Grandma Cruising

And RCL is building a huge terminal at Ravenna, so is clearly planning to use Ravenna long term

I agree, we prefer to use the laundry. They often do an offer for a bag. The bags look small, but it’s amazing how much you can squeeze into them if you roll everything up as tight as possible.

It is casual - smart casual. Very few men wear jackets & even fewer wear ties. My DH takes a jacket & wears it in the speciality restaurants but not in Discoveries MDR. Ladies tend to wear trousers/skirts and smart tops, but some wear dresses, though you don’t often see maxi dresses. At the end of the day you can wear what you want and are comfortable with, but they don’t allow shorts, distressed jeans, baseball caps etc. One thing we have noticed is that the type of cruise seems to make a difference. On a Norway cruise with lots of port days, and also on a cruise in Costa Rica, people were generally more casual - possibly because they were ashore most days, often on long tours. On cruises with more sea days (E.g transatlantic/ Athens to Dubai etc) people seemed to dress up more in the evenings.

All OBC can be used beforehand to buy excursions

We were booked on one for May 23. Like you we had heard nothing from Azamara, but decided it’s likely to be changed to Greece/Turkey which didn’t appeal. We asked our TA to transfer our booking to a Nov 23 Dubai to Singapore cruise instead. Azamara were happy to do this but did charge us £150 (£75 each) transfer fee (which is in their T’s &C’s).

I agree, if you’ve never seen the mosaics in Ravenna, then it’s well worth it.

it’s in your Voyage Planner - top of page.

My UK Azamara account has always shown any OBC in British Pounds, whether or not it was ordinary OBC or specifically for excursions

Sorry, blag, didn’t mean to sound cross or offended - I wasn’t. Just stating that my position was somewhat different from yours. I cancelled early so that I wouldn’t get into the position you found yourselves in - I cancelled well before the need to book flights, hotels etc. I agree that Azamara should have offered some sort of compensation. The new itineraries were very different and didn’t compare with the original. Like you, we were not interested in a Greece & Turkey cruise.

Yes, but the cruise we transferred to is November 23.

Certainly agree it’s not a good idea to buy minutes, as the Wifi is slow. We always buy the full package then we’re not worrying about how many minutes we have used up.

Your digital account via Azamara website should show how much OBC you have left.

If you’re talking about me, my Black Sea cruise was May 2023, so the itinerary hasn’t yet changed. I jumped before changes were made and published because it was obvious it would change. In these circumstances I expected to pay a transfer fee as per Azamara’s booking conditions.

No because it only applies to cruises departing before 31 December 22. The Black Sea cruise we cancelled was for May 23.

I think you were lucky. If you look at their UK Ts & Cs they say cancellation penalty is loss of deposit if cancelling more than 90 days before the cruise or transfer fee of £75pp if you transfer to another cruise.

We just cancelled our Black Sea cruise and transferred our deposit & FCCs (from a 2021 cruise cancelled by Azamara) to Dubai to Singapore on the Journey in Nov 2023. They charged us £75 each cancellation charge.

Hope everything goes well for you joyride and that you have a wonderful cruise.

Can’t directly answer your question, but I would suggest going to see Shore Excursion staff as soon as you get on board and I’m sure they will be happy to make sure you are all on the same bus.

Thanks, very reassuring!

You should be able to. One thing about the Essentials package, do check that this represents good value for you if you are thinking about buying it. It depends on the length of your cruise and whether you would use all the components.

You can ask about the White Night when you get on board.

That’s correct, if you are in suite you can eat in the speciality restaurants at any time at no extra cost.

Apparently the ceiling was in very poor condition, paint flaking off etc. it would have been very difficult and very expensive to repair, I would imagine.

Manchester City started off in top place, not Liverpool. In order for Liverpool to win the title they had to win and Manchester City had to lose.

Across Cruise Critic forums, members have been sharing their experiences during these unprecedented times - telling us how life is for them in their locality, so we thought it might be a good idea to set up such a topic within the various cruise line ‘communities’. Please post here to let us all know how things are for you.