ECCruise

We did the Amazon in 2019 with Oceania.

I think we expected more of the Amazon that really doesn't exist.  We knew that Manaus would be a big bustling city, and Boca de Valeria would be remote (but felt a little staged to us with all the kids running to greet you), but I guess we expected more of the Amazon portrayed in movies and travelogues, and that probably doesn't really exist any longer (especially with the destruction of the rain forests during the last decade or so).

It was interesting, certainly, but definitely a one and done experience.

As was our sailing with Oceania, which was I think a "seven and done."  No longer even have them on the radar.

And no, do not remember any requirement for a YF vax.

1 minute ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

And yet the myth goes on that this was an improvement that Azamara should copy!

Yep.  Comes up in almost every Q&A with Captain/HD.

20 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Reports from those sailing in those Oceania cabins are that the shower doors were not a good idea.  The showers are still too small, but now there is no give when your body (especially your funny bone) hits the door.  Azamara upgraded the curtains so they don't cling, which is the best compromise available.

Another report re: shower doors on the O R class ships.

Before experiencing them, our take was "Finally!  No more shower curtains!"

After experiencing them, our take was "No way!  Shower curtains vastly preferable!"

1 hour ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Once again you're trying to remake Azamara into Celebrity.  Please no.

Honestly, to some degree we had a feeling that Azamara may be slowing remaking itself to Celebrity based on our 26 days on Quest just completed a week or so ago.

$50 Specialty restaurants.  $125 Chef's table.

The EXPO we have always enjoyed on longer sailings replaced by the "Quest Fair" (an old Celebrity tactic) that is nothing more than revenue generating departments (Shore Ex, Booze packages, Specialty dining) setting up tables in the LR selling their wares.  No engineering department highlighting equipment, no security staff discussing procedures, no deck department, no HR, etc., etc.  A major fail and virtually no attendance, unlike the events held in the Cabaret, which are typically very well attended.

A bit too much Woo-woo for our tastes, frankly.  There were times we really did feel like we were back on Celebrity with things like Liar's Club.

No shuttles in any of the ports (admittedly, not needed in some) including Tenerife, where there has always been a shuttle since the very edge of the city is a 25 minute walk and center city is 35-40 minute walk, some of it uphill. 

The whole thing just had a different feel to us, including comparing to 36 days on Pursuit only a couple of months before.

Lots and lots of first-timers on these 2 sailings so perhaps it wasn't as noticeable to them as it was to us. 

On 4/10/2024 at 10:16 AM, BrendaJ said:

Honestly, the prices are bonkers - many of these itineraries are over $1,000 Canadian per person per night for a standard verandah cabin. At that price point, Silversea and Seabourn are looking pretty good.

Yes.

Many are approaching $900 to $1000 US for a V1 for 2, though.  The Canadian exchange rate must be bonkers.

Having spent 62 days on Pursuit and Quest in last 4 months with varying satisfaction (and considerably off from as recently as a year ago) those prices are a no-go for us.  Much better price/value relationship (both downstream and upstream) elsewhere.

6 minutes ago, Toronto Guy said:

I think the Atlas Bar is a great addition, I just wish it had a little more life to it like Celebrity's martini bar with some current music.  If I hear Abba or Neil Diamond one more time on board, I'm going over the rail.

Absolutely hate Celebrity's Martini Bar so that would be a hard pass for us.

Plus, we were given the information (evidently based on insufficient revenue) that Atlas Bar(s) would not be making an appearance on the other 3 ships.

Plus, these dry docks are not long enough to accomplish the changeover.

With the wide variance of how much of a page a stamp takes (anywhere from 1/5 a page or so to a full page) I would think it would have been prudent for Azamara to give some pre-cruise  proactive guidance (e.g. 11 pages when asked). 

8 hours ago, aliaschief said:

Just a heads up. On the World Voyage we have had several folks having to go home early. Why? Their passports stamp pages were full and no more space for additional stamps. Ridiculous yes but never the least it has happened.

Make sure you have ample space for immigration stamps. When renewing passports one can pay extra for extra stamp clearance pages.

Excellent advice and there is no longer an extra cost for extra pages.

More Azamara inconsistencies. 

No lobster in 9 sailings in the last 2 years. Quest ×4, Journey ×2, Pursuit ×3. As recently as December and last week. 

Caveat: we have no interest in lobster on a ship but do understand that people do enjoy it. 

6 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

It depends how good the performance is. Our event in Namibia was just brilliant. It was onboard, but the three acts we had were amazing. Personally we preferred it to the last few we’ve been to onshore where we had to queue up to get on a bus, go to a large tent at a hotel, have a drink and a snack then sit & watch a performance, then queue to get back on a bus, effectively taking up a whole evening for a 45 minute performance.

If it’s off the ship then it needs to be something really special to justify the queuing & standing around, not just a performance that could be done in the cabaret lounge on the ship.

I am assuming then that they changed the experience from the one we had in Namimbia in December. 

Bad enough that they cancelled the Azamazing Evening which was an African cultural and musical experience in the desert (which we would gladly have spent a couple hours doing) but to have it replaced by the awful show we had to witness was an affront, frankly. 

Although the German community is a very small % of the Namibian population,  about 70% of the show was German influenced. What was billed as an oompah band (but was 2 bad musicians playing American oldies) and traditional German dancers ( that danced to the "Cotton eyed Joe" an annoying American country tune)  

There was some African drumming and an a Cappella group, but nowhere enough to make up for the embarrassment of the rest of the show. 

And to be told, frankly, that the reason for axing this (and presumably the other 3 we've had cancelled in the last year) was strictly one of cost cutting. 

11 minutes ago, uktog said:

Interesting that in Antarctica the onboard team were taking the credit for the selection and organisation of the enrichment. Maybe you got caught in the transition 

Or, they were just deferring the lack of them to Miami. 

I guess I am not comfortable paying the per diems they want going forward and dealing with the extreme inconsistencies we experienced between Pursuit 3 months ago and Quest today.

And I have suspicions that what we are seeing is Miami yanking harder on the purse strings (and perhaps using Quest as the test) 

2 hours ago, uktog said:

Engaging the right speakers used to be the responsibility of the cruise director - not sure if that’s the case now but whoever is doing it needs to up their thought processes re variety etc. 

I think that's one of the many things now overtaken by Miami. 

Tanya's words to us on the 17 day we are presently on was "we hope Miami sends us more lecturers."

Traditionally, Azamara has been good with lecturers, and although I would expect lectures on a sailing such as this, it may be something else that is changing. 

On our 9 day in Brazil this month, zero lecturers, neither destination nor Enrichment. On the 17 day that followed it, 1 Enrichment lecturer with a few varied topics. No destination lectures whatsoever, so all for 12 ports on the 2 sailings we had no information save the printouts the day of attival that they grab from Whatsinport word for word.

3 hours ago, gsutiger2 said:

Was recently on Quest - internet was horrible and frustrating 😤.  I heard complaints all around. We did not appreciate paying for sub par/non existent service and then offered to pay more for the service/speed we should of had at the standard rate. 

On Quest now and the standard internet is as it has been for years (and on HAL 2 weeks ago): slooooow. 

To get decent internet on both lines we needed to upgrade. And at a price less than we were paying for terrible internet 15 years ago. 

2 hours ago, excitedofharpenden said:

I know this is a little thing, but it makes me sad to read the lack of interest in investing in new balcony chairs. They were promised ages ago and still nothing. Why the heck don't they listen to their guests and sort it out? It's very poor. 

 

I'm not long back from finishing a cruise on Journey. I'm going to sit and gather my thoughts fully, but this Azamara trip was not the best. Too many signs of cutting back and they seem to be resting on their laurels, offering the same old. No signs of forward investment. This Onward balcony chairs situation is a very good example of my fears for the future. 

 

Phil 

Looking forward to your thoughts, Phil. 

We are currently on Quest in the middle of 26 days and starting to gather our thoughts. Some in the same vein. 

Must be brand new. Never seen it offered on any of our 8 sailings in the last 18 months, on 4 different continents. 

3 hours ago, MTTRUN said:

HAL is for really, really old people. Hard pass on HAL here. 

Just got off Oosterdam 14 days in South America 3 days ago. No more old people than any of our last non-Caribbean =X= sailings. Likely less. Plenty of non-old people in the Rolling Stone rock venue (Celebrity has nothing similar every night)  

54 minutes ago, BarnacleBil said:

The first thing that Azamara has to do is admit that there is/was a problem rather that trying to cover it up. The company seems to be in (public) denial, so blaming them is not misdirected. If you have been on the receiving end of this problem (I have) and had your expensive and anticipated cruise spoilt by "the bug" then one's opinion might be different. None of us go on holiday to not eat the fine food and spend several days confined to a cabin,  even if it is for "the common good".

I think closing pools, serving all food, offering medical care is a quite obvious admission of the problem. Maybe not the admission of guilt that you seen to seek, perhaps. 

Friends just disembarked Pursuit, were impacted personally but yet said the complaining and whining was extraordinary. 

If it is like virtually all illnesses of this type, the blame almost assuredly goes to poor hygiene. On Quest as we speak and the horrible hygiene is breathtaking. Almost no sanitizing of gym equipment before or after use. Strolls right past the hand sanitizers. Neglecting hand washing in the rest rooms. All of which I have witnessed in just the last 3 hours. This is how illnesses spread and there is little Azamara or any cruise line can do to teach these clowns how to be adults. 

1 hour ago, dive4pam said:

Better eliminate all the lines that had problems on the same route- NCL, Cunard, MSC ARE THE ONES I know of - could be more.  Regent voyager in South America had issues as well.  

That was my thought about that post. 

This is definitely not isolated on Azamara and to put all the blame on them is misdirected. 

There needs to be a concerted effort (CDC? WHO?) to investigate what is happening. 

Pursuit is a different animal. 

No on demand movies, no interactive TV, etc that we were able to find in 40 days. 

Horrible on the Oosterdam right now. On the way from the gym to the Lido at 7:30 AM and 70-80% of what they consider to be prime loungers with towels, old clothes and books resting on them. 

And knowing that the owners are likely back nestled in their beds since both the gym and the Lido are largely empty. 

10 minutes ago, gsutiger2 said:

Uggh concerning the TVs. I have a samsung tablet, perhaps I can try with that. We we're hoping to watch the shows we downloaded. 

If your tablet has Smart View to share the screen it may work if it is a Samsung TV which they usually are. 

No active zones anywhere in potential Onward/Journey itineraries prior to South Africa. 

Edit: map I  posted was a few years old so deleted, but currently guidance is similar. 

Here's our take on the YF Vax question, since we were/are on 2 sailings where it was an issue. 

For South Africa the only reason that we needed a YF Vax within the last 10 years was because we previously visited The Gambia and Senegal, considered active zones. Neither Onward nor Journey will  visit an active zone prior as far as I know. 

Azamara notified us yesterday that the requirements for Mindelo (Quest sailing 15 March) was due to the government there requiring it because the ship previously visited areas (presumably Brazil and Argentina) where YF does occur. No less than 10 year requirement and you can still board without it, just not go outside in Mindelo.