uktog

I just have to jump in here and say that I am one of those lucky people who has been able to sail with all FOUR of the Amazaing Azamara captains over the past few years and have enjoyed the fabulous services of Heike, Philip and Scott as Hotel Directors. I have also loved the variety of Cruise Directors. Eric DeGray and Tony Markey, despite being very different individuals, "wow" us every time we see them. What we have found is that each and everyone of these very special individuals brings something unique and different to our cruising experience. ALL fantastic!! ALL Favourites!! These people make Azamara what it is today....a very SPECIAL place to be no matter WHO is in charge.

I was about to post the same. I would not be concerned whoever you have, they are all special

Welcome to your first Celebrity Cruise

I hope it is not going to be a disappointment to you and your wife, but you will not have a butler in an Aquaclass cabin on Infinity. There is no personal concierge for those rooms, you have a stateroom attendant who will, with their assistant, look after your room. There is a Guest Relations concierge available to all guests who is based in Guest Relations and can assist with special arrangements. The Spa concierge is just a receptionist in the Spa area

Now despite the bad news, you have the great news you will be dining in Blu which is a little special and I hope you have a wonderful cruise

Perhaps you are not the type of person who will enjoy the service of a butler, we wont knock you for that if you dont knock those of us who do enjoy it!

I must still be missing something.

 

I just don't get why anyone needs a butler.

Unlike a lot of lines Cebelrity doesn't have a no we cant do that attitude. They will try to meet all sorts of requests. I can get things by shmoozing the right people and palming them a few notes. This backdoor system works much better than any Elite status perk or suite perk.

 

Where a lot of people fall down, is they look down and condescend to staff. They feel they are entitled to perks and I am appalled at the way I have seen some premier guests treat staff. Dare I even say they are of the older generation too (not all oldies, some of you are very nice, just the ones I have seen behave like this tend to be 60+).

 

If you treat the staff with a little respect, take an interest in what they are doing, don't cut them off midscript or patter and slip them a few notes, they will get see you ok just as good as any butler.

Disagree I am sorry. It's nothing to do with notes and schmoozing which sound like tacky brown nosing to me. All our butlers have done a lot to make our cruises special.

It's hard to give the op a generic list, it's better to say to them, what would make your cruise really special. And what needs to happen - be it you want a different pillow or a certain type of tea brought to your room each day - then tell your butler all these things and sit back and enjoy.

Oh and I am under 60 and many of our butlers have become friends and we are still in touch

Excellent, now I just have to hope she does not have a holiday for a couple of months or so, she sounds like the Celebrity attendants of old

Mr Julius

I asked a question to you in the thread about whatever that is happening to Summit but I think it got lost. Thanks for this thread, with just over three weeks to go and a Deck 11 Aft room waiting for us, it has been very helpful to read your honest analysis of all you found out and what you enjoyed.

Belinda certainly did seem to make a good impression on you, does she service all the Deck 11 afts or is it as in some ships she does 50% and a colleage does the rest? Is she likely to have leave coming up soon, just wonder if you had any clues. These questions are all to help me understand, might we be lucky enough to have her looking after us soon

Thanks

Doubt there would be - too much of a Health and Safety risk - cross contamination etc

Thank you for posting, so many lovely photos of friends from on board thanks to you and all your colleagues for the great time you give us all on board

Indeed the wines are and sometimes they even offer different ones to those being served elsewhere but in the main they are the same as elsewhere - they are just served with style in Reidel glasses which makes them taste even better :)

If you are looking for the attentive service, that certainly happens in Blu, if you are looking for more cooked to order foods that also happens in Blu. Sorry I misread your love of Qsine as being because of some of the more "heavy" items they can bring out

I certainly love the lower noise level in Blu and the fact I feel like I am dining in a restaurant and not a larger function suite if you get my drift.

Also do not overlook the Blu breakfast experience, much more relaxing than in the cafe and as it is the same staff as look after you at night, you are really made to feel like one of the family each morning. You also get freshly squeezed juice there that you have to pay for elsewhere and made to order dishes so although there is a menu for example the omlettes it is basically a "tell us what you want in your omlette from this list"

Hope you are able to find the right "dining choice" for you, it is so difficult when you are trying to guage what others are saying to you and base your decision on that

They post the Blu menu outside the restaurant in the morning, so you can check it as you leave breakfast. That way if you are wondering about a last minute booking to another restaurant or an evening in the buffet you can make your choice then. If you want you can also see if they might be able to fit you in on a one off in the MDR or if not and you like the MDR menu, maybe think about ordering it via room service.

Room service for Aquaclass guests is the MDR menu, you cannot get Blu food by room service

One "dessert" option we followed several nights was we had a lighter one from the Blu menu and then went and ordered a coffee in Al Bacio and enjoyed a plateful of the naughtiest chocolate fixes ever. We did not do that every night as there was some very naughty chocolate in Blu and you can of course combine two desserts ie add the ice cream or order two desserts to compare and contrast

You say your husband is a lawn grill/Quine type guy. I may be misreading into this but I would therefore guess he like casual, focus in good meats etc. am I right? If so I would say you might not be well placed in Blu

I am saying this using the law of opposites, I am a fish and lighter meats person, I love Blu and don't care for Qsine, tried it twice and was just swamped with food all nice but not the very delicate tastes I prefer

It's as we'll we don't all like the same places!!

Think I can answer that one as an elite member. We had premium packages on our last cruise but on our next one as I like to do a little bit of pre purchasing I am buying additional on board credit for 75% of the cost of the packages. We are still going to drink as if we had the package for those times where we do not access perks.

Our thinking is based on an analysis of our bill all be it full of zeros for the bar on our last trip. Here is our rationale

* first drink of the day on an at sea day - enjoy at the Elite breakfast

* on one at sea day we will have the senior officers party which is usually late morning so lunch time drinks for that day are included

* each night our pre dinner drink will be at the Elite lounge which will be martinis

* on one day we will have the Captains club do and even if that replaces one of the elite evenings we will probably not want to drink again after that

* we can use the wine voucher to reduce the cost of wine on 1 or 2 evenings

* we are in Aquaclass so will have a regular supply of bottled water

* we will probably carry on two bottles of champagne as is allowed for two special afternoons on the balcony

* we may pick up and bring back a couple of cans of Pepsi when we are ashore each day

I think it would be very hard for an Elite passenger to be ahead on a premium card though I accept everyone has different drinking patterns

I will post whether I end up ahead or behind on my 75% of the cost obc when we get back but that is not until June. We will also have a record of whether we drank more or less than our last trip

Incidentally on our last trip we felt sometimes we drank because we had the card and we did end up about $30 down each at the end of the trip, but that can be offset in part by the fact we dined with the Captain one night - another consideration sometimes for Elites

Delighted to learn of Ken's well deserved promotion - he is a real gent

This is such a helpful thread. We are on the 15 Feb cruise out of Perth and are still trying to decide whether to do ayers rock pre or post cruise. The original plan was pre cruise but I see there are not flights every day from Perth to Uluru (Ayers Rock). I suppose I am also concerned we miss the cruise if things go wrong so I am now leaning towards post cruise. I have a plan emerging

1 day Sydney - this will be our third trip so no major sites to pack in

Fly to Ayers for 2 nights

Back for 1 night Sydney then home

I will be looking to leave luggage at the hotel in Sydney as we will have more than the domestic allowance

Now I need to start working out the best ticket options that do not break the bank as we want to go business class, we have a bucket of Avios to play with but that could be tricky

Thanks very helpful - we too are in 1133 and like you, were first to book and did not know about 1140 etc. We are not smoke sensitive so will be fine. I am glad the bathroom seems quite roomy and has a decent shower.

This will be our first non suite experience for 10 years but we are sure we are going to really enjoy it as we love Blu so much we are "trading down" to guarantee our seats at the table.

I am looking for pictures of the new bathrooms in the Deck 11 Aquaspa rooms and have looked everywhere - have I missed them? I have seen comments that the showers are lovely, would love to see them

You have to keep your nails well oiled when you have an everlasting polish on - not sure if X sell the pens ( would be surprised if they did not) but I have a great little brush pen from Nails Inc that apply each morning and night. Provided I remember to do this, my nails do not "pop" Some places do not tell you about this as they want you to come back more quickly for "repairs"

Yes you can - well the gel one I get you can, its by Nails Inc but I think they are all the same. It is really great as I can have my nails "pinker" normally and then go bright red to match a dress then back to pink for the day

I always get mine done - the "everlasting" before going on board - in fact I get them done every three weeks anyway.

They are wonderful - if you use the right basecoat you can "change your colour" for the night and then next morning, take it off with a non acetone wipe and bingo, you have the original everlasting polish still there

I find it worth its weight in gold as my nails cannot look chipped for work

Wow that is some wave Phil, thanks for posting it

It was $59.95 in August

Hi I have the book but have looked and cannot find the ISBN number on it anywhere. Maybe I am being dense though!!

It is a lovely coffee table book - too nice to take into my kitchen

It cost $59.95

on their website the glasses are $89 and shipping to Great Britian is $25.

 

That was why we started collectiing them on Eclipse and had hoped to get more this time when we had the car and no shipping problems. I doubt many on Eclipse Southampton sailings will want to buy at that shipping cost when they could carry them home

Now THERE'S a good point. Whatever, if I don't get the glasses I will be okay paying $15 for the tasting--even the Napa vineyards charge for tasting these days, so this price is one of the few things on board comparable to land prices.

The pours on the last few wine tasting we have done on board have been very small - doubt if we had 2 glasses of wine across the 5 glasses being tasted