beaveh

I'm in favour of a bit of topless sunbathing on the pool deck, but keep your jiggly bits covered at the buffet please!

I to am qualified in massage. Typically in the U.K. I can get a v. Good massage (1hr) for £45 (55$) so the onboard price of about 150$ plus grats is rediculously high.

Last cruise got a taster massage and booked a 1hr deep tissue massage for about 110$ (including grats) still expensive, great massage but hated the hard sell at the end! ( muscle relaxing stuff)

Thanks for the replys.

I was talking to someone who just did the full board trip and they got an included wine package ( it looks like it was a Oct, Nov, Dec special offered by Hurtigrunten ) So maybe there will be something similar next year.

I'll think I'll discount a Jan /feb trip as I need a bit more time to save up...but Nov/ Dec could be a good choice esp if it has FB and a package!

I'm considering a winter cruise to try and see the northern lights! (I do understand that this isn't a cruise ship the in the traditional sense )

Some of the packages through my usual TA are for 4 /5 or 6 day trips which would be fine, but they are only half board or B&B.

What sort of costs are involved for onboard food as I know Norway is very expensive. What are drinks prices like for water, tea, coffee as well as alcohol?

Have people found enough to do on board as I know many of the shore stops are short. Is it best to take lots of books? lol.

Is there internet onboard ( soo many questions lol)

Hello beaveh,

We would love you to give our ships a try!

One point of clarification, our Specialty Restaurants are complimentary for all suite guests. Otherwise there is a $30 pp cover charge.

Here's the link to our dining page: https://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/life-onboard/dining-wines

We also offer dining packages: https://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/booked-guests/onboard-packages/specialty-dining-packages

Thanks for the clarification about dinning - I hadn't picked the difference up! Due to the cost, we would be booking as lowly balcony state room passengers but still want to make sure we enjoy everything.

I see that aqualina and prime c are listed a specialty restaurants, does that mean that main dinning, patio and cafe dining are included in the base price? - That would give us a nice choice!

The pool decks look very empty. What time in the morning are you taking the pics...or is it not sunbathing weather?

Me and hubby have tried a couple of cruises on RCL, then a couple on Celebrity S class ships( found it a much nicer/ posher experience) We are now thinking of an Azamara cruise for the med in the summer.

We love good service / friendly staff and great food. These things all seem to be perfect for an Azamara cruise. I like the fact the ships are smaller. We also like to have a variation in dining that Azamara seems to offer without the cover charges the speciality resturants on X have.

We liked the Celebrity touches of iced face cloths when you rejoined the ship after a days excursion, sparkly wine on ice when you embarked ( concierge / aqua class). Foot stools on the balcony.

We like port visits a bit of lounging by the pool, gym and saunas and aren't overly fussed about shows on board. Is Azamara a good choice?

We loved out Sept stop in Bodrum Turkey and in Kusadasi. I understand the original itinerary had Istanbul as an over night stop ( replaced by Athens before I booked)

I absolutely loved Bodrum...fantastic place and lovely people.

Go for it.

I don't think you can ever look over dressed in a tux, just very smart.

On our Sept Reflection cruise ( med cruise, lots of Brits on board ) there were loads of tux 's on formal night.

It definitely made the 'mismatched shirts, ties and shoes' brigate look a little under dressed

I consider celebrity a cruise line ( a very nice one) and in the business of providing lovely cruise holidays. That's it, just lovely holidays. I therefore wouldn't expect it to specially cater for any religious faith as matter of course.

Was this cruise specifically advertised as being a special Jewish holy day cruise, featuring organised services ? If so I can see why there may be certain expectations for those services but embarkation day is a very busy day!

Sept on Reflection, not in the cabin but steward told us to just ask for it when we wanted it. - we didn't as we had a drinks package and could just ask at the bar.

I can agree with other posters that it adds a little something to the luxury feel to walk into your cabin and see it sitting there. So that part was missed.

We dined at so5 on Reflection in Sept.

Yes Sake was covered on our classic drinks package, but we had to pay for the Japanese beer.

Yes it was the most expensive meal we had on the boat. 2 starters, one noodle dish, two mains and one pudding came to 70usd ( gratuity was added onto the al lacarte pricing)

It was a lovely meal... but at a premium cost. More than Murano or lawn club grill. We did it for the experience..but won't be doing it on our next x cruise.

There are only lifts / stairs forward or at the centrum. So you could be walking half the length of the ship,

I can understand your frustrations and concerns. I have never considered Celebrity a child friendly cruise line. I think that niche is firmly filled by Royal Carribean. So if I had kids it would not even feature in my choice of cruise option.

I think some people have been lucky with their x cruises and found good staff / facilities. Is there a possibility that UK and USA ideas of child care facilities are poles apart? I doubt they have as much regulation and inspection as anything based in the U.K.

Last Sept on the silhouette we could order martinis at the martini bar on our classic drinks package. This Sept on the Reflection we could't, but we could order martinis at most other bars on t he classic package.

I think that as the martini bar is a popular venue and people want to drink there...they have bumped the price accordingly :(

Murano

Love the idea of a wave machine in the solarium pool lol!

I'd agree with most posters. I don't see any benefits in Concierge, but the Blu restaurant and Persian gardens are worth it.

It's a small amount but when they were offering discounts for speciality restaurants (30%) they offered us %40 as we we AQ

I love seafood was wanted to try out the Porch on my last cruise.

We had a good chat with the restaurant manager then he showed us the glorious 'seafood tower':(.

Hubby later commented it was more like a seafood bungalow.;)

We made do with fish in Marano, Ocean view and Shush on 5

Back on topic.

The jet sail idea was shown in detail on last nights Cruise show and it looks really good.

We are doing our best to have a break from cruising in 2017, but it's something we will be looking for in 2018!

We found the flight/transfer the worst part of our Sept cruise this year...so anything to improve matters would be good.

As with the rest of the pricing at SO5, it's extortionate, but I did walk by and they are grating real wasabi root for the people who pay for it.

 

(Never mind you can get pasteurized 100% wasabi paste in packets for free at $1/piece sushi shops in Japan...)

I'm glad you said that. Quite a few posts on here say it's reasonably priced :confused:

By the time we had starter, main course and pud it was more than most of the speciality restaurants, with out the special ambience.:(

Our breakfast waiter in Blu was working behind a counter in the Ocean view cafe by mid morning....

Yes wasabi is included. It was explained to us that the 'wasabi' included with the meal is that same as the wasabi often served at home ( a bit of wasabi, mainly horse radish, colouring, preservative). But the expensive wasabi was 100% wasabi root grated at the table and came at an additional charge.

.... we had the standard :)

Question: If Blu is the assigned dining room, can we go and dine one night in the MDR if we use Anytime dining?

Why would you want to dine in the main dining room?

We ate in blu most nights and it was amazing.The blu menu does also include some items from the main dining room ( noticeably in the pudding section where there would usually be 'apple pie a la mode' and creme brule ).

If you are assigned Blu, you don't have 'anytime dining'. Yes you can turn up at blue any time, but 'anytime dining' is a seating reference for the main dinning room.

MDR: early seating, late seating, anytime dining

Blu: you can turn up and any time

If I was invited on board as a 'guest' the temptation to stow away for a free cruise would be very big :) lol