wjfan417

On 8/22/2022 at 3:54 AM, Marmaduke said:

I miss the local tourist information reps that used to come onboard at each port.  Hopefully they will be able to return when covid conditions allow.  Maps are available from Guests Relations but they tend to be printed from the internet, many of them are A3 size which helps.

Very helpful tourist board reps were onboard when we were in Belfast a few days ago. 

On 8/23/2022 at 6:20 PM, Vineyard View said:

We are looking at a B2B on Journey next April. Unfortunately we would need to change staterooms between. On the intensive Italy leg there isn’t much left. 8065-69, and 8068-70. On the spreadsheet there seem to be noise issues reported in 8069 both morning and night, so assuming the other two would have the same. A little concerned about movement in the last two (68-70) but it may not be that much difference from the others available? Any thoughts around choices?  
Also. Which cabins have showers vs tubs? I know I read that somewhere a while back,  but I cannot locate it, so in advance I apologize for asking. Thank you

We're currently on a B2B2B on the Quest.  The last leg didn't have the same cabin available, but I called Azamara and waitlisted it and it cleared a few months later.  

6 hours ago, 81Zoomie said:

We are sailing on the upcoming “Wine and Culture” cruise that visits Bordeaux, Porto, and Lisbon.  It will be very disappointing if AZ is serving the low end supermarket wines on this cruise.  Fortunately we have a day at sea to figure it out.  If the included wines are poor, we will stock up in port and gladly pay the corkage.  No reason to spend hundreds to upgrade to the ultimate package if the wines don’t command the price. Life is too short to drink bad wine 🍷❤️🍷, especially on vacation!  

We’ll still be on for that cruise also and will probably purchase a few bottles in Bordeaux and Spain! 

Our current voyage on Quest has been one of the best. Officers and staff have been wonderful, food has been great, Captain Johannes has been very visible. Only complaint is the quality of the wines (both included and in the ultimate package). They’re out of the Sokol Blosser Pinot noir that’s supposed to be in the ultimate package and are substituting Cavit, which retails for about $15 a magnum at home.

3 hours ago, Mackdogmolly said:

I’m pretty sure this has been asked and answered, but I can’t recall it, so please indulge me! I know that if you receive the premium beverage upgrade as part of a booking promotion, once onboard you can upgrade to Ultimate for $7 per day (I have done this). But suppose one purchases the premium upgrade as part of an Experience More package. Can one do the same $7 per day upgrade once on board? 

We did that on our April cruise and they also gave us the loyalty discount off the $7 per day cost.

On 8/10/2022 at 1:36 AM, DS said:

I'm assuming that your cruise in on the Pursuit starting in Rome on Nov 19th ???   If so, while there are no AzAmazing Evenings or Destination Celebrations ( on board) listed, the only possilbe days are the late stay in Barcelone on 21 Nov, and the two nights in Seville ( 26 and 27 Nov)

When we were in Seville on Quest in April they had flamenco dancers on board forAzAmazing Evening.

On 8/9/2022 at 2:12 PM, excitedofharpenden said:

Normal jeans are fine in the MDR, but shorts aren't so it was probably the latter. It's good to see them enforcing that policy. I've never witnessed anyone being turned away for non-compliance, but I guess it happens from time to time. 

 

Phil 

I saw someone being walked out of Discoveries on the Quest 2 nights ago because he was wearing shorts.

5 hours ago, AJCM said:

Hi Diana

 

Our flight in lands at 8.00pm. Do you know if it’s easy to get a taxi to our hotel at Central Station?

 

Thanks

Tony

It should be. We took a tram to our hotel from Central Station.

Diana

2 hours ago, PAtravelbug said:

Hi all.  We are off the ship.  So sad.   Easy disembarkation. Windows open at 6am for breakfast and you have to be out of your room by 8am and off the ship by 9am.  We walked off the ship, down an escalator, picked up our bags and walked out the door.  No fuss like in some places with customs and immigration.  

 

Getting a taxi was easy despite what the departure paper work from the hotel said.  We have a hotel (Hampton) out by the airport for the next few days. The ship also said that the airport cost by taxi would be 40 euros. It was 80 euros.  Lovely driver.   

 

Shockingly, for the second time this trip, we were about to check into our hotel room before 9am!     Unheard of at home - except occasionally in Las Vegas where I travel to for work a good bit. 

 

We are having 2nd breakfast, enjoying fast internet and think we will take a day trip out of the area - the train station is right next to our hotel.

 

Take me with you - as to comparision wtih our dec 10 to 23, 2022 cruise on Quest  - Wines -  Not as good.  Not terrible - but all are branded with the Azamara logo - It used to be that each day there was a selection of wines for that day - might be from Chile, or Australia, or France, etc.  Now they are all the same every day. We settle on a french cabaret for red and a pino Grigio for white from time to time.  But they are not Bordeaux!

 

In december, there were covid protocals in place.  Free testing, mandatory mask wearing, no mixing outside the travel parties, chairs in cabaret and all the restaurants were rearranged for maximum distancing.    This time - no testing at all, and the crew was in masks.  That was it.  After day 5, when covid started to become a problem, we were requested to wear masks in doors, to not mix the travel parties and masks were mandatory on tour buses.  And, they added a show to spread us out when a local group came aboard the day after the big spike in case.   The whole next week, the cases came down and the last 3 days were 1  case each and none(reported) yesterday.   I noticed that masks were no longer mandatory on the tour buses in Amsterdam.      So we stared the majority without masks, and ended the majority IN masks.  

 

UKtog has talk about the attendant change - we had asked ours on the first day when we only saw one name card on the desk and explained.   he was great, but not often seen.

 

Service is, as always, excellent. There ARE a lot of new crew and we saw that through out the voyage as they were integrated into the crew.  Once waiter, Jansey from Brazil , came out of quartentine after joining the ship in Dublin with us, after 5 days - a bit dazed for a few days - but was getting the hang of it last night.

 

We only took one tour through the ship, The Flam Railway.  Honestly, we could of skipped that.     It was fine.  LOTS of time on the bus. Then a train. Then the Flam. Then lots of time on a bus. But the scenery from the bus was stunning, even with 90 kilometers total of it being in tunnels! The tour guide was very good.  

 

Cruise director Amanda and Assit - Justin - were good and have good chemistry.  Justin was newly the DJ and activities host on our December cruise, but sung with the performers a few times.  Now he is clearly a very  happy man finding is place, fine tuning his show and his bad jokes (he makes puns). 

 

There were more destination focused things like special foods picked up that day or the day before and prepared for us.   3 separate local acts brought on board.  Not as much of that on a more general cruise like in December.  

 

White Night in full day light the whole time is different!  The sun sets late in Norway.

 

The entertainment shows were good. The singers and dancers are a different cast than in December but with the same shows - but very well done. Very sharp and clean. And they have been aboard for 4 months.   Jacob - the violin player from december was back, and just as good.    a new piano player.singer in the den and a new party band - both good. 

 

we had only 2 sea days - one at each end of the voyage.  On the 2nd one, there was a special brunch in discoveries from 10 am to 1pm. This was the only time we set foot in discoveries.  It was very well done (of course) - and the night after White Night. 

 

Ryzard did a presentation of the time on the Pursuit from March 3 to March 29, 2022.  Very  interesting about how the cruise halt built up and how they handled it.  Lots of logistics and stories about it. He working on a 2nd presentation about the restart and getting the crew back, and what they did to survive during the lay off.

 

Of course, it was a wonderful trip. Lots of familiar faces on the crew.     Godson has been promoted to head waiter (along with tall Vishal) - and will start next cruise.   🙂

 

That's all for now.  I have to do some research about what to do today.    I do hear that the Amsterdam airport is pretty bad these days - used to be a lovely airport - long long lines. So we will go very early on Thursday when we fly back.  The cab driver said that on Saturday, the lines when outside of the airport and down the walk!    

 

Next for us is Onward in December!

 

Travel well,  Allison

 

 

Train from airport into Amsterdam is very easy. You can buy 2-3 day transport tickets that include airport train and trams/metros/buses in the city from machines in the airport train station.

Diana

6 hours ago, uktog said:

One useful change I’ve noticed on Quest. There’s a QR code on each days Insider that takes you to the Main Dining Room menu. So it’s easy to make dining plans a little earlier- no waiting for the menu to be put up mid afternoon. 
 

 

When we were on the April Quest cruise with you, I noticed that you could view the menus on the TV for 3-4 weeks at a time.

Diana

3 hours ago, midwestchick said:

That is truly wonderful

news. Does it feel as if there are enough staff now 

We really didn’t have any contact with staff. We just headed to the baggage claim/departure hall as soon as we were off the plane. The only person we had any interaction with was when we had to show our passports. 

We got through the airport today with all luggage making it-took less than an hour from landing to leaving airport.. Very easy to take the train from the airport to the city and transfer to the tram to get to our hotel.

Diana

18 minutes ago, excitedofharpenden said:

We got the train from Schipol to the Centraal  railway station. From there and depending upon where you are staying you can get the tram. All very straightforward. Trams go everywhere. Not sure how long you are here. We bought a three day pass for unlimited bus and tram which was good value which included that train journey from the airport. 

 

Phil 

Thanks-that’s what I’d been planning to do. Our hotel is only a a couple minutes walk from Muntplein. Any problem with luggage on the trams?

2 minutes ago, Piaa said:

 

Thank you - Little Arches is not available and I'm not looking to spend $1200+ per night (haha) but thank you for the recommendations

 

$ is why we didn’t stay at The House either!

1 hour ago, excitedofharpenden said:

I’m in Amsterdam right now. We flew in on Monday. Schipol was a zoo to arrive at. Immigration was very bad and as UK voted to leave the EU that didn’t help either. Allow plenty of time. It took us 45 minutes to fly in and an hour and a half to get out of the airport.. 
 

I totally 👍 uktog's suggestion. If you have an iPhone and can use Airtag then do. It helped us as they sent us to the wrong belt. Chaos from start to finish. Loving Amsterdam though. Go and have a stroopwaffel at this place. They are the best!

 

Phil 

We arrive Friday morning. How did you get from the airport to central Amsterdam?

5 hours ago, Piaa said:

Not "directly" related to a current Azamara cruise, but as there are so many seasoned travelers here, does anyone have a recommendation for a hotel in Barbados please.  I have tried the search bar but there are thousands of links using the word "hotel" (with Barbados) but they are for hotels in every possible embarkation port worldwide and it will take hours to try to sort through them.

 

Thanks so much if anyone has a nice recommendation.

We stayed at Treasure Beach in December. It’s an all-inclusive resort-part of Marriott’s Elegant Resorts brand. Very small-not a lot to do other than swim in the ocean or small pool. Other hotels that were recommended on SeaDream’s board when I had asked for recommendations there were “The House” and “Little Arches”.

Diana

US website still shows $10 also!

2 hours ago, voyager1964 said:

Sorry, perhaps I misunderstood something but it looks like the "normal" embarkation time now is ~2 pm and later. Is it the new normal because of the pandemic? I think ~ few years ago embarkation would start at 11am-12pm, and it still this way on some larger cruise lines. What do people do if they have an early flight in or have to check out from a hotel before the embarkation?

In April we stored our bags at hotel and walked around.

9 hours ago, DS said:

     They actually make it extremely easy for back to back guests.   You get your new room key at the day-before meeting mentioned above.  You can also make speciality restaurant reservations and shore excurion reservations at this time, beating the boarding day rush of other passengers. (SO.... its important to attend this meeting!)

       On change over day you have to "check out" and then "check in" for the new cruise.   They usualy do this about 9 AM in the Caberet.  The process usually takes 5 to 15 minutes, depending on the number of back to back guests.   If you want to do this earlier, they make arrangments.   At that pont you are free to leave the ship and return at any time.  Lately they have had a special lunch in Aquilina for back to back guest who are still onboard.   

      If you are changing staterooms, the stewards and bulters do almost all the work, and it is effortless ( other than packing your suitcase of loose items.... things hanging in the closets are moved as is.).   That usually happens close to 9 AM, as they take care to prepare your new room first.

        We have done this twice since the restart... once in the same room, and once changing staterooms... all were accomplished smoothly.... and many times in the "Before Times". 

We are in the same cabin for all 3 cruises. Looks like our only issue might be timing of the shore excursion we’re on the day prior to our first turnaround. We’re on a shore excursion from 8-4:30 and the ship sails at 5. Hopefully they schedule the meetings after everyone is back on board.

I know this has probably been answered somewhere already, but I've been searching for hours and can't find easily.  We are doing 3 cruises on the Quest beginning August 8.   I put 2 p.m. as our check-in time for each cruise.  Does that matter when we are re-boarding the ship? We want to do some sightseeing on the turnaround days, so I don't want to have to rush back for a 2 p.m. check-in time.  

Diana

We had the premium package included on our last cruise, but upgraded to the ultimate after a few days because we couldn’t drink the included wines. 

13 minutes ago, kaymoz said:

I'm trying to book some shore activities, excursions & tours now for a cruise in July, so it would be helpful to know the timing long before I'm on the ship.  I suppose I could assume it would be a full hour prior to sailing, but that might mean forgoing some wonderful tour options that would be possible if it would only be 30 minutes prior! 

On our April cruise it was 30 minutes for guests and 1hour for crew. However, we were on an Azamara shore excursion in one port where the tour leader was getting several messages from the ship asking where we were. I think they held the ship about a half hour for us.

1 hour ago, Migueldentis said:

Hi!!!

 

First time in Azamara sailing August 6.

 

We don't usually drink wine but we can taste it sometimes. We prefer beer and some spirit or cocktail at night.

 

What can you tell me about complimentary drinks??

 

Could i order a cocktail at disco? Or only complimentary drinks with meals?

 

Coffe is included?

 

I am considering upgrading to the premium package. Could I upgrading any day or  does it have to be the first day?

 

Thanks.

 

Miguel.

 

 

 

 

The complimentary drinks are also available at all the bars, not just with meals, and coffee is included.

1 hour ago, Nippy Sweetie said:

Are they doing CC meet and mingles these days?

They had one on my Quest cruise in April. It was on boarding day at the same time as sail away so didn’t have many people.

Diana

35 minutes ago, mjmagee said:

One more dress code question.  Are neat, clean, unripped jeans acceptable in the dining room and specialty restaurants?  I found this to be true on previous Alaskan cruises and our upcoming Azamara cruise is Iceland so I wondered if the dress code would be similar.  Thx for your help.  Marilyn

Yes, unripped jeans are acceptable in the main dining room. Not sure about the specialty restaurants-I wore slacks and a nice top for that and my husband wore dockers and a polo shirt the one night we dined in Aqualina.