DrivesLikeMario

How long does Azamara usually take to process the back-to-back passengers, specifically in Barcelona?  Our private tour operator wants to start early and I'm just not sure how long it'll take to get through the back-to-back formalities.  We've done B2Bs on two other cruise lines just in the past year but the time it took really varied.  Is it a disorganized mess with Azamara or a quick process?  
Thanks for the help!

Very helpful.  Thank you for posting.  It looks like it was handled seamlessly.

Just now, princeton123211 said:

With Dial7 and Carmel the driver doesn't work for the company-- everyone who drives for them is a third party independent contractor. So it doesn't surprise me that issues like this come up. 

Interesting!  I didn't know!  Thank you.

19 hours ago, marti2282 said:

Try Dial 7. That’s who we always use when we’re in NewYork.

We used them one time.  They argued with us about the transfer price and said they would never provide a transfer at that low cost until I got on the phone with their supervisor and sent pictures of the confirmation I had in my hands that showed the agreed-upon price.  Ever since then, I make sure I always have the confirmations with me.  It just amazed me they'd try to get out of their quoted price.

Okay, good to know, thank you.  I've had some really bad taxi/transfer service experiences in the NY area and just don't want a repeat of that.  If the Carmel car is gross inside (like it was the last time I used them), I'm not going to be a happy camper.

Good point.  Carmel is coming in at $141.50 with tolls and tip for a mini-van and Blacklane is at $166 for a car.  Uber/Lyft are hard to price because I have no idea what the tolls will be.  Any idea?

Since Royal Caribbean isn't offering transfers to LGA, which would you do?
1.  Uber/Lyft
2.  Car service (like Carmel or Blacklane)

Thanks for the help.

12 hours ago, roberts2005 said:

Not sure how far forward the noise goes, but on white night there was lots of noise above us when they brought back in all the food and equipment.  My real surprise is the difference between Quest and Pursuit.

 

 

Thanks.  Appreciate it.

Peyroutous-Port side aft have showers; Starboard side aft have bath tubs.

Good to know about the cabin noise.  We'll be in 8058 (4 cabins forward toward midship of where you were) on the Quest for a B2B.  I wonder how far forward that noise was?  And how early?  Thanks!

Yep, that's why I'm looking for recommendations.  If not, I guess I use Uber/Lyft.  At least I can rate the driver there.

Royal Caribbean isn't offering their bus transfers to LGA at the end of our cruise - only to EWR.  What do y'all recommend?  We've used a taxi service before that was absolutely horrible (driver fell asleep while driving over the bridge!).  Should we just wing-it with Uber/Lyft or is there a good, reliable service out there?

TIA

We counted it once - it's exactly 100 steps from cabin #1600 to the midship elevators.  You cannot use the aft stairway since it's for crew only.  If you don't like walking A LOT, then don't book aft cabins on this class of ship.  We just counted it as good, much-needed exercise.

10 minutes ago, jegoodman said:

You could before the website upgrade.  Not sure when this will be enabled again.  Right now my OBC doesn't show up on the new website and some of the excursions I already booked are priced incorrectly and descriptions are gone.  Presumably, this will be fixed in the future.

Okay, great.  That's good to know.  Just spent 2 hrs. on hold and no answer so appreciate the information.  Hoping they get all this IT mess cleared up soon.

I have a question though since it's been a few years since we've done an Azamara cruise:

- Can we book shore excursions with Azamara OBC ahead of time on the website?

Really enjoying your posts!  Please keep them coming!

54 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Just be careful. We once docked an hour late at a port and our Viator excursion was long gone. 

Agree.  We've had some great Viator tours but have had 2 of them cancelled just hours before we were to meet for them.  One was a chocolate walking tour in Zurich which we were really looking forward to.  We received a notice just a couple hours before we were due to meet with a notice that their guide was pregnant and couldn't lead the tour.   ???!!!   Another one in Mykonos was a golf cart tour.  Again, we were really looking forward to it but got the dreaded email from Viator about 10 hrs. before saying it was a "no go".  The best ones we've done were in Rome.  Their Skip-the-Line tours are great.

Getting through via the phone lines is really bad right now.  I did get a call back once, but it was 9 hrs. later.  Our loyalty level is wrong and they put in an IT "ticket" to correct that but said, "it's not a priority, so it may take quite a while".  They also had to put in another IT "ticket" to get our B2B cruises linked.  Hope they get things straightened out soon.

I'd like to see SJDS just because it's such a surfer's Mecca.  Have seen a lot of HGTV House Hunter episodes that were in that area.  Oh well.  Guess we know for sure now that it won't be on the itinerary.  Thanks for the info. everyone.  

Thank y’all for your info.  Appreciate it. 

I'm curious if any of the ships have made calls there lately?  I know it hasn't been on many of the PC itineraries for a long time but would love to see it back as a regular port stop again.  Thanks for the help.

On 3/4/2023 at 3:52 PM, zoncom said:

 Bus is the cheapest: around 1..5 Euro .Great bus system. All the way to ,Menton on bus along the sea for same price  .Mountain.buses too.

Totally agree.  We used the bus system too and it was so inexpensive and easy.  Busses were clean and used by locals, especially teens to get to/from school but they were very well behaved.

As an Oceania newbie, I really appreciate your review.  Thank you!

10 hours ago, terrydtx said:

Just cured me from ever doing a Cunard cruise. It's a vacation and the last thing I want to do is play dress up? I did it for work for 40 years and after retiring all my dress up suits went to Goodwill.

Exactly my husband’s feelings and so I did the cruise on my own.  

On 2/17/2023 at 2:47 PM, oskidunker said:

We would cruise Cunard for the dress up experience. Are people still dressing up or is it like everywhere else now?

I did a TA on the QM2 in 2010 and unless it's changed drastically, very few passengers dressed appropriately on formal nights.  We had 4 of them and many women were dressed in daytime floral print dresses for example, instead of formal wear.  There were very few tuxes or dark suits and plenty of tweed jackets.  I was disappointed as I had brought very formal dresses and felt almost a bit out of place.  Most cruise lines have gotten more casual over the past decade so I'd be surprised if it has improved much since then but I sure hope so.  That was supposed to be one of the defining traits of Cunard.

1 hour ago, GTJ said:

What does "dodgy" mean?

The area looks like old abandoned warehouses where you’d find mafia people meeting.  😁