Mickey22

Hello,

 I was wondering how long before your sailing you received the email with a room assignment.  We just booked a guarantee for an October 4 cruise.  This is the first time we have booked without selecting a room and I was just wondering how far ahead of your cruise you were notified of your room number.

  Thanks and have a great cruise!

Jane

My daughter wants to get married on a cruise stop in St Lucia. Royals, Destination I do wedding package will plan that for you. I was hoping someone who has used this could let me know how it worked out for them. The package is expensive and does not include much. Also if anyone can suggest a wedding planner on the island that they have used, Thank you

Where did you see the list of strike dates? We arrive on the 18th.

Jane

Glad to hear you are safe and back in your home. The damage can be repaired....

Jane

We used them twice last year. Airport to hotel and cruise ship to airport. In fact there was a large group of us waiting for our cars at the end of the cruise as we were off the ship early. All cars arrived on time. No problems. We are using them again in October.

Jane

We use Suntransfers and have never had a problem.

Jane

Thanks for the update....I booked my excursions this morning for my October cruise!

Jane

Here's the response I received. It's hard to understand why this is so difficult.

Dear Bev,

 

 

Thank you for your loyalty to Azamara Club Cruises.

 

In regards to your concern with the Onboard Credit Usage work around; so far this work around is available for Voyages in the month of August and September.

Unfortunately we have not received any update if this will be extended. We kindly request you to contact us in the middle of August, we might have an update by then.

 

Should you have any questions please contact us at 1-877-999-9553 or via email atAzamaraCustomerService@azamaraclubcruises.com

I also emailed customer service and got the same response. Very disappointing .

We have a Royal Caribbean cruise in November and we were able to use our OBC to pay for unlimited internet . Perhaps Bonnie can look into this again.

Jane

I called this week to check on availability for the land discoveries I would like to book. I also asked about a date for using OBC to book on the website. He couldn't give me one, my travel agent also called and was not able to get a target date. Bonnie, I think it is fair to say that if final payment is due and has been paid, then we should have the ability to book now and cancel and repay using OBC on the ship. It is actually a win win situation for Azamara as they fill up the tours and get to charge us a higher price onboard, but at least we know we will get the excursions we want.

Jane

Hello,

Have not heard of Bonappetour, but we will be in Barcelona in October and have a cooking class scheduled with Barcelona Cooking.

http://www.barcelonacooking.net

Jane

And here

Bonnie,

What is the fix date scheduled to be? We are on the Quest in October and have just made our final payment. As most of our OBC is for land discoveries only, we would like to be able to book excursions.Sorry to say this is not a great first impression of Azamara for us.

Jane

Thought I would expand on my rental car recommendation for Tuscany. Many tourists, who are on a very tight schedule, will only have time to go to Florence...or perhaps Florence and Siena. Our first few trips to Tuscany, where as cruise ship passengers. So we did the usual Florence and Pisa tours. After a few trips we rented a car at the port (Livorno) and drove ourselves to San Gimignano and Volterra (love these towns). When we finally started taking extended land trips (always with a rental car) in Italy we expanded our travel within Tuscany and started driving to smaller towns like Cole Val d'Elsa, Monterrigioni, the S222 wine road between Florence and Siena, etc. We started to realize that much of the charm of Tuscany lies in its smaller villages and rural areas. You cannot experience this part of Tuscany on trains....but must have a car (or a decent tour).

 

The reality of cruising in Europe is that being limited to port days is, indeed, a huge limitation. We still love cruising in Europe....but also love (even more) our extended European driving trips. After nearly fifty years of extensive international travel we think that our ideal vacation is a combination of cruising and land time. Those that limit themselves to European cruises will have to settle for missing an awful lot of Europe. And those that never take a European cruise will also miss out on all that makes cruising a very special way to travel. And, of course, there are also the River Cruises which is a topic unto itself.

 

Hank

Hank,

We too, are going to rent a car between cruises (from Civitavecchia) and drive to Florence where we will be staying for 8 days. The plan is to take some driving trips to other towns. Originally I had wanted to drive to Pisa for the tower and then stop for the afternoon in Lucca before the return drive. I just found out there is a large comic convention in Lucca during this time period (late October, early November). Can you suggest any other places to stop between Pisa and Florence? We hope to do Volterra and San Gimignano on another day.

Thanks

Jane

Since our cruise is in October we also have to wait to book land excursions. We very rarely use ship tours preferring to use private guides but don't want to waste OBC designated only for excursions. What I don't understand is why the price would change. Would Azamara actually contract with a tour provider without a firm price?

The guide we found through tours by locals met us and accompanied us to the restaurant, stayed awhile and then came back to take us on a tour to see tbe mosiacs while meal was cooking.

We did a cooking lesson arranged by Tours by Locals. It was in a restaurant before opening, we made homemade pasta, sauce, bread and meat. While it was cooking we went we did a town tour and then returned to eat our meal. A great day

Bonnie,

I am also sailing in October and would like to book now . Why isn't this refund system availsble to everyone who has OBC that can only be used for Land Discoveries?

Jane

Hi

I am not trying to be mean but why don;t you just buy the tours you want. I am not leaving for a year but I am buying and paying for what I want. My logic is I am not flying all that way and not taking a chance on an if and a maybe I get the tours I want. I am spending all this money on the cruise and I want to make sure I see what I want. If it costs me some money so be it & I am far from rich. In fact I still work and am 69. I personally think complaining is like someone giving you a gift that you don;t like or can't use. Buy yourself some jewelry or get some spa treatments on the cruise with the OBC that you don;t use on tours. People please don;t yell at me. This is just my opinion & this is what makes our country so great everyone can have their opinion.

 

Kathy

Kathy,

We booked our first Azamara cruise for Oct 2017 over a year ago and we are really looking forward to it. At the time we received a sizable amount of OBC which is good only for land discoveries. If we could use it in the spa I would do that and pay for our excursions now. Any perks received when booking are not really free, they are built into the cost of the trip. Since I feel I have already paid for them I would like to be able to use this OBC for the purpose intended. It is not unreasonable to want to book land discoveries, using your credit, ahead of your trip. This would also give Azamara a more accurate headcount for each excursion choice which could help prevent last minute cancelations due to not enough participants, which I have read on this board to also be a problem.

Jane

Hello,

Last time in Barcelona we stayed at the Gran Havana. I would definitely recommend it as It was clean and well located. This year we will be staying at the Hotel Regina, we like to try different places. As to airport pick up, we use sun transfers, they have proved to be very reliable. Hope you have a good trip.

Jane

On my Azamara confirmation it shows two different amounts under each passenger in OBC category. Nowhere that I can find, does it state that either can only be used for Land Discoveries. Shouldn't it say so on the confirmation if this is the case?

Always love to read your reviews!

Beachseeker

What 2 cruises are you on in October? We are also booked on the Quest for the cruise beginning on the 21st.

Jane

We have wanted to try Azamara for quite awhile and finally booked our first cruise for Oct 2017 while on board Celebrity last year. We were given a nice sum of onboard credit which I found out in January is mostly good only for Land Discoveries. While we also usually do private or diy tours, I plan to do several azazmara excursions to use up this credit. There are no sea days on this cruise so everyday is a different port. I have been watching the exursions since last year, there are not many choices (in one port there is only 1 choice) and many of them seem to spend alot of time on the bus. I keep hoping they will add some different things to choose from. It also seems odd that while you have this credit to spend, you can't use it until you are on the ship. It seems to me they would better be able to manage their tours if they let you pre book. This way they would know which have enough to go ahead and last minute cancelations could be avoided.

After reading this thread I am wondering what are the type of excursions that don't draw enough people, we usually avoid anything labeled as "panoramic" or "mild". I am sure it was very disappointing to have things canceled at the last minute. Another thing I have noticed is that there is not much of a roll call (3 people and no posts in over a month) so organizing tours that way is not an option.

We really want to love this cruise so this can be the first of many, but we are still itinerary driven so our excursions are as important as our experience on the ship.

If you wouldn't mind, I would love some non-tourist dining options.

 

Thank you.

Thanks Roger, I would also like the dining options.

Jane

Roger b

Hope you are still checking this thread! We will be in Palma twice on 2 different cruises in Oct and Nov. First one on Azamara I am considering a ship tour to Drach Caves that is about 5 hrs long and then in the evening Azamara has a concert at La Seu Cathedral so this would use up most of our time in port (7-10).

Next stop will be on Celebrity and we will be in port from 10-8. Thinking about a segway tour around the old town and then time to eat and wander around the city.

I am wondering if this is our best use of time, especially the tour to Drach Caves. Would really appreciate your opinion. Thanks

Jane