beachseeker

On our cruise in March we received a call on the first day asking if we were willing to switch to a shower only suite. They had three different rooms wanting to switch from shower only to a tub.

We were looking at a b2b. The shorter cruise had a significantly less expensive per day cost than the longer cruise so we saved more money by putting the four free nights on the longer cruise.

Mariano made a very good Lemon Drop Martini in Spirits Lounge on the Journey a couple of months ago and no extra charge. I'm not a huge Sauvignon Blanc fan but the one served from New Zealand was excellent. We thought the wine quality might have dropped a bit, but overall the wines were very good. No complaints.

Okay, one final question. Do both passengers sharing a room have to upgrade to the same package?

No. DH upgrades but I do not.

Beware that the price one week ago was the Stateroom upgrade offer and the price now is the BOGOHO offer. If the price now is only slightly less than a week ago it is still cheaper than the last offer they were running.

We have been watching a Club Continent Suite which was not covered in the previous sale so price definitely jumped.

We have our eye on a Feb 2017 cruise but it is a bit pricey. Ok, very pricey so we have been watching for a BOGOHO sale. Was so excited when I saw the email announcing the sale. We contacted our TA and very, very disappointed. Gee, the price has suddenly increased so that the BOGOHO sale only saves us a very small amount over the price of a week ago. I'm assuming this cruise, in the category we are interested in, is selling well because the price of the cruise that we have booked with our earned free nights later in the year did not increase and the BOGOHO sale would be a nice saving. I'm going to have a hard time convincing DH to continue to look at Azamara. He has been so frustrated with Miami on so many issues but we do so love our onboard experience.

Not on Quest. She's chartered September 24 to October 26.

The September to October charter is in 2016. The charter being discussed here is for September 2017 and we are booked on a b2b leaving Venice on October 3rd, 2017. Due to the recent charter an added day in Venice was added to our cruise.

It seems very tacky to me and not what I imagine when I think of the Azamara brand. Oh well you can't please all of the people all of the time and at least they will be travelling lightly. Don't think I will be looking to book around this time and hope they have a deep clean after. I too feel for the crew who don't have any choice in this.

We are booked on the October 3rd cruise so definitely hoping for a deep clean.

I know the first one but not the second. i sail more on Quest. I am finding now people take money very quietly.

Robin, Mariano was in Spirits on our Journey cruise in March. We spent a lot of time with him and he makes a great lemon drop martini. He was definitely a highlight for our ship experience.

We used Roberto with Taormina Taxi. He was awesome and four years later we are talking about our Godfather Tour. It was the highlight of our Mediterranean cruise.

Bonnie,

 

Thanks for the clarification. I, too, thought the free bags of laundry were earned in increments of 7 days. Based on your response, are cruises between 8 and 14 days entitled to two free bags of laundry? Are cruises of 15 days entitled to three free bags of laundry?

On our 16 day cruise on Journey last month we received 2 vouchers from LCV and in addition to the vouchers we had 2 free bags because the laundry room was not functioning.

Hi Beachseeker,

 

I hope this will make you feel better... We're just off 14 wonderful days on Eclipse in the Caribbean. We've sailed this itinerary about 8 times, and this sailing was one of the very best.

Thanks, Andy. I'm sure our time on board Eclipse will be as good next January as it was in 2015. Just disappointed in the loss of the opportunity to visit some different ports. As much as we enjoy our time on the ships, especially on the Journey and Quest, itinerary and price drive our choice of a cruise.

I'm glad it worked out for you. From another source I just received an offer of two b2b Jazz Cruises for Jan-Feb 2017 -- whole-ship charters of Celebrity Summit. I don't know if cabins were sold before the charter was consummated, but it shows that charters happen even on much larger ships than Azamara.

We were booked on a wonderful 10 itinerary on the Summit in January 2017 that went to some islands that aren't always included and it was canceled due to the Jazz charter. Lots of unhappy people on the roll call. We switched to the 14 day Eclipse but it was at a higher per day cost and is a repeat of our last Caribbean cruise. I'm having a hard time getting excited about the replacement cruise and it left a sour taste in my mouth for Celebrity. Which is too bad because we really enjoyed our cruise on the Eclipse in 2015.

If it's true that it's chartered beginning the 24th, then that affects my first leg also.

Skysthelimit was talking about 2016. Our 2nd leg isn't affected but we will still cancel it. It was an add on to the first leg which was the main reasoning to book this trip. Our January 2017 cruise on Summit was canceled and now this one. It is frustrating for those of us who plan ahead, choose the staterooms we want and usually tie down a lower cost. We had a wonderful cruise last month on the Journey but before the cruise we had a month of dealing with Miami on a canceled shore excursion due to a port change. They said we owed them money that we did not owe and they wouldn't release our express passes. That bad taste of Azamara and Miami is back. The positive thoughts didn't last long.

Our cruise is October 2017, not 2016.

Based on a Google search the ship is chartered by a UK travel agent from 09/24 to 10/26/2016. This is the same agency that has chartered the Journey in the past. If this information about the charter is correct it is such a shame for those that had plans. Very late on Azamara's part but not the first time. We love the ships and crew but the Miami end of things not so much. So sorry for those booked if this is true.

Well if they are going to cancel one part of our b2b they might as well cancel both ends so we can get OBC for both cruises because we will be canceling both cruises.

I don't understand how they can expect people to be loyal to the brand when they pull stuff like this. If they want to charter a cruise, then they shouldn't offer it to the general public and then pull it.

Have you heard anything about your cruise on the 4th? I think it's chartered too.

I'm assuming it is chartered as well. It is showing sold out on one website and has disappeared from Azamara. However, keeping my fingers crossed that maybe it is only a tweak which was the case with the second leg of our b2b when it was shortened by a day with 1 port dropped and one changed. If the first leg is cancelled then we will cancel the whole trip because the 1st leg is the reason we booked. Ugh.....

We too have a b2b booked starting with the October 4th sailing, using our 4 free nights. The 2nd leg of this cruise has already been shortened and ports changed. Not happy to hear this.

We boarded the Journey on march 16th and the same evening at 6pm we already had the Meet&Mingle, hosted by Tony Markey, the cruisedirector and all senior officers showing up.

 

We had the invitations in our stateroom and got no confirmation per email before.

Curious as to where your Meet&Mingle was held. On the cruise prior to your cruise it was in the Living Room. Logistics were not great and Tony mentioned that he might move it back to the library. Wondering what he decided.

I can't say I have ever noticed any vibration problem and, until this thread, had never heard any mention of one.

Interesting to hear different opinions. We had sailed Quest twice and after the first day at sea on the Journey DH and I both thought the Journey sailed differently from the Quest. I described it as shuttering. Not sure that is a word but seems to best described the feeling. We were midship on deck 8. Not bad, just different but definitely more vibration than Quest, in our opinion. If you want serious vibration, sail on the Crown Princess!

No Coke Zero? I may not survive.

There was plenty of Coke Zero on the Journey a couple of weeks ago. I was able to order it in every bar and restaurant as well as it being stocked in our fridge after requesting it. No worries.

Excellent report Beachseeker, enjoyed your Blog enormously as it echoes so many of our views of the same cruise. We were on the Whale Watching trip at Cabo with you - the English couple that sat at the bumpy end of the boat!

 

We also did the ships Photo Safari in the afternoon and had some great views of a couple of whales jumping out of the water. We finished our cruise off with 5 days in Naples FL, revisiting the area after a near 20 year absence and particularly the Dairy Queen on Sanibel after a tour of Ding Darling:)

Thank you for responding. I love it when I can put a face with a screen name. So glad you were able to spend a few days post cruise in SW Florida. We think this area is pretty special.

I keep a digital diary of our travels. If you would like to see our pictures from the cruise, here is the link.

http://travelingwiththehairs.blogspot.com/2016/03/panama-canal-on-azamara-journey-march.html

Roll calls are very quiet on Azamara but often if someone posts an excursion that they are looking for others to share with them, people will appear.

We started our cruise that we just finished at Explorer but are now Discoverer. We booked our 4 free nights while onboard and we were invited to the brunch for Discoverer and above levels. We did not receive any of the other Discoverer benefits. I was so pleased that we were able to take care of the free nights while we were onboard.