RedBlu

Hi, we were in 7088 on Onward for B2B cruises last June. Absolutely no noise issues & the location was perfect. The only issue we had was the balcony door had no locking mechanism which we reported several times & it was still the same when we left the ship. It wasn’t really a problem as we couldn’t imagine anyone being able to get the cabin from the balcony, except maybe SpiderMan! I would hope that this has been fixed by now!

I’m loving reading your trip report & seeing your fabulous photos. We did B2Bs on Onward last June & although there a few minor niggles it didn’t put us off booking another cruise for June 2023. Reading your report is making me excited about our trip & helping to take my mind off the catastrophe that is the new Azamara web site! Looking forward to reading the next instalment 🛳️😀

Thank you for your entertaining posts Adrian, I have thoroughly enjoyed following along especially as we are due to board the Onward next Saturday for B2B cruises🤞. You certainly appeared to have had a good time, I hope your future travels are just as enjoyable.

Pat & Tony

1 hour ago, les37b said:

 

Sorry to post off topic (though relevant for the OP hopefully)...

 

I posted on another forum hoping to find somewhere for my antigen test prior to boarding in Lisbon in 10 days. The best I managed to locate (which the unconnected hotel suggested) was €40 which I was less than impressed with.

 

Are there lots of test sites? I did search Google but found nothing. Elsewhere in Greece and Italy, there are places punters have used for under €10 so really hoping not to stump up €40 or £69 for a pre departure PCR.

 

Joyride, I've had bulkhead seats and like you concerned they wouldn't recline properly to get the benefit of what you'd paid for..... They did, at least on my flight.

 

Looking on Seat Guru, it is confusing as the aircraft seat configuration shows no premium seats. Further confusion from what you've said, is that it doesn't include cabin luggage, which makes me wonder if they've given you PE seats. With PE seats, you get 2 hold bags, 1 overhead and one small under seat allowance. I assume you have checked in now? Did you get the option to check in 2 hold bags without extra charge?

 

Also from what you've said, your TA should be dealing with this on your behalf. You booked this holiday through them not direct right? They should have been earning their commission and got it sorted.

 

Seats or cabins are never guaranteed. On the ship there maybe a problem with the shower for example. That is predominately the reason for the caveat, but no doubt there may be others. On airlines, I agree the whole point of booking and pay extra is to get what you want. Unfortunately it does say that the can make changes and whilst I agree it's out of order to be told they've sold your booked seat, there is nothing you can do.

 

At least you are ticked and ready to go.the airline Azamara booked me on are cancelling flights left right and centre because of software problems. A news article suggests this will go on for at least the next 10 days .... We fly in 9.

 

Travel is not the fun it once used to be but hopefully once you are on board, you can put this stress behind you are enjoy.... Do please post how it's all going.

It looks like we are also on the same airline, we now have to worry about cancellations, getting through the infamous scenario at Manchester Airport , then getting a negative test the morning we leave our hotel in Athens. I wont relax until I'm on board!

8 hours ago, Riocca said:

Currently on Onward, if you want to upgrade from a Premium drinks package that was included in your booking to the Ultimate package this can be done for $7 per person per day. Loyalty discounts are not available on the upgrade.

There is a new rum on the included package Flor de Caña replaces the Mount Gay.

Also Onward has a new paperless accounting system with orders being done on pda, staff are still learning how it works which is slowing things down a little but I’m sure it’s a temporary blip, otherwise Onward is looking good. Still workmen doing the final touches but the ship has a much more modern feel than the others.

That’s good news, we’ve read conflicting answers about upgrading from an included package. We would have upgraded anyway but now we’ll have more of our OBC to spend on other things!

9 minutes ago, christine848 said:

And us too! 
We were also booked on 28 March Dubai to Athens on the Quest, and have heard absolutely nothing! 
Despite numerous phone calls to our travel agent, I got nowhere, and now can't even get through to them.

🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

See nigelc's post on page 6 of this thread regarding small claims court action. We sent a letter based on his template to our TA last week & our refund appeared today, it's worth a try. 

We were booked on the 28 March Quest Dubai-Athens cruise which was cancelled on 14 March and finally after 88 days we have received our refund today! We had booked through a UK web based cruise company who were almost impossible to contact & when we did manage to speak to someone they constantly gave us excuses regarding our refund. So last week, from info gleaned from this thread, I sent a pre-advice letter giving them 14 days before we started proceedings in the small claims court. I don't know if this did the trick or not but I do suspect that the company had been holding onto our refund as suggested by others. We were recommended this company by a fellow passenger on our Azamara cruise last year, needless to say we won't be doing business with them again!

We really don't know when we will cruise again, we will wait & see how things are once sailings recommence but we can't see the on board experience being the same until this virus is eradicated or a vaccine found. 

Good luck to anyone still waiting for a refund, we know how you feel. We hope everyone stays safe & well, I will keep an eye on the Azamara board which has been so helpful since we took our first AZ cruise.

Pat & Tony

Denise, your help on these forums has been invaluable & we will miss your input enormously. Thank you for all you’ve done, enjoy the rest & stay safe.

Pat & Tony

Just come across this link on another cruise line forum, it may be of interest to UK residents:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/24/uk-watchdog-complaints-holiday-refunds-competition-markets-authority

Here’s hoping!

Yes we informed our TA that we wanted a refund & received an automated reply. I wrote again stressing that we did not want a FCC & their reply stated that they were in the process of cancelling all elements of the package & they would be in touch with regards our options. It’s all rather unclear but I will try to phone them first thing tomorrow to get some clarification. I dare say I will have to hold on your some time but time is something we have these days! 

We were due to sail on the Quest on 28 March, the cruise was cancelled on 14 March at which time I contacted Azamara to advise that we would be requesting a full refund of our cruise package from our UK TA. I also requested a refund of the Indulgence Package cost, £1050.30 + £18.81 for an additional shore excursion cost. 

To date we have received no acknowledgment from Azamara but did get the £18.81 refunded to our CC last week.

This evening I am dumfounded to receive the following email:

Dear Guest,

We're reaching out to you regarding your cancelled 28-MAR-20 sailing onboard Azamara Quest. We know how much time and effort go into planning the perfect cruise, and we're very sorry for the impact on your vacation.

As promised, we've sent the details of your Future Cruise Credit (FCC) to your Travel Advisor. We hope you'll use it to plan an awesome cruise vacation with us in the near future. Once you're ready to book your next cruise, please contact your Travel Advisor to redeem your FCC.

Thank you for your cooperation during this unfortunate situation. We wish you good health and hope to have the opportunity to sail with you under different circumstances soon.

Sincerely,

Azamara Cruises

We do not want a FCC especially as we feel that Azamara have handled this whole matter so badly, causing stress & anxiety with the late cancellation of the cruise & now trying to wriggle out of issuing a refund. Life is difficult enough at the moment without having to deal with more stress.

I hope everyone stays safe & hope we can come out of this with our health & sanity.

Pat 

Thank you for another excellent comprehensive review Mike, Rio is also on our bucket list & we want to go even more now. We learned so much from your web site when we first started cruising with X ten years ago & are now looking forward to our second Azamara cruise in March on the Quest. We were very sorry to read about Carol, our condolences.

Pat & Tony

 We purchased the Indulgence package prior to our first Azamara cruise in March & thought it was great value. The shore excursion credit appeared on our cruise planner immediately & everything else was documented in our cabin on embarkation. We booked the Chefs Table but yes, you can reserve 3 nights in the speciality restaurants instead. Our cruise was in Asia so can’t help with the VAT query. Enjoy!

We are also X cruisers & will be sailing with Azamara for the first time later this month. We have been thoroughly enjoying your review since day 1 & are quite sad that it is coming to an end, reading it has been a highlight in our day! Your style of writing is so very entertaining & informative & your photos just wonderful.  When booking our forthcoming cruise we felt that Azamara would be our sort of cruise line and your report has certainly confirmed this. Thank you Norris & Carol for all your hard work, it has been a joy following along & we look forward to the next one.

Pat & Tony

1 minute ago, gymfreak said:

My advice, take your own!

We sail out of Singapore so that might prove difficult!

Having purchased the Ultimate Beverage package for our forthcoming cruise I am hoping for decent tonic to accompany my Grey Goose vodka!

24 minutes ago, uktog said:

Not quite - well certainly not how Pursuit handled it in December

The Chefs Table, you will find they automatically book you into one of the tables, there should be a letter in your room telling you the day and date of your booking - however you can swap to another table but you need to be quick.  We did this as the one allocated did not appeal.  Then they cancelled the one we chose so we had to swap to a third one, which we enjoyed even though it was not our first choice

Ultimate Liquor Package - if there is not a sticker already on your room key showing you have the package there will be a tiny sticker in the envelope in your room that has the internet codes and the laundry vouchers.  You need to watch out for this as its very small and you need to put that on your card.  If you have no sticker go straight to guest relations because until you have a sticker you cannot benefit from the package

The spa credit was added to your onboard account but did not show up on your TV account - again the spa will keep you right 

Thank you HGC & uktog. This will be our first Azamara cruise so it’s good to know what to expect, to say we’re looking forward to it is an understatement!

We bought the Indulgence package for our upcoming cruise and we were able to use the Shore Excursion credit immediately. We would be interested to know how the spa credit, Chefs Table & Ultimate Beverage Package are made available, will they be incorporated onto our cruise card? TIA for any info.

We are also on this cruise, our first with Azamara & have to agree with BCfisherman regarding communication. The only contact we’ve had is a letter sent via our TA advising about the change in disembarkation port from Tokyo to Yokohama. This was a disappointment to us as we’ve booked a hotel in Tokyo Bay post cruise. Our TA has been in touch with Azamara who have no plans to provide any transportation so we have the option of an expensive taxi (£120 approx) or the train which isn’t ideal with luggage, we shall wait and see once we are on board. We are very much looking forward to this trip & hope the experience is as promised 🤔

Thank you for your excellent review Anne, it’s been a great read everyday this past week. We are sailing on the 11 & 18 March cruises, our first time on the Silhouette after 7 previous X cruises. After a dreadful winter here in the U.K. we are so looking forward to this trip & even more so after enjoying your review!

We’re sure we won’t be the only passengers effected, I have phoned our TA who are looking into it, just hope they come up with a convenient solution. Thanks for your input.

We are doing b2b Cruises on Silhouette on 11th then 18th March 2018. We haven’t yet been informed of the change by Celebrity but it is showing when logging onto their web site. We would therefore be interested to know what the procedure will be when we arrive back in Miami on 18th March. Anyone have any idea?

Thank you for your great review much appreciated. We board the Solstice for the third time on 19 January for our first visit to New Zealand. Reading your review has really got us excited! :)