Atlas Bar on Onward

[PirateWife]

The Drawing Room is one of those treasured quiet places on the Azamara ships. Also, where my husband picks up the daily puzzles and I find books I have not read. Are there not enough other places on the ship to get drinks? And, do you have to pay for the premium drink before you can try the small plates?

[Host Jazzbeau]

And ... will this premium bar now be the only place to get fresh-squeezed juice?

[Riocca]

Azamara were always going to try something new on Onward, have to admit I wasn’t expecting this and not sure how the concept will work. I knew that using the Drawing Room was going to cause some consternation but I’m assuming Azamara see it as an under utilised space.

Only time will tell and it’s something that initially doesn’t appeal as we’re quite conservative in our drinks choices so if it’s only artisan cocktails and not normal drinks, even if only from the Ultimate Package, we probably won’t use it.

However we will go onto Onward on the 2nd May with an open mind, The Den was a big hit on Pursuit despite all the reservations.

[ECCruise]

For better or worse, the Onward is hitting the right buttons for the current market:

 

More suites for the suite mania.

"Upscale" cocktails for the cocktail mania.

 

With current pricing, neither is for us.  Glad we have our 8 booked on non-Onward ships, frankly.

 

 

[norn iron]

Good job we don't drink cocktails! Sorry to see the Drawing Room disappear. 

[Mackdogmolly]

25 minutes ago, norn iron said:

Good job we don't drink cocktails! Sorry to see the Drawing Room disappear. 

I REALLY hope they don’t follow suit with the other ships. It’s my husband’s favorite place.

[QueenP]

Well that's a no from me. I love the Drawing Room, it's a beautiful, quiet space where I can find books for the trip, play the piano and follow our trip on the big atlas. Looks like Onward won't be among my options.

[BBQ Lover]

18 minutes ago, QueenP said:

Well that's a no from me. I love the Drawing Room, it's a beautiful, quiet space where I can find books for the trip, play the piano and follow our trip on the big atlas. Looks like Onward won't be among my options.

I am going to have to eventually sail on Onward. I have never been on R-3, so, if I don't go on Onward, then I won't be able to collect all eight of the R-ships.

 

Darn you, Orlando Ashcroft. I have no evidence of his involvement, but I'm going to blame him anyways. Everybody on the Holland America forums have been blaming him for years. 😄😄

Edited March 22, 2022 by BBQ Lover

[uktog]

Dreadful move imho. All about revenue generation. I’m currently on a cruise with absolutely no upselling. It’s a breath of fresh air! 

[Baynanno1]

2 hours ago, excitedofharpenden said:

Of more interest than the concept is that they've ripped out the Drawing Room. Hmmm. 

 

Phil 

😥

[royallondon]

An unexpected twist!  Though perhaps with hindsight not surprising that the new owners are using “Onward” to try some new ideas.

We will hold judgement till our sailing in July.  In the meantime, it will be of interest to hear of people’s views who are on her earlier sailings.

Regards

[Host Jazzbeau]

34 minutes ago, BBQ Lover said:

I am going to have to eventually sail on Onward. I have never been on R-3, so, if I don't go on Onward, then I won't be able to collect all eight of the R-ships.😄

Come over to Noble Caledonia, with the Renaissance Roman Numeral ships VII and VIII.  No upselling there!

[Baynanno1]

Like the majority of commenters, having just received my email, I was curious when I read it and horrified 😖 when I checked the deck plans to find the lovely, quiet, restful Drawing Room / Library missing 😢 replaced by what I guess they hope will be a revenue raiser. It will be interesting to read the feedback on this thread after she starts cruising.

 

What a pity there was no discussion prior to implementation as there was with the proposed Asian Restaurant to replace the Sunset Bar / Verandah.

 

Onward will not be my ship of choice for future cruises.

[takemewithyou]

32 minutes ago, uktog said:

Dreadful move imho. All about revenue generation. I’m currently on a cruise with absolutely no upselling. It’s a breath of fresh air! 

Want to hear all about this no upselling cruise! 😉 

 

[Twiga]

I agree 100% with QueenP........removing the library is a horrible idea.  The Drawing Room is one of  our favorite places onboard.  I love the large selection of books, especially on cruises with many sea days!  I certainly hope that Azamara does NOT do this with the other ships.  I wonder why they didn't ask us for our opinions first.  I suppose the answer is "Revenue."

[takemewithyou]

I went back to watch the video that Elizabeth and Lee did back at the end of Jan of the tour of Onward on another social media site.

 

The one area that they never showed was the Drawing Room.  I assume that was on purpose.  My question is what did this room look like when Azamara acquired it?  Had it been changed by Princess or was it still the same as all the other Azamara ships?  

[NC&KY]

So where does one go to get the daily crossword, the daily sudoku? And where does one go to see a travel guide for the next port? Dreadful decision unless there are contingent plans for these questions. Purely because of itineraries, we've never been on any ship except Quest. We'll break that pattern in two weeks when we do a B2B on Pursuit. Then Quest again in a year. But if there's no answers for my questions, never on Onward.

[laurieb]

6 hours ago, KirkNC said:

Who would go there and why?

I will go there.  Looks like a beautiful space to have a cocktail and tapas.

[laurieb]

15 minutes ago, NC&KY said:

So where does one go to get the daily crossword, the daily sudoku? And where does one go to see a travel guide for the next port? Dreadful decision unless there are contingent plans for these questions. Purely because of itineraries, we've never been on any ship except Quest. We'll break that pattern in two weeks when we do a B2B on Pursuit. Then Quest again in a year. But if there's no answers for my questions, never on Onward.

Lots of travel guides on deck 5 near the future cruise office.

[curmudgeon98]

I'll see what I think in a couple of months when we are onboard, but this is a nasty surprise.  I really appreciate some "under-utilized space" on a cruise ship.  

 

  At least Oceania still has good libraries.  

[takemewithyou]

Maybe the drawing room had already been altered by Princess?

Does anyone know what the room looked like when Azamara acquired it?

 

I will miss the drawing room!  But I can see there will probably be a need for a bar to service the two specialty restaurants and it may be nice…..will have to see.

[Host Jazzbeau]

If Azamara took out the painted ceiling, they will lose face BIG TIME in my book.

 

This also implies that they don't intend to bring back the 'best of the best' dinner, which was held there pre-COVID.  Another downgrade.

[curmudgeon98]

I hope they will at least allocate some space (maybe in a corner of the Living Room) for a library.  My wife and I definitely prefer reading physical books, and while we generally bring a few paperbacks along (and leave them behind), I don't like to pack heavy when we are combining a couple of weeks of cruising with additional weeks on land.

 

I was on a big Princess ship recently; they had a room designated as the "Library", but it contained about a dozen novels and a few travel guides despite having shelf space for a thousand books or so. 

[uktog]

9 hours ago, takemewithyou said:

Want to hear all about this no upselling cruise! 😉 

 

I’m going to do a comparative review when I get back - it’s Viking - can’t do much onboard the WiFi is no better than Azamara (we’ve done approximately this itinerary on Azamara so it’s not a location issue) 

[Riocca]

3 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

If Azamara took out the painted ceiling, they will lose face BIG TIME in my book.

 

This also implies that they don't intend to bring back the 'best of the best' dinner, which was held there pre-COVID.  Another downgrade.

Viewing the video posted on Facebook the ceilings are in very poor condition probably due to age and lack of maintenance by Princess so there might not be an option of keeping it.

 

Another though, the Atlas Bar will I assume be an evening venue so the space will still be available during the day. The Den is successfully a dual purpose space day to evening this may well be the case with the Atlas Bar.