3 hours ago, blag said:

You say that there are only 105 guests booked. Please, where exactly did you find this information in your planner? (Was this the desktop version or mobile?) 

Not guests, staterooms.  Its not in the planner.  I do a dummy booking and add up all the empty cabins in each category then take it away from the total number of cabins on the ship (which I counted on the deck plan). I have been doing this every week.  We did get to 110 staterooms booked but that dropped after final payment due day. Interestingly, it was the top end suites that seemed to become vacant.

Question about Fiji- When we dock, will there be people at pier offering tours? 

Since Carnival is not listing any on our cruise I have decided to try to book with someone when we dock.  would like to do beach at one stop and cultural tour at other.  Any suggestions?

3 hours ago, DS said:

I'm assuming that your cruise in on the Pursuit starting in Rome on Nov 19th ???   If so, while there are no AzAmazing Evenings or Destination Celebrations ( on board) listed, the only possilbe days are the late stay in Barcelone on 21 Nov, and the two nights in Seville ( 26 and 27 Nov)

Yes, you assume correctly. Thank you thats my problem the only concert on land we can go to while travelling is Barcelona on the 21xt.  Of course we want to experience Azamara as well and don't want to miss the Destination Celebration.

Therein lies the dilemma. 🙂 

On 7/31/2022 at 12:08 PM, CupKayke said:

Yikes.  It's just so strange that a ship charges for WATER.   That is a steep price for one bottle of water.   I've seen TV shows on cruise ships built even 10 years ago and their water quality far exceeds any water you can get on land or in a bottle... so it's so odd that Costa's water isn't drinkable? or is it?  

We travel in a suite so always get the premium drinks included.  I don't like to use plastic so apart from sparkly water from a bottle I drink water out of the tap.  I have never had a problem on any cruise line including costa drinking water from the tap.

1 minute ago, andrcan said:

AzAmazing evening is posted well in advance on the cruise shore excursion list in your online planner. For example, my upcoming cruise is in December but AzAmazing evening was posted online a month ago.

Thank you for your reply. Yes, I thought I had read that somewhere then couldnt find it again.  I have looked at our planner - it has very small passenger numbers with only 105 cabins booked so far.  The cruise is Spain intensive in November.  I can't see the Azamazing evening posted.  All excursions have a cost against them and I was looking for one that didnt.  Am I looking in the right direction ?

On 8/7/2022 at 11:09 PM, Beamafar said:

While not a tip, rather an observation from an Az newbie - everything (positive) I’ve read on here matches our experience onboard.  From the food, to the service, to the friendly passengers.  We’re just 24 hours onboard and are blown away. 

So good to hear - we are MSC fans from way back but also think we will be a good fit for Azamara.  I'm so looking forward to trying something new.  We tried Princess, Costa (a few times) RCCL, and Genting, another company that is now bust and havent found our fit yet.

I'm sure this has been asked before and I'm sorry if I'm asking again - I'm going googly eyed trolling through the previous comments.  We want to plan a visit to a music hall in Barcelona but don't want to book for the night that might be the azamazing evening.  How do you know which evening it will be ? 

22 hours ago, SargassoPirate said:

I've heard, but never confirmed, that MSC will match your status with other cruise lines.  I wonder if that would apply to a WC and what the perks would be?

yes it is easily done and can be done before you book - so that would make it applicable 🙂 all you need to do is contact them by email and show proof of your status on another line/hotel chain and you will be matched to an applicable loyalty status.  You will then receive all the benefits of that status level.

On 5/3/2022 at 7:46 AM, Heidi13 said:

Just stumbled onto my most recent list, so thought I would cut and paste. This is just a summary, the actual document was more comprehensive.

 

I developed an extensive "Statement of Requirements" listing everything that was a must have and others that were optional/preferences. Some of our requirements that we included:

• # pax - looking for 750 - 1250. Too small restricts entertainment options
• Pax space ratio (GT/pax) - prefer > 50, but no less than 40
• Pax/crew ratio - prefer 2:1, or better
• Meals (MDR) - quality meals, with options for destination menus
• Alternative restaurants - couple of options, with preference to no additional fees
• Cabin service - must be available 24/7, with preference to costs being included in fare
• Entertainment - not interested in wacky pool games, marriage games, etc. Prefer small group of singers/dancers supplemented with guest entertainers.
• Lectures - focus on destination
• Spa suite - preference if included
• Laundry - since we do longer cruises, must have pax laundry. Preference if included
• Wifi - preference if included
• Kids - preference if none
• Casino - never use, so preference if none
• Art Auctions, Photogs, Shops expanding into public spaces - not interested
• Port/sea day ratio - I did develop a minimum ratio, but don't recall the numbers
• Hours in port - again, I developed a minimum number of average hours in port, but don't recall the numbers

List similar to mine and I came out with Azamara - we havent tried them yet or booked a WC but we are trying a 12 night on them in November to see what they are like first.

On 12/14/2021 at 5:01 AM, JanR said:

 

 

And yes, we are going in to this with eyes wide open.  We have heard both horror stories and praise for MSC.  We'll find out soon enough for ourselves.

MSC is my favourite line - best pizza at sea - don't do burgers and fries very well but if you like seafood you will love MSC.

from what I have seen of cruise ships the dance floors are very small - I have seen pictures of Cunard but never been on one - they seem to have decent dance floors

On 8/5/2022 at 6:36 AM, cxr133 said:

mmmmm....... at Xcaret  i liked the Street Tacos way  better than i liked the fine dining.

and they were open later than the restaurants 

  but how much did you pay to stay at Xcaret ??? 

Bet is was 10 x what you pay carnival - the prices I looked at ran at nearly $2000 AUD per night !!

On 6/30/2022 at 10:04 PM, seagypsea said:

FYI to the OP - you will not be given your shareholder benefit on a discounted cruise.  It's clearly stated on the corporate benefit page.  I tested that statement by asking for it on a discounted cruise and got a letter instead saying we love you but sorry...

I got a deeply discounted cruise on the 23 day transpacific and was successful in getting shareholder OBC.

On 7/24/2022 at 1:14 PM, frito58 said:

You want a deal , go spend some time in the casino. Use your card . Just sayin. They are offering deals galore for casino players and I mean fantastic deals . Don’t think I have to break the bank either. 

This is what a Carnival agent told me to do 🙂 recently 

What are the benefits to booking your next cruise while you are onboard ?

On 7/12/2022 at 12:33 PM, 1912 said:

The Alaska B2B2B on the Splendor that I booked over the weekend I submitted my request this morning and Voila! within 20 minutes all 3 cruises showed the shareholder benefit as having been applied, so does the booking summary page of each cruise. I think this was the quickest ever it was done from my 70 odd cruises.

Thanks for your post - can I ask how did you attach your shareholder statement ? was it a jpg file or a pdf file ?

Heard from Azamara today that they no longer require pre cruise testing unless the country you are leaving from requires it.  We leave from Italy so will no longer have to find a testing site before boarding. A bit of a relief really.

On 6/3/2022 at 11:59 AM, travelberlin said:

My travel agent found from Azamara that the excursions onboard credit is to be used in excursions only.

Ivi

There was a specific promotion of 500 USD excursion credit.  I imagine it will only be able to be used for excursions as opposed to On Board Credit which can be used anywhere.  It was a month after I booked.  The promotion when I booked was $1000 OBC so I expect that I'll be able to use that as I see fit with excursions and on board spends.

Newbie question again - I've tried reading the whole 9 pages before asking and I still don't know - How do you see if the OBC has been applied ? do Carnival send you a confirmation ? does it just appear when you are onboard on your account? I'm not sure I'll know if and when it is applied.  Thanks for your help - this is a really active and  great pre cruise page.

Yes - I think they have a new phone service with people who are new.  I had to argue for my OBC to be shifted to my new cruise after by Black Sea cruise was cancelled.  I told them it was them that changed the cruise obviously and I still had the same booking number so they could honour what they said when the changes were made.  Took  me over an hour on the phone but I got there in the end.

Carnival are now advising that they may not add (or not) OBC until a week before the cruise.  If they do this and deny you then you will have not time to resubmit as is suggested earlier in this thread.  They specifically ask you not the duplicate requests.

My automated response.... 

Anyone able to advise - I have had covid and cant have my booster shot until after 12 weeks.  This takes me to within a two week period before my cruise.  do you test positive if you have just had a booster.  Worried about the antigen test showing a positive. 

On 6/23/2022 at 6:04 PM, sealynx said:

This makes me wonder if business for Costa is going well or not. Of course they've added two giants to their fleet, but that was planned years ahead. Apparently they don't have the bookings in the med to keep their fleet intact, so they need to dispose of Luminosa. On the other hand, MSC is adding extra capacity to the med with the transfer of the Bellisima. If the market was the same for Costa, they wouldn't have the need to dispose of the Luminosa, but they would also have the possibility to get the Firenze and Venezia (either or both) to their home market.

Both Firenze and Venezia were built specifically for the Chinese market and no one else was able to book them. China has not resumed cruising so they are "spare".  It makes sense to take them to Carnivals biggest market but Costa does not have the same following as Carnival.  Both owned by the same parent company so to market them it makes sense to do it this way. .... 

Costa Venezia is a Vista-class cruise ship operated by Costa Cruises. Originally intended to serve the Chinese market, she debuted in Shanghai on May 18, 2019

Built at Fincantieri's Marghera shipyard, Costa Firenze is the second ship of Costa Asia

9 hours ago, Ferry_Watcher said:

@Janet&Carl, Seattle is basically the departure port for most of the US cruises to Alaska.  You are on a very rare cruise leaving Seattle that is not Alaska bound (as you said,  your cruise will eventually end up in Sydney).  It  is not surprising that readers are confused by your posts.  It might be helpful in the future if you identify the type of cruise/itinerary you have booked in your responses, especially since none of the Seattle/Alaska protocols will apply to your trans-pacific repositioning cruise.  Thanks!

thanks but if you read my original post I did say that I didnt go to Canada on my cruise

7 hours ago, tutuwahineLV said:

the ship stops in Canada, whether you get off or not, you still need the ArriveCan filled out in order to board the ship in Seattle.  (We went to Alaska in May,)

I am not going to Alaska I am going to Hawaii 🙂 I am on the Transpacific back to Sydney