MamaFej

We've only done one river cruise, so far: the Douro on Ama. We were 55 and 57 at the time, and among the youngest several cruisers. However, we both noticed that our fellow passengers were, on average, much more fit than ocean cruisers we've encountered. As mentioned above, river cruising is very active, with lots of walking, including climbing steps and slopes. Folks were well-traveled, interesting, and young at heart. We did not feel out of place, and made friends (younger than us) with whom we plan to travel again.

Confusing Colloquialisms

I just read this entire thread. I felt compelled to let @cr8tiv1 know that I agree, especially with the second paragraph, and I am especially tickled that someone with that name is making that point. 😁😁😁

Menningarnótt (Culture Night) will be 19 August. It's a festival for which Icelanders from around the nation come to Reykjavik, increasing demand on hotels, taxis, restaurants... Last year, our friends tested postive for Covid the night before they were supposed to join us on the Summit. Due to limited availability, they ended up paying $900/night for the next few nights until they were able to fly home. Thank goodness for insurance! All this to say that prebooking transfers and meals during the middle of August is especially wise.

I agree that the new system is lacking. We watched the video very attentively on each line the first cruise back, and when we hadn't cruised that line for over six months. on B2Bs (and when we had 5 cruises embarking Feb. 28-April 19) we only watched attentively the first cruise. We always go straight to our muster station upon embarkation. I was always frustrated by the inattentive, rude people at in-person muster drills, especially the clearly inebriated folks who insisted on talking loudly, preventing those who wanted to pay attention from hearing. However, while cruising with friends in April of 2022, I was astonished when one of them said, "The video was way better than going in person. I actually learned something," then mentioned the 7 short 1 long horn blast. Mind you, she has been crusing for decades. She was unaware of 7 short 1 long, after several dozens of in-person drills. People are going to people. Some will be diligent about following what they've learned and following crew instructions. Some will panic. Many will fall somewhere in between. I think that advances in technology (especially fire suppression technology) and the fact that something "really, really, really bad" hasn't happened in quite some time have led to a combination of confidence and complacency that in-person musters are no longer necessary. I'm not sure what the perfect answer is. I am sure that Hubby and I will do everything we can to respond appropriately in the unlikely event we find ourselves in a real onboard emergency.

Yes, however, the disembarkation date ought to appear among "inclusive dates". Sloppy, indeed. It's also throwing money out the window, as no one will book any of those useless excursions. A disembarkation tour that returns to the ship (like that in Post 1517) could work for B2B cruisers. In fact, if Azamara were offering one in Dublin, I might consider it. They probably anticipate an approximate number of people to book their tours, including disembarkation/ airport or train depot drop-off tours. Setting these up with vendors, then delivering zero customers does not bode well for Azamara's relationships with those vendors. Not only do Azamara throw their away their share of the money they would have earned for correctly scheduled tours, they might be throwing away future revenue if the vendors choose to walk away.

In the case of my two cruises, Azamara has clearly gotten things mixed up. They are providing tours with airport dropoff on Embarkation Day only. They are not offering them on Debarkation Day. However, they are offering tours on Debarkation Day in Oslo that... return passengers to the port. 🤦🏽‍♀️ I truly feel for the folks who would like to book debarkation tours with airport dropoffs.

On our two summer cruises, Azamara is offering tours with airport drop-off on... Embarkation Day. Not on Debarkation Day. Embarkation Day. Mind you: neither of these cruises embarks in the same country as it debarks.

We did the Spain Intensive last June, followed by Lisbon to Stockholm. Y'all are in for a treat! Enjoy!!!

I wonder (without evidence, just a hint of a hunch) if it might be related to all the probelms going on with the Azamara website since separating from RCG. Long story short: extracting Azamara data from RCG has resulted in a huge cluster of clusterbleeps. Completely messed up balances is only one of many many problems that have caused much consternation among those booked on Azamara. Could it be possible that there was some sort of attempt at reintegration in order to try to get a clean extraction on a new attempt? Or could it just be another example of the continuing saga of poor IT that has long plagued the cruise industry, especially (it seems) companies under the RCG umbrella?

I was on the Summit in Iceland last year, and will be again this year.

Viking (and Oceania) could drop their cruise prices by 25% and reforest a significant portion of the Amazon if they stopped printing and mailing so many brochures. And we are definitely in the running for most brochures.

Another data point: we are US Americans who took our first Viking (Ocean) cruise in August 2022. We did not receive pouches or tags. We do get lots of brochures.

Ya think? 🙄

The Fields and Select teas also have a strong plastic aroma and taste, which cannot possibly be healthy. I'm a loose-leaf tea drinker at home, so I am grateful for the Tea Forte at Cafe al Bacio. I stop by on my way to breakfast and get a package, then I get hot water brought to the table. When it comes to tea dust in a bag, the Twinnings Cinnamon Tea has a flavor I enjoy, so that works when I forget to stop by al Bacio for a Tea Forte package.

Another problem is availability. There is limited capacity on each excursion. We all understand that it's first-come-first-served. We understand "You snooze: you lose." However, there is no way of knowing when booking will actually be possible; so, when is it okay to snooze? When should we log on and check? We prefer small group private excursions, but we have significant OBC on our two July Azamara cruises, both of which are very port-intensive (3 sea days out of 28). We'd rather use some of the OBC on excursions than lose it. We have no interest in the shops, and only one of the Chef's Table menus interests us. We will likely do it once each cruise. I'm confident that we are not the only ones in this situation.

I imagine that is because it very, very clearly was one.

Did you read the post you quote replied to? It literally says that the clips are not the problem. They’re actually pretty nifty devices. I do not think anyone has a problem with someone stepping away from a chair to take a dip, grab a drink or a snack, use the restroom, etc. The problem is people reserving chairs, which is against cruise line policy, while not using them and simultaneously keeping others from using them for long periods of time. Celebrity allowing a product to be sold on their ships to reserve chairs for self-appointed VIPs, in violation of their stated policy, is unhelpful for the actual chair hog situation. It has nothing to do with folks using chairs appropriately, as it seems you do. In fact, the onboard gift shop has other towel clips for sale. I didn’t include them in my post, as they do not directly contribute to the issue.

Celebrity: Also Celebrity: I’ve been onboard the Eclipse, sailing out of Sydney, for 5 of the last 7 cruises. Chair hogging has been a problem on all but the 5 day Tasmania cruise. It was particularly bad on the 28 February Great Barrier Reef cruise. It’s a major problem on this Sydney to Honolulu cruise. I’m well aware that chair hogging has been an issue for a long time: probably as long as there have been cruises. I just think that Celebrity selling a product onboard, labeling chair hogs as VIPs is not particularly helpful. To be clear: I have no problem with towel clips on a chair that’s actually being used. My issue is with Celebrity saying “Don’t reserve chairs” while selling an item to label a chair as reserved; for a VIP, no less.”

Greetings from the Ensemble Lounge on the Eclipse. I’ll see you in a week!

Congratulations. Expect to get 2-4 a week from now on. They could cut the price of their cruises by 25% if they didn’t spend so much crating and mailing booklets and brochures. Could probably reforest a good chunk of the Amazon as well. The same goes for Oceania.

I just checked, and my bookings are on the website. However, ports are now listed in alphabetical order. Belfast, Copenhagen, Dublin… seems like a very fuel-inefficient way to do things. 🤣🤣🤣 It will all get sorted out eventually.

Crew did not mention a replacement. However, I very much enjoyed the raspberry danish. Hopefully, the pistachio raisin rolls have made or will make a return. I cruised in August 2022.

SilverSea had us at the Mandarin Oriental. It was beautiful, with the most amazing shower, service, food, architecture…

We did an expedition on SilverSea in December. They sail out of Puerto Williams in Chile, which is south of Ushuaia. It was phenomenal, and hugely discounted. My unproven theory is that was due to timing. The cruise ended on 22 December, they flew us back to Santiago for an included night in the same amazing hotel they had us in for one night before sailing, then we left for home on the 23rd. This meant that we got home Christmas Eve. Christmas 2022 was during Hanukkah. I think that the dates were unattractive for many folks, and SilverSea offered great agent rates (there were several TAs on board, including ours) and discounted the fares to try to fill the ship. We ended up with 176 passengers on a 300 passenger ship. Because we had fewer than 200, we were allowed to go ashore at the landing sites that ships with more passengers are not allowed to. It was utterly phenomenal, and I’m glad we did the financial acrobatics necessary to make it happen. If you look at expeditions, make sure you understand what is and isn’t included. Some charge hundreds for kayaking. We did it at no extra charge. One of the reasons the expeditions are so expensive is the Expedition Team of experts. We had a couple dozen, including a geologist, a historian, ornithologists, whale experts, penguin experts, crustacean experts, marine biologists… you name an appropriate expert, and we probably had one or more. It truly was one of the best things we’ve ever done, and I’m grateful we did it while healthy enough to actually walk around on the continent itself. By the way, the penguins don’t seem to care about the 5 meter rule, and will walk right toward you. It’s up to the humans to walk away.