fernem

1 minute ago, fernem said:

We were on the Athens to Dubai in 2022. That was a fabulous cruise!

You do a Norway to the top cruise ( I think ours might have been on the Journey) because it is exquisite. I can think of no reason not to do it. Ours was warm and sunny all the way to Honningsvag. Even if you hit colder or less sunny weather, it would still be breathtaking. Not to mention white nights parked in a fjord. 

Before final payment one of the two passengers in the room can be changed. Just make sure the names are exactly what’s on the passport. 

I think the balcony chairs are insulting. I spoke with Elizabeth and she begrudgingly sent up two plastic white nights chairs to make it slightly more comfortable. I would try to avoid the Onward honestly just because I like to sit on my balcony. 

We were on three legs of the world cruise, from January 18-March 1st and those dreadful chairs were there the whole time. Has anyone hopefully said they plan to replace them?

I got a survey after leaving the Onward after three legs of the world cruise. Had to keep trying before it let me continue survey. Also, it was a terrible survey in my opinion. It didn’t give you a place to add criticism or suggestion. I managed to squeeze in all the crew that deserve their names mentioned but I never got to address the food issues I had for example. In the old days you could just write it all down. This survey was for easy scoring. Disappointing. 

I haven’t been on Journey in a while but they used to have a Pilates reformer as well as mat Pilates classes for a fee. 

I did this cruise in 2022. Fabulous trip. For me having a balcony is critical to my pleasure. If you took the VP and then waited until final payment to find a regular balcony, that could work. You will love this itinerary regardless of where you put your head of course. And I personally love deck 8 and seek it out. I never hear too much from deck 9. Just been lucky maybe but I’ve done it many times. Enjoy your reservation, wherever it is. 

Well, we have done two cruises with Azamara since the pandemic started (and one on Celebrity) and they have been the usual delight. We have five cruises booked and are currently not worried (even though they say we have no future cruises). Thanks to uktog as well. It will work out. They have a solid and lovely product. 

Hi,

I am a lifelong vegetarian and a longtime Azamara cruiser. The vegan menu Azamara developed is exceptional and makes me happy. I fought long and hard to encourage them to develop it. My opinion on the Chef's Table is that it is not worth it. It really is meant to showcase the skills and dishes of the chef and we are not part of that culture. I imagine they would try to accommodate you, but it would not be an equivalently spectacular meal. Just my sense of it after many years on Azamara. I have never attempted to participate, however, so you might be fine with it.

18 hours ago, travelberlin said:

Oh! This is very sad 😔 One of my favorite places on an Azamara ship is the library. I hope the other ships still have it.

Ivi

I think taking out the lovely library, used for private meetings as well, in order to make the room a money maker does not feel good. I will miss the sweet library and the sunset bar. 

2 hours ago, nonrev1 said:

We are on an upcoming B2B cruise.  Our first cruise is 11 days and the second is 10 days.  We are booked in a CC suite and we are Discoverer Plus.  How many free bags of laundry do we get?  I always get confused because with Celebrity we each get a bag and we don’t with Azamara.  But do we get more than one bag per cruise?  

 

Thanks!  The less we have to pack and the more free laundry we get, the better!  

Hi. 

I think we get one bag per week. I’m not totally sure but we’re identical to you and while we only usually use one bag I think it’s two bags. It might be one bag per person actually. 

Fern

 One last thing ... don’t miss the evening when the buffet is serving Indian food. The Indian food buffet, always popular, is a vegetarian’s banquet!

13 hours ago, Richteab said:

From what I can see, there is plenty of choice anyway for a vegetarian, but would you suggest registering as "Special Diet".

 

I don't count it as one, but others might!

 

Thanks in advance for any advice

Hi. I’m a lifelong vegetarian and have stories to tell trying to get Azamara to feed me lovely creative vegetarian food. But I was finally successful. There is now a lovely sophisticated veggie menu. When you get onboard, ask to speak with the food and beverage manager. (If it’s Mario, say hello from Fern. That’s me. ) Tell this person you want to see the vegetarian menu and you will be able to order dinners for a few days in advance and then keep choosing new meals as you go. Now it’s easy and good. My last two cruises - in January on the Pursuit and in April on the Journey - I had access to this menu. 

Fern

Hi.

We’re in cabin 8050 right now on the Journey and it’s a great quiet cabin, close to elevator and stairs. Going west on a TA the port side gets more sun as well.

Hi everyone.

I’d like to add to the Pursuit description. We have friends who were onboard so we went with them to their club continent stateroom. There are two real improvements. The wall outlets near the veranda door have been moved from the bizarre side of the counter location where opening and

closing the drapery dislodged plugs from their outlets ... if you could find this hidden location at all ... and they are now prominently on the wall over the desk area near the phone. Even better, the bathroom counter on the right side of the sink now extends to the wall, providing additional space for toiletries. I like both improvements a lot.

I do disagree about the Mosaic Cafe area though. Moving Mosaic to the left side of the staircase feels odd, although certainly easy enough to get used to. But the art area feels claustrophobic in its small glass enclosed room. The open desk area on the other ships was innocuous enough and you could easily pass by if disinterested. This enclosed art spot adds to me a more mall look, another shop. No doubt I’ll get used to it. We sail on her to Antarctica in January. I do like the look of the den and was told it’s quite popular. While some will miss the casino, I like the open space. I do hope the piano, out in the middle of the room and no longer in its corner, doesn’t get drowned out by noise. There’s a piano player and singer on Journey right now, Steve Burks, who I’ve really enjoyed. Very talented. The piano is still in its corner location on Journey.

It was a fun meeting yesterday. The Pursuit is looking really good.

More white nights shots ...

Okay, I’m going to try and post Norway.

The first photo is from trollfjord where we had white nights. I stood on a trash can off the front of the ship to get it. The second pic shows the Journey way below from way above Gerainger.

We ARE on board and it has been a magical trip. The weather has been ridiculously warm and sunny. Our white night was in our own stunning fjord where are charming captain, Gianmario, turned us around 360 degrees and settled down for white night. This I think is our number one cruise experience. Norway is astoundingly beautiful and in warm sunny weather beyond compare. We meet up with the Pursuit on August 6th. Today we are sailing into Honningsvag, the northernmost village in the world. We are currently at over 70 degrees latitude! It amazes my naive self to realize just how many people live above the arctic circle. Tromso is a major city. There are hamlets along our route as well. It seems at the end of every fjord is a hamlet. There is no dark this time of year. I think I read sunset is almost midnight today and sunrise is one am. In between is holy light, a rarified glow. Pink on the horizon. Never leaves. Remarkable. This is a very special trip. If I can figure out how to thumbnail one of my large file photos to this site I’ll post a few.

Hello. We just docked in Bergen a half hour ago on the Journey. Right in the middle of town.

Fern

Hi to everyone on the blog. I am traveling on the Pursuit in January 2019 and have a clothing question. Are there places that rent Antarctic suitable cold weather clothing? I don't want to purchase them as I have no use for them after this trip. How have you been able to tackle this problem with locations this cold?

 

 

 

 

 

birdyrobin

 

 

 

 

Hi. My husband David and I are also on this sailing. I, perhaps naively, thought my waterproof shell with packable down underneath and turtleneck under that would be fine. Once we get through Drake’s Passage, we will be in calm and not, I thought, impossibly cold weather. It is summer. Even Shackleton’s crew had their sleeves rolled up sometimes! I’d love to hear from more knowledgeable people.

(On the Saguenay fjord in Quebec, when we traveled from Southampton to Montreal on the Quest in 2016, crew brought up hot chocolate and rum onto the deck because there was a bite in the air. Maybe we can hope for that in Antarctica!)

fern

Hi! Not sure if this is relevant to the conversation. I guess it only is if this is a place to express astonishment at Azamara ... when I love their product but am learning to detest their customer relations! Having decided not to take the newly reconstituted fall 2018 Transatlantic, I directed my travel agent to get our deposit refunded. Today I seem to see that they deducted the hundred dollar forfeiture for cancellations. However, of course, they cancelled, not me. Just wrote my travel agent. She will be so pleased to have to hassle with this.

Just a heads up from me.

fern

Yes...we had friends who had one of those suites and the balcony was AMAZING!! "God willing and the creek don't rise" we will be on O and I've made a note of your stateroom. The suites on Oceania are pretty special as well! :) LuAnn

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Fern...we loved the Century and sailed on her a number of times...including her final T/P when she was on the way to Asia to be turned over to her new owners...it was a bitter-sweet cruise for sure! :loudcry: As already mentioned she was bigger than the O class ships...the O class is of course newer and has a much more modern "vibe" than the old R ships on AZ and Oceania and while they are also a bit bigger they certainly don't feel big at all! Looking forward to meeting you and chatting on the O R/C!! LuAnn

If I were a rich person I would have tried to buy the Eric Clapton photo that hung in the Crystal Room on the Century. It was a gem and I am sure I couldn't afford it. But I did love that ship. The suites up top with their huge balconies were fabulous. We took 4 trips across the Atlantic on her up top one to Hawaii and one fabulous round trip to Alaska from San Francisco!

[emoji1]

If you stay on Oceania next November (and it isn't cancelled) come find me. 11014. A very strange cabin number!

Fern

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We cancelled the TA and now we were told it can take up to 6 weeks before they refund our payment, crazy!

 

Bob en Cor

Hi, everyone. We have cancelled the Fall 2018 TA and booked with Oceania, as much because of the lack of consideration as that they replaced it with a much more prosaic offering and wouldn't apologize directly or through our travel agent. But I am writing to tell you that when I spoke to Azamara directly a few days ago, they told me the deadline was August 28th. For those for whom this matters, I just wanted to report what I was told.

fern