Lynda S

I think I found the best one yet - went looking this morning to see what the ship's tours are like for a Spain Intensive cruise on the Quest in Nov.  The first tour listed for Gibraltar is 1 3/4 hr tour and the cost is $1099.67 CDN - it is entitled Accessible Rock of Gibraltar and it does not state that it is a private tour.  

I am concluding this is a mistake.  😀 

On 1/18/2024 at 2:23 PM, ECCruise said:

Yes, and they are non-negotiable on it.

 

And Azamara followed the directive.  Either you had a YF vax within the last 10 years or a current exemption, you could not board the ship.

This is very disturbing - we are going from Gran Canaria to Capetown this November and our Yellow Fever Cards are from 2006.  Our doctor does not recommend that we get another shot (we are over 70).  Did Azamara actually not let someone on board when you went on this cruise?  I will get my travel agent to call Azamara in the meantime. 

4 hours ago, AJCM said:

Azamara’s prices are very high in some instances. Roll Calls in cruise critic are very active for Azamara and you can usually arrange or join a small group at a better price. In our experience they are usually more enjoyable in a small group. It does seem, however, that independent tours are pricier than pre-covid; so that is a contributing factor in present high Azamara prices.

 

 

For sure what you are saying about pre-covid prices for some independent tour operators is correct - they have definitely gone up - way up!  We will be in Barcelona pre-Quest in November and thought it would be nice to get a private guide on the day before we board.  We have always done this and it works out well.  

I took a look on my usual go-to site 'Tours By Locals' and the prices I saw astounded me!

I was seeing $1100-$1400 USD for a full day tour   - and that was commonly for only 3 people!

Hop on Hop Off Bus here we come....

10 hours ago, Vivasea said:

My DH and I joined Odyssey in Cape Town and sailed to Lisbon on this cruise - and had wonderful time.  We could have stayed on to Barcelona for £300 per person (work was calling).  Happy memories.

Oh wow, that is so cool!  It was indeed a wonderful trip - those 8 days at sea were heaven to me!

This is really 'old' information, but it is probably a fairly helpful bit of information as we seem to be in the same circumstances now. 

In 2001 we booked a two week cruise from Mombasa through to Athens for March 2003.  Stops included Djibouti, Jordan, Egypt, Israel and then Athens.  I even remember the price - it was $5679.00 USD each for an inside cabin including air fare done by the cruise line.  A really good deal I thought.  We pre-booked an additional 5 day safari from Nairobi to the Massai Mara with the cruise line.  The cruise line was Orient Lines (anyone remember them?  The ship was the Crown Odyssey, the sister ship was the Marco Polo).

The first to get chopped, almost right after we booked was Israel; trouble started up there in November 2001.  We were good with that though, said we would go someday in the future instead.  We spent the year planning and researching all ports and was very excited about the whole trip. 

In Dec 2002 we got the bigger 'ouch'.   They were cutting out Mombasa  due to the attack on the El Al plane in Nov 2002 from a beach resort there, so this cut out the safari which was my biggest reason for booking this trip.  I cried, but convinced myself that was OK, we would go someday on a safari. (and we sure have many times since then). They would let us know where we were starting from at a later date.

Before they even got around to that though, the Iraq War was becoming a reality.  Our agent called us in Jan 2003, right after the New Year.  The whole cruise changed entirely as the insurance company for the ship (at the time it was Lloyds of London I heard) said NO GO to the ship through the Suez.  So our lovely dream safari, and dream vacation of the Middle East became something not even remotely like the original. This happened to most of the cruise lines going through the canal, not just ours.

They would fly us to Delhi India for a 5 day land tour of Delhi and Agra, then fly us to Mumbai to catch the ship. We would stop in Goa (India), the Maldives, the Seychelles, Mauritius, Reunion Island, 3 ports in South Africa with 3 nights overnight in Capetown, then Namibia, Cape Verde, Madeira, Tenerife, Lisbon, Cadiz, Barcelona, Nice and then disembark with 2 days in Rome.  And certainly not in 2 weeks - I had to grovel to the boss and get 6 weeks for that little vacation, luckily both the employers of myself & my husband said yes.  The war did start, the war was declared the day we arrived in India.

But the best part?  Not one additional penny was owed - they gave us that entire trip for $5679.00 USD each. 

It was an awesome adventure! 

19 hours ago, sovilav01 said:

We are Canadian and have boarded the ship on Friday. Our OBC are, until now, correct so we are happy with it!

Thanks for the info, I am happy to read this!  I have found the fine print for all of the different OBC's we received and every single one of them says it is in USD, so I am sure it will all work out. 

It's frustrating though that 2 customer service reps both said 'no, it's in CDN' to our agent.

Thank you everyone, this gives us food for thought 😀 - i think we wil pre buy one meal as it’s only a 4 night cruise.  

11 hours ago, scotsahoy said:

We are also on Journey in May, Singapore to Athens, but have just checked on line and  cruises on Journey in Med following our cruise are still showing with prices. I also don’t think there was ever a Dubai to Athens cruise on Journey in the Spring. (it’s in Australia / Far East). 

 The World Cruise on Onward  is doing a similar itinerary in Middle East two weeks ahead of the dates we are due there, so perhaps that is one to keep an eye on.

 

 

Sorry I read so much the other day about cancelled cruises that it all became a blur - i think it was the Oct 2024 Journey ancient Civilizations Cruise through the Suez that I read (on the roll calls) was cancelled. 

Do you have to buy an ultimate dining package to eat in the specialty restaurants, or can you purchase one night’s dining for a special occasion?   If so, what is the cost for Chops? Or is it a la carte prices?

25 minutes ago, atomax said:

Interesting, because we're booked on the Journey in May to do the Singapore to Athens through the Suez Canal, and Azamara isn't giving us any kind of information about whether or not the cruise will be cancelled. When they gave you alternate options, were the ones to transfer to another cruise at the same price point you paid on your original cruise or is it at whatever the current price is? And with regards to the "full refund," are you still ahead of your final payment date? Unfortunately ours is on January 4, 2024!

Yes, they offered us three choices -

1. switch to  a different, but a specific cruise for $1000.00 OBC (we were in a suite, balcony or lower category was $500 OBC) at either our original price pro-rated to the new # of days, or if that cruise was priced lower, then the lower price.

2. switch to any other cruise at the going rate for whichever cruise we chose for $500.00 OBC (or $250  for balcony or lower category)

3. refund in full which would also include a refund (to a maximum ceiling) of flights, hotels & transfers

These were very generous offers.  We were not under final payment yet as it was a Nov 2024 cruise and we had not done our air yet, we were doing that in Jan.

I think you should phone - somewhere I thought I read that the next Dubai to Athens cruise in the spring on the Journey was cancelled.  Burt I have read so much today on both here and on Facebook I can't find it now.  

I just logged in and went into 'Upcoming Cruises' in my Profile as opposed to going in thru my reservation number in Manage My Booking and came up with a little bit of hope.  The OBC in Manage My booking is showing with the correct amounts - but makes NO reference to what currency it is at all.

Under the 'Upcoming Cruises' in my Profile, the cancelled cruise is still showing, and it says very clearly USD for the OBC.  But it is definitely for the wrong amount so it looks like what the TA found out was right.  On the two cancelled cruises we had a total of $2100.00 offered to us and it shows $1600.00 USD only.  $2100.00 CDN would be about $1600.00 USD. 😒

The newly booked cruise we switched to is also there, but it says "OBC - not available."  . 

10 hours ago, nordski said:

I may be misunderstanding the issue so this may not be helpful, but our OBC for a cruise in June is in US$ when I log into our reservation on the website. 

Thanks!  I was going under my reservation number in Manage My Booking, and it shows no currency at all - but I will try under my log-in in general.

The TA has offered to give us the difference from her commission, which I thought was an Amazing offer, after all, it isn’t her fault. 
 

Good idea -I will try to email Azamara because it really does not seem fair at all!  

My TA just called me.  She spoke with Azamara again and they said, the OBC is in Canadian dollars :-).  So that means the $400.00 for each leg for booking a back to back is only $290.00 CDN each leg.  And the $1000 OBC that was offered with the cruise?  That's $740.00 USD to those of us who live north of the border, not the $1000.00 USD that those south of the border would get.

I am SO disappointed!  Our travel agent has offered to make up the difference, which is really nice, but I am disappointed in Azamara. 

Thanks uktog!  I will set my agent to asking them again as that really does not seem fair that we lose out just because we do not live in the US.

In the past the OBC offered to us has always been in USD even to those of us in Canada that paid in CDN funds.

Has anyone here in Canada had any experience with the OBC now being in CDN and converted down to USD when you sail?  I booked a couple of shore excursions using the OBC today and my TA is saying the OBC offer is in CDN as well as the B2B $400 per leg offering. So basically that means the $400 per leg offering would actually only be  $294.00 USD per leg if you happen to be Canadian.

We did book onto the Spain Intensive and then also Gran Canaria to Capetown.  

Oddly though we seem to be the only people on the ship 😀 - usually these repositioning cruises attract a large amount of CC'ers on the Roll Call, but there wasn't one started when I looked the other day.  I started one for both cruises, but still no responses. 

I hope someone else at least is going!   

We woke up to the dreaded 'sorry we have to cancel' letter on Friday for our 2 B2B Cruises on the Journey in Nov 2024.  We were boarding on Nov 9th for a Spain Intensive and then staying on for the transatlantic on Nov 20th crossing to Miami.  I was so looking forward to it!

The letter basically stated the 'domino effect' of the cancelled Israel Intensive cruises for 2024.  Due to this they said they wanted to deploy the Journey to North America earlier than November.  They are not sure when or where she is going yet.  I'm thinking it may be earlier Iceland-Greenland-Montreal cruises than the ones first scheduled for July 2025.   They won't know until later in January though and we only have until Jan 4th to let them know what we want to do (transfer to certain cruises, transfer to any cruise, full refund) so I guess we had better choose 2 new cruises.

We re leaning towards The Quest Spain Intensive to Gran Canaria and then staying on to Capetown. Much more expensive of course in both the cruise and the return airfare, but they say you only live once. 😀  We were in Capetown on a cruise 20 years ago, I guess it's time we went back!

Thank you everyone, the one in the brochure was the one that I was looking for, it is less detailed than it used to be, as  it used to include the specific cruises, but it enabled me to see where the ships were at least so I could decide on an area and a ship.  From there, I used the search filter that Paf225 suggested to narrow the cruises down.. 

ahh, I never thought to search other sites, I was thinking it used to be on the Azamara sight, but now I can't find it there. 

I can do a general search and see what I find 'out there'. - thanks!  :-)) 

I have just found that the river cruise we were going on in 2024 has been cancelled, so I would like to find in interesting Azamara cruise - or cruises - to replace this cancelled cruise. I am not tied in to any particular month or destination so I would like to see where the four ships will be during 2024.  This way I can find interesting B2B cruises as well as see where they will all be.

I know I have seen one on-line in the past, but I cannot locate it now.  

Thanks!

15 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

 

•  Tauck – probably the top line, but they have a small number of ships and therefore do a small number of itineraries and dates; they have never worked out for me so I haven't tried them.

•  Scenic – The top line in my book based on the wide range of itineraries (including 10-night options in addition to the 7-nighters that everybody else does), the quality of the food, and the abundance of choices for included excursions.

•  Uniworld – High up in the rankings, but I can't stand the over-the-top décor on all their ships – also they claim to be all-inclusive but some excursions that would be included on the other lines mentioned here are extra cost on Uniworld.

•  AmaWaterways [AMA] – top rated in the Berlitz/Insight guides and reputed to spend the most per passenger on food; very good choice of excursions all included.

 

 

Wow, thank you for this - that was very informative!  We booked onto Scenic for next summer, looks like we chose well!  We avoided Uniworld because of the decor too - we thought it would give us a headache, really over the top!

On 7/15/2023 at 11:14 AM, ECCruise said:

Wonky is exactly what we thought.

 

For example, our $300 Experience More Shore excursion credit for a B2B cruise, a total of $600 shows, on the invoice:

$150  Name #1

           Name#2

           Name#1

           Name#2

Meaning each guest gets $150 x 2 names x 2 sailings which equal $600.  But not listed that way at all.

 

Same thing with the B2B credit ($200 x 2 names x 2 sailings which equal $800)

 

 

My agent was saying that the B2B cruise credit was $400, I am hoping she was wrong, I like yours better.  🙂.  But the last time we sailed (and i am hoping it is the same for our sailing in Nov on the Trade Routes Cruise) we did not HAVE to use any of of our OBC on shore excursions - has this changed? 

We booked onto this back to back cruise (Dublin -  Iceland - Montreal) last week too!  Wow, I am so glad I did, it looks very popular! 

TeaBag are on this cruise too?  I would be so excited to get in touch again and meet if you are! 

If we are overnight in a port and I have plans to take a private tour that is overnight at a hotel do I need to tell the front desk?  Is there anything special I need in order to do this?  We will be on the Journey next November and we overnight twice in Egypt.  I am thinking of  doing a private tour with a hotel in Luxor when we dock at Safaga.