FAO Bonnie - Tour excursions for Quest 12-June-2014, Black Sea

[hermioneb]

I am wondering when we will know about any tours from Constanta on Sunday June 15th. I appreciate it must have been difficult to reschedule the itinerary due to the problems in Ukraine, but the Land Discoveries Guide for this cruise is very confusing. It is showing both the newly arranged tours for all the other ports, apart from Constanta, as well as all the original tours. i.e. on 14th June there are tours shown for both Nessebar and Constanta, and on 15th June (the day we are now meant to be in Constanta) tours are still shown for Odessa! Also, there is no mention of an Azamazing evening; will there be one? We are very much looking forward to this cruise, but it would be lovely to have a bit more information.

[KazLoudspeaker]

Not much in Constanta, Nessebar is absolutely fantastic. Toured through that area last year on land. I would skip Constanta for Nessebar, if it came down to a choice.

Karyn

 

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[hermioneb]

Not much in Constanta, Nessebar is absolutely fantastic. Toured through that area last year on land. I would skip Constanta for Nessebar, if it came down to a choice.

Karyn

 

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There is no choice - we are due in Nessebar on 14th and Constanta on 15th! It is just that the Land Discoveries brochure is in a great muddle

[little britain]

I'd stay on board in Constanta. It reminded me of a war-zone....

 

 

This was taken in the main street.

Edited May 1, 2014 by little britain

[hermioneb]

I'd stay on board in Constanta. It reminded me of a war-zone....

 

This was taken in the main street.

 

Thanks for the photograph! That doesn't make me want to wander around in Constanta; in fact I have read nothing good about the place at all.

 

That is why I am interested to know what tours there might be when we dock there. It is now less than six weeks until departure and I am rather disappointed that we have not had all the relevant information. Is this another case of the shoreside operation not being as impressive as that on board the ships? If anyone looks at the Land Discovery brochure for this cruise, they will see what I mean (unless it has been changed in the last 24 hours).

[coldbird]

Thanks for the photograph! That doesn't make me want to wander around in Constanta; in fact I have read nothing good about the place at all.

 

That is why I am interested to know what tours there might be when we dock there. It is now less than six weeks until departure and I am rather disappointed that we have not had all the relevant information. Is this another case of the shoreside operation not being as impressive as that on board the ships? If anyone looks at the Land Discovery brochure for this cruise, they will see what I mean (unless it has been changed in the last 24 hours).

 

 

I agree that online PDF is a mess! It does have a listing of tours available though... We are on the same cruise and noticed that we can't book any of these on line for some reason:confused:

 

 

RM12

Danube Delta Cruise

RM13

Bucharest - Little Paris of the East

RM14

Constanta Folk Heritage & Wine Tasting at Murfatlar Winery

RM15

Constanta Sights & Folk Show

[hermioneb]

I agree that online PDF is a mess! It does have a listing of tours available though... We are on the same cruise and noticed that we can't book any of these on line for some reason:confused:

 

 

RM12

Danube Delta Cruise

RM13

Bucharest - Little Paris of the East

RM14

Constanta Folk Heritage & Wine Tasting at Murfatlar Winery

RM15

Constanta Sights & Folk Show

 

Yes, but the tours you mention are shown for the 14th June, when we will be in Nessebur. There is nothing shown for Constanta on the 15th, which is the day we will now be going there. Presumably that is why one can't book anything there.

[coldbird]

Yes, but the tours you mention are shown for the 14th June, when we will be in Nessebur. There is nothing shown for Constanta on the 15th, which is the day we will now be going there. Presumably that is why one can't book anything there.

 

The 14th is from the original itinerary which may be why the PDF guide is so messed up. It looks like they didn't delete or move the dates from the old to the new ports.

 

Still not very good on Asmara's part that they can't clean it up so it's accurate at least.

[hermioneb]

The 14th is from the original itinerary which may be why the PDF guide is so messed up. It looks like they didn't delete or move the dates from the old to the new ports.

 

Still not very good on Asmara's part that they can't clean it up so it's accurate at least.

 

Try to book online for Constanta and it comes up with

 

Shore Excursions are not available for the Port/City you selected.

We are currently in the process of updating/gathering information for this Port/City and ask that you please visit our website closer to your sail date.

 

Just wondering how much closer to the sail date?!

 

Back to my original post in this thread - Bonnie, do you have any information?

[BBMacLaird]

Hi All,

yikes, I will let the Shorex Department know about this now. It shouldn't take too long to clean up the offerings on the website. Thanks for letting us know.

Bonnie

[hermioneb]

Hi All,

yikes, I will let the Shorex Department know about this now. It shouldn't take too long to clean up the offerings on the website. Thanks for letting us know.

Bonnie

 

Thank you, Bonnie. Thanks to your help, we are now able to book online for Constanta tours. Unfortunately, although the Land Discoveries brochure is now correct for Constanta, it does need looking at for errors. It is still showing the Azamazing evening to be at Sevastopol! I am assuming it won't be there, but will there be one at all?

[BBMacLaird]

Thank you, Bonnie. Thanks to your help, we are now able to book online for Constanta tours. Unfortunately, although the Land Discoveries brochure is now correct for Constanta, it does need looking at for errors. It is still showing the Azamazing evening to be at Sevastopol! I am assuming it won't be there, but will there be one at all?

 

Hello Hermioneb,

Yes, the amazing shorex team is working on the new Azamazing Evening for your voyage. I'll let you know as soon as it's posted.

Bonnie

[syam]

This itinerary is unusual and finding worthwhile things to see is challenging in some of the ports. Not much info in guidebooks or even TA.

We aren't getting much help from Azamara.

Investigating cruise tour offerings for some of these ports raises a lot of questions which the Azamara people don't seem to have any info about. For example, the 2.75-3 hour jaunt to the Meteora Monasteries is described as being 8 hours in length, but there is no indication that there is a meal or even snack break during the long tour. Apparently, washroom facilities are primitive at the site (holes in the ground). They have no idea if the bus provided has a toilet onboard or if they plan to make any pitstops along the way.

From the Meteora website, it seems the monasteries shut down at 1-3 pm. The ship arrives at 9 am. If the bus gets rolling around 9:30, as it says in the PDF, this puts us at the site possibly as late as 12-12:30 at which time we must climb anywhere from 100 to 400 steps to the buildings, each one on a separate 'mesa,' for a very quick look-see, I suppose. How fast can you climb? This is a very expensive peek ($100+ pp)

Does this seem reasonable? Am I missing something?

How about that 30 min. $179 visit to Safranbolou? Is there a high speed train?

Getting a little frustrated with the lack of accurate and thorough information. I hope this particular voyage isn't going to get short shrift because so many people cancelled when the Crimean ports were cancelled.

My concern is that there is no information available at Azamara yet. Surely something should be arranged by now, only a month out.

I guess I will just have to console myself with wallowing in luxury aboard for most of the cruise (boo hoo :)

[wesail7seas]

This itinerary is unusual and finding worthwhile things to see is challenging in some of the ports. Not much info in guidebooks or even TA.

We aren't getting much help from Azamara.

Investigating cruise tour offerings for some of these ports raises a lot of questions which the Azamara people don't seem to have any info about. For example, the 2.75-3 hour jaunt to the Meteora Monasteries is described as being 8 hours in length, but there is no indication that there is a meal or even snack break during the long tour. Apparently, washroom facilities are primitive at the site (holes in the ground). They have no idea if the bus provided has a toilet onboard or if they plan to make any pitstops along the way.

From the Meteora website, it seems the monasteries shut down at 1-3 pm. The ship arrives at 9 am. If the bus gets rolling around 9:30, as it says in the PDF, this puts us at the site possibly as late as 12-12:30 at which time we must climb anywhere from 100 to 400 steps to the buildings, each one on a separate 'mesa,' for a very quick look-see, I suppose. How fast can you climb? This is a very expensive peek ($100+ pp)

Does this seem reasonable? Am I missing something?

How about that 30 min. $179 visit to Safranbolou? Is there a high speed train?

Getting a little frustrated with the lack of accurate and thorough information. I hope this particular voyage isn't going to get short shrift because so many people cancelled when the Crimean ports were cancelled.

My concern is that there is no information available at Azamara yet. Surely something should be arranged by now, only a month out.

I guess I will just have to console myself with wallowing in luxury aboard for most of the cruise (boo hoo :)

 

This is our first cruise with Azamara and so far I am really disappointed with the chaos and lack of communication.I understand that this was a change in the itinerary due to the political upheaval,but at this point we are five weeks from departure and are still missing a lot of information.

I hope that this is not how Azamara usually treats its customers.