shank63

Do it yourself as soon as possible after boarding.  

We have experienced Pursuit and Quest with AZ and have a B2B on Pursuit booked for 2025.  We also cruise on Oceania and enjoy both their O and R ships.  The R ships on Oceania have been updated with shower doors in the veranda cabin bathrooms, so we booked a suite on Quest and were more comfortable with the additional space and dining options.  Overall, we have been pleased with both AZ and O, and have not experienced missed ports on either line, with the exception of the Fargo Islands on O.  We did the Chilean Fjords on Quest and made every port, including the Falklands, and Ushuaia which are often missed by other cruise ships.  Unless we decide to spend more money on one of the luxury lines such as Regent, we intend to enjoy sailing on Azamara as long as we can.  

1 hour ago, Mackdogmolly said:

IMO, the food in the specialties isn’t all THAT much better than the MDR. Of course, I am not a red meat eater, so I can’t really comment about the quality of the steaks in Prime C.

IMO the quality of food in Prime C is excellent and worth the upcharge.  Not so much for Acqualina, but that’s our tastes.

On 2/22/2024 at 10:12 AM, Snaefell3 said:

Methinks the answer is similar to that of the 1980 "When will Iran release the embassy hostages?" question.

When the terrorism and pirating in the region is defeated.

11 minutes ago, ECCruise said:

Ditto. Same annoying process on Oceania. 

OK, all our top level people have made their choices, here's what's left for you. 

Never had a problem booking specialties on O, even after being on board.  Booking specialties on A has not been an issue either, although it must me done on board only.

We always book with a TA or transfer an onboard booking to a TA.  A good TA will add some OBC or other benefit, and generally offer superior customer service.

We were on the Quest recently enjoyed an outstanding off ship Azamazing event in Montevideo.  Our only other Azamara cruise was last year on the Pursuit in Norway and enjoyed an off ship Azamazing Erving in Tromso.  Both of these off ship events were in local theaters and locally themed and produced.  Of the two, the Montevideo event was based on the Carnival celebration and was our favorite by far.  The opportunity to offer a local theme off ship evening is largely determined by the itinerary, facilities in the port, available buses, and local talent.  For me, I have no desire to be bussed off ship to a second rate production with limited local flavor.  So, it’s not a big deal to drop the Azamazing evening where appropriate.

Horizons

We have requested the credit on several cruises, the response time varies but we have always received it.  Patience and perseverance are required.

We were on Riviera in October in a non concierge veranda and were thrilled with the refurbished bathroom.  We will be highly disappointed if the Marina refurbishment stops short of that step.

We are planning to fly home from KEF to Boston next year with a connection to CLT.  Since it is only 5 hours or so, economy class is normally suitable for us.  How does Icelandic economy compare with US carriers?

18 hours ago, SATaxman said:

I am not fond of vermouth. I order a gin "Martini" without vermouth. People tell me I cannot call that a Martini either.

You’re at least half right:  a true Martini must be made with gin, not vodka.  It also takes a scoach of dry vermouth for a dry Martini so you may be allowed to call it extra dry.

We have sailed on Sirena and similar ships with another cruise line and thoroughly enjoyed the ships and the ambiance.  I do recommend upgrading from a stateroom to a PH if feasible, although the staterooms are not bad, more like cozy.

In my opinion, food is much better on Oceania but the vibe on the smaller Azamara ships is nice.  Either choice is good.

We prefer Riviera because of the 4 specialty restaurants, and Riviera was our first Oceania cruise.  However, we have also sailed on Sirena and absolutely enjoyed it, the smaller ship has a wonderful vibe.  We would choose between the two based on thee itinerary and be happy either ship.

Dress codes have been challenged on every cruise that we have enjoyed in the past few years.  There are usually some who believe it’s acceptable to wear a ball cap in any dining venue, or bathrobes and pajamas outside their staterooms, and those who consider torn or ripped jeans as fashionable.  Increasingly more people everywhere who are convinced that rules do not apply.  

Sadly, I have seen no improvement since the new IT system was installed months ago.  This may be a warning that the owners or Azamara, Sycamore Partners have no intention of correcting these problems.  Travel insurance by a third party is strongly advised.

We spent a few days in Lima in March, pre cruise.  We used Taxidatum for transfer from the airport to our hotel, and from hotel to the ship.  We used a local tour guide, Hakutours.com which we highly recommend.

We were in Lima in March and used Taxidatum car service from the airport to our hotel as well as from the hotel to the port.  The service was good and very reasonably priced.  The transfer to the port was not what we expected, we were driven to a drop off point and transferred to a bus which took us to the ship.  The bus portion of the transfer was very slow due to traffic, but we were safely delivered to the ship.  We did not see regular taxis past the port entrance to the ship.

On 8/2/2023 at 2:29 PM, Host Jazzbeau said:

Agree.  The Eggs Benedict in Aqualina are completely different from those in the main dining room.  The MDR's are very good and traditional; Aqualina's are amped up to 11.

We were in a stateroom on Pursuit and tried the main dining room for breakfast once, very disappointing.  The buffet can be an adventure in claiming a table, we were once yelled at and subjected to unacceptable language over a claim to a table.  So, our next AZ cruise is on Quest in a Continent Suite, so we are anticipating many of our breakfasts in Aqualina.  Also the other suite amenities!

2 hours ago, the_dylaness said:I have $1100 in OBC why would I pay for this in cash? But to get through to Azamara has been impossible and the email agents don't even send replies that make sense. I am starting to wonder if our first AZ cruise will be our last.

This is very discouraging since we booked onboard of a previous cruise based on the incentive package which included $900 of OBC.  They are telling us that we cannot use the OBC for excursions until after final payment is processed.  This is no way to build confidence and trust with the customer base.

Not interested in 42 days on HAL (or any ship) with 2 transatlantic crossings.

1 hour ago, PinonNoir said:

 

5.  The Grand Dining Room.  We ate here for breakfast one time.  Once!  The food was cold, the coffee was cold, the service was terrible...and it wasn't even crowded!  Again, W T F?  Why is the service in the main dining establishment on the ship so crappy?  How can it be that hard to bring warm eggs from the kitchen to the table?  We ended up eating 10 of 12 breakfasts in our suite.

 

 

 

Thanks for your detailed review.  I am disappointed that your GDR breakfast was so crappy.  We will be on Riviera in September and the GDR has always been our favorite breakfast spot and a fine way to begin the day.  We hope that your experience was an anomaly.  Concerning the overall quality of the food, as others have said and we concur it does seem to have slipped.  Dress code is also loosely implemented and has been for years.  We do report our concerns to the General Manager, and have experienced prompt response and corrective actions when appropriate.

Although we have been on Pursuit once and booked a cruise on Quest, I would not recommend Azamara.  We had booked our Pursuit cruise with a travel agent and all was well until the website and back office support was pulled away from Royal Caribbean.  After several months the website is barely functional and the support staff appears to be poorly trained.  However, once on board the service is very good, with friendly staff and fairly good food, so all in all we thoroughly enjoyed Pursuit.  We booked the Quest cruise onboard thr Pusuit near the end of a 16 day cruise.  My big concern is using our $900 of our onboard credit on Quest as we have not been able to book excursions with OBC.  My confidence in Azama’s back room management has continued to decline so this may be our 2nd and last cruise with A.

On 5/9/2023 at 2:40 PM, SueMo said:

I DO NOT recommend tours.pe for your Lima/Salaverry port excursions because of their cancellation policy.  Our ship notified us upon embarkation that we would not be visiting Salaverry because of safety concerns.  We emailed tours.pe immediately (about 48 hours prior to the tour), as did a number of other couples who booked a tour there.  They said we would get a refund ($65 pp tour) but it never happened.  It turns out we missed the deadline and they had no stipulation like other tour companies that will refund money if the ship does not go there.  There were over 20 people who had booked the excursion, so tours.pe pocketed about $1300.  Go with Haku.

Agree, do NOT book with Tours.pe.  Alfredo Mercedes was our contact and did not reply when we were cancelled due to Oceania’s decisionpj to ship the port.