Just booked our 3rd Azamara cruised it's a gem!

[Dudeljo]

On 7/18/2023 at 9:08 PM, Bimmer09 said:

 A cruise from Istanbul is a bucket list item so I have spent many hours finding one. We have just come off an amazing Celebrity Apex to Iceland and the UK cruise but X isn't visiting Istanbul in 2024 with an E Class ship. So I looked at Cunard, Oceania, Viking, Silversea and Seabourn and finally settled on Azamara.

I found our preferred Aft Verandah Plus on the Onward. I selected it but the website thought it should fill cabin 6001 instead. I held 7121 which I wanted for 24 hours and called Azamara on Monday. I called at 9.a.m Miami time and the recorded voice warned me that call volumes would necessitate a wait even though the lines had opened at that very minute. I had seen this as a complaint on the BBB site-people struggling to get through to Azamara and discuss their many problems under the new ownership/new website.

After a wait of just 30 seconds I was through and got the cabin we wanted plus $300 OBC. Winning!

Here is the itinerary that no one else could match. If you have visited any of these places and have good or bad things to say I'm all ears!

Fri 17-May TO Sat 18-May 2024	Istanbul, Turkey	Embark	- (May 17)	10:00PM (May 18)
Sun 19-May 2024	Canakkale (Kepez), Turkey	Docked	8:00AM	4:00PM
Mon 20-May 2024	Kavala, Greece	Docked	8:00AM	8:00PM
Tue 21-May 2024	Thessaloniki, Greece	Docked	8:00AM	10:00PM
Wed 22-May 2024	At Sea	Cruising	-	-
Thu 23-May TO Fri 24-May 2024	Athens (Piraeus), Greece	Docked	9:00AM (May 23)	8:00PM (May 24)
Sat 25-May 2024	Santorini, Greece	Tendered	8:00AM	9:00PM
Sun 26-May 2024	Chania, Crete, Greece	Tendered	8:00AM	6:00PM
Mon 27-May 2024	Olympia (Katakolon), Greece	Docked	1:00PM	8:00PM
Tue 28-May 2024	Corfu, Greece	Docked	8:00AM	8:00PM
Wed 29-May 2024	At Sea	Cruising	-	-
Thu 30-May 2024	Venice, Italy	Debark	7:00AM	-

 

We are excited to sail Azamara again as we were impressed by the food and the service on our first 2 sailings. I will say though that the food and the service on  Celebrity Apex was on par with Azamara. We will return with raised expectations as a result.

Hotels in Istanbul and Venice have already been booked. When excursions open up we'll make our choices.

A photo/video report will appear on this board when the time comes.

Norris

Hi Bimmer09.

This year, in October, we will be sailing with Azamara from Istanbul too. 

Our itinerary is Istanbul, at sea, Kavala, Thessaloniki, Volos, Mykonos, Patmos, Cannakkale, Istanbul. 

So the blue ports will be the same as the ones you will be visiting. Never been to these ports before. I hope I will remember to write more about these ports in November, when I'm back. We will make a shore excursion with Azamara in Kavala (Historic Xanthi & Nestos River) but not in Thessaloniki and Cannakkale. 

I (hope not forget to) let you know.

Grtz, Jo

[cpgrneyes]

1 hour ago, Dudeljo said:

Hi Bimmer09.

This year, in October, we will be sailing with Azamara from Istanbul too. 

Our itinerary is Istanbul, at sea, Kavala, Thessaloniki, Volos, Mykonos, Patmos, Cannakkale, Istanbul. 

So the blue ports will be the same as the ones you will be visiting. Never been to these ports before. I hope I will remember to write more about these ports in November, when I'm back. We will make a shore excursion with Azamara in Kavala (Historic Xanthi & Nestos River) but not in Thessaloniki and Cannakkale. 

I (hope not forget to) let you know.

Grtz, Jo

We’re on the same sailing as you, and the ports, ALL of them, are new to us, but we’ve already been to all the ports in the OP’s original post. We’ve also signed up for the same excursion in Kavala. Look forward to meeting you!

 

Cheryl

[Bimmer09]

7 hours ago, Dudeljo said:

Hi Bimmer09.

This year, in October, we will be sailing with Azamara from Istanbul too. 

Our itinerary is Istanbul, at sea, Kavala, Thessaloniki, Volos, Mykonos, Patmos, Cannakkale, Istanbul. 

So the blue ports will be the same as the ones you will be visiting. Never been to these ports before. I hope I will remember to write more about these ports in November, when I'm back. We will make a shore excursion with Azamara in Kavala (Historic Xanthi & Nestos River) but not in Thessaloniki and Cannakkale. 

I (hope not forget to) let you know.

Grtz, Jo

Jo, thanks for the comment. I'll be looking for anything you can tell me about these port visits as I plan out our trip. Do you have private tours booked in Thessaloniki and Cannakkale?

Norris

[yogagal47]

8 hours ago, Dudeljo said:

Hi Bimmer09.

This year, in October, we will be sailing with Azamara from Istanbul too. 

Our itinerary is Istanbul, at sea, Kavala, Thessaloniki, Volos, Mykonos, Patmos, Cannakkale, Istanbul. 

So the blue ports will be the same as the ones you will be visiting. Never been to these ports before. I hope I will remember to write more about these ports in November, when I'm back. We will make a shore excursion with Azamara in Kavala (Historic Xanthi & Nestos River) but not in Thessaloniki and Cannakkale. 

I (hope not forget to) let you know.

Grtz, Jo

On our Greece intensive cruise in June 2022 a friend did that excursion and thought it was pretty mediocre. My husband enjoyed strolling around Kavala,  going up to the top( fortress) to see the view, and stopping for beers at a café that gave us a great view of the ship. It was a very pleasant experience to do on our own.

Edited July 24, 2023 by yogagal47

[yogagal47]

13 minutes ago, yogagal47 said:

On our Greece intensive cruise in June 2022 a friend did that excursion and thought it was pretty mediocre. My husband enjoyed strolling around Kavala,  going up to the top( fortress) to see the view, and stopping for beers at a café that gave us a great view of the ship. It was a very pleasant experience to do on our own.

 

[Dudeljo]

Good to know!

We've never been to nearly all the ports on this cruise, except for Istanbul and Mykonos. We've got 800 OBC and we don't spend anything while we're onboard so we thought: let's book shore excursions. 

We booked:

Kavala Historic Xanthi & Nestos River

Volos Mountain Villages of Portaria & Makrynitsa

Mykonos Mykonos Sites & Flavors

Patmos Patmos Scenic Drive. 

They're all short excursions so we can also spend some time near the port in the villages. We've been to Mykonos three or four times now and never took a tour, always strolled along the " city " but it's very very busy up there so we never got a chance to see the little shops of find a chair on a terrace. That's why we decided to take a tour to another village. Not that busy. 

In Istanbul we will only sleep a night before the cruise. We took some holidays over there, no need to stay longer this time, also because duty calls and we only have free days from October 13 to October 22. 

In Thessaloniki we booked the Azamazing Evening. There is a boulevard and a historic centre, we will do this On Our Own. 

In Kanakkale we haven't decided yet what to do. A whole day to war grounds? A whole day to a temple? All excursions take at least 8 hours. It's a bit too much. Maybe we will book a private tour. It's Turkey so when we get off the ship lots and lots of drivers will come to us to ask if we want to book a tour with them, it won't be difficult to find something there. Or maybe we just stay onboard to relax, as I said, we have to work again on Monday and we're not 18 anymore 👵

 

[Bimmer09]

11 hours ago, Dudeljo said:

 

In Thessaloniki we booked the Azamazing Evening. There is a boulevard and a historic centre, we will do this On Our Own. 

In Kanakkale we haven't decided yet what to do. A whole day to war grounds? A whole day to a temple? All excursions take at least 8 hours. It's a bit too much 👵

 

What is the Az plan for the Amazing evening in Thessaloniki? 

I'm hoping to avoid 8 hour excursions and lots of time on a bus. We don't have excursions available to us at the moment and would probably shy away from 8 hours to Gallipoli etc. Ephesus is a must but otherwise I am happy to sit on a harbor stuffing my face with Greek or Turkish food and soaking up the atmosphere. I don't feel the need to see every fallen Doric column ashore.

Norris

[Dudeljo]

7 minutes ago, Bimmer09 said:

What is the Az plan for the Amazing evening in Thessaloniki? 

I'm hoping to avoid 8 hour excursions and lots of time on a bus. We don't have excursions available to us at the moment and would probably shy away from 8 hours to Gallipoli etc. Ephesus is a must but otherwise I am happy to sit on a harbor stuffing my face with Greek or Turkish food and soaking up the atmosphere. I don't feel the need to see every fallen Doric column ashore.

Norris

It's an evening ashore at the University. There's a lot of music and singing involved (I suppose classical) and it tells the story of Alexander the Great. 

[M109]

On 7/24/2023 at 8:02 AM, Dudeljo said:

Good to know!

We've never been to nearly all the ports on this cruise, except for Istanbul and Mykonos. We've got 800 OBC and we don't spend anything while we're onboard so we thought: let's book shore excursions. 

We booked:

Kavala Historic Xanthi & Nestos River

Volos Mountain Villages of Portaria & Makrynitsa

Mykonos Mykonos Sites & Flavors

Patmos Patmos Scenic Drive. 

They're all short excursions so we can also spend some time near the port in the villages. We've been to Mykonos three or four times now and never took a tour, always strolled along the " city " but it's very very busy up there so we never got a chance to see the little shops of find a chair on a terrace. That's why we decided to take a tour to another village. Not that busy. 

In Istanbul we will only sleep a night before the cruise. We took some holidays over there, no need to stay longer this time, also because duty calls and we only have free days from October 13 to October 22. 

In Thessaloniki we booked the Azamazing Evening. There is a boulevard and a historic centre, we will do this On Our Own. 

In Kanakkale we haven't decided yet what to do. A whole day to war grounds? A whole day to a temple? All excursions take at least 8 hours. It's a bit too much. Maybe we will book a private tour. It's Turkey so when we get off the ship lots and lots of drivers will come to us to ask if we want to book a tour with them, it won't be difficult to find something there. Or maybe we just stay onboard to relax, as I said, we have to work again on Monday and we're not 18 anymore 👵

 

Dudelgo

 

I have just returned from an Azamara cruise that called into Kanakkale and you will need to be a little careful about assuming lots of taxi drivers waiting to take you off on tours.  It's very small port that is 20 mins outside of the city and gets very few calls from cruise liners.  The two places to visit are the Gallipoli WW1 battlefields and the ruins of Troy. We did the battlefield tour which was very good and there are a lot of old trenches still visible etc and a great museum.  It takes 8 hours only because the bus has to cross the straight so the bus gets there 20/30 mins before the ferry sails, it then takes 30 mins to cross and then you are pretty much straight into the battlefields.  Great tour if you are interested in this sort of history.  I have done Troy before and to be honest it is quite disappointing I guess because we all imagine Troy to be like the film depicted it to be eg huge.  Its not, its a very small site with not a lot to see. Enjoy your cruise

[Dudeljo]

Thank you M109. Maybe I have to reconsider....A quiet day onboard, just relaxing sounds like a perfect end of the vacation to me 😎

[gogo65]

On 7/24/2023 at 2:51 AM, Dudeljo said:

Hi Bimmer09.

This year, in October, we will be sailing with Azamara from Istanbul too. 

Our itinerary is Istanbul, at sea, Kavala, Thessaloniki, Volos, Mykonos, Patmos, Cannakkale, Istanbul. 

So the blue ports will be the same as the ones you will be visiting. Never been to these ports before. I hope I will remember to write more about these ports in November, when I'm back. We will make a shore excursion with Azamara in Kavala (Historic Xanthi & Nestos River) but not in Thessaloniki and Cannakkale. 

I (hope not forget to) let you know.

Grtz, Jo

We've also booked intensive Greece for August 2024, again slightly different itinerary to both you and Bimmer.

We have no sea days!

Doing Istanbul, Canakkale, Kavala, Thessaloniki, Volos, Cesme, Amorgos, Rhodes, Santorini, Aegina, Athens.

New ports for us are Kavala, Thessaloniki, Volos, Cesme, Amorgos, Aegina.

This is our first Azamara, looking forward to visiting a few new places. 

[Bimmer09]

Just stumbled upon this video of the Onward leaving Cartagena...

 

Looks great with the lights on.

Norris, anticipating.

[yogagal47]

On 7/24/2023 at 12:02 AM, Dudeljo said:

Good to know!

We've never been to nearly all the ports on this cruise, except for Istanbul and Mykonos. We've got 800 OBC and we don't spend anything while we're onboard so we thought: let's book shore excursions. 

We booked:

Kavala Historic Xanthi & Nestos River

Volos Mountain Villages of Portaria & Makrynitsa

Mykonos Mykonos Sites & Flavors

Patmos Patmos Scenic Drive. 

They're all short excursions so we can also spend some time near the port in the villages. We've been to Mykonos three or four times now and never took a tour, always strolled along the " city " but it's very very busy up there so we never got a chance to see the little shops of find a chair on a terrace. That's why we decided to take a tour to another village. Not that busy. 

In Istanbul we will only sleep a night before the cruise. We took some holidays over there, no need to stay longer this time, also because duty calls and we only have free days from October 13 to October 22. 

In Thessaloniki we booked the Azamazing Evening. There is a boulevard and a historic centre, we will do this On Our Own. 

In Kanakkale we haven't decided yet what to do. A whole day to war grounds? A whole day to a temple? All excursions take at least 8 hours. It's a bit too much. Maybe we will book a private tour. It's Turkey so when we get off the ship lots and lots of drivers will come to us to ask if we want to book a tour with them, it won't be difficult to find something there. Or maybe we just stay onboard to relax, as I said, we have to work again on Monday and we're not 18 anymore 👵

 

In Thessalonika we walked along the boulevard and did a museum with a tower you can climb. Then we walked to the Jewish museum, which was fascinating.. afterwords we found a nice café, and had lunch. Very easy city to do on your own.

[Bimmer09]

Update.....

I cancelled our Azamara cruise yesterday if favor of a more appealing itinerary on a line that will be new to us (we've sailed Princess, X and Az).

Holland America's Nieuw Statendam, aft suite incl Gratuities, Elite drink package,$400 excursions OBC, $200 Specialty restaurant OBC, Premium wi-fi. 14 nights vs Az 13.

 

 Preferred itinerary 

Sept 21 Rome after 2 day hotel stay

             Sea Day

             Katakolon

             Chania

             Sea Day

             Alexandria Egypt

             Port Said   Egypt

             Limassol    Cyprus

             Rhodes

             Kusadasi until 11 pm

             Sea Day

             Istanbul (Overnight)

             Istanbul

             Mykonos until 11pm

 Oct 5    Athens    disembark for Electra hotel stay 2 days

 

Holland America's website, phone customer service and email responses have been reassuring.

 

Norris

             

Edited August 29, 2023 by Bimmer09
add date

[Host Jazzbeau]

Norris I hope you enjoy HAL.  Please come back here and report on it [maybe in the Water Cooler thread, so people won't complain that it's in the wrong forum 😉].  With all the complaints about every other mass market cruise line, HAL is looking appealing – I don't think they add enough value to the suites, but if I could add Club Orange to a regular veranda it might make a low cost Caribbean winter getaway.

[takemewithyou]

1 hour ago, Bimmer09 said:

Update.....

I cancelled our Azamara cruise yesterday if favor of a more appealing itinerary on a line that will be new to us (we've sailed Princess, X and Az).

Holland America's Nieuw Statendam, aft suite incl Gratuities, Elite drink package,$400 excursions OBC, $200 Specialty restaurant OBC, Premium wi-fi. 14 nights vs Az 13.

 

 Preferred itinerary 

Sept 21 Rome after 2 day hotel stay

             Sea Day

             Katakolon

             Chania

             Sea Day

             Alexandria Egypt

             Port Said   Egypt

             Limassol    Cyprus

             Rhodes

             Kusadasi until 11 pm

             Sea Day

             Istanbul (Overnight)

             Istanbul

             Mykonos until 11pm

 Oct 5    Athens    disembark for Electra hotel stay 2 days

 

Holland America's website, phone customer service and email responses have been reassuring.

 

Norris

             

How does the price compare?  Just curious…..

Aft suite on HAL compared to the accommodations that you had on Azamara?

[Ithikan]

39 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Norris I hope you enjoy HAL.  Please come back here and report on it [maybe in the Water Cooler thread, so people won't complain that it's in the wrong forum 😉].  

Host Jazzbeau, do you mean the "...How are things where YOU are?" thread?

I recall a flap around the naming of that thread, wherein posters on Azamara balked at "water cooler."  This was...  2020?  The pandemic took away our cruises, and many of us flat out refused to accept office-cubicle terminology.

I very much enjoy this thread, and its title, and look forward to Norris's responses to the HAL cruise.

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

15 minutes ago, Ithikan said:

Host Jazzbeau, do you mean the "...How are things where YOU are?" thread?

I recall a flap around the naming of that thread, wherein posters on Azamara balked at "water cooler."  This was...  2020?  The pandemic took away our cruises, and many of us flat out refused to accept office-cubicle terminology.

I very much enjoy this thread, and its title, and look forward to Norris's responses to the HAL cruise.

 

Yes, thanks for reminding me.  On most other forums similar threads are called water cooler.

[Skicruiser55]

5 hours ago, Bimmer09 said:

Update.....

I cancelled our Azamara cruise yesterday if favor of a more appealing itinerary on a line that will be new to us (we've sailed Princess, X and Az).

Holland America's Nieuw Statendam, aft suite incl Gratuities, Elite drink package,$400 excursions OBC, $200 Specialty restaurant OBC, Premium wi-fi. 14 nights vs Az 13.

 

 Preferred itinerary 

Sept 21 Rome after 2 day hotel stay

             Sea Day

             Katakolon

             Chania

             Sea Day

             Alexandria Egypt

             Port Said   Egypt

             Limassol    Cyprus

             Rhodes

             Kusadasi until 11 pm

             Sea Day

             Istanbul (Overnight)

             Istanbul

             Mykonos until 11pm

 Oct 5    Athens    disembark for Electra hotel stay 2 days

 

Holland America's website, phone customer service and email responses have been reassuring.

 

Norris

             

Norris -

 

We did a 14 night Norway sailing with HAL on the Rotterdam in July.  We’ve sailed AZ multiple times but wanted to try something different and this itinerary was much better than AZ’s.  We did an aft Neptune suite.  We really enjoyed our cruise with HAL - the food was fine (we aren’t foodies) and we liked the Have It All concept and found the drinks/wine better than AZ.  Unfortunately we got COVID after 7 days and had to quarantine and my husband had to have 3 days of medical attention.  HAL was fantastic in how they handled ALL of it.  We also received a FCC for the 4 days we had to quarantine which we weren’t expecting.  We found all of the staff on board very attentive.  We loved the live music venues in the evening.  

Enjoy your cruise!

[Bimmer09]

5 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Norris I hope you enjoy HAL.  Please come back here and report on it [maybe in the Water Cooler thread, so people won't complain that it's in the wrong forum 😉].  With all the complaints about every other mass market cruise line, HAL is looking appealing – I don't think they add enough value to the suites, but if I could add Club Orange to a regular veranda it might make a low cost Caribbean winter getaway.

Jazzbeau, thanks for the good wishes. I will come back here to leave a link to my review on the HAL board once it's started in early October '24.

The Vista suite deck 7 isn't really a suite-more an aft verandah plus but the aft verandas were all taken by the time I booked so we had to pay the Vista price to sail true aft.

We did add Club Orange mainly for the intimate dining room for breakfast and dinner versus the massive (and gorgeous) two deck MDR at the stern. We'll dine in the MDR at least once so I can get photos. Club Orange gets us priority embarkation/disembarkation, tender priority, dedicated line at Guest Services.

We'll dine in all 4 specialty restaurants, 2 of which are comped.

Cheers!

Norris

 

 

[Bimmer09]

6 hours ago, takemewithyou said:

How does the price compare?  Just curious…..

Aft suite on HAL compared to the accommodations that you had on Azamara?

Hi, we had and aft verandah plus on the Onward. Without insurance it cost $12,004.

Vista suite aft on HAL including Have It All perks with the addition of Club Orange perks (see note to Jazzbeau above) came to $12,008 without insurance.

So, a difference of $4 and we save on water taxis from Fusina by missing Venice which we will revisit on a land tour at a later date. We will have 2 days to enjoy Athens, new to us.

 

 Before I went looking for an alternative Eastern Med adventure I had had some issues with the Azamara website and when I used the contact us link I got a reply 3 weeks later. The reply apologized (brownie points) but didn't answer my questions. Then I had a cruise consultant get in touch and start a relationship via email. When it came time to ask her about the charging of excursions and insurance I emailed and two weeks later still haven't heard back. An Omen?

The ships often sailing half full and ads offering 4 free days and $600 OBC give me an uneasy feeling as opposed to the warm fuzzy one I prefer.

I went looking and found HAL, with open arms and beautiful Pinnacle Class ships.

 

Our last cruise was the stunning Celebrity Apex to Iceland but X is overpricing themselves and the new CEO is instituting a wave of cutbacks so it's not all sunshine and lollipops there.

I'll be reporting on Princess on January 1. The food was weak and the ship understaffed last December so I hope it has improved. Azamara back of house has stepped on a rake and is in disarray so perhaps HAL will be a new go-to line for us? We are already looking at a 14 day June 2025 to the Arctic Circle...

 

Thanks for the question!

Norris

 

Edited August 30, 2023 by Bimmer09
losing an S

[takemewithyou]

3 minutes ago, Bimmer09 said:

Hi, we had and aft verandah plus on the Onward. Without insurance it cost $12,004.

Vista suite aft on HAL including Have It All perks with the addition of Club Orange perks (see note to Jazzbeau above) came to $12,008 without insurance.

So, a difference of $4 and we save on water taxis from Fusina by missing Venice which we will revisit on a land tour at a later date. We will have 2 days to enjoy Athens, new to us.

 

 Before I went looking for an alternative Eastern Med adventure I had had some issues with the Azamara webs site and when I used the contact us link I got a reply 3 weeks later. The reply apologized (brownie points) but didn't answer my questions. Then I had a cruise consultant get in touch and start a relationship via email. When it came time to ask her about the charging of excursions and insurance I emailed and two weeks later still haven't heard back. An Omen?

The ships often sailing half full and ads offering 4 free days and $600 OBC give me an uneasy feeling as opposed to the warm fuzzy one I prefer.

I went looking and found HAL, with open arms and beautiful Pinnacle Class ships.

 

Our last cruise was the stunning Celebrity Apex to Iceland but X is overpricing themselves and the new CEO is instituting a wave of cutbacks so it's not all sunshine and lollipops there.

I'll be reporting on Princess on January 1. The food was weak and the ship understaffed last December so I hope it has improved. Azamara back of house has stepped on a rake and is in disarray so perhaps HAL will be a new go-to line for us? We are already looking at a 14 day June 2025 to the Arctic Circle...

 

Thanks for the question!

Norris

 

Hi Norris, thanks for the reply and I appreciate your honest answer!  

We have sailed HAL quite a bit as well as X (last on in 2015) We were last on HAL in 2018.  We always liked HAL.  They have interesting itineraries.  We found their food to be fine.  Their Neptune Suites are large and very comfortable.  

 

We have not been on HAL post Covid.  I did read their CC board intermittently post Covid and there were a lot of concerns over food quality.  I haven’t keep up with their boards recently.  I hope the food has improved.  Again, it was always good Pre Covid.  I would say the Pinnacle Grill was always better than Prime C on Azamara,  The crew was always great and very friendly……similar to the crew on Azamara.

 

Sounds like you have found a good replacement for your Azamara cruise.  I will try to remember to read your review!   have a great cruise!  

 

[QueenP]

I am also interested to hear what you think Norris, so yes, please do link to this board.

[Bimmer09]

On 8/29/2023 at 7:04 PM, takemewithyou said:

Hi Norris, thanks for the reply and I appreciate your honest answer!  

We have sailed HAL quite a bit as well as X (last on in 2015) We were last on HAL in 2018.  We always liked HAL.  They have interesting itineraries.  We found their food to be fine.  Their Neptune Suites are large and very comfortable.  

 

We have not been on HAL post Covid.  I did read their CC board intermittently post Covid and there were a lot of concerns over food quality.  I haven’t keep up with their boards recently.  I hope the food has improved.  Again, it was always good Pre Covid.  I would say the Pinnacle Grill was always better than Prime C on Azamara,  The crew was always great and very friendly……similar to the crew on Azamara.

 

Sounds like you have found a good replacement for your Azamara cruise.  I will try to remember to read your review!   have a great cruise!  

 

Hi, I spent a lot of time looking at cruises that involved Istanbul and Athens and that meant checking out many lines for their sailings. Luckily I was familiar with them all as I read CC daily and am curious . I even researched MSC but only their Yacht Club offerings as the rest of the ship is not the environment we would enjoy. I was attracted to Seabourn at $6K fare (2 people) but that was only for 7 days  and we thought that if we are going that far to hit a bucket list we should take a longer voyage. I even looked at a Cunard sailing that began in Istanbul but again just a 7 day and their dressing up expectation in the evenings is a negative.

 

I've always read the HAL boards and once I found the itinerary I went deep into the videos on Youtube many of which are from 2023  and was impressed by the food offerings-the variety, the plating and the thoughts of the passengers taking the video. Negative comments I've seen have been mainly about the shrinking portions-but one can always ask for more or eat another meal soon after at a variety of venues. Our tastes run the gamut from Popeye's Fried Chicken all the way up to Michelin Star foie gras and caviar and will judge the food when it's set in front of us. I feature all our meals, lovingly photographed in my reviews, and whether good, fine, amazing or wonderful which are words I am reading from a live review this week  (from the Zuiderdam) or disastrous and not fit for livestock to "the pizza killed my husband" ...I will give my honest opinion.

 

I like the look of the ships particularly the Crow's Nest and have seen some mouthwatering itineraries so if we like the N.S there will be more bookings for HAL. 

 

Hope to see you in my HAL review around the 7th October next year!

Norris

 

[norn iron]

On 8/29/2023 at 6:49 PM, Host Jazzbeau said:

Norris I hope you enjoy HAL.  Please come back here and report on it [maybe in the Water Cooler thread, so people won't complain that it's in the wrong forum 😉].  With all the complaints about every other mass market cruise line, HAL is looking appealing – I don't think they add enough value to the suites, but if I could add Club Orange to a regular veranda it might make a low cost Caribbean winter getaway.

Host Jazzbeau, don't tempt Norris with a Club Orange, you'll have him waxing lyrical about his trip back home this year 😁 (Northern Ireland humour!)