Riocca

Stands for Experience More Essential Package, was offered as an early booking bonus on a lot of cruises. Package provides a premium drinks package for 2 passengers, one full voyage internet package and $300 OBC for shore excursions.

Another feature of the new system, if when looking at your booking you press “Price From” which appears under the price of the cruise a list of promotions that applies to the booking pops up.

But soft drinks and coffee/teas are already included so there’s no package to sell.

Not received that email as yet but our loyalty points have today been updated to include our cruise that finished at the beginning of April. So currently all of our account details are correct as are our future cruises but our past cruises have still to be included. Just need the amount of final payment on our next cruise to be corrected and the value of the OBC coupons added and we’re all set.

Yes it’s just the difference $7, we’ve done this on a few cruises over the past year.

Certainly looks like a special offer as it’s a flash banner, it used to be in the text for the larger suites. We’ve been booking CC suites since 2010 and have never had only OBC attached to the suite itself.

Yes they should still be ok, Seadream as well.

I believe the limit is under 25,000 GT and 180 mts length, so not many ships these days, even the super luxury lines ships are getting bigger and bigger. River cruisers are still docking there of course.

We have a few bookings that include the Essential Package and on the new website under Add Ons there’s a price to upgrade to the other packages. Our pricing is in UK£’s but it appears to just be the difference in purchase price. There’s no indication that you could use OBC to pay for it in advance but that could just be part of the current OBC problem. As regards just the drinks package we’ve always been charged $7 per person per day with no discounts on Onward.

We have a b2b in October with two booking numbers, one from the old system the other on the new system, we’ve been waiting for the OBC to be added. Today the first cruise is showing a new coupon for OBC without any value but the second cruise shows nothing as yet. On another thread it was said that the new system allows for voyages to be combined so possibly the system is undergoing some changes.

Did an online dummy booking and although there was no value attached there were 2 OBC coupons showing that had to be the suites credit. I’m sure once the system migration is completed and everything is running properly we will start to see Azamara go their own way with the benefits on offer including those attached to loyalty. Some we will probably like others maybe not as much but it’s going to be interesting either way.

Onward has been running the new onboard system since May last year as it was never part of the RC fleet. In March in the disembarkation information they were offering airport transfers that could be paid for using OBC.

It’s been removed from the cabin description but is still showing under Suite amenities:

July 2024 are still part of the “Early Booking Bonus” promotion which includes a 20% saving and an Essential Package which includes Premium Drinks package for 2, One internet package and $300 OBC.

Of course both Chioggia and Fusina are in the Metropolitan City of Venice, following the decision to ban cruise ships from the historic islands of Venice it’s become a difficult proposition for cruise passengers. As for Fusina in December 2022 it was announced that a small cruise terminal will be built there but that’s probably sometime in the future so currently it’s a restricted area with passengers having to check in at the Porto Marittimo. So for those overnighting in Fusina unless there’s a port shuttle provided at least to the ferry terminal the Azamara option may be the only way to visit Venice. Talking the other day to friends who are regular Venice visitors there is still a concern about all large ships entering the lagoon to access the commercial port causing water movement that’s affecting the delicate fabric of the old city. So there’s a plan to move all the commercial activities including cruise ships even further away from Venice so large ships won’t enter the lagoon at all. This would presumably even affect the ship building industry so would take some major investment so I don’t think it’s going to happen in my lifetime.

Can’t recall the exact name of the tour but it was the only cider making tour offered in Gijon Spain. Over the years we’ve done quite a few ships tours and private tours the percentage of problems we’ve experienced with ships tours is way higher than the private tours. Talking it through with the tours manager on Onward their biggest problem is that since covid a large number of the better guides have left the industry, those replacing them often are not of the same quality and don’t have the experience. I also think that when you do private tours the guides are often the company owners who are reliant on good reviews and recommendations for future business. However ships tours are contracted to bigger operators who remain anonymous, profit is the name of the game so they may take on guides with less knowledge. As the ship, which will be sailing away after the tour, fronts the tours they don’t worry so much about content and quality. Remember there isn’t a large number of companies that can provide tours in the volume ships require. Probably the best cruise line for tours is Tui/Marella as they often have their own tours infrastructure in the areas the visit.

Good idea in theory but on most shore excursions the passengers impressions will vary, normally we avoid ships excursions as they’re usually overpriced and tour guides do seem to be variable in quality. Last year we were on an Azamara excursion that could only be described as farcical, a cider tour in Spain, the tour company forgot to tell the cider producer we were coming so the factory was closed when we arrived. Tour guide winged it until the factory guide arrived, unfortunately she spoke no English and the guide couldn’t translate the technical stuff. We come from the part of England where cider production is part of the culture so we tried to help as some of the information being given was comical. We did get a cider tasting and a lunch that was very tasty but very little followed what was expected of the tour. On returning to the ship we highlighted the problems to the tours team but we were the only ones to do so as most others had no idea how bad the information they’d been given was.

I’m sure they could think of 101 reasonable excuses why they couldn’t complete the data transfer but that’s all speculation.

RCCG weren’t that interested in Azamara when they were part of the group so now they are probably an irritation, I expect they see most of Azamara’s customers as a target for Celebrity and those who cruise in higher grades as potential Silversea customers. Azamara’s owners may have some clout in the city but Azamara are now a very small cruise line, at full occupancy all 4 ships only carry as many passengers as one Celebrity ship.

Agreed, but we’ve already heard from other contributors on here that they are not being cooperative. No doubt that the transfer of that data was part of the original agreement but RC are holding all the aces here. I’m annoyed that an Azamara cruise that started well after the first transfer date was not sent to Azamara as a future booking but retained and is now showing as a past Celebrity Cruise on their website. Of course it may be that the agreed cutoff date was after the transfer date but I can’t think of a good reason for that.

Spoke to Azamara about the adding of past cruises and points and they are waiting for Royal Caribbean to release the data and didn’t at that point have a date. Subsequently I’ve seen a Facebook post saying that it’s expected by the end of July. Unfortunately it’s something Azamara seems to have no control over and are reliant on RC who of course have no incentive to help Azamara.

Definitely USB A, but as the subject has been mentioned I thought it’s worth saying we’ve had a couple of cruises on different ships where one of the USB ports was faulty. With devices demanding more and more power it’s easy to overload these ports, there’s also a high possibility of faulty connectors or leads short circuiting the power supply.

Their’s are outbound Rome return Venice both LHR with BA Club Europe plus transfers for just under £2000 which they were happy with.

Friends of ours booked this morning with Azamara U.K. complete with business class flights and transfers with no problem at all.

Would it be only if you kept the same cabin? As I say we have a b2b in October but have to change cabins and there’s been no mention about this and I’ve spoken to a few agents recently regarding the bookings.