takemewithyou

Hi Norris, thanks for the reply and I appreciate your honest answer! We have sailed HAL quite a bit as well as X (last on in 2015) We were last on HAL in 2018. We always liked HAL. They have interesting itineraries. We found their food to be fine. Their Neptune Suites are large and very comfortable. We have not been on HAL post Covid. I did read their CC board intermittently post Covid and there were a lot of concerns over food quality. I haven’t keep up with their boards recently. I hope the food has improved. Again, it was always good Pre Covid. I would say the Pinnacle Grill was always better than Prime C on Azamara, The crew was always great and very friendly……similar to the crew on Azamara. Sounds like you have found a good replacement for your Azamara cruise. I will try to remember to read your review! have a great cruise!

How does the price compare? Just curious….. Aft suite on HAL compared to the accommodations that you had on Azamara?

Agree with @uktog. We saw the same show last year the cruise right after @uktog”s……we just missed each other 😀. We really enjoyed it and always liked Harry Belafonte’s music. We had seats pretty close to all the action. It was an easy, relaxing and fun Azamazing Evening. Note: If you didn’t want to leave the ship, you could just sit on the sunset veranda off of Windows Cafe and see and hear all the action from afar.

Let us know how it goes…..do you have dress in formal attire for Seabourn?

We have done those itineraries on Celebrity and Holland America and they were great cruises. I think Oceania has some nice itineraries with both Maine and PEI, but pricey. Azamara is the one I wanted to return on to this area. Boston is a great city. Great history. New York? Well, I could care less to go there. Sorry Host Jazzbeau. 😀

I was looking at their itineraries recently…..at least a few of their itineraries stop in Bar Harbor. Azamara is really losing out by not doing Canada / New England cruises!…..I know they added a Greenland to Canada cruise…..that itinerary doesn’t do it for me! Been to some of those places before and once was enough. There are quite a few of us who have been requesting these for quite a few years! One of the most beautiful areas for cruising on this side of the pond.

I am originally from New England (Maine] . Have done cruises there, too. Do you have an itinerary you are looking at? Does Viking even stop in Maine? Usual stops are Portland and Bar Harbor. In my opinion, you miss a lot if you don’t have at least Bar Harbor or Portland Maine on your itinerary.

How long will this go on for? I think you raise some good questions! We have no idea! As an Azamara cruiser since 2009, I have to say I am extremely disappointed with the lack of communication we are receiving from the President and the rest of the Azamara team regarding this question.

@tgg on my last sailing on Pursuit in June I happened to meet the beverage manager by chance before our meeting and she volunteered to have drinks ready for our meet and greet and the designated meeting spot in the Insider was the opposite side of the LR -that worked out much better! We were treated very well because of this chance meeting of the bev manager……trays of drinks circulated throughout the gathering! p.s. you are so kind!

I have done the same….organized roll calls and then brought name tags. It really helps people to find who they have been conversing with on the roll calls. Sometimes I have printed out all the names myself and other times, I just brought a pack of blank name tags for people to fill out themselves.

Maybe they did! He was working on it at that time and going from ship to ship to get the procedure manuals updated.

This past Christmas of 2022, when we were onboard Onward, Tony Markey had some question and answer sessions onboard with guests that I attended and that is one of things he said he had been tasked with and was working on at that time.

Over on the Oceania board, there was a long thread similar to this one about alternatives to Oceania! Looking for greener pastures. One of the lines mentioned was Seabourn. Has anyone tried them and have any comments?

I got it, too! Thought it was just another email trying to drum up business, but you are right….it is telling me to book my carnival tickets for a cruise I am not on! what next?!

Ask for a cafe americano?

And the brewed US stuff is what I like! Where can I get the closest thing to that? Edited to add….last O cruise was 8 yrs ago and the coffee in GDR was so dark and strong!

We tried Viking Ocean…..wasn’t for us. We are trying an Oceania cruise ….again, after trying once before 8 yrs ago. We shall see how it goes. Have one more Azamara booking late 2024. Our June Pursuit cruise was pretty good…..pretty close to Azamara pre Covid.

Unfortunately Bill Leiber passed away and he is sorely missed. https://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Obituary-Azamara-blogger-Bill-Leiber

I wish we could get back to the Azamara we all know and loved. In the meantime, improved communication is what is really needed right now since their website situation is still in disarray. It’s obvious to most of us. What would really help would be to reinstitute an Azamara Cruise Critic blogger type position that we had with Bill Leiber and then later from Bonnie MacLaird. I fear that Azamara is losing loyal customers due to its customer service issues all stemming from the website woes and poor communication.

I think you may be right on that. I seem to remember that discussion when Pursuit first was introduced into the fleet on Azamara. Thanks

He never spoke to us…not once on our cruise. I think it is the first Azamara cruise I have ever been on where the HM did not interact with us and stop by and ask how our cruise was going. He not seem to want to interact…..at least that was my impression.

Do you mean they read your comments here on CruiseCritic and wanted to explain to you or they read comments that you submitted from onboard the ship? I am sorry, but I think there should be consistency across all ships and I see that as something that has changed in the last few years since Covid and the restart of sailing. Azamara knows they have a high percentage of repeat cruisers each sailing! Or should know that. maybe they won’t have so many repeaters in the future and that’s changing, but I digress! I agree that there should be a note in the stateroom to explain why there is not a stocked mini bar on Journey. Interesting…..Journey is my next booking. Who is the Hotel Manager currently?

Yes, it sounds like there may be differences from ship to ship. Perhaps different hotel directors are giving different standards to the stateroom attendants to follow. It would seem to be better to have consistency across all the ships.

On Pursuit in June in a regular veranda, we had ice bucket (didn’t need to request) and it was replenished every day, at least. We had plenty of water supplied which we used. There were soft drinks in the fridge.

found this interview where she discusses the difficulties they have had with website data migration….. https://www.travelmarketreport.com/Cruise/articles/Azamara-President-Carol-Cabezas-on-Q1-2023-the-Azamara-Difference