RW75

I’ve had the Montaudon served as a pre departure beverage once when flying back to London. Was pleasant in comparison to the Alaya champagne that had been appearing on the ground for a while before. Not a patch on the Taittinger that was being served onboard at the time. I may be in the minority, but, have always liked Feuillatte. Would be happier if Azamara used the same substitutes as were available earlier this year, Clicquot, Lanson and Taittinger. Always notice Domaine Chandon is available on the ultimate package. Never had an issue with that, although it’s years since I’ve drank it. Was available in the UK as White Shadow (I think) and was never as easy drinking as the apparent same product sold in North America as Domaine Chandon.

The train from Bath to Southampton is very easy and inexpensive, takes about ninety minutes. Quite possibly quicker than driving. nationalrail.co.uk

As interested as I am, I will not be joining a social media platform to watch. Suspect it will be posted on YouTube at a later date. Will be very disappointed if it turns out to be more of a sales pitch than actually about the Onward itself.

I have taken advantage of the best price guarantee for GBP priced bookings.

This may be a strange question, any experience of such would be appreciated. if a bid is accepted being based on 2x the bid amount, travelling solo, would that mean I could take advantage of dining for two people and breakfast in Aqualina for two people? I did ask this question when I paid my recent balance and was told yes. I have doubts. Saw no point asking for confirmation in email as that is never likely to happen.

Received upgrade bid today for 20Nov22 Onward Lisbon-Miami. 57 days out. Booked veranda V3 Loyalty Discoverer Balcony Plus offer £90pp Club Continent offer £370pp Submitted low offer of £370 on Club Continent. Travelling solo so that is £740. Offer range went to £1565pp Balcony Plus offer went up to £370pp Same cruise my friend whom has no loyalty, first cruise, booked inside had following offer Ocean View £185 Balcony £920 Balcony Plus £1015 The pricing is a little off I would say as could at current pricing for a lot less into the three catagories. Also received today upgrade bid offer on 12Dec22 Onward. Same prices for me from V3 to Club Continent at £379 and Balcony Plus at £90. Not bid on either.

A Google search produced nothing cruise related. Who knows! Im guessing I’ll not be finding out in person this year

Same for me. Tried just now, maybe just site maintenance.

I was under the impression US Immigration on Westbound transatlantic was taken care of in Bermuda. quite happy to be wrong and never an issue in any case. It’s so long since I took a Westbound I don’t actually recall being dealt with in Miami at all. I usually take Eastbound or closed loop from the US and hadn’t really thought about this in detail. Maybe the obligatory Cabernet lounge visit once docked. In years gone by US Immigration had two officers onboard QE2 for transatlantic crossings and the Eastbound had UK officers onboard whom would be available for two hours each day during the five day crossing. Was very convenient.

Quite agree. I have found the longer increased sea day cruises do attract a different demographic. If the value is there for me personally I would consider a line I may not otherwise. On any ship doing a Europe - US or Asia there is less chance of the Club 18-30 vibe.

Clevercruiser, you are quite correct in everything you say. I’ve never taken much notice of the P&O fly cruise fares during the winter, although have seen very attractive pricing in the Sunday newspapers in the past. I came unstuck trying to do a b2b in December and now find myself having to return to the UK between cruises. How much easier Barcelona would have been. I now find myself with three sets of flights booked to Miami from December to February. Thankfully Avios availability with Iberia in Business is excellent currently.

Also, the phones are often answered by a very polite yet slightly useless lady in post cruise. Anything not straight forward she either hangs up or transfers the call.

Try loyalty. Seems to be the only mail box that receives constant attention.

100 solo cabins with nil supplement is quite stunning. if only I spoke more French, I’m limited to where is the swimming pool/town hall/first class lounge. Fortunately the French are much better in general with languages.

Virgin have no single supplement currently. Even though I don’t think I’d cruise Virgin, the pricing is competitive (in some markets more than others) and paying no supplement would make me take a look at their cruises. Especially the longer repositioning.

Suspect Norse will be expanding rapidly once the general situation with basic operations in Europe is dealt with. There are still huge capacity controls in place at many airports which will be lifted and carriers will eventually sort out their shortsighted lack of aircraft and crew.

The daylight flights are great and certainly make the journey easier. in the same vein I often take the late departure into JFK from London and arrive at 10pm. Not quite the same as the other way but does make a difference to time adjustment.

I’m sure all those points - passport excluded - count equally be used in reverse direction explaining why Europeans don’t frequent US based cruises as much as European. That said, I do feel on a percentage basis Europeans travel to North America for cruising more than US/Canadians travel to Europe. Of course in the winter season we have to travel further for the good weather. Maybe there will be less Europeans taking Caribbean cruises this winter. Flights are more expensive than I ever remember and fewer of them. The same can be said of Miami hotels. London-Miami must be at least 1000 daily seats less than 2019. I’m basing that guess on the loss of two carriers on the route and reduction in capacity from the three major carriers operating. Orlando has less seats, Fort Lauderdale is no longer served where as 2019 had BA and Norwegian daily. There has to be a trickle down effect in booking number for this reason alone. Same for Seattle, Vancouver and a lesser extent Los Angeles. RCCL have had some very low pricing in the UK for their Barbados departures. Unfortunately an economy ticket from the UK is two to three times the cost of the cruise. My next cruise out of Miami cost less than the airfare. Sure we will see more localised region cruising than ever before.

Booking in the UK was always a financial minefield. Many lines would not allow international bookings in USD’s and we would usually pay a huge amount more in GBP’s. I paid GBP1694.00 for that seven night cruise. The exchange rate at the time was hovering around 1.60-1.70 if I recall correctly which makes it around USD2700.00 The inclusive package with flight and one night hotel was only £200 more expensive. Fly Cruise seven night Caribbean from Miami seemed to retain a GBP999.00 lead in price for at least ten years. How times have changed.

I cruise purely because I enjoy being on a ship. I’ve been cruising since the 80’s. I generally choose the ship and the itinerary is very rarely a consideration. When I was younger I was always keen on sailing on the new big ships as they were introduced. Nothing was ever close to taking the five night crossing on QE2. Even as QE2 started to feel dated it was always spectacular crossing the North Atlantic. Now I avoid large ships when possible. The thing that is always in my mind is how the ships and service onboard has changed, both for better and worse. The cost of cruising is tiny in comparison to thirty years ago. I found a receipt a few weeks ago for a NCL Caribbean cruise on the Norway in 1993. I sailed in a tiny inside cabin for seven nights and paid more than I’m paying for a balcony on Azamara for ten nights in December.

Believe the schedules from next November are the first time Azamara have use Fort Lauderdale. There are basic details on the embarkation info page. https://www.azamara.co.uk/fort-lauderdale-florida-cruises#boarding-directions

I’ve found contacting loyalty appears to best option, I’ve had many issues regarding FCC’s and found loyalty will reply and deal with issues that aren’t strictly within their remit. Off the top of my head I’m sure loyalty@azamara.com is the email. Moving forward I believe the whole communication issue will change for the better. Feel sure someone will offer you better or more pointed advice. Without wishing to sound like an Azamara apologist, I do rather feel a lot of communication issues are caused by the IT still being tied in with RCCL. I did speak with someone whom was able to search mail boxes and found an email that had been sent a long time ago and would have circumnavigated a couple of issues I’d had. Unfortunately the email was sat in an unmonitored mailbox unseen. You will find varied, yet, accurate responses here, please do ask any questions. There is a huge wealth of knowledge and much more entertaining than being on hold for an hour.

Yes, you are correct now I think about it. I was looking at the Caribbean. Some were very expensive for others I scrolled by and didn’t actually look at closely.

Sorry, should have said. Option 3 then 2 for new booking. Was calling to make a balance payment. Not sure if selecting the option for making a new booking actually results in a quicker response time, in the past I’ve had waits of up to ninety minutes regardless of selected option. Did ask the question in the past and was told it makes no difference to whom the call goes, regardless of selection. Possibly that will change with more staff to take calls.

Grandma Cruising drew my attention to Explora, whom I was unaware of. Suspect there will be many pages on this board with comparisons and grumbles from next summer if the product is as excellent as it looks and price point currently on offer remains at that level. I shall be dipping my toe in the Explora experience next winter.