tusabrat

We learned how easy it is to go on holiday with just a cabin bag a few years ago, after a trip to Lanzarote. We happened to land during siesta time, and spent a very, very long time waiting for our bags to turn up on the carousel. After that trip, we vowed to travel with cabin bags only. It's fabulous to just walk off the plane and out the doors to your hotel, or back home, when you are tired, to be able to just get on the road back home immediately.

If you google 'bundle wrapping', you will find a way of packing that will change your life. I can pack 10 days of dresses, shorts, jeans etc into my cabin bag, and take them out virtually wrinkle-free on the other side. At first, family members laughed at me... but now they all do it!

Oh, and as for BA - I won't fly on any other airline. I find their CS to be fantastic; flying so frequently, of course we have had issues from time to time (the most major being an aborted takeoff in a storm), and I've found BA to always rise to the occasion, from organising new flights, free hotel accommodation, meals, compensation, whatever. They just don't quibble, in our experience anyway. Things can always go wrong, it's how the company deals with the issues that's important.

I wonder how may UK residents will be using them in future.

We won't. I'm very much on the fence about cancelling our upcoming Nov 1 cruise.

Perhaps, because I'm a programmer, I really can't see what is so difficult about Azamara UK fixing their website. How do they justify having such a faulty website with no online booking/updating/viewing facilities, for well over a year already, with (what appears to be) absolutely no interest whatsoever in resolving this? Every time I look at my booking, I owe a different amount!

But mainly, it really rubs me up the wrong way that here in the UK, we lose our whole deposit if we cancel, yet the US only gets to pay $25. How is that fair? Why are we being treated differently? Had I realised this before booking, I would not have booked, and I will certainly not book again unless this wholly unfair policy is changed. There are plenty of other cruise lines out there.

We are due to pay for our cruise next week, and as the date gets closer, I feel less and less inclined to confirm this cruise.

We did a balcony, for the first time, on our last cruise. We hardly used it, and when we did, we found the noise from another cabin with a balcony very intrusive (they seemed to have lots of parties in their cabin/on their balcony throughout the cruise, with lots of loud laughter/shrieking). So, just be aware of the noise factor from other people when you have a balcony. Also (not on Azamara, but on other cruise lines) you get other people's smoke (I have a balcony at home, and it too is the portal to party noise and smoke! LOL)

I personally won't bother again, it's an extra cost that I don't really need. A seaview cabin is perfect.

I'd love a no-fly round-trip cruise to anywhere from Southampton! I hate flying (I'm on the verge of cancelling my November cruise after all these horrific plane crashes).

South Africa has never really seen cruise ships operate there as the east coast (Indian Ocean) can be very rough - so if you're voting for that option, make sure you have strong sea legs! I once cruised Durban to Moçambique (on the ill-fated Archille Lauro, which was hijacked in 1985, and later caught fire and sank in 1994 - look her up on the Wiki to see her list of disasters), and a typical afternoon storm blew in. There must have been about 100 people only at dinner that night, with the rest laid in their rooms barfing into the sick bags that were tied to the railings throughout the ship (so you could grab one quick if you needed it!).

Wish they would upgrade their website. It doesn't really fill me with confidence - no reservation information except a number and a total cost that changes every time you go in? Really, in this day and age, it's just not acceptable. I'm a computer programmer, it's really not that hard to link up a website to a database! What's worse is that Azamara have known about this issue for months, and choose not to do anything about it. My company freaks out if there is a semi-colon missing from a sentence!

When I booked my previous Azamara cruise, the reservation area was a great source of anticipation, now it's just a non-entity.

Hello Tusabrat,

I've just read your post and its concerns me. We're booked on the Quest for the July 5, 2013 sailing. I've not been able to find any recent reviews regarding your statement..."cabins/hallways smell so bad that people are canceling their cruises...".

Could you please direct me to those reviews. It'd be appreciated. Thank you.

Hi - here are a few from 2014 - there are earlier ones too, but I've disregarded those as things change for better/worse, so in general I only go by reviews of the past few months

/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=249730 (Journey, not Quest)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2053675

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1971632

Hope this helps. I am still on the fence about cancelling this cruise and losing my deposit.

Never mind, I've just seen that it's against the rules.

Hi all

Can anyone recommend a UK travel agent or website that they've used for SC bookings? With most things, I book direct, but was thinking about trying out an agent this time.

TIA

Karen

I have been on the Quest before, but it was 2 years ago.

I can deal with small, and the decor was fine. What I can't deal with is dirt - sewer smells and/or mould or pubic hair in the shower... eew, all those would definately be a dealbreaker!

So while I was happy on Quest 2 years ago, I also understand how much wear and tear can degrade the boat since then, which is the source of my unease after reading postings about that very thing. I did note, though, that there has been some level of refurbishment since then.

dln929 - thanks for the reassurance about the inside cabin, I was wondering about that as we had a balcony cabin last time. I don't mind interior, so long as it being interior doesn't equal smelly (from being airless).

2fromTO - the galley tour sounds interesting. Hmmm. I'm trying to follow a Paleo diet lifestyle, but I think it's going to come crashing down during the cruise :D

Thanks for the quick replies! I feel (a bit) better now.

I think I'm just getting a bit jaded - had a few disappointments with my last few holidays. For example, we went to San Fransisco for my 50th birthday last year. We stayed in a Fairmont Hotel, which was (to us) blindingly expensive - yet, the furniture was worn (peeling, scuffed), and one morning, the breakfast pastry has actual mold on it!! If you can't get a good, clean, luxury experience by booking 5 star accommodation, then what?

The good news is that we nevertheless had a fabulous time in SF, so this cruise will have a lot to live up to!

I will officially start looking forward to it now! Thanks. :D

So, I've just taken advantage of the sale and booked the HISTORY OF THE AEGEAN cruise, but now, reading some of these reviews where the cabins/hallways smell so bad that people are cancelling their cruises, and others talking of how tired the ships are getting, I'm really worried.

I have cruised Azamara only once before (GP cruise in 2012), and really enjoyed it. We had a balcony cabin that time, but this time we have an interior cabin. I am now concerned we will be subjected to a dark, smelly, unhygenic cabin in need of repair! I am on the verge of just cancelling, even though we'll lose our £300 deposit (unless there is a cooling off period?). In reading comments where people rate this boat highly, they say it's because of the crew - while it's nice to have good crew, I don't want to spend 9 days in a grubby environment just because the crew are friendly!

Can anyone reassure me about the current state of the boat (Quest)? And the interior cabins? My finger is on the 'cancel' button....

Thanks

Still nothing for me either :(

 

Is this promotion just for North American guests?

No - we booked last night for the cruise on 1st Nov 2014. The booking (started online) had to be completed by phone, though, which was odd.