tiggertom

On 4/28/2024 at 2:44 AM, 2SailingNomads said:

I think they missed not just in the residences but also the PH.  Closet is not big, bathroom w/ a single sink and the DUMBEST thing, the switch to turn on the light on the outside of the bathroom.  Having been on-board for the last 10 days I think from people I have spoken to there are some like us who sail on SB, Regent, Scenic, etc. who were interested in trying out the brand, from the initial hype, high end champagne - no longer the case, a "different" approach to cruising, well I don't see that except in the terminology they use, hosts vs. crew, etc.  Then there are the people who sailed on MSC or Celebrity / Carnival who we spoke to who saw this as a step up. 

There are a LOT of really good things about this ship: the crew, food, outdoor spaces, 5 pools, 10+ plus bars, but a LOT IMO of things that could be much better.  Limited choice of included spirits, 1 bag of laundry per segment, poor included wines, lack of shaded outside spaces and the list goes on.  I find it surprising with the amount of money being put into this line they didn't do a better analysis of the existing luxury lines offerings and take the best of them.  

In the UK and most of Europe safety regulations prohibit electric switches and sockets inside bathrooms and toilets apart from low voltage sockets for razors and electric tooth brushes. Explora Journeys are probably following European guidelines, and all the cruise ships I have been on also follow these rules.

Just read a post on Facebook suggesting Barbara Muckermann has resigned. Not sure what has happened at Silversea?

My.silversea.com working fine for me.

17 hours ago, Catchum said:

Just back from 8 days post cruise in Cape town. We stayed on Bree Street - 15 minutes walk to V&A 10 walk minutes to Grassmarket area.

We look the 3 day HOHO to get to the Botanic Gardens (amazing), table mountain, where we spent half a day exploring (get there early for no queues), we also spent time at Holt bay where we had faboulous fresh seafood at Muriel's looking out to the harbor. We also did the HOHO Harbor cruise and the canal cruise - recommended. High tea with champagne at the Mount Nelson Hotel was out of this world and yes we did it on Valentines day❤️. Also a day trip to see the penguins at Boulder Beach and Cape Point lighthouse.

 

Need to go back to do a wine tasting tour, Bo Kaap and a township tour and to try a Gatsby.

 

We also did Karibu the safari platter (not on the menu) for two, a nice bottle of wine, tip and the most impressive dessert ever for $75 total. Pictured.

Thanks @Catchum, that food looks wonderful. There is plenty to do, so looking forward to it. 

18 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Stay in or close to the V & A Waterfront, it's great, very lively & lots of lovely restaurants. We stayed at The Commodore hotel which was good. We bought a 1day HOHO bus ticket which included Table Mountain. It was a long queue to get the cable car, but seats along most of it, fab views from the top. We also pre bought tickets to Robben Islsnd & it was cancelled the morning we were due to go & struggling to get the money back (done a chargeback on my credit card). Aquarium is very good. We made reservations for restaurants, all on the waterfront, glad we did on Saturday & Sunday, but maybe not needed in the week. Very cheap to eat & drink. First night we ate at Mozambik - very lively - a cocktail, a beer, a bottle of wine, 2 starters & 2 mains, all for less than £40. Other 2 nights - Karibu and Cape Town Fish Market - bit dearer but still under £60! All very good.

Thanks @Grandma Cruisingthat sounds wonderful, a great choice of things to do. Were card payments accepted widely? Thanks

We’re doing Gran Canaria to Cape Town in November, any recommendations for hotels and things to do in Cape Town as we will be spending 3 days there before we head home. Thanks

2 hours ago, AlbertasRose said:

Yes, our cruise is in August, it was a nice bit of extra OBC to use!  We wouldn't have made that much interest in a year at the bank.

 

Was it 5% of the price of the cruise minus port fees and taxes. I was only offered 2%

7 hours ago, Symmes99 said:

Has anyone taken advantage of this offer? I’m leaning that way now - a 5% return by paying 6 months early is better than leaving that money in the bank.  

I applied for it but was offered 2% of the price of the cruise (minus port fees and taxes). Did you get 5%?

I enquired about this offer and my travel agent has said Azamara are offering $250 OBC if you pay in full. That works out at only 2.3% of the price of our cruise (minus tax and port fees). Can anyone tell me how much OBC they will get for paying the balance early? Thanks.

6 hours ago, uktog said:

I think you might be tempted to book again!  It’s very different to Azamara- in our view the differences are positives although we don’t write Azamara off (yet!).  

 

The staff are equally friendly but in a more subtle way (which we like).  “Fraternising” with some guests including off ship does not seem to be encouraged which is great as all hosts (as crew are called) feel equal as do all guests. Of course some guests may speak with some officers more than others but it’s much less “competitive” amongst guests. An example is yes there are bar chairs for guests to sit at and hosts will speak to guests there but they give equal attention to every guest including those sitting elsewhere not just have conversations with some at the bar. Azamara Atlas Bar in particular could learn a lot from the Explora Lobby Bar! 

The  food is on a different level but then to be fair so is the food budget.
 

There are so many pool options, currently shade is a little limited but that’s being addressed (the balconies which all have a substantial round table two comfy upright chairs and a day bed as a minimum) are shaded so that’s always an option. 

I absolutely loved that pool bar service involved staff quietly walking around looking for guests signaling they wanting drinks, then going to get individual orders not guys roaming up and down shouting (waking you up!) bar service then delays whilst they gathered up large trays of drinks to serve. 

I also liked that martinis and cocktails were properly made (eg measured not free pour). This view may not be shared by everyone but latterly around all the bars on Azamara I found free pours to be far too spirits heavy and quite unpleasant (even when you asked for it not to be strong).

 

Of course the suites are so different- even the entry level ones have more space than a club continent suite and I defy anyone to use all the storage! 

 

Azamaras itineraries still win but a lot of Explora beats them and for next year, factoring in the additional cost of a club continent suite and drinks package to an Azamara fare, on current pricing Explora per day in an entry level suite was  less per person per day than Azamara for a very similar itinerary. So Explora got our summer 2024 booking. 
 

They don’t recognise loyalty onboard (thank goodness!) once outside your room everywhere is accessible to everyone and so far the conversation opener with other guests is where are you from or what did you do today, not how many cruises have you done, oh I’m top cruiser etc 😛) 

 

I will be interested to read how your cruise goes, by January  even more tweaking will have happened on Heike’s watch - with entertainment being a priority. She knows where she needs to get to, she just has to bring others (including those in Head Office) with her on that path. 

Thanks for the informative review. I enjoyed it so much that I have booked for March 2025 on Explora 11, Miami to Lisbon 😁😎. We’ve just had our first Azamara cruise in over 4 years, on the Azamara Onward and really enjoyed it but we’re keen to try something new. Explora sounds right up our street. 

18 hours ago, spinnaker2 said:

A month and some days later…

 

We cancelled our upcoming expedition cruise.

 

We are still feeling quite bruised by our experience on the Cloud, specifically as to the sewage odors which could not be fixed. Many did try to fix it, or at least made it look as if they were trying to fix the problem. The engineer who told us that it could never be fixed was the most honest of the lot. 

While those in charge gave lip service to the issue, acknowledging it with the polite “I’m so sorry”, and “the crew is trying to fix it”, as soon as we were off the ship they washed their hands of us.  

 

Approaching 500 days and years of cruising with Silversea, we feel trod upon.  

 

Will we ever cruise with Silversea again?  

 

 

You’ve had nearly 500 days and you are allowing one bad experience to jeopardise your future cruises with a company you obviously love? I hope you were compensated for your bad experience but I would give them another chance to redeem themselves. You’re on a ship, these things happen. Move on and feel lucky that you are able to cruise the world.

We’re on Onward in November and not received the email either 🤷‍♀️ You wonder how they decide who gets it?

On 10/8/2023 at 8:13 PM, Astalarasta said:

Hello experienced Azamara Cruisers,

 

We received our cruise documents directly from Azamara. This will be our first cruise with Azamara and are confused by the  information in our documents.

 

It notes that sailing time is 4:30PM. The time listed for our boarding group(Deck 6) is 3:30 to 4:30 PM and there is also a statement indicating that we will be denied boarding if not checked in at the pier at least 90 minutes before sailing.   

 

Any advice for when we should arrive at the port?  We are sailing from Port Everglades.    Looking forward to your thoughts!

 

 

 

Hi Can you tell me where you find the time for boarding? I think we are the cruise before you (Lisbon to Fort Lauderdale) and haven’t received that detail yet. Thanks

6 minutes ago, Werangels said:

Did you telephone customer services to do this please?  Did you purchase the experience more package?  Thanks. 

No, I did it online. It was before the website changed. I got the Experience More package as an early booking incentive.

We have used the Experience More OBC for our excursions for our cruise in November. 

15 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

My husband’s account was the same. It took about 5 requests to get it sorted, but it now shows the same as mine and both are correct.

We are not trying any more to get hubby’s loyalty level correct.we’ve tried twice and we have an email from Azamara Circle confirming his loyalty level and promising to correct it. We will take that email onboard with us, in case of any issues. Mine is correct!

16 hours ago, 1985rz1 said:

This is from the Azamara web site under faqs:

 

How does the Suite and Loyalty benefit combinability work?

• When you stay in Veranda Plus or Suite categories, you have the option to combine both Internet and laundry benefits with those that the Veranda Plus and Suite categories offer, depending on your loyalty tier. For example, if an Explorer member that earns 60 minutes or 35% savings towards the Full Voyage Unlimited Package stays in a Veranda Plus category that offers 120 free Internet minutes or 25% savings towards the Full Voyage Unlimited Package, they can combine either the free Internet minutes or package redemption, to make a total of either 180 free minutes or 60% savings towards a Full Voyage Unlimited Package.
• Laundry: If a member is at an Explorer tier or higher, and booked in a Veranda Plus or higher, they can combine the laundry benefits to receive two bags of laundry bags, per seven days.

Is the laundry benefit per suite or per member?

I found some paperwork from our Athens to Mumbai 15 night Route of Frankincense cruise on Journey in 2012, which explains the drinks packages and how much they cost. It was our second cruise with Azamara when the ships were white and you had to pay for drinks. The cruise cost £1645.00 each for an V3 including flights and hotel in Athens pre cruise and all transfers.

You can’t book dining before you board and even when you board you can only book the speciality restaurants - Prime C and Aqualina 

25 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Looked at my husbands account today and, at last, it’s now showing both upcoming cruises and the correct points and loyalty level, so now both accounts are correct - took them a while but they got there in the end. 

We can report exactly the same, both cruises are showing and loyalty points and loyalty levels are correct 🥳

So pleased to say that both booked cruises and the correctly loyalty level and points are now showing on the one page. My OBC is correct and my excursions which were booked pre website change are still there 🥳🚢🍾

10 hours ago, Riocca said:

Why? Just flip the search criteria to latest departure and you would see the last cruise in the offer is the 9th November.

My point is that it comes up under “view offer”. Why does it matter which way I look at the cruise I have booked. It is misleading to have my cruise under this offer when it is dearer than it was when I booked it. I am happy with the price I paid.

16 hours ago, Scots Caz said:

what date in November 2024

The t&cs say "....on selected voyages departing 3rd January 2024 to 9th November 2024"

I clicked on “view offer” and waded through 263 cruises to find mine which sails on 20 November. Very misleading to let people think it is reduced.

Is this meant to be the same offer for UK? If so it is approx £2k more expensive for our November 2024 cruise but the price doesn’t mention discounts or stateroom upgrades.

1 hour ago, excitedofharpenden said:

There is no advantage in trying to book a drinks package before you get onboard.  Do it on the ship.  It's so easy.  Besides, by the time you cruise your circumstances might change and you don't want one.  For me it's also better because the bar staff on the ship get credit for selling drinks packages and I've made a friend right at the start!

 

Phil

So, better upgrading the drinks package at one of the bars? I thought I would have to do it at Guest  Services.