Mark-Sheffield

We have talked to a number of staff on INDY and they said that they prefered it when the ship was in Europe because of the numbers of Brits compared to Americans. But they probably said the opposite when cruising in the Caribbean and the majority of the ships population is American !!! LOL

Many thanks for the responses. I will post a message on the relevant port page.

Stopped in a OS a few years ago on INDY, very nice cabin.

Depends on your budget and also like the OP said whether the separate shower is large enough ?

When I stopped in the OS I was 225lb and the shower was fine.

We have always used the cruise company we have been with and booked with them, usually pre-booked before we depart.

However, we have come across a company called Cruising Excursions.com and they are members of trade associations across the globe.

My question is :

Has any cruise critic members used this company in the Med and what was there experience compared to the cruise company excursion ?

I quite agree, on previous cruises, we have used the main dining room as well as the speciality venues.

My adult daughter who is a bit of a foodie will always ask the waiters for different dishes that are not on the menu in the main dining room and on RCI and P&O, they have both come up trumps :)

I suppose preconceived perceptions of Americans and Brits on cruises is talked about on both sides of the pond ?

I would never go on a Caribbean cruise on RCI, because of the numbers of Americans. But my family disagree and are trying to persuade me to change my mind !!!

But we prefer RCI in the Med !!!

We normally book cruises beforehand to ensure we have a place with the cruise company, there are popular trips that do get booked up quite quickly.

Having said that, we have found a company recommended by our travel agent which is independent to the cruise companys. Its called cruising excursions.com. We have looked at the prices and there are very good in comparsion. I would like to know if members on here have used this company before ?

RCI do seem more keen on stopping alcohol being taken on board than P&O. Just from my observations. If people want to smuggle booze on board and run the gauntlet of security it's your choice. In the past we have put bottles in our main cases which are delivered to your cabin without a problem. I have seen security searching bags after the first port when booze is cheaper.

I'm not sure whether the weight limit is enforced either.

On our last cruise from Southampton, we did take quiet a lot of extra luggage, 4 large suitcases and 3 small suitcases, all very full and heavy. There was three of us, the look on the cabin stewards face as he kept bringing the cases into our cabin was very funny !!!

We was on the Riviera deck and had a poor connection. Whereas my son and daughter had a cabin on the Lido deck which was good. We found a good connection at the stern of the ship nesr the adult pool.

Clearly i would not argue that the male with the teenagers did not break any laws. But as previous posters have commented no one knows what his intentions were ? If indeed they were innocent why did he not alert security rather than being there to stop security from investigating further.

The bottom line is that its not the teenage girls that was at fault, it was their parents being totally irresponsible and not aware of the potential risks.

I would just add that the internet speed is very slow and at times its akin to dial up !!!

We only used it to send and receive emails, which was fine for just text, but add a few photos and it would take up to 10 mins to send the email. That soon eats into the minutes you have bought.

Also, although on the Azura it had ship wide Wi Fi, some parts of the ship had a better faster connection than others. So sometimes it is best to try and find the "best spots".

My wife always says pack a brolly.

We went to the Caribbean in January this year I persuaded her not to pack a brolly this time because of the weight limits and space in the case. I said to her the weather should be bone dry because it is supposed to be the dry season and guess what at our first port in Grenada as soon as we got off the ship it lashed it down, we got soaked !!!!

You can imagine the look and comments I got.

So always pack a brolly :)

I am a qualified social worker and have been involved in child safeguarding/protective services for over 15 years.

I can assure the members of this thread that child abusers come from all levels of society, (trust me I have met them). I have also worked as a probation/parole officer and specialised in working with sex offenders as well as writing pre-sentence reports for the Courts.

If i had seen teenagers at that time in the morning, my professional role would have probably kicked in and I would have likely been speaking to the parents. Although I would have no authority on the ship, once ashore I could have alerted the local services for where they live and make a referral.

First thing, your sister-in-law did the right thing.

Child abusers do not wear labels and they come from all walks of society and can be very cunning and manipulative.

I do not think she over reacted at all and i would have got security to escort the teens to thier cabins and spoke to the parents.

RCI are doing drinks packages at the moment with UK sailings for next year, we have a premium package included in our cruise cost, which is good given the relative costs of drinks on RCI ships compared to other companies.

RCI have claimed that video streaming and on-line gaming is possible with the Quantum class of ships. It would be nice to hear from someone who has been able to do that.

Contact details

P&O Cruises

Carnival House

100 Harbour Parade

Southampton

SO15 1ST

With my expereince, we did end up meeting the hotel director and he was very helpful and like i said he sorted things out. He did say that he was disapointed with the response from his staff and he was taking further action after investigating our issues.

What our point was that on a ship of the size of the Azura, problems will occur, that's a given. Its how those problems are resolved that is a sign of good customer service.

When we last saw Rock the Boat on INDY in 2013, we thought they were very professional and played some really good classic rock.

We we have booked a suite for next year anyway, so if the Spring upgrades are next year, then all the better !!! LOL

That must have been so distressing, I cannot believe that "so called customer service" can be so callous and have no compassion for your sad news.

We saw the reaction of the customer service team when somebody was difficult with them when we was near the service desk, they had no professionalism and giggled like school boys and their attitude to customers was sarcastic.

Well my email to the CEO also had a good response in that the staff was all going to have "extra training".

We have sailed with Royal Caribbean and the response with their customer service was totally different.

An email to the CEO normally gets a quick response, they have a team that just deals with emails and your get a response within hours, not days.

We have been on the Azura twice, most recently Jan 2015 and on both times, we found the staff team on customer service to be surly and just unhelpful. On our last cruise we had quite a few little minor issues, which did not get resolved and they dragged on for days and even a meeting with the manager did not resolve the problems. In the end out of frustration I emailed the CEO in Southampton with a list of compliants whilst on board the ship. By the following afternoon the Azura Hotel Director had become involved and did sort the issues out straight away.

My point was that it should have been resolved without resorting to emailing the CEO.

Just wondered what other cruisers experience of customer service was on Azura ?

We have been on the Azura twice, most recently in Jan 2015 and found the photographers really nice and friendly, never rude.

We had some extra photos taken to have included in one of the albums we purchased and we booked the photographer and there was no extra charge for this.

Yes, I agree that they can be annoying at times, especially after a flight to the caribbean, but a polite "no thank you", always worked.

Mark