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Coming back to Quest - any questions you want answering (plus some things we have learned about travelling nowadays)

uktog

By uktog,
in Azamara

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uktog "Live from...." Rare

uktog

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There has been the most wonderful thread from Huntingdon, who as a first time cruiser on Azamara took time to tell us so much about the first cruise that sailed on Quest post pandemic.

 

You can find it here

 

Well after a lot of humming and thinking we have been inspired by how normal that cruise seemed and so will be jumping onto Quest this weekend.  So we will do a semi Live from (so long as these boards allow)  Not going to cover anything Huntingdon did, but will pick up on any other special questions and also reflect on any differences in the  experience now given that we know well what "Old co Azamara" was like.  Will also comment if anything seems to have changed from a few weeks ago.

 

We are flying out British Airways but on a flight that lands at 2am Saturday (eek) having done our own flights.  Two reasons for DIY - Azamara was a mortgage job for their flights and seemed to be offering transits in Europe, although the agent was not sure  (we fly from Scotland) which we thought could be fun (not) if testing challenges arose.  To manage the risk, we booked using Avios in Business class - avois flights are fully cancellable and business class avoids being crammed in.  We will sleep for a while in the Sofitel (too late to trail anywhere else even allowing for the 2 hour time difference) and using Welcome Pickups https://www.welcomepickups.com to get us to the port for our mid afternoon testing appointment.

 

What I have learned if travelling to Greece

  • Unlike many countries where you cannot do your Passenger Locator Form to enter the country (often referred to as PLF) until just before the flight, Greece is the OPPOSITE!  You have to do them at least 24 hours before flying.  In fact you can do them weeks ahead of your arrival.  You do one per travel group (not one each)
  • After submitting this, you get the return form a short time after, we were about an hour but it can take up to a day
  • You do not have to upload any documents for the PLF application

 

What I have learned already if flying British Airways

  • They use Verifly on almost all flights TO the UK but only on a very few leaving the UK and Greece is not on that list now
  • Three days before (literally 72 hours before your flight) if you scroll down your Manage my Booking page on BA, you will find a section to Upload your travel documents.  The email to prompt you to do this comes out quite a bit later, but it is a good idea to be proactive and start earlier rather than wait for the reminder.  
  • You have to upload information separately for each traveller and it is easier if you use individual email addresses
  • The upload asks you first to upload evidence you are fully vaccinated, then it asks for proof of a PCR test BUT DO NOT WORRY if you are fully vaccinated, your answer is N/A and the reason you enter is "fully vaccinated" - you have to give a reason to move to the final section where you upload the copy of your PLF.  That second question about the PCR was a heart stopping moment until I went back and reconfirmed that was only for non vaccinated travellers and how to deal with this.
  • You get first an acknowledgement from BA Digital Services that your documents have been received -  thats a good time to allow them onto your safe senders list or your later confirmation might land in junk..  It seems they are manually reviewed, about 5 hours later, overnight, we got our emails saying our documents were approved and when online check in was open we were free to use it.

 

We used online check in this afternoon no problem.

 

Given the time sequences and we hate to be stressed last minute, we are glad we started the Greek PLF early and then the BA upload right at the beginning of the 72 hours period.  Suggest others try and follow that route as you cannot check in online without the document clearance.  

 

We will be carrying both paper and scanned copies of everything tomorrow and we also have things on our phones.  Next update will tell you how it all went and how safe (hopefully) we felt on the plane.

 

If anyone has any questions they want answered about life onboard that Huntingdon did not cover (he did so well, he covered so much) post them and I will try and get the answers.

 

After 21 months away from Azamara I think you can guess how excited we feel tonight (although packing was stressful, we have lost the skill for overseas trips).  It will be special to go home to our sailing family.

Edited by uktog
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takemewithyou

takemewithyou

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@uktogThis is so exciting that you will do some reporting from Quest!!  So happy and excited for you to be onboard again!

1.  If you dine in specialties or Patio, I would love to hear what you think of the food compared with pre Covid sailings.

2. Also comparison of variety of menu offered in main dining room and food quality 

3. evening entertainment reports

Thank you so much for offering to do this!

Safe travels and hope you have a great holiday aboard Quest!

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uktog "Live from...." Rare

uktog

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5 minutes ago, takemewithyou said:

@uktogThis is so exciting that you will do some reporting from Quest!!  So happy and excited for you to be onboard again!

1.  If you dine in specialties or Patio, I would love to hear what you think of the food compared with pre Covid sailings.

2. Also comparison of variety of menu offered in main dining room and food quality 

3. evening entertainment reports

Thank you so much for offering to do this!

Safe travels and hope you have a great holiday aboard Quest!

We certainly hope to dine around the ship and try and do a cruise like in the past - enjoying the food, finding entertainment we like so we will certainly report on that and how we find the Destination Experience onboard and the "White Night/Sparkle night" whatever they call it.  Regarding the Destination Experience, when we were last onboard in the Caribbean, we had our Azamazing evenings onboard, so we have already had a different type of evening, but it will be interesting to see if they have developed the concept further.

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Mrs Skip

Mrs Skip

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UkTog, hope you have a wonderful time... we too seriously considered joining Quest on Saturday, but just couldn't make the sums add up for the mortgage of flying via Heathrow (we actually considered driving overnight there) as well as everything else including many last minute arrangements and a return home hours before the dreaded back to work 😞 .. but a wee land trip to Croatia with direct flights from Edinburgh will hopefully be a welcome break...and a bit of a comparison.  Have a great time !

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Georgeven "Live from...." Rare

Georgeven

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@uktog... So good you'll be doing this :-). Maybe we meet on-board, don't hesitate to say hello if you see us around the ship... we are so excited to be back after a little bit more than two years non voluntary cruise break. This time around we are just looking forward to relax and enjoy the ports in a relaxed way... and enjoy the Quest tranquility 🙂

Safe travels and see you around 😷

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ChucktownSteve

ChucktownSteve

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@uktogI'm really looking forward to your posts. While I enjoyed the first time reports of @Huntingdon1701and found them quite good and informative, It will be interesting to hear your prospective from a seasoned Azamara aficionado who's so knowledgeable.    I hope you have a great sailing!

 

It's the combination of posts by you, @Huntingdon1701and @excitedofharpenden that caused me to book Azamara again for Greece in 2023.  It had to be that far out because our cruise dance card was already filled through 1/2023.

Edited by ChucktownSteve
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Lindy028

Lindy028

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So, so jealous, we would have loved to be on this one, however DH needs a hip replacement and could not cope with a plane journey. We are booked on Pursuit in March and would be interested in how you find the plane journey, that bothers us much more than the cruise.

When we booked our March cruise, I was so excited to actually have something to look forward to, you must feel like kids on Christmas Eve!

Have a great cruise and safe travels.

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Huntingdon1701 "Live from...." Rare

Huntingdon1701

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57 minutes ago, malcliz said:

Morning Ann. Can I ask how you got on with the TrustOne testing app? I’ve managed to register via the website so we have a QR code but can’t login to the app at all. 

 

The app itself never opened for me - but it was never necessary. It just seems to hold the data for you so that you get the email results. They just need the QR code. 

Edited by Huntingdon1701
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malcliz

malcliz

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1 minute ago, Huntingdon1701 said:

 

The app itself never opened for me - but it was never necessary. It just seems to hold the data for you so that you get the email results. They just need the QR code. 

Oh thank you. We thought we must be doing something wrong as the email from Azamara suggested downloading the app.  Even reset the password and it still wouldn’t open! Glad to know it’s not necessary.  We so enjoyed reading all your helpful reports!

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