Riocca

It’s for all the suites Club Continent included, has been very popular on the cruises we’ve been on.

Our CC suite on Onward had a much bigger safe than normal it looked to be designed for laptops as it also had a multi power socket in the door.

Was always the case in the U.K. if you cancelled you would lose your deposit which is £250 pp. It was only during the pandemic that we were able to lift & shift with no penalties but that’s all finished now, also in U.K. law if you cancel a cruise and then the cruise line cancel the cruise then they have to refund the lost deposit. I recently spoke to customer services about repricing a cruise and they confirmed I would have to cancel and rebook losing the deposit.

Hope you have a great cruise, hopefully you’ll be getting good wi-fi.

No we’ve not been on Pursuit lately but I was going on Facebook reports from someone on the cruise before the Trans Atlantic crossing when it was being installed. Here’s a picture of the speed test after installation. Upload speed apparently did improve later in the cruise, unfortunately I’ve not seen anything from those currently on Pursuit in South America it would be interesting to see how it’s performing there.

Already installed and running on Pursuit and from the previous post due on Journey on the 15th January. It would be nice to know when it’s planned for the other ships.

They’ve already announced that their IT provider is Versonix Seaware, it’s also mentioned in the press release for the booking system. Possibly they’re using RC to provide onboard internet connectivity as they are introducing Starlink on their ships.

Quite surprised Azamara haven’t made more of having Starlink installed on the ships, maybe they’re waiting until it’s all up and running. However just knowing it’s going to happen would possibly answer some of the recent criticisms.

Butler should be informing passengers about this, both times we were on Onward with different Butlers, we were informed that Onward is different in respect to afternoon tea and canapés. Would be better though if the information was incorporated into the suite welcome letter. Apparently Princess had scrapped the tea trolleys and I’m not sure anyone would even produce anything like that these days.

We have the same problem for our 25th March cruise from Gran Canaria, EasyJet do fly from Bristol on the 25th but the flight is due to land 45 minutes before sailing so not an option. We chose to fly out 4 days before, as there are only 2 flights a week, and have 4 days in an all inclusive resort hotel pre cruise. As we’re only a few miles from Bristol airport the hotel cost is almost covered in not having to get to Gatwick and all the inconvenience that entails.

Onwards TV system allows you to look at your onboard account in real time, only delay was bringing in any OBC from shoreside which was done as usual overnight on the first night. Sorry didn’t look at the possibility of ordering from the room service menu.

You don’t need the Ultimate Package and can pay per drink however as you already have the Premium Package you can upgrade for $7 per person per day. Given the cost of the Atlas specialty cocktails is $17.95 that could provide better value, remembering it also gives you access to more top shelf drinks and specialty cocktails in other venues. Snacks are chargeable in the Atlas Bar and have no relation to the drinks packages.

The system and software is produced by the same company and I’m sure you’re right it’s a matter of familiarity. Because the new system is being used by a number of cruise lines potentially some of the new staff will already be familiar with it whilst the old staff who have been working with the old RC Micross system for the past 15 years at least might struggle a bit.

New system runs on cabin numbers, when they take a bar order for a non included drink they ask for your cabin number your picture comes up on their device and whether you have a drink package or not. A lot of the staff were very good at remembering names and cabin numbers, but I take Ann’s point that if they don’t have that skill you can continually be asked for your cabin number. In our regular haunts we were usually greeted by name and served without needing to give our cabin number, although that probably says more about us and our drinking habits 😊

Going to be interesting how the staff on the other ships deal with the introduction of the new system over the next few months, we were told that most of the technical problems have been resolved but it’s the human element that’s hardest to predict. On Onwards maiden staff were initially using pen and paper then transferred the information to their device. That obviously took time but with only about 400 pax onboard it wasn’t too much of a problem however now ships are sailing almost full it probably would be.

No problems like that when we were onboard at the beginning of November most staff were remembering room numbers after the first few days, I know that a number of staff were being changed because of US visa issues so that might be behind the problem. Have they changed the restaurant servers pda’s? A lot of staff were struggling with the small screens and they were going to be changing to larger iPad style ones.

The transition to Azamara’s new IT system is starting, could be an interesting few months ahead. https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2022/12/azamara-launches-new-azamara-alliance-program/

We are booked for Onwards 4th October 2023 cruise departing Venice and received notification on the 17th October 2022 that the ship would be docking in Fusina just across the lagoon from Venice. I saw reports that Quest also due to be in Venice that day would be docking in Chioggia a little further away. From the email it looks like Azamara will be using both locations in 2023 so should be able to provide information on docking locations for every sailing.

When we were on Quest in September we were told that it was the last ship to be dry docked, looking at the 2024 schedule there’s a two week window at the beginning of April 2024 after the Rio to Lisbon Trans-Atlantic.

I think they are struggling with FCC’s on the current system, we used the Onward refund FCC to book a cruise, funnily enough the 25th March cruise, initially it used all of the credit except £68. Then it was repriced after a big price drop and Azamara agreed this could be used against another 2023 booking, this was back in September. I’ve spoken to a number of Azamara agents and it’s taking some time to sort out, initially only the £68 was showing and this has been applied to the other cruise. Problem seems to be that the system “loses” the credit after the initial cruise and needs manual intervention to retrieve it. I’m dealing directly with Azamara and there’s never been a question of the residual credit being applied to another cruise. In fact they are happy to apply it to another cruise before we’ve taken the cruise it was originally applied too even though I know it’s in the t&c’s. I’ve been lucky in that the agents I’ve spoken to have been some of the original Azamara staff so know the problem, I can imagine some of the newer staff will possibly have seen all the FCC used and assume that’s it. Hope this helps a bit.

Same for me no details required and I can see what cabins are available in each category, just the same old RC booking engine. I’ve come across this on Oceania’s website where I had to create an account before I could get pricing and I’ve then been bombarded with emails afterwards.

I’ve had a look at other cruise lines using Versonix Seaware who are producing Azamara’s new systems and quite a few have chat functions so it’s something that could be coming 🤞

What time you have to get up depends on how close you are to the departure airport, there are two Saturday departures to Barcelona from Gatwick one arriving at 9.55am the other 12.30pm. I assume any cruise line would choose the earlier flight on a “just in case basis “ as most people would if booking their own flight. She would have done her own online check in for the ship as we did and would have known her boarding time, therefore should have known about the time gap. The terminal opened at 12.30pm for physical check in and there was plenty of seating and refreshments available.

Regards to the internet upgrade, someone currently onboard Pursuit has just posted this on another forum, not verified but if this is correct then wow!

Not an optical illusion here’s a picture of Onward in the Amsterdam shipyard showing that the anti-fouling paint is in fact blue.