themoon

Thank you for your review. We had some of the same issues on our last cruise. I found it especially funny when your mentioned having to ask for certain foods that were then produced from under a napkin, or in our case from under the counter. Food quality on our cruise was also lacking. I'm sorry to hear that getting a preferred included wine on a different night is now becoming an issue, I have always appreciated the fact that in the past the waiters and bartenders would happily supply the wine on any night. We also did not feel the that the staff clicked in the usual manner, but in our case Heike, Eric, and the captain were on holiday. Though the replacements are not on board nearly as long, captain Jason had his family on board for the first half of the cruise keeping him busy, and seemed to be missing them for the second half. Ryzard was fine. Tony had two college age nieces on board for the whole two weeks, so he was always occupied elsewhere and rarely seen. Though I find it commendable of Azamara to let officer's family members travel with them, it might be a little depressing for the regular staff that never receive such a privilege to observe, and it can become a detriment to the passengers traveling during these family visits as in our experience they are a definite distraction. In your case the Christmas holidays and Brazilian visas seemed to be causing the disconnect. We have booked again and hope our next experience will not leave us regretting our decision.

Thank you everyone for your kind words and feedback. While I am regretful that we won't be taking advantage of this incredible itinerary, I am breathing a sigh of relief that we're not going to be in 6001. Whew! close call there. After reading all the comments, though, I am still shaking my head over how this undesirable cabin is classified as a VX and carries a premium price tag over the V1, 2, and 3 balcony categories. It seems a little greedy to me. :mad:

Deirdre, I'm sorry you cancelled your cruise over this.

thank you especially, Brigitte, for the detailed list as it's going to be useful when I tell my husband that no, this cabin is not an exciting adventure ;)

You're welcome.

Husbands and their sense of adventure, that is exactly why we wound up selecting that cabin through the canal, he thought it would be more interesting...and it was, for all the wrong reasons...lol.

Deirdre, we had cabin 6001 through the Suez Canal, and even though it was interesting during the transit, I would still never choose that cabin again due to the following:

-The sixth floor is too low down to get good views.

-There were almost always crew around that could see us on the balcony

-The crew were always washing the bow, so dirty water spray regularly on the balcony furniture.

-Loud early morning noise on port days from the anchors.

-Loud noise from the cabaret during rehearsals and during shows.

-Overpowering wind when going at regular speeds.

-Too much sun for the air conditioner to handle, so we had to keep the drapes drawn much of the time.

-The claimed larger balcony is all under the slanted railing, so not usable.

We paid extra for that cabin and selected it ourselves. As a guarantee I would live with it if the price was worth it to me, but I hope you will be able to change yours. The one thing we did not have a problem with was motion, it didn't bother us at all. Good Luck!

From speaking with staff while on board, I was told that the charters never include the alcoholic beverages throughout the day that are normally included on Azamara. These all have to be purchased and are a good stream of extra revenue for the ship.

The MDR is open seating. When you arrive you let the maître d' know which size table you prefer and depending on availability you'll be seated right away or have a short wait.

If you enjoy the specialty restaurants you can save a little money by buying a package in the boarding area on embarkation day, or you can just make individual reservations.

Agreed. Or lost completely. Unfortunately 5 of my 6 upcoming Azamara cruises were booked in a suite that going forward does not allow the bed to be split in two singles. Azamara managed to relocate me on 3 out of 5 cruises, but for the remaining 2 cruises, all suites are taken and the other guests are refusing to swap cabins (Azamara was kind enough to contact them), so unfortunately it looks like it's plan B for me - Oceania. I have never cruised Oceania and I never would have had it not been for this 'situation'. Shame :(

 

F

I'm very surprised that Azamara would rather let you cancel the cruise than accommodate you with a bed choice that was available when you booked the cruise. How difficult would it have been for a group of cabin stewards to carry the bed that can be split out of one suite and place it in another suite for the duration of your cruise? (and yes, I understand some dismantling would have to be done to the bed frames) It really is a shame.

Did you not know about the 15% certificate? We were also on the 20 August sailing but instead of accepting the 15% offer we saved $4000 each by downgrading to an ocean view guarantee and in the end got upgraded to a better balcony than our original. We were happy campers to say the least.

 

We found the Quest fantastic with very happy staff, I find it difficult to understand the criticism of the Quest on a separate post here but of course we're all different.

 

The Azamazing evening in Georgia was a highlight of the trip and the white night was also Azamazing!

 

I too am impressed that they have listened to their customers and given back some of the loyalty perks.

 

 

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I'm happy you got an upgrade after all and had a lovely cruise. When did you find out about the balcony cabin, on the Express Pass or at the pier?

Where is your home city?

Montreal, and about five minutes from the old port where the ships that can fit under the bridge just past Quebec city dock. The larger ships have to stop in Quebec city and turn around.

Assume this agency is on the Eastern side of the States. :-)

 

Would you be so kind as to divulge the date of your AZ cruise. We inquired about a September 2016 cruise and were told the 50% reduced deposit did not apply. Yes, is a "crossing".

 

Thanks so much. Appreciate your assistance.

It's the crossing. I couldn't imagine having the Quest sail for the very first time to my home city and not being aboard.

Know you cannot divulge the name of your travel agent. May I ask if it's an online agency? C** C**? Would be interested in knowing. When I inquired about 50% deposit I was told that it didn't "combine" with the upgrade to the veranda from the inside cabin pricing.

 

Any "heads-up" that you can give on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance.

Yes, a US based online agency.

Yes, as is the half-price deposit offer. Azamara's offer is the veranda-for-inside fare.

Thanks for answering Deirdre. That is exactly how the breakdown went for us too.

We finally succumbed and booked the Quest for September 2016. The double upgrade offer, plus the 50% off deposit offer, plus a huge OBC was more than we could resist. Too bad it's such a long wait until we sail, but maybe we'll find something else in between.

As this is a forward-facing suite/balcony....wonder if that balcony will be useable when the ship is under way....

We have stayed in balcony cabin 6001, which is next door, and found the balcony was rarely usable. It was very windy and we also did not like the fact that crew members were in the bow in front of our balcony daily carrying out their work. The anchor was extremely loud when it dropped, as was the music from the cabaret lounge underneath during the shows and rehearsals. The couple in the cabin next to us moved after the first day of a two week cruise to a balcony cabin on the side, but we stuck it out and were sorry we did.

It's funny, we felt the crew did not click on our last Journey cruise, yet they seemed to click for the guests on the next sailing.

Just like all people can have an "off day", I guess the crew can have an "off cruise".

Enjoy your cruise, a week flies by so very fast.

I guess something is better than nothing, though I would have preferred they reinstate the same amount of slooooow minutes we had before.

Thanks Dierdre for the great review. It made me wish we had been on your sailing and not the one just previous.

I agree that White Night's are something Azamara does beautifully.

The new furniture looks great, too bad we didn't get to see that on our sailing.

What's with all this criticism of Tony? We're just home from the same cruise and the following Lisbon to Barcelona cruise. We thought Tony did a great job. We saw him all over the ship and found him approachable. I agree that the M & M could have been better - the cabaret isn't the right venue. Apart from that we thought Tony did a great job as CD. I really don't understand why he's getting bagged so much. We found Eric last year to be less approachable and visible than Tony was on this cruise, so it's probably just about perceptions.

I merely stated that I hardly saw him, I did not bash him. I had a chat with him one day and he is a nice person, but I didn't observe him doing much "Cruise Directing" on my sailing.

Every cruise I have been on has also had a $30 special to stuff the laundry bag and have it all done for a fixed price. And as those of us with free laundry know, you can get a heck of a lot into one of those bags :D.

We are just back from our two week food and wine cruise and we loved the itinerary, and as usual the staff were wonderful. This was our fourth Azamara in the last 18 months and we did notice some differences from the others.

When we went to our rooms on embarkation day, there was no fruit plate, no flowers, no sparkling wine, and the TV was still displaying the names of the previous guests. This was mostly corrected during the evening turn down service. For the first time our room had a musty smell, and now there was no more room spray to mask the scent. I soon realized that the off odor was coming from the shower curtain and asked to have it changed, that fixed the problem but it should not have happened in the first place. Had this been our first cruise with Azamara, we would not have been impressed with day one.

The dining room and bar staff were great throughout the cruise. The cruise director Tony, and captain Jason were rarely seen, with the latter giving off a decidedly standoffish vibe, much unlike our past captains. To his merit, captain Jason did manage to get us a berth in Bayonne when the seas were too rough for us to tender in from St. Jean De Luz. Richard, the hotel director, was ever present and always pleasant.

The food was very good in all the venues and we had no complaints. Bar service was excellent, with wines from prior days always happily provided. The shows were adequate. Nathan, the guitarist, was excellent. We enjoyed the disco with DJ Marcio. We did not attend any activities, so I cannot comment on those. Our fellow cruisers were all great and we enjoyed chatting. The internet service was terrible and if we had been paying for it, as we will be in the future, we would have been complaining constantly.

The Amazing Evening was anything but. The venue was a 45 minute bus ride away and by the time our bus got there it seemed like we were late to the party. The entertainment was limited to a girls choir preforming a few songs. The wine was very good, but the accompanying cheese was placed on platters with no toothpicks in evidence in some cases, or with people placing used and new toothpicks together when toothpicks were present. This resulted in people touching the cheese with their hands...for a ship that is always trying to avoid GI, this didn't seem to be a very good measure. We were only at the venue for approximately 45 minutes, when they announced that the buses were ready to take people back, thus resulting in a stampede by some. Had we known what it would be like, we never would have attended.

The shuttle service provided by Azamara was very good and we appreciated being able to easily get to the centre of town in each place we visited. Debarkation was very smooth.

Despite a few setbacks it was another great cruise for us, though for the first time we do not have another one booked.

We are just back from our sailing and I thought I'd post our experience. We booked the package that included one dinner in Prime C, one dinner in Aqualina, and one Chef's Table as soon as we boarded. Of course we had no problem selecting our dates and times. The Chef's Table we selected was set to be four days before we disembarked. When I found out the that the group had become large enough to have to be accommodated in the library and would be hosted by the Art Auction shill, I cancelled on the day of our Chef's Table and asked to change the package to the package that included three specialty restaurant dinners. We were accommodated and we were able on short notice to instead book Aqualina again. I must mention though that we dine early. Each time we dined the restaurants were fairly empty and yet I observed the Maitre D telling walk-ins that they could not be accommodated because of the 8:00 and 8:30 PM reservations. This made no sense though as no one we observed took more than an hour and a half to complete a meal, two at the utmost. Seeing all the empty tables just made us question the strategy.

I was also on the August 20th sailing and found the Cruise Critic meeting a disappointment. Without the introductions, what is the point? I found that Tony was almost invisible throughout the cruise. He seemed to be busier entertaining family members on board than he was at doing his job. Shows were either not introduced, or they were introduced by Joe. Unlike Eric, Tony made very rare appearances.

I just found out that someone (from the US) on the same Antarctic Cruise, with a Future Cruise Credit, was able to cancel, rebook with the new promotion and keep their Future Cruise Credit. What's up Azamara?

Escalate the matter up the food chain. Last year my TA was told the same thing about the FCC when I was considering cancelling a cruise. I was incensed that the FCC would not be returned to me, so I called Azamara directly and demanded to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor told me that if I cancelled the current reservation, the FCC would still be available for me to use on a future cruise. I am also in Canada.

Thank you! Works great and very simple to use.

Just out of interest, are passengers who selected a specific cabin when booking ever offered an upgrade?

I have seen both when a specific cabin has been selected. Friends were upgraded without prior knowledge or consent and we were contacted by our travel agent and asked about the upgrade.