Jem 12

21 hours ago, uktog said:

We have been here before on a Celebrity ship and they seemed then to have different beaches for different guests - we were in a big suite then and we were at a beach with lots of chairs etc.  We rented a cabana with two other guests.

We will now be back but this time with Azamara.  How do they handle which beaches guests can go to or is a more relaxed approach?

On the Voyage planner it says loungers for two chairs for $50 - this did not seem right for Azamara?  Are there no free loungers?

Hi we were there in May 19 on the Independence, the ordinary sunbeds were given out by the beach butlers, at no charge, but most people did tip, they set them up under a tree etc, where you requested, we had a lovely day there but we were the only ship in town 😀

1 hour ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

If you are on the UK try emailing Richard Twynam at RTwynam@azamaraclubcruises.com.

He’s the UK MD.

Thank you, are they offered on every cruise, does it depend on what you paid, 

Elizabeth. 

We are approx 60 days away from our cruise I have tried to apply for an upgrade at the moment we have an outside cabin, they are still selling Balconies, but i am getting a message to say not eligible for upgrade, does anybody know what the reasons are likely to be, we have paid in full, we are discovery plus, not that makes any difference now.

I did send an email to the link on the upgrade website a few weeks ago but I have not had any response.

thanks for any suggestions you may give .

Elizabeth 

Interesting post thanks for the advice. 

On 3/11/2016 at 2:08 AM, OneMoreTime said:

We are sailing from Fort Lauderdale to Southampton on April 10th on the Celebrity Eclipse. We are currently port side and thought about moving starboard but the cabin wasn't desirable. This is our first Transatlantic so we'll be more knowledgeable in the future should we opt to do another transatlantic cruise. Appreciate everyone's input.

We would normally pick our cabin on the starboard side for an Eastbound, but in May we booked late and didn’t have a choice, we ended up with a forward Port side cabin, all I can tell you is that when we tended to be in the cabin late afternoon, we had sun until sunset.  Enjoy your cruise. 

I’m not an Azamara expert, but if you have booked your own Hotel, do Azamara even know where you are?  I have always tended to think of transfers to and from Airports or Azamara booked hotels. 

Have a wonderful cruise. 

29 minutes ago, Werangels said:

My daily planner on the app shows the following:-

 

Yoga x 1, Pilates x 1, Boot Camp x lots,  morning stretch x lots. Fab abs x 2.

 

The caveat being that many have said the app is wrong! However, you would imagine at least some of these are on the itinerary and our cruise is port intensive too.

Thank you Werangels that looks very hopeful, if my memory serves me correctly I did turn up for a Pilates class once on Azamara, but as I was the only person to show up the class didn’t go ahead. Fingers crossed a few more people will join in.

thank you for replying

Jean

1 hour ago, excitedofharpenden said:

Definitely pack your gym kit. I'd go and talk to the spa first day and introduce yourself to the person in charge of fitness. Hopefully they will be enthusiastic like Robert was on Pursuit. 

 

Whilst you are there you can enter the prize draw to win a $500 spa voucher, but you do need to be there for it a little later on. Worth a go. Since the ballroom dancers are no longer part of the entertainment team, but rather are guest entertainers they no longer run dance classes.  A shame. 

 

Phil 

Thanks Phil I will take your very good advice. 

We met you at the Azamazing evening at the Cathedral in Palma, glad to hear you still cruising, we had to cancel our November cruise due to health issues so just so happy to be getting back on board again.

We loved the Professional dancers they were truly azamazing.

Jean and Les 

6 minutes ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

They have offered Yoga & Pilates on the cruises I’ve done, but my last Az Cruise was nearly a year ago.

Thank you, I know our cruise is quite port intensive, so I’m not expecting too many activities during the port days.

Hi all Azamara cruisers, could anyone tell me if Azamara do any free classes ie, Pilates, yoga or Zumba. I know they used to do occasional dance classes, but I don’t think these happen anymore. Just trying to decide if it’s worth packing gym kit, I’m not very good at working out on the equipment on my own, but I might have to. 😀

On 4/30/2019 at 2:47 PM, mrsmagoo1 said:

I contacted Royal about what was included - here's the reply I received. I'm sailing Independence in a month so can report back our experience.

Yes, Izumi Hibachi is now part of the Unlimited Dining Package, subject to availability. I hope you will enjoy all the benefits of this Dining Package! Please let us know if you have any questions about this or if we can help in any other way.

 

We are delighted that you have purchased our Unlimited Dining Package so that you can enjoy specialty dining at discounted rates! Izumi Sushi, Playmakers Sports Bar & Arcade, and Fish & Ships are a la carte options, and as you may know, your Unlimited Dining Package provides a $35 credit towards your food purchases in those venues. On the Independence of the Seas, Johnny Rockets has a cover charge of $9.95 per person, and you may use your Unlimited Dining Package there. Regrettably, Vintages is not considered a specialty dining venue for purposes of our dining packages, and we are very sorry for any disappointment this may cause.

 

We did the ultimate package on the latest Indy transatlantic, we ate in chops most nights, when we ate in the dining room, my husband had the surf and turf which would cost $42, I just had the fillet steak which was $20, we weren’t charged anything once we pointed out we had the unlimited, it isn’t printed on your card so they don’t know unless you tell them.

the only problem we had was when my husband ordered calamari at fish and ships about $6 the only thing we were having for lunch, he was charged, we queried this but they refused to cook it unless we paid for it which my husband did, we then stood waiting for 20 minutes, when we queried again they realised they had forgotten to cook it, despite the fact we were the only customers!!!!! We loved paying the 18% service charge on that order, especially as we just stood waiting at a counter!!!

i queried the charge at guest relations but they assured us it was not included, we thought it was ridiculous. 

We used Johnny rockets once, playmakers twice, it was nice to have the choice not sure I would do it again, very limited menus especially healthy veg/ salad, I used to go to the windjammer from Chops to get some salad.

We felt, it might have been our imagination, that we got the worst tables in chops and one night as the waiter put my meal on the table he acknowledged it wasn’t what I ordered but didn’t offer to correct, as we were eating with another couple I let it go. 

We did the package because  we had a bad experience with the food on Navigator last May, we thought the food on Indy in general was much better. 

Thank you Uktog for your excellent review, we have done one river cruise on Avalon, which we thoroughly enjoyed, although maybe the food and wine was not in the same league as yours we thoroughly enjoyed everything.

We also thought the tours and guides were excellent.

The ships captain on Avalon was very young and the ships crew were all very efficient and very friendly.

We too had a large group of ladies on board who went to bed fairly early, but we met a core group of 8 people and we had the best times in the dining room and in the lounge every evening.

We too would like to do another river cruise but are worried we won’t have so much fun next time.

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After 24 years with RCI and the last 2 with Celebrity, clearly RCI has the better overall entertainment. But to be fair, we don't cruise for the theater entertainment and in recent years have only gone to a few shows with either line.

 

But I will say that while overall RCI leads in this category, IMO Hairspray on RCI was the absolute worst show we have ever seen anywhere. The leads screamed their songs so loud it was distorted. We went the fist time and left halfway through. On a subsequent cruise we thought maybe it was a bad night the first time so we went again and didn't last that time for 10 minutes. But, very sorry, I digress......;)

We agree Hairspray on Symphony the worst show we have ever sat through the food was okay though, unlike on Navigator food was awful in dining room.m

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From what I hear there will be a number of innovations on Pursuit that if successful will make it onto the other ships.

Maybe the LED screen is one of them.

 

 

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I am wondering if there is any chance they could improve the dance floor up in the disco area, we found the tiled floor very sticky after the first day or two, they did try to buff it up but it didn’t seem to improve.

Wish they had the same floor as cabaret lounge.

This was the only tiny negative for us on our last cruise.

Well we weren’t mad on the content of some of the cabaret shows either, we are in our 60’s but Judy Garland type songs really don’t rock our boat.

We understand that they may bring back the dancers so that’s great news for us.

Loved our last cruise and really looking forward to the next one.

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It’s definitely worth asking your travel agent, I was told by a senior person in RCCL that the rule regarding final payment does not apply in the

Uk, it was a few years ago and it was in relation to the inequalities in the system.

Good luck.

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We get off the ship tomorrow after a fabulous 7 day cruise, we have loved every minute, every member of the Azamara team have been amazing, it seems like a very happy crew to us.

We did miss the dancers, but there probably wouldn’t have been time for dance classes.

It was a brilliant white night.

We loved eating the odd evening meal in the patio, so nice to eat outside and every meal was perfectly cooked.

We are looking forward to our next cruise on Pursuit even more now, just hope lives up to the Quest.[emoji3][emoji3][emoji3]

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Nice picture of Captain Jose. We will be on the Quest in a couple of weeks from now.

In relation to Ibiza, do you think it is possible to do it on your own? We have never been there before. It has a reputation of a party place. Any comment on that?

We did it on our own but we just walked around the local town, it is very hilly to get to the cathedral. We had a lovely day. During the day it didn’t seem very lively at all, although we were there on a Sunday.

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I have had it on board this week. 30th June .

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Monday 2nd continued

 

Well, we didn’t go ashore this afternoon. I did have a swim and a short sunbathe. The pool area was very quiet with most people going ashore. Apparently the shops were open during the afternoon but most people we spoke to got very hot in the city. We enjoyed relaxing, chatting to fellow cruisers and reading. We had the buffet dinner in Discoveries at 6 and met up with some new Aussie friends to keep company on the Azamazing evening.

 

It is a huge logistical exercise to get everyone ashore. There was a 10 minute walk from the coach drop off point into the Old Town for the Convent of San Francesc. When we arrived we were encouraged to walk around the cloister where various drinks were provided. In the open air there was a display of local dancing along with two ‘Giants’. In hindsight I would have preferred to be able to stop and watch this properly, rather than being encouraged to keep moving along as each coach arrived. Once the entire group (11 coachloads) were seated back into the church the concert began, a large children’s choir, Vermellets. They sang beautifully but it was difficult to see them from afar. Also the pews were very hard to sit on. The music lasted around half an hour but all together we sat for over an hour I think.

It would have been more enjoyable if there had been some announcements between the songs, telling us what we were hearing.

 

On returning to the ship we enjoyed listening to Heather, the pianist in Spirits. Whilst we had been ashore the Belgian football team had a narrow win in the World Cup. Consequently there were some very loud Belgian voices who stayed in the bar area, shouting to one another which slightly spoilt the atmosphere for a piano bar. I also don’t like the big screen above the piano showing reruns of old sport as it attracts the eye.

(PS. on Tuesday am we received the usual mid Cruise comment card. I mentioned about the screen and on returning at lunch time had messages from GR and Russ that this would be turned off after the games in future).

 

Our sailaway from Palma was at 11.00 pm which we watched from the Sunset Bar then headed to bed.

 

Tuesday 3rd July

 

Today we docked in Mahon, the capital of Menorca. We have not visited this island previously and it was one of the reasons we chose this itinerary. Mahon has the second largest harbour in the world (after Sydney, Australia) and has been of strategic importance for centuries.

After a bit of a lie-in (our first) we went ashore just after the crew drill began at 10.00 am. In fact we had to step aside in the stairwell to make way for the ‘charred victim’ [emoji50]on a stretcher which was being carried to the medical facility following the fictional fire.

 

Quest is docked right at the base of the Old Town which is up several flights of open stairs. Before going up we took one of the tourist glass bottomed Catamaran trips around the harbour. It was €11.00 pp for over 60s, €12.50 otherwise. This was an excellent way to see all round the area from the water and included a stop in a cove where we were able to go below and see jellyfish and squid below us. The trip took well over an hour and was thoroughly enjoyable.

 

Back at the dock we slowly made our way up all the stairs into the town. What a lovely place. Menorca has won us over and we would love to return. It was hot though and two stops for drinks were needed between visiting the shops. Incidentally leather goods seem to be very reasonably priced. I also bought a white top, ready for the party on Thursday.

We found a wonderful covered market set around a cloister with great artisan food outlets. Walking back down was easier on the lungs but harder on the knees. [emoji6].

We had a lovely light lunch on the open deck at the Sunset Bar and then a siesta. Mmm. Our accustomed pattern is emerging again.

 

The LCV cocktail party is at 5.00 then sailaway at 6.00.

England ⚽️ football is on at 8.00 pm. [emoji45][emoji50]. More interesting to us is an England cricket [emoji967] game but I’m not sure that will be shown anywhere.

 

TBC. [emoji3]

 

 

 

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Hi Corinne, the glass bottomed boat sounded lovely, wish we had seen that.

We havent made any of the LCV events the timings havent worked for us so far.

Enjoying your postings.

Jean

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Just a quick question. We are scheduled for the same Amazing Evening in Palma during our October cruise. Did you enjoy this evening enough to endorse others in attending if they get the chance? I have very mixed feelings about this event as our last Amazing Evening was far from amazing and we wish we hadn't attended. Too much difficulty in transportation for only a short performance. We spent too much time on a bus, looking for a seat at the performance, and searching for food. Thanks.....jackie

We enjoyed it apart from the heat and October should be a lot cooler.

The organisation was excellent, my tip would be to take something soft to sit on. The seats are wooden and rather hard. [emoji3]

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Jean, I haven't even been in the gym this cruise or the last one either!

 

I have been in the Salon when there was a yoga class going on and there are Pilates classes but they seem to be at 7:30 am! The personal trainer seems a very nice man.

Thanks Lottie, I have decided to pack some gym gear, whether it will get used or not is another matter. I don’t visit the gym at home before 9am, so I don’t think I will go at 7.30on holiday.

So glad you had a great time.

Jean

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We had a great day in Valencia yesterday. What a beautiful city it is.

 

In Barcelona today and this will be a serious shopping day for us. Tapas lunch and a few glasses of sangria and then sadly back to Quest to pack.

 

Russ's show last night was excellent and then it was upstairs for Abba night. It never gets old!

 

Last dinner in Aqualina tonight with friends.

Hi Lottie, I’m packing ready to come onboard tomorrow, can I ask you if there any gym classes ie Pilates, Zumba etc. Just wondering whether to pack gym kit, mind you I won’t make them if they are 7am [emoji3][emoji3] sounds like you have had a great time. Thank you.

Jean

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Great got our tickets for the 31st, our wedding Anniversary[emoji3][emoji3]🥂🥂.

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We have had cabins near guest relations before and have loved the location, I would only book a more midship one on deck if possible though.

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We have just returned from an RCCL cruise, 8 of us with linked bookings , 4 on one table the other spread out two different tables, we did get it resolved by day 2, nobody turned up on the first to share the table, so we just asked to keep for the table for the 8 of us.

I don’t know if your experience will be the same but actually the dining room was half empty most nights, more and more people cannot be bothered to dress for dinner, so they seem to use the casual dining cafe.

Actually the one night I have had food from there on Celebrity it was almost better than dining room.

Tell them and you to try not to stress about it if they are flexible but firm the first night I’m sure you will get a good result.

I do hope they have a good cruise.

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