hamrag

Whilst that is true, my son cruised round Iceland a few years back and the temps were 65-70 with abundant sunshine. I certainly wouldn't plan for such, but it can happen!

Indeed, the lesser Antilles is a wonderful cruise so much so we've done that one in MSC YC three times (albeit once was immediately post covid with masks indoors, which included the repositioning segment and it was not possible to freely explore most ports....we just enjoyed the downtime principally maskless outdoors during daytime on board). You guys in Florida are blessed with great weather most of the year, us Scots just have to escape the depth of winter which is so miserable! We've sailed the Caribbean so often over the two decades we've been cruising that it now feels like the same old same old.....Even the likes of Azamara and Oceanias' smaller ships, circa 600ish passengers don't port anywhere we haven't been previously in the Caribbean. That's the reason we're taking a new approach, and both Windstar and Emerald are visiting small islands we've never been to. We got fantastic rates, booking with a huge US web agency on 3rd July which got us significant genuine 'Independence Day week' savings. Taking the average across both, we've paid slightly less than a YC1 on MSC.

OK, Dennis I'll let them know, at risk of causing embarrassment....Dennis is an honest, straightforward poster who gives helpful information on any thread I've ever seen him on. Great to see you on here Dennis, long time since we met in the Preziosa (from memory) YC, please pass our regards to Joann and hoping you both enjoy Explora. Been keeping a watching eye on some of these threads, but nothing booked or any intent for Explora at this time. We're sailing from Barbados 18 November on Windstar pride followed on 25th on Emerald Azzura, which is a luxury yacht with only 100 passengers. We've never done either of these two lines before.

Wow, these last 3 posts are probably the most helpful I ever read on cc. You both deserve huge credit for your honesty and willingness to share personal experiences.

Indeed! For our first Az cruise we were unaware pre-cruise. When we surveyed our cabin upon boarding, we immediately understood that we'd just need to shower a little differently from home and manage the process. It was painless, and perfectly adequate. I am 6 feet tall, a little overweight for that height. DW about 4 inches shorter than me, and proportionate body size, and it works fine for us.

SandJC, I couldn't agree more with your food/dining and entertainment assessment. I also agree with JazzB re Oceania where the culinary experience is much better. Interesting also his assessment re Windstar whom we have booked (first time) for November from Barbados. We are content with inside or outside cabins, and the Windstar balcony limitations matter not to us. From what I read, even the lowest grade cabins on the motor yachts are huge at 277 square feet. With just over 300 passenger capacity I expect Windstar entertainment to be no better than Az, at best. The rest of your review mostly reflected our recent Croatia intensive Az experience from Chioggia 3 months ago. Very balanced, and well written.

Unfortunately, that's against cc posting rules! Sorry.

That their cruise experience is better than X or RC, no bells or whistles which works for the general Az gang. Despite being better, they are not as premium as they believe themselves to be. The MDR is generally fine, occasionally very good, but we mix it on alternative nights in the specialty restaurants which we much prefer. There is a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooong thread specifically about their disastrous new website, which I have actively avoided for the last couple of months, and many continually complain across various threads about their poor pre-cruise experience. We sailed in May, and the onboard experience was similar to our first two sailings....for us at least, the pre-cruise issues that many report in no way impacts the cruise itself and we're booked on a November Transatlantic Lisbon to Barbados..

Believe it or not, I hadn't even gone into our booking until reading this. My interest was to see if there is a 'free' excursion in Funchal, the only stop on this transatlantic, for an Azamazing evening. There isn't, and due to sail from Funchal at 4pm I'm guessing there won't be one....which is fine. Can anyone confirm that such cruises do not include an Azamazing evening? TIA.

Yes, it's a UK website also associated with an equivalent in the US. Same approach, you go into cabin categories and have a full view of what's available by doing a dummy booking..

Well, perhaps they all decided to spend the money on the Edinburgh Fringe instead! 😂 There are 135 cabins still available on our sailing, assuming the others are fully occupied gives 420 passengers booked so far. I think the fact it's the first leg of Quest heading out to South America impacts. Certainly, for us, it's a convenient and ridiculously low cost means of travelling to Barbados to board Windstar Pride upon arrival for a Caribbean cruise. All being well, we shall land there totally relaxed and refreshed with no four hour time adjustment required on arrival. My arithmetic is flawed, as there will presumably be some guarantees booked, and not yet allocated. Without doubt though, it's sailing light based on current availability.

Looking at the cabins still available for our 9 night Quest Lisbon to Barbados in November, the occupancy rate at best appears to be two thirds capacity i.e. 400-450 passengers dependant on whether there are many singles or mostly couples in cabins. It's now only 3 months out.

Be assured it wasn't directed at any particular individual, until you posted there I've no knowledge of your posts! As I stated clearly YMMV, and that is obviously true in your case. But none of that affects the onboard experience, my main point. 😉

Yes, simply because none of the above affects the on board experience! Of course, like every other cruiseline (bar none) it's not perfect but there's nothing of true significance to be alarmed about. I say this, based on our Onward cruise in May when just about everyone posting on the 'New Website' thread was stressed. I couldn't understand why, neither before or after our cruise, and we booked another.....Quest in November! It is at least 6 weeks since I've read anything on that thread, some of the posts just became so ridiculous IMHO. YMMV, of course, and that's fine with me!

I'd imagine so, if you're prepared to pay the difference! 😉

same for us, and the few times we've done that everything has been fresh, nicely presented and bang on time.

OK, my apologies, we're not au fait with what the various eating venues are called....except Prime C, which is definitely our favourite specialty.

It is indeed! Our experience firstly on two 7 night B2Bs in the Caribbean (Pursuit or Journey) immediately prior to Covid, and May this year (Onward) was that the MDR food was fine but never better than a 3.5 of 5 score. For food temperature we'd give a full 4.5 and my DW prefers hot food, so our experience was totally different from yours. We are booked on Quest for November this year, and it's the specialties that we prefer. We buy the 3 meal package, and alternate with MDR and of course there is the White night also all of which gives variety.

That sounds fab, will keep fingers crossed for our Quest transAtlantic cruise in November!

But, B17 is asking about upgrading from basic so it's $24 a day for upgrade to ultimate! What I was stating was there's not much point in going premium if upgrading, when ultimate doesn't cost much more.

The view we took was, for the sake of an additional $7 or about £5 pppd, what's the point in going premium when ultimate offers sooooooo much more!

We cruised Onward in May, fabulous Croatia intensive itinerary being the main reason we chose Az. Having cruised with them for the first time pre-Covid December 2019, with a very average culinary experience, we were hoping for better food. That was not the case, no worse or better than previous. We sailed Oceania a year ago for the first time, and agree their culinary offerings are much better than Az. We found the white night, as far as food was concerned, to be somewhat chaotic in May. On our previous cruise it was unbelievably good, but on that occasion the HD was the famed lady whose name I forget (Heidi??)....by some distance, the most outstanding senior officer on all of our 55 cruises total. She was totally, and I mean totally, across everything and her organisation was superb. For the right itinerary, we still wouldn't hesitate to book again. Or for convenience...we have booked the Quest repositioning cruise Lisbon to Barbados later this year in November. That is simply to facilitate our other cruise plans from Barbados, avoiding an outbound flight!

Our transfer from Marco Polo to Chioggia was 170 euros, the return was 100 euros. Reason being there are no taxis from Chioggia routinely servicing the airport, so when taking a fare to Chioggia there is zero chance of picking up a return fare! We weren't particularly hungry during our evening stay there, choosing a bistro/cafe and a light snack. There are numerous options on the main street, and a lovely atmosphere there.

Yesterday we booked the Quest transatlantic Lisbon to Barbados Nov 9th, through a US TA with muuuuch lower pricing. We just feel we need to go on vacation! Anyway, we gave them the thumbs up, it is now booked and we received an email saying because of the US Independence Day sales we snagged a further 20% off. We are using this cruise simply as transit to Barbados, from where we have other cruise plans, and booked an inside on deck 8. Taking into account our $300 OBC, the cost is little more than an economy (coach) flight with VA. 😉

Why then are the 25% discount prices prefaced with the following? Simply More Shore Excursion Package