Restart now due August 28th for Quest, September 28th for Pursuit & October 13th for Journey

[chrisfromdevon]

I have just received the following email :-

 

Dear Azamara Guest,

We hope that you have remained healthy and safe. Since suspending our cruise operations in March 2020, we've been working diligently to develop new protocols and procedures, schedule new itineraries and adjust our plans to welcome you back onboard. Today we announced that as part of our return to service plan, we will require all guests and crew to be fully vaccinated to be able to sail.

While we do see cruising is slowly starting up again, there is still uncertainty surrounding the resumption of cruise operations globally. However, several ports and regions are starting to welcome travelers back and encourage cruising. We've been approved to resume sailing again at the end of August 2021, with a series of new Greece Intensive voyages aboard the Azamara Quest. As a result, we need to cancel all current Quest sailings departing on or before October 2nd, 2021.

Unfortunately, as travel requirements throughout most of Europe remain unconfirmed, we've had to make the difficult decision to cancel the following voyages as well:

• Azamara Journey sailings departing on July 16, 2021 through September 29, 2021
• Azamara Pursuit sailings departing on July 10, 2021 through September 14, 2021

Our ships will be back in operation as per below:

• Azamara Quest®: August 28, 2021.
  Azamara Quest will start the Europe season with a series of new Greece Intensive voyages sailing roundtrip from Athens (Piraeus), Greece.
  
  
• Azamara Journey®: October 13, 2021.
  Azamara Journey will start the late Europe season with her originally scheduled 12-night Greece Intensive voyage from Athens (Piraeus), Greece.
  
  
• Azamara Pursuit®: September 28, 2021.
  Azamara Pursuit will start the Europe season with her originally scheduled 11-night Greece Intensive voyage from Athens (Piraeus), Greece to Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy.

If you are ready to sail again soon, you may want to take a peek at our new series of 7-night Greece Intensive voyages onboard Azamara Quest in August-September of 2021. We are still finalizing those itineraries, but we expect them to be available on Azamara.com as of May 11th. Truly, there's no other country quite like Greece, and it's yours to discover on these voyages.

We hope to see you back some time in 2021. But we have plenty of options later, as well. Our Europe 2022 - Spring 2023 Onward deployment will be announced soon, with adventures awaiting all around the globe.

While all of us wish we were cruising, we have three options to compensate you for these cancellations.

 

Whilst not so good news for passengers hoping to sail between today and these new dates, including myself, at least it puts a line under the endless speculation.

[uktog]

Looks like they have been doing a lot of strategic planning and have thought through their plans to allow the dry docks and also minimise the European risks still around.

[excitedofharpenden]

9 minutes ago, uktog said:

Looks like they have been doing a lot of strategic planning and have thought through their plans to allow the dry docks and also minimise the European risks still around.

I'd agree. It's a hugely complex issue to sort out. To be honest I'm glad they haven't been tempted by British Isles or Northern European cruises to get going. Just too late in the season for that. Let's hope Quest can kick things off with Greece and see where that takes us. 

 

Phil 

[CYNSport]

And this email came today, also

 

After a long pause and more than a year of challenges, it is my honor to deliver some amazing news! Azamara’s return to sailing date is now confirmed for August 28, 2021, and we couldn’t be more excited. We will officially be back with six new 7-nightGreece Intensive itineraries for Azamara Quest®, open for booking on May 11, 2021. We couldn’t have done this without the support of loyalty members like you! Together, we will explore this new world — all while keeping health and safety a top priority. We are thrilled to kick off our sailings in Greece, one of our favorite countries in the Mediterranean. These journeys let you unpack once before immersing you in Greece’s legendary locales, as well as smaller ports larger ships can’t reach. Of course, we offer longer stays, more overnights, and unique experiences that allow you to absorb more of Greece’s culture — from the charming turreted buildings of Rhodes to the Cretan delicacies of Heraklion and all the quaint tavernas in between. To ensure a safe environment for everyone, we will require all guests and crew to be vaccinated. It’s our way of taking care of one another, and keeping our Azamara family healthy. In addition to this new measure, we have enhanced our health and safety protocols in collaboration with the Royal Caribbean Group’s Healthy Sail Panel. We will share more updates on this once these new Greek voyages open for booking on May 11, 2021.  We hope this news brings a smile to your face! Start counting down the days until you’re reunited with your favorite crew and fellow Azamara Circle℠ members as we get ready to make our greatest comeback yet.” All my best,

[royallondon]

Looks like a lot of planning has been going on behind the scenes.

 

An extremely difficult conundrum to deal with.  Fingers crossed for a successful and healthy return to cruising 🤞

 

Regards

[oddjob16]

Dang!! There goes our Quest october 02. cruise out of BCN. Maybe we will lift and shift to 2022.

[Aardvaark]

Great news!!!  It makes our 2022 trips look more viable.  And there's even a chance at something late this year (don't need Greece, tho).

[Mackdogmolly]

Still keeping my fingers crossed for my 11/2 Journey cruise. 🤞

[hamrag]

1 hour ago, excitedofharpenden said:

....Let's hope Quest can kick things off with Greece and see where that takes us. 

 

I hope so too, but Greece or any type of Med cruise this year is not for us. Far from perfect, I would acknowledge, but if anything we'd rather stay close to home on a UK cruise on MSC Virtuosa Yacht Club.

 

Currently undecided though, we'll see how it all pans out June/July and how 'stir crazy' we feel.

[Travels with Lisa]

31 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Still keeping my fingers crossed for my 11/2 Journey cruise. 🤞

But do you think the itinerary will be changed? 

 

Liz

[Lynnewob]

1 hour ago, oddjob16 said:

Dang!! There goes our Quest october 02. cruise out of BCN. Maybe we will lift and shift to 2022.

Interesting to see that our Quest 9 October "Italy intensive", immediately following yours is not cancelled. 

 

I wonder if they'll cancel it closer to the time or change it into a "Greek intensive" voyage instead.

 

Only time will tell...

[GlobalMethod]

30 minutes ago, Travels with Lisa said:

But do you think the itinerary will be changed? 

 

Liz

I don''t care if the itinerary changes ... just want to see all this solidified ... we've been to all the ports on this cruise as scheduled so no big loss to us if there are changes ... just get us back to the luxurious feel of Azamara service! ... 🙂 ...

[excitedofharpenden]

1 hour ago, hamrag said:

 

I hope so too, but Greece or any type of Med cruise this year is not for us. Far from perfect, I would acknowledge, but if anything we'd rather stay close to home on a UK cruise on MSC Virtuosa Yacht Club.

 

Currently undecided though, we'll see how it all pans out June/July and how 'stir crazy' we feel.

No Med for me either. In fact I doubt I'll be back cruising this year.

 

Enjoy MSC YC if you do it. Not for me nor where it goes, but if it gets one back in the saddle I can see the attraction. 

 

Phil 

[TeaBag]

2 hours ago, Aardvaark said:

Great news!!!  It makes our 2022 trips look more viable.  And there's even a chance at something late this year (don't need Greece, tho).

Ditto.  No roll call for the Tokyo to Singapore Apr 26 cruise though.

[uktog]

46 minutes ago, TeaBag said:

Ditto.  No roll call for the Tokyo to Singapore Apr 26 cruise though.

That cruise is still for sale - no roll call means no cruiser has started one on cruise critic, not that the cruise is not happening.  If you are on that cruise and there is no roll call go ahead and start one

[sovilav01]

4 hours ago, uktog said:

That cruise is still for sale - no roll call means no cruiser has started one on cruise critic, not that the cruise is not happening.  If you are on that cruise and there is no roll call go ahead and start one

There is also no roll call opened for Japan intensive on March 27th, I keep an eye on my three others, one day someone will open it 😊

[TeaBag]

8 hours ago, uktog said:

That cruise is still for sale - no roll call means no cruiser has started one on cruise critic, not that the cruise is not happening.  If you are on that cruise and there is no roll call go ahead and start one

Oh, I know it's still for sale as I keep monitoring it.  I would like to have the same cabin for both legs.  As for starting a roll call, I would have done it long ago but I have started 4 roll calls way in the past and I had to cancel all 4.  So I think when I do that I jinx the cruise for myself.  This cruise is quite well booked and I don't understand why someone hasn't started one.  Frankly I think people are not spending time on CC in this COVID disaster, so no one is interested in a roll call?  Thanks for the heads up.

[gnld]

We were on the July 10th Greece Intensive cruise on the Pursuit. Personally, I'm glad it's been cancelled (tho the itinerary was great) as we were not comfortable in traveling to Europe this summer. Will now have a lot of FCC to use on something in the future.

[Grandma Cruising]

7 hours ago, sovilav01 said:

There is also no roll call opened for Japan intensive on March 27th, I keep an eye on my three others, one day someone will open it 😊

If you open it you will probably soon find others joining in!

[GlobalMethod]

14 hours ago, excitedofharpenden said:

Enjoy MSC YC if you do it. Not for me nor where it goes, but if it gets one back in the saddle I can see the attraction. 

This sounds like a yacht club 'regular' who you are responding to ... I looked at some MSC, as at one time they were one of the few wanting to come to Greece ... then I read cruise several critic comments ... to say it politely, they were not up to a standard, primarily due to financial customer service, that I would consider.

Edited April 28, 2021 by GlobalMethod

[hamrag]

1 hour ago, GlobalMethod said:

This sounds like a yacht club 'regular' who you are responding to ... I looked at some MSC, as at one time they were one of the few wanting to come to Greece ... then I read cruise several critic comments ... to say it politely, they were not up to a standard, primarily due to financial customer service, that I would consider.

 

Actually I am not a regular of any cruise line, we have sailed on at least 15 cruiselines and most (Az included) we would do so again with the right itinerary. I agree MSC customer service is awful, but we don't cruise for that.

 

Most of the CC comments about MSC are not specific to Yacht Club, which is a fantastic experience sitting between premium and luxury (premium plus, I'd classify it). Their biggest downfall is they repeat the same old itineraries year on year, which is probably the only reason we don't sail with them (and we do so only in YC) more often.

 

Reading the Az boards, it's probably not the type of cruise most here are looking for. Each to their own.

[uktog]

You are right, it’s a kind of apples and pears comparison between Azamara and MSC. Monster sized ships no longer appeal to us (yes we have been on them). 

[berkshireboy]

20 hours ago, oddjob16 said:

Dang!! There goes our Quest october 02. cruise out of BCN. Maybe we will lift and shift to 2022.

We were also booked on that cruise.  As soon as I got the email yesterday I contacted our TA and arranged for a lift and shift to the Croatia Intensive Voyage on the Pursuit  between 10 October 2022 – 17 October 2022.  All arranged within an hour.  We paid an extra £19 in port dues but no other charges.  We even got allocated the same cabin even though we were on the Pursuit rather than the Quest and our obc remained unchanged. For us I think that this is a better itinerary, as there are a couple of new ports.  

 

This is the second year we have had to lift and shift this cruise - maybe this time we will be lucky!

[oddjob16]

2 hours ago, berkshireboy said:

We were also booked on that cruise.  As soon as I got the email yesterday I contacted our TA and arranged for a lift and shift to the Croatia Intensive Voyage on the Pursuit  between 10 October 2022 – 17 October 2022.  All arranged within an hour.  We paid an extra £19 in port dues but no other charges.  We even got allocated the same cabin even though we were on the Pursuit rather than the Quest and our obc remained unchanged. For us I think that this is a better itinerary, as there are a couple of new ports.  

 

This is the second year we have had to lift and shift this cruise - maybe this time we will be lucky!

We have done Croatia three times, so we opted for Lisbon to Barcelona on sept 09 2022. Never done Spain intensive so actually a good swap. You will love the Adriatic btw.

[lizziebargain]

I am booked on a South African cruise on the Pursuit Jan 15/22. I am hopeful it will go ahead. Does anyone have their crystal ball handy? Thanks