Onward (and, hopefully, upward) 21st - 28th May

[Noggins]

Agree with Curmudgeon about last night's event - labelled a Destination Celebration. We were at the first performance and after a slow start (when they lost a handful of people) it became very entertaining with an enthusiastic audience. It felt poorly attended but that may have been because too many chairs were out. Staff worked hard keeping us lubricated and fed with canapes. A single performance might have worked better (forgetting meal time challenges).

The second half of the evening was not quite so good. Because of the late departure we had decided it was a good time to eat on the rear terrace of Windows with the limited Greek themed menu. Location and menu were great / fine respectively but service was slow and haphazard and the food disappointing. However, a bottle of Chablis was conjured up for the white winers amongst us. 

All 6 then went to Atlas - partly to warm up from having got chilly outside. It was like an ice box in there and we soon lost half the group. Again we were the last to leave - although it was actually an early night.

Non delivery of water bottles to the room then took me to Spirits where a good crowd were found to be looking set for a late one. We need to give this venue a go!

I also agree that we would struggle to find anything negative worth mentioning on the mid cruise report. (mid cruise? how did that happen?!)

As for breakfast - yesterday's plans went wrong when we found ourselves at Discoveries just as it closed 🙄. Another go this morning.

We're in Cephalonia today, if you were wondering. A first time for us - as was Corfu yesterday. We are not really making the best of the port opportunities but we are achieving short exploration forays. That's the plan for today.

A

 

 

[travelberlin]

On 5/23/2022 at 8:23 PM, Keith1010 said:

Adrian, I am just arriving to the party a little late but I am catching up quickly.  Enjoy every minute and many thanks for taking the time to post.  

 

Keith

Hi Keith I am glad to see you and some other friends from Crystal around. I am in the Azamara Pursuit right now, also doing a life thread. It would be lovely to see you and Anne Marie again on board a ship one day.

 

Ivi

[Keith1010]

37 minutes ago, travelberlin said:

Hi Keith I am glad to see you and some other friends from Crystal around. I am in the Azamara Pursuit right now, also doing a life thread. It would be lovely to see you and Anne Marie again on board a ship one day.

 

Ivi

Thank you Ivi.  I so hope we sail with you both again.  I will check out your live thread in a moment.  

 

Keith

[Noggins]

A picture speaks a thousand words.....

 

(CC playing up - didn't mean to emphasize the point that much...🤦)

 

 

 

[mjwaruba]

Dear Curmudgeon 

 

Remember postive feed back goes a long way on encouraging happy employees.  Makes any not so positive observations easier to handle and more receptive to correct.  Hope your breakfast was wonderful.  Thank you for all your helpful hints.

[travelberlin]

5 hours ago, Noggins said:

A picture speaks a thousand words.....

 

(CC playing up - didn't mean to emphasize the point that much...🤦)

 

 

 My favorite champagne 🍾 

Ivi

[Beamafar]

16 minutes ago, travelberlin said:

 My favorite champagne 🍾 

Ivi

We had it served with sliced peppers and fruit in ice in the Champagne Bar on Seashore last October. 😋

 

[Stickman1990]

1 hour ago, Noggins said:

A picture speaks a thousand words.....

 

(CC playing up - didn't mean to emphasize the point that much...🤦)

 

 

Well done!

Mission accomplished

[travelberlin]

1 hour ago, Stickman1990 said:

 

Well done!

Mission accomplished

Hi Terry good to see you here 👍😊

Ivi

[aliaschief]

Really appreciate you sharing your cruise experience. We are booked next January for twelve days in the Caribbean as a prelude to our 2024 World Cruise on Onward. 
 

 

[Noggins]

Apparently it was a first for Azamara in Argostoli too. A pleasant enough town - likely so many, longing for a return of tourists. They seem optimistic about the summer season and I hope they are right to be.

 

Breakfast in Discoveries did happen. It was very quiet in there and our waiter only had us to worry about (and in fairness, that's quite a lot of worry....). The extensive menu was excellent and, with the exception of bread, items lived up to description. (Bread generally has been a bit disappointing - some lines do fantastic bread)

 

We tried for a last minute specialty tonight - and had our first service slip / service recovery. Bottom line is we are going to Aqualina again at 9pm. I won't bother you with the saga - especially as the Head Waiter realised a mistake need correcting. (Whether there is any food left for us remains to be seen!) It's British night tonight in the dining rooms - and somehow the menu held little appeal....

 

Hoping to be off on an excursion tomorrow on mainland Greece. We need to burn a few calories instead of just burning shoulders and necks.

 

A

[italyforme]

12 hours ago, curmudgeon98 said:

 

We got a request for mid-cruise feedback delivered to the cabin, and I really would have a hard time making any criticism.  Breakfast on the balcony just arrived, so more later. 

Glad to hear you think it’s going so well.  Looks like the weather will continue nice next week.  We leave for the airport in the morning and arrive Athens around noon on Friday, joining the cruise on Saturday.  Hope to meet you on board!  (We might be the noisy group of six just in case you want to avoid us!) 🍾🍸🙃

[curmudgeon98]

Another gorgeous day, this time in Gythion, which is a cute little fishing village at the south of mainland Greece.  The available excursions looked like quite a bit of driving, so we enjoyed lazing around the town and stopping for drinks and lunch along the waterfront.  I thought we were the only ship in town (for weeks), but a big TUI ship (Mein Schiff 5?) has been hanging out here today, though I haven't seen them tendering. 

 

The onboard sprucing up continues; we got a new sofa yesterday which replaced the old sofabed apparently left over from Princess days.  It's more comfortable, though a little narrower.  

 

Only downside is that internet connectivity has really gone into the tank; almost unusable.  I'm not sure if this post will make it through.

 

[Noggins]

Curmudgeon is right, it is a lovely day and it is a pretty town to wander in 

We did get 6 of the last 9 spaces on one of the two excursions offered. Nevertheless the coach was only about half full. It wasn't a particularly memorable excursion but we were pleased to see something of the countryside and some Byzantine ruins. $135 seemed about typical for a 4 hour trip. Definitely not a bargain but as most people use OBC it is, perhaps, not surprising pricing is set high.

 

We too noticed the TUI ship hiding round the corner. It departed around 2.30 suggesting it either came by mistake or we beat them to the only mooring spot.

 

Aqualina did have food left for us - and a very nice table and good service. 

 

We seem to be having some difficulty obtaining Ultimate drinks. Have our cards been marked .....? And not in a good way......

 

White night tonight.

 

A

[travelberlin]

Adrian have you seen how many bottles of champagne and wine have been consumed during my cruise? I will be looking forward to see how many will be in your cruise 😄

 

Ivi

[Beamafar]

53 minutes ago, Noggins said:

We seem to be having some difficulty obtaining Ultimate drinks. Have our cards been marked .....? And not in a good way......

 

Could you elaborate on this, please?  In what way are you having difficulty getting Ultimate drinks?   We’re planning on upgrading on our first Azamara cruise and this is sounding rather disconcerting. 
 

TIA

[Noggins]

54 minutes ago, travelberlin said:

Adrian have you seen how many bottles of champagne and wine have been consumed during my cruise? I will be looking forward to see how many will be in your cruise 😄

 

Ivi

Was that a gauntlet I just saw on the floor?!👀

[Noggins]

45 minutes ago, Beamafar said:

Could you elaborate on this, please?  In what way are you having difficulty getting Ultimate drinks?   We’re planning on upgrading on our first Azamara cruise and this is sounding rather disconcerting. 
 

TIA

Overall it's worked fine - that's the first thing to say.

But it's hard on the staff - especially at busy service times - for them to keep track of two / three systems. Despite room cards being marked differently it is still necessary to give room numbers - sometimes three times. As there is no list we have kept track of what we've had before and ask for what we think we'd like. Unfortunately each bar / restaurant is not stocked similarly meaning a hunt has to be launched. Not always successfully. Throats can become really quite parched....

I suspect some fine tuning will occur in the weeks to come and the occasional glitches will reduce.

We have tried several of the standard wines and they are perfectly fine quaffing wines. The better, extra cost wines, are definitely an improvement but still not in 'fine wine' territory. In my experience even the priciest luxury lines do not pour anything significantly better than Azamara's 'Ultimate' wines - but everyone will have their own view on such a contentious subject.

A

[Beamafar]

Thank you so much for that!   Much appreciated. You’ve explained the situation so well and I can now understand the situations that may arise for us.  

[Juno1956]

59 minutes ago, Noggins said:

Overall it's worked fine - that's the first thing to say.

But it's hard on the staff - especially at busy service times - for them to keep track of two / three systems. Despite room cards being marked differently it is still necessary to give room numbers - sometimes three times. As there is no list we have kept track of what we've had before and ask for what we think we'd like. Unfortunately each bar / restaurant is not stocked similarly meaning a hunt has to be launched. Not always successfully. Throats can become really quite parched....

I suspect some fine tuning will occur in the weeks to come and the occasional glitches will reduce.

We have tried several of the standard wines and they are perfectly fine quaffing wines. The better, extra cost wines, are definitely an improvement but still not in 'fine wine' territory. In my experience even the priciest luxury lines do not pour anything significantly better than Azamara's 'Ultimate' wines - but everyone will have their own view on such a contentious subject.

A

Has all the Chablis gone?!😱😱😱

[Noggins]

25 minutes ago, Juno1956 said:

Has all the Chablis gone?!😱😱😱

We asked for it.

And were served this.

Which is actually very nice. 

(We'll persevere on the Chablis front....)

 

Oh dear, that didn't go so well..🙄

 

 

[Stickman1990]

On 5/26/2022 at 12:46 AM, travelberlin said:

Hi Terry good to see you here 👍😊

Ivi

With two Crystal friends blogging on their experiences on Azamara I couldn’t resist following along 

These days we have to approach cruising with a very open mind as we try and find a new home 

[Noggins]

White Night (deck BBQ / party) was done very well indeed. You felt everyone through everything into it. And for the first time the ship felt busy with more people than we've seen anywhere - and lots of people we've never seen before.

Was there lobster? Yes, seemingly unlimited quantities (although seeing one or two plates loaded with 6 tails or more doesn't feel great to me). 

Was there Chablis? Well no - but the wait staff were rushed off their feet and we had no intention of giving them extra hassle. We're we left thirsty? Erm, no.

We also had quite a long chat with the Captain. More on that later 

Last day today - we've just arrived in Santorini. A 'strenuous' excursion for us....

 

A

 

 

 

 

 

[Ithikan]

8 hours ago, Noggins said:

White Night (deck BBQ / party) was done very well indeed. You felt everyone through everything into it. And for the first time the ship felt busy with more people than we've seen anywhere - and lots of people we've never seen before.

Was there lobster? Yes, seemingly unlimited quantities (although seeing one or two plates loaded with 6 tails or more doesn't feel great to me). 

Was there Chablis? Well no - but the wait staff were rushed off their feet and we had no intention of giving them extra hassle. We're we left thirsty? Erm, no.

We also had quite a long chat with the Captain. More on that later 

Last day today - we've just arrived in Santorini. A 'strenuous' excursion for us....

 

A

 

 

 

 

 

I am so enjoying your posts, Noggins!

And, good news about the White Night party, it does sound as though you enjoyed yourself.  We were at anchor in the Santorini caldera during our first Azamara White Night - under a full moon, no less.   It was especially wonderous and is now a very happy memory. 

[May B]

Adrian, very much looking forward to hearing about your chat with the captain.

 

I hope you and Steph and Colin, and She Who Is Not Named in these pages, will have an enjoyable finale to your cruise, and then a safe trip home.

 

And I sure hope the couple who never cruised before, and wanted to sail rather than to cruise, are enjoying, too.