Included wines.

[combine]

9 hours ago, aussie travel bird said:

Just back from Africa on the Quest 24 nights - really enjoyed the wine selection, along with the on board experiences. The best wine is the one you like to drink! Of course I think I can put that down to personal preferences. The food however, we felt had stepped up another notch from the already great food (from October) to a higher level especially in the MDR - Discoveries. The best we'd ever had. We found that the quality in Aqualina had also improved this time.  Our on board experiences on the Quest were outstanding so I'd be interested to hear Bloodaxe if your thoughts are confined to Shoreside operations, or in particular one of the ships.  

 

Thats good to hear Jenny. We are back on Quest  this  year with a total of 27 nights after 2 years exclusively on Journey. I was slightly apprehensive with the change ,as you tend to get comfortable with the Officers, staff , food and wine.

We have only returned two included red wines over the years and they were readily exchanged for something more to our liking. 

Bring on the first one...Greece intensive in April! 

[suzyluvs2cruise]

On 1/25/2020 at 6:42 PM, nonrev1 said:

We were on the Pursuit in Aug/Sept and we noticed a big change in the wines offered without an upgrade package.  We had 6 white wines over 21 days on the ship.  The same wines just kept rotating.  Like someone posted earlier, one is available in local stores for 6.99 a bottle.  Very disappointing for the Azamara price point.  I was on the Presidents cruise that went to Bordeaux before the Azamazing evenings started and Larry Pimentel was visiting various vineyards to find wines for Azamara.  When Azamara raised their rates and started including wine and other beverages, the wine selection was fantastic.  Now, not so much.  On this last cruise if we asked for one of the included wines from the night before because we did not like the wine served that day, we were told it was unavailable until the next rotation.  For the Azamara price point,  we should be allowed to have a glass of wine from a 6.99 bottle of wine that was in the rotation the day before.  

 

This is disappointing to hear. Hoping it will change back to how it was before for our upcoming Pursuit cruise in July. 

[workingtocruise-59]

On 1/30/2020 at 11:18 PM, Bloodaxe said:

 

I am not saying that the Azamara experience is not still very good, it is especially the crew.

I just think that at current prices it is no longer such good value.

My experience goes back to the very early days when it was excellent value.

 

We can, sadly, never go back to the early days of Azamara.. but how I wish that we could!

After many years of cruising with Azamara (our first cruise was in 2008) it is still so wonderful to board the ships and see so many familiar and welcoming faces.

I think that the prices that we paid then were unsustainable but that some of the recent prices are unbelievable.

 

Edited February 21, 2020 by workingtocruise-59
typo

[Bloodaxe]

10 minutes ago, workingtocruise-59 said:

 

We can, sadly, never go back to the early days of Azamara.. but how I wish that we could!

After many years of cruising with Azamara (our first cruise was in 2008) it is still so wonderful to board the ships and see so many familiar and welcoming faces.

I think that the prices that we paid then were unsustainable but that some of the recent prices are unbelievable.

 

I Absolutely agree.

[excitedofharpenden]

5 hours ago, workingtocruise-59 said:

 

We can, sadly, never go back to the early days of Azamara.. but how I wish that we could!

After many years of cruising with Azamara (our first cruise was in 2008) it is still so wonderful to board the ships and see so many familiar and welcoming faces.

I think that the prices that we paid then were unsustainable but that some of the recent prices are unbelievable.

 

Totally. That's my feeling too. I also think that the huge variety of prices for different cruises has gone beyond what I'll tolerate. I realise the supply and demand equation, but pricing has gone crazy. Same for prices for a particular  cruise booked at a different time.

 

Then there's selling off unsold cabins to consolidators cheaply at the end. If Azamara asked sensible prices throughout the whole booking period they wouldn't have to do this and loyal cruisers wouldn't feel "done". No matter how wonderful the crew is, that can't be justified. 

 

Phil