Azamarajunkie

Thomaz is lovely, we were fortunate to be invited to his dinner table on our last cruise. He is very articulate and funny when you get into conversation with him. We first met him years ago when he was F&B manager. Unless of course I’m getting my Thomas’s mixed up and the one I’m talking about is still on Quest. Can’t remember if he said he was going to Pursuit.

Hi Alsun, glad you’re enjoying yourself, one small question, are they serving the Energizer at breakfast in Windows? It’s a morning pickmeup drink served in a shot glass, made of fruit juices and ginger. We always have one when we’re on Quest and Journey, be aware though, they are an acquired taste.

Thanks for confirming this! It has been posted on live Pursuit thread that guest was told alcohol must be declared and held til debarkation. Curious as to which staff member told them this.

Must have been a new member of staff, this rule doesn’t apply to Azamara.

I am looking for a Tour company to do a private tour for 7 adults in Jerusalem and Bethlehem from Ashdod

Do you know any good companies?

You need to look at the Roll Call for this cruise, lots of tour advice on there.

Lovely menu, most of our favourites from Aqualina, glad you had a good time, your photos are very good. Interesting to make comparisons between Pursuit and what we know of Quest and Journey. Spirits looks so much better, may even use it in future.

Appreciate all the above comments, we are booked on the 2020 Cruise, but have yet to sort out our plans for each port - busy organising our October Suez cruise at the moment! Still, lots of food for thought.

We have been on Azamara several times but never on Seabourn which I would like to try. The deal breaker for us is the dinner times. Did you find that all dinner venues start at 7:30 PM?

No, on our recent Odyssey cruise, the MDR always opened at 7pm, which I know is later than AZ, but we didn’t find it inconvenient, just gave us a bit longer to enjoy our cocktails in The Club.

Great interview with Carl, and some good views of the differences between Pursuit and her sister ships. Sunset deck looks good, even without the bar, should make getting a table at lunchtimes easier. Still can’t work out if there are cushions on the sun loungers, if there are, they must be thinner than on the other ships.

We’ve just come off our second Seabourn cruise on the Odyssey, we decided on this cruise instead of Azamara because of it’s itinerary, it was 14 days Athens to Venice and back to Athens visiting many places in Greece that AZ didn’t do together with new ports for us in Italy and Croatia. There is no doubt that the Seabourn ships are more modern and spacious compared to Azamara and I have to say we now view Seabourn as our second home at Sea. AZ equals Seabourn as far as the food and service is concerned, and in many cases it’s itineraries are as good. Yes, if you want better wines and spirits you do have to upgrade to a better package, but we find the included drinks sufficient for our humble needs. We were also lucky on our Seabourn cruise to have excellent entertainment, much in the way Azamara used to be before this years changes, we also had a great Cruise Director, Robert Brendan, who could easily fit into Azamara.

Whilst Seabourn has relaxed its dress code, it doesn’t quite match Azamara in that there is still a semi formal night, whereas AZ is always smart casual, having said that we always dressed as we do on Azamara, albeit with a jacket on the formal night. Despite this we throughly enjoyed Seabourn and have booked the Odyssey again in the Caribbean visiting ports of call that AZ don’t presently do. But then, we also have 3 Azamara trips booked as well, so I think my CC handle is safe!

Officers and crew on both ships interact well with guests and always remember names, although Azamaras Captains are much more visible around the ship.

I’m sure you won’t be disappointed in Azamara if you do decide to book with them, there are many similarities, although Seabourn breadsticks win hands down!

Thanks for the photos from Twitter Riocca, all looks very good, will be interesting to see how those new settees work out in the Living room, I can foresee a few spills on those.

It’s also a shame that Aqualina and Prime C has followed the trend on Journey with those 2top tables close to each other. Still, time will tell.

Azamara do now give a once only best price guarantee if you book onboard whatever country you are from. You get one chance to get a lower price, but it’s up to you to keep an eye on the price.

 

 

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I can confirm what Host grandma says, we’re were given the same information when we booked our 2020 Black Sea Voyage while on Quest last May.

Yes, right up to the terminal.

 

Phil

On our recent Seabourn cruise, sadly we moored at Maritimma, made us really appreciate the way AZ moors at San Basilio, so much easier to walk into Venice.

The carpet shown is is different from the corridor on Deck 6 of Quest - which was lighter and had a sort of indefinite stripe sideways. Are the carpets different on different decks.

Just as an aside I am not a fan of the carpets, especially those in the cabins that look like someone threw dark brown paint over it. Of course this did not impact my cruise in any way - they just offend my eye a little. Since Pursuit is 'new' I was hoping that some of the less successful bits of the other ships makeover would be changed.

We were on Deck 6 on the Quest a couple of months ago and if my memory is correct, they have the same carpet as Pursuit. It was definitely different than the lighter carpet we last saw on Journey in March.

Thanks Bonnie. Email sent today, currently joining a cruise from Athens so it’s a bit hit & miss with internet from now on to monitor our account.

Ignore previous message, at last the refund has appeared on my Amex account, clearly Amex takes longer than Visa!

I’m sorry about that. Have you written or called our Customer Service with your particulars?

Thanks Bonnie. Email sent today, currently joining a cruise from Athens so it’s a bit hit & miss with internet from now on to monitor our account.

Bonnie

We cancelled our shore excursions and rebooked them against our OBC on the 21st when the new system became available and received emails confirming the changes. To date the refund credits have not appeared on our Amex account. In the past when we have cancelled shore excursions the credit has normally appeared in 5 days, I am concerned that the new system may not be ‘sending the right messages’ for the refunds. Has anyone else experienced this delay? We use a BA Amex card.

Thanks

Steve

We’ve been to most of the Top Ten in the past with Azamara but would like to add a couple of more to the list.

We visited Hydra (Ydra) with Captain Carl on the Quests first visit there and liked it so much we returned for a lovely holiday. No cars, just walking and donkeys with excellent restaurants.

On the same holiday, we also went to Spetses, which was tecommended by Heike Berdos, again a lovely island and easy to get around.

These days we tend to avoid Santorini if we can unless it’s on an Azamara ship and there are non of the big ship visiting on the same day as queuing for the cable car is tortous on those occasions. Many a time we have walked down the donkey track to the port which is not for the faint heated.

I don’t believe we sell Azamara-logo luggage tags onboard the ships. Sounds like a good idea!

It’s a shame Azamara no longer sells their own branded clothing as well. I still have my early Azamara Quest polo which they no longer sell in the shop, it’s getting a bit faded now it’s nearly 10 years old.:(

uktog - thanks for starting this thread, and looking forward to your updates. We're doing the reverse of this trip on the June 29 sailing!

We’ve just returned from a ship visit to Silver Wind that was moored alongside HMS Belfast, we were surprised that it is no longer possible to board ships moored there via HMS Belfast and now have to catch a clipper from the pier next to the Tower of London. We then climbed a steep ramp up to the deck of the Belfast and walked along to another walkway onto the Wind. All other parts of the Belfast were screened off. This was OK for the able bodied amongst us, but was very difficult for those with mobility issues. Also the arrangement for guests collecting their luggage on departure was far inferior to the tent used at Greenwich for Azamara. Luckily it was hot and dry!.

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Worked perfectly this morning, cancelled our paid for shore excursions for our Suez cruise in October and rebooked them all using our OBC. The amounts refunded in UK GBP exactly matches what we initially paid and the OBC was deducted by the same amount - result!

Only one slight glitch, all the changes bar one were confirmed by email, however on checking the Voyage Planner all changes have been made and OBC applied.

No problem using iPad Air 2 and Safari on iOS 11.4

Well done Azamara!

I also found out that the best price guarantee does not apply to U.K. customers. When we found a much better price for our booking we had to cancel, lose our deposit and rebook. It was still worth it as we saved £1000 even having lost our deposits. Your TA may still be able to get you the stateroom you want or a very similar one.

 

 

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This needs some clarification, we have recently booked a 2020 Cruise onboard and were advised by the LCV host Joao that the Best Price Guarantee does now apply to UK guests if booked onboard. There are of course some T&C’s which we have had confirmed by the UK office.

•1 Free price change up to 91 days prior to sailing on a confirmed booking created onboard

•The change excludes a price reduction to our Guarantee rates and special travel agent rates

•You will forfeit all promotions currently sitting on the booking, this also includes onboard promotions

•Not applicable to bookings created from Open Passages

•For the price change, the booking will be refreshed in the same category only. If you wish to change cabin category then an administration fee of £35pp will be charged.

•You are required to pay an additional £125pp deposit (to total £250pp on the booking)

•Standard booking conditions apply within 90 days prior to sailing

•Applicable to new bookings created on or after 18th April 2017

Hope this clarifies the current policy.

No problem the embarkation has been quite a challenge!

 

 

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Sorry to hear that Ann, hopefully it will improve when the new Cruise Terminal is finally completed supposedly later this year. Hope the rest of your cruise experience is up to the usual excellent standard.

We are visiting the Silver Wind next week for lunch which will be moored alongside HMS Belfast, but have to catch a clipper to board like you have today.

Bon Voyage

Steve

We too were in Greenwich this morning to see the Journey moored in the Thames. It was lovely to see and talk to some familiar Crew as they disembarked, including our Stateroom attendant from our cruise in March this year who recognised us as we were walking back to our car.

That was August 2016 if we remember correctly, and another excellent Azamara cruise.

Have looked at the pricing we booked the 2 day package so Qualifying and Race day, when we booked the Azamara price was £1150pp although this went up to nearer £1400pp after Brexit. Our travel agent charged £715 for High T, face value of the tickets were €210 for Saturday and €550 for Sunday so it would pay to buy direct. As has been said back rows in High T are not only covered but have a cooling breeze, we were under cover so it was fine when it rained on Sunday but Saturday afternoon it got extremely hot in the full sun. Tribune K has no shelter at all so we were very happy with our travel agents recommendation.

Understand the hesitation doing it on your own but it really was very easy the Tribunes are well signed and basically you just need to follow the crowds.

This was our view:

 

 

 

 

 

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Riocca is right, I went to the Historic GP this year for a change and went in Stand V which is opposite the pit entrance and the beginning of the main straight. Whilst the view is good, seeing the cars as they pass by and roar up the main straight, there is no shade at all, Stand T is much better and as he says, getting a seat high up is essential. I bought my tickets direct from the Automobile Club of Monaco, and on this occasion, the Quest tendered into Fontville which was an easy walk to the circuit.

Not sure what it would be like being bussed in from Villefranche, probably very busy, especially on Race day.

I’m wondering about the status currently. I just read a post from someone on the Quest reporting that an “american” couple gave their sea pass cards for a drink order apparently unaware of “inclusions” and, according to the poster, were loud in their complaint as to price.

So where did you see this post?

Apologies, found the post under the Silversea purchase post. I’m surprised that it happened on Quest, it was certainly not our recent experience on the Historic Monaco Cruise.