New Atlas Ocean Voyages info

[saddledowndani]

Joyce-

 

thank you again for everything. We are coming back to the hotel to freshen up and have lunch before we go to the museum. I’ll look around and see if I can find your group so I can say hello and thank you in person! 
Dani and Dave from Sacramento 

[Sami2]

From Andiamo76: "I do have to ask if there was ever anything done about the “free” laundry misinformation and the wifi screw up, wiring issue or not, it needed to be dealt with and not just by happily charging people to use wifi.  While it is great to deal with the bigger issues like the ship turnaround and change of port for the cruise changeover, the devil is also in the details and small stuff as the saying goes."  

 

Applaud Atlas:  Atlas's handling of the Covid 19 passengers aboard World Navigator's present sailing had to add great expense for Atlas.  Atlas needed to have the healthy passengers use their booked international flight bookings from Cairo to "home" to keep on schedule.  Rebooking those passengers to get home would have been a nightmare for Atlas. The only way to do this was to provide the healthy passengers chartered flights from Crete to Cairo, provide accommodations at the Ritz while in Cairo, and provide a free excursions in Cairo until their flights home. 

 

Take a guess?  What do you think that cost Atlas? 

PR points?  Definitely a plus.  

 

So how much does a free bag of laundry every 7 days and free wifi cost Atlas in terms of expense and trust for only prebooked passengers who were affected?  We would expect them to honor their own written advertising and spoken words by their own specialists  to get us to book their cruises.  "Marketing mistakes" or not, this is still an unresolved "devil in the details." 

PR points?  Definitely a negative-a big negative.

[keokukjoe]

1 hour ago, Sami2 said:

From Andiamo76: "I do have to ask if there was ever anything done about the “free” laundry misinformation and the wifi screw up, wiring issue or not, it needed to be dealt with and not just by happily charging people to use wifi.  While it is great to deal with the bigger issues like the ship turnaround and change of port for the cruise changeover, the devil is also in the details and small stuff as the saying goes."  

 

Applaud Atlas:  Atlas's handling of the Covid 19 passengers aboard World Navigator's present sailing had to add great expense for Atlas.  Atlas needed to have the healthy passengers use their booked international flight bookings from Cairo to "home" to keep on schedule.  Rebooking those passengers to get home would have been a nightmare for Atlas. The only way to do this was to provide the healthy passengers chartered flights from Crete to Cairo, provide accommodations at the Ritz while in Cairo, and provide a free excursions in Cairo until their flights home. 

 

Take a guess?  What do you think that cost Atlas? 

PR points?  Definitely a plus.  

 

So how much does a free bag of laundry every 7 days and free wifi cost Atlas in terms of expense and trust for only prebooked passengers who were affected?  We would expect them to honor their own written advertising and spoken words by their own specialists  to get us to book their cruises.  "Marketing mistakes" or not, this is still an unresolved "devil in the details." 

PR points?  Definitely a negative-a big negative.

Sami2: I agree with your analysis.  Very well said! What first comes to mind is the term "Karma" but perhaps the term "Greed" is more appropriate . Initially, Atlas advertised that passengers didn't need to be adequately vaccinated nor did they need to be masked indoors. Was Atlas trying not to dissuade reservations from the vaccine resistant  or the "Covid is a hoax" population to try to fill their ship? We still do not know how many of the passengers have indeed contracted the virus on their first voyage as they do need to be re-tested 3-5 days after exposure. Refer to the "Vaccinations" thread to get more insight. The post by the passenger who was exposed at the dinner table he shared with 2 unvaccinated passengers is worrisome. Having passengers "attesting" to their vaccination but not requiring proof has proven to be an unsafe practice. That needs to be addressed immediately along with the laundry and WiFi issues. These are things entirely under AOV's control. Our Transatlantic voyage from Portugal to Barbados is presently in jeopardy because Barbados is now requiring even vaccinated passengers who have been in countries "of special consideration", which includes Portugal, in the past 21 days of arrival, need to quarantine for 7 days . So much for the "Barbados Celebration" for which we are booked. Hopefully, this requirement will change in the next 2 months but I wonder how Atlas will handle it.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Speaking of self-verification not being good enough:  I don't think it's good enough for the cruise lines either.  I am going on a cruise in about a month on Noble Caledonia.  I am confident in their health and safety claims because they are all verified by the Bureau Veritas Hygiene Certification Programme.  After this fiasco, Atlas Ocean Voyages should definitely join that or a similar external verification program.

[joepeggy]

Glad to hear Atlas is taking care of things.  We are booked on the Lisbon-Barbados and actually a little nervous.  Also booked on the Antartica sailing in February.  Guess we will take one day at a time going forward with Atlas.

 

Peggy

 

P.S.  Great job reporting Joyce!!!!

[joepeggy]

Sorry to be back on here but I forgot to report that we just returned one week ago from a week long cruise on Viking around Iceland.  There were approximately 600 passengers onboard.  All passengers and crew were vaccinated.  We did have to wear masks walking around and only took them off for eating and drinking.  We also had to wear a small disk (either in pocket or around neck) that tracked all contacts within so many feet, have our temperature taken once daily and provide a saliva sample each morning.  We did not have any cases of Covid that I am aware of.  Lots of hand cleaning and they were very concientious about sanitizing tables, chairs, etc.  All in all I feel that Viking did a great job.  Also on Viking we had "free" internet which most of the time worked but while in the fjiords each day from morning till evening service was not available.  Our daily newsletter informed us of the status for the next day.

 

Also, early July we sailed on the new Silversea Origin in the Galapagos.  Again, Silversea did an excellent job on sanitizing, etc.  There were only 54 passengers on that sailing and when we arrived on the boat we were told that masks were not mandatory and we could decide if we wanted to wear one or not.  When we were in a town going to see the giant tortoises or at the airport we had to wear them.  It was mandatory in Equador.  No one on that sailing with us wore a mask and as far as I know there were no cases of Covid.  Another item I have to bring up is that on the Galapagos sailing we had "free" unlimited internet.  Not the fastest but at least if we wanted to get our email or send any home we could.  Most days we were so busy we didn't have time to mess with it but it was available for free as advertised.

 

Peggy

[joyce Ottawa]

Some last questions to answer and comments. I think everyone got one bag of complimentary laundry, if they had some done, they weren’t charged. My internet data lasted way longer, I think they may have extended it, without actually telling me. 
I have to say that some of the people in quarantine shared the link to this roll call, and they thoroughly enjoyed the very witty and funny comments!   Thanks for all your responses! I couldn’t always answer, as it took forever to upload stuff on the ship. ( hotel WiFi now!)
I think I became “known” , lol. I got to know some of the head office people from Mystic and Atlas. We had good chats!

The charter flight , lunch, pyramid tour and Giza under the stars all worked out well. We are very happy that Atlas got us to Egypt!

I've added a few photos from Cairo, we are off to Luxor tomorrow. 

[amunhbuu]

Glad you are still enjoying the trip!

[andiamo76]

Joyce:

I am also glad your wonderful photography skills were put to extra good use sharing your photos with all of us.   I am a quasi travel writer of sorts which started some years ago when a few friends asked me to send photos and comments as I travel.  The list has grown considerably over time, but it has proven to be a good way for me to keep a diary of sorts and go through my endless photos to delete many and scale down to the better ones.  So there is a benefit to me.  The trade off is that I well know about the enormous time it takes to put together and then send it out.  Not an easy feat with the challenges of internet while traveling.  And yes the internet in places like the fjords of Iceland and Greenland, is non existent at times.  So to you I say an extra big thank you for spending so much of your time doing this for all of us, along with researching and answering our questions.  It has meant to much to many of us as well as clearly prompting lots of interesting discussion and posts!

I am pleased to hear how well Atlas stepped up to the plate with handling the change in plans, even though in reality they didn’t have much of a choice given the circumstances.  

It is also good to hear they did appear to have somewhat addressed the far more minor issues of laundry and wifi.  It will be interesting from here to see what they do going forward for those booked and paid under the original “all inclusive claims”.  Customer service big or small is all part of what influences choices in who a person books with over the long run..  There are a number of excellent options already out there.  

[chooms]

On 8/13/2021 at 10:56 AM, joepeggy said:

Glad to hear Atlas is taking care of things.  We are booked on the Lisbon-Barbados and actually a little nervous.  Also booked on the Antartica sailing in February.  Guess we will take one day at a time going forward with Atlas.

 

Peggy

 

P.S.  Great job reporting Joyce!!!!

 

Was thinking about booking the Lisbon-Barbados TA as a last minute, but the new Barbados quarantine requirement put a stop to that idea.....don't think they will change back in less than two months...

Our Jan. Antarctica is becoming a question mark too....a lot of decisions to make beforw final payment...

 

Glenn

[jwsfun]

So I have to share some thoughts with you all.  I'm sailing Athens to Rome in 30 days and just was looking at the PDF that Atlas has on their site, for our sailing and noticed that the itinerary has changed and is different from my confirmation notice.   We were to sail through the Corinth Canal and go to Delphi.  Those are both off the itin. now replaced with a different port.  After researching on my own, I understand that the Corinth Canal may be closed due to repairs.  However, I wish I didn't have to find out this rather large change on my own by chance.  Thoughts on proactive communication, when there is a major ( Highlight of the Cruise, Kind of like booking Panama Canal and it's all of a sudden closed) Itinerary Change?  Don't you think we should have been advised even if just a quick email? Everyone on the sailing is under full payment and I'm sure most have completed their profile and could have been advised.  Am I crazy for thinking that?

[saddledowndani]

I’m going to just say that one of the advantages/disadvantages of being on a smaller, newer ship during a pandemic is that when things change/plans change. I’ll address later in our review but for anyone booking in the near future I would be ready/open to changes that need to be made for whatever reason.  This current cruise had an entire port:country embarkation change and it happened within 72 hours but everyone got where they needed to go. With smaller numbers on the ship excursions have been canceled or changed to different times or days and we haven’t always been notified right away. But the bonus is that the tours are small and you can change your mind last minute and switch or just decide to do your own thing. Atlas definitely needs to step up their communication but I also think things are changing so rapidly that if they communicate too early it could change again. So with that in mind if you are flexible and easy going this will be a great trip. If you will be disappointed to miss a port or have reduced or changes times in port you may want to rethink and book later when cruising is back in full swing and Atlas has a few more cruises behind them. After day 1 we have let all of our expectations go and are just going with the flow. Werealize that this trip is essentially a soft opening of a ship during a pandemic and are having a great time enjoying what it is and not focusing on what our expectations were. 

[sand2sea01]

1 hour ago, jwsfun said:

So I have to share some thoughts with you all.  I'm sailing Athens to Rome in 30 days and just was looking at the PDF that Atlas has on their site, for our sailing and noticed that the itinerary has changed and is different from my confirmation notice.   We were to sail through the Corinth Canal and go to Delphi.  Those are both off the itin. now replaced with a different port.  After researching on my own, I understand that the Corinth Canal may be closed due to repairs.  However, I wish I didn't have to find out this rather large change on my own by chance.  Thoughts on proactive communication, when there is a major ( Highlight of the Cruise, Kind of like booking Panama Canal and it's all of a sudden closed) Itinerary Change?  Don't you think we should have been advised even if just a quick email? Everyone on the sailing is under full payment and I'm sure most have completed their profile and could have been advised.  Am I crazy for thinking that?

The following appears on the Atlas website undre FAQ's:   Guests who have paid in full and cancel their applicable voyage at least 15 days or more prior to the voyage date are eligible to receive a 100% Future Cruise Credit.  For bookings not paid in full, standard cancellation penalties apply.  Future cruise credits are transferable and applicable to any voyage departing within one year from the original cancelled voyage date.   Therefore, you are not crazy!  Indeed, given the constraints expressed in the above (15 days or more prior to the voyage), notification of ANY itinerary change should be communicated to the guest asap.  This is just another failure of Atlas to communcate effectively.  We still have not heard how they will handle the promise of free laundry to those who have fully paid for their cruise.  The limitations on wi-fi is also disappointing.  Many cruise lines include a true free wi-fi for the entire voyage.  While itinerary changes are probably not the fault of Atlas given the on-going COVID pandemic and ever changing regulations, they really should be communicated as early as possible.

[jwsfun]

4 minutes ago, sand2sea01 said:

The following appears on the Atlas website undre FAQ's:   Guests who have paid in full and cancel their applicable voyage at least 15 days or more prior to the voyage date are eligible to receive a 100% Future Cruise Credit.  For bookings not paid in full, standard cancellation penalties apply.  Future cruise credits are transferable and applicable to any voyage departing within one year from the original cancelled voyage date.   Therefore, you are not crazy!  Indeed, given the constraints expressed in the above (15 days or more prior to the voyage), notification of ANY itinerary change should be communicated to the guest asap.  This is just another failure of Atlas to communcate effectively.  We still have not heard how they will handle the promise of free laundry to those who have fully paid for their cruise.  The limitations on wi-fi is also disappointing.  Many cruise lines include a true free wi-fi for the entire voyage.  While itinerary changes are probably not the fault of Atlas given the on-going COVID pandemic and ever changing regulations, they really should be communicated as early as possible.

No you are correct and not trying to "blame" Atlas at all, but for me - the big draw was going through the Corinth Canal ( Sort of a Bucket list thing) - which has in fact been closed sinceJanuary due to a rock slide ( However Cruise booked in June - final in October) .  I'm sure they figured it would be repaired by September ( It won't) and thus we'd go.  They obviously had to "make a call" at some point as to reshuffling ports and now were missing Dephi  a casualty of the situation as well.  Now they may in fact have advised my travel agent,  so again Atlas may not be at fault.  I'll let the TA take it from there but suffice to say I'm sorry we are not going to sail through the Corinth Canal.   With the Corinth being a marquee event I would have though there would have been a little more of an update to the guests who've paid in full.  the only itinerary I have is now wrong ( as are the shore excursions which show Delphi).   Saddledowndani said it best - we are going with the flow,  but that still doesn't mean we are disappointed.

[andiamo76]

Many good points shared above.  I for one want to be advised of changes as they roll along.  It gives me time to adjust our thoughts and plans.  It is preferable for us to find out as we go rather than learn through the grapevine or some time down the road, even though admittedly in this wacky time we are living in plans may and do change repeatedly.    We have come to learn through the grapevine that unlike more experienced lines which generally make several back up plans, there are some large and significant missing gaps in our Lisbon to Barbados cruise which seemingly currently have no plans.  Our attitude for now is that theoretically we should end up sailing somewhere in between somewhere and somewhere.  

But then again, maybe others will, but not us as we just checked for our  flight reservations over to Lisbon to catch the ship, and see that we no longer have any flights.  When we last checked about 8 days ago, they were showing under the airline, but with a large red notice that if not paid for by the date shown (within the next 8 days), they would be cancelled.  Lovely.  So it appears Atlas took our money for the upgraded flights when final payment was made, but oops, didn’t pay the airline.  So now we seem to be back to trying to get flight arrangements made.  Along with wondering what happened to our money that Atlas was very prompt to take.  

[Sami2]

Hello Andiamo76 and cruisers,

Do passengers get free premium economy from AVO?  You mentioned you paid for an upgrade. 

Did AVO rebook you successfully? 

[jgnyc]

2 minutes ago, Sami2 said:

Hello Andiamo76 and cruisers,

Do passengers get free premium economy from AVO?  You mentioned you paid for an upgrade. 

Did AVO rebook you successfully? 

Economy is free; anything higher is extra.

[joyce Ottawa]

One more post from me, this time about the post cruise AOV tour to Cairo and Luxor.  

 

Cosmos tours handled the trip.  Every detail was looked after.  They were very through and prompt, always met us at the airport or hotel.  The guides we had were excellent.  In particular the guide for Luxor (Magdi) holds a PhD in Egytology, and lectures for 2 universities and still works on excavations in the Valley of the Kings. He/Cosmos secured us access to the burial chambers of Seti, which is usually restricted to archeologists and researchers.  It was stunning!  

 

Also, not on our written agenda for the tour was a wonderful hot air balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings at sunrise, spectacular!  What a great surprise.  The hotel used in Luxor, the Hilton was also excellent with a great location, excellent food and staff.  And our room was overlooking the Nile and the Valley of the Kings which is lit up at night.

 

So thanks to @AOV Alberto and his team for being able to get us to Egypt after the unfortunate Covid passenger experience. We are home now, and all in all, despite the issues with laundry/, internet etc, it was wonderful to be cruising again. Really the issues were with communication and expectations not being aligned. The ship is beautiful, the staff in general excellent.

 

 I am curious to see if the laundry /internet issues will be addressed in future cruises.  I hope someone keeps us informed!

 

Thanks also to you all for your considered responses to my posts, and for the compliments on my photography.  I took so many photos, both countries are a photographers delight.

 

It was wonderful to be travelling again.  Happy safe travels to you all!

[explore4ever]

Thank you Joyce for your time, reviews and wifi data!  Much appreciated! 

In addition, my thanks to all those who contributed. 

We always learn so much from you all CC. 

 

Joyce, or anyone onboard, if we may, ask a question:

what happened to the one guest who had test COVID positive, after he or she disembarked the ship?

Did Atlas take care of his or her trip back? 

thank you for your time.

[joyce Ottawa]

The guest with Covid was transferred to a hotel for quarantine, but I have no idea what happened after that, sorry. 

[vicd1969]

Joyce,

 

Glad to see the final experiences of your trip ended on a very positive and optimistic note. A hot air balloon excursion that you didn't have to pay extra for would make me almost forget about the tribulations with the internet onboard. Also happy to see that laundry was somewhat addressed, hopefully a complementary bag per week will be offered. Did you ever dine in 7Aft? I saw a review of the experience on another website that made me willing to brave outside dining on the Antarctica sailing!

[joyce Ottawa]

On 7/26/2021 at 6:42 AM, MMG3 said:

 

We did dine in 7 AFT twice. You can only make reservations on the day you want to dine there.  It is 3 or 4 tables on the port side of the pool, near the bar that they set up for evening dining.  The menu was lovely, lobster Thermidor , Black Angus filet etc.  It is the same menu every night.   It's always lovely to eat outside.   We actually went to Antarctica on the expedition ship Le Ponant Le Lyrial.  We had perfect weather (around 5 C) and sunny every day.  We had the deck bbq and often ate outside at lunch time(albeit with a jacket!) , with amazing views of icebergs and penguins.  Not to be forgotten!

[saddledowndani]

Here is the laundry solution during our cruise. Not sure if they will continue with the complimentary undergarments but it was at least something for us that were under the impression that laundry was included. 

[amunhbuu]

1 hour ago, saddledowndani said:

Here is the laundry solution during our cruise. Not sure if they will continue with the complimentary undergarments but it was at least something for us that were under the impression that laundry was included. 

Thanks for the update.  Disappointing, but not surprising.

 

I hope you are enjoying the cruise nonetheless!

[Sami2]

As you know, all summer long up until August 4, 2021, as Atlas trained voyage specialists were taking all of our bookings and our money, Atlas Ocean Voyages advertised on their website, on their ads, and backed up verbally repeatedly by their trained voyage specialists, that laundry was FREE.  This is what we paid for and this is what we expect.  The President of the Company admitted in a Cruise Critic entry while sailing onboard with travel advisors and paid guests, it was a marketing mistake.  We expect free laundry service during our cruise.  Nothing more.  Nothing less.  We cannot accept only free under clothing.  

 

Let all new bookings since August 4, 2021, pay for their laundry.  Before August 4th bookings, we should get and we deserve free laundry.  It is a pretty simple fix.  So AOV, please fix it.