RoddyGateau

10 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

My TA gives 8-10% back.  They tried to give it to me as OBC, but I requested a rebate and now I get a check when I get home from the trip.

Thanks. I believe that I may have that option. I’ll see what she has to say.

51 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Wow... that is a lot of OBC.

 

We had OBC of 440 Euros.  We paid Euros on board and for snowshoeing it was 62pp and for kayaking it was 145pp, so 410 Euros approximately?

There is nothing else to spend on unless you want to buy some clothing from the store on board.

We at the time also had to pay for a Covid test at 65pp as well, but otherwise we paid for some alcohol that was outside of meal time and soft drinks outside of meal time.

 

I think that you will have a hard time spending all that OBC, and unfortunately, I do not know Hurtigruten's policy on this if they refund or not.

 

I think that you should contact your TA and ask them to look into this.

 

In the end we had a balance, but again, hard to spend all that.

Thanks for the speedy reply. I’ll see what my TA has to say. I certainly don’t want to leave unspent money behind.

On 8/8/2023 at 4:06 AM, CDNPolar said:

We had OBC and were just trying to use that up.

Before I get to my question let me thank you for posting your superb video. My wife and I are booked on Fridtjof Nansen on the 11 January sailing and can’t wait to experience the beautiful scenery and wildlife that you have captured so skillfully. 
In one of your many comprehensive answers to various questions you mention OBC. We are in the fortunate position of having almost $2,000 of OBC provided by our TA. If we’re successful in excursion lotteries I guess that we’ll use most of it but, if we’re unsuccessful, there’s no chance that we’ll  be able to spend it. All other cruise lines that we’ve sailed on refund any unused TA provided OBC, either in cash or to a credit card, at the end of the cruise. Do you happen to know what Hurtigruten’s policy is in this regard?

Thanks for all the answers!

On an upcoming Zuiderdam cruise (first one on HA) I have a lot of OBC provided by my TA. I’m unlikely to spend it all. Will HA credit the residual amount to my credit card, refund it in cash or keep it? What’s the usual practice?

12 hours ago, Charlies Aunt said:

Anyone reading this for future travels I would just like to give a shout-out for a great tour guide Augusto Guimaraes in Rio de Janeiro. We have just spent the day with him in this wonderful city and much appreciated his knowledge of all things Brazilian. He is also extremely proficient in getting you through lines at breakneck speed making it possible to enjoy a delicious lunch and still get to see the major sights in a day without being totally frazzled at the end. 

 

Please consider him for any future visits. He is a great character and will make your visit to Rio very memorable.

 

gusguide@hotmail.com

 

Yes! DW and I heartily endorse all that you’ve said. We had a really enjoyable day with an excellent, well organized and knowledgeable guide made even more enjoyable by sharing the day with you and our fellow Azamara passengers.

Thanks everyone for your input. As it happens we’ve decided to postpone this cruise in favour  of a Hurtigruten Antarctica expedition cruise. We’re not getting any younger and decided that we better do Antarctica before we get too old for hopping in and out of Zodiacs or all the ice melts.

1 hour ago, crzrr said:

It does not apply to "new" bookings.  We have booked onboard for the same cruise that we had booked with our travel agent so that we could get the savings.  It was worth it even with having to pay the cancellation fee for the first one.  However, since your travel agent is the only one who can cancel there has to be some coordination if you want the same cabin.  Either you have to cancel your first one and then rebook or you have to book the new one with a different cabin, contact your agent and have them cancel and then they grab the original cabin once it's available again.  I know - convoluted!  The real problem happens if there is wait list for that specific cabin.  Once the reservation is cancelled and that cabin becomes available, it automatically goes to anyone on a wait list. Good luck!!

Thanks so much! that’s what was looking for.

12 minutes ago, PirateWife said:

I recall being told that a cruise booked through your TA could only be cancelled through your TA. The Future Cruise staff onboard cannot cancel your cruise.

Thanks, I’m sure that’s the case. 

15 minutes ago, luv2travel90266 said:

I booked a back to back on board and found the rates dropped saving me thousand of dollars after. I cancelled and rebooked with my travel agent. Also note you can book on board and then transfer the booking to your travel agent. I suggest you do the math and see if it makes sense. Note the benefits of booking on board are based upon your level in the loyalty program. 

Thanks. I have an Owners Suite booked booked so the 7% savings on a 15 night cruise are quite significant.  I was wondering if Azamara had any rule that makes the on board booking perks only applicable to “ new” bookings.

Although I have cruised with Azamara several times (Discoverer Plus), I only recently became aware of the advantages of booking future cruises on board. I will soon be embarking on an Azamara cruise and have another one booked (through my TA) for April 2024.  Is there any reason why I could not cancel my 2024 cruise and rebook it on my upcoming cruise? I realize that there is some risk of my preferred type of cabin not being available and would probably not attempt this if the risk is significant. 

2 minutes ago, blag said:

Are you viewing the list of embarkation ports in a mobile (cellphone) browser?

If you are, I suggest that you try looking at  it from a desktop computer. Notice any difference?

It seems to me that the cell/mobile version is listing whether your vaccinations have to of a type approved by the CDC, rather than whether testing is required!

This was changed a while back to 'Testing', but seems to have reverted to 'CDC Vaccination approval', which - obviously - is very different.

Please note: I do not currently have access to a desktop computer.

Thanks, I’ll check that.

In July Azamara announced the discontinuation of pre-boarding Covid testing with the proviso that testing would still be required if local rules required it.
 “The pre-cruise testing remains as a requirement for travelers embarking in a port where these protocols remain. In those cases, guests will still need to produce a negative COVID-19 test before sailing. A list of these ports is provided here.” Rio de Janiero is one of the ports listed as still requiring testing, however, In April, Brazil discontinued Covid testing on arrival for fully vaccinated passengers. Can anyone offer any insight into this apparent discrepancy?

Received the taxes and fees refund today for three YC cabins on Seaside March 21 sailing. Used the 125% FCC for 13 December Seaside sailing. I’ll be very surprised if it happens.


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I’m in the same boat, no pun intended! I received the FCC certificates in early April and, optimist that I am, immediately booked a December 2020 cruise. Refunds of payments for Internet, shore excursions and a cabana on Ocean Cay were promptly refunded but, as yet, no sign of the refund for taxes, etc.
My TA was informed that the refund has already been made so we have requested details of date, amount and last four digits of the credit card to which MSC claims to have made the refund. We’ll see what happens next!


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We have used Rome Cabs on five occasions for both airport and cruise port transfers. All collections were timely and the drivers friendly, helpful and informative. On our last trip we were overnighting at the airport Hilton and our Rome Cabs driver suggested that we take a cab into the village of Fiumicino for dinner.  This was excellent advice and we had a memorable seafood meal. However, the cab fare from the Hilton to Fiumicino (less than 10 minutes)was  Euro 20. By comparison the Euro 50 that Rome Cabs charges for a transfer from the airport to central Rome is pretty good value for money. We''ll definitely use Stefano's service on future visits to Rome and maybe try one of the countryside tours.

I think that bombing three luxury hotels in Colombo on Easter Sunday might be construed as targeting tourists even though Christians were obviously the primary target.

I feel that it’s a matter of horses for courses. We enjoy Azamara for port intensive itineraries with few, if any, sea days and Celebrity for itineraries for with several back-to-back sea days for the variety of activities that the larger vessels can offer. We have always found the food to be pretty good on both lines so that would not be a determining factor for us. We usually have Club Continent Suites on Azamara and Sky Suites on Celebrity. I thing that the Azamara suites have a slight edge but they are both very comfortable. 

On 1/6/2019 at 5:02 PM, agathasmum said:

We sailed on the 24th November 2018 10 day Intensive Cuba cruise on the Azamara Journey and wanted to share a few long overdue thoughts about the trip.

 

As a bit of background information, we are a quiet couple in our 50’s and 60’s, pretty low key and happy to entertain ourselves. We are originally from the UK but have lived in the USA for 30 years.We cruise for the food and destinations, rather than the entertainment, and for the past 20 years have primarily cruised on Celebrity.  However we have found todays Celebrity isn’t what it once was and have been trying a few other cruiselines, (Cunard, Oceania) to see if we can find a “better fit” for us. This time we gave Azamara a whirl as this 10 day Cuba Intensive itinerary (including 3 days in Havana, a day in Cienfuegos and an overnight in Santiago de Cuba), was too good to miss. As a bonus our Elite Plus status on Celebrity was recognised by Azamara so we received Discover Plus benefits with them.

 

We flew down to Miami the day before on American from Reagan National. The flight was uneventful, taking off and landing on time. We spent the night at the Doubletree Biscayne Bay Hotel in Miami. I am allergic to feathers and it is usually quite a palaver to get a feather free bedding request taken seriously in hotels. As soon as I checked in at the Doubletree the receptionist said “…and your room has been made feather free”. Excellent! The Doubletree turned out to be part of a large entertainment and shopping complex and we ate onsite at Casablanca on the Bay and had a very pleasant dinner overlooking the marina. I would definitely recommend this as a pre-cruise hotel.

 

Saturday morning, cruise embarkation / disembarkation day was manic at the hotel, and although they did offer us a shuttle to the port, we thought it would be quicker and easier to take a taxi as the shuttle was dropping people at many different ships. We arrived relatively early and dropped our bags at the kerb. Inside the terminal we were asked to fill out a Cuba visa application, told that $75 per person would be charged to our online account, and we were strongly urged to check the box saying we would be doing Azamara excursions. We were doing a mix of private and cruiseline tours, but as our first tour was private, we checked the “support of the Cuban people box”. When I handed the application back I was again asked to check a different box. I replied that I had checked the box that applied to me. The agent shrugged and handed me two blank visa forms and said we would be shown how to fill them out on board. We finished checking in and were asked to sit down for a while as they weren’t yet ready for boarding. After a few minutes they started boarding by cruise status, so we were among the first to board, and get a glass of fizz.

 

As we took the stairs instead of having to wait for the elevator we were the first people in the buffet for lunch. I thought there was a good selection of food, and was happy to get a table in the aft outdoor seating area. There were plenty of bar waiters and they were very keen to pour the red or white wine of the day or rose or sparkling wine.

 

We had a verandah cabin it seemed quite comfortable with ample storage space. The bathroom, particularly the shower was a totally different experience. I had heard that it was small, but assumed that being petite I wouldn’t have any issues. I was wrong, and boy did that shower curtain like to cling!!! Our cabin attendants were excellent and when we first met said that they had removed everything with feathers from our cabin. I was impressed. They kept the place scrupulously clean, and our bathroom was always well stocked with clean towels.

 

A lot has been said about Azamara and Oceania offering a similar small ship product, but with the emphasis on food being Oceania’s strength and the emphasis on the destination being Azamara’s forte. I have to say that the food on Azamara gave Oceania a run for it’s money. We really enjoyed all the food in the dining room for lunch and dinner, so much so that we didn’t bother trying the speciality restaurants. We ate in the buffet the night it was Indian food and we were very impressed by it. The only disappointment with Azamara was the croissants. They always seemed dry and stale, whereas the ones on Oceania were exquisite. It was nice to have drinks anytime included in the cruise fare, and as a wine drinker I never felt the need to upgrade to a higher package to get better wines. I really enjoyed the french rose that was always available and the sparkling wine. My husband got used to drinking Becks, the included beer. What did surprise me was that sparkling water like Perrier or San Pellegrino wasn’t included in the basic drink package. The first couple of days they offered what looked like sparkling water in unlabelled bottles that had very little sparkle in them. I imagined they were perhaps making it themselves with a sodastream machine! In the end we bit the bullet and paid for Perrier.

 

I can’t comment on the shows as they aren’t our thing so we didn’t go to any. We do like live music and listened to  the “Sparkle Trio” in the Living Room most evenings. They were from Ukraine and comprised a young female singer and young male guitarist and an older keyboard player who scowled the entire time. We weren’t sure if he was their dad or their minder but he did not seem happy to be there! The other “entertainment” option was a female pianist who sang lyrics we knew to tunes we didn’t, and she seemed incapable of playing and singing at the same time. It was quite bizarre, but she did have a following in the Martini Bar! I really missed a string quartet playing classic music or a singer/guitarist.

 

A lot has been said about Cuba, the Cuban visa, disembarkation in Cuba, exchanging money and private versus Azamara tours. Here is our experience. We checked the “support of the cuban people” box on the visa application, and were given blank visas which we filled out in the cabin. I’m not sure if there ever was help to fill out the visa on board but it was pretty self explanatory, and just required you to copy information from your passport onto it. An FYI, ANYONE arriving in Cuba on a ship that has sailed from the USA, MUST get the visa, even if you are from a country that would not require you to purchase a visa if you flew to Cuba, for example if you were Canadian. As we had a private tour booked at 11am, and as Azamara asked that passengers on Azamara tours be allowed to disembark first, we got off around 10:15am and took about 30 minutes to get through immigration. The official checked the passport and visa, took a photo and waved us through. This was the only time they seemed to really check passports and no one ever asked us if we were on a tour of any kind be it private or cruiseline operated. We changed money at the currency booths in the terminal. There is a 3% fee to change money plus an additional 10% fee if you are changing US dollars. We found some leftover Canadian currency at home and used that! We were out of the terminal by 11am, so ship to street took approximately 45 minutes. We downloaded the app maps.me before the trip and found it very useful to find our way around without having to use wi-fi.

 

We booked a 2 day tour with I Love Cuba Photo Tours in Havana. We booked the tour via email from a recommendation we found on Cruisecritic. The tour was led by Yosel, an ex college professor who is now a professional photographer. His english was excellent. He showed us all the main tourist spots around Havana, and some off the beaten track spots where we got a real insight into the every day life of the locals. We had a car at our disposal and on the second day he rented a huge purple convertible that looked like a spaceship for us for 2 hours! The nice thing about doing this photo tour was that we provided our own SD card and Yosel took photos for us and of us on his camera and also showed us the perfect spots to take some of the Iconic Havana photos from. It was really nice to have his photos of us as a souvenir.

On our 3rd day in Havana we did a private combined walking and food tour with “A Taste of Cuba” aka “Food Tours Havana”. We found the tour recommended on cruisecritic and were able to book and pay online in US dollars. Our guide Ana was brilliant, full of fun and again an excellent english speaker. She toured the central historic district of Havana with us and we visited 7 different establishments to sample food.

 

 

 

The Azamazing Evening was the second evening in Havana. It had originally been scheduled for our overnight in Santiago de Cuba but was switched  to Havana as there was an issue with the dock there and it became a tender port for us. My husband isn’t a fan of dance and didn’t want to go to the show, so we gave it a miss. From what we heard from other passengers, it seems the show was phenomenal and they really enjoyed it.

 

I feel I should add that in Havana we found everyone to be very pleasant, and the city felt very safe

 

At Cienfuegos we took a ship tour to Trinidad, a UNESCO World Heritage site because of its colonial buildings. The buses were good for the 90 minute drive and our guide, an elementary english teacher, although pleasant, was at times harder to understand than the guides we had in Havana. Trinidad was very interesting and we looked around the museum and a local church and also did a walking tour. The cobbled streets were very uneven and the terrain was challenging to people with mobility issues. We had a buffet lunch at a european style 4 star hotel and while nice I would have preferred something a little more authentically cuban. Our guide was from Cienfuegos and very proud of her city and took us on an unplanned panoramic drive around it at the end of the tour which was an unexpected surprise.

 

We dropped anchor early evening in Santiago de Cuba, and it was a 20 to 25 minute tender ride to the city. We had booked an Azamara evening excursion to a jazz club to hear “authentic Cuban Jazz.” Oh my. Not what we expected at all. I will leave it at that.

 

After the jazz experience the night before it was with trepidation that we boarded our bus for the ship tour to El Cobre as it had a “meet the people” element with a visit to a community centre to hear a steel drum band. We couldn’t believe our ears. They were phenomenal with a repertoire that spanned Cuban music to classical to Michael Jackson and The Eagles! Again a 3 course lunch was included and although it was in an italian restaurant, we were served traditional Cuban food, including rice and beans, plantain, pork, ropa vieja, fish and shrimp. We were seated outside and it was very hot but the staff wouldn’t turn on the fans, and people were complaining that there were no lights in the loos. Eventually the owner very apologetically admitted that the power had gone out a few minutes before we arrived. I was really impressed that they were able to prepare and serve such a lovely meal under the circumstances. Just before we were served dessert the power came back on, the fans worked and we were treated to deafening karaoke versions of traditional italian songs by the proprietors friend. What an experience! The final part of the tour was a walking tour of the historic centre of Santiago de Cuba and this was the only time in Cuba when I felt unsafe as we were surrounded by people begging. The guide was very angry that we were being hassled and bothered, and despite him repeatedly asking them to leave us alone they didn’t.

 

We had one other port, the cruiseline private island. We thought it would be nice to stay on board and have the ship to ourselves while everyone else enjoyed their beach day. It seemed half the ship had the same plan as us!

 

I mentioned previously that we were Discoverer Plus. This level comes with a number of perks including social activities (which we were never organised enough to take advantage of!), and free laundry and a set number of free wifi minutes which we did use. I thought the ship wifi was really slow and very hard to log onto, compared to the speeds we had on Oceania even in the middle of the Atlantic.

 

We really enjoyed this cruise. We thought the ship was elegant, the crew friendly, happy and very helpful. We liked that there isn’t a class system on board with certain areas unavailable to people who aren’t in suites. The cabin was nice. We loved the food, and enjoyed that the drinks we wanted were included. The cruise itinerary was wonderful. I’m not sure we have found our “forever cruise home” with Azamara, but I wouldn’t hesitate to sail  with them again if the price and itinerary was right.

Thanks for your very comprehensive review. Our anticipation of our January 24 sailing has intensified.

My DW and I are regular Celebrity cruisers. We are thinking of giving MSC Seaside a try. But most reviews have been bad so am a little nervious about booking.Can someone who have recently sailed both tell me the major differences between the two cruise lines? Drink packages what are the cost? Limit of alcohol drinks per day? Quality of food on MSC? Any additional nickel and dime items?

 

We are in our 60’s and full of life just really need to know what to expect with MSC. I apologize if this has been covered but need fresh opinions on the two cruise lines.

 

On a positive side sounds like ship in clean and beautiful.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

DW and I, who usually cruise in Celebrity or Azamara suites, have just experienced a superb week in Seaside Yacht Club. While, in my opinion, the food in Luminae on Celebrity ships has a slight edge, the overall Yacht Club experience cannot be matched by Celebrity or Azamara, certainly if value for money is the main criterion. To have access to a mega ship and all its attractions and be able to retire to the sanctuary of YC is truly a memorable experience.

That being said, I realize that it doesn’t really answer your questions. I can’t comment on drink packages or food outside Yacht Club (other than gelato and pizza which were both excellent) but our overall impression was that if it wasn’t for YC we would prefer to stick with Celebrity. If we were 20 years younger that might not be the case. Seaside is a beautiful ship with much to offer so my advice is, if your budget runs to YC go for it, you will be amazed, if not, give it a try but recognize that it’s worlds apart from the more sedate Celebrity experience.

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I’m don’t know if you can get a kettle for the room. I doubt it but no harm in asking the butler. We found tea to be a little challenging. On boarding we asked our butler to bring English Breakfast tea at 07:00 every morning. He told us that the only English Breakfast that was available was decaf. So, we asked him to bring hot water and we used our own tea bags that we always travel with. We later that the buffets had regular English Breakfast teabags but preferred our own.

In the lounge we found that the best option for us was the Darjeeling but there were other varieties available.

Laundry is not included.

Showers do have a low seat.

Enjoy your cruise, YC is great.

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We were on the same cruise also in YC and agree with all your comments. The YC concept is exceptional and in my opinion provides some of the best cruise value out there. We usually cruise in suites on Celebrity or Azamara and have four booked through late 2019 but although both X and AZ have good products I don’t think that they compare in terms of value for money. We’ve just booked the whole family in YC for a March 2020 cruise. Here’s hoping that the current quality can be maintained.

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We are also on that cruise and I don't think it is "highly improbable" that all Cuba ports would be cancelled because on March 2, 2018 the US raised the Travel Alert to Level 3. Level 4 is Do Not Travel..

 

 

 

tgg we are in the same position, we don't care for the Caribbean and would not have booked this cruise if it wasn't for the Cuba ports. We are also considering cancelling, but figure we will wait to closer to final payment and see if things are better or worse.

Time will tell I guess.

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While I think that the basic premise of your concern is highly improbable, it seems to me that if Azamara were to remove all Cuban ports from a cruise advertised as “Cuba Intensive” and refused to reimburse those who decided to cancel then those passengers would have a strong basis for a class action lawsuit on the basis of Azamara’s breach of contract in falsely describing the cruise. How you can expect to prepare for such an eventuality I do not know. Have a wonderful cruise and post a review. DW and I are booked on a similar cruise in January 2019.

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Eroller, you really should give lessons on how to write a cruise review. Many thanks for your efforts. My anticipation of our June 2 YC cruise has been much enhanced by your words and images.

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