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Here's my most recent experience with this, and what I did to finalize... The website is really buggy... Not all the excursions that I put into the cart were showing up in the final payment window, the balance owed that was showing was incorrect, and even if it were correct, there was no way for me to apply our OBC to that balance. The solution that worked for me was to place the excursions I wanted in the cart, click CONTINUE, click SAVE, and then call Azamara directly to apply the OBC and pay the balance. The phone call took less than 5 minutes and the representative was great.

You kind of have to fly to the city where the cruise port is first and embark for things to be sorted out the way you described. Can’t do that if the flight reservation has been cancelled due to nonpayment. The website is just a consumer facing user interface. The problems you’re seeing there is just a tiny reflection of likely much deeper problems that Azamara is experiencing with their back end systems.

Was on the Quest, January of this year, Melbourne to Auckland. There were lots of substitutions being made for wines on the Ultimate package. We found that we got the BEST wine by telling the Discoveries Sommelier (David) that we had the Ultimate Package, and asking for their recommendations as to what would be good with our meal. We definitely were served wines off the regular substitution list and all of them we enjoyed a lot. They may not have been the most expensive wines, but they were all good. We’re on the Quest again in April 2024 for Intensive Spain. We hope to see David again for sure, and we most certainly let Azamara know how much we thought of him.

Ship - Quest Cabin Number - 8091 Month/Year sailed - January 2023 Room type - Owner's Suite Would you choose this room again? - No. A better choice would be an Owner's Suite cabin on the 7th floor or a Club Continent suite instead. Was noise an issue - Yes. 1. We could hear Sunset Bar chairs scraping and other movements above beginning at around 8am. 2. The sliding glass door off the bedroom has not been maintained properly and does not lock. As a result, we had to use the door brake to keep the door closed resulting in a sealing issue that allowed air through the small space causing whistling. 3. The headboard creaks with ship movement. It was necessary to push the bed up against the back wall as tight as it would go, and then place towels behind the headboard to prevent it from tapping against the wall noisily. Concerns: 1. The window sheers & curtains were tough to close properly. Movement of both across the tracks above were not smooth and it was nearly impossible to adjust the curtains to fully block light coming into the bedroom. 2. We often smelled food from the Windows Café one floor up. 3. Rarely did we ever see our butler... we saw everyone else's butler but ours unless we called him for something. 4. Despite having two thermostats, we couldn't consistently regulate the temperature in the room to our liking. On many occasions, it was either too cold or too warm in the room. 5. A strong smell of varnish came into our room on the second to the last, and the last day of the cruise. Nothing in or outside our room was being varnished. It was necessary to open the sliding glass doors to get the smell out. 6. There's a ton of storage everywhere but in the bathroom. Except for the "bathroom" items we used everyday, all other grooming and bathroom type items needed to be stored in a closet in the bedroom. 7. The upholstery covering the furniture is looking pretty old and could stand to be replaced. 8. The mattress was uneven (warn in spots) and needs to be replaced. 9. There are no electrical outlets near the bed. CPAP machine required an awkwardly placed extension cord to be run to an outlet on the desk. Conclusion: We enjoyed the size of the room, the location, and the included perks that came along with it. However, the room needs to be updated including but not limited to the basic fittings and furnishings. Would most likely choose a Club Continent suite for future cruises on AZ... a much better value as the price differential does not seem to warrant the cost difference between the two classes of rooms.

Same w Jan 4 Azamara Quest... Scenic Cruising in Milford Sound cancelled & replaced with a regular sea day for hull cleaning prior to entering NZ waters. Remaining NZ calls remain though.

Azamara Quest January 4, 2023 - 17 Night Australia / New Zealand Cruise Booked: Club Ocean Suite Offered: Club World Owner's Suite Lowest "Weak" Bid: $500 per person Midrange "Fair" Bid: $750 per person Highest "Strong" Bid: $1500 per person Our Bid: $550 per person Status: Accepted Loyalty Level: Discoverer (100% reciprocal from Celebrity Cruises - this will be our first Azamara Cruise)

Stick with the professional reviews found on CC, outside the discussion forum and elsewhere if you want unbiased opinions. Don’t get me wrong… these boards are great for finding out more current info, but only a handful of board posts are really useful. Most are just chit chat from ultimate “fan boys” or chronic complainers with too much time and too little to do. Notable exceptions to that would be Uktog, Grandma Cruising, and TGG… all of whom (among a few others), are informative, lovely to speak with and reasonable.

Nothing you mentioned above or on your other post is unreasonable in my opinion. I completely understood and agree with what you're saying. I certainly wouldn't want to bring my own wine, champagne, mixers, tote bags, escargot, or whatever on board a cruise ship simply because the cruise line ran out or isn't providing it. Some might and if they think it's okay, that's fine... but not me. The question you raised before, "...at what point to you say Azamara is not providing what you've paid for?" kind of hits home for me. I've never sailed Azamara before and our first cruise is with them in two weeks. I guess that question will be answered shortly.

I didn’t get that implication from your post, nor from any other posts on this thread, but it’s clear that others did. I happen to agree with you about the utility of the bag and with airline luggage size and weight limits being what they are, would rather save that precious space for other things and not have to pack one myself. Also, why would anyone not expect something that’s specifically advertised as a feature of the class of cabin they paid for? If any of these features, subjectively mundane or not, are materially different or unavailable, it’s just good customer service to own up to them and offer a token in exchange for the shortfall without having to make a phone call to guest relations.

Can you not pay $17.95 per cocktail without the ultimate package? One Photo the of Atlas Bar menu I’ve seen online mention the charge right at the top. Sounds like a missed revenue opportunity to me if it’s that restrictive.

I would like to think, no… it’s not about getting older. I feel it’s more about not only wanting to have longer vacation experiences, but also having the opportunities to be able to do so. Our next cruise is 17 nights, Australia/New Zealand… we’ll be away from home a few days shy of four weeks so yes, we’re definitely doing what you described. We always look for cruises that are longer than seven nights and if we can’t find one that suits us, we always extend on the front and back ends. The only exception to that would be Bermuda, Canada, or other cruises where there is no flying involved to get to/from the cruise port (Cape Liberty NJ or NYC).

😲!

I’ve recently rediscovered Gin… Fog Horn (essentially a Gin Mule) & Triple G (Gin, St. Germaine, & Ginger Beer) are favs.

Question: Regarding specialty restaurant reservations… I’ve read it’s important to make reservations as soon as you board the ship because they’re popular and open spots fill up fast. Is this equally important for people booked in the Owner’s and Ocean suites… i.e. do they leave some space open for folks in these cabins when plan changes arise??? Thanks.

Celebrity Soltice… Two Concept 2 rowers placed tail to tail in a large well equipped gym. One wasn’t working properly (slipping during the drive).

Harold’s is in Edison NJ. Pickles are all you can eat, serve yourself buffet style, and totally optional. No pickles? … more room for a knish and some cake. Re: Katz in NYC… an institution and also a wonderful deli.

Love latkes! BTW… At Harold’s that’s the smallest sized sandwich and cake slice on their menu. Each feeds up to 3 people, sharing is encouraged for which, there’s never an extra charge… plus, all orders include their famous “all you can eat pickle bar”. It’s an obscene amount of food and although delicious, not a place I’d eat at on a regular basis. It’s definitely a fun place to go with a group of friends or business associates.

Chocolate cake, anyone??? Again… Harold’s 😉

2” is that all? Now this is a pastrami sandwich! Harold’s NY Deli in Edison, NJ.

NY style cheesecake generally sits atop a buttery graham cracker crust, and is smooth, super dense & super creamy. It’s basically made with just cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, whole eggs, & vanilla (sometimes flour, but very little in proportion to the rest of the ingredients). It’s baked at a very low temperature for about an hour or so. If it comes out nice and fluffy, you’ve made it wrong… LOL! And if you want to make it truly NY… serve it with some attitude 😉

Pride in Alaska for sure. Alaska is amazing, Celebrity is an awesome cruise line, and you’ve already been to Europe. Not for nothing, European cruises are a dime a dozen … every cruise line does them. If you pass up the Norwegian European cruise, chances are you can do it again, possibly on Norwegian or another cruise line again the following year for a similar price. If this is going to be your first cruise, make it special.

We had no trouble whatsoever by having the app scan the data page of our US passports… the page with our photos. The app read the info at the bottom of that page right away with no issues. You just need to make sure the app has permission to acces your device’s camera. FYI we did ours on an IPad.

By the way, you can include us in that lot sometimes. Nobody's perfect, especially us. 🙂

Hi. Our Australia / New Zealand cruise starts on Jan 4, so I’ve naturally been reading the CC boards in earnest to get a sense of what’s going on with you fine folks that we’re so excited to meet and visit for the first time. For what it’s worth, this will be our 3rd cruise since the opening and here is a little perspective… our first post-Covid cruise was Alaska and everyone in our group were super cautious about Covid. Even though the mask mandates had lifted by then, I still carried a mask in my pocket for the elevators and other places where social distancing were impossible. Despite recommendations of elevator occupancy limits, people still piled in unmasked and when that happened I simply waited for the next. I also used the stairs whenever possible because of this. This cruise was at 70%-80% capacity and the cruise line made provisions to enforce social distancing in enclosed spaces (roped off seats in the theater, put signs on sofas and other seats, etc.) Next cruise was Mexican Riviera and it was easy to do the prudent thing because we were on a 2850 capacity ship with only 1200 passengers on it. Lifts were empty all the time and so we’re the restaurants, theater, and other social spaces. Our previous cautions though were thrown out the window so to speak, and masking up for anything wasn’t even a thought. The ship was so empty that one did not have to actively social distance… it more or less happened organically and the roped off theater seats and signs in inside spaces were gone. Plus, we had a greater sense that nothing bad was going to happen anyway, so why bother? To answer the OPs question… “I don’t think so and I sure as hell hope not”. If you are in fact experiencing a spate of positive Covid cases on board cruise ships down under, there’s likely plenty of blame to go around… the cruise company’s sense of over confidence in their protocols by running at full capacity, nonexistent or non enforcement of common sense mitigation measures, and the plain old fashioned stupidity and absentmindedness of a good portion of our fellow passengers would be where I would start pointing the fingers. Now for our 3rd and longest cruise yet to come, to say we’re nervous about Covid would be an understatement. We’re planning on going back to our cautious ways before (because of a pre cruise test requirement), and during our cruise (because we don’t want to have to quarantine on board), even though we’ll be on a smallish Azamara ship that likely won’t be at full capacity. Regarding masks… of course being maskless 100% of the time while cruising would be great but mandate or no mandate, we’ll have our masks at the ready so we can help protect ourselves as best we can. Seems to me we went through a period of 10 to 1, where 10 = the strictest Covid measures and 1 = the most lax, whereas you folks are starting at a 3. Oh well, thanks for reading through… I feel better now … LOL!

Both apps will let you do two or more visa applications on one device. NOTE: Both apps require that you take a photograph of each person and scan each passport, when you apply. So if you and your sister are both applying on your phone or tablet, she would need to be present when you do it and have her docs with her.