ECCruise

Thanks for doing these wonderful reports @Ferry_Watcher We will be doing the very similar sailing next year on Noordam, and your recaps like the one above for Hakodate are giving us lots of ideas for next October.

Even though we would never use the library for books (our 500+ books on Kindle Fire more than satisfy) I applaud HAL for reinstalling the libraries for those will will avail themselves of them. And this thread verifies that those folks are out there.

We thought the same thing but having spent 6 weeks in Japan this year didn't really find that. Yes, at the big hotels, especially international chains, that is likely the case. But venturing even a little outside of the tourist centers we found very little English spoken or understood. Many restaurants, 7-11s and Lawsons, and transportation like taxis we either used Google translate or winged it because it was "lost in translation."

@SoBaycruiser It will depend on what customs/immigration procedures will be in force when you want to disembark. Even though you never leave Australia there may be a requirement to pass through customs and/or immigration and those officers likely would not be available the evening before scheduled disembarkation. You may try this email contact: bookingsupportaunz@azamara.com

Don't know about Reddit, but YouTube is filled with "influencers" whose opinion I wouldn't even consider let alone put any faith in. If they are normal, everyday cruisers with no "incentivized" or sponsored axes to grind, then maybe.

I think for Israel for 2024 it is like the Black Sea was for us in 2022. Everyone knew that there is no way we would be going into the Black Sea, but they waited until they had made all the alternative arrangements before they changed the itineraries.

Timing for release of excursions varies. A lot. On our B2B2B leaving in 3 weeks, many of the excursions only showed up in the last 2 months. This may be due to there were a number of port changes on one of the legs, but there was a period not that long ago that available excursions were pretty slim pickings. Now there are many available. Just keep checking.

I wonder if times have changed. When we did the Arabic right before the shutdown, there was a waiting list. Same with Rijstafel. Full table (at least 16) in Windows.

Yes, that's exactly what I said.

With a private transfer, yes. With HAL transfer, if it fits their time parameters, yes. With the train, possible but pretty questionable.

Are you talking about the cruise line transport from the ship to FCO airport? If that is the case, they will not allow you to book it if your flight is too early. If you are talking about a city type bus, I know of none that would go from Civitavecchia to FCO.

Agree with the others. Even having been in Mykonos like a dozen times, would never trade a wonderful Greek lunch on the island for 2 tender rides and a meal in OVC. Find your way out of the immediate (and tourist clogged) harbor to some of the tavernas a bit further afield.

That is the exact same one that had been scheduled (for months) on our Canaries to Cape Town sailing next month. We were informed that it would not occur and was being changed to an onboard event (they emailed us 2 weeks ago).

Agree with the Princess take but disagree on HAL. The Dive In burgers are hand formed, cooked to order, lots of variations available and pretty darn good, frankly. IMHO, head and shoulders above Mast Grill.

I don't think many are trying to convince him to stay. But many are saying he HAS to stay (or pay the fine) because of the PVSA.

Going pretty far off thread here, but I never said that those now supplying the ships couldn't produce the required supplies, so not sure where that come from.

So instead of dealing with a handful of providers in Florida, you would think it would be better to deal with hundreds of suppliers in dozens of cities and continents scattered around the world? With the ships being responsible for much more than simply checking the inventory and overall quality of said provisions? If I am running things at Corporate, that would be a hard pass for me.

Good point. The cost for some of these events has to be in the stratosphere. Not to mention the logistics. We actually met a former Azamara Shore Ex staff on another line who said one of the main reasons she changed jobs was due to the massive amount of time that the Azamazing Evenings required. Azamazing Evening was 10 years old earlier this year. Perhaps it is time to rethink and restructure. And stop promising events that never happen (we are up to 4 that were scheduled, booked online and then scrapped).

I'm afraid that this does appear to be the trend for the future. 2 of the 3 Azamazing evenings on our B2B2B have been changed to onboard events. In the OPs case, the Goldoni event has been a staple for years. We really enjoyed the theater as well as the performance. I have very little doubt that the fact that these events are changing in ports all over the world has more to do with cost than with logistics. On 2 of our most recent Azamazing Evenings this year (HCM City and Colombo) we remarked how expensive the operation must be.

That would really surprise me. The whole reason that Royal controls shipments to all the ships is that they have their hands on the source and quality of most of the provisions. With supply chains being what they have been recently, I would think that would be the absolute worst time to throw sourcing to hundreds of different providers worldwide.

Respectfully disagree. If we find the food comparable to what we had on our previous 30+ =X= sailings, we would be more than satisfied. And happy to crow about it in the current environment. The vast majority of food postings here are not "worst meal ever" but largely a clear "definitely didn't live up to what we expect (and are paying big $$ for) on Celebrity."

Another solution is the simplest one: if you see a thread with a topic like "MDR" or "Celebrity food" simply pass it by. Problem solved.

Potential solution: Improve the food to meet pax expectations and prior experience.

Has been going on for many years, long before COVID. As with most things, nothing is 100%. Although the majority of proteins are container based, there are supplemental supplies often added locally. Not sure why a Captain would be checking the quality of the food. That would be in the purview of the provisions manager, the Exec Chef and the HD. How did you know that the initial meat and fish did not come from the US in containers and been rejected? We've seen that happen several times which forced local provisioning, which is always a shot in the dark.

They're not. They are provisioned in Miami, e.g., and shipped on containers generally to embarkation ports, where they are laded on. Provisions are usually ordered months in advance to account for transport time. There are some exceptions to this, however. When the ship(s) are in Australia and NZ, more of the products are locally provisioned. This information comes from several conversations with HDs and Executive chefs.