Grandma Cruising

Totally with you there!

Thanks for the tip.

The spirits are exactly the same as they have been on Azamara ever since we’ve been cruising with them (9 years) except that the whisky was Cutty Sark & got changed to Famous Grouse a few years ago.

I’m fine, my DH is reasonable but still in pain following his spinal surgery 14 months ago.

Yes, go to the bottom menu on the Azamara website, click on ‘Booked’, scroll down to the section that is about Meet & Mingle then click & complete the requested information

Depends what you usually drink - I’m happy with Gordon’s and my husband’s favourite whisky is Famous Grouse, so it suits us.

Personally I always take paper copies of any travel documents - you never know when electronics will let you down!

……….and a sparkling wine which also doesn’t change.

If all else fails, then that is what we will do, however I would prefer to get it sorted out beforehand if at all possible. I guess I’ll just have to keep trying!

Yes, I tried through ‘Manage my Booking’ but when you click on ‘Request’ next to ‘Assistance’ it just takes you to a page telling you to ring up. My husband doesn’t need the hoist, just to be able to sit whist in a queue and possibly help to get to the gate if it’s a long way from the lounge.

There is still a library in the Living Room, tho’ it doesn’t look to be so extensive.

No, can’t see how you could do that.

We have never had a problem with the included wines, there has always been something we like and have had no problem getting it on a day when it wasn’t one of the wines of the day. I have noticed,though, that they rarely offer US wines, mostly European or South American, which is what we mostly drink at home.

You’re right it is the airport that provides the assistance, but on their website Manchester airport make it clear you have to request it through the airline. Unfortunately Jet2’s live chat is no longer available, so I can’t use that route. Tried phoning again today and hung on for over 3 hours before the line just went dead! Oh well, I guess I will just have to keep trying!

I’d agree. My husband takes a fairly casual jacket which he wears when we eat in one of the speciality restaurants, but never takes a tie. It’s very rare to see a jacket in MDR (Discoveries).

Check in is not too much of an issue as we can drop luggage the night before, and there are a few seats in the check in hall, so he can sit while I stand in any queue. Thanks for the tip about online chat, I’ll give it a try, and if that doesn’t work I’ll try the airport ( on their website it says you should organise help through the airline, which is why I haven’t tried that yet). Yesterday the biggest queues were for security at Manchester. The queue was so long they took it outside!

Azamara are not the only travel company that are difficult to talk to. We are flying to Greece in a June with Jet2 and I need to talk to them to organise support in the airport for my husband. So far I have rung them on 3 different days, at different times, holding on for up to 2 hours each time and have yet to get to speak to anyone. I can’t really book support online as I need to find out more about the options available - he is mobile, but can’t stand for any length of time, having had emergency spinal surgery last year. We are concerned about the potential wait to get through security (can be up to 3 hours in Manchester airport at present).

Sorry about the ‘shouting’ - that was not my intention (although I thought it was caps that was deemed to be shouting). It was a copy and paste from the NHS site, which, by the way still talks about 5 days if you look down the page here https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/self-isolation-and-treatment/when-to-self-isolate-and-what-to-do/ It says if you have symptoms and/or if you test positive you should try to stay at home & avoid contact with others for 5 days starting from the day after the positive test. I did say it was guidance, not law, but think it’s sensible advice. You were lucky not to have symptoms, when we had COVID we tested positive for 12 days and felt ill for longer than that - it took me six weeks to feel back to normal.

Try a different browser

It depends on the person, some show no symptoms so ‘recovered’ once showing a negative test, which could be after 3-5 days, but others take a long time. We had positive tests for 12 days and felt very tired for 5/6 weeks.

There is no app or at least the one there is does not work! One thing you could try is accessing your account on the website through a different browser.

I have to disagree, it is certainly not just a mild cold - we had it in March having had 3 vaccinations and both felt pretty poorly and were left with nasty coughs and fatigue for quite a few weeks afterward. In the UK the law does not say you have to isolate if tested positive but the NHS guidance is that “You should try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 5 days after the day you took the test.”.

My presumption was that knowing they had less than a full ship, they also planned to have fewer crew in areas affected by passenger numbers, so fewer kitchen staff, fewer stewards, fewer servers etc. Obviously you still need the same number of sailors as the ship itself runs in the same way however many or few folk onboard.

They are taking a long time to answer queries at present. I had a query about visas and sent an email to the Customer Service email address on 4 April and then on 18 April to Azamara Circle. Initially I got a standard ‘thanks for your email, someone will get back to you soon’ reply from Customer Service, but nothing from Azamara Circle. However on 28 April I got a reply from Customer Services and on 1 May I got a second more detailed reply from Customer Services which was actually in response to my Azamara Circle email.

The thing about the vaccine is that if you are vaccinated you may still get COVID (tho’ less likely to do so) but you will certainly be far less likely to be seriously ill, more like ordinary flu.