Host Jazzbeau

Friends of the owners? [I base this allegation on a report from Silversea of a very badly behaving family that were identified by the crew, who couldn't do anything about them, as friends of the owner.]

I was going to guess the Amazon, just to show off my stereotypical American lack of geographical knowledge! [Except that I am of a generation that was actually taught geography, paid attention, and have since travelled much of the world 😉]

I got 2 today: one from Scenic [which I have sailed on] and one from Emerald [which I have not, but I am on their email list].

I'm currently on an SAS flight to Europe. Their website warned us to bring our own masks, and that we would be required to change them to new ones after 4 hours. HELLO! Nobody on the plane [passengers or crew] are wearing masks! So Azamara is not the only one with communications issues.

@Enjoynit if you still have the text of your review, could you start a new thread and post it in this forum? Many of us read the Cc Boards faithfully but the Reviews— not so much…

OTOH we were glad that our AzAmazing Evening in Panama City became a Destination Celebration. It’s a tender port, then a bus ride, then outside with heat and humidity. Thankfully thunderstorms put the kibosh on the out door part, so they brought the same entertainers onboard in the air-conditioned show lounge. Same show, better environment!

New article on Cruise Industry News: Ponant Unveils Le Ponant Following Complete Refit in August 2022

It seems that even this thread title is an exaggeration, as it has been reported that Azamara is going to stock the shelves of this area with a large compliment of books. It will therefore become a hybrid library by day/bar by night. Since the space, while beloved (by many, including me), was never very highly used this seems like a good compromise to make the space appealing to more passengers more of the time. And if it brings in some more revenue which helps keep Azamara afloat, what's so cynical about that?

Not so easy – tour guides are heavily regulated in Europe, with specialized educational programs and exams. 'Influencers' don't need any of that.

When the actual-rainmaking schemes didn't work out, the 'rainmakers' migrated to Wall Street where they have become very rich as law firm partners. 🤣

I hope somebody with more direct knowledge will chime in, but I will tell you what I know tangentially from a cruise on Ponant in a Backroads group. We got everything the Ponant passengers got plus our own shore excursions and several private enrichment events and parties. I think Backroads personnel would also serve as our liaison to Ponant to troubleshoot, but we didn't have any problems so couldn't verify this. The one difference between your two options [if I understand the details correctly] is that the Tauck tour will be set up exactly like ours was, while the Smithsonian is a longterm partnership with Ponant. That may mean the Smithsonian amenities are more smoothy integrated with the ship's [and all passengers on this sailing get them?], but probably means there is no Smithsonian liaison per se.

Thanks @A Tucson Guy . Can you also finally nail down the original question of this thread: outside of restaurants, does the dress code apply to ALL public parts of the ship after 6pm? [I.e., do I have to keep the suit and tie on after dinner if I go to a show or have a drink in the bar?

All I know is that when Azamara had to move our embarkation from Venice to Ravenna – and then add 1 port in Croatia and 1 port in Greece – our port fees dropped very nicely [and Azamara lists them separately, so they refunded the savings!]. What does that tell me?–not much, except that Venice is overpriced and Croatia apparently isn't very expensive. 😀

Both on Ponant?

This thread is for Azamara cabins only!

River Cruise Roll Call threads usually don't work like those for ocean cruises, because river ships are so much smaller and most river cruise lines include shore excursions in the fare. So if you start a traditional roll call thread for an individual river cruise sailing in the All Other River Cruise Roll Calls forum (or the newer Viking River Roll Calls forum) you aren't likely to get many (if any) responses. The better solution is roll calls for all sailings of a particular itinerary on a particular cruise line, e.g. All AmaWaterways Egypt Cruises – or even for all itineraries on a cruise line, e.g. All Emerald Waterways Roll Call To make it easier to find these 'omnibus' type roll calls, I have pinned all those I found so they will stay at the top of this forum. If there are any others that I missed (or new ones), please email me at HostJazzbeau@CruiseCritic.com

Cruise Industry News says the Crystal river fleet (the 4 new ships) "continues to sit in limbo," but "Rumors suggest [Crystal Mozart] has been sold." https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/27879-here-s-what-happened-to-the-former-crystal-cruises-fleet.html Anybody know anything?

We sure needed them in Alaska at this time of year! The mosquitos there could carry off young children!!!

At present the AzAmazing Evenings are replaced by Destination Celebrations which are held onboard with two shows to allow early/late diners flexibility (and to fit everybody into the Cabaret Lounge). I believe that the full-on AzAmazing Evenings will resume in November – just too late for you (and me).

The Captain has to look to the future also. He may be able to get to Strasbourg today, but maybe couldn't get back out on the next leg.

Yes, Azamara pulled out 1/2 the tubs in the suites on their ships and now they have to offer upgrades to get people into them – only the shower suites sell. On their newest ship they got the hint and pulled out most of the tubs. When you turn a tub into a shower, the dimensions are wonderful!

Read the Alaska Forum on Cruise Critic. Lots of great advice from people who have done these cruises multiple times and know every port like the back of their hand [also great advice about a pre-cruise land trip to Denali and the train from Anchorage to Seward].

This thread was started because the two older ones had gotten very confusing with conflicting claims. Please read the quoted article before commenting.

Oceania Ends COVID Testing Requirement - except where required (US, Canada, Greece and Bermuda, and maybe others): https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/environmental-health/ncl-oceania-regent-doing-away-pre-cruise-testing-where-not-mandated

Wow! We have a new nickname for you: Sherlock Notamermaid