Azamara Onward, The Good and The Bad

[roberts2005]

Waiting to disembark and decided to start the this thread while the internet is working.  We were in a Club Continent, room 8002.

 

No noise from above, but the service door opposite was constantly slamming.  The cabin is well laid out with plenty of storage.  AC and heat worked fine.

 

Cabin staff and butler were fine.   We enjoyed the Azamazing evening.  Not so much the White Night, which was more of a normal night indoors.

 

 

[blag]

1 hour ago, roberts2005 said:

Waiting to disembark and decided to start the this thread while the internet is working.  We were in a Club Continent, room 8002.

 

No noise from above, but the service door opposite was constantly slamming.  The cabin is well laid out with plenty of storage.  AC and heat worked fine.

 

Cabin staff and butler were fine.   We enjoyed the Azamazing evening.  Not so much the White Night, which was more of a normal night indoors.

 

 

We were in a CC suite a few years back, and our neighbour encountered the same problem of noise from the service door. He complained, and staff were banned from using this door. It was taped shut!

[excitedofharpenden]

6 hours ago, roberts2005 said:

Waiting to disembark and decided to start the this thread while the internet is working.  We were in a Club Continent, room 8002.

 

No noise from above, but the service door opposite was constantly slamming.  The cabin is well laid out with plenty of storage.  AC and heat worked fine.

 

Cabin staff and butler were fine.   We enjoyed the Azamazing evening.  Not so much the White Night, which was more of a normal night indoors.

 

 

There is a cabin sticky at the top of this board and it would be useful to add your comment on 8002 there. Here is a link. 

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/1739068-azamara-cabins-thread/page/37/#comment-63124378

 

Phil 

[mj_holiday]

Anxious to hear more of your review.  And will you have pictures?

 

 

[lisiamc]

We just disembarked Onward today, reluctantly. Was it perfect? No, but we enjoyed it very much.
 

The Good, in very random order:

 

This morning when we were checking the cupboards and drawers for a final time, we saw that the hairdryer had arrived last night.  The balcony chairs arrived a few days in.  They have very quick drying cushions and are actually pretty comfortable.  
 

The Azamazing Evening in Civitavecchia was excellent.  I really enjoyed it, and I’m not an opera fan.

 

The Atlas Bar was a great place to sit for an after dinner drink or two.  Comfortable and welcoming. They had Schweppes Slimline tonic.  I didn’t think to ask about Fevertree, since I don’t like it. There were many cans of horrid Royal Club mixers, and I suspect that someone on Journey saw their opportunity to offload them onto Onward.  In the dining room there were also some quite elderly white wines left over from pre-Covid days, and I’d bet they came from the same source.

 

They had loads of Whispering Angel Rose, my favourite. I’m too much of a tightwad to buy it at home, so I enjoyed it at every opportunity. I thought the Australian Cabernet Sauvignon was on the lighter side, but very drinkable.  

 

The new bedding and towels were very nice, as expected.

 

The food has always been good, in my opinion, but has taken a turn for the better.  There were some deliciously spicy dishes that I really enjoyed. 
 

There was a free shuttle laid on in Ravenna, since it’s some distance from the pier.  
 

The Less Good

 

Some things on the ship have suffered from being unused for two years. I had to have my key card changed several times, and noticed others coming to the desk with the same problem.  Eventually the battery in the lock was changed and that sorted the problem for the rest of the cruise.

 

The free shuttle in Ravenna was not mentioned (not where I knew about it anyway) until the day we docked.  This caused some confusion about whether there would be one or not.  Because of all the changes to Covid rules, perhaps it was uncertain until the last minute. There was a very strict mask rule on the shuttle.

 

I found many of the excursions expensive, and not all of them were good value, from what I heard. This also may be a holdover from old Covid rules about going ashore in Italy in a bubble.

 

The internet had severe problems, and failed altogether at one point, but was fixed as soon as they could do it.

The two things I really had a problem with:

 

The attitude of some of our fellow passengers.  There was A LOT of complaining going on. I had more than one crew member tell me that a passenger had made her cry.  Apparently passengers were also being horrible to each other sometimes.  
 

I think it’s naive to go on a maiden voyage and not realise that one of the reasons you’re there is help with the shakedown.  How can things be improved if problems are not found and reported by the people who are using the cabins and facilities? If your shower only goes wrong after you’ve been in it for 10 minutes, how is a quick once over before the passengers board going to find that? But problems can certainly be reported in a kind fashion.  Abuse is not necessary. Many of the problems (late arrival of balcony chairs and hairdryers) were caused by supply chain problems, and not possible to sort out immediately. I would expect anyone booking a maiden voyage to consider that things can and will go wrong.  It’s like snagging a newly built house. It takes a while to find everything.

Even experienced passengers can have short memories.  I heard someone saying that Journey never had these problems on her maiden voyage.  She certainly had her share.  We were on her third cruise in 2007, and there was no soap or shower gel in the non-suite cabins.  The deck chairs were disintegrating old relics from the Pullmantur days.  The previous passengers had smoked everywhere onboard for years, with great dedication, and EVERYTHING reeked of stale smoke.  It took quite a long time and a lot of cleaning to change that.

The Hotel Director is the most unsatisfactory one I have sailed with on any cruise on any line.  She never once spoke to me or nodded or smiled when I said Hello or Good Morning, never looked me in the eye, never once acknowledged me as a fellow human being in any fashion. That was from the very first day, before she started fielding a lot of complaints. I had something I needed to ask her (not a complaint, either) and requested a meeting.  Either she refused it, or the front desk staff refused it on her behalf.  I believe she actually spoke to some people since they had a high opinion of her. I do not share that opinion.

 

Edited May 13, 2022 by lisiamc

[laurieb]

Thank you for your review!  

[blag]

1 hour ago, excitedofharpenden said:

There is a cabin sticky at the top of this board and it would be useful to add your comment on 8002 there. Here is a link. 

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/1739068-azamara-cabins-thread/page/37/#comment-63124378

 

Phil 

If you do add this to the cabin info, please report my experience (i.e. complaint produced a solution)

[royallondon]

“The attitude of some of our fellow passengers.  There was A LOT of complaining going on. I had more than one crew member tell me that a passenger had made her cry.  Apparently passengerswere also being horrible to each other sometimes”

 

That’s very sad to hear.  I find watching the evening news a very grounding experience these days.

 

Thank you “lisiamc” for taking time to share your experiences.

 

Regards

[Xcelsior]

Here is a video tour of Cabin 6000 that I just saw on Youtube.  Not a happy camper.  

 

[Melissaghoti]

This is not typical of Azamara, (though the bedside tables are intentional unmatched).  I hope you’ve spoken to Hotel Director Elisabeth Vogel. Azamara works hard to make things right, so please give them the opportunity.

   Melissa

[Riocca]

Quite surprised at that it’s obvious that cabin 6000 was only partially refurbished, we were in a CC suite and thought the standard of the new fittings was better than the other ships. Bathroom layout was different and I think better the materials used were also an improvement. The vanity unit had more drawers which was a vast improvement they also felt a better quality. 
Only snags we had was that the headboard had a snag in the material and a missing light lens both were apparently already known and on the list to be fixed.

Bathroom:

 

Vanity unit:

 

 

Balcony table & chairs:

 

 

Chair:

 

 

This was cabin 8040.

 

Edited May 14, 2022 by Riocca

[Noggins]

5 hours ago, Xcelsior said:

Here is a video tour of Cabin 6000 that I just saw on Youtube.  Not a happy camper.  

 

Of course, first impressions are important and if you have just arrived in your holiday accommodation you want expectations to be met. But what expectations are reasonable? Could Azamara have rebuilt every inch of the inside of Onward? I'm not expecting 'new' everywhere when we board next week. 'Not clean' is obviously not acceptable but bumps, dings and marks will not spoil my holiday. (I always feel that we owe it to future passengers to take as much care in our rooms as we would with our own homes.) I do hope this lady will find more to please her than disappoint her as her holiday progresses.

Adrian

[oddjob16]

6 hours ago, Xcelsior said:

Here is a video tour of Cabin 6000 that I just saw on Youtube.  Not a happy camper.  

 

Ship is not full. Demand a new stateroom. 

[excitedofharpenden]

6 hours ago, Xcelsior said:

Here is a video tour of Cabin 6000 that I just saw on Youtube.  Not a happy camper.  

 

Draw your own conclusions.  I know I have.  It all comes down to attitude. You do wonder what that is of the poster of the video who goes onto YouTube to tell people not to bother going on the ship.  Better off taking that time to deal with it onboard by talking to management. I will say that is a disappointing job done by the shipyard though. Hopefully by people constructively and maturely feeding this back it can be addressed,

 

Phil

[LaCroisiereS'amuse]

1 hour ago, excitedofharpenden said:

Draw your own conclusions.  I know I have.  It all comes down to attitude. You do wonder what that is of the poster of the video who goes onto YouTube to tell people not to bother going on the ship.  Better off taking that time to deal with it onboard by talking to management. I will say that is a disappointing job done by the shipyard though. Hopefully by people constructively and maturely feeding this back it can be addressed,

 

Phil

 

Also, if you view this on YouTube you'll see that the poster has disabled comments, so maybe they realise that they haven't approached this the right way??  Thumbs down on YouTube from me.....

Edited May 14, 2022 by LaCroisiereS'amuse

[excitedofharpenden]

26 minutes ago, LaCroisiereS'amuse said:

 

Also, if you view this on YouTube you'll see that the poster has disabled comments, so maybe they realise that they haven't approached this the right way??  Thumbs down on YouTube from me.....

I saw that too as I was interested to see the commentary. Piece of salt I think. You'll get glowing reviews and things like this. The truth lies somewhere in the middle and will vary from person to person. 

 

Phil

[excitedofharpenden]

3 hours ago, Noggins said:

Of course, first impressions are important and if you have just arrived in your holiday accommodation you want expectations to be met. But what expectations are reasonable? Could Azamara have rebuilt every inch of the inside of Onward? I'm not expecting 'new' everywhere when we board next week. 'Not clean' is obviously not acceptable but bumps, dings and marks will not spoil my holiday. (I always feel that we owe it to future passengers to take as much care in our rooms as we would with our own homes.) I do hope this lady will find more to please her than disappoint her as her holiday progresses.

Adrian

I'll tell you a personal story about those cabinets. Not long after the first round of refurbishments by the shipyard in Northern Ireland I was on Journey and had an outside cabin. One of the laminates that was glued to the front of the cupboard fell off in the night. I didn't notice it on the floor because of the light colour, stepped on it and walked. It had stuck to the underside of my foot and as I picked it up the sharp corner cut the inside of my other leg.  Medical were excellent. The hotel team were excellent. I wanted them to be aware of it for others. Hopefully they asked am the cabin stewards to check the cabins for a similar fault. I dealt with it. Never happened to me again. 

 

Phil 

[Belfastman]

35 minutes ago, excitedofharpenden said:

I'll tell you a personal story about those cabinets. Not long after the first round of refurbishments by the shipyard in Northern Ireland I was on Journey and had an outside cabin. One of the laminates that was glued to the front of the cupboard fell off in the night. I didn't notice it on the floor because of the light colour, stepped on it and walked. It had stuck to the underside of my foot and as I picked it up the sharp corner cut the inside of my other leg.  Medical were excellent. The hotel team were excellent. I wanted them to be aware of it for others. Hopefully they asked am the cabin stewards to check the cabins for a similar fault. I dealt with it. Never happened to me again. 

 

Phil 

You mean Pursuit which was refurbished in Northern Ireland Journey was refurbished in Singapore.

[Xcelsior]

I do think Azamara cheaped out by keeping the headboards the same from the Pacific Princess.  They should have gone the whole way and matched them to the other ships because they look better in my opinion.   It's interesting thought that Azamara didn't just gut the rooms on all the ships during the refurb and start from scratch like Celebrity did on the Millennium and Summit - those cabins really do look brand new in comparison.  A few dings here and there wouldn't bother me either, but I think when you're paying the kind of prices that Azamara charges...your expectations should be higher as well.  That's only fair.

[lisiamc]

13 minutes ago, Xcelsior said:

I do think Azamara cheaped out by keeping the headboards the same from the Pacific Princess.  They should have gone the whole way and matched them to the other ships because they look better in my opinion.   It's interesting thought that Azamara didn't just gut the rooms on all the ships during the refurb and start from scratch like Celebrity did on the Millennium and Summit - those cabins really do look brand new in comparison.  A few dings here and there wouldn't bother me either, but I think when you're paying the kind of prices that Azamara charges...your expectations should be higher as well.  That's only fair.

Some items that were ordered for Onward had an 18 month lead time and STILL didn’t show up on time. The other choice might have been no headboard at all! I wouldn’t underestimate either the current logistical challenges from Covid or the ongoing effects of the Evergiven getting stuck in the Suez Canal. Time will tell what the final look will be, I guess.

[Plainsman]

10 hours ago, Riocca said:

Quite surprised at that it’s obvious that cabin 6000 was only partially refurbished, we were in a CC suite and thought the standard of the new fittings was better than the other ships. Bathroom layout was different and I think better the materials used were also an improvement. The vanity unit had more drawers which was a vast improvement they also felt a better quality. 
Only snags we had was that the headboard had a snag in the material and a missing light lens both were apparently already known and on the list to be fixed.

Bathroom:

 

Vanity unit:

 

 

Balcony table & chairs:

 

 

Chair:

 

 

This was cabin 8040.

 

What is the charge for the mini-bar in a CC Suite?

[blag]

4 minutes ago, Plainsman said:

What is the charge for the mini-bar in a CC Suite?

Zilch. Nada. Niente. Nothing. Zero. Nil. Nulla. £0.00. $0.00. €0,00.

AFAIK.

We always take CC suite and have never paid for stuff out of the minibar (other than, of course, the cost if the cruise). 

[Xcelsior]

3 hours ago, lisiamc said:

Some items that were ordered for Onward had an 18 month lead time and STILL didn’t show up on time. The other choice might have been no headboard at all! I wouldn’t underestimate either the current logistical challenges from Covid or the ongoing effects of the Evergiven getting stuck in the Suez Canal. Time will tell what the final look will be, I guess.

I actually wish if they had kept anything in the refurbs of all the ships' cabins it would have been the huge mirror on the wall opposite the bed. It really opened those small cabins up visually.  Even if they had put the flat screen over top of the mirror I think it would have been better.  

[roberts2005]

Am now in Venice waiting to go home, a long almost 3 hours from Ravenna to Venice,   Just watching a large cruise ship leave Marghera from the rooftop of the J W Marriott. It would have been nice to have docked there.

 

At around 4 AM on our last night a notice was put under my door that my wife’s account had a balance and she needed to settle her account before leaving.

 

I not only created accounts covered by my credit card online before boarding but again at checkin.   The billing by the front desk was horrible with many mistakes.   I went down at 5 AM to settle.

 

My wife was still stopped on the way out.

 

There appeared to be a lack of training for the people at the front desk. And this was with only 440 people on board.

 

I thought it an insult that the offered a $200 credit toward a future cruise for all the problems.

 

[roberts2005]

On 5/13/2022 at 2:12 PM, excitedofharpenden said:

There is a cabin sticky at the top of this board and it would be useful to add your comment on 8002 there. Here is a link. 

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/1739068-azamara-cabins-thread/page/37/#comment-63124378

 

Phil 

Done