence that the elephants we rode on had been mistreated there has been some very bad press about the cruel way that some of these animals are trained in certain areas of Thailand. With hindsight we have had some regrets about doing that excursion.

I would ask Azamara to take a stand on this and give assurances that any excursions that include animal attractions have been thoroughly researched and vetted and they can categorically state that animal welfare is an absolute top priority.