Jump to content

excitedofharpenden

Members
  • Posts

    19,195
  • Joined

Everything posted by excitedofharpenden

  1. My dad used to say exactly that. You can tell the true smartness of someone by their shoes. And he always used to make me polish mine properly when going to school. I think a lot of that came from him being in the air force. Phil
  2. 😃. Me too! And the 1998 film was pretty good. Gary Oldman as Dr Smith. Still not quite the original though. Phil
  3. Not sure who you spoke to, but that doesn't sound right. I would contact Azamara Circle as it should be automatic, not something you do. Their email is Loyalty@azamara.com. Phil
  4. It's difficult to judge in isolation. Each cruise has its own feel. I've done a few long stints on the ship before Covid. Sometimes five or six on the trot. It's always amazed me how much the guest mix can change. Time of year, length of cruise etc. All I can say is it's never been a problem for me. Except the occasional guy trying to get into the MDR in the evening in shorts. Always swiftly and politely dealt with. I have no desire to look at hairy knees when I'm going to eat dinner. 😆 Phil
  5. Exactly. This sort of issue should never happen and indeed never would have in the days of Richard Twynam being in charge in the UK or at least an Azamara blogging officer available here. Phil
  6. Sorry, I meant Quest. I'm going to try to use a monetary FCC on Journey! Phil
  7. This one for me has come down to the very emotive subject of money and Azamara UK trying to get out of what has been promised. I guess I can't leave it hanging in the air like that. An FCC issued by an extremely diligent and helpful HD on Journey called Tatiana as the result of a three day norovirus cabin confinement in a CC suite haa been chased by me for non-action. Customer services in the UK have told me it's all been sorted (I've heard nothing) and a small OBC for nowhere near enough has been credited for use against shore excursions only. Not my understanding of how a future cruise credit works. It has a monetary value AFAIK. Beggars belief, but I'll be Googling and emailing the address I find for the CEO mentioned in the title of this thread if it's not sorted! I will report back here the result. Phil
  8. This was my decision after trying direct. My ta is very good. She is getting involved in a matter I mentioned above that was for a direct booking as it will involve my next one with her. It's not going well. Azamara Customer Services in the UK are both clueless and hopeless. It's such a pity it's come to this. Phil
  9. Kresimir Korona has been with Azamara for ages. He was previously Staff Captain and was promoted. I'm surprised you have never come across him. He's a super guy. Phil
  10. I'm very much a supporter of Azamara. I love the cruise experience, but this makes depressing reading because it's spot on. The issues surrounding back office Azamara should have been sorted out months ago and it seems as time goes on there is more chance of articles like this put out there that harm the brand. I'm still waiting for my cabin confinement FCC from my July cruise. It was dealt with so well and efficiently on the ship by the HD, but since then nothing. In spite of chasing it. I will now ask my new ta to deal with it if she is able as I want to apply to a booking that she now handles. It's such an effort and we are all busy people. There really is no excuse for this shambles continuing. Recent occupancy levels that I've read here are poor. They need to get a grip so as not to scare off new customers and aggravate existing ones. Phil
  11. Apologies for the delay in replying. I missed your question. I am not an expert and tend to rely on websites like The Points Guy and One Mile at a Time for detailed information and the intricacies. I don't have experience of 2 for 1 vouchers, but am pretty sure that it has to be BA aircraft so that doesn't work for using Iberia in your itinerary. Your second question about the BA upgrade voucher I can answer as I have a couple of them. You can't combine them with any other promotions and they are like the 2 for 1 in that they have to be used on BA flights (no partner airlines) and these can be round trip if you are using one for yourself or two one ways if used for two people, but the flight itinerary has to originate in the UK. So booking return only from say Miami doesn't work. In addition there must be availability in the cabin you want. My example. I am flying to Hong Kong and back from Tokyo. I want business class for both, but could only get Premium Economy going out and economy coming back as that's all they had. This is how I booked them by phoning BA. Had to book the return otherwise I'm stuffed booking one way and waiting because that flight won't have originated in the UK. I'm registered with Reward Flight Finder and will hope that at least a Premium Economy will become available on the return. If they pop up I will need to phone BA again and upgrade. I've gone on a bit, but to use the cabin upgrade vouchers you have to be cute. Might be easier on more popular routes where cabin availability is better, but I really struggle with finding them. Hopefully my patience for next March will pay off. Good luck with yours. Phil
  12. If the price is right then I'd book it. For one thing we don't know what the IT situation is going to be like going forward. The other thing is the onboard experience, for me at least, has not diminished and the IT issues for the most part don't come into the equation, albeit they can be frustrating and require extra work. But the resulting cruise is worth it. Phil
  13. Bearing in mind that the Azamara ships are not large I don't think you'll ever have big lines, but I'd do as uktog suggests. Arrive some time after midday. This takes no account of what might be happening on the day (for example a deep clean of the ship). Just prepare to be patient and you will hopefully be surprised. Quest in July was a piece of cake. On the ship by 12.15. You might not be so lucky. Phil
  14. Yes, that's a good point. I had to recheck my bags at Madrid. My memory is a bit hazy and I'd forgotten that. However the savings made it worthwhile for me. I flew to Quito on one trip and to Lima on another, the latter using Avios that I transferred to Iberia from BA, following the instructions from The Points Guy website. A bit of effort, but worth it. Phil
  15. I'd go for the 3rd too. Just a word on the flights. We pay extortionate airline passenger duty (APD) here when leaving from the UK. Especially true when flying in a premium cabin. One way to reduce that is to fly short haul from UK to Europe in economy and then do the long haul from say Madrid. It's what I've done when I've flown to South America. London to Madrid on BA and Madrid to a South American airport on Iberia. I really like the seats in Business on Iberia and they share the use of Avios. I saved a heap of taxes doing it that way. No longer direct, but worth it. If the Iberia business class was no good I wouldn't do it, but it's fine. 1-2-1 configuration and aisle access for all. Just random thoughts. Phil
  16. I'm not in the habit of taking photos of toilets, but this is from Google Earth of the one opposite the entrance to the Odeon Theatre . 😁 Phil
  17. I was at Ephesus Azamazing in July. The buses didn't have toilet facilities. There are some toilets opposite the entrance to the theatre. They were OK, but pretty basic. They were the ones where you had to pay ordinarily, but had been opened up for free use to us. From memory it took us about 40 minutes to get there from the ship. Phil
  18. That drives me nuts. It's a waste of resources. Is there anything you can do stop it? By ringing them up or something. Phil
  19. Thing is, there's nothing new about the very fluid pricing. It's been like this for as long as I can remember. I do seem to be getting so many marketing emails just now and far more than I used to (I know the non-receipt of these is a bone of contention for some, but the number I get now is crazy). Does smack of desperation. Or maybe it's just a different direction for the new owners. Phil
  20. That is a very low number for a Norway cruise. They are usually very popular. I do wonder if the high cost of air travel these days is a contributing factor? I'm only going by my personal experience so this is purely a guess. The lack of availability of reward flights has been an issue for me in addition to the ticket price for buying one without miles. Phil
  21. It's too far for an Azamara shuttle. Just short of 30kms to central Taipei. There is an alternative to getting the train. You could take an Uber to Nangang MRT station and then get the metro into Taipei if there is a couple of you it's reasonable fare (NTD600, about £15 and I've used Uber a lot in Taipei and it works well). I wouldn't bother getting an Uber right into Taipei as the traffic is not great. MRT once to Nangang is better option. Getting around Taipei on public transport is very easy and well ordered. I think it's a wonderful city and the Taiwanese very nice people. Phil
  22. Go and see one of the bar tenders. They do have a desk set up in various spots too, but I just head to my favourite spot (either Pool Bar or the bar at the back of Windows if I'm on Quest or Journey). Phil
×
×
  • Create New...