Live from Onward (BCN to VCE)

[takemewithyou]

5 hours ago, tidespring said:

Yes indeed. We disembarked from Onward in Barcelona last Saturday. Still have the uncomfortable chairs on the balconies and next to the pool bar. Not so bad on the bottom but certainly painful on the back. One of the minor faults with this ship, out of the three different Azamara ships we have sailed on.

I don’t understand why that issue has not been resolved!  Many people have complained about those chairs.  First it was supply chain issues, Now what is the reason?  
Onward was one Azamara ship we were not pleased with.  Other furniture on the ship was not comfortable, either.

And they are using that ship for the World Cruise?!

Edited July 13, 2023 by takemewithyou

[ghstudio]

On 7/12/2023 at 2:24 PM, aliaschief said:

Do the verandas still have the hard uncomfortable fiberglass shell seats or have they been replaced with the more standard chairs? Thanks for sharing your cruise.

Surprised to find cushions for those chairs in our cabin last night.  So now same chairs with cushions.

[tidespring]

The trouble is that the cushions are formed for the seat, the back of the chair, I found cut into and aggravated my back.

 

[aliaschief]

All we can do is to continue to complain about the balcony chairs. HD Vogel ordered them she should have the authority to replace them in line with the rest of the fleets balcony furniture.

[takemewithyou]

10 minutes ago, aliaschief said:

All we can do is to continue to complain about the balcony chairs. HD Vogel ordered them she should have the authority to replace them in line with the rest of the fleets balcony furniture.

On our pre Christmas cruise on Onward, HD Markey kept promising that the chairs would be on the next cruise and the next cruise, etc.  They were supposedly in a container on a ship in Singapore.  That was 12/22.   Wonder what happened to those new chairs?  
Sorry, I guess we are hijacking a live from thread.  perhaps there should be a new thread on this started.

[uktog]

4 hours ago, takemewithyou said:

On our pre Christmas cruise on Onward, HD Markey kept promising that the chairs would be on the next cruise and the next cruise, etc.  They were supposedly in a container on a ship in Singapore.  That was 12/22.   Wonder what happened to those new chairs?  
Sorry, I guess we are hijacking a live from thread.  perhaps there should be a new thread on this started.

He told us about so many other things in the said container I wondered if it was an entire Evergeen charter 

[Host Jazzbeau]

2 minutes ago, uktog said:

He told us about so many other things in the said container I wondered if it was an entire Evergeen charter 

Still stuck in the Suez Canal 😀

[aliaschief]

6 hours ago, takemewithyou said:

On our pre Christmas cruise on Onward, HD Markey kept promising that the chairs would be on the next cruise and the next cruise, etc.  They were supposedly in a container on a ship in Singapore.  That was 12/22.   Wonder what happened to those new chairs?  
Sorry, I guess we are hijacking a live from thread.  perhaps there should be a new thread on this started.

No issues. I mentioned this on  our March Onward cruise and was told by HD Elisabeth that Tony Marley would have never said this but a year later no resolve.

Maybe some day but do not look forward to sitting on those fiberglass hard formed shell seats for a 155 days on the World Voyage!

Looks like that is the way it will be.

[takemewithyou]

1 hour ago, aliaschief said:

No issues. I mentioned this on  our March Onward cruise and was told by HD Elisabeth that Tony Marley would have never said this but a year later no resolve.

Maybe some day but do not look forward to sitting on those fiberglass hard formed shell seats for a 155 days on the World Voyage!

Looks like that is the way it will be.

OK.  I sat thru TWO presentations by Tony when he did make those statements!  I believe @uktog was on the cruise previous to me when those statements were also made that the ….Next cruise…..would have the replacement chairs in place.  So somebody is fibbing or there was some kind of misunderstanding somewhere……?!  I was hoping that since I was on one of those …next cruises….that the chairs would be replaced.

My solution is to not sail on Onward.  The crew is lovely, as always.   The furniture was hastily purchased during the pandemic and is not comfortable.  I see differences, not only in the hard balcony chairs, but also is the rest of the furniture.

With the completion of my recent Pursuit cruise, I have now been on all four Azamara ships.  I am sure others with be sure to follow up saying there is nothing different between the other ships and Onward.  As with everything, YMMV….not meaning you, @aliaschief, but those who say Onward is like all the other ships.

Edited July 14, 2023 by takemewithyou

[aliaschief]

11 hours ago, takemewithyou said:

OK.  I sat thru TWO presentations by Tony when he did make those statements!  I believe @uktog was on the cruise previous to me when those statements were also made that the ….Next cruise…..would have the replacement chairs in place.  So somebody is fibbing or there was some kind of misunderstanding somewhere……?!  I was hoping that since I was on one of those …next cruises….that the chairs would be replaced.

My solution is to not sail on Onward.  The crew is lovely, as always.   The furniture was hastily purchased during the pandemic and is not comfortable.  I see differences, not only in the hard balcony chairs, but also is the rest of the furniture.

With the completion of my recent Pursuit cruise, I have now been on all four Azamara ships.  I am sure others with be sure to follow up saying there is nothing different between the other ships and Onward.  As with everything, YMMV….not meaning you, @aliaschief, but those who say Onward is like all the other ships.

I believe you. I remember, what you have mentioned, also being discussed on CC over a year ago and  that is why I brought it up to HD Vogel. We really enjoyed our Onward cruise and look forward to January; just not sitting in those uncomfortable chairs.

[Xcelsior]

12 hours ago, aliaschief said:

I believe you. I remember, what you have mentioned, also being discussed on CC over a year ago and  that is why I brought it up to HD Vogel. We really enjoyed our Onward cruise and look forward to January; just not sitting in those uncomfortable chairs.

The Onward refurbishment was done hastily and on the cheap in my opinion.  It is the worst of the four ships but I'm sailing it again as I like the itinerary.  I hope they have corrected some of the issues I had when onboard in January, but I doubt.  Agree that those chairs are absolutely ridiculous.  One would think they would be embarrassed about them, but clearly not.

[takemewithyou]

4 hours ago, Xcelsior said:

The Onward refurbishment was done hastily and on the cheap in my opinion.  It is the worst of the four ships but I'm sailing it again as I like the itinerary.  I hope they have corrected some of the issues I had when onboard in January, but I doubt.  Agree that those chairs are absolutely ridiculous.  One would think they would be embarrassed about them, but clearly not.

Agree!

[excitedofharpenden]

6 hours ago, Xcelsior said:

The Onward refurbishment was done hastily and on the cheap in my opinion.  It is the worst of the four ships but I'm sailing it again as I like the itinerary.  I hope they have corrected some of the issues I had when onboard in January, but I doubt.  Agree that those chairs are absolutely ridiculous.  One would think they would be embarrassed about them, but clearly not.

The hanging cage chairs in the Living Room on Pursuit weren't hanging and sat on the floor for ages. Are they still on the floor?  Azamara really let themselves down on not correctimg small details like this that are very obvious. It's odd. Like a disconnect between the ship and the land operation. 

 

Phil 

[uktog]

7 hours ago, Xcelsior said:

The Onward refurbishment was done hastily and on the cheap in my opinion.  It is the worst of the four ships but I'm sailing it again as I like the itinerary.  I hope they have corrected some of the issues I had when onboard in January, but I doubt.  Agree that those chairs are absolutely ridiculous.  One would think they would be embarrassed about them, but clearly not.

I have to agree - too much focus on ripping out the library to create a revenue venue and not enough attention on basics. Four months after sailing we had cabinet doors hanging off. That took most of the cruise to get fixed but it was even more annoying to then read here a guest had previously reported the issues in the same room two months previously 

[aliaschief]

Our Onward cruise in March was pretty much perfect. We had booked same cabin we will have on World Cruise. Have no issues other than balcony chairs. Atlas Bar was very popular and quite often SRO.

 

[ghstudio]

The balcony chairs on the onward will not be replaced per hotel director and captain today.  I asked during a q&a session.  Now that we have cushions, the chairs aren’t that bad although the thin arms aren’t really comfortable.  Yes, they bought these when there were supply issues…the other ships have chairs from China, but delivery time for the onward would have been over a year…so they bought these instead.  Certainly not a show stopper.

[takemewithyou]

16 minutes ago, ghstudio said:

The balcony chairs on the onward will not be replaced per hotel director and captain today.  I asked during a q&a session.  Now that we have cushions, the chairs aren’t that bad although the thin arms aren’t really comfortable.  Yes, they bought these when there were supply issues…the other ships have chairs from China, but delivery time for the onward would have been over a year…so they bought these instead.  Certainly not a show stopper.

Good to know they admit they have no intention to replace them.  I suspect that’s always been the case.  I will stick to my solution to not cruise Onward.  I am not paying good money to sit in those chairs! 

[Xcelsior]

6 hours ago, takemewithyou said:

Good to know they admit they have no intention to replace them.  I suspect that’s always been the case.  I will stick to my solution to not cruise Onward.  I am not paying good money to sit in those chairs! 

They found decent chairs for the spa suites though.  

[takemewithyou]

Just now, Xcelsior said:

They found decent chairs for the spa suites though.  

Interesting.  We were in a club continent suite.

[silkismom]

36 minutes ago, takemewithyou said:

Interesting.  We were in a club continent suite.

They used to bring 2 full size bottles of liquor for CC suites, what do they do now?

[takemewithyou]

34 minutes ago, silkismom said:

They used to bring 2 full size bottles of liquor for CC suites, what do they do now?

Last time, which was 12/22 for us, we had the four small bottles.  
I believe it may have changed.  

In June we were in a regular veranda.

[Mrs Miggins]

4 small bottles in April 2022 - One large bottle in July 2023.

[silkismom]

Now I remember, it was 4 small bottles that we exchanged for 2 larger ones, Gin & bourbon, could be a problem with just one. ( I won't drink bourbon)

[Grandma Cruising]

1 hour ago, silkismom said:

Now I remember, it was 4 small bottles that we exchanged for 2 larger ones, Gin & bourbon, could be a problem with just one. ( I won't drink bourbon)

Same here, I drink gin & DH drinks whisky

[oddjob16]

14 hours ago, Mrs Miggins said:

4 small bottles in April 2022 - One large bottle in July 2023.

A gallon, I take it🤣🤣