uktog

Often stay in the Sofitel Heathrow. You can take the free airport luggage carts all the way to your hotel room. There is a lift from the arrival halls then a corridor walk and then both lifts and an escalator down to the hotel reception.

The Sofitel is one of the easier airport to hotel connections I have done in the world and its a lovely hotel. Food is a little pricey but if you just want sandwiches you will find a Marks Food to go landslide at arrivals level (they also sell nice fruit plates and cake goodies plus premixed cans of alcoholic cocktails). If you want a sit down meal there is a nice Italian chain Carluccios landslide at departures level

I do not expect our waiter to "parrot repeat" a script about brunch, food pairings, chef demonstrations whatever. Like all decisions for the day I prefer to look in the Daily at bedtime and we make our provisional plans then.

I loved the fact in Blu the end of dinner conversations with wait staff were more social (we often talked bout them and their families not about us) and not "sales pitches" for free and charged for events.

Brunch is pleasant but I hate seeing how some displays are trashed within minutes and the scale of wastage is terrible.

Gosh Tim, it must be a very rebellious group in the hot tub this week!

A friend of mine returned from the cruise that disembarked when they let you on He told me Sonia Limbrick was on board. She ran a very open wide ranging open mic question and answer session with UK guests on the last at sea day that was very informative and well attended. And not one guest raised any questions about the drinks packages, all inclusive, more inclusive etc

You must attract the dissenters!!

I suspect the OP was looking for his credits too quickly. They never are on the account on embarkation day which for us is no big deal. Azamara have never got our OBC wrong and we do have some complex credit arrangements. They are however very strict about casino use which is not an issue for us at all, just saying

Escargot was available on the Infinity from May 1 - June 3.

Your reports post cruise have been very helpful and that is the best post yet!!

Do you know, did this include Blu?

James Cox

We are staying in the Athens hilton in sept,i will be interested in how the transfers work and if breakfast is included

Have a good cruise :)

They worked like a dream last October - luggage went separately direct to your cabin on board. Breakfast was included - it was a huge buffet, we had trouble containing ourselves as some of the pastries were delicious as we knew we would be on board by lunchtime

It is about a 20-30 min drive to the port not through the smartest parts of Athens.

Is that the lovely Ernesto who is always smiling in the dining room - thanks for your review, it brought back great memories of a similar trip on Quest four years ago

Loving your review and gorgeous photos

Does anyone have any information about who the captain and/or cruise director will be on the Eqinox January 10, 2014 sailing?

Way too early to know that - probably around December people will be able to post with a degree of accuracy

I think the Cabaret Lounge on Azamara really lends itself to Magic shows given the position of the Audience with the performer. I hope Azamara continue to book quality magic acts as it works there.

DH now asks we hide in the top portion of the lounge having been "attacked" by Bob Turnell and one other magician whose name I forget.

Thanks that is a really useful review of the layout, fixtures and fittings. Sounds like Azamara has it more right than P and O

Interesting how different people's experiences were. I have read great things about Melissa here, but we thought she was by far the worse hostess we had on over 20 cruises. The biggest problem was that she sucked up and fawned over the elite of the elite (those with either lots of Celebrity points or those who seemed to be self appointed Cruise Critic big shots-or both) and basically ignored everyone else. In fairness, those individuals intimidated and bullied her, but she should have handled it a lot better. Quite a number of us (all Elite) mentioned her attitude and behavior on our comment cards, so maybe that got addressed and she has improved.

 

In contrast, Juliana was by far the very best and made everyone feel special.

 

Happy Sails to You

 

OOOEEE :D:D Bob and Phyl

Interesting not sure when you sailed but that was exactly our feelings in February. However we are very open to having a different experience this cruise fingers crossed

Not to worry. Mellissa is wonderful. Have sailed with her 3 times and she's our favorite CC Hostess.

Jenny needed a break after a couple of extra months work.

Thanks, Jenny certainly was due a break. We did not hit it off with Melissa before but I hope maybe this time will be different

Was this captain on the Constellation in April.? I am on the Infinity June 24, 2013 Have not been able to locate anyone else on this cruise.

We've a pretty active roll call come on over and people there seem to know who is on board though not sure of their sources

:( had so hoped Jenny would still be onboard Infinity when we sailed next month

Apologies for the delay and thanks to all the new posters - this spreadsheet really is growing. Soon we will have most of the decks covered!

Azamara cabin spreadsheet 300513.pdf

I'm sure this can be quietly sorted out with AZ - Bill is on the case.

I am not affected by this all inclusive market so can speak objectively

Azamara did make the adjustment when they altered the marketing from All inclusive to more inclusive and that is the extent of the changes they are making. Generally this was accepted and there has been no adverse posting from those coming back

Unfortunately, an alert poster found that a cruise agent was still selling these cruises in the UK as all inclusive and Bill indicated that all UK agents had been asked to remove such marketing by mid April

Now, this has reignited the whole issue as we have all found many examples of all inclusive marketing including from a subsidiary of RCI

Therefore, this has both annoyed previous all inclusive bookers who had been marginally placated by the previous changes and that is why some of the old arguments are reappearing,

Highly unlikely they would ever make it all inclusive for all British bookers just because of marketing errors which are now the errors of their agents IMHO

That sure does say "All Inclusive". I hope we do not have unhappy Brits onboard our cruise.

 

I fear you will Jade, coupled to the fact these agencies encourage guests to download shore ex brochures at the earliest opportunity and unless things change, some of them are going to be in for a nasty shock on the pricing of their excursions in addition to the price of the drinks

From what I saw of the pricing on the "pay for" drinks using Lotties very helpful links on the other thread, they have allowed for the fact you are forgoing a free drink - if I compare the cost of these products to the cost on Celebrity, the price for say a proper Scotch is very fair

I think it's pretty widespread that the agents have not changed their material. There is a company that is an RCI subsidiary (word first in title). On their site, click on the All inclusive tab, Azamara comes up, I took a dummy online booking all the way through to the end and at no point was a rider that AI meant more inclusive posted.

I appreciate the cruise line has issued it's direction but when the in group agents are not following it, this does not bode well for life onboard when the disappointed appear with their not unreasonable expectations.

I suspect someone in the UK office is going to have to trawl and dummy book on all the online UK agencies they work with and issue "warnings" to those organisations that are pushing all inclusive still. As they have been put on notice by Azamara, the agencies would not look good if a Trading Standards complaint was raised, but of course Azamara would get collateral damage if that hit the press or Ms Robinsons acidic watchdog tongue

Thank you everyone who has contributed since the last update

Apologies if I miss any rooms out, its not intentional, no censorship here just incompetence on the part of the spreadsheet author from time to time

Please keep giving your updates to help future cruisers

Azamara cabin spreadsheet 060513.pdf

Here is an updated list. We have a couple of cabins now showing as being less than ideal so I am now highlighting more clearly when this is reported

Azamara cabin spreadsheet 230413.pdf

It is great to keep getting these updates, a new spreadsheet is attached, hope it helps with the various searches for that great cabin

Azamara cabin spreadsheet 140413.pdf

I think the level of noise may have something to do with the individual Cruise Director, Hotel Director or CC hostess. Volumes at various parts of the ship can be altered - main atrium is controlled by units on each floor; each restaurant has its one control cupboard. My experiences on S and M class have been (most recent first)

Solstice Absolutely no issue for us noise levels were perfect apart from what was incessant booming from Tuscan each morning at the Elite breakfast - we opted not to attend this as a result

Constellation No issues

Summit Generally fine apart from late night when on two evenings there was a bit of Techno Boom in Martini Bar

Eclipse Pretty terrible, we only drank in Michaels as a result which limited some drink options

Eclipse No issues (see same ship different dates, different issues)

Equinox Intermittent loud music, especially at the Sunset Bar

I think it is shocking one has not been regularly marketed to you over the ships PA at hourly intervals :p