lisiamc

I am still happily booking, and getting what I am paying for. Is it a challenge sometimes? Yes, I freely admit that it is. But it is getting better, day by day. And are we able to take the cruises that we enjoy? Yes. We board our next cruise on the 10th of this month, and I’m excited!

If we are doing a relocation cruise, we look at where we will be for sunrise and sunset, and the weather. On a cold weather cruise, we might want a little sun on the balcony during the day. On a hot weather cruise, we’d prefer some shade. It also depends if we are cruising near land at any point, and whether we care about a view from the balcony.

I agree! That is a much better way to say it.

They are trying, but the changeover to a new IT system has really set things back. Things are improving, slowly. Telephone wait times are getting much shorter. My TA has been involved with changing two cruises we were going to take later this year into three cruises next year. It’s all done, and he said it wasn’t a bad process at all.

I have four cruises currently booked with two travel agents. One cruise has been in place for while, but two of the other three are new, and one is a change of a previous booking. Both agents are game to ring Azamara and do what is required. If they weren’t, I’d be on the lookout for new agents. The agent who has spent the most time on the phone lately because of transferring deposits to a different cruise has said that things like hold times are really improving lately. He lets me know when he gets someone extra-helpful on the phone, which has been much more often recently. (I am hoping that this light at the end of the tunnel is not an oncoming train. I’m kidding! I really do think things are improving.)

I recently received documents and boarding passes for our cruise embarking 10 July, courtesy of our travel agent. We have done lots of cruises with Azamara and with this TA, so both have had our passport numbers in the past, but I wasn’t asked to enter them again for this cruise. My impression was that the boarding passes would at least get us into the port, but further check-in would probably be required. There were no luggage tags with the documents, either, but I know they have plenty at the port.

As others have said, it’s very possible, even likely, that your child will be the only one on the cruise. Maybe you could bring along a friend for him/her as well?

That’s interesting to know, thank you!

Oops, reading fail for me! Thank you.

App calendar? Is there an app now?

Over the years, we have found the shows on Celebrity very ho-hum, (which is how we feel about the Azamara production shows too) and also found that they don’t often change, so if you cruise more than once every few years, you are likely to see the same shows again and again. The entertainment I enjoyed the most on Celebrity was the silent disco. It was always popular and fun. I think something similar could be successful on Azamara. Celebrity have never provided anything that we thought was as good as White Night or the Azamazing Evening in our 20+ cruises before we stopped cruising with them. We don’t choose cruise lines based on entertainment, but we do find that we like the cruise director shows and the visiting entertainers’ shows on Azamara just fine. We also usually enjoy the band in the Living Room, and the piano player in The Den.

Interestingly, our experience this past March was very different. Probably at least partly down to luck. We only did ship’s excursions in Angola, Namibia, Ghana, and The Gambia. Yes, we were accompanied everywhere in Luanda by armed guards (and an ambulance!), but we didn’t feel any overt hostility. We met some some very sweet and giggly school kids at the Agostinho Neto Mausoleum. We thought the visit to the Fortaleza de São Miguel was too long, but it would have been a shame to miss the Portuguese tiles with crocodiles and ostriches. The highlight of the day was the tour of the beautiful National Assembly building, and our guide seemed very pleased and proud to show it to us. In Ghana we did the very moving tour of the slave forts, and had some good local food. In The Gambia we opted for a fairly gentle tour of local highlights with visits to see crocodiles, monkeys, baobab trees and lunch at a local restaurant. When we saw the ferry used to take people to Senegal for a game drive, and heard the stories as they returned, we were really happy with the day we had instead. We didn’t fancy any of the Ivory Coast excursions, so we took a short walk around the fairly gritty dock area in order to say that we’d actually set feet on the ground there. Probably a very good call, from the sound of your experiences! I’m not sure that I’d do it again, but I’m really happy that we did it once.

I follow some other groups on social media. There is no shortage of (very good, experienced) agents in those groups who are keen to take Azamara bookings.

No, and I don’t think I will. If they’re sticking to the facts, it’s a storm in a teacup, and if not, they’re peddling lies. Either way there’s nothing there to catch my interest, as far as I can see.

That sounds like a nightmare to me! Crowds are one thing, but nude crowds don’t (ahem) bare thinking about 😳😳😳

If anyone thinks that Azamara only do lifestyle cruises, based on a couple of charters per year, I’d be pretty surprised. Princess do lifestyle charters, as do Celebrity and Royal Caribbean, and several other cruise lines.

Every time I scroll past this review, I get Don’t Stop Believing stuck in my head. Fabulous review, which I very much enjoyed. I may have to hate you just a little bit for the ear worm, though.

Yes, that’s our favourite too! Definitely worth a try.

Thank you for thinking of me! We are fond of Casa Sul Mare, a B&B, and have stayed there several times. Out of all the places we’ve tried in Civitavecchia, (and we’ve tried four or five) it’s our favourite. It’s immaculately clean, family-run, and conveniently located across from the sea front. The rooms have sea views and nice little balconies. There is a lift, although like many Italian buildings, the lift is located up a short flight of steps. Loris, the host, is on hand to carry your cases up those few stairs, and he is happy to recommend a restaurant and make a booking for you if you’d like. His mum Rita makes delicious cappuccino to go with the very nice breakfast. There is a guest kitchen with snacks, a coffee machine that guests can use, a fridge full of soft drinks, filtered water, beer, and wine, (I think there might be a small charge for the beer and wine) and a sitting area where guests can chat while having a drink or a snack.

There must be a mistake somewhere. Any alternative-type cruise is always a full charter. They won’t mix regular cruisers with lifestyle cruisers, if that’s what you’re wondering about.

@Grandma Cruising, that’s a nice colour! The ones they gave us at Christmas were a very non-descript grey.

Seriously, we had a great time! Nothing bit us, neither mozzies nor ticks. No malaria, and no chikungunya. We had three days pre-cruise at the Sanbona game reserve three hours away from Cape Town, and saw everything we wanted to see, then had two nights in Cape Town at a lovely hotel. Because of the load shedding for electricity in Cape Town, the game reserve staff warned us not to drink the tap water in Cape Town, as the load shedding could affect the completion of the sanitising cycle. Some people on the ship, including two of our friends, had some intestinal problems that I believe they picked up ashore. We did not. Plus, because we booked early, we had a year of fun telling people who asked us where our next cruise would be that we were cruising to Angola. They’d say, “No, really, where are you going?” And we’d answer “Yes, really, Angola!” It was not a typical resort-destination holiday, but it was fun. We saw a lot and learned a lot, and met great people. I hope you will have as good a time as we did!

As I remember it, it seemed pretty smooth, with a couple of slightly rough patches. We are lucky enough not to suffer from motion sickness, but it you think you might, I’d recommend to take your preferred remedy with you. I will include one cautionary tale, to do with excursions. This is less likely to affect you, because I think the itinerary has changed or will be changing slightly. When we stopped in The Gambia, there was an excursion through Azamara that went to Senegal for the day, for a game drive. Some people booked a private excursion doing a similar trip, for a fraction of the cost. In the morning, there was a delay getting cleared by the port authorities and getting on the ferry, so everyone started a bit late. It was a long day, and when the tour groups were coming back, one of the two ferries broke, so it took a while to get all the Azamara coaches back, and the queue for the one functioning ferry was very long. We heard that the private excursion, in a smaller van, was at risk of not being allowed on the same ferry with the final Azamara coach. Of course, the ship was planning to leave as soon as all the Azamara coaches were safely back, since departure was delayed by quite some time already. Fortunately, the private van driver had the nous to ask one of the Azamara coach drivers if he could fit the van passengers on his coach, and ensure that they got back to the ship in time. If I had been one of those van passengers, I’d have been severely stressed at the prospect of being left behind! Of all the places that we could be most at risk from problems on a private tour, that would certainly be one of them! Weigh things carefully when considering a private tour in some of the ports on your itinerary. We saw the condition of the ferries used for crossing that river, and we were incredibly happy that we had not chosen that excursion, either privately OR through Azamara. I have since heard that the itinerary will change to have a separate stop in Senegal, for those that want to do a game drive without having to take that ferry, or risking being late enough to be left behind. If your itinerary does not yet include that separate stop in Senegal itself, choose your excursion carefully.

The travel advice columns just recommend using repellents, and that certainly worked fine for us. In your shoes, I’d only buy the clothes if you like them.

We just took regular clothing; lightweight trousers, and at least one shirt with long sleeves, and used repellent. We were not plagued with mosquitoes, in fact, I don’t think I saw any at all. We just wanted to take sensible precautions to avoid malaria. Unless you were also going to other places on other travel, I don’t think specialist anti-mosquito clothing would be a worthwhile investment