minz56

There is a rumour on the Roll Call for my cruise (coming from someone who has recently been on Quest) that they are not going to go ahead with Kibo. You will notice that it does not form part of the video.

Personally, I am treating this rumour with caution until the full details are known, but it does seem to indicate that the largely negative feedback has been heard by HO.

In Australia/NZ it is the BOGOHO deal till the end of September!!

Nice video with the US promotion!

I would be astonished, though not 100% surprised, if X cancelled this cruise in favour of a charter, given that it is already sold out. The $$$ value of the charter would have to far outweigh the revenue from the booked out cruise, plus the nightmare of dealing with the cancelled passengers and no doubt having to offer $$$ OBC to move to another cruise.

It will be interesting to see what happens.

.... that means there are more empty seats now than years ago.

Indeed - in fact there was a thread not that long ago complaining about the number of empty seats at late traditional dining.

I too am keen to see the 2017 itineraries for QV and QE. QM2 isn't coming to Auckland in 2017, so I am hoping that either or both of QV and QE will be coming. Unfortunately the Ports of Auckland site doesn't have cruise ship details for 2017 yet, so I can't tell from there.

Fabulous comparison of the three products - I really appreciate the time and effort required to put this together.

I travel solo, so I find that Azamara offers good value on the cruises where the supplement is 25%, as opposed to 100% on Celebrity and Oceania. By the time you add in the drinks package on Celebrity plus the gratuities the price gets close to or exceeds Azamara, particularly when you take into account the great deals they offer (Double Upgrade, Pick Two etc).

Now I have my fingers crossed that I score the $398 upgrade so that I can enjoy the suite life :)

Here's a link to the page on the AZ website which gives details of the included "Club" amenities

https://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/en-nz/life-onboard

Here's a link to the page on the AZ website with details of the Chef's Table:

https://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/en-nz/booked-guests/onboard-packages/chefs-table

So far the pattern has been that when a promotion expires they come out with a different one. They generally rotate 2 or 3 different types of promotion.

As Host Andy suggests I would book it now, particularly if the double upgrade offer is a good deal for you, then see what the offer is in September. If you are in the USA you should only be up for the $25 AZ cancellation fee (though watch for a TA cancellation fee if you book through one), but that could be more than offset by a better offer in September.

The other thing to bear in mind is that the price could go up by September. It happens!

OK, the official X policy is that OBC cannot be used for casino withdrawals, but most people's actual experience is that they can withdraw cash in the casino and have it applied against any OBC.

This says to me that X does not have software in place to detect a charge from the casino, and not apply it against OBC. Thus they are effectively unable to police their own policy.

My understanding is that BBB is the new fare structure, and is here to stay. Until they reinvent it, of course!

What will be interesting to see is whether they layer promotions on top of BBB, eg pay for Big and get Better; book a Concierge cabin or above and get Best for the Big price.

... but in most cases if you stay more than 8-24 hours it's considered a stop and you essentially have to buy two legs at a higher price.

That's not entirely true. An airfare Singapore to Los Angeles via Tokyo will have a stopover condition. Sometimes you can stopover for free, other times there is a charge (say $50 or $100). Also some airlines, as noted, limit the amount of time you can spend in the stopover city. However, rarely would the airfare end up being two separate airfares, particularly when a single airline is involved.

I do shower but take more baths than showers in hotels and ships .. I started in a CC fro the tub and if I need to move i prefer knowing before my winter cruise on a ship that has been updated without a tub. not paying for space but a tub and butler - not butler and tub. if i need a tub i need to know to move now not in Jan. if i have to pay for a large suite then i will but making us wait stupid.

 

Which ship are you on? From your previous posts I understand you are on Quest in Asia/Australia/NZ in December and January. Quest won't be refurbished till April 2016, so you won't be affected in December/January.

OBC - Yes, $300 OBC for a solo

Internet - For a 5 night cruise you would pay 5 x the daily rate of $59 = $295

There is another thread on this subject at:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2238260

It seems that a number of CC Suites will be having final touches done in the 3-5 days after the dry dock, so affected passengers are being requested to downgrade as the OP indicated.

I would also love to see pictures of the full bathroom and not just pieces of it... But I guess beggars can't be choosers!

July is supposed to be reveal month for Staterooms and Suites, so hopefully they had professional photographers onboard and there will be some new photos to look at. Having said that it's probably difficult to get a good picture of the full bathroom given the confined space, but we will have to wait and see.

This article includes the following paragraph:

"The upgrades on Azamara Quest and Azamara Journey draw their inspiration from the four elements of nature: Earth, Water, Air and Fire. The inspiration behind the interior design upgrades to the suite I toured created a sense of place with subtle references to the lands, rivers, and beaches that the boutique cruise line visits."

Now I get the design for the new carpet - it is a representation of a beach. Having said that, I still can't decide whether I like it or not - it needs to be seen in real life.

In an earlier article on the refurbishment it was stated that work would continue for six days into the cruise immediately following the dry dock, so they obviously knew that they could not complete everything during the allotted two weeks.

They also said that despite this there would be no disruption to passengers. Well, this sounds like a disruption to me.

The deals I have seen them offer are:

1. Double upgrade (as is running currently)

2. Buy one person at full price, and the second person pays 50%

3. Pick Two - from single upgrade, OBC or Choice Air credit

Also sometimes they add additional OBC into the mix.

If you are looking at a Suite then 2 is the best deal as you generally can't upgrade to a Suite.

As a solo traveler 2 is no good, but 1 and 3 are great.

As previously recommended I would book now provided the double upgrade works for you, as the other thing that can happen is the cost of the cruise can go up! I got caught badly by not booking a late 2017 cruise while the Pick Two promo was running - the cruise fare went up by $625 and I lost the extra OBC that Pick Two gave me. I thought the cruise was so far out that I could afford to wait. I was wrong!

I was getting a quote on a cruise for 2016 from the X website. To upgrade from the Big price to Better it was quoting $30 p/day, suggesting that solos would also pay a 100% surcharge on this upgrade cost. However I understood from the roll out of BBB that solos would only pay $15 p/day to upgrade to Better, and $45 p/day to go to Best.

Just wondering if anyone has any actually experience of this? How much did you have to pay for the upgrade?

I'm hoping it is a computer glitch, otherwise upgrading to Better or Best is of little value to solos.

I was having a look at prices for these new single cabins for TA's in late 2016 and found that the fare was almost identical to a double cabin with the 75% single supplement.

So, I am wondering why they are adding these new cabins if the fare is same. Unless they are planning to raise the single supplement on double cabins to 100%??

I thought it might be interesting to put a before and after shot side by side, so here it is:

To be fair the after shot was taken on a rather grey Edinburgh day, so there is no sunlight to help. The colour palette in the after shot is definitely more muted and the use of wood has gone. However the before shot does to me look rather dated.

I can understand why they have gone for certain design concepts to give as spacious a feel as possible in a relatively small space, but like others I feel that the functional side has not been thought through carefully enough. Just look at all the drawers on the before image! Also in the bathroom they really do need to add some retainers to the shelves otherwise everything will be falling off when there is a slight swell.

But on the whole I am loving what I am seeing and can't wait to see what the whole ship looks like next year. With a few tweaks here and there it will be fabulous re-imagination!

I appreciate you efforts to find out he bath tub situation, as it is an essential item to me and my husband!

The renderings for the refurbishment of the Club Continent Suites (when the upgrade was announced) showed that there would only be a walk in shower and no bath tub, but we await Bonnie's confirmation of this.

John was 85 when he died ... he was born on 2 August 1929.

I was so sad to hear of his death. I have very happy memories of hosting a cocktail party for him and Mary, and other friends on the 1995 QE2 World Cruise.

I would suggest you ring Cunard (or your TA if you used one) and ask them. Then post their response here so that others can comment as to whether it is reasonable or not, based on past experience.