malcliz

We didn’t like the chairs and hoped they were temporary. We found they were ok for eating at the table but not for relaxing and reading on the balcony. 

The documents are there for this cruise but unusually there are 2 blank pages, the front cover and the luggage label page which is usually before the notes. I think it is the same for everyone. Hoping they will upload them before we go. 

48 minutes ago, roberts2005 said:

Just received our $500.00 OBC from Onward maiden voyage for port change from Venice to Ravenna .

 

 

Did you receive OBC? We would rather have OBC but just received ours and it is FCC that I don’t think we can use before June. 

1 hour ago, ggTexasGal said:

You can go to Guest Services desk the day before disembarkation and ask for your refund in cash.

(I can't say for certain, but I do believe there is a limit to the dollar amount they will give you.)

On the final full day, go asap, because the desk gets very busy later in the day!

We did go to guest services the day before and asked for the money to be put back on our credit card which they said they would do. We didn’t want it back in cash so we were surprised when we had to queue up to receive dollars on disembarkation when our coach was waiting. 

16 minutes ago, casofilia said:

@malcliz

 

The norm is that cancelled shorex charges are returned to your folio as Refundable OBC and also that any Refundable OBC/credit on your Folio is refunded in cash before you leave the ship.

 

PAPERWORK!!

Thank you! We didn’t realise that. We expected it to be refunded via our credit card. 

5 hours ago, lisiamc said:

We are onboard Pursuit currently, and I am thrilled to report that the Patio Grill is open for dinner. It’s just as delicious as I remember it, but a bit underused, possibly because we are in Iceland, and people may not realise that the heaters are on, so it’s very nice even at night.

Excellent. It wasn’t open on the Journey last month but hoping this means it will be in September!

One of our excursions that we purchased online before our cruise was cancelled on board at short notice so we enquired at Guest Relations and was told the money would be refunded on the card we used to purchase the tour, which is fine. However when we disembarked there was an alert on our card and we had to queue up to receive our refund in dollars. This seems very odd and not so convenient as it meant a delay in our journey and a trip to the bank today to change the dollars. I wonder why they do this and not just refund online?

42 minutes ago, capegirl said:

Thank you!  I have recently read bad reviews.  What is your opinion?

We only went on the shorter 45 minute ride. It stayed in the town and had one stop for a few minutes. The longer ride may have been more interesting.  It wasn’t a great way to see very much but relatively inexpensive and plenty of time to look around the town afterwards. There is also an open topped bus ride that goes from the same place but not sure where that goes. 

11 hours ago, capegirl said:

Anyone know if the Ajaccio small tourist train stop is near the Azamara berth? 

I imagine it wouldn’t be far. We went on this train yesterday. We weren’t on Azamara this time but it was a very short walk from where our ship was docked. 

We agree boarding the Onward at Monaco was chaos but we just got off the Journey yesterday and have to say embarkation in Athens was extremely well organised. We had a check in time of 2 pm so we arrived at 1 pm and were initially offered a coach ride into Piraeus to pass the time until boarding commenced which we declined. We were taken straight into the marquee where our test results were checked and we were given a yellow bracelet to wear. Then straight into the building for the check in process and back to the marquee where there were snacks and water. During this time others without test results were being tested. We boarded soon after at about 1.40 pm. We were so impressed with the smooth way it was handled. 

Heike was one of the reasons we loved Azamara from our very first Azamara cruise in 2009.  Round Italy with Heike, Captain Carl and Sue Denning as CD. Lovely memories of cruising with Heike and all the other great officers and crew. 

6 minutes ago, biggersn said:

We are taking our first cruise for two and a half years next month. One of the things we loved was boarding in the middle of the day and eating lunch at Windows. Can   passengers now only board in the afternoon due to Covid precautions, thereby necessitating feeding ourselves before boarding?

We had boarding day snacks in the afternoon in Windows which we really enjoyed. 

11 minutes ago, hallux said:

It's likely the same cost on board.  However - if you can hold out using any of the minutes, when you go to use the internet on the second day you get an offer that will credit you for the unused minutes AND you save a day of cost for the internet.  There are a few threads on this very topic floating around...

Oh thank you. That is helpful. I will look for the threads. 

We have the free at sea package for our 7 day cruise in August which includes 150 free minutes. I notice on the app there is an offer to upgrade now to unlimited WiFi for the week at a cost of £87. Does anyone know the cost on board and whether it is worthwhile buying this in advance now?

41 minutes ago, sovilav01 said:

Something I don’t understand, we were on 1st and 2 nd legs on the Onward and this bathroom  was locked because on maintenance, I don’t think this picture should have been on Cruise Critic as it wasn’t opened to public.

I was looking for those photos to post the same thing, that the bathroom was closed when we were on board but I can’t find them now. 

Is there any way of seeing live availability so you can select particular cabins with walk in showers, sleeping 4 for instance?

Please can anyone tell me whether any of the Club Balcony suites on Epic have a walk in shower as we can’t climb in over the bath? If so what numbers would they be as this is not mentioned on the deck plans. Presumably if there are any with just a shower, the room itself would be a bit larger?

• COVID-19 Test Result
  Travelers must provide evidence of a negative result for SARS-CoV-2 that has been conducted within 3 days of boarding the ship in Greece. Proof of a negative test is not required however for all travelers that have completed their vaccination(i.e., 14 days have elapsed since the last vaccination, depending on the doses required) and hold a vaccination certificate.

That is what it says under Greece under Explore well at sea on the website as from 11th May. So does that mean tests are no longer required if you are vaccinated? It’s very confusing. 

56 minutes ago, Azamarajunkie said:

We are currently on board Onward, we took a LFT 1 day before boarding with Chronomics which is a home test that you upload a picture of the cassette showing your result into their system. They then send you back the result onto your account showing date and time of the result which you can print out. We showed this at check in at Monaco who noted down the negative result and date taken. Provided this was the day before all was fine and we were allowed to board. The test did not have to be proctored.   Hope this helps. 

We used a self test too with Express Tests the day before boarding. We uploaded a photo of the result and they emailed a certificate which was accepted at Monaco. 

“A few other items are missing, as well, such as the Azamara hangers (yes, you will have hangers, just not ours), laundry bags, slippers and a few other things”

Perhaps the chairs are the “few other things”  😂😂

11 hours ago, Cruise Critic Chris said:

Great to see so many questions! Will try to get to some of these in the next few days. 

 

A few photos so far. Ship has same look and feel as other Azamara ships - not a lot of changes. 

A caution that the ship is definitely in shakedown mode and things are not quite done. The pool deck in particular still needs its furniture. No outdoor furniture on the balconies yet.

 

 

 

 

No furniture on the balconies or pool deck!  Do you know if it will be arriving by Monday?

2 hours ago, terry&mike said:

I was in a zoom meeting with Azamara yesterday and the test has to be a "proctored" test. So, you can use one of the EMed at home tests that are proctored (witnessed through a call, and they send you a certificate), but you cannot use an at home test that is not proctored. 

The email we had didn’t mention ‘witnessed’ tests. The ones we have ordered are where you upload a photo of the test results and the company email you a certificate. 

Yes we received this OBC when we bid to upgrade to owners in September this year. It didn’t show on our account but it was added when we queried it. 

45 minutes ago, Psoque said:

Hi.  We are currently in midst of our Basel to Amsterdam Cruise on Crystal Debussy that started on Nov. 18, 2021.

 

As many of you know, the water levels on the Rhine is very low, especially in southern Germany.  Because of it, Crystal Debussy could not make it to Basel.  We got tested for the coronavirus at Pullman Hotel in Basel and boarded the Crystal bus, which took us on a scenic 3 hour drive to Speyer, Germany where we boarded the ship.  Initially, the plan was for the ship to stay there overnight, allowing us to still visit Strasbourg.  However, we ended up leaving Speyer that evening for Rudesheim, skipping Mannheim altogether.  Two additional ports (Bernkastel and Cochem) on the Mosel was added to our itinerary in place of Strasbourg and Mannheim.  For me, that was not such a bad news (though I was really looking forward to visit Strasbourg again) since I have never been on the Mosel before.

 

We arrived in Rudesheim the morning of Nov. 19, then left there in the afternoon, arriving in Koblenz around 7 PM.  We overnighted there.  Last night (Nov. 20) after we departed Koblenz for Bernkastel, and after dinner, we were were informed by the captain of the ship that we are now required to return to our cabins and stay there until further notice.  Apparently there are (were) 3 confirmed cases of COVID-19 onboard.

 

We were told to order room service for breakfast and instructed to wait for additional information.

 

I will keep you posted.

Oh dear so sorry to hear this. Were these 3 guests tested again yesterday when they found this out? On the Ravel there was no further testing once we were on board although we did have our temperature taken on the way into dinner every evening. Perhaps that is how they found out? The testing before boarding was so busy with 2 coach loads arriving at once with no social distancing. We love the Crystal coaches but again no rows were blocked off as they have been on recent ocean cruises we have taken. 

I see the remaining cruises this year have been cancelled. Not surprising as the majority of the days are in Austria. We were on this cruise two weeks ago and thought it was wonderful although we were surprised masks weren’t required on board (apart from crew) with the rapidly rising cases while we were there.  They were setting up the Christmas markets and putting up the Christmas trees in the places we visited.  Such a shame.