Onward Rebuild

[roberts2005]

We are almost 90 days out from Onward’s first cruise.  I have seen no posts about progress any where.   Have their been any stories in European papers about whether it will be completed on time.

 

any photos posted on other internet sites?

[Riocca]

Not seen any recent updates although I know a number of senior staff are now onboard.

There has been a lot of work already done on the bits we don’t see, Captain Carl said a while ago all the fresh water systems onboard had been replaced.

[Andromea]

Found only https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/26562-somec-lands-azamara-onward-refurb-deal.html

 

[KirkNC]

Long time before we are on her…

[roberts2005]

I’m on the maiden voyage, so major concern that it won’t be ready.

[Riocca]

15 minutes ago, roberts2005 said:

I’m on the maiden voyage, so major concern that it won’t be ready.

Looking back Pursuits internal refit took about 70 days, of course we’ve no idea what work has already been done as the ship has been in the Damen shipyard for 3 months already.

I’m sure everything has been planned out and Onward will be ready and waiting for us on the 2nd May.

[ECCruise]

Anything can happen, but I would be confident that the first sailings will go off as planned.  May is a good while away and when you consider some ships were cut in half, added a 40 meter midsection, and reattached in barely 60 days, I would think this refitting will be fine.

 

 

[uktog]

Maiden voyages are always a risk, hence why we avoid them, but I’m sure Azamara will be doing all they can to make it happen on time. There will of course be some things that are out of their control.  

[excitedofharpenden]

41 minutes ago, ECCruise said:

Anything can happen, but I would be confident that the first sailings will go off as planned.  May is a good while away and when you consider some ships were cut in half, added a 40 meter midsection, and reattached in barely 60 days, I would think this refitting will be fine.

 

 

I agree. They had some time and will have learned lessons from the other ships being refurbished. However there is always a chance that things won't be 100% until they fully test in the real world. 

 

Phil 

[Riocca]

We’ve been on 6 maiden voyages mainly new ships Pursuit being the only one that wasn’t, to date there have been no major issues. However that said they are definitely different from a ship that’s sailed for a while and the crew are a well oiled machine. All had been on shake down cruises, as is planned for Onward, but the staff are trying to find their feet, and often trying to find things that haven’t been unpacked yet.

You have to expect the unexpected, there will, if it’s like Pursuit, be a high proportion of new staff who will be trying hard but prone to the odd mistake. 
I would say to anyone on the maiden, and the following cruises, be patient relax and go with the flow, we’ve had a great time on all the maiden voyages we’ve been on, it’s the unusual incidents that often make it special, 

[tiggertom]

Lee Hetherington has put a video on the Azamara Reminiscing Facebook page of him and HD Elisabeth having a walk around the Onward showing the work being done. It looked like there was still a lot to be done but he confirmed that it would be ready for the inaugural cruise in May.

Edited January 30, 2022 by tiggertom
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[Riocca]

Lee Hetherington & Elisabeth Vogel have just done a live walkthrough of Onward in Amsterdam on Facebook, it was quite extensive so I will look back through it to see if I can find any interesting screenshots.

Internal work stripping everything down is well underway, there are a few differences from the other ships but nothing major.

Some information was that Onward will enter dry dock on the 1st March and is programmed to in for 18 days, of course most of the internal work will be done while in wet dock. Further to this Journey will be going to Amsterdam to support Onward during the refit which will speed things up an arrival date of 15th Feb was mentioned.

[Riocca]

Bar in Aqualina is being removed to make more room for tables:

 

[Mackdogmolly]

Sunset Bar also being removed 

[uktog]

I wish they would put these videos on Azamaras own pages and not in a closed group. More would see them that way

[Riocca]

2 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Sunset Bar also being removed 

Sunset bar was only added to Journey & Quest (R7 & R8) by Celebrity before Azamara existed as it was a signature feature of their ships. Captain Carl said it was very expensive to do and the cost was impossible to recover.

[Mackdogmolly]

Just now, Riocca said:

Sunset bar was only added to Journey & Quest (R7 & R8) by Celebrity before Azamara existed as it was a signature feature of their ships. Captain Carl said it was very expensive to do and the cost was impossible to recover.

They said it was because more guests want to sit outside. Also no bar in Aqualina 

[Riocca]

1 minute ago, uktog said:

I wish they would put these videos on Azamaras own pages and not in a closed group. More would see them that way

It was a group Azamara formed during lockdown to keep customers involved and administered by Lee. They’re keen for as many Azamara customers to join as possible, I assume they use this group for videos like this as they can keep an element of control.

[Riocca]

4 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

They said it was because more guests want to sit outside. Also no bar in Aqualina 

Yes I remember that being said about Pursuit but the R ships weren’t constructed with a bar in that area, talking to Carl on Pursuits maiden he was saying the work involved getting fresh water to that area was horrendous.

[Grandma Cruising]

5 minutes ago, Riocca said:

It was a group Azamara formed during lockdown to keep customers involved and administered by Lee. They’re keen for as many Azamara customers to join as possible, I assume they use this group for videos like this as they can keep an element of control.

Easy to join.

[uktog]

5 minutes ago, Riocca said:

It was a group Azamara formed during lockdown to keep customers involved and administered by Lee. They’re keen for as many Azamara customers to join as possible, I assume they use this group for videos like this as they can keep an element of control.

I wasn’t aware it was an official Azamara managed group. Azamara should have emailed customers about it. They missed a trick there. 

[uktog]

4 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Easy to join.

I am not comfortable joining closed Facebook groups, sorry! 

Edited January 30, 2022 by uktog

[Anchor Light]

Just now, uktog said:

I wasn’t aware it was an official Azamara managed group. Azamara should have emailed customers about it. They missed a trick there. 

I hear you but regardless, people seem to think everyone participates in Facebook.  They don't realize or care that not everyone wants to join FB for various different reasons. 🙄

[Riocca]

9 minutes ago, uktog said:

I wasn’t aware it was an official Azamara managed group. Azamara should have emailed customers about it. They missed a trick there. 

Not 100% sure of the origin in 2020 it could have been a staff initiative but sort of just got included after Sycamore’s purchase. It’s interesting to see what’s happening onboard now the ships are sailing, agree it could be better promoted.

[Riocca]

Just found an interesting picture from 2010 that shows the difference of deck 8 between Onward and the other Azamara ships. The Princess ship in the picture is Ocean Princess (R4) but this was the same for R1-R5, the Azamara ship is Quest (R7).

You can see that Quest was built with all standard balcony cabins on deck8 with 3 cabins per opening in the side of the ship, so there was a considerable amount of work done converting 3 balcony cabins to 2 CC suites. Onward as Ocean Princess has one opening per suite so in leaving the deck 8 layout as is there’s a lot less work to do, other than bringing them up to Azamara standard of course.