ECCruise

21 minutes ago, ajstahle said:

Can you walk from the ship to Recoleta?  

Can't answer the other questions, but can tell  you that the walk from the terminal to Recoleta would be every bit of an hour.  In questionable surroundings at the port.  Taxis and Uber are cheap in Buenos Aires.

Have done quite a few northern crossings over the years (but usually including a number of ports on the crossing, e.g. Iceland and the Maritimes).  Very different from southern crossings.

No way possible to predict weather/seas.  We've had fairly smooth but cool and very rough with cancelled ports.  You are just past the peak of hurricane season, and in September/October some (or the remnants) make it northward.

7 minutes ago, laurieb said:

well that's great news!

I think it is brand new.  The agent I was working with said something like "it is supposed to work now (charging OBC) so let's see"

And voila, it worked. 

3 hours ago, laurieb said:

Pretty sure the agent was mistaken.

No, you definitely can now use OBC for dining packages. Did it on Monday. Received a new invoice in minutes  showing package charged against OBC. 

4 minutes ago, Jay19 said:

I can assure you that on our Oceania Alaska cruise last year there were plenty of tours way in excess of the prices you have quoted.   

 

 

I was going to mention Oceania, which we have always found to be more expensive than Azamara for excursions.

But it is important to remember that all this discussion is about ONE port for ONE day that is over a year and a half away.  And yes, that food tour is ridiculously priced, but it is a choice.  If when the rest of the tours are rolled out (we are on the same itinerary in August, 2025) and if they ALL are that expensive, then it makes sense to highlight it.  Otherwise, way too early.

And, as I said, we have quite a few tours that we took this year on Azamara (4 sailings in completely different parts of the world) and quite a few more on 2 sailings next month, and none would I call horrendously expensive.  And that's real life.

2 hours ago, gddeluca said:

And also being 1st time Azamara cruisers, we of course are just oozing with piles of unused OBC's to help defray the cost.

 

I assume you are being sarcastic here, but plenty of first time Azamara cruisers have lots of OBC available to them.  Recent bookings received up to $1000 OBC. And any guest can purchase an experience more package that can provide between $300 and $700 credit toward shore excursions. Book a B2B and you get $400 OBC for each leg, first timer or not. 

Our loyalty for nearly 20 Azamara sailings yields us a whopping $0 in OBC. 

5 minutes ago, gddeluca said:

Right now, a local tour operator is offering a basic 4.5 hr bus tour in Saguenay for US$95. The cheapest Azamara equivalent is US$210 for a 3.5 hr version.

 

Can you say "Rip-off"

Honestly, sounds fairly normal to me.  That is one of the reasons that people take private tours:  The often lower cost.

Plus, remember that the a large percentage of those booking Azamara tours likely have some (or a lot) of OBC, whether from booking bonuses, purchase of an Experience More Package perhaps, reducing the net price a great deal.  That definitely factors into our decision process. 

I think making the assumption that prices for one day, in one port, are the "norm" for Azamara is a mistake.

Anymore than me making the assumption that since we are taking an 8 hour guided tour to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay including a 3 course sit down lunch at a cost of $169 each, then returning to the ship for a 3 hour Azamazing Evening (at a cost of $0, BTW) makes Azamara's excursions underpriced. Cause that is good value on any cruise line, honestly.

And I'd be happy to cite 4 or 5 tours in the same number of ports on that B2B sailing next month that I consider reasonably priced.  Not a steal, perhaps, but not too hateful.  Especially since we booked those after investigating private options first, as always. 

13 minutes ago, nordski said:

 

The $800. CAD tour seems to be for a gastronomic experience at a farm, hosted by a chef. In our experience, that seems to be the usual price on AZ for this type of tour.

Our experience has been that if a tour has anything to do with food or "foodieness" there will be a premium.  And that goes for every cruise line, not just Azamara.

2 hours ago, laurieb said:

We've used Tours by Locals in the past, and like you, am astounded at what many of the guides are charging now

Pretty much all the same with the other providers like WithLocals and GetYourGuide.

8 hours ago, Lynda S said:

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. 

Yes, you will either need a Yellow Fever card within the last 10 years, or the official exemption.  And yes, they check and yes they will not let you board without one or the other.

I would wait until all the tours are available before deciding about cost vs. value.

Yes, there are definitely times where Azamara tours trend to the pricey, but not always.  As an example, we will be in Montevideo twice in the next month or so, once on Quest and once on HAL Oosterdam.  In that port, as an example, the Azamara tour prices are equal to--or in a couple of instances, less--than on Holland. 

Just now, 2ndsailing said:

And Cunard

Yes. All Carnival Corp, so they've made the decision.

11 hours ago, souths said:

It’s not just Azamara going through the Red Sea, Princess, Holland America, Virgin, seabourne, Oceania, Reagent of the Sea are also scheduled for Cruises. No decision have been made by these cruise lines. It must be difficult to navigate what could be a drastic change.

Holland and Princess have both announced the changes on their World Cruises which avoid the Red Sea and sail south around Africa.

There are places where we do not expect (nor have had) fast access even when we are on Starlink (I am surprised that they didn't switch to the old antenna when access is that poor as we've had a few times).

We will be in Punta Arenas in about 3 weeks and expect we will find the same lack of fast access due to it's remote location.

1 hour ago, nooosey said:

Anyone know if a three night package is purchased pre cruise and you are on a b2b cruise, can the three nights be spread across both legs of the cruises?

In the past, that never was possible.  Now that they are combining B2Bs in a single booking ID (if yours was booked after that change) it may be possible, like being able to roll over OBC from one sailing to the next. 

We called and booked what we always do on board, Chef's Table Plus Two.  Used onboard credit at the old price ($145 each).  Since this is on Quest and we know individual Specialties are now $49 per, the Chef's Package definitely would be more on board. 

Just now, SEA DOGY said:

Get a suite. It cost you zero. Hhahha

RIght.  Azamazing value for only a $1000 a night. 

A 40% increase is way excessive.  Nowhere in the world is inflation 40% per annum except maybe Argentina. 

5 minutes ago, Mercruiser said:

The Captain just got on the PA system at 10:10 am local time. He announced that we are within the calm waters of the Chilean fjords. We will be stopping in 20 minutes. They will open up the failed motor and diagnose the problem.

Thank you for the timely (and factual) updates.

3 minutes ago, LMADAMS91 said:

Just curious....where did you find this? 

Here you go....

Cruise Timetables

You are not at Puerto Maya, so it would be one of the other 2 piers.  Here are the port loads for that day.  Both Princess and Carnival Liberty are docking at Puerto Maya, so the other 4 ships will be at the other 2 piers. 

12 minutes ago, emerald6273 said:

Great news. It's 11.45pm in the UK, and management from the US based cruise agency have just updated me. They've worked really hard for hours to get a resolution. I'm relieved and happy to report that Azamara have now agreed to honour the original fare price as detailed on both the Azamara invoice and travel agent's invoice.

There you go.  The right outcome!

13 minutes ago, emerald6273 said:

No matter whose fault it is, I as the customer simply wants to enjoy the cruise I booked in good faith.

And now you know where the fault lies, and you can proceed.  You and the TA need to put the heat on Azamara to get them to live up to the promise they made with their invoice. 

2 hours ago, Mercruiser said:

Just boarded Quest in San Antonio (Santiago), Chile. Here are the speedtest results. All results are while docked in the port.

 

Cellar data from pool deck (LTE on Claro cellular)

 

Base internet package (free minutes and full journey base package have the same speed). This is amazingly slow. Web pages load very slowly.

 

This result is after upgrading to the high speed package. This is pretty darn slow for Starlink. I went to the Internet help desk guy. He said it is slower while in a city. I'll try again later when we are away from cities.

Those are very similar to what we had on Journey and Quest last year and Pursuit a month or so ago.  Basic was fine for emails and basic tasks.  Upgraded was fine for streaming Netflix, Hulu, Prime, Zoom, WhatsApp, wifi calling, etc. 

1 minute ago, emerald6273 said:

No matter whose fault it is, I as the customer simply wants to enjoy the cruise I booked in good faith.

I totally understand.  We had a very similar situation with Azamara about a year ago. It took several weeks to get it ironed out but not until all the facts were clear, which doesn't seem to be the case yet in your scenario, with the TA saying it is Azamara's fault and they saying the reverse. 

Unless you are able to get to the bottom of the origination of the mistake, you are not going to get satisfaction.