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I have only sailed Ponant on a port-intensive itinerary, and my next booking is the same. When I have researched their website, I notice that many of their ocean crossings are offered as 'Ocean Voyages' at really low fares – leading me to believe that these are entertainment-light and mainly designed to get the ship from one seasonal location to another and pick up a little income along the way. The exact opposite of a good 'test cruise' to see what Ponant is like.

There's a difference between the rules for travelers entering Greece (e.g. by airplane) and cruise ship passengers. We have been treated like pariahs throughout the pandemic.

Once you start looking at Azamara itineraries, your bucket list tends to grow faster than you can take cruises! Welcome to the AA self-help group [Azamara Aficionados] 🤣

As we come out of the lockdowns, people keep saying 'Carpe Diem.' Why do they want me to try the Fish of the Day?

I was working at a major university when they decided to replace their homegrown business management software with Oracle. The transition was a disaster – so much so that several of us suggested they would have been better off spending the money on fellowships to sponsor COBOL programming students! But that system was far more complex than a cruise line's, and apparently Azamara is going with a vendor that specializes in exactly this type of application – as long as they don't demand too much customization [that was our downfall] if should go much smoother.

Scenic and Emerald have been very sparse on communications since the website hack – but the cruises are still as good as ever. However the lack of communications-ability would make me lean toward booking my own airfare (especially as the US airlines all have adopted 'no changes fees' policies – if this trip doesn't go, I know I'll be able to use the credits on another one).

@bbodb1 thanks for coming back to report – but please try the post again without named a travel agency (violates CC guidelines).

I'm guessing that 'route is home' is the spell check translation of Rudesheim?

I believe that is correct. Those at risk are assumed to be those with Celebrity history, no Azamara history, but an Azamara booking that doesn't sail until after the split. The longer the split gets postponed, the better for those people. [But of course there are new ones every day, as people discover Azamara's great itineraries!]

There isn't a separate sign up, and the loyalty numbers are the same. [No one knows what will happen when the Azamara IT split occurs – will they want to keep the Celebrity loyalty numbers, or issue new Azamara ones?] They have announced that you must sail on Azamara at least once before the IT split or your past Celebrity history will go poof – but luckily for many, the cut-over date keeps receding into the horizon. Latest announcement I saw was Q1 2023, but a recent interview laid out a much longer timeline for full IT independence – don't know where the loyalty split fits within that timeline...

That's why Cruise Critic is here: to let less experienced cruisers know how things work! I have sailed on 29 cruises on 13 cruise lines [ocean and river, mass market to luxury] – and there has never been one in which you couldn't order a double portion or a second entree, or modify the sides to suit. That is one of the great things about cruising as opposed to land tours, where the meals are much more regimented. On Noble Caledonia earlier this month every time I ordered a souffle or anything with creme anglais served at table, I would kindly ask the waiter the leave the gravy boat full of sauce so I could serve myself more – the answer every single time: "Of course, Sir!" It's YOUR cruise, and the wait staff are eager to please. But they're not mind readers – as long as you ask nicely, they will do anything in their power to please you.

But remember that they all look alike, so you might want to bring a tote bag from another cruise line so yours stands out in a crowd.

You can order a second one. But this way there is less waste. Is there a problem?

Cruise Critic has suspended its links to the Meet & Mingle parties for all cruise lines, but Azamara is still sponsoring them and you can register on the Azamara website: https://www.azamara.com/booked-guests/cruise-critic-meet-mingle

Cruise Critic tries to maximize the privacy of its members, which is why we suggest using an alias [and an avatar that isn't your own picture]. If your privacy isn't important to you, stay with it. Otherwise, send an email using your Cruise Critic email address of record to help@cruisecritic.com and include your current user name and a few choices for your new user name.

Sorry to move your thread again but since it isn't about an individual river cruise port but an entire itinerary, it really belongs in the main River Cruising forum – which gets more views than the Ports forum and so should get you more and better answers!

We generally drive to Florida cruises [as the first leg on our snowbird escape] and prefer to stay the night before the cruise at a hotel near the airport. We look for a Cruise package that includes parking for the length of the cruise. We got a 15 nt package, but finding this on hotel websites is hit or miss so you may have to settle for 7 or 8 nts and then pay a reasonable daily rate for the extra. [Tip: the lot isn't gated and they apparently don't really check the date on the dashboard pass at the hotels mentioned below.] We stayed at the Homewood Suites Miami Airport West, which is in an enclave with a shared parking lot with the Hilton Garden Inn Miami Airport West and the Four Points by Sheraton Miami Airport. In the future we would choose the Garden Inn as the best of this bunch [we are Hilton Gold] To make the transfers go more smoothly, we didn't use the hotel's port shuttle – UberXL got us a nice bit SUV for all our luggage and took us directly to Terminal J. At disembarkation another UberXL picked us up within minutes – the stop is right across the street from the Terminal J exit. Easy Peasy.

One caution: I can see the brochure for my cruise with any browser, but I can only download the pdf with Google Chrome [on Safari and Firefox the download just spins in an infinite loop].

The main conclusion I was able to get from this review is: no wonder nobody buys newspapers any more. Quite a comedown from the travel writing of John Gunther!

And a similar article from SeaTrade Cruise News: Have a look inside Lindblad's new National Geographic Islander II

New article on Cruise Industry News: Lindblad’s National Geographic Islander II Debuts in the Galapagos

Thanks for the notice about Shore Excursions being bookable already. Two questions re the Whisper cruise Jan. 29, 2024: • I was able to book shore excursions for all the ports but two – for those two the website shows no shore excursions at all (no button to click even) but the pdf still shows all the choices that I have been seeing (just without prices). Any idea what's going on there? • I racked up over $1,000 in non-included shore excursions but it never asked me to pay. They are listed as 'confirmed.' When does Silversea want me to pay for these?

Interesting review of Azamara Onward on Porthole Cruise and Travel: Going Forward with Azamara Onward

Here's an article on Cruise Industry News with Windstar's announcement: Windstar Cruises Eliminates Pre-Cruise COVID-19 Tests

New article on Cruise Industry News: Windstar Cruises Eliminates Pre-Cruise COVID-19 Tests Problem mostly solved as of September 6!