cruizinfools

We are on the 7 day Puerto Caldera to Colon cruise departing 12/7/2024. Windstar is offering a 4 day pre-cruise extension upgrade which includes among other things, tours & experiences in the Monterverde Cloud Forest and Arenal Volcano areas. It is a bit of an investment so was hoping to find out if anyone has done this and if you thought it was worth the expense. Or should we attempt to DIY? Think I could arrange some of it myself, but probably not in its entirety. My TA has said that the included hotels are nice. All meals are included, except the day you fly in. Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated. Windstar Cruise tour itinerary.pdf

No, I have not until I read this thread - several others have already pointed this out, primarily high end cruise lines it seems. Although Azamara is a step above some of the main stream lines, I wouldn't equate them with Viking, Silversea, etc. I haven't cruise with any of the lines previously mentioned, only Azamara, so what do I know. Absolutely have seen such posts, especially post pandemic, except as I mentioned above, I was not aware of cruise lines offering OBC for paying in full early. I have seen offers for paying in full at the time of booking but not midstream. Our previous Azamara cruise was booked 15 months in advance - no such offers - that cruise was pre pandemic, so a different time - they were still a part of RC then. We booked this Azamara cruise March, 2023 - this email simply took us by surprise, probably overreaction on our part. But, given the known issues with customer service, their website, etc. makes one speculative. The itinerary of our upcoming cruise on the Azamara website finally ALMOST matches what our cruise contract indicates (seasoned cruiser here - I understand the itinerary can change, but we have not been notified of any changes). For a long time, the website itinerary was very different and even the map, the description, and the day by day itinerary were not in sync. We have also booked with other cruise lines, more mainstream (Holland, Celebrity, Princess...), over a year in advance - again not seem this type of offer before. And that's why I headed to CC - and as expected, there was already a thread created on the subject with other cruisers chiming in on being unfamiliar with such an offer. Thanks for the info and enlightening us! 😎

We also received this offer this week for our December sailing - does make us a bit concerned about Azamara's financial solvency. 🤔 We did book this with our TA and she has confirmed with Azamara that our booking qualifies and the amount of the OBC which is definitely tempting. But we will also need to up our insurance coverage now to cover the full amount (only have our deposit covered). I have reached out to our insurance agent for that cost. If we should decide to cancel prior to 8/5/2024 (our current final payment date), this is a cost that we would be out unless we book another cruise within the time window our insurance company will allow us to move the policy to.

I reached out to a tour operator that I used many years ago to see if he was still in the business. I just heard back from him and I highly recommend you reach out to him. He provided a tour from Colon to see both the old and new locks (at that time they were still under construction). This was a large group from the CC roll call for that cruise, but he definitely works with small groups as well. The tour that I worked out with Roberto just happened to appeal to many of the folks on our roll call. His contact info is: Roberto E. Whitaker H. email: robtads2@hotmail.com Telephone: (507)442-2499 Office; (507)6875-3683 Cell. Good luck!

I reached out to a tour operator that I used many years ago to see if he was still in the business. I just heard back from him and I highly recommend you reach out to him. He provided a tour from Colon to see both the old and new locks (at that time they were still under construction). This was a large group from the CC roll call for that cruise, but he definitely works with small groups as well. The tour that I worked out with Roberto just happened to appeal to many of the folks on our roll call. His contact info is: Roberto E. Whitaker H. email: robtads2@hotmail.com Telephone: (507)442-2499 Office; (507)6875-3683 Cell. Good luck!