Journey is Getting Shabby

[Whippets]

Nick, how is the snow up there? Have you guys dug out yet?

Barb certainly did a great job on our name tags.

My cruise in February was with a girlfriend, husband is anxious to vaction now that I am back. I was amazed after talking to my cruise consultant that most ALL lines are raising their prices between March 22 and April 2nd. So we are busy planning and booking now. She said Carnival is going up 5% and NCL 7% and so on with the other lines.

Diane-sitting' and sippin' her hazelnut coffee :>)

[gillianrose]

To Gillianrose: Actually we're done one trip on Crystal and there is no question that you are pampered, but it's almost over-kill, and you certainly do pay for it. I question how many Crystals the market has room for. I guess that's some of my frustration; I thought that Azamara had picked a very good niche, maybe a slight step up from Celebrity in food and service, and the smaller ship atmosphere that many cruisers had missed since Zenith transferred to Pullmatour. Retrospectively ( always the best way to look at things) I have to ask myself if Journey and Quest might not have been better utilized by continuing as part of the Celebrity Fleet. That way, the would have given Celebrity Customers an alternative to the mega-ship experience. (Can you tell, I do have some reservations about next Monday's sailing on the Equinox, but am keeping an open mind).

 

I'm looking forward to reading your review of Equinox, especially details about the crew and service.

[frontrow487]

I was so pleased when Azamara was Celebrity in minature. It gave a real choice of cruise type at a similar price. Now Celebrity have only large and larger ships.

We were 100% satisfied with Quest but thought Journey not so good even though we had paid a lot more for a shorter cruise. I definately would not pay the new prices and am happy to return to Celebrity who have so far proved excellent value for money.

[Ma Bell]

We were also on Journey for the February 12th cruise.

 

I really have nothing "bad" to say about the cruise because we had a wonderful time with friends.

 

We are long time frequent Celebrity cruises and we were anxious to try Azamara. I must say we were a bit disappointed. I suppose we're used to a little more room and more variety so we found the physical property to be uninspiring.

 

I didn't find the ship "shabby", just a bit dark and lackluster. We were in the highest category balcony cabin without going to a suite and found our cabin felt as if it were made for little people, especially the bathroom which was almost claustrophobic. We found the balcony to be almost useless. It had a small table with 2 uncomfortable straight backed chairs almost right up against the railing. Certainly nowhere to sit and enjoy the balcony or relax and read.

 

Our mattress was not comfortable, but the butler did his best to try to improve the situation. We have no complaints about the service even though there were more than a few small issues. Small things don't bother us.

 

We found the food to be very good in general, but perhaps only slightly better than some of our Celebrity cruises and not as good as others. The service on board was not any better than on Celebrity's ships. Of course, being a smaller ship, you do have more interaction with some of the staff and crew and they were all very kind and helpful.

 

I would certainly say that it was a nice experience but I think the value for the money is just not there. I really don't know how they will be able to present this ship as a premium experience.

 

The one thing the smaller ships have going for them is the ability to visit ports that are not accessible to larger ships. That can be good in some cases, but I also think they sometimes fill in with ports that are really not particularly attractive. The idea that they are going to spend more overnights in ports is not really enticing to us as I would prefer to do a land tour if I want to stay for an extended period somewhere. What is the point of paying a premium for a cruise experience and then having limited services available on board because the ship is overnighting somewhere? The whole concept doesn't make much sense to me. They are going to charge more for your cruise and then force you spend more money off the ship. We go cruising to cruise and take an extended land trip for those areas that we want to visit in depth. I don't want to pay for a cruise and a land trip that overlaps.

 

For us, this just isn't our cup of tea. We can have the same small ship feeling on a larger ship because we congregate with friends and get to know just as many people on the larger ships. We have more variety of venue, activities and better accommodations for considerably less. We can take a week before the cruise exploring an area and still pay less than the prices Azamara will be charging.

 

I wish them well and do hope they will find a way to make it work, but I'm not particularly hopeful.

[Paulchili]

The idea that they are going to spend more overnights in ports is not really enticing to us as I would prefer to do a land tour if I want to stay for an extended period somewhere. What is the point of paying a premium for a cruise experience and then having limited services available on board because the ship is overnighting somewhere? The whole concept doesn't make much sense to me. They are going to charge more for your cruise and then force you spend more money off the ship. We go cruising to cruise and take an extended land trip for those areas that we want to visit in depth. I don't want to pay for a cruise and a land trip that overlaps.

 

For us, this just isn't our cup of tea.

 

I can appreciate that overnights are not your cup of tea, but there are some ports (Cape Town, Mumbai, Rome, Cairo, Jerusalem,Venice,Sydney come to mind, as well as some others) where there is so much to see and do that one day is just not enough. Thus many people have to choose between what they want to see and what they have to miss out on. Overnights in such ports allow them to see more without having to return to do a land trip (not so easy or cheap to return to Sydney or Cape Town).

As you said, to each his/her own.

I am more concerned from my reading that the product A offers was great at the price they charged, but will not do at double the prices (unless they shape up pronto).

[Ma Bell]

I agree that there are some ports that call for overnights but it sounds as if they are planning to have a lot more.

[MiataKath]

Hello, Everyone,

 

We, too, were on the Feb. 12th sailing of the Journey. It was nice to meet up with everyone after chatting for a year and a half. Hope you enjoyed the badges we prepared. It was fun for us to do so!

 

We had several observations with regard to the Journey. We very much liked the initiative of sending out a comment sheet about half-way through the cruise experience, rather than waiting for the end of the cruise. I did fill out the comment section with particular emphasis on the mildew/mold issue in the jacuzzi shower of our PS Suite. I returned the comment sheet to Guest Relations and handed it over to the reps at the counter.

 

Within 2 hours time, the Housekeeping Manager, and the housekeeping assistant had thoroughly cleaned the grout in the shower area, particularly on the left inside portion of the tile area. It was sanitized and spotless.

 

The carpet in our Suite was in need of a serious cleaning and we told them so at the end of the cruise. Perhaps whoever is enjoying PS 7114 has the benefit of our comments with regard to housekeeping, etc.

 

With regard to the price point for our suite, we booked this particular cruise over a year ago, and we saw the price elscalate to the point where were we to have booked the cruise in the late Fall, we could not have afforded to do so because the cost was up almost $6,000. It was a good value for us at the old price, as there were 3 adults in the Suite, and our adult son Kevin had a very comfortable roll-away bed prepared for him every night.

 

The suite itself is the same size as the Royal Suites on the Celebrity M class ships, approximately 590 square feet. The veranda was huge and we enjoyed it very much. The furniture was very comforable on the veranda with two large chaises and a very good sized table with 4 chairs. We had breakfast out there almost every morning with the exception of the rainy day.

 

We also were treated to the "Best of the Best" private dinner in the Michael's Club with the senior officers and other PS guests. We would have to say it was the highlight of the cruise experience and one memory we will treasure forever.

 

The coffee was a minor inconvenience.....we simply enjoyed "Aspen Coffee" from the menu!

Our service by Pras, our Butler was extraordinary, and we compensated him for that with great good wishes. He made us feel very special, as we had him as our Butler on the Constellation in Feb. 2008. A kind and gentle soul who is now Head Butler.

 

All in all, it was wonderful and we have great memories of all the people we met and the places we visited.

 

Kind Regards,

 

Don, Kathie and Kevin

[Jade13]

Hello, Everyone,

 

We, too, were on the Feb. 12th sailing of the Journey. It was nice to meet up with everyone after chatting for a year and a half. Hope you enjoyed the badges we prepared. It was fun for us to do so!

 

We had several observations with regard to the Journey. We very much liked the initiative of sending out a comment sheet about half-way through the cruise experience, rather than waiting for the end of the cruise. I did fill out the comment section with particular emphasis on the mildew/mold issue in the jacuzzi shower of our PS Suite. I returned the comment sheet to Guest Relations and handed it over to the reps at the counter.

 

Within 2 hours time, the Housekeeping Manager, and the housekeeping assistant had thoroughly cleaned the grout in the shower area, particularly on the left inside portion of the tile area. It was sanitized and spotless.

 

The carpet in our Suite was in need of a serious cleaning and we told them so at the end of the cruise. Perhaps whoever is enjoying PS 7114 has the benefit of our comments with regard to housekeeping, etc.

 

With regard to the price point for our suite, we booked this particular cruise over a year ago, and we saw the price elscalate to the point where were we to have booked the cruise in the late Fall, we could not have afforded to do so because the cost was up almost $6,000. It was a good value for us at the old price, as there were 3 adults in the Suite, and our adult son Kevin had a very comfortable roll-away bed prepared for him every night.

 

The suite itself is the same size as the Royal Suites on the Celebrity M class ships, approximately 590 square feet. The veranda was huge and we enjoyed it very much. The furniture was very comforable on the veranda with two large chaises and a very good sized table with 4 chairs. We had breakfast out there almost every morning with the exception of the rainy day.

 

We also were treated to the "Best of the Best" private dinner in the Michael's Club with the senior officers and other PS guests. We would have to say it was the highlight of the cruise experience and one memory we will treasure forever.

 

The coffee was a minor inconvenience.....we simply enjoyed "Aspen Coffee" from the menu!

Our service by Pras, our Butler was extraordinary, and we compensated him for that with great good wishes. He made us feel very special, as we had him as our Butler on the Constellation in Feb. 2008. A kind and gentle soul who is now Head Butler.

 

All in all, it was wonderful and we have great memories of all the people we met and the places we visited.

 

Kind Regards,

 

Don, Kathie and Kevin

 

Interesting comments as we were in PS 7119 on Quest. We never noticed any cleanliness issues at all. Note that we were in Asia and never used the Verandah, not even once. It was way too hot and lots of bugs. We never used the pool either as we are not sun bathers. We did enjoy breakfast at the table, however, with the window curtains fully open for the view. I think we would have had more use of the Verandah on a Carribbean cruise. The funny thing is that the only time we have ever used a Verandah for breakfast was on Celebrity Century and that was in the Caribbean (way too windy in Europe/Med) and our least favorite cruise (not bad but it's been competing with lots of exotic itineraries such as Galapagos, Arctic, Antarctica, and Asia). We are going back on Century in April so it will be interesting to see if our Verandah gets any use.

 

The "Best of the Best" private dinner for Suite and PH guests was a highlight for us and was served in the Drawing Room. Where was Michael's Club located?

[MiataKath]

Hello, Jade,

 

Correction, you are right.....the Drawing Room it was.

 

Regards,

 

Don, Kathie and Kevin