PirateWife

5 hours ago, islandwoman said:

I have question about Azamara shore excursions.  We booked several online for an upcoming cruise.  Nowhere in the description could I find what times the excursions would be, although there was "duration" information.  After we booked, the shore excursions appeared on our calendar along with their times.  Would these be the only times that these excursions will be available or does Azamara just assign passengers to an excursion time?

One of our excursions turned out to be 7 AM to 12:30 PM.  This seems unreasonably early given that the ship will be in port until 6 PM.  Also, several other excursions that we booked are at inconvenient times.  Can we change the times without losing the excursions? If so, how?  And how do we find out what other times might be available?

The excursions only happen at the times listed. Sometimes there is more than one of the same excursion with different start times, but not usually. We have one booked at 6:30 am on a future cruise.

We did this a year ago. Purchased tickets in advance for entry time that would give us plenty of time to explore before joining line to enter palace. Bus left us off in parking lot adjacent to fortress. I remember that one of the bus passengers had to convince the driver to take us to Alhambra. All was good after that.

We got off the Onward yesterday. This was our 12th Azamara cruise and 3rd Azamara cruise since Covid. We may not be your typical Azamara cruisers, but we feel comfortable on the Azamara ships and like the itineraries. We ate at Windows, The Patio, Discoveries and Prime C. The service was good to great. We were pleasantly surprised to find the service in Discoveries much better than on previous cruises. We have heard the destination lecturer on multiple cruises. All of his presentations follow a formula that I find boring while my husband finds interesting. We have certainly heard much better ones on Azamara in the past. We could have sat for hours listening to the other special interest lecturer. We would love to take a class from him. The Cameron Family and Scott Harris, a comedian, were very good. We saw all of the shows in the Cabaret. The CD, we believe, did a good job filling in for Eric. There was no Assistant CD, so he was doing two jobs with a full ship. Customer Service was much better than previous cruises. They took care of issues promptly. All of the crew were friendly and helpful and addressed me by name when I saw them. Every crew member we talked to had had previous contracts with Azamara and had ones in the future. They were happy with Azamara.

20 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Me too - I’d have had to put something on my feedback form if I’d seen that!

Trust me. It is going on my feedback form.

Just off Onward cruise.

1. Specialty restaurant reservation desk on pool deck beside stage. I went directly to desk as soon as possible after boarding and some nights were already filled. Problem is that too many suite people make reservations for every night and then cancel later on. We were able to purchase two 3-dinner packages for 3 of us and dine two different nights in Prime C.

2. On TV, not able to see menus for restaurants, book excursions, etc. However, it does not take much leg power to check out daily menus in Discovery.

3. Dress code was very relaxed. Did not see shorts in Prime C but did see t-shirts, bare chests (men) in Windows, and bare feet and shorts in Cabaret for evening show.

4. The hair dryers are worthless. In our cabin, we could not plug it in the outlet at the desk in front of the mirror. It had a very long cord which was good because we plugged it in by the bed and stretched it across the room.

6 minutes ago, blag said:

Just to be clear (because I forget things so easily these days) is this OBC per person or per room?

Per booking.

From the first cruse we did, we have always brought a lightweight backpack for trips off of the ship. It fits very nicely over my husband's shoulders, and he can keep it on when I need to get out something. I don't think we have ever used the totes. We sometimes leave them on the ship when we disembark, sometimes bring them home and give them away.

I have a half dozen bags and lots of wallets and a cruise in a week. Maybe I will bring some with me and pass them out.

We got our FCC from an August cruise this week. Thank goodness I kept all of our documentation.

We received a letter saying we would be given FCC while on a cruise in August. No expiration date. We booked another cruise onboard and we know a notation was made on that booking that we had FCC. Sadly, Azamara doesn't seem to know anything about it although a copy of the letter has been sent to them. Our TA has been working on this for months.

In August, we quarantined in our veranda room as did others on our deck.

Interesting comments. The M & Ms I went to before Covid were fun and well-attended. Since then, not. People went to the site of the event, sat and talked to people that they already knew, and nothing was shared. No one introduced themselves except for the one I stood up and had everyone introduces themselves, give us their CC name, and, possibly, share something. For first time cruisers with Azamara, these get-togethers can be really helpful.

We have been able to book a future cruise using our free nights that we earned while on the cruise that moved us to the next tier.

Several years ago, I mentioned a problem in the half-way through the cruise guest questionnaire. That night the HD approached me by name and asked if he could talk to me. I was quaking, wondering what I had done now. He just wanted to let me know he appreciated my comment and would take care of the problem. Since then, I have always filled out the questionnaires with the good and the bad. Passengers see things from a different viewpoint than the managers. As a passenger, I have connected with several managers; we greet each other by name and share where we have been and what we have been doing since the last cruise.

Wonderful to hear they weren't doing the same show over and over again. New to b2b cruising which we like very much. We like to go to the shows at night but don't want to see the same one we saw pre-pandemic (which we have) or exactly the one from the previous week. Variety is the spice of life.

While not a medical evacuation exactly, on an Azamara trans-Atlantic cruise there was a medical emergency. The captain put the ship on full speed to get to our next port. As soon as the ship docked, the passenger was removed from the ship to a waiting ambulance.

There is a problem with the smoke from the smoking area wafting over to the pool bar on all the ships. I don't know if all of the ships have the canopy over the tables at the pool bar, but the canopy tends to trap the smoke for people at the pool bar to smell. Deck 12 may be a little harsh for the smoking area. Maybe in the casino.🙂

8 hours ago, Nippy Sweetie said:

We are in suites at the moment on Onward. We'd thought we'd go to the speciality restaurants most nights but it hasn't turned out that way. This is mainly because of their 6.30 or 8.30 timings for sittings. We complained as we prefer to eat at 7.30ish. After a lot of fuss we did finally make it to Prime C at a time to suit but it was awkward being made aware that we were having special treatment.

As it happens, we found that we liked Discoveries and ask to share a table if possible. So far we've had delightful dinners with all sorts of people and it's turned into a highlight. 

We do go to Aqualina for breakfast most but not every mornings. It's very quiet there and the views are wonderful.

We've always had a choice of times except when the reservation times we wanted were already booked full. Did you make your reservations on the first day of your cruise? With the Onward having more suites than the other ships, there might be more demand to eat in the specialty restaurants.

No problem with the complimentary laundry. However, we did laugh when my husband's undershirts came back pressed and on a hanger.

I always bring my laundry bag from home. It takes no room and weighs nothing. When it is full, I take it to the laundry room. I've cruised enough that I know when washing machines are usually available. The regular washing machine cycle takes longer that the dryer cycle. I don't bring anything that needs to be ironed.

On our cruise several years ago from Athens to Dubei the captain kept warning passengers to not eat street food. Of course, a group did and they got sick which meant the self-serve buffets were served by crew members and everything on the ship was sanitized. The group, including some that had to have IVs, were confined until released by the medical staff. No one else got sick.

It is easier to find cruises with new ports to visit when your cruising experience has been one or two cruises a year and only 12 since 2014. We have booked a b2b that has 12 new ports for us. We start and stop in ports that we keep going back to because we enjoy them so much.

Must be luck.

Realistically, there is no waiting to get into the main dining room, Windows or the Patio. There are always seats available for the shows, but some people have their favorite viewing places. A line often forms about 15 minutes before the show just before the doors open. I haven't been on Onward yet but access to the various bars is easy on the other ships. I have only seen the Den crowded when there was afternoon trivia. But that only happens on cruises with lots of sea days. Even on cruises that have been booked full, you can always find your own space.

We were isolated in our veranda room on our cruise last month. Frankly, any room can start to feel small after a few days in mandated isolation. There were several rooms on our deck that had isolated passengers. If I had been really sick, I might have chosen to be on deck 4 closer to the medical facilities.