Doing things differently on Pursuit - a reflection

[excitedofharpenden]

Continuing to have a great time on Pursuit.  This seems a very happy ship.  Something I felt was missing to an extent last time.  We have a lovely new entertainment team and today is crew talent show and the high seas choir made up of guests.  

 

We have (another) medical emergency which requires us to get to Agadir this evening at around 8 rather than tomorrow morning so are burning lots of fuel at top speed.  This means the decks are very windy, but the main thing is to get the ill guest to hospital for checks ASAP.

 

Phil

[iata]

A very happy and friendly ship, we cherished every minutes on board. 

[excitedofharpenden]

Same here. It was such a nice cruise. Really good fun and excellent service. 

 

Just a note on my friend who had to leave the ship in Salvador. He is now back home and fine. It was a big birthday whilst he was due to be on the ship. Ryszard arranged for the cabin he left to be decorated and a photo sent of Ryszard, Chief Housekeeper Agnelo and the cabin housekeeping team in it. Such a nice touch. In  fact there were some very nice touches by Ryszard a few times on that trip. He is a class act for sure. 

 

Phil 

Edited April 13, 2019 by excitedofharpenden

[teamflames]

We enjoyed our first Azamara experience. Fellow passengers were a lot of fun and easy to meet. Agree wholeheartedly about the crew, very friendly and hard working. In 28 days never really spoke to Ryzard, found him to be quite shy although very visible.

I maintain that the drinks packages are poor value with no dessert wines, uninspiring beers and real supply problems. Not sure why they were not willing to go ashore and source some local alternatives. It took them a long time to open equivalent wines from their bottle only offerings to make up for their supply problems. Of the 28 days we were onboard I would say we had some problem with drinks on 27 of them which just cheapened the experience. My other minor gripe was the music, just way too old- it felt like everything was from the 50s and I don’t understand why the CD wife who was not an employee or contractor was allowed to perform and perform so frequently?. I have posted my review and gave the cruise 5 stars despite this annoyance as we did have such a good time.

[Baynanno1]

Ryszard has been special to me since very rapidly sorting a stressful problem others had failed to sort for several hours on embarkation day on our first Azamara cruise in 2013. I absolutely agree with Phil, Ryszard is a class act for sure. We saw Ryszard & Agnelo in the process of decorating the "birthday room", one of many nice touches. 😊

 

My taste in music differs from that of "teamflames" and I thoroughly enjoy the few occasions when Tony & Christine are able to perform together far more than the offerings of the trio on the crossing. Judging by the large number of requests on the night of 3rd April in The Living Room, I was not the only one in the packed room enjoying their music.

 

I may be wrong, but I believe Miami holds the purse strings and supplies are ordered from Miami. It is not quite as easy to "go ashore and source some local alternatives" as it is for us at home to pop down to the shop for something else we might like. I also know that not all the ordered supplies arrived in Rio, more than one container having "gone astray" on it's way to the dock for loading.

 

Trish

 

 

Edited April 13, 2019 by Baynanno1

[marinaro44]

Boggles the mind that anyone could object to Christine's singing.  More the better as far as I'm concerned.

[teamflames]

My comments about Christine were that I was surprised how much she performs when she is not under contract and yet we only heard Amanda (who was the standout entertainer of both cruises) once. My comments about old fashioned music was aimed at the Trio. I am in my mid 40s and my parents are too young for most of their set. I watched several of their performances and often the only time people danced was when they finally did something from the 80s. Likewise .the disco dance floor was usually packed when we finally received music post 1970.

The excuse of missing containers was used by Celebrity only 2 weeks before this sailing so it sounds like RCL might have an issue with its suppliers, but this is not my problem. I paid for a beverage package to have a wider choice and more than 4 of the beers were missing, the sav Blanc, Chianti and Pinot were all missing. As previously said I was served standard pouring of wine rather than what I ordered and saw standard spirits used rather than those advertised on the  menu. The bar manager agreed they were allowed to go ashore and pick up some local brews but chose not to because didn’t think there was anything interesting. Azamara is the only line not to include dessert wines (even basic lines like msc and ncl do). Heneiken and Carlsberg are not premium - again Celebrity had multiple craft beers, HAl new ships have Belgian and Dutch craft beers. Ncl has craft beers.

As I said I gave the cruise 5 stars but I am not a loyalist like many are on these threads so I know minor criticisms are taken hard.

[marinaro44]

1 hour ago, teamflames said:

As I said I gave the cruise 5 stars but I am not a loyalist like many are on these threads so I know minor criticisms are taken hard.

No, I just don't understand the problem with Christine being "allowed to perform."  Nothing to do with "loyalists" or taking criticism "hard."

 

Yes, Amanda is a terrific singer.  I can understand your wanting to hear Amanda more.  I'd like to hear her more.  But why the upset with Christine because of that?  And what difference does it make that she's not an employee?  What matters is she sings well.  And the room is packed when she does.

[Bloodaxe]

6 hours ago, marinaro44 said:

Boggles the mind that anyone could object to Christine's singing.  More the better as far as I'm concerned.

 

We have always enjoyed Christine's performances and look on them has a bonus.

I do agree that the drinks selection is poor even without supply problems.

[uktog]

Entertainers can be like marmite - some love them some hate them. If it’s someone you aren’t so keen on and they are on a lot, it can be annoying.  

At least you can schedule your evenings on Azamara to avoid the venue of someone you are less keen on as there is usually a choice.

 

Its difficult for the cruise line to please everyone re entertainment, there is however no excuse for this continued passing off of cheaper drinks products to guests who have bought premium packages. Disappointed to read how much that is still going on. 

[iata]

We don't do shows on any ships, on 35 cruises i think we've been to  5 shows lol. It's not our style. The only exception is for cultural show that's it.

[NeverStopLearning]

14 hours ago, Baynanno1 said:

I also know that not all the ordered supplies arrived in Rio, more than one container having "gone astray" on it's way to the dock for loading.

 

We were on the Pursuit over Christmas and I was chatting  up the bartenders. One of them mentioned that all the cruise lines had issues shipping through Brazil. Stuff goes missing all the time and when the port inspectors are on board, they remove the expensive items from the shop displays.

 

Upon tipping our tour guide after an excursion, I have never seen anyone palm the tip so quickly with a very understated but heartfelt thank you.

 

I suspect that the port of Rio de Janero has a solid underground of scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. There are probably some kickbacks going on for access. No real proof, but I am a people watcher.

 

I have no idea how Buenos Aires stacks up, but I did enjoy our visits there immensely. It felt better than Brazil.

 

This is just my opinion, your mileage may vary.

[marinaro44]

14 minutes ago, NeverStopLearning said:

I suspect that the port of Rio de Janero has a solid underground of scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. There are probably some kickbacks going on for access. No real proof, but I am a people watcher.

 

I have no idea how Buenos Aires stacks up, but I did enjoy our visits there immensely. It felt better than Brazil.

When Azamara last went to South America a few years ago, Rio was the east coast port of embarkation and disembarkation.  No more.  Now it's Buenos Aires.

[Baynanno1]

7 hours ago, NeverStopLearning said:

 

We were on the Pursuit over Christmas and I was chatting  up the bartenders. One of them mentioned that all the cruise lines had issues shipping through Brazil. Stuff goes missing all the time

 

That's exactly the problem Pursuit had re-provisioning in Rio De Janeiro. A large volume of supplies "went missing".

[Baynanno1]

7 hours ago, marinaro44 said:

When Azamara last went to South America a few years ago, Rio was the east coast port of embarkation and disembarkation.  No more.  Now it's Buenos Aires.

 

Rio De Janeiro was also an debark / embark and re-provisioning port on 20 March this year.

[marinaro44]

45 minutes ago, Baynanno1 said:

 

Rio De Janeiro was also an debark / embark and re-provisioning port on 20 March this year.

Guess they didn't learn.

[Grandma Cruising]

Rio is the disembarkation point for the November TA on Pursuit.

[excitedofharpenden]

11 hours ago, Baynanno1 said:

 

That's exactly the problem Pursuit had re-provisioning in Rio De Janeiro. A large volume of supplies "went missing".

On a previous cruise three containers just disappeared. The ones containing alcohol and tobacco🤫

 

Phil 

[uktog]

They were disappearing from early December so it’s wider than Rio. We were told a while back that previously Azamara stopped South America because of issues and practices. 

I know they were applying their anti corruption principles again this year for which I applaud them. 

I think they should make guests more aware of these principles and the challenges that are a consequence of following them. Many people would see this as a positive feature of the way Azamara does business. 

[Baynanno1]

1 hour ago, excitedofharpenden said:

On a previous cruise three containers just disappeared. The ones containing alcohol and tobacco🤫

 

Phil 

 

Two of the three that should have arrived "went missing" and the one that did arrive was quite late, hence the late departure. 😕

[cinnamon]

We sailed on Pursuit from Rio to Lisbon, arriving home a week ago. It was a wonderful cruise. Our cabin was decorated for my birthday on our Embarkation day and again later on our wedding anniversary. 

 

Alcohol is not important to us, we rarely drink any spirits (liquor) and whilst we do like good wines, usually find something acceptable with meals from the included offerings. 

 

We thought the 3 Aces Trio in the Living Room were wonderful. We were less impressed with the entertainer in the Den. His piano playing was fine but his singing left something to be desired and we never found that his personality was able to make a ‘Pianoman’ type of atmosphere that we have enjoyed on other ships. I was disappointed that one evening only an opera film was shown as the main entertainment (we were in port but didn’t want to be ashore at night on our own in Brazil). Also, when local entertainers were brought onboard for an evening poolside party they were not Samba dancers but more like acrobats. However, the magician was superb and Amanda’s show exceptional. 

 

The highlights for us were the Progressive Trivia (great teammates 😉 and we were the moral winners. 😅), the Cuban Chefs Table and for me the Choir, ably led by Nate plus crossing the equator at sea, a first for us. 

 

If Pursuit does things ‘differently’ the difference is a plus now. 

[tiggertom]

22 hours ago, uktog said:

They were disappearing from early December so it’s wider than Rio. We were told a while back that previously Azamara stopped South America because of issues and practices. 

I know they were applying their anti corruption principles again this year for which I applaud them. 

I think they should make guests more aware of these principles and the challenges that are a consequence of following them. Many people would see this as a positive feature of the way Azamara does business. 

I agree. I was annoyed to find out that there was no Bitter Lemon on the Pursuit when we left Rio. I mentioned it along with a few other minor issues on the mid cruise feed back form but no one came back to me about any of them, which disappointed me.. I spoke to the F&B manager, Elisabeth, on the second last day and she said about the container going missing at Rio which left them short of quite a few supplies. It would help if passengers were made aware of these difficulties, especially if raised mid Cruise. Lack of a response to my feedback didn’t spoil the cruise but it left me feeling less “valued” than I normally feel with Azamara.

[excitedofharpenden]

They should come back to you after you have raised an issue. It's something that I mentioned up the line when I came back in February as I had the same thing happen. It's still happening and that's not great. Just a bit of attention to detail that is easily fixed. 

 

Phil