Benthayer Gonbak

I whole heartedly agree. Back when I had a gold Amex I made a business reservation for i flight I took. Later there was a charge back as they said it wasn’t a night flight! When I called AMEx they knew what a plane was, what a night flight was, and that some airports have curfews for flights. They immediately put in a dispute and took the charge off my bill. No hassle, and very little time to explain what happened. I didn’t even have to proved which flight I actually was on, nor that the flight they claimed didn’t really exist! Never would I think that the branded cards would do anything close to that, but they are still probably better than the nonsense I’ve gotten out of Visa in the past. Business traveling teaches you a lot about who is customer oriented!

And I want it right NOW!😂

And you can actually move that $75 once!

When our TA was looking to re-book the group that got cancelled on Crystal to SS they found that the entire $1500 deposit was non refundable. They thought that was ridiculous and found another cruise line with better/lower cancellation fees!

Just to put a bit of a kink in the problems with bank Amex, we charged to an Amex that the following fiscal year the bank decided to discontinue and replace it with a Visa. (just what I didn’t need as another bank changed my MasterCard to a Visa!) By the time the chargebacks were needed the cards were no longer valid and not being pushed forward to the replacement card! Talk about a mess to unscramble! We had friends who had a similar experience, what a mess. We all did eventually get our money I believe we both got checks. Yes, I knew that my bank Amex wasn’t exactly like my old Gold Amex …. But who expected this.

I’ve taken 2 different styles of scooters on tenders, both folded and were around 50 lbs. in one case there were stairs at both exits of the local tender and they simply grabbed the area where I would pull the scooter and gandered it straight up to someone ashore! I’ve had my scooter about 4-5 years and have never had a tender port that was too rough for only those with scooters. I’ve been at several that were deemed too rough for everyone! i do have the advantage that my spouse can carry my scooter up short flights of stairs too. I’ve not been to Cabo but I always assume one will not find curb cuts or particularly flat surfaces. I’m able to get my scooter up or down a curb although someone normally offers to help. My caution would be does the tour company know about the scooter? Many tour buses are pretty small and can have trouble with finding space. That said, in Japan we only found one Toyota Camry where the trunk wouldn’t close completely. Others were fine. We took the scooter on public buses, and local trains with no issues on the vehicles at all. Of course not all train stations are accessible!😂 Also, I had a pdf of the specs for my scooter which helped various private tour companies understand the dimensions and shape the were dealing with. That sheet was also helpful with foreign airlines, too. Hoping you have a great tour.

Yep, finding an extension cord for 220v was easy there. I deliberately chose the European plug because it would be easiest to use precruise even as a pseudo adapter. For what it is worth, I’ve never had that power strip questioned, never!

I have and adapter that takes 2 US plugs, because that’s what we have mostly, I use one for the Cpap and the other for the charger for whatever device I’m charging. That keeps them relatively small although there is nothing small about a European plug! We also own a European power strip rated to include 220v. Ours is short, but I believe they may exist with USB ports too. Our power cord will take various plugs which on occasion been quite helpful. We only have 2 devices that need 110 v exclusively, a shaver and an electric toothbrush, so we just use all the outlets available! i can tell you that we had to use the simpler European adapter on our last MSC as their extension cords are tripping hazards and barely reached one of the CPAPs. We unplugged the lamp to use that outlet which was 220, of course. i know you didn’t ask, but we had a real problem with the distilled water we were given, especially on our last MSC. Our water chambers became quite cloudy and looked like it might have been salt! With effort they wiped out. Said another way, MSC is not bringing Distilled water in anything you’d recognize as being distilled water! Yes, we’ve used tap water before, and bottled water, in a pinch but we’d never seen enough residue to be visually obvious! Bottomline, take your own if you can!

Some OBCs are refundable.

Those are the type of issues it’s easier to take to the credit card company if you are within their parameters for a dispute and an on board charge should be within range. we had a dispute with TAP airlines about the refund of a cancelled flight, they cancelled. A letter to DOT helped jar it loose, but what a pain.

I thought there was more entertainment and dancing, after hours on our last Journey immersion cruise. When I think back I remember the couple that did shows in what is now the living room most nights too. Tbh I think I hadn’t noticed the entertainment before because it wasn’t hightlighted as much in the Cabaret and it wasn’t always live. Admittedly it was also too late for my 8am tours😂

Ive had my room steward change between cruises, one finished a contract the last I think just got moved around. I was not impressed as much with our second steward who told me they’d come from the 8th or 6th floor I’m now not positive.

As I recall the day visas were in the $56 range some a bit less, some a bit more. There was an interesting event when the group went from, I believe, Ghana to Sengal and back: they were charged twice for the Ghana vis at total of $120 if I recall correctly. This was even though the visa say it was good for a day. Angola required a current antigen COVId tests, for the whole ship, which was free if you were negative, otherwise it cost you 5 days isolation, in your own room!

I remember shore doing a presentation about the ports that included multiple pictures they had taken of the various sites. The lecturer then talked about the history or other aspects of each destination, or perhaps the politics that caused Somalia. They too had personal photos of the country. On multiple sea days we had lectures on what was happening in the seas under us. After the lecturers were split we had a lecture about Monet’s inspiration as we were about to visit that port. My feeling is that the expertise for just destination and history is limited and expanding at least transatlantic to include forensic type DNA lectures filled the cabaret! Recently, on a less port intensive cruise we had a professor of music present lectures about the songwriters that shaped or reflected the events of the times. While it wasn’t an event that packed the house it was hard not to be pulled into the lecture as he presented his commentary and examples accompanied by his piano and voice.

That cruise did skip the port that was to have the Azamazing Evening. As I recall that port was known to be cancelled before sailing although I don’t recall how much before.

I’ve not been on all of the versions of Azamara, yet😂 But the only problems I see are where the lights are and where the plugs are, for their ships. I was recently on a newish RCL that had a sort of headboard alcove built to the walls, including the nightstand. We couldn’t really even move the bed over so you didn’t hit the window cornice. On my first celebrity there was a mirror at the head of the bed on interior rooms. (That really helped brighten the interior room.) The bed was oriented with the head at starboard side and with pulman beds it wouldn’t have been easy to turn their orientation even with enough room. We did separate the beds so there was not only more walking space but we didn’t bang our heads on the top “bunks” when getting out of bed. Your travel Agent should be able to get you an answer about the room you have booked.

Thats good to hear, on both counts: resolution and Azamara resolution phone option. Thanks for the update.

It might be of interest that you don’t have to bring it on just in the beginning! I purchased a 2 bottle special liqueur in a port mid cruise, in Turkey. I tried to check it and was told no need, just take it to my room.

we were on our first Azamara cruise when we heard that story, but he insisted that we wait until we were out of the threat zone. 😇

I've never been denied access to a tender but I can’t remember too many on Azamara. I too believe the step count is at least close. The handrails really were stationary. You will be asked to let them carry the rollator (DH carried it down with one hand, not knowing better), and they about lost it! i had an agreement with those trying to help me into the tender, you can only have one hand, I get to us the other one to hold onto something I know won’t more! I’m still strong enough to hang on if I slip, or I was, my last trip had no tenders. we carried a strap so that a rollator would stay closed and could be anchored to something so it didn’t more, worked well on hop on hop off too!

I wanted to mention to those trying to save outlet by having USB ports elsewhere, that most usb plugs will run on 110 or 220 so you only need an adapter to use the European plug. If going the other way the same applies but the adapter is US. there is a nightlight that has 4 USB ports and has both a US plug and a European plug, as it will run on either power. we only have 2 devices that don’t run on 220 one is an electric toothbrush that holds a charge for about 2 weeks. I make sure it’s charge before I leave home so I don’t worry about 220 and then charge it to return home for the same reason.

We thought we’d seen it on the journey before too! We didn’t ask why so it could have been powered on.

i mentioned it because if we’d never have seen the account, we wouldn't have asked where it was!

We missed the bow camera too! …..journey

It doesn’t help that some of the directions don’t go to your specific safe. We called security twice because hubby forgot the directs were wrong. It had to do with whether the # was first or second for both open and closed.