andrcan

Dress code is smart casual. Shorts ok for breakfast/lunch, not for dinner.

We just got back from an Azamara Med cruise and we were so pleased by how nice and friendly all gay travellers we met on the ship were. The LGBT+ meeting was hosted by the Assistant Cruise Director, who was very helpful, but on the small ship it's difficult not to meet other couples, and everyone was approachable, friendly, and interesting to talk to.

6 hours ago, mdpa said:

Well, I haven’t worn a belt once. 

An attestation to the food quality on board as well 🙂

2 hours ago, marinaro44 said:

Would you really have passed up the Alhambra to go to White Night?

Well, taking an earlier bus back to Malaga was an obvious option to consider and we attempted it but it was too late: the bus was full( 

1 hour ago, Grandma Cruising said:

But they wouldn’t have known the likely weather far ahead enough to agree the date & publicise it before the cruise started.
We’ve always found out when White Night is once we get onboard. We go to book a couple of nights in the Speciality restaurant as soon as we board and check things like when White Night is.

I would narrow it down to two or three options - on a country intensive cruise that would help. After all, I don't think the captain selects the date randomly: another AZ ship just had the White Night in Malaga too.

49 minutes ago, uktog said:

And even then it can change if the weather doesn’t perform as expected. You can identify nights it’s likely to be before you go. Any night you are late in port is a potential white night. And more likely to be one of those nights towards the end of the cruise. But beyond that it’s wait until you board. It may not be advertised when it’s going to be. Sometimes you have to ask. Best place is the speciality restaurant reservations desk in windows 

Yes, I believe someone mentioned that on this site so I hoped we'll have it in Lisbon where we stayed overnight. Anyway, lesson learned though I still believe such an event should be publicized better and earlier in advance if the cruise line wants all guests to be happy about it. 

33 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Regarding White Night, it’s down to the Captain to decide which night is best taking account of the likely weather.

We were blessed with wonderful weather the whole week. 

One more issue with otherwise great Azamara experience that unfortunately was quite visible to me as the newbie was poor communication. Though not the deal breaker, it was definitely the nail in the shoe. Inconsistent, missing or confusing information caused us fair amount of stress and anger, which could easily be avoided with minimum effort on Azamara's side. 

Destination Celebration: two time slots were available for booking on the website; we booked it well in advance and planned the whole day accordingly including dinner arrangements. Then at embarkation we were issued paper tickets for another time slot with the explanation that they run out of tickets for our time slot (!) The problem was quickly resolved by the Guest Relations Manager but left us wonder why online reservation is needed at all if paper tickets were issued on the first come, first serve basis, and why not hanging out paper tickets based on he online reservation records.

White Night: it was labeled as one of the highlights, so we did our part and brought white clothes on board. Unlike the Destination Celebration, the date for the White Night was not announced in advance and we only found out about it after the cruise started. It turned out to be in Malaga and for that day, we already planned our own day trip to Granada - the arrangements one has to make months in advance if Alhambra is included. So by the time we got back on board, the dinner was over and we settled for the Windows cafe dinner buffet sitting next to a group of equally unhappy guests who ended up in the same situation and clearly felt left out of the festivities. Would it be that difficult to post the information on the White Night date and hours on the website in advance? I think not.

Celebrity points: My points for previous cruises with Celebrity were promptly recognized by Azamara with all the perks awarded; my husband's - not. The number was on file, the points were on file but the status was not awarded. Again, the talk with the Guest Relations Manager - and everything works. But why does it have to be him if this was supposed to be automatic?

Maybe this is just the rant of a first timer not being familiar with the ropes but to me this amounts to a systemic issue well beyond the staff member not remembering how many sausages a guest has to have for breakfast.

51 minutes ago, norn iron said:

Is dining in Discoveries still tables for two or larger bubble groups?

They have everything. Plenty of tables for two as well as some larger tables.

Cabin 6037

Ship Pursuit

Date 21/05/31

Pros Near front elevators / stairs. Very quiet deck.

Cons The view obstructed by the lifeboat but the window is large with plenty of day light. The room is some 15 sq ft smaller than standard Oceanview rooms so no sofa in there but still feels spacious.

Book again? Yes

6 hours ago, uktog said:

Interesting, not the Azamara labelled wine which has had some pretty bad reviews.  Sounds like this was a good solution

Azamara label wines are still there, I tried them and, except for Merlot, agreed with those ranked them low. Merlot is drinkable though.

4 hours ago, Belfastman said:

These are not the wines offered by Pursuit currently. They have gone back to the Azamara labelled boutique wines. There are four reds and four whites but no Nero d'Avola.

Sorry to hear - to some extent it might be my fault as I consumed it quite enthusiastically) 

One thing that pleasantly surprised me on board Azamara Pursuit last week was the good quality of included wines. It looks like before our cruise they restocked the cellars by Italian wines. Their Cabernet, Merlot and Nero d'Avola were well rounded and went quite well both with meals and on their own. Same goes for Rose, Riesling, and Sauvignon Blanc. A few bottles I brought on board from my pre-cruise trip to Priorat and Montsant were spared. Well done!

On 6/11/2022 at 8:09 PM, kaymoz said:

I just checked with Celebrity, since I learned here that their Captain's Club is reciprocal with Azamara for the time being.  I only have 30 points!  Does that do anything for us in terms of our first Azamara cruise coming up next month? 

(We are those people who itinerary-driven and despite 10+ cruises, so far we've only repeated a cruiseline once!) 

My understanding is, points driven perks will be applicable only after the first completed cruise with Azamara:

"Membership. To qualify for enrollment in Azamara Circle, guests must complete one voyage at full fare,* which includes most promotional rates offered in the general marketplace by Azamara. After guest completes qualifying voyages, the membership level will automatically advance to the applicable membership level. Guests will enjoy the new Azamara membership benefits on their next voyage on Azamara."

https://www.azamara.com/int/loyalty/terms-conditions

Being just back from AZ cruise, I agree with Gary: staff training is an issue. One can clearly see the difference between the service performed by trained staff and those recently joined. One of Living Room stewards told me his first day with Azamara a month ago was the White Night party day and he just didn't know what to do so he just cluelessly walked around the deck and tried to be useful. But now he's pretty good so I hope pre-covid service level will be back in a few months. 

Thanks for sharing your tips! This time, to my surprise, we managed to avoid the struggle even though we didn't get to sleep on the plane. Got to BCN at noon, checked in the hotel at 3pm, then tired ourselves by walking around before and after the dinner, got up early next day and went on a self guided wine tour to Priorat area with food and wine pairing (well, 4 courses and 7 wines do not exactly form pairs but after the first four wines no one cared anymore). Got back to the hotel late, and then we slept like the babies ever since! 🤷 We tend to believe, it was due to your advise!

Thanks, Ivi, for your time and effort to maintain this thread throughout your cruise. It was particularly useful for me as for the first time cruiser who is gonna cruise on the same ship in a couple of days. The information you provided busted my worries and gave the reference point for my expectations. Well done!

I’m wondering if seasoned cruisers can share their tips on how do they fight jet lag when going on the cruises to the parts of the world with time zones being several hours apart from theirs. I always arrive a few days in advance to the departure port time zone as it takes me 2 to 5 days to get over the jet lag. Otherwise my memories of port intensive cruises get clouded in the first couple of days by the semi-zombie state of mind and body. Tried melatonin, it worked well, but prefer accommodating naturally though slowly. How do others deal with it?

5 minutes ago, travelberlin said:

I can confirm that they do have it. I will try tomorrow 😋

Would you please also confirm by trying if they have lobsters and caviar at the White Night party?😜

Great! Less one worry! Can focus on packing now)

10 minutes ago, joyride said:

Just to clarify - it's OK to bring on a bottle of liquor, like Crown Royal to drink in the cabin?

Yes, it is ok - a bottle or two... or more if you think of sharing)

55 minutes ago, joyride said:

We are 9 days out from our May 31st cruise on the Pursuit. We checked in online on the Azamara website and we have our boarding passes. However, we do not have luggage tags (still says "processing") and we do not have Documents available. I was wondering what is included in the "cruise documents?" Should I be concerned?

Hmmm... We are on the same cruise and have this "Guest Ticket Booklet" available in "Documents" folder for good three weeks now. It is a 14-page cruise information document that also includes print-it-yourself luggage tag stabs besides other information. Not sure that not having it is a show stopper though.

16 minutes ago, travelberlin said:

Today mussels on the ship. Very tasty but small portions. My first portion came 4 mussels and one was closed. So I order a second portion. Again one closed… in total I have eaten 6 mussels. I was too shy to order a third, fourth… 

Ivi

 

 

Thanks - knowing that, I'll order 5 portions at once thus saving time! 😋 Is it worth it?

7 hours ago, kaymoz said:

What's this about some benefit for first time Azamara cruisers who have sailed with Celebrity?  Does one voyage with Celebrity in 1995 qualify?  (please don't laugh 😉 you never know about these things?!)

 

If Celebrity has that record on file, then yes as they share the database with AZ.

19 minutes ago, audobon_tx said:

Cannot log in to account nor voyage planner.  Keep getting message saying "This Page Isn't Working azamara.com is unable to handle this request".  It has been that way all day.  Is the system down?

Just logged into my account on azamara.com with no problems...