oddjob16

We are docked next to Journey in Barcelona today and I saw a friend I sailed with on the spring T/A on Quest last year...she said all is well for her and all her friends on board with plumbing...sounds like she and Phil agree!! :) LuAnn

In Barcelona???:eek: Journey left Gibraltar yesterday at 3 pm. Must have been another ship you saw. She is currently cruising towards Syracusa on Sicily.

Nice touch. I love Ann Tran. A strike of genius to get her onboard and write about it. She has millions of followers/readers:)

Rick Steve's guides are good as paper weights. I writes incorrectly about almost every region in Europe and that makes me avoid his guides. Do take everything he writes with a HUGE pinch of salt-:cool:

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Thank you, Bonnie. That's great news. :)

Jonathan is no longer with Azamara. As I understand it his contract was terminated.

 

Phil

Sad. I liked him. Hope he has moved to a satisfying job, be it on land or the seven seas:)

Thanks, Procter, for a descriptive review and what would be our biggest fear for our upcoming cruise in May.

First of all:

Captain: There should not be any difference who is the driver. However there seems to be some, and the Master of the Wessel should be keeping the organization in "ship-shape" no matter what. Your troubles with the tenders is unheard of and should be reported to a safety organization. I work within Air Traffic Control and any discrepancy is reported,- even if it is your own fault. Safety is first.

Food and beverage.

Well this would not have happened if Jonathan was on board. The F&B manager on your cruise must have had a bad watch.

If they have cancelled the draught Becks from the included package they might as well stop serving beer. The rest is undrinkable.

Other problems: Aircon, steaks, halibuts and burgers: as it seems: Everything is slipping slowly and certain this line is getting more and more like the cheap ones and cannot call themselves "club cruises" for any reason.

We are sailing with Jason in May and for Gods sake I hope Jonathan will be on as F&B manager. IMHO that might be the most important person on any ship. I don't care about the Captain, as long as it is a safe and reliable one - but it sure doesn't sound safe with any ship that doesn't have enough fuel in their lifeboats.:eek:

Depending on time of the day and everything taxis is an ok option. We got a taxi last year from Taxim Square to the Blue Mosque and the traffic was not too heavy. Mind you this was the only option at that time because of the riots

Thanks for the post. I love trivias, but this time I am completely blank. However this must be continued. More ports, please.:)

This summer Azamara Journey called into Bergen, Norway. I have now added photos of this visit to my hobby blog of cruise ships in the city, which can be seen here.

 

http://shipsinbergen.blogspot.no/2014/07/azamara-journey.html

 

I hope this will be of interest to some of you. It was a beautiful sunny day and she looked really well alongside at the quay :) She has definitely made it onto my cruise bucket list!

Thank you. As I am from Bergen these pictures are always nice to see. Captain Johannes always gets to "park" at the best spot in town. Bradbenken or Festningskaien as you call it, is the closest dock to the city.

BTW thank you oddjob16 for the reviews. I know our friend will be interested.

The complimentary wines may differ slightly but my reviews are from the original list. Prices vary from $9-$20. Not top shelf wines but all very drinkable. The assortment, or content, of the wine packages where you can buy more expensive wines are not available. They just state that you can choose from a range of wines at about $50- or $50+

http://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/our-ships/onboard-packages/wine-packages

Here is a link to my post earlier this year

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=42843973#post42843973

And some will get cancelled over the course of 2015. You know it, we know it. Let's not play games.

 

Who's playing games, floisdekort? Charters are simply a fact of life in the cruise industry. I have no idea which, if any, of our 2017 voyages will be chartered, or when. Were you expecting me, the Chief Blogging Officer, to promise that none would be chartered?!

 

I'm not bringing this up to argue with you but I am wondering why, if as you say above you're sticking with Seabourn, you sound hostile to Azamara as though charters only happen on our line? Charters are a fact of life, and a key factor in the sustainability of ALL small-ship cruise lines, including Seabourn*.

*I speak from experience on this as my readers will recall from my bio & first blog post that I spent many years managing both their marketing and revenue management departments.

NO, No, Bonnie:o You are tickled too easily. :p Floris will be back. He just needs a good hug.:)

Itineraries doesn't look too bad, but there will always be different opinions, depending on previous cruising history. The Journey definitely has the best 2017 plan for me. ;)

Looks like a reasonable price. The 2500 $ per cabin has been the normal price as of 2013 for a Veranda. Pricing for 2016 would be at least 3000$+.

A great review, and very balanced. Thank you.:):D:D

i wanted to share a story from today which kind of sums matters up well as to why i love azamara. Some can accuse me of being a cheerleader, but as far as this goes i'd like to think i give criticism where due and this situation isn't the first time it's happened on an azamara ship. Here's the story.

 

We arrived in st tropez at 8am this morning and it was clear the weather would not allow us to tender. A 30 knot wind, heavy rain and white caps. Captain johannes came over the pa by 8.30am to keep us updated to say he was looking at alternatives. I saw oceania marina from the balcony having the same issues as us. We left her for dust as we went out to sea, negotiations continuing as to where we could go.

 

Within an hour the captain had spoken to cannes (too rough there too), nice (already full), monaco (also no space for us) and finally villefranche which had space and being more sheltered would allow us to tender. So we hot footed it to villefranche and anchored there.

 

Whilst all this was going on all excursions had been rearranged by the shorex team, flyers put in all of the staterooms and this included details of of the public transport arrangements that could be made from our substitute port. In addition a port guide would come onboard and make themselves available to guests. An awful lot of hard work to make all of this happen from beginning to end.

 

What of oceania marina? She spent the day at sea no doubt collecting her revenue from the shops and casino. Says it all as to the attitude of azamara and "destination immersion".

 

Phil

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I would not trust Azamara to take any actions on your behalf if turmoils reappear in Istanbul. We were to board the Journey in Istanbul in june 2013 and had booked our pre-cruise hotel via Azamara. We barely made it to the hotel as the police fired teargas grenades directly at our van as it drove up in front of the Grand Hyatt. We were blind as we were dragged in the front door and reveived first aid together with other unfortunate bystanders. They were burning buses 20 meters from the hotel entrance. I was stating this in my FB update the same night: " Just arrived in Istanbul, - it looks like Kabul".

We heard nothing from Azamara until the next evening. A letter was pushed under the door urging us,- under the present circumstances, to stay away from areas around Taksim Square. No telephone or contact number. Well, our hotel was at Taksim Square and Azamara put us there. We were confined to the hotel for two days and were lucky to be evacuated to ship on sailing day.

I would never trust Azamara to aid you in any circumstances in a situation like this. If you go stay in the area around the Blue Mosque and avoid the Taksim area at all costs.

As for me. I would never go near Istanbul ever again.

Thanks for the report and fantastic pictures, Phil. A nice brush-up of the Journey under way and that is good news. We are not due for our next cruise until may, but this gave us a real boost. Well done, Azamara!:):p

the word "twist" comes to mind here. I much prefer this way with the "twist" than your way.. does not matter to me which is correct it is which tastes good to me. orers have been changed up. just wait to i tell the waiter no watermellon and to double the order.. finally whati ask for in my cabin coming to a table near me.

Fine, Robin. The most important is that they continue to serve fantastic 🍲 food. No sense in making this into a culinary dictionary discussion. I agree. I just couldn't.....:):D

The headline states 'Aqualina with an Italian Twist'.

 

Why get worked up over a variation on a classic dish? Why not just choose a different one to suit your taste.

 

As I'm a vegetarian, not a problem for me, I will not be eating it.

Not worked up. Dish is probably absolutely fabulous. Would love to try it. I love italian food. But it is not Vitello Tonnato. A variation, nope,- the original is not even close to this. You cannot serve a pork chop and call it a wienerschnitzel.

Call it something else.

The Vitello Tonnato is not correct. If you want to serve the above dish then you should do it correctly. Thinly sliced veal with a tuna and capers sauce. For gods sake. Get it right. You don't fool around with italian classics. Fabio should know better.

Well, that is indeed unfortunate. The housekeeping staff work very hard and have done (at least on our cruises) admirable work keeping a friendly and accommodating attitude. Loading them with extra work can only mean less attention to detail, less availability for special requests, and I'm sure a less than happy staff. Forget the lousy LCV program...this change is really bad.

 

Bonnie...you want to chime in on this?

Chiminhhggggggh

This is serious. Some serious late services noticed during our last cruise. Mayne we should have pointed that out.:o

We had no problem getting in either specialty restaurant on the 8/8 cruise. In fact we changed dates a couple times and they could always accommodate us.

Bonnie, my hope is that this won't be a problem in the future. We will keep our reserved dates and see how this developes. You have made many wrong changes to the LVC benefits, this is not to be a part of this. Unfortunately this encompasses all the previous downfalls of Azamara:

Removal of the harpists

Removal of the band playing at deps and arrivals

The removal of the guitar player that replaced the band.

The move of the piano player to the casino lounge.

The move of the art auctions into the Windows cafe

You asked what would enhance my Azamara experience:

Get rid of "the more inclusive".

I would rather pay for a decent drink package.

Change the the Azamazimg Evening Experience. Don't make any easy cutbacks on " never seen" sevices.

Get your loyal clients back. Give them some significant perks

Love your cruise critics

They only want yoir best.

On our last cruise the M&M was also disturbed by the usual "we are sorry but wr we have no time for this", then we were left to entertain ourselves with presentations. Next cruise I will probably choose a venue for ourselves and keep it out of Azamara's hands:confused:

I agree that some mishaps do happen more than usual, ref your shower curtain. Jason is Jason. Very nice guy and a great captain, but he is not as outgoing as Johannes. Azamazing Evenings seem to be 50/50 successful. Some are great and some become logistically difficult. Tony was great the last time, but he is not Russ or Eric. Oh, and yes. He is hugable.:)