oceanpark

Thanks for the insight. I can’t seem to find any information about needing a yellow fever shot.

I have a cruise booked for February on Azamara, Buenos Aires to Barbados, including going to Manaus, Brazil. I would love to hear any thoughts on cruising the Amazon and the ports on the river.

I booked Buenos Airs to Bridgetown in February and am having second thoughts about this cruise. I would love to hear from anyone who has cruised on the Amazon and their experiences with regard to the ports, shore excursions and the amount of bugs as it will be the rainy season. I have been on safari in the rainy season and experienced lots of bugs and want to be prepared. It’s interesting that Azamara isn’t offering the Amazon in 2026.

We weren’t able to carry over the OBC on our B2B in October. Used the remainder of our OBC on the first cruise to buy a few bottles of expensive wine and drank them on the second cruise.

The scheduled choir in Tito Square in October was also cancelled and three tenors gave a performance on the ship instead.

We are taking our second cruise on Azamara next year ( 25 days) and wondered if many people take this package which includes $300 shore excursion credit, unlimited wifi plus ( don’t know what the plus means) and premium drink package for $699. Last cruise we had more OBC than we could possibly use and had the ultimate drink package, but can’t justify the cost for it now. Not sure if there is better wine with the premium package. We definitely want wifi, but if I remember correctly, on the second day of the cruise you could get wifi for 20% off.

I am also considering Japan with Oceania in 2025, so am very interested in any responses as I am not sure if a cruise is the best way to see it. I have compared the ports with Azamara and like the Oceania itinerary slightly better, but would be very upset if they changed the ports after final payment. We loved our first Azamara cruise last year and have never sailed with Oceania. Price and itinerary will be the deciding factor.

My mistake. It was the Ultimate drink package. I was thinking of the Premier drink package we had on Viking where we noticed a great difference between their included white and rose wines from the premier package wines. We did BTB cruises with Azamara and as we had so much OBC left at the end of our first cruise which wasn’t transferable to the next cruise, we bought four expensive bottles of wine and drank them on our second cruise. It was the Sommelier who made the suggestion. As my husband wasn’t upgrading to the Ultimate package he was able to enjoy the lovely wine.

Lynda, it will be in US dollars when you get onboard. I had the same issue with Azamara before we left on our trip in September, but once onboard everything was fine. OBC was in US dollars. Call me if you want to discuss. R

We have done many cruises and decided to do an Azamara cruise three months ago. We loved everything about it, especially the staff. If you wait until the second day of your cruise you will get a discount on the wifi. We had lots of onboard credit and I upgraded to the premium drink package, but my husband was content with the basic package. I won’t have paid to upgrade as other than wine, I didn’t notice a big difference.

Our evening was in Valencia where we were bused about 20 minutes to a beautiful events building where we sat in an area that was outside, but covered and watched an amazing acrobatic/dance performance. Our Azamazing evening on our second cruise was cancelled for some reason. It was supposed to be a performance in Tito Square in Koper, but instead some performers came onboard.

Just saw other post. We were given new key cards at 9:00am on the day we arrived in Rome. Once on the ship, explain the situation as the staff is very accommodating.

Don’t know why you were told you have to disembark as in our result BTB, staying in the same cabin, we were able to leave the ship when we wanted. We were given cards that said we were in transit so that we could board again at any time. Call Azamara, but don’t be surprised that with each phone call you could get a different answer. Not impressed with the poorly trained people in customer service.

I started this post when I had been on the Journey just a few days and I have just completed 18 days on the ship. The food and staff impressed us the entire time and the White Night parties (we had two as BTB cruises) were fabulous. We had two very impressive meals with officers and really enjoyed the specialty restaurants.

Having cruised many times on Holland America, Celebrity and last year Viking river, and reading lots of negative things about Azamara lately, I wanted to give my thoughts as someone new to Azamara. I was very concerned after all the problems I had getting confirmation of our SBC, but think it was due to poorly trained staff. Embarkment was easy and we have all our SBC and we were able to easily book specialty restaurants immediately after we boarded. The ship does look a little worn, but that does not concern us. The staff have been amazing and the food very good, especially brunch today. Our veranda cabin on deck seven is like most other veranda cabins, but the balcony has openings on both sides that make it less private than other balconies we have had. Bed and bedding are lovely, small shower is fine for us, but toilet paper is like we have had in third world countries. The positives very much outweigh the few negatives and with only 550 people onboard, we are loving our first time on a small ship. Looking forward to Azamazing evening tonight!

We are going on our first Azamara cruise this month and it has been a nightmare for ourselves and our travel agent with regard to our ship board credits. We have BTB cruises and over a period of three months and too many phone calls, it was finally sorted out. They are obviously not training their staff properly as many did not know about the SBC per cruise for BTB, and one person even argued with me about it until I read the information directly from Azamara’s website. I was told by three different people that the issue would be sent to a supervisor to look into, but nothing was resolved. It seems to be hit and miss when calling Azamara. Our friends who are joining us have had the same problems and they have said they would have never booked these cruises if they knew it would be this difficult. Depending on how the cruise goes, Azamara may have lost four customers.

If I book a 3 table tour of the specialty restaurants online, can I pick dates and times? The only explanation given online is that one of the nights must be the first night of the cruise. I am presently on hold to Azamara to ask them, but not confident I will get through in a timely fashion.

Thanks for all the great information.

We leave in three weeks for our first cruise on Azamara. Is it difficult to get reservations and if so any tips on booking would be appreciated.

I had checked my flights twice previously, so obviously anything can happen at any time with airlines. I won’t hesitate to use cruise again.

My husband and I leave on our first Azamara cruise in less than five weeks. I booked the air through Azamara when they were still under Royal Caribbean. For some reason I decided to check on our flights yesterday, and was totally shocked to find KLM had cancelled all our flights. According to them it was an operational decision, and they didn’t seem too concerned that I wasn’t notified or rebooked on other flights. After a quick call to Azamara our travel agent got us new flights on Lufthansa and Air Canada. Having travelled extensively, we have never encountered this before. Azamara came through in the end, but I wonder if they got an email about the cancellation and neglected to notify us. Regardless, we are relieved that our trip can go ahead as planned. If I had booked through the airline or a booking site I would have to wait who knows how long for our refund.

As we are doing back to back cruises, we have a total of $2,400 OBC and I have successfully used some of it to book shore excursions online. The OBC doesn’t show online and after repeated calls to Azamara, I was finally able to confirm my OBC amount and that some of it was used in booking excursions. I however won’t believe it until we are onboard and I see it on our account.

@westcoasttech, I am not a big fan of London fog, but will survive without chai tea.

As we like to drink martinis and g&t, and prefer gin that is not complimentary, can you order a higher end gin and pay the difference?

Less than two months now to our European cruise and not sure if we should upgrade the drink package or just pay as we go for better wine and premium alcohol. We have lots of ship board credit. Also does anyone know if you can get chai tea lattes on board. Thanks.