Ethel6666

It was Sydney to Hong Kong on Onward. We missed 1/2 day in Manila and a whole day and overnight in Hong Kong. Mooloolaba and Airlie Beach were originally scheduled as docked ports when we booked but were actually long tender ports which meant we didn’t have enough time to make our planned travels from Airlie. We didn’t have any noticeable bad weather prior to the fuel issue. We were a bit surprised that the ship didn’t have enough contingency for adverse currents encountered (but of course we don’t claim to have knowledge of the inner workings of cruise ship fuelling).

Hopefully Azamara does a better job of actually delivering on this than they did on our recent cruise. We are just off Onward and had quite a few issues with itinerary changes. First sail away was changed to midnight instead of 6pm, so we missed seeing the harbour in daylight. The first 2 ports were listed in our original itinerary as docked but were actually long tenders. So much less time in port than we’d expected. (And these weren’t last minute changes, locals confirmed that it is not possible for cruise ships to dock in these ports). The next few ports went to plan. The last two ports were scheduled as over night ports. We then heard that the ship had run out of fuel and we had to dock for a day in an unscheduled industrial port where we weren’t allowed off the ship. From there we missed 1.5 days in port. For the first overnight we arrived after 8pm instead of 1pm. And the last port which was meant to be a full day in port and overnight before disembarking arrived on the morning of disembarkation. This was our first Azamara cruise. The service onboard was very good, but we didn’t enjoy the reduced itinerary. We did receive a refund of approximately 10% of our cruise price (as well as of course refunds for missed tours), but for us it didn’t really make up for missing our time in port.

Also a year or so ago, they reduced the cancellation insurance to $20,000. So that made it not very useful for a long trip either.

Thank you Kayena. I originally had a similar thought that the route through Asia might be shortened, but I’m fairly hopeful now that we are so close - surely we would have told by now if there was a significant change. Must be frustrating for those on the later legs waiting to find out.

well hopefully they are not plotting option C as we are boarding tomorrow and expecting to go to Hong Kong! With accommodation and non refundable airfares home booked.

I have a UBank account with a debit card. Worked well in France, Spain, UK, Norway, Japan, both for purchases and getting cash at ATMs. I’ve also used it for online purchases in foreign currency. You get the published visa exchange rate with no transaction fees. I like it because we just send across a few hundred dollars at a time, seems safely separate from our normal banking. Works with Apple Pay, has an app where you can easily notify them of upcoming overseas travel. It was easy to sign up online.

Thanks, yes I could do that, but there isn’t an indication that they’ve been paid for, just the cost. (It looks the same as it did when I added them before I paid I think). Perhaps it’s all fine, but I had thought there might be some sort of confirmation. Just interested to hear from others whether they normally receive any documentation when they book excursions.

I purchased some excursions for our upcoming cruise via the website. Is it normal to receive some sort of receipt or email confirmation? If I log in, I can see them listed. And I have a charge on my credit card. But there’s nothing I could really print out and take with me that says they’re paid for in case of any issues. Thanks.

Thanks for your review Richard, useful info for us as first time Azamara cruisers. I like the pictures of food and menus 🙂 I’ll hope for some Indonesian dishes on the menu for our cruise.

Has anyone done a longer cruise and know whether there’s a need to hustle for bookings for those? We are doing a 21 night cruise and was hoping buy the 3 night package and to just book occasionally as we felt like it as the cruise progressed. I’m not sure how full the cruise is (or how to work that out). I probably won’t do it at all if I have to queue up and hustle on the first day and we are boarding late.

Gosh, if this happened at the port, that’s very poor compensation. I’d be pretty annoyed if it was me, considering the cost of travel to the port, accommodation overnight pre cruise, pet boarding fees, etc. Not to mention inconvenience and waste of time/leave. I hope the passengers affected are able to negotiate a better deal.

I noticed NCL were having a 50% off sale, so thought I’d have a look at Japan cruises. According to the website the original cost of a 12 day cruise for 2 in a balcony guarantee with the ‘free at sea’ package was $28,500, now discounted to over $14000 including taxes. I was surprised by those prices for a mainstream cruise line

We haven’t been to Hong Kong before, so planning on staying a few days before flying home. Fingers crossed for a peaceful trip.

Thank you Marion. The cruise we’re on is part of the world cruise on Onward. Overnight in Sydney, Mooloolaba, Airlie Beach, o/n in Cairns, 2 stops in PNG, Palau, Manila, Hong Kong. So a few places we haven’t been to. I thought reasonably priced at $250 pppn in a balcony cabin as it’s fairly inclusive (with the exception of excursions and wifi).

We’re booked on an Azamara cruise from Sydney to Hong Kong in March - itinerary is important to us and it’s hard to find interesting ones leaving from Australia.

Thank you for writing such a comprehensive review. It’s so useful to read about your experience and you write so well. We have tossed up a few of the trans Pacific cruises, but are not sure about the sea days. Im also not sure why they don’t add a few more ports to make things a bit more interesting - I suppose there is some business model around that. I recall from a Celebrity cruise some time ago the day time enrichment was fairly weak with a lot of the activities offered very thinly disguised advertising, talks about ports were advertising ship’s tours and the entire library, board games, etc were packed away due to a noro outbreak. We are trying a Sydney to Hong Kong cruise on Azamara next year with a few sea days, so we’ll see how we go. We do enjoy the dining, bars, music and shows in the evening.

A bit late to reply - I’ve been away on holidays. We booked our cruises direct with NC by email (easier for us due to time difference). They were very easy to deal with and quick to respond to any queries. We were on deck 5 on the Hebridean Sky as we always like to have a balcony. We enjoyed the easy access to the outside dining area on deck 5. As Host Jazzbeau mentions, there’s no differentiation on board. Perhaps you are more likely to receive an invitation to dine with the guest speaker or expedition staff if you in a higher level room - I’m not sure, it’s not important to us, but we did receive one each cruise. We thought NC stood out as particularly good in the British Isles. They have good relationships with the ports, are very familiar with the region, and have mainly British expedition crew with extensive experience and knowledge in wildlife, history, geology, as well as local guides. Plus a good selection of British cuisine if that’s of interest - Sunday roasts, fish and chips, afternoon tea, puddings, etc (we thought the food was excellent and of course there are many other choices).

Or just saw MicCanberra’s reply, perhaps try AUD if we need to.

Thanks, yes I was just thinking of a small amount of Kina to buy a drink or two or for a donation. We will most likely do ships tours as we have been ‘burnt’ before with adhoc local tours in the Pacific (and by the sound of it, we definitely don’t want to be stranded if something goes wrong 🙂) We have a few months before we go so I might trawl a couple of Travelex shops when I get the chance for some small notes or hope that an exchange is offered on the ship.

Thanks all, we are departing from Sydney but it sounds like it might not be too difficult to get Kina. Yikes Sinbad, that is not much of a recommendation for Alotau. We will look at doing a tour I think then. There isn’t a festival option for Alotau as the cruise line is offering something that sounds similar for Madang. Madang sounds a bit nicer, hopefully.

We recently booked a cruise that stops in Alotau and Madang. Just wondering if anyone has been to these ports and has any comments. We really prefer to just get off the ship and wander, but not sure if there’s a lot to see this way. Also any hints on where we can walk up and buy some Kina in either Sydney or Cairns? (Not the airport, because we won’t be going there). I would order some through Travelex but the minimum is $350AUD equivalent and we don’t want more than a bit of spending money. We arrive in Alotau on a Sunday so I guess can’t count on there being a bank or money exchange open. thanks.

@Host Jazzbeau I didn’t mean to imply we felt unwelcome, not at all, even though my husband isn’t in to country club casual. We certainly had some great conversations and met some lovely people. Definitely no Onslows spotted, maybe a Richard or two.

There isn’t a lot to be found in the way of reviews about Noble Caledonia cruises (thank you to Host Jazzbeau for his extensive ones) so I thought I’d provide a brief summary of thoughts on our recent two cruises. First a bit about us - we are a couple in our 50s/60s, not much cruising experience, mainly do independent travel, like nature and ‘out of the way’ places. We did B2B Hebrides to the Faroes and Norway, 22 days. The itineraries were what attracted us to these cruise, very port intensive (we don’t like sea days) and going to places that are not on your average mainstream cruise itinerary. The Hebridean Sky being a small ship with just over 100 passengers can get into smaller ports. We found the ‘hotel’ side of the cruise to be exceptionally good. The cabin (Scott deck, balcony), was spacious, lots of storage and well maintained. The food was very much to our taste, with an interesting selection of high quality meats, local produce, fresh salads and vegetable dishes. For example, we had duck, guinea fowl, lamb, lobster, locally sourced deer, sea trout, smoked salmon, shrimp, oysters, to name a few. We ate at the Lido whenever it was open and it had a large choice at breakfast and lunch, dinner was served with the same menu as the dining room. The service levels were very good, and the officer responsible for the hotel side of the business was very personable and often present and providing service at meals - leading from the front. Wine and beer were included with meals and top ups were frequent and generous. Outside of meal times, alcohol could be purchased at the bar and the prices were very reasonable, similar to UK pub prices. There was also a typical British afternoon tea every day, but we didn’t feel the need to try it as we enjoyed the other meals too much. The staff really go out of their way to offer a great service, for example keeping the Lido open whenever possible, even in not so good weather when only a few tables want to dine there - we appreciated this. The clientele was mostly British, with a few from US, NZ and Aust. Most of them are extremely well travelled, many seem to have done quite a number Noble Caledonia cruises. Quite a few people seemed to be on their ‘second lap’ of the itineraries- having been to places multiple times, even Antartica (I wish I had their travel budget!). The first cruise was classed as an expedition cruise, and attracted a slightly younger demographic but on the second cruise I would say the majority might have been well into their 70s or older - something worth bearing in mind if you are in a younger age group. We found it was noticeably older than the other 2 cruises we’ve done (Celebrity, APT). The atmosphere on board is a bit ‘proper’ as some guests from the US that we chatted to described it, very British although we found most people to be friendly enough and only met one or two Hyacinth Buckets. Excursions are all included. This is probably where our personal preferences come into play. We very much liked the zodiac landings and walking tours of the islands, for example St Kilda, although at times the groups were quite large. We also appreciated the value of cruising right into the Norwegian Fjords, visiting some less touristed islands and some of the special excursions, like the concert at the Edvard Grieg museum in Bergen. Some days, though, were bus tours, which we found we didn’t enjoy so much - I don’t think they are really our thing, even though the scenery is great, we prefer to be out and walking - useful to find this out! Of course you are free to do your own thing if docked near town, and we took up this option a few times as we enjoy wandering without a group. Of note, there are no ‘slow walkers’ options, so given the age group, the pace can be a bit slow for averagely fit 50s/60s year olds. Mostly local guides were used, so we heard some good stories about local life - some of them were excellent, some a bit less so! The expedition crew were exceptionally good, very knowledgeable in their specialities and very accessible, sitting with the guests very often at breakfast and lunch. There were also lectures provided each day, a very good guest speaker, and a few ‘surprises’ like pulling up to a glacier one evening for a stroll. Due to weather we missed a couple of ports that are known to be difficult to reach on the first leg, but a substitute was found, so no extra sea days, which we appreciated. Overall, we thought Noble Caledonia offers a pretty plush product.

We are booked to do the Hebrides to the Faroes cruise in June this year, so not much help to you in terms of answering questions. I thought I’d just chip in and say that this year’s cruise was fully booked a year out. From time to time a cabin briefly pops up, presumably due to cancellation. But might be something to be aware of to book sooner rather than later if you decide to go ahead. We are also travelling on to Norway on the subsequent cruise, so we are hoping we like NC 🙂 We we’re attracted by the nature and culture based activities and itineraries that include a few destinations away from the mainstream.

Thanks Host Jazzbeau I really enjoyed your review. Sorry to hear about the Covid, but better on your return home than while you were away I guess. We were disappointed that Noble Caledonia cancelled our Baltic cruise in 2023 (due to lack of demand now that they can’t visit SPB) but we have chosen to take their trip to Norway which replaced it, B2B with the Hebrides to the Faroes so we are looking forward to those. Glad to hear that all is still good on the Hebridean Sky.