Currently on Pursuit—missed port at Tarragona, and kudos to Azamara

[hiccups]

The past few days onboard Pursuit, Captain Antonio has kept us up to date on the civil protests in Spain.  Yesterday morning we were informed several excursions in Tarragona and Barcelona would be cancelled, and then in the afternoon we were notified that our half-day stop in Tarragona would be cancelled.  It was a little disappointing, but understandable.

 

This morning we received notice that each cabin would receive $200 nonrefundable OBC due to missing the port.  Certainly unexpected, but very much appreciated!  The shops were doing a brisk business this afternoon!

 

My only regret is that as US citizens, we won’t get our VAT refund until the ship docks—otherwise I would have bought some giant chocolate bars to take back for my co-workers 😃  I’ll see if it can be contributed to the crew welfare fund.

 

I’ll do a short review after we return home, but this has been the best of our three Azamara cruises in terms of overall ship experience.

[uktog]

Very fair and a very wise decision Azamara

[excitedofharpenden]

Take care.  It doesn’t sound clever in Barcelona just now.

 

Phil

[hiccups]

I learned this morning talking to another couple that the OBC was dependent upon cabin category—$50 for inside, $100 for OV, $200 for balcony and I believe $300 for suites.

 

We took the Azamara transportation to the airport and there were many people waiting from flights that were cancelled yesterday.  A young man we spoke to in line was in a town south of Barcelona last night and showed us video he’d taken of protesters blocking a highway exit.  He said they were dining outdoors and were told by the protesters to move inside because they were going to start a fire.  He said they were quite polite about it!

[Literary Lynne]

Hi Hiccups

Great to meet you on board. Hope that you are safely home, as we are. We were in an oceanview and, as you said, we received $100 on board credit for missing Tarragona.

 

We debarked in Barcelona around 7am, which was much earlier than we had intended originally, but due to the protests and the fact that the protestors had marched on the port during Friday evening and occupied the airport earlier in the week which resulted in a lot of flight cancellations, we followed the captain's advice and left early. There was no trouble in getting to the airport by taxi and our flight on Easyjet to Gatwick, although an hour late but not due to protests, was fine.

 

A fantastic cruise, once again.

Lynne

Edited October 21, 2019 by Literary Lynne
spelling error

[hiccups]

4 hours ago, Literary Lynne said:

Hi Hiccups

Great to meet you on board. Hope that you are safely home, as we are. We were in an oceanview and, as you said, we received $100 on board credit for missing Tarragona.

 

We debarked in Barcelona around 7am, which was much earlier than we had intended originally, but due to the protests and the fact that the protestors had marched on the port during Friday evening and occupied the airport earlier in the week which resulted in a lot of flight cancellations, we followed the captain's advice and left early. There was no trouble in getting to the airport by taxi and our flight on Easyjet to Gatwick, although an hour late but not due to protests, was fine.

 

A fantastic cruise, once again.

Lynne

It was so nice to meet you, too, Lynne!  I love that Azamara hosts the CC gathering so we can put names to faces.  I was surprised on this cruise, though, that I didn't run into everyone as frequently as I have on our other Azamara cruises.  We didn't spend as much time out and about on the ship in the evening as we have previously, though.

We took the Azamara transfer to BCN; we had an 11:15 AM flight and were on the 7:15 AM shuttle.  We arrived at the airport in less than 20 minutes, and were in fact too early to check in for our flights.  There were many people there waiting to be re-booked from cancelled flights from Friday.  The lines for check-in, even with priority access, were quite long.  We boarded on time but once onboard, learned our departure would be delayed about an hour and half.  Thankfully I had booked us a long layover on the return because last year we had to wait forever to get DH's golf clubs for customs.

Azamara also offered OBC to anyone that had booked another cruise while onboard, so in addition to the $300 for booking onboard, we received another $200 for our cruise next year.  I was very impressed by that!

The only downside to the whole experience was that because I hadn't ever dealt with VAT before, I didn't know the forms had to be stamped at the airport!  We got the paperwork from Azamara but it didn't have any instructions; I meant to ask as we debarked but staff was very busy so I didn't, and then I forgot to research it.  It wasn't very much money, but for the first time I actually went over our OBC amount because I bought a couple pictures Friday evening, so the refund would have covered that.  I can't complain about not getting a refund from free OBC, though  🙂  And now I know what to do for next time!

[Sleep7]

Hi Lynne and Helen!

It's Claudia..

So nice to meet you both too.

I'm currently working on a trip report with lots of pix from the amazing cruise we all shared last week.

Brings back such sweet memories!😃

[nordski]

Hiccups, I personally find it a bit of a crap shoot about getting the VAT refund.

 

In 4 attempts I’ve received it once, although usually it’s because I’ve missed some step such as the one you just mentioned.

 

Fumicino this autumn was the most frustrating and yet typical.

 

While in the ship’s store, we were reminded to get the form stamped at customs At the airport the lineup to do so was so long that it looked like at least a half hour wait at both the customs and Global Blue kiosks.

 

My natural indolence, and a judgement about the rather small amount involved, led us to skip the lineups.

 

But look! There was another Global Blue kiosk once we exited security.

 

Fearing the worst, I asked the nice woman if we could get our refund and she assured me that it would be no problem.

 

Had our forms stamped.

 

The result? We have received no refund.

 

On the other hand, I know an accomplished shopper who has only once failed to get her refund. Some skill set does seem to matter.

 

But I do hope you are more successful than we have been.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 21, 2019 by nordski