Hammer61

Just off the Westerdam, had 1 dinner at the Pinnacle through the HIA package. It was nice without being outstanding, not sure i would pay the cover charge plus 18% though!!! And then if you want Lobster or some of the other items on the menu another surcharge, last time we had a meal at the Crown Grill on Princess we never had these additional surcharges 😠. Would rate Crown Grill as better than Pinnacle both in taste and quality, the Bisque i had needed seasoning and the NY Strip, said 12oz but i would say it was more like 8-10oz and then the 2 sides you can have where tiny, 3 slim spears of Asparagus and a small jacket Potatoe, any more than 2 incurred another surcharge! Key Lime Pie was outstanding though 😋 my Wife had some kind of Baked Alaska, it was just a mess 🤯, she left most of it. LOL

Thanks, our cruise is the same, 14 nights Japan and Taiwan and its 7 nights for each venue, it must have been a recent change as when we booked it was only Canaletto, does restrict anyone to going to the first half of the cruise with the HIA package, but no big deal for us, we will do the Pinnacle grill in the second half and see what reports are like for Tamarind as i hear on other ships its very good and depending on feedback will pay to go.

Resurrecting an old thread but booked a Have it all package but when i go to book specialty dinning i can only book Pinnacle or Canaletto? But also to add a bit of oddness to the mix...............is the fact Tamarind is only available for the second half of the cruise, Canaletto only for the first half! First time with HAL, the ship is Westerdam, is a restaurant space used for 2 different venues on this ship and does have it all dinning not include Tamarind..

Thats a good point and may be different depending on which part of the world you live in? I'm in Sydney Australia, we already pay high air fares compared to Europe and the USA especially for International travel, competition is less i suppose but it does mean flights to say Europe don't vary as much, they do change depending on time of year and around the major Christmas/Easter times when they are even more expensive but if i had booked flights for May next year 6 months ago it wouldn't have been significantly cheaper than it is now or will be in February next year, always a risk of course but if your flexible with dates often a way around it.

Ah! I do get your point.... And that's a good outlook to have, BB King was right!! I however will stick with my value-based criteria, just the way im built more than anything else 😊

Silversea as well. It doesn't bother me really but do prefer the Ponant/Silversea model and have a booking in 2025 with them but does add in another layer to deal with when booking especially now Azamara don't offer the price guarantee as the price swings can be huge, yes you can pay a cancelation/rebooking fee but i don't understand why they don't just offer a competitive fare from the start? but that's up to them i just think it puts people off to a certain extent. Mind you im not very brand loyal, so for our Med cruise i may well end up paying a bit more and going with Oceana, or less and HAL, its value for money i want, if i book and its $1800pp cheaper 6 months later as it was when we booked our last Azamara "early bird special" im left feeling a bit ripped off and thinking well why didn't they offer this cruise at a lower fare initially, if its say a $200 difference, you're not left with that same feeling (well im not!!) and can see they are just trying to sell the remaining cabins etc. But each to there own i suppose.

The regular price changes from Azamara are frustrating i find, as much as i understand they need to sell cruises they also need to be aware that this can actually put people off, yes i know other cruise lines do it as well but does seem Azamara are more frequent with it and the price swings much higher, a recent Princess and Cunard cruise both barely moved or were slightly higher by the time the full payment was required, both had so called specials at different times, extra OBC etc, but really taking those into account the overall cost didn't move more than $150-$200pp Our last Azamara cruise dropped in price by $1800pp at one point from when we initially booked (on a so-called early booking discount with a few perks etc) at that time they had the price guarantee, so it was no problem changing each time the price reduced, but it did make me track the cruise very closely and on a regular basis and as well as go down, it would then suddenly spike up as well. My real conclusion for booking Azamara is to have a few choices of departures and wait until close to that final payment date then book as often the upcoming sailings have some very big discounts to what they may have been selling for 12 months earlier, suites are the only category's that seem to go quickly and have the least price movement, Interior (no thanks for us!) you can get some real big discounts close to sailing but not sure i would want one, but that's just our personal preference. We want to do a Med cruise in the early summer (late May/early June) so im tracking 3 separate sailings all with similar voyage lengths, i also look at how they are selling using an online agent site that lets you see cabin availability, i won't book until late February at the earliest and although a price rise has just taken place i would bet 1 of these cruise that's not got many bookings apart from suites will be heavily discounted early next year........... But i do wish they would bring back the Price Guarantee or be more price aware for us customers, as seems to me they try and sell the cruises at high prices, but will slash that price for short periods presumably to get some sales and if its still not selling well slash again before the sailing, why not just offer a competitive price they know makes them a profit from the start? As said not unique to Azamara but they do seem the most volatile with it. *All the above is just my 2 cents worth! 😁

Not surprised by this, we got off the Royal Princess on 3rd November and both of us went down with COVID a few days later, lots of coughing and spluttering on board. Although we enjoyed the trip i was bit disappointed as it was only towards the end of the trip they put anyone on the door at the Horizon Court, and even then, it was only an encouragement to wash your hands, with only 2 sinks most people just ignored them or said they would sanitize. Just all part of living with COVID but maybe the cruise lines need to up the ante a bit to minimize these outbreaks, more encouragement of hygiene when entering food venues and maybe they go back to no self-service?

True! It is a strange one though 😕 price suddenly increased and now its showing as sold out if i click on details and pricing unavailable on the cruise info page? But i had only enquired to an Azamara rep just over a week ago and was told there was plenty of availability and they even recommended getting a specific cabin, i then also looked at an online agent's site that lets you select your cabin, and it looked as if hardly any rooms had been sold for some categories! Which in part made me hold back to see what black Friday would bring as the current upgrade promotion is running until December. Its a Greek island/Turkey trip 29th May from Athens.

The Royal we just disembarked this week from a 10-night Queensland trip had a good range also, ALL at $10.50 and having just come over from Alaska although not on the menu there was Alaskan beers available at most bars on request, so if you're on one of the ships just arrived and enjoy a quality beer maybe worth asking? the 3 beers they had were all superb, pretty strong mind!!! 6.4% although i think the one they referred to as the "white" was 5.3%.

I'm just off the Royal and don't recall seeing this available? Doesn't mean it's not as we had the Plus package, but you used to see the signs and a bucket display at the bars especially around the pool deck etc. and i don't recall seeing any or people with buckets either???

Never used HAL for flights but curious to see how flight costs compared and as we have a cruise coming up next year on Westerdam (flights booked separately) i could log in and compare flight prices from HAL and the online flight site we use for return flights to Tokyo, the difference was huge🤯 in fact all this $500 credit would have done was brought the flight price offered by HAL down to the online agent price.................... All this suggests to me is that the Air credit is no incentive (or saving) for us to book a Europe or Alaskan cruise which are the only destinations its available for this offer............

I was holding off booking for similar reasons now the price guarantee isn't available. The trip i was looking at though got a price hike on Nov 1st ☹️ Sometimes if you really find the right trip its best just to book if it's in your budget and dates for travel, waiting for special offers or discounts doesn't always work out. Murphey's law 😜 Sometimes, as im sure if i had booked before Oct 31st, it would have not seen a price rise and then got a discount for Balck Friday LOL, some you win some you lose..................

I find him a bit "clickbait" he had a YouTube review of Azamara about a year ago that was titled a cruise line going downhill rapidly or something along those lines that was very sensational in its wording in part i expect to get people to watch it = $. I watched it and at the time thought if these gripes and issues are the worst you can come up with it really is very trivial. Most seemed to be down to the new staff getting used to getting back to work after COVID, one server gave him a coke instead of a diet coke i think it was, another forgot his bacon at breakfast one morning, he was also full of praise for the way Azamara crew handled a problem with his cabin though and he was promptly moved and helped in that regard and also liked the food and service overall, but still went ahead with the clickbait headline. His stuff on YouTube is ok, but i do find him a bit patronizing at times, some of his tips for travelers are really the obvious or you have to be an idiot not to realize or see, other channels do a better job i think but he has a big following so each to their own. We were on the Quest in February, and it was maybe the best cruise we have been on and will be booking Azamara again.

Ah, Many thanks 👍