bbqoug

2 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

You are not a "captive" audience.  Use the 4 magic words 'I am not interested' and they go away.  The 4 magic words also work when they try to take your picture or when they try to sell you something.

 

BTW - what do you define as an "extreme hard sell"?

 

DON

As I said, this was quite a few years ago. I'm pretty certain you were not there to know what I did or did not say during the hard sell.

After the person explained the virtues of the various drink packages I said we were not interested. He then went on to tell me that was not a good decision & why. It then started over in trying to get us to sign up for wine tastings.

At the time, money was a lot tighter for us & we could barely afford the cruise itself. I didn't appreciate having to spend time during our first dinner rebuffing what I perceived as a hard sales pitch.

As I said previously, we enjoyed our cruises on Princess except for the upselling on the first evening.

I am happy to read from others that they no longer do this. We have moved on from Princess to other cruise lines but would consider them if the price & itinerary were right.

We enjoyed our previous cruises on Princess.

The only thing I didn't like was how they would come around the MDR during the first night's dinner and put on an extreme hard sell for the beverage packages, wine tastings, etc.

The last thing I want to do on my first night of vacation is be a captive audience to someone pressuring me to buy something.

That was quite a few years ago, so they may have changed their tactics since then.

5 hours ago, DrivesLikeMario said:

Azamara and Regent are just as bad.  Such a waste of paper.

Strange.

We have sailed Azamara twice and currently have a cruise booked with Oceania. O sends us 5 or 6 times as much in the mail as Azamara.

Maybe that's related to the different TAs we used to book the cruises instead of the cruise lines themselves.

5 hours ago, Kate-AHF said:

Years ago, this was also the case for Seabourn (2006- 2012) but they changed their protocol to allow waiters to fill/refill wine glasses this is no longer the case.  No, you don't get good advice on what they are pouring that night for what your entree is... but you WILL get wine with dinner now in a timely fashion.  And yes, I know it's all inclusive, but there has to be a better way for O to manage this without doubling the number of "sommeliers" on board.

On Azamara the waiters also fill & refill wine glasses. It works quite well. We never had an issue with waiting for wine service.

I don't like the idea of waiting for a sommelier the way we did on Celebrity.

I guess if wine service is slow we will grab a glass at another bar on the way and bring it with us to the GDR, hoping that the refill service will be OK.

1 hour ago, Paulchili said:

Is there a particular reason why nobody is talking about Lyft?

I prefer them to Uber.

I also prefer Lyft and have had good luck with them.

I initially used Uber, but when Lyft added in-APP tipping functionality I switched to them so I wouldn't have to tip in cash.

Uber now has tipping available in the APP, but I have heard that Lyft treats their drivers better, so I've primarily stayed with them.

We have had good service using Lyft from our hotel in South Beach to the POM, but have never tried it from the port to the airport.

4 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Yes  they usually hold back tables  for the  lower cabins  also

We have always  gotten a 2 top  in A, B or C  cabins

 timing is everything

Great.

Thank you for the information.

We are booked concierge for our first O cruise next April on Sirena.

With being able to book specialty restaurants starting 60 days before sailing, are there usually tables for 2 still available?

We are flexible as far as the dining time, but would rather not have to share a table.

5 minutes ago, sbrito said:

We just got off the 10-day Sirena cruise as well and I have to say I loved every minute of it. Serving of cocktails could be a bit slow at times, and there wasn't a great variety in the MDR but I certainly never went hungry or displeased with the meal I was served.  It was our first Oceania cruise so have no basis of comparison but I will say that it certainly will not be our last Oceania cruise.  The service was amazing and the staff were always friendly and attentive.  The food in the specialty restaurants was terrific.  It was a wonderful experience through and through.   There will always be something to complain about on any cruise line you go on.  If you choose to focus on the wonderful as opposed to what you may consider to be sub par, you will have a tremendous experience! 

Good to hear.

Hopefully our experience on Sirena next April for our first O cruise will be similar.

This past April we were on our 2nd Azamara cruise. Other than having to fly home part way through due to a death in the family we were on course to have our best cruise ever. We were enjoying the food and service immensely. 

When I got home and started reading comments on CC by people on the same cruise, there were many complaints about the food and especially the service.

When I and a few others stated our views about our positive experiences, one of the people complaining said we were calling her a liar.

On the contrary, it just shows that different people on the exact same cruise can have vastly different experiences (or possibly perspective).

I will read other reviews about the Sirena with interest between now & then, but we will go into our cruise with a hopeful and positive attitude.

49 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

I am happy to say I have not met  any of those people on Oceania

The closest I have come  is people asking if we have sailed on O before ?

we say yes  & leave it at that

I'm happy to read that.

I very much enjoyed our fellow passengers on Azamara who unlike our cruises on Celebrity never asked our status or what I do for a living. I'm hoping for the same on Oceania.

We really enjoyed the food on our two Azamara cruises.

The MDR meals were consistently better (IMO) than on our previous cruises on Princess & Celebrity. We also enjoyed the themed lunches & dinners in their buffet.

We are interested to see how the food compares on Sirena next April.

I can also vouch for tripinsurancestore.com.

I have received great advice and service through them. We purchased a Trip Insured International policy through them for our cruise last year and when I had to file a trip interruption claim both Trip Insurance Store and Travel Insured were great to work with.

I don't know how the insurance with Princess works, but I have read that many cruise line policies provide future cruise credit on a claim while a third party policy will reimburse in cash.

2 hours ago, ak1004 said:

Personally I can say that Oceania and Azamara provided us the best cruise experience so far, as expected, compared to Celebrity/Princess etc. But we would still prefer Oceania in almost every aspect.

I'm glad to read that Oceania & Azamara have been your best experiences so far.

We have enjoyed our Azamara cruises very much and look forward to our cruise on Sirena next April.

The contents of this review are disappointing to us since we air sailing on Sirena next April for our first Oceania cruise. We have sailed with Azamara in the past and thought we would give O a try for this itinerary.

Having never eaten lunch in the MDR on a port day that information does not bother me.

However, it is very disappointing to read that the variety and quality of the dinners in the MDR have declined.

18 hours ago, oceanbill457 said:

If you are a craps player, you might want to be aware they have single odds. Unlike other cruise lines and casinos all over the world.

Thanks for the information.

I guess I will steer away from the craps table on our cruise.

6 hours ago, hillsprint said:

With regard to Redtravel’s post, as far as I am aware  Azamara still has a Cassini unless you are on the new Pursuit which has a different layout to the older ships.

 

If you are content with the R design ships then I think there are Pros & Cons for both lines, but Riviera and Marina are in a different class, especially on a longer cruise.

The only Azamara ship that has a casino at this time is Journey. Quest had its casino removed during a dry dock earlier this year.

Journey is scheduled to have its casino removed as part of a dry dock in October 2020.

Most posters on the Azamara board seem to like the new space called The Den which replaced the casino.

My wife & I enjoy visiting the casino after the evening show. That is one of the reasons we decided to book a cruise on Sirena for next April instead of another with Azamara.

On our 2 Azamara cruises my wife & I enjoyed stopping by the casino after leaving the show.

Some gambling along with a glass of wine is something we looked forward to in ending our evening.

I was looking to book an Azamara cruise for 2020.

Azamara's current high prices along with the lack of a casino has led us to book a cruise with Oceania for next April.

I am really enjoying reading along as you enjoy your cruise.

On Journey in April the Chef's Special was also Filet Mignon on our first night and it was fantastic.

I also really like the Greek Burger at the Patio.

Thank you to those on the cruise for your descriptions and photos.

59 minutes ago, leennp said:

They accepted by PDF confirmation!

 

Thank goodness you took a screenshot.

This is a good reminder for me to do the same in similar situations.

19 hours ago, SkystheLimit said:

We also had the privilege of having Lyric and Hosannah take care of us and our cabin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of these references to Lyric & Hosanna are bringing back good yet bad memories (if that makes any sense) from our shortened cruise on Journey in April.

They were doing a fantastic job as our cabin attendants when our cruise got cut short due to a death in the family back home. They were very helpful and gracious in helping us get our luggage off the ship and to a taxi so we could fly home from Charleston.

We were enjoying ourselves very much only to have our cruise cut from the expected 11 nights down to 3.

It may sound strange, but I have not only been grieving the loss of my Father, but also for the loss of our cruise that we had anticipated for so long.

I keep telling my wife we need book another Azamara cruise as part of the healing process.

I also gave my opinion that we're not interested in more inclusions since the price would definitely go up.

Azamara's prices are already at the bleeding edge of what we can afford and are willing to pay.

Very interesting how different passengers can have a completely different experience on the same cruise, even on a ship as small as Journey.

We were also on this cruise until a family emergency caused us to disembark after only 3 nights.

I don't discount or question Lois' experience at all, but our enjoyment was much more in line with CateW than with Lois & CruisingChick's experience.

Our 3 nights in the MDR had excellent food the first night and what I would call very good the next 2. Food is so subjective, so someone else could eat our same meals with a totally different opinion.

We had different wait teams all 3 nights with very attentive service each of those nights. The service seemed very friendly and efficient, and our wine glasses were constantly filled to the point where at one point I let them know that we were fine & would not need any more.

I feel bad that Lois and CruisingChick have been disappointed with their experience so far. Hopefully things improve for them for the remainder of the cruise.

For us, this was starting out to be so enjoyable that it was on track to be our best cruise yet. I have to admit that this was only our 9th cruise, sailing previously on Azamara, Celebrity, and Princess.

47 minutes ago, BBMacLaird said:

I'm so sorry to learn of your loss bbqoug. I know you've been participating on our forum for awhile now, and am so sorry about the circumstances that shortened your first cruise with us.

P.s. Thank you for taking the time to let us [the AZ CC community] know about your situation.

 

Thank you Bonnie. This was actually our 2nd cruise with Azamara. We enjoyed our cruise on Quest a couple years ago so much that we knew we wanted to sail with Azamara again. This one was starting out to be even better.

Just now, Lois R said:

I am also on this cruise..........so sorry about your loss......my condolences to you as well.

Thanks Lois. I saw you at the Meet and Greet but never got a chance to speak with you.

Hopefully we can sail together sometime in the future.

3 hours ago, CruisingChick said:

So sorry to hear of your loss.  We are currently on Journey.  Once we left Charleston on Sunday night the ship has been really rocking and rolling. I have never taken so much Dramamine.  Today is a bit better. Yesterday morning was rough. We also are leaving Bermuda on Thursday - 22 hours EARLY as we would not make it back to NYC in time as we will be hitting a storm.  We are expected to dock in NYC at 3 pm on Saturday.  

Thank you for letting us know how things have been going since we left.

It seems like White Night was scheduled for Thursday evening in Bermuda. Has it now been rescheduled?

That has to be disappointing leaving Bermuda so early. We were really looking forward to our time there.

Best of luck with the rest of your cruise.

Thank you all for your condolences and well wishes.

I asked the CBP officers if the fine could be waived under this circumstance. One of them said "That's a negative." He said if they made one exception then others would want it as well.

The fine was actually levied on Azamara who then passed it on to us via our onboard account.