uktraveller

3 hours ago, Turangi! said:

 

We are also on the June 24 Norway Pursuit cruise. Now I am confused because the Itinerary and the cruise planner show the same overlapping information with different arrival and departure times… there is a RIB tour to Trollfjord listed in our shore excursions, so I am guessing we go into Svolvaer and the TrollFjord is a highlight but unusual to double list with arrival and departure for both!?!  

 

Svolvaer cruise schedule shows we are there from 7 till 5 on the 1st…..but it’s definitely confusing giving overlapping times for the Trollfjord sailing! 
 

We had this cruise booked for July 2020 and obviously couldn’t go….so very excited to finally be planning. 

47 minutes ago, oddjob16 said:

The Pursuit 24th July does not go north of Trondheim, at least that is what the available itinerary says. 

Sorry

Oops, we’re on the 24th June, not July! 
 

itinerary says

01 July 06.30. -19.00 Trollfjord

01 July 07.00-17.00  Svolvaer

Oops

We are booked on the 24th July 2023 Norway intensive cruise and are looking at possible excursions. 

Does anyone know if the ship actually sails into the Trollfjord? Or is this best seen on a shore ex from Svolvaer? 

2 hours ago, CC71 said:

Thank you Uktraveller, used one such site as you suggested and got the email address, hopefully I will get a response! 

I sincerely hope you do 🤞🤞

27 minutes ago, CC71 said:

I haven’t been able to speak to anyone senior enough to further my request for refund, hence why I was hoping  that somebody on the board may be kind enough to share an email of someone within Azamara HQ that I could direct my query to?

If you Google   ‘Azamara CEO email’   you should be able to find this info .. (use one of the sites offering several free lookups before you have to subscribe).

We had success using this method to escalate our issue.

Good luck 

4 hours ago, lovelyjubbly said:

New to Azamara and sailing onboard Onward in July.

Can anyone tell me what’s needed regarding pre cruise testing. Is it self administered LFT via Randox or the like OR a clinic administered test?

Many thanks 😊 

Hello fellow Nailsea resident 🙂…didn’t think I would ever type that on cruisecritic!
 

It is safest to assume the test needs to be supervised or you could end up having to take a $59 test at the port!
Where are you sailing from?  Some ports (eg Athens) are applying their own rules and the Azamara website is contradictory and/or inaccurate!

Journey 26th May 2022 had 620 passengers onboard. 

There was no brunch at all on the Journey cruise which disembarked on Sunday.

People are happy to take comfort from reading positive experiences and dismiss the negative ones. 
We have just disembarked Journey’s first cruise back. 620 guests, crew at 65%.  No table service in the bars, 45 min wait for a table in Discoveries because not all tables being used. 
The following cruise will have 180 guests and the extra 65 crew members who joined at Kusadasi just before the end of our cruise. They will have a completely different, hopefully much better,  experience than we did. And will no doubt report back that everything on the Journey is just like “Azamara of old”. 
 

Despite going in with realistic expectations we came away disappointed.

3 hours ago, uktog said:

I think the real issue for many is everyone accepts crew might be learning but the trouble is guests were paying the price for a “non learning experience”. 

Spot on. 

We are due to disembark Journey tomorrow after 10 days onboard. 
The senior team have been completely invisible.There are major staffing shortages  and it shows everywhere with many “events” quietly dropped.  The Living Room, Den and Mosaic are basically being run by one staff member with very little table service. 
 

I’m afraid to say that for us it is nowhere near what we have experienced on previous Azamara cruises. 

Boarded Journey yesterday.  The staff are so pleased to see us and the feeling is mutual 😄.

It’s going to be a fabulous trip.

On the subject of testing for departures from Athens….

the first question you are asked as you arrive outside the terminal is “do you have a negative result from a test taken in the last 24 hours?”

In our case the answer was yes, so the paperwork was checked and we were given a pink wristband. We then went fairly quickly to checkin. There were many people without wristbands in a waiting area, presumably for tests or results. 
 

11 minutes ago, les37b said:

 

That would be appreciated.

 

Do you think it's just Greece disqualifying PCRs older than 24 hours? If it's the whole the EU, Azamara need to update their instructions or be specific if it's a different country need.

 

I've not made an appointment for a PCR before I leave London, but I'm sure as hell not paying out 2 X £79 for a test that can't be used in Lisbon a day later and then have to fork out for another.

On the Princess website they only highlighted Greece as having special rules re test timing, so hopefully that’s the case. 
 

Absolutely not worth paying out in the region of £150 for 2 x PCR tests if you’re not 100% sure they’ll be accepted…..even if Azamara offers you a complimentary test because their info was inaccurate!

22 minutes ago, les37b said:

 

I've asked this question elsewhere and there is something on the Silversea website, also saying a test is required for embarkation in EU countries. It says it must be an Antigen test within 24 hours and CAN be a home test with verification (I assume that means video call).

 

So many conflicts of information. Pity nothing official is seen on a country website specifying it. CL as we've seen often gets info wrong and doesn't update their website.

 

So while this thread is specifically for Greece, it throws into doubt the validity of a PCR and a PCR older than 24 hours

 

Mine sails from Lisbon in 3 weeks and frankly its questionable if the only reason for the email sent a couple of weeks ago was just to say, Azamara will test and cost you $59. It seems clear the PCR instruction (at least for Greece) is wrong. 

 

 

 

 

 

I haven’t read anything about other countries requiring the test to be no older than the day before embarkation, hopefully this will become clearer as we get further into the European season.

I hope you find an inexpensive antigen test provider in Lisbon, so you aren’t left paying the overly expensive $59 at the port.

We fly Tuesday and board, hopefully, on Thursday. I will report back on our experience. 

33 minutes ago, Piaa said:

Thank you so much - we are staying at the Electra Palace - may I ask how you found out that the hotel is doing testing (I hope the EP is as well and I looked on the website but didn't see anything)  Thanks again 

It was mentioned on their website, but we dropped them an email to confirm the cost and to ask whether we needed to book an appointment.  They responded quickly and were very helpful.  
 

8 hours ago, les37b said:

 

I saw that post you mentioned regarding pursuit and don't blame you for not taking any chances. I'd do the same.

 

I had a look for the princess statement you  mentioned. Could you share where it was?

 

I doesn't make much sense. If you don't need a test of any sort to enter Greece, why on earth would they insist on a PCR to board a ship and leave!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the statement under COVID testing requirements for European cruises on the Princess website.

8 hours ago, Piaa said:

 

Where are you getting tested in Athens please ?  We do not sail until August (plenty of time for requirements to change) but thought I would log some addresses of testing locations now (also did you book ahead?) 

 

Thanks so much for any help 

We are staying at the Electra Metropolis Hotel, they have someone doing tests everyday between 11.30 and 1.30. No appointment necessary and 10euro for an antigen test. 
 

Recent cruisers have used pharmacies in Athens, again no appointment, for around 7-8 euro. 

31 minutes ago, Mrmatt said:

Thanks. Very helpful. 

Mrmatt… we are booked on the Journey sailing from Athens on the 26th.  We have cancelled our (expensive) PCR test appointment and decided to go for an antigen in Athens the day before for 2 reasons…

Firstly, someone posted last week that their 72 PCR was not accepted on the May 17th Pursuit departure from Athens because it was older than 24 hrs, quoting Greek government guidelines.

Secondly, there is a very clear statement on the Princess website specific to Greece departures which says, because of Greek government guidelines,  both PCR or antigen tests must be dated on the day before departure. 
 

That was enough to convince us that an antigen test in Athens is the way to go. 

1 hour ago, travelberlin said:

I have boarded in Athens today. You do need one antigen test within one day of boarding. Easy to get in pharmacies in Athens. Cost varies. Some have paid 5 Euro, others 8 Euro. I have paid 7 Euro. 
Ivi

Was your test within 24 hours, or anytime the day before?

Some one posted on another thread that their PCR was rejected at todays embarkation because it wasn’t within 24 hrs.

We are on this sailing too.  I’m pretty sure that this is outdated info…it was on our online checkin account before the announcement to bring your own test result with you on sailings after 1st May.
No excuse not to have corrected it by now!  If I turned up expecting complimentary testing after reading that and got charged $59 I wouldn’t be pleased! 

 

We are sailing with friends on Journey at the end of this month on our first cruise post Covid.
Do we need to link our bookings so we can dine together in Discoveries and Windows? Or can we just show up together like we have done in the past?

Does anyone know the isolation zone cabins on Iona at the moment?

We are looking at booking a standard balcony cabin and don’t want to pay for a select fare, choose own cabin, and then be moved.

Embarrassing ☹️

1 hour ago, Doh15 said:

That’s my understanding. Per the other thread even people in the window to only get 25% back as a refund are getting 25% cash back and 75% FCC. 
 

Are you planning on cancelling? I am also coming up on a deadline for a near full refund on a July Norway cruise and trying to decide what to do (made harder because it would be harder for us to go next year, so an FCC is less useful but also I’ll be more disappointed to cancel for this year). 

We are really having trouble deciding whether to cancel now or just go ahead and make the final payment and hope for the best.  

We don’t know what’s likely to happen to next year’s pricing ( the same cruise in 2021 is considerably more than 2020 at the moment) so we wouldn’t be prepared to automatically swap to that one .......we could end up with a large FCC that we find difficult to spend.