kobecat

I attempted to do this in Australia (booked in Australia - never again) and was told our cabin was marked "cannot be upgraded"!

Can anyone tell me if you buy 200 shares and then take a 20 day cruise would you get $500 OBC? Or is the $250 the max OBC that they will provide per booking number?

$250 is the maximum you will get.

Agree with all the above posters. We had our cards skimmed in Brazil a few years ago and cash was withdrawn. Our bank in Australia refunded the money extremely quickly.

You couldn't possibly travel without using the magic plastic.

I booked the 16 August Greek Islands cruise on Constellation on Sunday Australian time outside cabin with loyalty discount, $200US OBC and Bev package. It was a great price. Used Celebrity Australia. The offers were advertised in the newspapers last week. Had to be booked in a 4 day time frame and seems to be all over now.

I also booked two cruises over the weekend and it was ok. I use Chrome. I was annoyed though because I got a quote the day before and on hold for 24 hours and when I tried to book it, it removed the discount! No way would it let me book with the original quotation.

Beryl

We have had 7235 which had the X on the balcony. We would definitely NOT go further forward and definitely not pay extra, to avoid it. We were going through the Suez at the time in pirate territory and were always joking that X marked the spot!!

Beryl

On the Radiance in Australia last month a Bloody Mary and Baileys on ice was AU$21. This is inclusive of gratuity but we thought it was totally ridiculous and didn't go there again.

Hi Denise, have you been to Western Australia. Perth/Fremantle is fantastic and San Diego reminds us of Fremantle. We love your country too. 😃

Beryl

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Just that alone in regards to people sitting in your lounge chairs would make me not want to try a Lania. Who wants to patrol the chairs all the time. I will stick to a balcony.

We would prefer to stick to a balcony but the difference in price for two of us was about $3000 so we were happy with the lanai. If we were all honest I think we would agree a suite is best, but I prefer to do more cruises and be a bit more conservative in spending of the $$$

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We normally do balconies on other lines but the balcony price on HAL is so much more expensive. We did the Maasdam from Rio to Fort Lauderdale a couple of years ago and chose a lanai. We loved it. Yes we could only get a guarantee but were very lucky with our allocation. When sailing north in February, you really need to be on the port side of the ship, the starboard side was almost unbearably hot in the afternoon.

We had a lot of amusement with our allocated loungers outside our cabin. The plaque needed replacing and it was so difficult to read. Many times we went outside to find people on them. We sat inside sometimes laughing as people discussed sitting there - you could almost imagine what they were saying. Some people did not take kindly to being told they were our 'property'. My husband used to send me out to get rid of them, in the nicest possible way of course. He couldn't deal with it. :D

We did this cruise 2 years ago, it was amazing and I am so envious! Have the best time ever!

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We have bought both RCL and Carnival shares in our super fund. Our super fund is both our names so it is no problem, the BJ Name and B Name PSF. We have always had our RCL OBC granted when we have no other OBC, even when we had a deeply discounted Azamara cruise last year. That one surprised us, we were sure it would be rejected. Princess (Carnivals) is great, no drama and credits can be combined.

Beryl

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Only time we were on Allure TA recommended Central Park balcony. Big mistake! Too hot, no privacy and in fact had nothing to recommend about it at all.

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The most obvious to me would be if you are paying it off with a credit card and you don't pay the credit card off every month, so paying interest.

Gosh that is frightening. I wouldn't want to work out how much a cruise would really cost if that is what some cruisers choose to do!

In Australia, RCL do not honour price drops at all - even 12 months out. So it is a matter of cancelling and taking any penalties applied and rebooking. Generally this would not be worth it.

That is why we generally book RCL in the US. However with the current falling AU$ I don't think this is going to be a good option any time soon.

We are very happy we booked and paid in full our RCL Brilliance cruise for next September months ago now.

Beryl

If we book and pay in Australia, I find no advantage either way.

If we book in the US, it depends on what the AU$ is doing against the US$. We have a Brilliance of the Seas cruise booked for next September and paid it in full when we booked. Since then the AU$ has gone down quite a bit so we are happy. If the price is lowered prior to final payment date I am sure we will get the money back. Now that definitely doesn't happen when booked in Australia.

Beryl

Any Australians done a Mediterranean cruise lately. Do we need visas for Greece,Italy,Spain,France and Crete. Have booked two cruises for 2015 and will check visa requirements but just wanted to see what recent cruisers have found.

Obviously check the official channels, but no, visas are not required for any of your mentioned countries (Crete is an island of Greece).

Beryl

Have been on MSC once (Poesia Transatlantic), never again.

Have been on HAL once (Maasdam Rior to Fort Lauderdale), have booked the Ryndam next year.

We are Celebrity/RCL and Princess cruisers but the above gives my recommendation.

Beryl

We did not attend the Azamazing Evening on our recent Quest cruise.

 

 

 

After guests had left the ship the MDR was open for dinner as usual. As it was a gloriously warm evening we chose to dine outside at the Sunset Bar. We loved the peace and the stupendous Georgian skyline.

Wow, in my opinion you missed a real highlight of the cruise. I agree Batumi was great and a real surprise package to me, but the dancers were truly Azamazing.

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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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As Azamara seems to prefer rewarding the late bookers with upgrades in these situations, couldn't you have just accepted the full refund for your balcony cabin and then made an entirely new booking with a TA for an oceanview guarantee?

A fellow cruiser on this cruise did that, and did not get an upgrade either. They have their ways and means of inserting black marks!!!

Beryl

It's an interesting problem. We have been booked on the 20 August Quest Black Sea sailing since February 2013. Our balcony was $6200 and we paid the deposit and in fact had paid the cruise in full well before final payment date.

Then the Ukraine situation came into play and we were offered a full refund.

Clearly, people were dropping likes flies and Azamara offered Inside and Oceanview guarantees for approx. US$1700. At that stage we were permitted (not without a fight) to 'downgrade' our cabin to an oceanview guarantee and receive a refund for the balance.

This special offer lasted for many weeks and it is apparent that many people who booked the oceanview guarantee have now been upgraded to balconies free of charge.

We have not been offered upgrades, so it seems we had a 'black mark' put against our names!!

We are not at all unhappy; what a fabulous upcoming cruise we have at a great price and we are happy for the people with the upgrades.

But I do question the Azamara management on their decision making given a situation like this one. After all we did not ''jump ship, take the money and run", but is seems obvious our booking had some sort of note on it that we not be given any upgrades.

It would be interesting to know how many people were given upgrades, but given the traffic through a certain German cruise booking website, checking balcony availability while the special was on, I would guess at a fair number!

Just saying again, we are really happy with our outcome and wish the people who got upgrades all the best for a fantastic cruise.

Beryl

Never sailed with Captain Carl...only with Captain Johannes and he will be on both our sailings again. :D

I loved it that one day he came to our table and asked if he could join us for lunch....at first I had no idea who he was. How many Captains on other cruise lines mingle with the pax? I can't even tell you who our Captain was on X last year and he was not at the meet & greet, although other officers were.

In general I agree with you about captains on other ships, BUT if you have ever had the pleasure of sailing with Captain Tasos on Celebrity Constellation you will NEVER forget him. What a wonder that man is (and young and good looking!)

Beryl

What is the difference between EDocs and the express pass you print yourself?

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Found it!! Showing only two available outside cabins and heaps of balconies. Interesting!

TJ charged our credit card in $ last year. No problems.