Anybody onboard currently?

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

The baked halibut was very good in the MDR last night. We also had a Crepe Suzette station making limoncello pancakes which were lovely. By chance we got seated next to Mrs Miggins who worked out who I was within 1 minute - excellent powers of deduction ! 

[Mrs Miggins]

Obviously someone has mentioned the cruise critic meeting was badly timed and located. So on todays program another is scheduled for 5 in the drawing room. Still no invitation card. There were more than 20 registered originally. Wonder how many today.

 

[Mrs Miggins]

Arrived at 5 for Cc meeting. Nobody there. So went to Top Cruisers event scheduled at same time. Mentioned to CD who was unaware of the meeting.

Our roll call was quiet but I do hope that these meetings regain their earlier importance with Azamara

Top Cruisers meeting good. The new Captain Jonas is multi talented.  He fits the Azamara mould so well and in addition is a wonderful pianist

He did a Q and A with Ryzard this morning and was excellent .

[Grandma Cruising]

51 minutes ago, Mrs Miggins said:

Arrived at 5 for Cc meeting. Nobody there. So went to Top Cruisers event scheduled at same time. Mentioned to CD who was unaware of the meeting.

Our roll call was quiet but I do hope that these meetings regain their earlier importance with Azamara

Top Cruisers meeting good. The new Captain Jonas is multi talented.  He fits the Azamara mould so well and in addition is a wonderful pianist

He did a Q and A with Ryzard this morning and was excellent .

Very strange that CD knew nothing about the CC meeting. On all the cruises I’ve been on it’s the CD that has hosted the meeting, introducing themselves and a couple of senior officers.

[uktog]

14 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Very strange that CD knew nothing about the CC meeting. On all the cruises I’ve been on it’s the CD that has hosted the meeting, introducing themselves and a couple of senior officers.

Totally agree, probably a careless misprint in the Insider which the CD is responsible for proof reading Tony used to tell us - he took pride that his were always error free.  Why would they ever schedule it against an event that is aimed at Discoverer Plus and above - many of whom are also users of Cruise Critic.  

[wjfan417]

10 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Very strange that CD knew nothing about the CC meeting. On all the cruises I’ve been on it’s the CD that has hosted the meeting, introducing themselves and a couple of senior officers.

Our CC get together said it was unhosted and did not have anyone from Azamara other than the servers passing drinks. It had seemed to me that we’ve had officers there in the past.

[Grandma Cruising]

3 hours ago, wjfan417 said:

Our CC get together said it was unhosted and did not have anyone from Azamara other than the servers passing drinks. It had seemed to me that we’ve had officers there in the past.

That’s disappointing, they have always been hosted by the CD with at least a couple of other senior officers putting in an appearance. Without someone there to organise things, they are a bit pointless!

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

Beautiful sail in to Kotor this morning. The weather is glorious. I am sure that we were meant to be docked but we are tendering although not tendering too far. Viking Sky has the dock. We were also lucky with the sea day yesterday as we had clear blue sky and very warm weather.

[uktog]

1 hour ago, Grandma Cruising said:

That’s disappointing, they have always been hosted by the CD with at least a couple of other senior officers putting in an appearance. Without someone there to organise things, they are a bit pointless!

Maybe a covid reason or maybe covid being used as an excuse. If they have it at first day sail away both marine and hotel officers can be pretty busy then. I certainly noticed on most ones even pre covid the level of stripes attending was dropping. Last one I think was the cruise director and the bar and restaurant managers. 

[LeCommandant]

We disembarked from the Quest on Saturday. Very nice ship with a very very nice crew. 

The food at MDR surprised me, as it was mostly of a higher quality than at the MSC Yacht Club. 

The only downfall of the cruise was the included wine (especially the red wine). The Azamara Boutique wines are undrinkable, especially the "Pinotage". I think the Boutique wine was not stored in proper temperature and humidity conditions (the COVID did not help). Other wines or sparkling wines that were not "boutique wines" were fine (especially the Spanish Cava "Dubois"). 

Edited April 27, 2022 by LeCommandant

[combine]

Im sure the cruise critic meeting in the Insider was a proof read error as this was the time of the Top Cruiser meeting, sorry you had a wasted trip @Mrs Miggins.

 

We like the included Merlot but not overly keen on the Syrah. Sparkling wine goes down well ! 

There  is a new guy Darren in training for Asst Cruise Director going to be on Journey,  he is  an excellent singer and did a one man show up and personal in the Den two nights ago.

 

Not quite sure why we have four dancers supporting two singers. Unless they have hidden talents !! it does seem an overkill as it puts  the two lead singers under pressure.  Four singers was always a good set up with two dancers.  Amanda and  Danny both very good and with Darren filling in , White night tomorrow should be good. 
 

All in all a very good cruise so far and listening to some of the newer guests they are also enjoying Azamara.  Slowly getting back to normal times, but without doubt the crew are great and officer presence is very noticeable and always happy to chat. 
 

Kotor stunning today. Sail in included fresh waffles on deck by Hotel Director and F&B Manager. 
 

Dover  Dole was a special in Aqualina last night. The specials in Prime C and Aqualina change every night and really compliment the regular menu.

 

Edited April 27, 2022 by combine

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

1 hour ago, LeCommandant said:

We disembarked from the Quest on Saturday. Very nice ship with a very very nice crew. 

The food at MDR surprised me, as it was mostly of a higher quality than at the MSC Yacht Club. 

The only downfall of the cruise was the included wine (especially the red wine). The Azamara Boutique wines are undrinkable, especially the "Pinotage". I think the Boutique wine was not stored in proper temperature and humidity conditions (the COVID did not help). Other wines or sparkling wines that were not "boutique wines" were fine (especially the Spanish Cava "Dubois"). 

I agree about the included red wines. I am using the OBC to buy better red wine by the glass.

[uktog]

2 hours ago, combine said:

Im sure the cruise critic meeting in the Insider was a proof read error as this was the time of the Top Cruiser meeting, sorry you had a wasted trip @Mrs Miggins.

 

We like the included Merlot but not overly keen on the Syrah. Sparkling wine goes down well ! 

There  is a new guy Darren in training for Asst Cruise Director going to be on Journey,  he is  an excellent singer and did a one man show up and personal in the Den two nights ago.

 

Not quite sure why we have four dancers supporting two singers. Unless they have hidden talents !! it does seem an overkill as it puts  the two lead singers under pressure.  Four singers was always a good set up with two dancers.  Amanda and  Danny both very good and with Darren filling in , White night tomorrow should be good. 
 

All in all a very good cruise so far and listening to some of the newer guests they are also enjoying Azamara.  Slowly getting back to normal times, but without doubt the crew are great and officer presence is very noticeable and always happy to chat. 
 

Kotor stunning today. Sail in included fresh waffles on deck by Hotel Director and F&B Manager. 
 

Dover  Dole was a special in Aqualina last night. The specials in Prime C and Aqualina change every night and really compliment the regular menu.

 

Sounds good - Darren was on our cruise, I agree he has got a very good voice and is a lovely person to chat to

 

Glad the menus are much more varied than a few weeks ago.

[Cruiser Craig]

I don't want to be a 'rabat joie' (party pooper?), but does anyone know if there are currently any Covid cases onboard?  I know we have to learn to live with it but I'm nevertheless curious.

[LeCommandant]

8 hours ago, Cruiser Craig said:

I don't want to be a 'rabat joie' (party pooper?), but does anyone know if there are currently any Covid cases onboard?  I know we have to learn to live with it but I'm nevertheless curious.

Statistically, if you look at the positive cases in the overall population for 7 days, it is very likely that at least one person is positive on board. However, with Omicron, the symptoms can be very difficult to notice. 

No information was provided by Azamara during my cruise. 

Finally, note that there were no more temperature checks on board the Quest last week. 

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

9 hours ago, Cruiser Craig said:

I don't want to be a 'rabat joie' (party pooper?), but does anyone know if there are currently any Covid cases onboard?  I know we have to learn to live with it but I'm nevertheless curious.

Captain made an announcement on Quest yesterday early evening that testing had found 3 new cases on board including the Captain himself. 

Edited April 28, 2022 by HalifaxYorksCruiser

[uktog]

5 hours ago, HalifaxYorksCruiser said:

Captain made an announcement on Quest yesterday early evening that testing had found 3 new cases on board including the Captain himself. 

Hope everyone stays safe onboard and that there is not widespread transmission

[Mrs Miggins]

White night tonight. Think the 3 cases included one singer and one dancer. No noticeable change on board. captain said he would restrict himself to Deck 8 until clear

Viking had the dock in Kotor yesterday and today in Dubrovnik we are in regular cruise port instead of tendering into the old Port. Captain said because of wind tonight. Some speculation that this may be due to losing the RCCL input into port locations. I have no idea but I since White Night is going ahead we shall see if a wind does indeed affect us

Shuttle into town worked well for us. We got ferry into lovely Cavtat.

 

 

 

[travelberlin]

8 hours ago, HalifaxYorksCruiser said:

Captain made an announcement on Quest yesterday early evening that testing had found 3 new cases on board including the Captain himself. 

Why were they tested? Were they with symptoms or is regular testing taken place onboard?

Wishing those affected a good recovery.

Ivi

[floridafolks]

3 hours ago, HalifaxYorksCruiser said:

Captain made an announcement on Quest yesterday early evening that testing had found 3 new cases on board including the Captain himself. 

We were on B2B2B on Quest in Mar/Apr- Captain Jonas  said he was continuing to wear mask out of respect for others as he was not concerned about getting covid himself since he already had it in January.  “Covid” seems to do as it pleases.

[wjfan417]

33 minutes ago, travelberlin said:

Why were they tested? Were they with symptoms or is regular testing taken place onboard?

Wishing those affected a good recovery.

Ivi

We were not tested on our April 5 cruise, except at embarkation. I’m pretty sure the officers and crew are tested regularly.

 

Diana

[roberts2005]

59 minutes ago, Mrs Miggins said:

White night tonight. Think the 3 cases included one singer and one dancer. No noticeable change on board. captain said he would restrict himself to Deck 8 until clear

Viking had the dock in Kotor yesterday and today in Dubrovnik we are in regular cruise port instead of tendering into the old Port. Captain said because of wind tonight. Some speculation that this may be due to losing the RCCL input into port locations. I have no idea but I since White Night is going ahead we shall see if a wind does indeed affect us

Shuttle into town worked well for us. We got ferry into lovely Cavtat.

 

 

 

Was Cavtat fully open, as it is early in the season.  One year we went there for lunch in October  and everything was closed

[Skicruiser55]

4 minutes ago, wjfan417 said:

We were not tested on our April 5 cruise, except at embarkation. I’m pretty sure the officers and crew are tested regularly.

 

Diana

I talked to an officer on our last night and there were 9 pax cases & 3 crew cases at that time.  They do test officers and crew randomly every day.  

[travelberlin]

10 minutes ago, wjfan417 said:

We were not tested on our April 5 cruise, except at embarkation. I’m pretty sure the officers and crew are tested regularly.

 

Diana

Thanks. There are probably more cases among the passengers which are asymptomatic so no need to test.

Ivi

[uktog]

12 minutes ago, Skicruiser55 said:

I talked to an officer on our last night and there were 9 pax cases & 3 crew cases at that time.  They do test officers and crew randomly every day.  

Thing was on that cruise they only announced one case.......  I knew it had to have been more, we disembarked very late and as we were waiting in the baggage hall for our car, we say groups being escorted off by the doctor from deck 3 and it was certainly more than 1!