uktog

Well all I can say is that the inclusive drinks has gone down well with me! It also seems that the Looking Glass is busier than I have often seen it in the past, even the karaoke went on past midnight last night, which may or may not be considered a good thing I suppose! :eek:

 

The rose is a nice French one. If I did not like the wine I asked for a previous day's choice and this was not a problem for them to serve, even in Prime C, where the Filet Mignon was superb!

 

Weather patchy, rubbish in Nice as I type! Seems to be 1 good day followed by 1 poor day!

Sounds like a fun trip, such a shame the weather gods did not find the right script though

Thanks to everyone who had added updates recently. I think we are beginning to get a great picture on the various cabin options on Azamara and it is nice to read some are already finding it helps with booking decisions

Any others who are able to add feedback, please do

Azamara cabin spreadsheet 070413.pdf

Or even "Holiday over-indulgence" - it's a condition where someone mixes lots of different alcoholic drinks and eats food known to disagree with them before passing out on a sun lounger and then starting the process all over again ;)

Yes, I have to say I would have been ill well before Tuscan with the mixture and I'm not lactose intolerant!

Wow, you do cruise a lot. No wonder you get invites to the Captain's Table! Is that cruises or cruise credits? Either way I'm so impressed.

 

Phil

I suspect there is a business model running here

cruise a lot = smooz them a lot = bottom line

So its not about the model wife, its about the model finances

But yes, to be able to have a large number of cruises in a short time is something to be very happy about....maybe one day.......

Thanks to everyone who has given information for this - any suggestions most welcome, and Andy in time, if you think this is of value, can we have a sticky.

For other cruisers, please post below any updates on the rooms you stay in onboard. It might be better though if people with queries about rooms do not add them here, if we can keep this just to a giving of information thread

Azamara cabin spreadsheet 010413.pdf

Well our only complaint about the new policy whilst we are onboard at the moment is that they keep pouring too much wine:)

 

We have been very happy with the quality of the wine, which does seem to be one red, one white one rose per day as much as you can take!

 

The cocktails are hand poured so very healthy measures and again, the staff are diligent about refilling your glass.

 

There seems to be no confusion and no fuss. Oh and the sun is shining now too!!

Fantastic news, what we all expected or hoped for. I have been challenged with the generous wine pours and top ups on Azamara, looks like I am going to have an equal challenge with the cocktails! ;)

(And before anyone posts, if you look back to my previous trip reports I highlighted how sometimes I had to indicate to a server, no more for me thanks aka like my fellow Azamara cruisers, my focus is on enjoyment and being fit enough to enjoy the next days location, not on how much of your "free" drink can I get down my neck )

I think you can assume the minibar is not included, it only mentions on the FAQ that package holders can have the premium brands (not the complimentary ones) on room service.

Certainly this fits in with the package rules applied on Celebrity where minibars are not included. I think logistically it would be a nightmare to include them especially to differentiate who has what packages.

The mini bar had a range of standard brand miniatures (a lot of brands do not bottle in miniatures) , a half bottle of bubbles and some wine - I do not recall the actual Azamara prices but I do remember thinking, if I need a drink that much, I will walk downstairs and get it so there must have been quite a mark up over the bar prices

Thanks everyone, I will make and upload the first spreadsheet after the weekend

English Tim: It may be that Saracen is feeling a tad like me. That is, I get the point about some complaints, but am finding all the repetition rather boring--"Yawn."

Spot on Dunelm - as I said the other day several might like to consider their overall effectiveness and consider that less is more

Well, we are on the inaugural all inclusive cruise. The ship is fantastic, food cannot be beaten and the service is exemplary. One word of warning though, if you want a drink before 17:30 you are pretty much stuffed unless you want to go to the pool bar (and it's raining today). Very misleading, why cant they just open one of the inside bars?

 

Left to go back to our stateroom and pay for expensive wine. No champagne by the bottle to your room either?!!?

Thanks for coming past to post Cruisekirk

I would suggest you get an attention to detail card from guest relations and highlight this wet day issue to them - this is one of the "shaking down" pieces of feedback they will need to hear about

When you say no champagne in the room, do you mean the welcome bottle for suites or the bottle for those who are at Explorer or above level in Le Club voyage or both?

And apparently no heads-up to Bill. That's not good.

Bear in mind time differences Bill may not be logged in when these were uploaded

Well, that's not true for many of us. The issue is not so much whether this brand or that is included or not included, it's that the roll-out does not come close to matching the hype we were fed at the time of the big

 

[/left]

Thank you Marinaro44 for your lengthy interjection. I would however highlight my comments were not in relation to the ongoing debate about what some believe should or should not be the drinks package contents following announcements and subsequent adverts but in response to a query from a board member in relation to a specific question, the answer to which remains if you are not brand sensitive, you will find included items. To help readers understand that I was responded to a query, I had made use of the quotes function.

The arguments you and others keep re churning ad nauseam, we have heard them, but is it not now a case of less is more, for that reason several of you may find many readers have all your posts on ignore because of this.

Bill has already said they are collating the feedback, will things change, who knows but one thing is for sure, these boards are no longer the place of reason where cruisers can ask questions and get a response not a rant.

Sorry but this had to be said, I currently have friends new to Azamara and relatively new to cruising. I would not recommend they come by the Azamara board at present as I do not want them to see all this sniping and re churning of arguments, even when it is not relevant to the posts in question. I want them to discover the fellow guests of Azamara as they are on board and not as they are behaving here.

UKTOG,

 

I just became aware of this post. We are on the Quest next week.

In that case, you are on the new system, look at the list on the very first post in this thread by Bill, you have a much wider choice that includes gin, vodka, some cocktails as well as wine. This long thread is because there is a lot of debates about the brands that are included for free and some issues on terminology used to market cruises in the UK - however if you are not brand sensitive, you have a significant list to choose from, all free of charge

Have a wonderful trip on Quest

I just want to clarify. If you order something in a bar before dinner, you pay, but at dinner it's complimentary?

 

I looked at the Discoveries dining room wine list from last summer that is posted here and there are prices per glass next to it, so I'm confused. Or did the policy change recently?

Sjde, the system is in the process of changing so it depends when you are sailing what is included when

I see your question specifically relates to wine - having sailed with Azamara several time when complimentary wines were being offered, I will give you an answer to your question in case you are sailing on Journey before the changes kick in (Quest changes this week)

Each day, there is one selected white wine and one red wine offered at dinner free of charge. There is also a rose wine, which is the same one throughout the cruise.

Technically, these are offered only in the dining room, however for a pre dinner drink, you will find the staff at the Bar beside Discoveries are able to offer you an included wine at no cost, likewise are the staff at the Sunset Bar which is adjacent to the Deck 9 buffet

I hope this helps you

To funny I will try and not get a red card I promise

Personally, I would ask MZK90 to put you in the sin bin - much more fun I would think

Yesterday I met up with someone I often talk about cruises with. Unknown to me, because I have rabbited on so much about Azamara, they are about to sail with them (they are experienced cruisers elsewhere). In trepidation, I thought I would test their understanding of all inclusive (we are UK based) so saying nothing, I sent them the drinks list Bill posted here

I have just received a note from them that they think the list is great, covers the brands they wanted and indeed it is longer than they were anticipating.

Just thought I would post that perspective, not to diminish the strength of feeling by others, but just to say it looks like not all new UK cruisers are looking for full all inclusive

 

 

It was also announced that every cruise from now on (when the new scheme is introduced) will have an AzAmazing evening.

 

They announced that at the same time as they announced the included drinks- you will see a thread devoted to this where Andy and Bill have been clarifying timing issues with these events for some time now.

This means your G&T is stronger than usual...good idea!

 

I'm disappointed to see that Gilbeys is the 'standard' gin...much prefer Tanqueray or Bombay Sapphie.

 

Is it still possible to take wine and spirits on board? I haven't been able to find out on the website (What a surprise!)

 

Cheers all you gin drinkers,

 

Sue

Dear Sue a gin drinker !

Azamara treats you like an adult, there are no restrictions as to what you can take aboard, so if the list does not appeal, stop by the duty free en route. Otherwise, if you want to drink with others rather than on your balcony, follow the less T and more G route

A

We have our first Azamara cruise booked for later in the year, and I have been watching the two threads debating this subject in a before and after scenario.

I have a few observations, and one question (upon interpretation) from experienced Azamara cruisers.

 

My observations, no Irish Whiskey, no dark beer, ale or stout. The Gordon's gin providing its the yellow label 47% proof export brand is quite acceptable, but it would have been nice to have had Tanqueray. No Port for an after dinner tipple. I also hope they offer a better quality Tonic water that the 'Club' brand offered by Celebrity. Lets keep in mind a G&T is 75% tonic water, so a quality Tonic would be great.

 

My question is based around the 19 wines, are there only two (plus rose) available each day? if so surely that does not bode well for food matching.

If there is a wine that is served on day two for example ( which floats your boat) can you re-request the same wine on the follow days?

They do match the wines to the "chef recommendation" however, you can re request a wine a few days later and if they have a bottle to hand and properly chilled etc they will happily oblige

The tonic is the club brand same as on Celebrity or it was in October. As the Gin pouring is generous I always ask to pour my own tonic and add less than I would otherwise do

2024 UPDATE:  After being stuck for several years [thanks, Covid!], @LoonBoarder has graciously created a new spreadsheet in Google Sheets and promised to keep it up to date.  [Thanks so much!]

Azamara Staterooms Spreadsheet 

[Here is a link to @mchell810's June 2021 updated version:

Cabin%20Reviews%202021.pdf

[And here is a link to @uktog's original version up to 19 Mar 2019:

In the meantime, please continue to follow @uktog's helpful instructions on how to report cabin information in a consistent manner:

On the Celebrity board, there is a very useful spreadsheet kept up to date by one of the cruisers where others can search for information on a cabin. Here on Azamara, we have to try and search and trawl for information and I am offering to create and maintain with say forthnightly updates a similar spreadsheet.

For it to work, everyone has to post information in a consistent way and also only use the thread to post information, not to engage in debate (pop over to the Celebrity board if you want to see more on how it works)

For Azamara, I would suggest the information should be

Cabin Number

Ship

Month/Year sailed

Would you choose this room again Y/N

Is noise an issue Y/N

Balcony size Normal/Larger/Smaller

Any other comments (keeping these succinct so the spreadsheet does not grow too much)

How do others feel about this - if you think we do not need it here, please say, I will not be offended!!!!

Where does it say "All inclusive"? It must be in the UK because Azamara is not marketing itself that way in the US as far as I have seen.

I think that is the question being asked - in which countries is the wording "All inclusive" being used and in which is it not.

I cannot fully put my hand on my heart about what words were used in Azamara UK's own marketing but open every UK tabloid newspaper and the word is included in travel agent/online reseller UK cruise adverts. If we could name websites, I could send you to some right now where these words still are in place in the UK. Indeed one of the resellers is a subsidiary of Royal Carib where if you click on their All Inclusive cruise tab, up pops some Azamara cruises.

Trouble is AI means different things to different people - my interpretation was always based on what I had experienced in hotels abroad - a reasonable range of items were included but top shelf (and sometimes middle shelf) were ere excluded

As has been said, boxes have been ticked - whether you like how the box was ticked is the issue

I do wonder thought - and I think this applies to spirits predominantly - if we did blind tasting how many of us could really really tell. Again we could tell bottom vs top shelf - but what about bottom included by Az vs middle not included

DH may miss his Peroni, I plan to bring some bottle labels and stick them on the Becks bottles, after a few will he really know?

(Just joking, in all seriousness, life is too short for me to worry about this!)

My husband and I are huge water drinkers. Don't drink any soda, he might have 1 beer on the cruise and minimal wine in the dining room. On previous AZ cruises, all water was included, even the Evians and Pelligrino's. That was a huge deal to us since we drink it all day long. Now, we have to buy a package or pay for the "premium" waters? I know in the grand scheme of the cruise, it isn't a huge amount of money, but it is just one more thing we have to consider when pricing out and comparing cruises. Very disappointing that this has now come in to play as well.

We have never had Evian and Pelligrinos included on any of our Azamara cruises, always paid extra for them - I believe this was always how it was meant to be, but sometimes waiters did not interpret the regulations correctly. For still water the included bottle - I cannot remember its type, it was generic - was absolutely fine. It would have been nice to have a generic sparking water included at no additional cost but its not a deal breaker for us.

Thanks for the list Bill. Personally we have never found any of the included wines to be a problem and it is nice to see the expanded list. As ever though we have a wording interpretation, I read the two wines a day to be a no change ie one red and one white, changed each day plus one rose, same bottle offered throughout the cruise as that ties up with an earlier paragraph, but it seems some are reading this as two reds, two whites......... Time will tell the answer to that one

I think the selection for scotch drinkers like DH is a little disappointing however it is November before we are on board so things will shake out a bit I am sure and worst case DH has to continue paying for his as I know he and most Scots do not get excited about Cutty Sark

Good to see a package for water whilst there is generic bottled water on board, we love San pellergino at nights so may well go for a package, will just have to price up the pay as you go in due course.

Tim, I do not expect confusion at the bars as the tills will be programmed accordingly and as others have said, do not judge this book by its cover....... But we look forward to your thoughts when you come back from your cruise, do come and tell us.

Maybe the staff were down because of the rain - it certainly did not bother us, we are used to it and at least it was warm rain

I have to agree Marian was a delight, indeed we only realised he was the assistant and not the MD quite far into the cruise. The staff all liked him as well which meant it all worked well there

Maybe we did not manage to get sara's full understanding of what we were asking, but glad that she was able to come over well for others

We are finally back from a month down under which included a 17 night cruise on Celebrity Solstice, I know others are doing detailed reviews on their experiences on the back to back 35 day adventure, so I will highlight our thoughts on the second leg Perth to Sydney and where this trip fits with our experiences of previous cruises.

We chose the trip because of its itinerary and the ports of call. We booked far out and were lucky to enjoy some price drops along the way therefore we would say this trip was good value.

Using the Celebrity end of cruise rating scale, we gave the cruise overall a good, we felt there were too many silly glitches to give an overall excellent, though some areas were excellent.

It was a strange cruise in many ways, with so many back to back guests (over a quarter) plus a large group booking of another 250 guests, it was not as friendly a cruise as we have enjoyed in the past. There were also over 400 elite guests but sadly they did not use the voucher system so if you wanted a seat at Elite drinks in a reasonable spot fir service you had to line up early which does not work for late diners as we were advised by phone no capris for ladies unless they were below the knee - a new one not seen on other ships. We met many elites elsewhere who like us went to no Captains Club events as they found the crowds and numbers overwhelming however, when talking with the CC hostess, her success measure was numbers not ambience or guest engagement, which was strange

So in summary, what was very good

*The ports of call ( yes the weather did not play fair but the ports were still good). There were issues with tenders in two ports Bali and Cairns but we were not as adversely affected as others particularly in Cairns where we still got our excursion albeit we were back two hours late from it

*Our stateroom - and the team looking after it. After issues on Summit it was great to see the full Aqua experience being delivered so well. We also had a deep balcony room 1606 which was posted elsewhere on this board in a photo summary as being a red (poor) cabin, this could not be further from the truth, it's in an excellent location and the deep balcony meant we could still sit out in monsoon weather

*Blu- although not quite on a par with Azamara Discoveries, the food and service was really good and wine service also hit the right spot for two premium package holders

*Ships organised shore excursions. Previously we have had some real rough experiences there but these were all so good even when we had the Bali delay -Patrick's song and dance routine in the theatre was a great distraction!

*The level of music volume in the bars at night - no techno boom we endured on Eclipse. Also great use made of the Atrium with music filtering up to all floors on several nights. We particularly liked Sonic Wave duo and Les de Merle Jazz (though we are not usually fans of jazz). It was lovely to see so many people dancing before and after dinner

*Silk Harvest, we have never been here before despite having the opportunity on other ships - why not, it's so so good!

*The Lawn - there was a real buzz up there, lots going on either on an organised or informal basis. This coupled with a great team at the Sunset Bar made this a favourite spot

The less good

*There was a general service inconsistency, you could have great service at Al Bacio (lovely Ukrainian staff) or Martini Bars many days and then awful service on others, seemed to be issues with staffing numbers and training/ language skills

*Some staff had attitude issues, we saw that most at Guest Relations (though we have to go on record and say Jeff Potts resolved our issues there impeccably) and Molecular Bar - we were only occasional visitors there and whereas in other bars, my Peroni drinking spouse was made welcome, the young lady and gent at Molecular were not accommodating and preferred to use their time to moan about their rotas. No problem, we discovered the Passport Bar, a venue we have not tried before and really loved it

*Captains Club, as we said difficult to engage with the hostess who saw numbers coming through the door rather than the experience of the guests as her primary success. If you have a drinks package and breakfast in Blu, hard to follow her logic we were missing out by not going to a more crowded Tuscan for breakfast. There are also issues with the laundry coupons where the wording on the $20 bag coupon is incorrect if the ships interpretation of this as it is also a wash and fold service only and not laundry is correct. Our lovely stateroom attendant sorted it out for us, the hostess said she did not know the wording on the coupons which we found strange

*Entertainment - I accept we were in Australia so they were using Oz entertainers (not we suspect to appeal to guests as was being punted by the CD every night but as a cost saving measure) but only one group the Aussie Boys was of the standard we have enjoyed before on Celebrity. Others were average at best. One was unacceptable and we did highlight this onboard - We were shocked to see a magician select a nine year old from the audience to go up on stage and then perform a card trick involving pulling down his fly and getting cards from there - accepted he told her to turn away when he did it but we feel that crossed a line that should not happen. There needed to be more recognition of the international balance of the guests in the entertainment line up. The cruise director, also from Australia Ian Cresswell was adequate but is not of the calibre of others on Celebrity and needs to be much more genuine and engaging and less into spin

*Activities - we enjoyed the progressive golf, but found the others to be either poorly organised or in the case of trivia not something that occasional guests were really welcome at, clearly you needed to be an every day player regardless of excursions (and ideally a back to back guest) to be part of it. Whilst the Activities Manager is lively and energetic, she needs to slow down and listen to what guests are saying. Although Milos gave reasonable naturalist talks he was not on a par with naturalists elsewhere on Celebrity like Brent Nixon or the reef pilot who really was so enlightening

*Murano - not sure we will go again on a Solstice class ship, we were there the week before the price rise and whilst the food was acceptable, the service was very much on the basis, I have a script, I follow it, I ask you a question, you give me feedback, I ignore. Maybe because we only went once this cruise and we were surrounded by many repeaters and two large quite lively tables of back to back guests who had been several times (and were offered menu choices not offered to us) it just took the shine off. We will certainly consider continuing to do Murano equivalents on M class ships but the jury is now out on S class

*Ships officers - invisible. Accept the Captain had a tricky medivac to handle and also was going on leave mid cruise, but you never saw people like the Hotel Director or F and B manager watching over things (something we have always seen on other ships) and most surprising of all officers would sit next table to you at lunch or walk by you in corridors and not acknowledge your existence. This tone filtered down to the staff and too many were either automatons just doing their job with plastic smiles and not listening to what guests were actually saying or worse still too many examples of staff arguing amongst themselves. Such a shame because there were some great staff on board as well.

So where does that leave us overall, did we regret booking this cruise, absolutely not, did we enjoy it absolutely yes, have onboard standards dipped on board, yes, will we go Celebrity again, of course but our decision is driven by destination and if Azamara is going to that destination, to equalise cost we will now always choose a lower category room with them rather than Blu on Celebrity every time.

Happy to answer questions or clarify points made.