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People make a positive but sadly also a negative impact on a cruise experience


uktog
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Many reviews on these boards highlight that it is people that make the difference. Nothing could be more true on our Christmas and New Year cruise on Journey as we travelled from Hong Kong to Singapore. The thing is that the difference we experienced was at both the positive and negative ends of the spectrum and this review will highlight how people can impact on the overall view someone takes about their cruise.

 

 

 

The positives

 


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  • All staff and officers onboard really pitched in to make the cruise a success. They were going above and beyond particularly when the cruise had to use enhanced sanitation processes so no self serve for the first six days of the cruise, which included Christmas Eve, Day and the 26th. Azamara could have pulled back all the extra buffets they planned but no, they did not. Spectacular Christmas buffets were served by Seamen, Motormen, Singers,dancers, trumpet players – you name it everyone pitched in all with a lovely smile.·
     
  • The food was exceptional. It is hard to say which meal was best. Maybe my vote goes to the New Years Day brunch – yes a buffet gets the vote over some pretty special meals in Prime Cand Aqualina. It wasn’t only the range of the brunch that impressed but the attention to detail in the decoration ofthe desserts – strawberries decorated to look like dinner jackets and individual cheesecakes with piping showing a clock just past midnight. We have many beautiful photos of the food throughout the cruise.
     
  • The locals we met in Vietnam andThailand were so welcoming. It is impossible not to be drawn to their friendliness and warmth and to really love their beautiful countries.
     
  • All the entertainers, both guest and resident who put on a variety of events really worked their socks off. We know that many were aware their contracts with Azamara would not be renewed but never once did they give anything less than 100%. How hard must it have been toput on a great turn of midnight performance wishing everyone a happy New Year and “all the best” when their own futures are so uncertain.
     
  • The watercolour teacher was the bestI have ever come across onboard. Her focus was on developing class member’s skills, not on showing off how good her art skills were (they were great). This humble approach was so refreshing compared to the Norway cruise. Patricia was also so well organised, and her husband was such an excellent “assistant waiter” bringing changed water all through the class.
     
  • Some fellow guests who so kindly enquired that my husband was OK for several days after a problem involving another guest in the Cabaret lounge. We felt others were looking after us which was quite a comfort.
     

 

The less positives

 


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  • This was a festive cruise and celebrations do take place. However on this cruise,the passenger mix meant we were witness to celebrations which we did not enjoy and were not what we have come to expect from Azamara guests. Up until now we have never felt that any Azamara guests had selected the cruise because they could maximise their alcohol intake. Not this time- some were very vocal in expressing their love of the unlimited included alcohol. We had issues with a guest talking loudly throughout the show then, because of alcohol consumption, reacting very inappropriately when he was politely asked to be quiet. There was a large group including teenagers who were also loud and boisterous. Some younger members of the group were very rude to fellow guests. We know Azamara did try and manage things and were monitoring the level of alcohol consumption but when for example other guests were getting alcohol and taking it to two gents sitting in opposite hot tubs so they could conduct their conversations across the pool after bar staff had declined to serve them, it became very difficult to contain.
     
  • The itinerary was not as expected. We had been led to believe in Azamara publicity that we would enjoy seeing the fireworks in Ho Chi Minh. We assumed we were leaving them pier and then mooring in the river but this was not so. There was never going to be any opportunity to see the fireworks. How you hate these Azamara inaccuracies, they really spoil things. It was rocky over midnight (the only one we can blame for that is Mother Nature) and we invoked our resolution to be positive in 2018 and “moved on” from that disappointmentto take part in the onboard celebrations. We also had our time in Koh Samui reduced by two hours from the confirmed time in emails from Azamara in December. We were never going to stay until 1600 but no one thought to tell the customers until the gaffe was discovered by staff onboard. We lost out on a planned event for that day as a result of the reduced time, had we known the actual available time onshore sooner, we would have been able to make different plans upfront.
     

 

The minor niggles

 


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  • The religious services were not interdenominational and the midnight service was a mass with no explanations orguidance for non Catholic guests. It was also a very rushed celebration
     
  • A disabled guest was allowed to join various Land Discoveries and whilst extra helpers went with them, it stillreally slowed up the tours for the rest of those on them. Rest breaks were longer because the guest needed longer and so other ladies waited in very long lines. One trip had 29 guests on it (e.g. above the 25) - we know this can be done in exceptional circumstances but given the disabled guest was on the tour, and Azamara knew this was happening, they should have kept the bus she was on to well below 25
     
  • Several guests whining at the lack of proper malls in Vietnam ports and that it was boring. There was not the cultural curiosity in the majority of guests that we have always seen before.
     
  • Not Azamara’s fault but the lines ondisembarkation were so long – took over an hour to get through immigration in Singapore.
     

 

So in conclusion, the passenger mix was not right for us, this was not our first festive season cruise on Azamara so we know the ambience will be a little different from a jaunt round Europe in the summer, but this time, the difference was too great. Given the costs now being charged by Azamara, we are also not prepared to pay premium prices over the festive period to be on a ship where there are so many examples of downmarket behaviour. Maybe we were unlucky and we do feel sad for the onboard staff who had worked so hard to make it a positive experience for guests. The significant minority sadly reduced the impact of all this hard work. Given the number of cruises we have booked with Azamara, we do hope this was just a Christmas glitch and not an indicator of things to come.

 

 

 

But thank you Azamara Journey for all you did.

Edited by uktog
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Thanks for your post uktog. Yes, people can definitely make a difference to a cruise experience!

We were on this same Azamara Journey cruise from Hong Kong to Singapore, so I am just adding our experiences to this thread.

 

I agree that the officers were excellent, as usual. During the period of enhanced sanitation procedures everyone worked very hard. However we often encountered wait staff, particularly in Windows, who appeared bored and gave us the impression they wanted to be anywhere other than onboard the Journey.

 

We always enjoy the food on Azamara, and this cruise was no exception.

This is the second Christmas in a row we have been aboard Azamara and both times the impressive display of gingerbread houses amazed us.

 

While we enjoyed much of the entertainment it is time for fresh material, as we had seen some of the guest entertainers perform exactly the same show before.

 

Yes, there was an issue with some guests and their alcohol consumption. But we did not consider it to be a major problem.

 

The advertising in the UK is clearly different to that in NZ. At no stage did I ever see mention of fireworks in Ho Chi Minh City.

However, the departure time from Ko Samui did change. It was 4.00pm when we booked this cruise, but changed to 2.00pm on board.

 

On several shore excursions we were accompanied by a disabled guest. Unfortunately this guest always sat in the front row of the bus and always got off the bus first. This did have an impact on timing. Some of the tours even had a note to say that guests in wheelchairs should not book the particular tour, but Azamara still accepted the guest in question. At the same time I would not like to think a disabled person is stopped from travelling, and they are brave to still embark on these endeavours. But there has to be a balance to minimise the impact on fellow travellers. So maybe reduced group numbers is the answer.

 

Agree that the guests that complain about boring destinations have not done their research and should not be travelling!

 

We had no issue at all in Singapore. We left the ship about 8 and were through formalities in about 10 minutes, heading to the MRT station.

 

We were also on Azamara over Christmas/New Year 2016. We were on a B2B, and noticed the distinct difference between the guests on the first cruise and those on the one which included Christmas/New Year. This appears to be unavoidable.

 

We are not big alcohol drinkers (just wine with dinner) and we do not consider Azamara charge premium prices for what you get. While their prices have risen, so have the prices of many other cruise lines. Deals are still to be had on Azamara, such as the 50% off second guest. Indeed we booked another cruise while on board Journey, and have an eye on the pricing of 2 more. But we also are due to go with Oceania in March 2018. Not very impressed with our previous 3 cruises with Oceania, but the itinerary and timing suited us. A HAL cruise we did last year worked out very expensive by the time they had added on all the extras, and the experience was mediocre.

So Azamara remains our first choice when it comes to cruises.

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Another good perspective which strikes a chord here. I think we left it too late to disembark leaving the ship around 8.40 - lesson learned!

 

We were probably very unlucky in being impacted by rowdy guests some of whom drank so much they weren’t in control of all their bodily functions - but again that was dealt with very appropriately by the ships staff. I will just check more before I sit down in future! We laughed about it but actually it wasn’t really funny.

 

We will keep our eye out for deals Silverseas seems to have the best deals for us at present but that may change by the time we get to adding more bookings.

 

 

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We were probably very unlucky in being impacted by rowdy guests some of whom drank so much they weren’t in control of all their bodily functions - but again that was dealt with very appropriately by the ships staff. I will just check more before I sit down in future! We laughed about it but actually it wasn’t really funny.

Yuck!:eek:

 

Phil

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Another good perspective which strikes a chord here. I think we left it too late to disembark leaving the ship around 8.40 - lesson learned!

 

We were probably very unlucky in being impacted by rowdy guests some of whom drank so much they weren’t in control of all their bodily functions - but again that was dealt with very appropriately by the ships staff. I will just check more before I sit down in future! We laughed about it but actually it wasn’t really funny.

 

We will keep our eye out for deals Silverseas seems to have the best deals for us at present but that may change by the time we get to adding more bookings.

 

 

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This sounds completely unlike the Azamara I know. Why on earth were these passengers who were "so drunk that they lost control of their bodily functions" still being served alcohol? Even if other passengers were obtaining it for them, then bar staff, backed up by senior management should have refused to serve the other passengers as well. It sounds to me like they should all have been refused alcohol for the whole cruise if they got aggressive with C. Or maybe put off the ship altogether? I'm sure their uncouth behaviour impacted many of the passengers. I am all for people enjoying a drink but this sounds completely unacceptable.

 

I would not have found the "sitting down without looking" situation funny at all. I hope Azamara laundered your clothes for you....and removed the chair for deep cleaning! Yuck indeed!

 

Ann, I am so sorry that this festive cruise had so many issues for you. It's sad when such loyal Azamara cruisers as you and C are considering other cruise lines and we know there are so many issues involved...not just the passenger behaviour on your last cruise.

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At one time Azamara were our first choice from around 2010 to our last two cruises with them in 2013, from the last cruise we have seen significant price rises and reading the boards a slow reduction in the overall service offered, up to and including our last cruise the on board experience was second to none but as prices rose then other lines offered better value.

 

We would love to go back to the Azamara that we started with and have 2 outstanding future cruise certificates that we could use, these observations from well traveled Azamara guests make that sadly unlikely.

 

The competition is getting stronger and offering more, is Azamara?

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At one time Azamara were our first choice from around 2010 to our last two cruises with them in 2013, from the last cruise we have seen significant price rises and reading the boards a slow reduction in the overall service offered, up to and including our last cruise the on board experience was second to none but as prices rose then other lines offered better value.

 

We would love to go back to the Azamara that we started with and have 2 outstanding future cruise certificates that we could use, these observations from well traveled Azamara guests make that sadly unlikely.

 

The competition is getting stronger and offering more, is Azamara?

 

Unfortunately not, they are charging more and offering less.

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Another good perspective which strikes a chord here. I think we left it too late to disembark leaving the ship around 8.40 - lesson learned!

 

We were probably very unlucky in being impacted by rowdy guests some of whom drank so much they weren’t in control of all their bodily functions - but again that was dealt with very appropriately by the ships staff. I will just check more before I sit down in future! We laughed about it but actually it wasn’t really funny.

 

We will keep our eye out for deals Silverseas seems to have the best deals for us at present but that may change by the time we get to adding more bookings.

 

 

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I know that a U.S. cruise consolidator was selling a very well priced package for the holiday cruise. I hope this didn’t result in the over drinking crowd. I have seen a number of Azamara cruises being filled this way and I have wondered if this would impact the quality of life on board.

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I know that a U.S. cruise consolidator was selling a very well priced package for the holiday cruise. I hope this didn’t result in the over drinking crowd. I have seen a number of Azamara cruises being filled this way and I have wondered if this would impact the quality of life on board.

I thought I remembered an email by “that consolidator” for that cruise! I wondered, too, if that group may have impacted the cruise!

 

Uktog, so sorry that your holiday cruise was not what you had hoped for.....so disappointing! As we get ready for another Azamara cruise, we hope we will not experience what you did!

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This sounds completely unlike the Azamara I know. Why on earth were these passengers who were "so drunk that they lost control of their bodily functions" still being served alcohol? Even if other passengers were obtaining it for them, then bar staff, backed up by senior management should have refused to serve the other passengers as well. It sounds to me like they should all have been refused alcohol for the whole cruise if they got aggressive with C. Or maybe put off the ship altogether? I'm sure their uncouth behaviour impacted many of the passengers. I am all for people enjoying a drink but this sounds completely unacceptable.

 

 

 

I would not have found the "sitting down without looking" situation funny at all. I hope Azamara laundered your clothes for you....and removed the chair for deep cleaning! Yuck indeed!

 

 

 

Ann, I am so sorry that this festive cruise had so many issues for you. It's sad when such loyal Azamara cruisers as you and C are considering other cruise lines and we know there are so many issues involved...not just the passenger behaviour on your last cruise.

 

 

 

Lottie

I don’t blame the ships bar staff - people move from bar to bar, it’s dark in some places etc etc. I could see they were being careful especially at the pool bar but unless security are patrolling all the time it’s really tricky

 

Re “the damp patch” it was the last night so as it was a pair of trousers that were not coming home it wasn’t an issue. They were removing all the cushions for deep cleaning anyway but noted extra attention for that one.

 

Maybe it wasn’t alcohol that caused the “accident” but I’d have thought if it wasn’t they would have fessed up

 

 

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Ann, I’m really sorry about your experience ☹️ Hopefully your next cruise is back to ‘normal’.

I know they were flogging last minute balcony cabins to people working in the travel industry for $3,000 per cabin... I hope that didn’t attract the wrong crowd.

Now - I do wonder how one can get so drunk on the cheap included plonk Azamara serves [emoji16]

 

Floris

 

 

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If you want to get drunk, you can do - neither price nor quality affect the percentage of alcohol (not that we have any problems with the included drinks on Azamara - we never feel the need to buy anything over and above the included offerings.)

 

 

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I know that a U.S. cruise consolidator was selling a very well priced package for the holiday cruise. I hope this didn’t result in the over drinking crowd. I have seen a number of Azamara cruises being filled this way and I have wondered if this would impact the quality of life on board.

Azamara's policy for some time has been to fill the ships at all costs and this unfortunately does have consequences from time to time. I haven’t sailed on an Azamara ship that hasn’t been full for quite a while. It’s good for the company, but depending upon who they sell the remaining cabins to, it can be bad news for the majority and cheapens the brand. I’ve seen it a few times. Not too much, but a few.

 

Phil

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At one time Azamara were our first choice from around 2010 to our last two cruises with them in 2013, from the last cruise we have seen significant price rises and reading the boards a slow reduction in the overall service offered, up to and including our last cruise the on board experience was second to none but as prices rose then other lines offered better value.

 

We would love to go back to the Azamara that we started with and have 2 outstanding future cruise certificates that we could use, these observations from well traveled Azamara guests make that sadly unlikely.

 

The competition is getting stronger and offering more, is Azamara?

 

We will definitely cruise with azamara again, we are just going to be much more selective about where and when and will avoid Christmas cruises and also seven night cruises. both of which attract a different crowd.

Yes we did hear about the cheap deals for later bookers, "Mr Hot Tub" shared that information loud and clear with us all :)

 

I don't want anyone to lose sight of the fact that had it not been for this unfortunately misbehaving minority it would have been a wonderful cruise and everything the Officers and Crew could do...they did.

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sorry to hear of the problems with rowdy behaviour etc on your cruise, we too experienced the same last summer in the med on a 6 night cruise from Barcelona, 80 percent of the guests were first timers and a huge proportion were either travel agents or a large south African banking contingent on a freebee. most of those were very rude and very drunk most of the time. even to the point of one of them shoving my wife out of the queue at the white night when all she wanted was something from the very end of the line as she had everything else on her plate from various sections, . anyway once again I totally agree that rude and inconsiderate cruisers can impact greatly on a cruise . so happier cruising in the future

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We were on the Quest last September and we saw a very drunk woman staggering through the main dining room and ended up in the kitchens and had to be escorted out and taken to the ladies loo. In fact on one evening, we saw a member of staff escorting anther woman back to her cabin and we were staggered that he managed to keep her upright. Also Many many moons ago, we were on the Jewel of the Seas where a passenger managed to deficate on the dance floor. Have never really gotten over that and we did feel for the poor individual having to clear it up. Disgraceful.

 

 

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These kind of instances can happen, particularly when cruises are radically discounted in the last couple of months.....after final payment has been made.

 

I am wondering what we will experience on our next cruise. The prices grew and grew......way over priced from what we paid at one year out. Then at the 80 day mark, many balconies were unfilled. So Azamara decided to have a Fire Sale and discounted the balconies for a 12 day cruise from way over $6000 pp to just $2000 pp!! Some of us could have been upgraded who submitted the forms for LCV upgrades, but we never received a call.

 

Now, wondering what our cruise may feel like......we shall see.....

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We were on that Hong Kong to Singapore cruise as well. I’m finishing off my photo file which will go on the internet shortly. I’ll add a URL here so you might see yourselves. I’m grey haired mid seventies and wore a cravat most of the time. My wife has red hair and wore that top with two huge eyes that seemed to amuse a few folk on NYE.

 

 

We tended to have as many meals outdoors on the Patio or at Windows as we could. For us Londoners it is such a novelty to eat in the fresh air. We used the Main Dining Room on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve – and found it fine. We tried the special Beef restaurant but, although the food/service was faultless we found the air con too aggressive. Because of that air con experience we cancelled our reservation in the Italian restaurant.

 

 

We met Mr Hot Tub on the first evening whilst we were chatting to two much calmer Ozzies at the Sunset Bar. He tried to take the Mickey out of my cravat (you must be a barrister!) and after I asked him if he knew Les Patterson he did not seem to want to chat to us again. Yes, we saw the goings on in the hot tubs which seemed to escalate as he bonded with that taller, thinner Brit with the tattoos. Mr Hot Tub originated from Coventry it seems! Coventry's loss is .......

 

 

 

The smokers’ corner on the Pool Deck seemed to get taken over by a fairly noisy bunch but neither of us were aware of the youngsters being rude that an earlier poster has mentioned.

 

 

This was our first Azamara experience. We are late starters to cruising and most of our experience comes from Seabourn and Silver Seas. We felt there was nothing wrong with Amazara comparing it with those two lines. If anything let it down it was a small proportion of the passengers – most of the ones we chatted to were delightful. However, if cruise companies want to achieve 100% capacity they could easily find themselves going downmarket to fill the gaps.

 

 

That was clearly evident on our Seabourn Alaska cruise this summer. On that trip there were several passengers so gross that they had to push themselves around on wheeled zimmer frames so they did not miss out on the ‘all you can eat and drink’ that had sold them the cheapo cruise.

 

 

I don’t know the solution. There is a ‘dress code’ thread on the CC Seabourn forum and it is clear that people are nervous about needing to look smart. On Seabourn and Silver Seas people do change for dinner. Amazara’s promotion goes quite strongly on the ‘casual dress code’. I can’t remember ever seeing Mr Hot Tub at dinner time but I did see a lot of people who felt that changing for dinner was more effort than it was worth. What you wear is not the be all and end all – but is not making an effort what we are talking about?

 

 

We took an assortment of trips and most were well worthwhile. We did not do the freebie Amazara evening and heard mixed reports (many saying the food and drink was pretty grim). The White Night and NYE were fun but were, in our opinion anyway, let down by music that seemed to ignore the whole pre-bopping era.

 

 

My wife went to the painting class and said the teacher was good. We also enjoyed Emma’s talks on art as it related to the area. The shows entertained us and we particularly enjoyed the lady magician and the comedy musician. The big problem is the shallow/flat seating in the Cabaret room. From many seats it was impossible to see much of the stage – unlike the theatres in both Seabourn and Silver Seas where there is much more ‘rake’.

 

 

Can’t think of anything else at the moment – but I may come back after a few more posts.

 

 

Tony and Christine

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I have done four Cmas cruises. Only one was bad with drinkers. It was in AU. One person at first was told to stay in cabin and finally removed from the ship. The child was traveling with her parents.

 

She ruin Cmas by breaking the Gingerbread Houses on deck five . She was rude tomguests and th list goes on. Once she left the ship was a happy place.

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Wow UKtog, sorry to hear your Christmas/NY cruise came with some ‘unexpected’ surprises! (I am referring to the rowdy people and “wet” chair incident).

 

 

You have always been very helpful on this board, so I do hope the powers that be take note of your comments to correct that aspect of your cruise; and thanks for feeding back all the pluses of your cruise. It is lovely to read that all the staff went above and beyond to try and make it a wonderful cruise. Rarely, have I ever been on a cruise ship where staff are unwilling to please, so it is good to read that that aspect was top of the list.

 

Having said that, some fellow passengers really can at times be so rude or condescending towards staff, that I often wonder how they always manage to keep a smile on their face!!

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This was our first Azamara experience. We are late starters to cruising and most of our experience comes from Seabourn and Silver Seas. We felt there was nothing wrong with Amazara comparing it with those two lines. If anything let it down it was a small proportion of the passengers – most of the ones we chatted to were delightful. However, if cruise companies want to achieve 100% capacity they could easily find themselves going downmarket to fill the gaps.

 

 

That was clearly evident on our Seabourn Alaska cruise this summer. On that trip there were several passengers so gross that they had to push themselves around on wheeled zimmer frames so they did not miss out on the ‘all you can eat and drink’ that had sold them the cheapo cruise.

 

Tony and Christine

 

I’m not sure I’m understanding you properly. Are you saying that seeing people using walking frames took your cruise downmarket? Or was it having to share your cruise with overweight people that troubled you? I did not realise that there were weight or mobility restrictions on “upmarket” cruises.

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I’m not sure I’m understanding you properly.

 

Thanks but I am understanding you perfectly.

 

I will not rise to the bait of your following sentences. It might amuse you but it gets this thread nowhere. I have fallen for the trap too often.

 

Have a pleasant weekend.

 

Tony

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I asked for clarification because I didn’t like to believe that someone who writes such readable and entertaining posts would express thoughts as bigoted and horrifying as what you seemed to be saying. I hope that’s not the impression you were trying to give.

 

 

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