Azamara Onward

[hamrag]

28 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Quite agree with you, except for the CD who was visible and chatty.

Absolutely, I probably quite wrongly don't include the CD as part of the senior officer team as their core role is interaction. Last night I sought Grace out to say we considered her a 'breath of fresh air', and that the production shows were the best experienced on Azamara. She has a truly beautiful personality, gracious and modest.

Edited October 7 by hamrag

[LuAnn]

2 hours ago, hamrag said:

Absolutely, I probably quite wrongly don't include the CD as part of the senior officer team as their core role is interaction. Last night I sought Grace out to say we considered her a 'breath of fresh air', and that the production shows were the best experienced on Azamara. She has a truly beautiful personality, gracious and modest.

Do you know if Grace will still be on board in the Carib in late November? Thanks!!

[lisiamc]

On 9/17/2024 at 5:17 PM, excitedofharpenden said:

Frankly that's a really bad admission and not Azamara at all. Quite surprised he'd say that. 

 

Phil 

We were recently on Onward for three cruises, and Captain G was everywhere, every day. He might say he is shy, but he was very sociable, and spoke to us pretty much every morning, and most afternoons as well.

[manc]

My comment was how different we felt Onward was from the previous 16 or more cruises on Azamara. It was the whole team of officers who failed to engage with the passengers. We were on Deck 8 and even as they left the bridge and met you on the corridor they barely said "Hello". There was no interaction with them. The crew are FABULOUS but the officers behaviour was so different from our previous cruises. 

[uktog]

3 hours ago, hamrag said:

Absolutely, I probably quite wrongly don't include the CD as part of the senior officer team as their core role is interaction. Last night I sought Grace out to say we considered her a 'breath of fresh air', and that the production shows were the best experienced on Azamara. She has a truly beautiful personality, gracious and modest.

She’s such a bundle of energy and so lovely and unassuming. 

[hamrag]

54 minutes ago, lisiamc said:

We were recently on Onward for three cruises, and Captain G was everywhere, every day. He might say he is shy, but he was very sociable, and spoke to us pretty much every morning, and most afternoons as well.

He disappeared half way through the most recent 7 night cruise, for reasons unknown to us. His replacement, Jonas or Johan, was equally non interacting!

[hamrag]

1 hour ago, LuAnn said:

Do you know if Grace will still be on board in the Carib in late November? Thanks!!

No idea!

[dandee2]

On 10/7/2024 at 4:42 PM, hamrag said:

No idea!

She's not. She has a FB page and we could see what was going on on the Onward all the month of August and Novembre. Classy lady.

[Scots Caz]

9 minutes ago, dandee2 said:

She's not. She has a FB page and we could see what was going on on the Onward all the month of August and Novembre. Classy lady.

are you maybe thinking of Tanya Roberts rather than Grace?

Tanya got off end September/beginning October when Grace took over

[dandee2]

3 hours ago, Scots Caz said:

are you maybe thinking of Tanya Roberts rather than Grace?

Tanya got off end September/beginning October when Grace took over

You are absolutely right. It's Tanya . Me bad !!!

[SkystheLimit]

I think that Azamara cruisers of the past have been a bit spoiled by the truly interactive position of the ship's officers.  Not sure what the new Azamara protocol is for the officers.   We have sailed recently on Regent, Crystal,Celebrity, and Oceania.  Officers were not visible except on special designated events or the "sushi" buffet at lunch!  Times have changed and I think that less exposure might be deliberate.

 

[Grandma Cruising]

3 hours ago, SkystheLimit said:

I think that Azamara cruisers of the past have been a bit spoiled by the truly interactive position of the ship's officers.  Not sure what the new Azamara protocol is for the officers.   We have sailed recently on Regent, Crystal,Celebrity, and Oceania.  Officers were not visible except on special designated events or the "sushi" buffet at lunch!  Times have changed and I think that less exposure might be deliberate.

 

If so that’s a shame as it was one of the things that made Azamara so special!

[uktog]

5 hours ago, SkystheLimit said:

I think that Azamara cruisers of the past have been a bit spoiled by the truly interactive position of the ship's officers.  Not sure what the new Azamara protocol is for the officers.   We have sailed recently on Regent, Crystal,Celebrity, and Oceania.  Officers were not visible except on special designated events or the "sushi" buffet at lunch!  Times have changed and I think that less exposure might be deliberate.

 

And managing guest expectations may be desirable. 
Maybe also thinking about which officer. A visible hotel Director doing their own assessment of current service levels and taking feedback is far more important than a visible captain. 
And for the Captain so much can be achieved by their “on air” interactions at noon, on departure etc. My recent Explora cruise only had two captain announcements in 14 days. There is no reason why that should be as low. 
 

[Riocca]

Senior Officers can’t be everywhere on a cruise last year another passenger remarked that the Hotel Director wasn’t very visible, we were surprised because we had spoken to them at least 3 times every day. This was in locations with heavy passenger traffic like Windows and Mosaic Cafes not just formal line ups. 

[lisiamc]

5 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

If so that’s a shame as it was one of the things that made Azamara so special!

We only disembarked Onward on 3rd September, so our experience is pretty recent. In addition to the Captain, we also saw a lot of the Cruise Director, the Loyalty Ambassador (is that the correct title these days?) and the F&B Manager, who must have had a clone for the Destination Immersion deck events. He was upstairs, downstairs, dancing with the guests, with the crew, carrying plates, filling glasses and chatting to guests. We joked that there must be at least three of him, since he was everywhere simultaneously, making sure everything was running smoothly.
 

We were also surprised and pleased that the Captain remembered us from a cruise last year, and remembered that we speak reasonable Italian. 
 

The person we saw surprisingly little of was the Staff Captain. 

[uktog]

4 minutes ago, lisiamc said:

We only disembarked Onward on 3rd September, so our experience is pretty recent. In addition to the Captain, we also saw a lot of the Cruise Director, the Loyalty Ambassador (is that the correct title these days?) and the F&B Manager, who must have had a clone for the Destination Immersion deck events. He was upstairs, downstairs, dancing with the guests, with the crew, carrying plates, filling glasses and chatting to guests. We joked that there must be at least three of him, since he was everywhere simultaneously, making sure everything was running smoothly.
 

We were also surprised and pleased that the Captain remembered us from a cruise last year, and remembered that we speak reasonable Italian. 
 

The person we saw surprisingly little of was the Staff Captain. 

The Staff Captain is the one doing virtually all the driving and navigation planning. I’m not surprised you saw little of them. If you’ve a visible captain you shouldn’t have a highly visible staff captain! 

[lisiamc]

9 hours ago, uktog said:

The Staff Captain is the one doing virtually all the driving and navigation planning. I’m not surprised you saw little of them. If you’ve a visible captain you shouldn’t have a highly visible staff captain! 

A very good point! 🙂

[Tbird Gal]

We are doing our first Azamara cruise in a few weeks on the Onward.   Have cruised many other lines.   Trying to get a feel for the nighttime entertainment.    Is there entertainment each night, is it only one show, and about what time?    We plan to book the specialty dining but don't want to miss any shows.    Appreciate any info:)

[hamrag]

41 minutes ago, Tbird Gal said:

We are doing our first Azamara cruise in a few weeks on the Onward.   Have cruised many other lines.   Trying to get a feel for the nighttime entertainment.    Is there entertainment each night, is it only one show, and about what time?    We plan to book the specialty dining but don't want to miss any shows.    Appreciate any info:)

We returned from 11 nights Onward a few days ago. Az is not renowned for it's entertainment, but this was the best we've had on Az so far...and the production shows were excellent. Similar to you, we've sailed many other lines so we know how good some of the others are in entertainment terms.

 

Generally there is only one show, at 9.15pm although a couple of times there was a show at 8,15 and repeated 9.30. White Night there is no show as such, but a dancing/disco on pool deck if it's a warm weather cruise. Azamazing evening, if on board will be 6,30 and repeated 8.30....if it's onshore, cannot help with general timeline for that.

 

Specialty dining is superb, MDR is very average. Note that on White Night there will be only one specialty open, usually Prime C. Specialty dining times are either 6.30 or 8,30 and they'll tell you these are 'fixed times'....they are not, there is definitely flexibility no matter which one you choose! 

😉

Edited Saturday at 07:50 PM by hamrag

[marinaro44]

MDR was excellent on Onward August 11 through September 3.

[Tbird Gal]

1 hour ago, hamrag said:

We returned from 11 nights Onward a few days ago. Az is not renowned for it's entertainment, but this was the best we've had on Az so far...and the production shows were excellent. Similar to you, we've sailed many other lines so we know how good some of the others are in entertainment terms.

 

Generally there is only one show, at 9.15pm although a couple of times there was a show at 8,15 and repeated 9.30. White Night there is no show as such, but a dancing/disco on pool deck if it's a warm weather cruise. Azamazing evening, if on board will be 6,30 and repeated 8.30....if it's onshore, cannot help with general timeline for that.

 

Specialty dining is superb, MDR is very average. Note that on White Night there will be only one specialty open, usually Prime C. Specialty dining times are either 6.30 or 8,30 and they'll tell you these are 'fixed times'....they are not, there is definitely flexibility no matter which one you choose! 

😉

Thanks for this great info!   Our Azamazing Evening is on shore, so we are planning the MDR for then.  We have several days of long excursions and very helpful to know these times and then decide on which dining venue.  Wasn't expecting much for the entertainment so it's good to hear it might exceed my expectations!    BTW, Edinburgh is one of my "must return to" cities!   Had one day on a cruise and want to go back for longer.

[hamrag]

7 minutes ago, Tbird Gal said:

Thanks for this great info!   Our Azamazing Evening is on shore, so we are planning the MDR for then.  We have several days of long excursions and very helpful to know these times and then decide on which dining venue.  Wasn't expecting much for the entertainment so it's good to hear it might exceed my expectations!    BTW, Edinburgh is one of my "must return to" cities!   Had one day on a cruise and want to go back for longer.

The best package deals for specialty dining are 3 night $120pp and 4 nights $150pp. For one night it's $50pp. 

[Toronto Guy]

1 hour ago, marinaro44 said:

MDR was excellent on Onward August 11 through September 3.

We were on board from Sept 13 to 30th and had the opposite experience.  It was really inconsistent for us.  Some nights good, other nights really not good.  I was so disappointed with the Onward.  Third time on the ship and it will be the last.  We are actually completely done with Azamara after this cruise.  It was a major disappointment, and we felt all areas were greatly diminished compared to previous.  It's too bad.  They have too much competition to not keep their game up.

[alcpa1]

1. We disembarked the Onward Sept. 3rd.
2. In addition to White Nights and our Azamazing evening we had local entertainment brought onboard two nights with shows during dinner on the pool deck. These evenings are almost never announced pre-cruise. The biggest clue is either overnight stays or late departures. 
3.  

[Grandma Cruising]

7 hours ago, Toronto Guy said:

We were on board from Sept 13 to 30th and had the opposite experience.  It was really inconsistent for us.  Some nights good, other nights really not good.  I was so disappointed with the Onward.  Third time on the ship and it will be the last.  We are actually completely done with Azamara after this cruise.  It was a major disappointment, and we felt all areas were greatly diminished compared to previous.  It's too bad.  They have too much competition to not keep their game up.

We were on the same cruise as you and had the opposite experience. The vast majority of our meals were good to excellent, service was considerably better than we had on our last couple of cruises. The only disappointment was the total absence of the senior officers, with the exception of the Cruise Director, Grace, who was brilliant and very evident.