Stem to Stern

Thank you! I saw Azamara’s email early this morning. 3:57am Florida time to be exact.😉 We booked the previously mentioned Celebrity itinerary. But I will still be curious to see the whole season of Pursuit itineraries. Good news is we still have next year’s Quest Iceland intensive to look forward to.😀

Bonita Springs here. Tornado damage reported in Fort Myers and North Fort Myers areas, but I have not seen or heard about anything major here in town. Wind gusts are still in the 40s, very little rainfall, and power is still on.

Concierge on Celebrity is $19. I just booked one.

We are going to Alaska in 2026!!🤩 Just booked this today. Summit Southbound May 29, 2026

Thanks Peaches. We will be hunkered down watching this unfold through our impact glass picture window until night falls on Wednesday. Then, we will restlessly listening for tree limbs cracking and projecting and other unidentifiable loud sounds. We have been through a couple of these and would much rather be away on a cruise like we were two years ago during Hurricane Ian. I took my mind off Milton a little bit this week by booking our first AK cruise. Summit southbound May 29, 2026.😀

I read the article posted by OP. Thank you for sharing. Weather-wise we lucked out on our cruise last month on Celebrity Beyond. It was our third trip beyond (pun intended) Hurricane Alley to the ABC islands. We’ve always done this itinerary in either September or October and have had zero issues. Another popular ship that was full of fun, friendly adult-aged passengers. It was hot, hot, hot. But that doesn’t bother us. As we prepare for Hurricane Milton’s upcoming arrival, we have fond memories from two years ago of another October cruise. We managed to move our flight up a day and evacuated Florida in the midst of Hurricane Ian to Italy giving us a fantastic, impromptu fifth night in Venice prior to our Greek Isles cruise. We experienced more fantastic, hurricane-free late-summer weather.

70% of stations in Fort Myers are reportedly out of gas. But supposedly more is on the way. We have both vehicles topped off and are staying put. We are inland enough. Milton, don’t prove me wrong.😑 😥

We spent a Covid era staycation at Zota on your lovely island. Your comment just made me gulp.🥲

Exactly why I am hoping the winds are within reason and we do not lose power. We appear to be on the edge of or just outside the cone of concern. I can deal with preparing and securing everything not attached, freezing gallon water jugs and managing the perishables, and dealing with the yard clean up afterward, but if I have to sleep on the tile floor without a/c for eight days like after Hurricane Irma I will be cranky. Trying to stay optimistic for all of those in a less favorable location than us, but I am very anxious about this epic catastrophe raging toward Florida.

This thread made me even more excited for my next cruise on Azamara. It has also given me great pause as I make final preparations to place deposits on two staterooms on a very expensive 2026 Summit Alaska Cruisetour. Have there been any reports of this Park West nonsense taking place on Millennium-class vessels?

I like the May southbound. The June southbound replaces Sitka with Juneau and Victoria with a third day at sea. I presume the first sea day is Hubbard. I really wish Azamara would hurry up and release these. I am already on the cusp of booking Celebrity Summit 13-night Cruisetour Fairbanks to Vancouver just released on October 1st. Getting excited to make more plans in 2026. This would be the third cruise booking for 2026. My boss is going to have a stroke.😱🤣

No prices showing yet on said UK sites, but one can see the itineraries.

Love this ship. Perused this itinerary yesterday. Had sticker shock. Maybe these prices are normal. Are you doing a pre-cruise land tour? If so, which one and how did you choose? A bit overwhelming for an AK first-timer here.

Buongiorno! Nice to see a few pics from this Italian port as it is an uncommon stop. Yet I see it appearing on several itineraries worth considering. Our Greek Isles journey on Constellation was also an extremely stable one. We have one future booking on her and another on Summit. Love the Millenium-class vessels, revolutionized or not. Like yourself, I would prefer not over leaky if forced to choose.😝 But the shower floor tiles definitely need addressing.

I would love to know more about your land tour. The southbound itinerary combined with a pre-cruise land tour would really make for a fantastic trip. I’m excited to see prices. Does anyone know when Azamara plans to open up booking for these??

On Beyond, only two cocktails on the Eden bar menu are covered under premium. I love figs so I tried the Fig at $17 but did not care for it. Villa Maria SB was $17. Perhaps when you get on board Apex prices will be different than in the app. The high prices you see likely include gratuities unlike in the Caribbean as I recall reading something related to this on another thread. Don’t quote me, but if this is the case then the premium package may cover a higher amount than $17.

We are looking at HAL first, followed by Celebrity Summit. Glacier Bay is an important tick box for us. Southbound disembarking in Vancouver. Waiting for 2026 cruisetours on both lines to be released for booking. Wondering if we are allowing enough time at Denali with three nights? HAL seems to have so many iterations of the land portion.

We tried Azamara for the first time on an 11-night Eastern Caribbean itinerary in December 2022. We squeezed that cruise in just under the wire in order to carry our Celebrity Elite loyalty status over to Azamara. We enjoyed the chill, relaxed vibe of the small-ship experience. Crew, officers, fellow passengers, food, drinks, excursions, White Night deck party, Azamazing Evening, and even the entertainers were good to very good. Fast-forward to earlier this year when we were making our 2025 travel plans and one of our requirements was a cruise itinerary embarking in Dublin of all places. The options suddenly narrowed to a lovely Azamara Iceland-intensive cruise that also makes two stops in The Faroe Islands. Never in a million years did I think I would ever find myself in such an obscure place as The Faroes. I’m not sure I even knew it existed prior to discovering this itinerary. Turns out The Faroes is a breathtaking, heart stopping, unspoiled, natural landscape. On a new-to-us, port-intensive sailing like this, we are more excited about the ports than the ship. An Azamara ship acts as the nearly-perfect floating boutique hotel. The ship was elegantly and cozily outfitted in a traditional-leaning decor. Was it perfect in every way? No, but it was pretty darn close. And it worked for us. There is a plethora of information for newbies over on the Azamara boards where a few die-hard Azamarians are more than willing to answer any questions. There is a sticky thread there titled Tips for Azamara Newbies that is a very good read.

Curious, why DIY? Looking at a southbound 7-night ending in Vancouver for our first time in AK. The cruise tour starts with one night in Fairbanks followed by three at Denali and another in Anchorage. The train piece looks interesting. Is doing it through the cruise line the overpriced, easy option? Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

I am loving your report. It is definitely helping me cope with the 285-day wait until we board Quest. Could you tell us a bit more about tea time as I did not see it listed in The Insider? Is this served in the stateroom or in a particular venue? Thank you!!🙏😀

Loving your report so far. Bringing back great memories from October 2022 Greek Isles cruise on Connie. We splurged and hired a private transfer from Venice to the ship. Our driver collected us at 8:45am and we arrived at 10:45am. We raced the Mercedes sedan around the slow-moving vehicles on the two-lane road. He dropped us at the baggage drop, so no bag drag. We were seated in the tent waiting to board before boarding started. Stepped on board at 11:25am. We heard the same story from fellow passengers on the Celebrity transfer about having to wait on the bus upon arrival, so the “terminal” would not become overwhelmed. Hoping you find more Decoy or something else interesting.😁

Oops. 😬 I was over on the HAL boards researching Alaska just now when I got the notification. By the way no mention of sparkle parties over there.😂 We are just off Beyond and can’t say we encountered OP’s noise issue, but we were in a deck 9 sunset verandah miles away (felt like it anyway) from any party venue. Honestly we sought to avoid the venues with the livelier Edge-class atmosphere @Georgia_Peaches referenced above. Fellow cruisers on Beyond mentioned that they encountered noise in their deck 3 oceanview stateroom near the Martini Bar. The Edge-class concept of Martini-Bar-as-live-music-venue did not suit us, so we ended up spending most of our pre-dinner cocktail time in Eden. Music volume varied in Eden too depending on where we planted ourselves. Those little speakers can really send out the decibels. Certain Cafe Al Bacio playlist selections were too loud and annoying. Especially before the sun had come up and we were still on our first cuppa. But we have experienced this on all classes of X ships. Beyond is beautiful. The right itinerary and price would get us back on board, but we are not chomping at the bit. There are people of all ages that want this party atmosphere on board, so it is not going away anytime soon. We sometimes we like to join in on the fun while other times we just want to chill. Good point @mac_tlc about the smaller, less populated Edge and Apex. Oh, and your sweet spot note was spot-on also. 🚢🎶🎵Come aboard, Georgia… …We’re expecting you…🎶🎵 Next up for us: Azamara ~ itinerary driven. Reflection, Summit, Connie Mardi Gras 2026 ~ all price driven. Silhouette ~ driven by the need to get our Retreat fix. Currently we are exploring our 2026 Alaska land/cruise options ending in Vancouver and we are down to Summit or HAL.

HAL noob here. When will the 2026 cruise tours become available for booking. Looking at May 2026 with land first, then 7-night cruise ending in Vancouver. Thank you!

I was on the premium plan earlier this month and used FaceTime without issue. Traveling companion on the basic package experienced a connectivity issue at one point and visited the iLounge to get reconnected. He said the iLounge crew member used the premium WiFi to help get him reconnected. This was the only issue I heard about from anyone on the cruise.

I’m three pages in and don’t want to put this down, but I will have to finish catching up later. Great trip report!!😁