Jem 12

There was lobster tails on our recent white night on Pursuit cruise Lisbon to Barcelona, we thought the food generally was very good. 

Thank you, I'm sure they will be fine for him. They flew out yesterday so to kate to rake his own. Happy Christmas 🎄 

We have grandchildren of a similar age and while I know they would love aspects of Azamara (food) there simply wouldn’t be enough, especially for the sports mad 11 year old, he would be happy with the table tennis but would want more activity.

The one pool is fairly small and on a warm day will have 30-40 bobbing heads just cooling off. 

We usually have basic cabins on Azamara and while they are fine for 2, I can’t imagine being for 3, I’m surprised that Azamara seem to pushing family bookings more. 
Enjoy whatever you decide. 
 

Well we didn't bother, but each to their own.  

On 12/6/2023 at 7:30 AM, Wungee said:

My wife and I will be in a Penthouse Veranda next year. We're not big drinkers, but just wondering, if I wanted to take a few mini-bottles home, would that be allowed? I'm literally talking about 3 or 4 of the mini's.

I’m sure it wouldn’t be a problem at all, we didn’t have alcohol in our fridge last time, but we still have a few bars of chocolate that we brought home 😀

8 minutes ago, shadowlover said:

they make you leave the ship with everyone else sadly.  I would not use their transfer.  I would either rent a car for the day or find something to do.  we were stranded at san juan airport with no seat as we waited for united to open.  Sat for hours.

Sometimes (probably depending on the class cabin you purchased) they arrange for a hotel to spend the day in.  Also if your flight is quite late I believe they do the same.

 

Hopefully a day room would be nice, I wonder if they will know on ship ? 

Can anyone confirm whether we will need adaptors for our 3 pin UK plugs please? 

On 10/7/2023 at 10:40 PM, WorldJoy24 said:

Thanks, Phil.  I will check with Activities person when on board.  Yes, I was thinking early AM when others are not using the pool.   Probably just on sea days.   Am also curious to see if there is any interest in line- dancing or zumba exercising.   Gotta keep in shape with all that delicious food!

I think if you pick your moments it shouldn’t be any problem, sea days the pool would be busier I would have thought. 
I would love the chance to line dance or do Zumba on Azamara, we miss the dance classes. 

We are booked on Viking Sky for a transatlantic, we know we are going to love it, hoping the weather is nice so we can enjoy pool area etc.

We are flying home the same day as we arrive in Florida, can anybody advise what Viking do with passengers who have a late flight back to UK, we will have a transfer back to airport, but I was wondering what time they will make us leave the ship, I know in the good old days with previous cruise lines we would have the use of a hotel day room, any help appreciated. 

14 minutes ago, KforKitty said:

Just to confirm that although bottled water is not included in FAS, at every MDR sitting and in specialty restaurants in the Star this June, we were offered iced water on arrival and this was refilled frequently.  

 

Looking back on our recent experience I would say food in the MDR was hit or miss.  For me the main criticism was when food wasn’t served hot - I’m fussy about this.  Breakfast was the worst.  However we did have some great evening meals, especially in the specialty restaurants.  Best to worse was Le Bistro, Cagney’s, La Cucina and Moderno.  We didn’t do Teppanyaki this time.  Not a buffet fan so only ever had breakfast there when we missed seating hours in the MDR and one lunch.  O’Sheahan’s is our preferred lunchtime spot and was mainly fine, but a couple of misses.

 

Favourite hang-out drinking spots on this cruise was Proof Whisky Bar, followed by Gatsby’s.  I also like the Sake cocktails at the bar in Ginza.

 

Catherine

Thank you Catherine, yes like you I do like my food served hot, so will maybe ask when I’m ordering, 

Thank you for the detailed info on restaurants. 
kind regards

Elizabeth 

6 minutes ago, SpainAlien said:

Just a side note, don't forget you can customise your dishes a little if you don't fancy the accompaniments, for example if a dish in the MDR is served with chips you can ask them to give you mash or something else instead,  Also don't forget that you can ask for steamed vegetables to accompany your main course if you find you are missing your veg. Finally, I will often order two starters to try something I have never had before like corn chowder or chicken pho

 

 

Thank you again, good to know, I do find the vegetable offerings very small on other cruise lines so I will try asking for some. Thank you. 
 

Elizabeth 

6 minutes ago, SpainAlien said:

Hi Elizabeth

 

Booking on the UK sites you don't have to pay separate gratuities for the free at sea perks, that's why you pay a fixed price for FAS it covers those. 

 

FAS does not include bottled water but you can get iced water at the bars and it is poured at the dining tables. If you want it at the buffet it is self serve (use a fresh glass every time) and that is also where you go to fill your water bottle but use a fresh glass to decant water into the bottle do not put the bottle up to the faucet.

 

The $20 daily service charge covers your room steward, waiters, behind the scenes personal so whilst you do not have to tip extra many choose to if they have a great member of staff. 

 

NCL Star is an older, smaller ship than Epic and the layout is a bit weird (you can't walk straight through from Aqua to Versailles you have to go up, along then back down for example - over the kitchen). It never had the Broadway style show like Priscilla Queen of the Desert but the shows are still pretty good and on a par with small ships on other cruise lines like RCCL and Carnival. 

 

To add some perspective, I was on Dawn out of Southampton in June and found the food to be generally good but there are some obvious cuts since covid, for example in Teppanyaki the steak isn't fillet any more but it is still just fine.  I am not a fussy eater and have a typical English palate and I was happy that there was always something I liked.  I did have issues with our room steward but i do think that he was overworked and struggling to cope, I hope that will be better on Star in November.

 

Enjoy your round Ireland voyage, I loved Dublin but spent all day tasting Guinness and Jameson whisky, I will be going back at some point because it is beautiful and my time there was too short. I did the ho ho through NCL.  In Belfast we did a private tour out to the Giants Causeway which was incredible and found another distillery to taste their whisky (Bushmills). 

 

Brilliant thank you so much, that clarifies several queries, you have put my mind at ease, so grateful to the people on this board who take the time to reply in such a detailed way. 
Now just to try and sort out some trips, there is 4 adults travelling together so will try and do taxis/ hire car where we can. 
 

many thanks and kind regards

Elizabeth 

1 minute ago, Asawi said:

You do not have to pay any extra gratuities for drinks and food. Just the regular "service fee". Bottled water is not included but the water in the buffet is very good. Really , very good! Bring a refillable bottle or big mug and fill it there (from a clean glass). There is ice if you don't find the water cold enough.

They pour iced water in the dining rooms.

The casino on Star is situated where you'll have no reason to enter it except for playing or the bar. I have only noticed cigarette smell from smokers, nowhere on the ship (unless there is a smoker nearby...)

What is good or bad entertainment is a matter of taste. I have found it "good enough". At least the shows I mentioned.

Thank you so much, that is great news about water etc, we are happy to drink any iced water, thank you for clarification also about gratuities. 
Im sure we will find the entertainment fine, if not we will have to make our own.

kind regards

Elizabeth 

Hi Sorry to hear you have had such a disappointing cruise, we have cruised once on NCL Epic and are sailing on star on Oct 3rd. 

We have got the free at sea, I have already been slightly disappointed to see the internet package is only a certain number of minutes, other cruise have usually been unlimited. Need to read small print more my mistake.

Can I ask a few questions from more experienced NCL cruisers, I know there is a $20 a day service charge. If you have the free at sea ( we are in Uk) do you still have to pay a compulsory gratuity on the included drinks (free) and the two included speciality restaurants. 
Can you get bottled water as part of your drinks package ? We don’t drink tons of fizzy drinks.  Can we refill our own water bottles anywhere with chilled water? 
Di they pour iced water in the dining rooms or do you have to buy bottled water  if not included in package. 
On our only NCL cruise on Epic we thought entertainment was fabulous, so disappointing to hear it so poor now.  We did find Epic a very Smokey ship as casino was in middle of ship and allowed smoking, I suspect Casino will be a no go area for  us on this ship too. 
I am very surprised at how poor most of the reviews are for NCL, wish I had read more before booking, 

I would love to hear from anyone who has already done the around Ireland cruise for any info about the ports. 
Thank you in advance for any replies.

Elizabeth 

Oh Sailor Jack it has been lovely to read your trip report, I have missed you since the demise of Ship Happens. Mu husband completely agrees about the shower. 

On 1/29/2023 at 6:19 PM, hamrag said:

But, were there any other cruise ships that day? On our most recent visit to Roseau there were 3 ships, previously on another four visits our ship was the only one.

Yes Princess was docked out of town. 

On our recent Azamara cruise, we did mainly all Azamara excursions as we had a large shore excursion credit, they were generally adequate, with one or two major disappointments, one was the sting Ray encounter in Antigua and the trolley to the beach in St Lucia. I wouldn’t recommend either I of these. 
We have previously done a sting ray excursion in Grand Cayman which was far superior, this was a privately arranged excursion. The Trolley train was just a complete waste of an hour to get to a very dirty beach, we only had an hour there, very few even bothered to go into sea as not enough to dry off. 
The beach was actually very near to ship but the trolley took us all through a very busy port area plus the town, the people were all pleasant but everything else was disappointing. 
I fed back my disappointment, but nothing else really happened. 
we enjoyed the ships excursion to Virgin Gouda baths and a couple of snorkelling trips booked through the ship. The best excursion was river tubing in Dominica but it was a very long bus ride in a very old bus, which barely made it up the hills, we only got back to the ship 5 mins before all aboard time!!! But it was great fun. 

Oh yes what amazing dancers they were and a lovely couple, we didn’t know them very well, but we’re lucky enough to do a dance class with them and then be invited to dance with them in the cabaret lounge one evening, a lovely memory.

Wishing them all the best for their future. 

Did you by any chance do a screen shot ? 

My sister has just returned from Pursuit, they were able to use their included onboard spend on pretty much what they wanted. 
There onboard credit wasn’t flagged as being for shore excursions only. 
I have had a lovely time spending my excursion onboard credit for our cruise in Jan, we don’t usually do organised trips. 

Thanks for posting, we have some friends family onboard so nice to get another perspective, they are not in a suite. Have a fab time. 

On 5/21/2022 at 7:44 PM, joyride said:

HA HA, lvi, there is always a bird!!! So enjoying your post, we will be on Pursuit May 31st in Barcelona. Will you be on that cruise, are you B2B? I might consider doing a "live from" post also as a first time Azamara cruiser. 

Oh please do a post that would be brilliant, we have friends onboard for the same cruise so would be lovely to get feedback, we would have joined them but had something else booked ( only a long weekend in Uk.) 

On 5/4/2022 at 6:00 PM, uktog said:

Fabulous band, we are usually Den people in the evening but that band totally changed our evening menu. Agree Darren is going to be a really good fit.  

 

 

We had a lovely cruise on Quest last week, we agree the band In The Living Room was some of the best entertainment we have had on our Azamara cruises. 
We also enjoyed a couple of shows in cabaret lounge, but nothing much memorable.

The two nights of Karaoke were generally painful, one was too many to be honest.

All the people we met onboard were lovely and the staff were amazing. 

Just now, combine said:

Hi Jean.

 

So pleased that the flights worked out good in the end. Bet there wasn't much traffic at all!!

 

I spoke to the future sales man Matthew onboard re the fcc and he said we would be notified personally. I did wonder if it would go to our TA that we booked this one with? Hope whoever gets notification first will let us all know ! 

Sorry we didn’t get to meet you onboard, at least not knowingly, we did go to first cruise critic meeting but didn’t meet anybody. Missed the 2nd one. 
 

Thanks for info re future credit hopefully we will get it. 
 

We thoroughly enjoyed our cruise and met lots of lovely people. 

We were glad we hadn’t changed our flight from  11.15 a.m, it was an early start but thought Azamara did very well with all the transfers etc, hubby enjoyed breakfast in windows at 4.30 am !!! And the grab and go box suited me very well, especially has BA had very little onboard food wise, all in all our journey was uneventful, but I wouldn’t choose to travel to Ravenna before or after a cruise given the choice, too far. 
Does  anybody know how we access the future onboard credit for missing Venice , I think I was expecting to get some sort of notification? 
 

Jean 

1 hour ago, kool kruiser said:

I would definitely recommend a supervised test. Randox have a home supervised test for £11 if you collect from a local outlet, In our locality this would be a nearby newsagent. IMHO worth the nominal cost !!

This isn’t a PCR  though is it ?  So is it any different to an unsupervised Lateral Flow