Riocca

Having been on Onward I would disagree, the Atlas Bar is all about the the theatre of the bartenders art doing this in venues where live entertainment is key won’t work as well. We liked the ambiance in the Atlas Bar where we could talk freely with other passengers without having to defer to others wanting to listen to featured musicians. As has been said before the space is available during the day for those seeking quite contemplation, we will be on Quest in a few weeks time and it will be interesting to see how well this space is used in the evenings.

I have asked Azamara this question and the reply was “within 6 months”. I would think that with so many problems worldwide these days they are reluctant to be releasing itineraries that have to be changed later with all the problems that creates.

It’s the overnight in Seville that’s a big draw for me.

Party time in the Atlas Bar 🥳😎

We did the same for a March cruise, I was told that the balance of the FCC would be credited back after that cruise was completed and could be applied to another future cruise. It’s only a small amount so not a major problem if that doesn’t happen but time will tell. We had to pay the taxes at the time of booking as the agent said any cruise booked using the maiden FCC had to be paid in full at the time of booking.

If your referring to the Maiden not yet, I had to pay the balance for our October cruise less the FCC amount and it was escalated to the senior management team, Friday was the target to resolve but I’ve heard nothing yet.

Vicki to save you suffered too much we don’t mind helping you out 😎

We’re doing Onwards Spain intensive 25th March 2023 Gran Canaria to Lisbon, EasyJet fly from our local airport twice a week but the flight on the 25th is due to land 15 minutes before Onward leaves so thought it might be a bit tight 😁 So we’ve booked 4 days at an all inclusive hotel to get us ready to cruise 😎

EasyJet are asking £35.49 per suitcase up to 23kg to fly with us to Gran Canaria next year, so £50 is not too bad. Strange they are charging duty on something you could walk through customs at the airport for free.

Tips are included in the cruise fare there’s really no reason for additional tipping and the staff don't expect it. For us there are always so many staff who go the extra mile and the fairest was to say thank you is to make a donation to the Crew Welfare Fund, this can be done at the Passenger Services Desk any currency is acceptable but is best done in the currency of the ship US Dollars. The fund provides special events for the crew and donations are truly appreciated by them.

Make sure your running iOS 15.6 this seems to be the difference for me.

Didn’t work on my 2019 iPad either running iOS 15.5 difficult to close pop up and wouldn’t print boarding pass, managed to take a screenshot and print that. Now I’ve upgraded to a 2022 iPad Air and the latest iOS is 15.6, pop up closed no problem and I could print from the print icon without a problem. As others are still having problems I don’t think Azamara have changed anything so either iOS 15.6 has squashed a bug or there’s something fundamentally different on the new iPad. Just tried it from my iPhone 12 also running iOS 15.6 and could close the pop up and print without a problem. So it looks like iOS 15.6 could be the answer.

No I wouldn’t risk not doing it but it’s annoying when you go to all that effort and nobody is interested.

Phoned 8.30am and after listening to Azamara U.K. messages received an instant answer! Not sure if it’s significant but when it comes to options I selected 3 for direct bookings and 2 for new bookings it takes you to the same team, don’t trust phone systems with too many options.

No it’s only for arrival by air, that said we did the online forms back in May when we flew to Nice for Onwards maiden. British Airways required us supply details online before check in, we had to supply proof of vaccination from the NHS but when it came to the locator it was just a tick box to say we had one, after that no one actually asked to see it.

Agree, hopefully Miami will take some action although it’s hard to see what can be done short term. To answer your earlier question I was assured last week that they won’t cancel a deposited booking without contacting the customer first, and given the current situation they would be silly to do so. I will be joining you on the phone trail, or should it be trial, tomorrow so good luck.

I’ve contacted an acquaintance in Azamara’s U.K. office, I’ve met them on a couple of cruises, they have no access to the payment system but have alerted the Miami office to the problem. Apparently the current problems with flights and airport problems is overwhelming the call centre they are expanding the department and things will improve but that’s no consolation at the moment. The transition away from Royal Caribbean to Azamara’s own system will also help but that’s a while away, so as I see it there’s no magic bullet but they are trying to resolve the situation. Their suggestion is to phone at 8.30 am when the office opens, but if we are all doing this then it’s still going to cause problems.

Interesting, someone I spoke to a few weeks ago kept on confusing U.K. and U.S. offers, maybe they rotate staff or something. This is where we could do with someone like Richard Twynam in the U.K. who could sort things out as they did in the old days.

To be honest I don’t think it matters which numbers are used as it all seems to end up at the same call centre. I try to avoid what I think might be peak times for U.S. travel agents, that said I struggled last week at 9am U.K. time and in the past got through no problem at 4pm. I’m hoping that once the new staff become more efficient it might improve an of course longer term that Azamara will have an online payment option which would drastically reduce the amount of phone traffic.

Good luck 🤞

Verve Cliquot was available as an option on Onwards Maiden, not sure if this is going to be a thing or it was just on the maiden. Both were available so it wasn’t a case of them being out of NF.

There’s a champagne (Nicolas Feuillatte) included in the Ultimate Package.

No online payment options at the moment unfortunately, we are on the same cruise and spoke to Azamara last week as we are awaiting some FCC. Our payment date was deferred until Wednesday while the query is being dealt with but was assured Azamara will never cancel a deposited booking without contacting the customer first. So I wouldn’t get concerned about them automatically cancelling your booking. I was on hold for over an hour first time I phoned, rang off and immediately redialled and got through in 5 minutes. Possibly there’s a fault in the system, which is still Royal Caribbean’s, so I think the best system is to keep redialling if you don’t get an answer in 10 minutes, that’s going to be my strategy next week.

There’s no UK office to telephone it’s just sales support to travel agents. The UK number takes you through to Azamara customer service in Wichita USA, if you email Azamara UK that also goes to the same office. They have recently added a number of new staff members who I think are struggling to come to terms with all the different offers in different markets across the world. All I can suggest is if you have problems getting your questions resolved ask to speak to a more senior member of the team.

Definitely hit and miss, this week for the first time I was on hold for an hour before I rang off and immediately redialled then got an answer within 5 minutes.