Beamafar

I first received an email advising the following: Due to a change in your reservation, we have cancelled your existing Azamara Upgrade offer(s). If you are still eligible to bid for any upgrades, you'll receive a new invitation email within the next 24 hours.

OBC would have been better.

Azamara is offering FCC of between $200 and $500, depending on cabin category booked, as compensation. “In order to alleviate the changes made to the itinerary, all guests booked on this voyage prior to June 3rdwill receive a Future Cruise Credit of $250 per stateroom for insides and oceanviews, $300 for verandas, and $500 for suites. This Future Cruise Credit will be available once your voyage has completed and can be redeemed on a new Azamara voyage. This Future Cruise Credit is only available to guests that remain booked and complete their voyage

Dock renovations is the reason given, Ivi.

The length of the cruise hasn’t changed. Our embarkation port is now Noce instead of Genoa, so doesn’t adversely affect the itinerary. I can’t understand why the bid was cancelled in this instance.

Update: Just received an email informing us of a change in our embarkation port which explains why our bid offer was cancelled. Hopefully we’ll be given another opportunity to bid on a CC.

Thank you - much appreciated! I’d put in quite a low bid and had considered upping it to around $1000 (I was bidding in Euros) as I’ll be celebrating a milestone birthday and thought of splurging. However, I received the email from Az cancelling the offer shortly after posting. We could dine every night in the SRs and it would still be cheaper than the $1000 I was considering. We have most of the other perks (apart from the butler and more space).

Journey, August 6th. They say the following: Due to a change in your reservation, we have cancelled your existing Azamara Upgrade offer(s). If you are still eligible to bid for any upgrades, you'll receive a new invitation email within the next 24 hours.

I’ve just received an email from Azamara advising me that my bid has been cancelled due to a change in my reservation. I haven’t made any changes to my reservation.

How much would it be worth to bid for a CC from a P1? Apart from a butler and larger cabin, the only other benefit would be speciality dining.

Thank you for that. I’d read before that a tax is charged when sailing in Spanish waters (though not on MSC ships). We were charged on NCL. I just wish the crew would mention it when a purchase is being made - it can be a deciding factor when considering whether to buy, or upgrade, a drinks package, for example.

That would certainly be a lovely way to travel home. 😁 Divina is a great ship, too. I love the Fantasia-class ships.

Hi Sue. Thank you for your kind words. Which TA are you considering. We have one on Europa ending at Genoa, too. Hoping Ryanair will be flying to Dublin then. Bea

We thought we’d never fly Ryanair til we had no choice last year when our Aer Lingus flights, booked through MSC, were swapped out. Well, we were very pleasantly surprised by our experience and would have no hesitation flying with them again.

Thank you so much for your reply. That’s really good to know. Hope you had a wonderful cruise. Looking forward to our first experience on Azamara.

Thank you for your prompt reply - much appreciated!

Is there any benefit to booking prior to sailing? Are the prices cheaper? Do you avoid the added gratuity charge (or is that then applied when onboard)?

Thank you so much for that! Much appreciated. You’ve explained the situation so well and I can now understand the situations that may arise for us.

Looking forward to following along in anticipation of our upcoming cruise on Journey. Hope you have a wonderful time.

Could you elaborate on this, please? In what way are you having difficulty getting Ultimate drinks? We’re planning on upgrading on our first Azamara cruise and this is sounding rather disconcerting. TIA

We had it served with sliced peppers and fruit in ice in the Champagne Bar on Seashore last October. 😋

Veuve Clicquot is a very nice champagne - much better offering than NF! (Bytheway, as an fyi, ‘Veuve’ is French for ‘widow’)

Azamara newbie here so I’ll be following along. Hope you have a wonderful cruise.

Hi Ivi I know you from the MSC forum. Thank you for taking precious time out of your cruise to share your experiences. I know from doing ‘Live’ reports how much work goes into them. We, too, will be trying Azamara for the first time and this report is a fantastic insight of what we can look forward to. (The MSC YC experience is not what it used to be, so we are looking elsewhere these days). We will visit some of the ports you’ve reported on and your information is very helpful, indeed. (I’ve screenshot a couple of your posts so I’ll have the info to hand when in each of the ports). A tip: I tend to type up my posts in ‘Notes’ on my phone, then copy and paste them onto the forum so I don’t have to re-write them if they don’t post.

Thank you! We have $500 OBC for shore excursions so I’ve taken your advice and booked the ones we really want to do. We intend to upgrade to the Ultimate drinks package for cognac and Bailey’s, plus DH drinks Heineken draught when cruising, which is not included, otherwise. Our TA reckons that NCL are the only ones who add on tax to the cost when in Europe. (We’ve always upgraded to the highest package on our cruises).