Benthayer Gonbak

glad to hear you’ve been there before. Because of the long flights I’m not likely to return soon although I’d still like to get to the Ivory coast. we booked a cruise for 2025, Amazon, and we told we’d only lose $75 each but that we can change cruises once for no fee. I too would be annoyed that I’d need to lose a deposit for conditions not fully disclosed at time of booking.

Dont give up on Africa quite yet. The South Africa east coast cruises are intensive and have option where different reserves could be visited as welll as a couple of overnights. Currently we have at least one B2Ber who is doing the itinerary twice just trying to get oriented etc. To me the west coast is not auite ready for prime time yet, but there are only 2 countries that require vaccines if you are coming from a YF area in the last 14 days. Those are South Africa and Namibia. It makes sense that they would not want to honor a waiver as you could be carrying the virus to them. Please seriously consider the north bound west Africa if that’s where you’d like to. And, to me a delay of a couple of years could improve your tour experiences.

That’s not unique to the sky suites! I think the soltice class did the worst drainage. Some have some drainage around where the showers would be, but even those let water creep. Get in heavy weather and you think you are wading in a koi pond!

There is also at least one bank in PA that won’t accept a military ID as a real I’d! Reason, it doesn’t have an expiration date!! Like you, I’m not paying $30 extra for a driver’s license when both a passport or a military id are valid verification to get a drivers license real ID. Said perhaps better both a real ids in their own right to verify you for a drivers license!

Pick the Western Africa trip carefully! Many places aren’t quite up to tourism yet, but they’re getting there. Also timing of your YF vax, now a forever vax, May matter. Waivers are not accepted for those coming from YF areas even if that area would have accepted to waiver! Northbound is easier. Some still are having COVId issues too. On the east coast there are lots of places to do single overnights from the ships but time of year matters for safaris pre or post cruise. —— have fun!

That was ineffective, but I have reached out to others. Ultimately it seems to be Azamara’s decision. I just wanted to know if anyone else had experience this, yet!

Yes, medical should have records about their evaluation/treatment of me. And yes, it was onboard. This is my first encounter with any medical facility where I couldn’t get copies of my records. I found it astonishing!

This evening I was told by medical that they could not give me copies of my medical records without permission from Azamara as that’s who they have the contract with! This came as a shock to me as I’d seen medical files outside cabin doors before. I was told that that was when it was Royal Caribbean! Medical finally agreed to contact Azamara for permission by it’s too early to know what those results will be. Any thoughts?

Let’s hope that’s right. Since part of the 24 hours was because of changing servers it could be.

Apparently there is a deal with Royal Caribbean to handle the IT. No idea what all that contract is but it’s nice to know things are happening.

Today on the Journey, in a Q&A with senior staff we were told the Jan 15 would be when IT would be onboard to install Starlink. Apparently that will include a 24 hour downtime for the final switching. The question was then Raised about the Quest which we were told would be last☹️ To be upgraded.

Depending on your final destination it can be difficult to find flights, say to Miami that leave at a reasonable time of day! The arrival time has to be in immigration windows too. From our Galapagos extend trip we ended up leaving quite early. One couple opted for the night before but I believe they missed a small amount of the final tour. Yes, that part of the cruise/tour was over land but out exports had coordinate some really early times! We had a couple of Brits that might have had the only decent times! As an aside, we came back to NJ about 18 hours early due to a large storm coming in. We were not allowed to leave until the standard time which frustrated some because they really didn’t want drive/fly in bad weather. Luckily the storm was still off a ways and disembarkation went smoothly.

We found the QR code and decided if they didn’t want feed back mid cruise that we’d just put it on the end of cruise evaluation!

We have access to our account on the TV system too. I haven’t checked for room service ordering on there though.

On the Journey we saw surf and turf at the officers tables only, so far anyway! It was a nice touch to our invite.

I embroider initials on the bag, when I get home so I always have a previous one and try to take home a new one. I use them in transit, some times like when we had a bag overweight but had a carryon that could be checked free. Mandatory carryon stuff went in the cruise ship bag and the extra weight went into the carryon. I needed to remove 11 lbs and the agent said I could try but indicated she’d never seen anyone really succeed. I pulled a few packing cubes out and one other heavier item. When the bag was reweighed I had removed 12 lb in less than 2 minutes! The agent seemed shocked! Yes, we now weigh bags at home even when we drive to the port. We’ve had to fly home from St Maartin once and it was nice to know we weren’t going to pay for an overweight bag. Right now I want a bag with the new logo and Club name, assuming they even exist!

was this insurance through the cruise line? They may be different about age premiums. was there an added required coverage such as COVID? I’d certainly ask for an explanation as to why. Our insurance is based on $$ covered and age. In general we pay for our insurance at final payment and that’s when age is determined.

I actually notice a bit of music in the restaurant recently. You really needed a quiet room to notice and even then it wasn’t intrusive. I truly can’t tell you if it’s there every night though, I think it is.

Our TA had initial found a Silverseas cruise to replace our group Crystal cruise. However, when they looked farther the cancellation fee was the deposit $1500pp! They decide not to do that to their clients even though it was a great itinerary. To them it was just too risky.

I was remembering the Fort, perhaps Lindos?, that had the walkway up to it narrow and sloped away from the hill! And yes, the town near the pier has an entrance with no sidewalk and larger rounded surface stone for all the roads. The entrance is also on an incline but after that the rest of the area is pretty flat.

That sounds similar to what is suggested in the US. Since there are so many ports on this cruise that require vax I’d think the percentage is higher vaxed in this community. I think think the UK was even less stringent about staying home. Time will tell what Azamara will do, I guess! Thanks.

I hope none of the 14 are truly sick with symptoms. And, if any of those were people with YF waivers that kept them on the ship anyway that would be the total “pits” —— some were immunocompromised. Any idea what happens on day 5 if they still test positive?

I've found that ports that shore has been to numerous times are better at knowing how many stairs and are they all together answer. We were on a 1st cruise to isle man which listed a moderate hike as AA billygoat trail. The total distance was listed as .5 miles. When we got on board there was a separate flyer that said the trail was 5 miles long! Ii had the paper in my hand as I walked into the lobby where Shore excursion was. From across the room they said, yes it is right and please don’t take it! I had figured a half mile Billy goat trail I could crawl! I then asked how it got rated as moderate based on the length and description and was told the ratings was from the locals! This trip I saw one description that listed 130 stairs and was also moderate. Again no one had been to that port. I find the staff normally very knowledgeable about most of the tours but on occasion can’t describe well what condition cobblestones are in, or size. I started asking if they would advise riding a bicycle down it because it was listed as rough.. I got better answers, and yes I rode a mobility scooter on a fairly rough cobblestone that I wouldn’t ride a bicycle on, ever! i rode an electric wheelchair in Rome on roads I’d never push a manual wheelchair down because of tire width and their flexibility All this is to say things get rated different depending on how you perceive difficulty. I did a trek in Dominica where the pics showed almost landscaped steps with railroad ties and sand for surface. When I got there the trail was a mass of roots all over the trail with no easy footing. Thus out they’d had a flood that had washed out the trail entirely. That can always be a problem.

Affer a few days the host to the main dining room always knew our room number. It’s been 2 weeks and much of the staff was calling us by our names at worst 3 days in.. it doesn’t much matter to me it just seems “different” to not bercognized when one of the sitters even remembered us from a Baltic sea trip about 5 years ago.

Our departure from Lisbon had a few bumps and missteps, but the crew in the terminal were NOT Azamara employees but a contractor who supposedly does this regularly for Mediterranean cruises. That might have worked if we were ultimately in the Mediterranean, instead of Africa. They tried to schedule folks but they were struggling with all sorts of documents. When we did get on board the Windows cafe, buffet, had plenty of tables and food so really nice. The rooms were ready so we could enjoy our meals with little regard to keeping up with luggage.