ClaudiaB

Oh my gosh, I started reading this thread a few minutes ago and was holding my breath for you the entire time until I got to the part where you have the connecting rooms!   ((exhale!!!))   I am so very sorry that you had to have all the stress and worry right before your cruise tomorrow.  It's hard enough to get packed and take care of everyday things (I have a 4-1/2 year old grandson so I can only imagine) much less do it with the added stress.  I think you deserve some compensation of some kind - and I hope the people who originally had your cabins are compensated as well.  Huge X mistake.   

So....off you go!  Take the deep breath you so deserve and enjoy the first adult beverage you can find once you get on board.  I hope the rest of the vacation is happy, memory-filled, and you can leave this room nonsense behind you.  Come back afterwards and tell us how it all went.  There are lots of us waiting to hear!  

We've been in Blu many times and there are just a couple large tables but I think they're just for 6, maybe 8?   However, the tables otherwise are very close together.  You could talk to them about sitting in the same area and it's really literally like being at the same table.  If you have 5 tables together every night, even if they're not pushed together, you would still be 'together.'  And you could switch around every night.  The very back of the room has some bench/booth type seating which would work very well.  

If you're staying in an AQ cabin, the very best benefit arguably is Blu, so it would be a shame to waste that.  

World Class Bar.

Used to be the Martini Bar but it's too loud and the drinks became inconsistent.   World Class Bar - you can actually have a conversation with others and the BT.  Lovely drinks!

On 11/10/2018 at 4:42 PM, mom says said:

Can honestly say we've never spent time in the Martini Bar. Two reasons:

1. Neither of us like Martinis. BBQ starter.

2. Usually waaaay too crowded and noisy.

 

I think we're both past the age where we think it's either fun or advisable to drink our way thru an entire menu. Have no problem trying something new every day or 2, but we both know what we like, and generally are happy to stick with that.

You do know that the martini bar isn't just the old fashioned gin and vermouth and an olive?   That's what I thought at first too, but it's really just cocktails in a martini glass.  I like the sweet fruity ones.  Or the chocolate ones!  

Our fav bar though has turned out to be the World Class Bar.  Best cocktails and they are consistent.  Martini Bar was fun for a few cruises but it's just so LOUD.  You have to scream to talk to the person next to you.  World Class bar we could visit with people and the bartender and have a great conversation.  Reflection World Class Bar is our favorite.  

What about smoking?  I love Celebrity's no inside smoking anywhere.  It's actually almost a deal breaker for me.  

First, take a deep breath.

Get on your Roll Call for your particular cruise, and join in ongoing conversations with the people who are going on your exact same cruise. I'm almost certain there would be a city excursion or something. What we do in cases like yours is enjoy a leisurely breakfast and then get off the ship at the absolute last moment possible. Contact your hotel beforehand and note you are coming in early. Hotels in port cities are used to people coming in before check-in time. They will be able to hold your luggage safely while you go out and enjoy the city until you want to check in. It's easy, people all over the world do it every single day. Sometimes......even after you have checked out.....they'll hold your luggage for a time. We had that occur this summer on the cruise I mention below. We were in Edinburgh pre-cruise and the second to last day there we took a train to visit a relative on the other far side of Scotland. We didn't want to drag our big cases around on the train so we just checked out of the hotel and they held our big bags. Went to Gairloch Scotland overnight with the cousin, took the train back to Edinburgh, and asked a taxi driver at the train station to take us to the port via our hotel to pick up our bags. Easy easy.

We are longtime Celebrity cruisers who took our first AZ cruise this past summer. We embarked from Edinburgh Scotland but didn't leave that day, as yours appears to. You get on the ship like you normally do, and then you are free to do whatever you want. You can stay out late into the evening and enjoy the city as you want. No, you don't need to get a hotel. Your ship is the hotel. Azamara often does itineraries where there is a two day stay at the beginning. We loved Edinburgh and were there 4 days ahead of the cruise in a hotel and continued to enjoy the area both days the ship was in port. The day we embarked we didn't get to the ship until about 6 p.m. It's no problem, they're there overnight. What we did miss was muster drill. However, it's normal for people to miss the drill when the ship has two days in port at the beginning. There was a make-up drill at 9 pm or something like that. It was about 5 minutes - best muster drill ever: "Here's your life vest. This is your muster station." You hear the whistle/bells, come here with your jacket on and we'll tell you what to do. The end." :D

I think you're going to love AZ. Only one AZ cruise in and we're already cheerleaders ha ha. We booked a back to back in a suite :hearteyes: for 2020 we liked it so much. Two years to save up for that!

Wonderful review and beautiful pictures that brought back memories. We too took a Norway fjords cruise this past summer. However, we were on the Azamara Journey. We had only ever sailed on Celebrity before so it was a bucket list trip on a fabulous ship (I think we're AZ cheerleaders now ;)). We chose that itinerary because it went all the way to the North Cape up into the Arctic Circle and had about 10 Norway ports in 15 nights. It was an unusually warm and dry summer in northern Europe and although we never wore some of the layers we had packed, it also meant almost zero rain and fog so the views were always stunning. I think I wore long sleeves up at the North Cape in Honnigsvag and the rest of the time it was mild. Crazy. The Norwegians couldn't believe it. Hard to sell those gorgeous sweaters when it's 85 degrees out!! I think it cooled down to about normal temperatures right when we flew home.

I hope you get to return to that beautiful country again and explore even further north on one of the more country-intensive itineraries. I know what you mean about lots of walking, often uphill. We chose those kinds of things too. At least we could 'sort of' justify an adult beverage later! I am still looking at my photos and smiling, grateful that I got to see a beautiful country that I never thought I'd see.

We've experienced it before when there were long lines. However, it just felt wrong to just go to the head of the line or that silly red carpet like we were some celebrity (no pun intended). So we waited in line with the rest of the people. We also never let the butler walk us to the theatre on chic nights. We will sit in those reserved seats but they're the ones we like anyway. Some of those perks seem kind of pretentious, but that's just me. We don't like to call attention to ourselves.

We had only ever sailed X (15 cruises) and have been elite+ for a third of those and have had the premium package on many of them. We love a good glass of wine and some special cocktails, and we were also a little concerned we wouldn't like the included offerings on AZ. We were prepared to have to buy an upgraded package or buy lots of extra drinks. So we gave it a couple days to see. Not only did we not spend a single dollar on adult beverages on our 15 night AZ cruise this past summer, we think we are going to stick with AZ from now on. We love the atmosphere, the food, the service, the size of the ship, and so much more. If Celebrity has the right itinerary then we would return to them, but we honestly love the AZ itineraries better (which is what brought us to AZ in the first place).

We aren't big drinkers but we did like that we could grab a bottle of water wherever and whenever we wanted, and that wine and cocktails are complimentary and good. We made use of all the Discoverer + perks we got with our loyalty transfer.

I hope you have a great cruise.

We just finished a b2b and no you can not book until the morning of the next cruise but you do not have to get off the ship and since very few were on board we got all our reservation times. We were in a CC suite so we mostly ate at the specialty restaurants and our favorite was Aqualina.

That's our plan too - we have B2B CC suite booked for our next cruise. Were you able to special order some things in advance? Things not on the menu? I know we sometimes did that on Celebrity in Murano. We gave them at least a day's notice, we're easy to please.

Bonnie, we're not going to cancel completely, we really like AZ, but we may change for a different B2B or the one before. Probably won't get our carefully chosen suite of choice for both though. Thank you so much for answering me, and hopefully if we *do* cancel the TA won't charge us a fee either.

Glad to know my concerns are not unfounded. We may change our back to back, although we like both cruises. It's just that the time in London was a selling point. If we change, hope there will be no cancellation fee with our TA. Yeah, it's already with them.

Bonnie

We are long time Celebrity cruisers who took our first AZ cruise to the Norway fjords on Journey this past July/August. We are hooked on AZ! So much so that we booked a B2B in 2020 and upgraded to a suite -- August 29 Ireland and Sept. 10 France, Spain, Portugal. One of the draws was the first cruise ended with an overnight in London and the second cruise began with a London overnight.

Now... we received two emails changing the itinerary to disembark and embark in Southhampton. Very disappointing. We were looking forward to a 3+ day stay in London. Reason? Too much maritime traffic and inability to get a favorable docking position. Sure there are a couple new ports added but to us that de-values the cruise without the long stay in London.

Is there any chance Azamara will go back to the original itinerary? If they did, what does 'favorable' docking position actually mean?? We are fine taking a shuttle in to town if things are not walkable. Yes it's a long way away, but we were told that actually a new port was being added in London to accommodate ships like AZ. I guess we really don't care about 'favorable' docking position, we just wanted a docking position in London!

My husband would say golfing at Sandy Lane on Barbados. (Tiger Woods got married there). It's gorgeous and world class golfing. Best in the Caribbean.

Best snorkeling for us is Bonaire - Woodwind does the best job.

Great review so far. I have to agree, excellent food in all venues, particularly the specialties!!

We took our first AZ cruise this summer, the Journey to the North Cape (Norway fjords). We are long time Celebrity cruisers and have decided this is our line of choice now. I love the country-intensive itineraries and we booked two of them while on board!

I have a comment about a couple things and it's of course just my opinion. The key card holders. Never in all our cruising have we wanted one, used one, or kept one. I just don't get the big deal. I certainly am not a fob wearer - it just goes in my pocket or in my husband's pocket or a little purse and that's all I want. We have always left them in the cabin. And, we received two of them. I supposed I'll have to be educated on the big deal with a card holder.

We are serious wine drinkers but we didn't upgrade and found the included wines pretty much to our liking. We only drink a glass or two at dinner, nothing throughout the day. If we weren't particularly fond of one, we could always get one of the ones we liked from a previous day. There were a couple merlots that I enjoyed and they always had a bottle ready. We almost always say like one poster above: "we'd like to look at the menu while we are sipping our wine" or something to that effect.

We always had nibbles presented in all the venues. Sometimes we didn't even want them. They were just brought to us. Perhaps....they don't want waste, so it's probably not a bad idea to order your drink and "something to nibble on." Once we just wanted peanuts and we got a tiny little carafe of peanuts. Perfect. I say just ask for something. It would never occur to me that it was less than 'luxury' to have to ask for something to eat with a pre-dinner drink. I'd rather do that than have something go to waste.

As far as wait staff not looking out and surveying their tables, that's definitely a training issue. That was the one issue we noticed too. Maybe there's something cultural in there too, I don't know --

I hope you continue to enjoy your cruise. We've never sailed Oceania - perhaps we never will. For now AZ suits us just perfectly. We did upgrade our cabin - to one of the club continent suites - for our 2020 cruises. We met people onboard who had one and they invited us back to see their cabin. That's all it took. The regular verandah shower - yeah, it's something else! I did put a couple magnets on the curtain to keep it in place. I carry a few of them on every cruise for holding things on the wall, etc.

Corning Museum of Glass is no longer on the three ships that had the show. I loved that show and attended probably 50 or 60 shows. It's not on the M class ships or on Silhouette or Reflection. I wasn't aware Edge was going to have it.

Now it's a glass blowing class/demo and you can help to make a piece. Cost depends on piece.

We have no X cruises planned - we're doing AZ for the foreseeable future - but if and when we do, I'll make a piece.

It's not a real refrigerator, it's a cooler. You can ask the stateroom attendant to empty it so you can fill it with your own soft drinks, beer, water, etc.

Enjoying your review so far. We are long time X cruisers and did our first Azamara cruise July 24-August 8 just a month ago. It was 15 nights and we went all the way to Honnigsvag at the North Cape. Norway was forever on our bucket list and we just chose the longest and most comprehensive itinerary we could find. (fyi Azamara is wonderful). We just loved sailing into and out of the beautiful fjords and seeing the towns and cities all the way up and down the coast. It was a very unusual warm time in northern Europe - as much as 30 degrees higher than normal. We were wearing shorts almost every day except at the North Cape and that was just a jacket. I smiled looking at the ship's wool blankets! Those never appeared on our cruise ha ha. The good part of that was it was completely clear and blue every single day so there were no visibility issues. I look forward to continuing on your journey and reminiscing about our recent trip. We've never sailed in a RS either - mostly SS and one CS. Enjoy that beautiful ship and continue enjoying your journey up the coast of Norway.

ABC for the better snorkeling. Woodwind does a fabulous excursion (best of the best) on Bonaire, which IMHO has the best snorkeling off the island at Klein Bonaire.

Yes! We need this. Grapefruit (pamplemousse!) all day long.

 

I love grapefruit La Croix (it did used to be labeled pamplemousse) so much my husband calls any sparkling water I buy "pamplemousse" just for fun.

I'll sign the pamplemousse petition!

I hope the OP comes back to report if he went higher up the chain. Been reading this with interest.

We always carry a zippered case with contingency meds. Some things that may not have been mentioned:

emergency antibiotic if you're one who has sinus infections or has contracted bronchitis on a cruise (me for both)

small roll gauze

small roll ace bandage

adhesive pads that cut to fit a blister

fine tweezers and small sharp scissors

prescription cough medicine (only one thing helps my cough if I get bronchitis)

cough drops

ginger chews (Trader Joes!!) or crystallized (Penzey's Spices)

packaged heat pad

every OTC pain reliever available

When I had adult braces 10 years ago I also carried dental wax. I should probably carry it with me again. Good reminder.

We have overhead/discovered people in need of various things before and have happily offered them. (well not antibiotics or RX stuff). I also carry a couple bandaids in my purse wherever I am at home or away. They live with my change.

Most times we have never used anything more than an Excedrin or something like that, but it's when you don't have it that you wish you did. I will never forget bronchitis on the Eclipse! My cough was so bad that my DH went to sleep on a couch in the Ensemble Lounge. I felt bad for our cabin neighbors. I had no meds to help me and the Delsym equivalent and the Robitussin the ship had was like sugar water.

We've done it many times. On different days of the week, even days supposedly crowded. Even first cruise back after a TA. But....we're always the first few people off the ship and we make sure we are.

What we do to make sure we're among the first dozen or so off is get up early. We carry our own luggage and get down to the meeting spot about 45 minutes to an hour ahead of when they tell you. We don't try and sit down to breakfast, we just get in line with our luggage. We have no problem pulling a big case and a carry on or two stacked. None whatsoever. You have to do that or it's not do-able.

We might take turns getting a muffin or something from Cafe Bacio, but normally we just get to the airport about 8:00 and grab something there. We have had enough food by then - missing a meal is really probably a good thing ha ha. .

Another thing: Don't pre-arrange transportation to the airport. Just grab a taxi for yourself. If you get in a larger vehicle you'll have to wait till it's completely filled and will have to stop perhaps at different places in the airport. If you're among the first out there are tons of taxis ready and waiting.

Also, it does help to have TSA PRE.

We always have a contingency plan for flying, and since we fly Southwest from FLL there is no charge to change. Never had a problem, always made our flight. We are a 90 minute nonstop to our airport. But when the cruise is over for us, it's over, and we are ready to get home. No stopping for a day at a hotel to sit by a pool or something.

And....contrary to others' experiences, we don't feel rushed or hurried or stressed about it at all. We aren't ruining our cruise or ending on a bad note. We just enjoy getting back early. Most times we're in the airport before 8 a.m. And...like I said, we always have a contingency plan for our flights if for some reason we miss it.

The 15" MacBook pro fits in the safe.

We just took our first AZ cruise (15 night Norway on Journey) and we signed up for two more while on board. We are long time Celebrity cruisers (only line we've ever been on before this last AZ cruise).

I'm sorry your experience has been disappointing, but I can assure you that your onboard experience will be quite the opposite. It's kind of known that the Royal Caribbean brands' websites are awful.

We were amazed at how visible the officers were on board, and how friendly and helpful everyone was. We found the food many steps above Celebrity's, and for the first time in about 7 years we ate in the main dining room. We enjoyed every meal. The specialty restaurants were wonderful too, and if you go to Aqualina please consider the dover sole. We will eat in them a lot more on our upcoming cruises. We found all the included beverages perfect, and we like good wines. We liked the smaller bar venues and didn't miss the martini bar at all. I like the smaller theatre and the '54' shows were very good. We loved White Night in the fjord and the Azamazing Evening in Bergen. I guess you could say we have found a new cruise "home."

I have to admit I can't relate to your particular issue as we just hail a cab from the hotel whenever we're on our way to port, and I can't say I've ever given the terminal or location a second thought. I can understand your situation, I just haven't ever experienced it.

I do hope your cruise is wonderful. It sounds like a great itinerary. I'll be looking for a report/review on your return.

Nope. It is going to taste differently because of the different water used.

Here in Louisiana we call it all Coke. And then you say what kind of Coke you want.