MissyMom

USA safety regs require a window or 2nd exit from any enclosed space and so help can get you out if you fall. So a shower door would need to open out like the main door to the bathrooms.

USA security laws require two exits, like a window, if a door opens in. It's to open the door (without breaking glass) to get to you if you fall.

We had an outside wall made of rock in a bathroom so the door had to open out. The hinges are on the outside if the door opens out.

And, if our experience holds, you will receive a very nice Thank You Card to recognize your contribution to the crew.

I asked the human services manager how the crew finds out about crew fund donations from guests. She said it's covered in the monthly crew meetings. I didn't ask for more info like if the donor names are mentioned. Anyone know?

For some reason the ship management is not allowed to promote the crew fund donation information so I usually bring it up at management Q and A sessions and suggest it anytime a guest mentions or asks about tipping an individual. Anyone know more about restriction on publicizing the crew fund?

We give every cruise by going to guest services and filling in a form. The amount appears on our bill. We get a very nice thank you card plus several thank you comments from senior managers.

Any VOIP requires that you have internet access, though. On a cruise ship, that can be expensive and not always great for speed. Esp if everyone is trying to stream or use a VOIP service. (

That's true especially when everyone sends pictures to their grandkids. We've had good experience with the Internet and making calls on Azamara. We get unlimited and pay the difference to upgrade from the minutes allotted based on our loyalty level and cabin type. Last cruise it cost $30 to upgrade, sometimes it's a bit more but it's also a good use for OBC.

You do have to learn to wait a bit as there's a delay for other party to hear your voice before they can respond and a delay before you hear their reply. But you are on vacation, no?

In USA, we have Comcast.com "triple play" which includes TV, Internet and a phone number which we never give out. We forward our home phone and cell to it and Comcast converts the voice mail to text and leaves us an email plus the voice mail. We then hear or read messages when we log into our Comcast email account.

The phone number rings on our tablet we can answer if there and can talk live. We can also call anyone from the tablet. No extra charges.

In technical terms, Comcast use VoIP, voice over IP, (the internet). Other devices do this too.

You get voice mail and email downloaded and uploaded automatically when you log on with WhatsApp. Almost every crew person uses it. MagicJack is a mother VoIP that has been around for over 10 years. Was great back when long distance was expensive (remember back that far?) but it requires a you plug a MagicJack device into your USB port and that usually requires a PC.

Here's a Web site of all the former Renaissance ships, the subsequent cruise line owners, dates and names given each ship. It'll need updating!

http://www.cruise-ships.com/renaissance-cruises/

If you don't take a tour of some sort, you'll miss out on lots of information tour guides are allowed to say about what life is really like for Cubans. As examples, on the first Azamara cruise to Cuba, our tour guides told us about:

the types of monthly ration books for basic foods vary by age ranges;

what's really available to even buy and how much of monthly food needs the ration books can cover;

why there's no beef available to Cubans and milk is hard to find even for babies;

the upside down economy there means gardeners, who don't work for the government, usually earn more than the top paid government employees (doctors and engineers) who do;

that doctors and engineers were "sent" to Venezuela in payment for oil and these men don't want to come back so there's a shortage of doctors outside the one Havana hospital they tout;

that all men go into the army after their free education to pay back the state unless they elect to do other "voluntary " service or go to a "camp";

and many army volunteers stay to have the food that's available to them;

China is rebuilding the ports and building on the wharf plus shoring up the economy like Russian and Venezuelan money once did before they went broke;

the dancers and singers at the Tropicana show (not to be missed) are all government workers;

and much more.

Of course just walking around is fine but you'll miss a huge part of the point in visiting a "foreign country" IMHO.

Frozen fish is better quality than fresh in some cases. If you fish tuna or swordfish for 7 to 10 days, then freezing is the only way to have edible fish.

USA Husky brand has a 2.5 gallon plastic bag with a zipper top. About 17 inch square. We use about 24 (3 boxes worth) to pack tops or shorts to a bag.

I put 2 tops with matching bottom to plan my clothing strategy. Bathing suit and cover-up together. Smaller bags for underwear.

I just leave some of the air in the bag.

We keep our cruise clothes packed in the bags between trips. Wrinkles hang out as they're cruise clothes.

We had a fancy coffee machine in a suite and the butler had to do a "service" after so many cups. Yup, it needed "service" just before a very early am excursion and after breakfast was delivered. I prefer the restaurant coffee with milk to dilute the strong taste. Any chance of a fire is a reason not to have machines in the room.

Bonnie,

I just read the IT team was excited about a suggestion a CC poster made. I've been looking to mention a few IT ideas and guess this could be a proper forum. It might spur even more input.

Can the IT folks make the web site more like on-line shopping?

We book b2b cruises and people look for a cruise in their preferred time period so how about allowing us to

1. Select more than one month of cruises,

2a. Navigation from one cruise to the next (a forward and back button)

2b. while staying at the same level of detail (ie: move forward/back from one map to another or between port lists) like an Executive Information System

3. Add a compare button to see the days, map, Azamazing evening, ports and costs -- like we compare toastertoasters before buying

4. Add a shopping list to share with our partner later on.

People might engage longer, more easily find b2b cruises or find unexpected cruises.

In the "if you don't ask mode . . . ", how about a compare function and a shopping cart on our suite TV so we can explore new adventures during the cruise. And then let us send our cart to the on board cruise sales team so they can see our cruise choices at a face to face meeting or just book our shopping cart.

It was my business to develop "Executive", simple to use screens to replace "analyst drill down and start at the top again" experiences and I'm willing to discuss this more if desired.

BTW, can they give a higher priority to updating the ingenious on board Living Room and 4th floor cruise data so it's more useful? Also, the "send your friend a postcard from on board" is a nice idea but didn't send anything when I emailed one to my own email id. On a lighter note, kids of all ages use the drawing on the screen feature.

On the Dec 1 2016 Quest cruise Captain Carl told LCV cocktail party guests he was doing his favorite job: working with his staff to review 2019 itineraries to verify the ships can get to the ports safely, in that order and on time using published weather, sea currents and tides plus local and Azamara knowledge. The itinerary and any comments are sent back to Miami 1 or 2 times before publishing. Carl said Azamara Miami has an excellent itinerary planner and Azamara does this process earlier than others to book the best berths.

Not defensive at all Missymom....I have never been on Viking Star. I have just booked my first cruise on Viking Sea in January and naturally I am interested in finding out all about the Viking ships, hence my interest in this very useful thread from Pam.

 

All I wanted was the true nature of the Viking incident to become apparent to everyone. Your post indicated it had "clipped the bridge" and I think that would mean some pretty serious damage, whereas actually there was just a little bit of paint scraped off the under side of the bridge by an antenna. You are probably correct and someone forgot to fold the antenna down. It was high tide and these things happen.

 

It's no big deal, no real damage was done to either bridge or ship....quite a non event really and I do not intend to spend any more time on it. I'm sure we both have much better things to do with planning our next cruises. :)

More details....

The US Army Corp of Engineers had to spend considerable money and time to inspect three bridges over the canal, a railroad and two car bridges, they had just inspected a few months earlier. The bridges are the cape cod evacuation route and the only means for people to get from cape cod, an island, and the mainland and back. So it is fortunately the damage done by Viking was minimal. Thought you'd like to learn the extent an accident did and could have played.

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I think it's a matter of finding which Travel Agents are selling it.

I read on their Roll Call a couple of months before sailing, that a popular UK on-line TA was selling it - but how do you find out who the TA is?

 

I did actually find out on the train going down to Southampton before our crossing to Montreal, as I was sitting opposite a couple who were doing staying on the Quest, but due to forum rules, I am not allowed to say who it was. Crazy.

One or two appropriate google searches would have found it. We all knew the dates, ship name, general itinerary, etc. The chartering agency was certainly going to advertise the cruise on the web.

18 Brits and 25 to 30 other non-Aussies or Kiwis also on board. Amazing cruise itinerary.

We don't know the details....perhaps an abnormally high tide? Perhaps Viking measured the height of the ship wrong? Who knows? Apparently Viking Star is one of the largest ships to ever sail the Cape Cod canal.

 

However, as the total damage reported was some minor scraped paint on the bottom of the bridge, it hardly seems worth arguing about, particularly on the Azamara forum.

I agree. I just pointed it out as a piece of recent news on a thread about Viking. Then, for reasons I don't understand, you became defensive. My guess is someone just forgot to fold down the light pole.

Fortunately, damage was minimal, as the Corps of Engineers just spent many millions completely refurbishing that bridge from the ground up, and it's the only rail access to the Cape.

Actually the local pilot would have been taking Viking Star through the Cape Cod canal. I believe it was a high tide and the ship's antenna clipped the bottom of the bridge. No real damage done thankfully and of course, minor accidents happen on all cruise lines.

At high tide clearance is 135 feet. Viking said ship was 131 feet tall. Apparently not. Pilot doesn't measure ship.

Viking Star just clipped the railroad bridge while going through the Cape Cod Canal. Guess they don't know the real height of their ships.

pretty sad that as people who live here we can not get a cruise like the Aussies have now. same with their 5 week Med cruise.

No reason you couldn't be on those cruises. We are two of fourteen Americans now on the Quest charter in Charleston.

I don't know what you mean by a "bin." My nightstands on both ships had a shelf below the top of the nightstand and under that shelf was a large drawer that slides in and out like any other drawer. I was able to store easily 15 or so pairs of socks in that "drawer."

Is the Quest moving down the East Coast, with the charter group? I see Captain Jose posting pictures o Facebook and it seems to be from the East Coast.

Yes, Pam. Quest is in Boston today and tomorrow. Then continues down the coast. Maybe Matthew will turn out to sea before Quest is due in Norfolk on the 13th.

I have to shake my head when someone takes the opinion of someone else--"trusted" or not--as gospel and as a result refuses to try something for himself or herself. Not how I want to go through life.

This is a great idea.

 

The gentleman at Guest Services positively beamed as I made a donation during our last cruise.

We do the same. Prefer this to handing out cash on a ship where tips are included in the fare.

After visiting the Abbey we went over to the Churchill War Rooms, . . . They had rooms all set up like it was at the time.

No. It IS the actual war rooms. When the war was declared over, the workers just left so the maps, etc are as they were that last minute of the war.

The television tells you which Discoveries menu will be used on each night of the cruise.

Exactly! The menus are available on the TV during the first day of the cruise and are even easier to view after the software was upgraded in drydock. The menus help us plan if we'll have an appetizer or dessert in a different restaurant.

The ship may use menu #7 on the 1st day and menu #3 on the 2nd day. So just book the Italian or Indian Table and ask for your missed favorite as a special request. It's Azamara!

Last Azamara cruise my husband put some of his stuff on the veranda to dry, but then you have to worry about it blowing away, plus it is unsightly, and took up veranda space.:)

NOT putting anything flammable on your balcony is mentioned at each life boat meeting "as fires are the worse thing that can happen on a ship".