cocktail parties and other ?

[adbnva]

we will be on the journey in dec for 15 days & wondered how may cocktail parties they have during 2 weeks. we are cc members. also people have mentioned somekind of martini thing. what is that? the way people talk about the price of drinks we need to get all the free ones we can. anything else you can tell us will be appreciated. this is our 1st ta. ad

[Viennese]

We had on the Transatlantic 2 Partys from CC, but there was no Invitation at all! Only one Glass of Sparkling Wine was offered by Azamara. Everything else goes on your account.

[howlpat]

We had three different parties on the Quest "Best of Italy" 14 day cruise (April 26).

 

One was just for Cruise Critic members. We signed up on the Azamara website before the cruise began. Azamara said they would hold the party if at least 25 (I think) people signed up. We had about 50. We received invitations in our cabins. It was held on the second day, which was a sea day. It was in The Drawing Room, which is the library. It was a lovely party, run by several members of the cruise staff and perhaps an officer. There were passed hors d'oerves as well as several rounds of drinks (mimosas, red & white wine, if I recall.) Definitely more than we expected (we were told soft drinks and snacks). We all introduced ourselves and gave our 'cruise critic' names and were able to connect with those we had met online. The staff really made us feel that we mattered to Azamara.

 

The second was the normal Captain's Cocktail party. It was also on the second day, which was our first sea day. Just prior to the showtime, they were giving out champagne as you walked into the show room. I think the Captain was only present at the second show, but they gave out champagne at both shows. They also passed around really good! chocolates. I think they came around a few times inside the showroom with more champagne, too.

 

The third cocktail party was for Captain's Club members. An invitation was also received in our stateroom when we arrived indicating when the event would be held. Again, wonderful hors d'oerves were passed, and this time there was quite a large selection of drinks to order (manhattans, tropical, champagne, wines, and more), with several rounds available. The orchestra played, several officers and cruise director spoke. They gave awards to those who have cruised most with Celebrity. It was a very nice event as well.

 

Azamara seemed to really want to honor the Cruise Critic people and the Captain's Club members. They are really trying to make the line the best it can be. They even asked us for a mid-cruise review, wanting our suggestions for improvements.

[adbnva]

thanks so much. i had read so much about the price of wine & drinks. is there a wine pkg available? i think we will have at least 25 cc members. the gym is not part of the spa, is it? we would use the gym. long time to wait for our cruise. ad

[howlpat]

There is no wine package, but you are able to buy bottles of wine for the dining room, and they will save them for you with your room number attached. You can

just have a glass or two each night at dinner and then use it again another night. They will find the bottle even if you are eating in a specialty dining room.

 

If you are a Captain's Club member (have sailed on one Celebrity or Azamara cruise in the past), you may receive a coupon booklet when you get on board. Ours had $5 off 2 bottles of wine (I think the bottles we got were about $25 or $30 each), so we bought 2 bottles at once and they saved them for us. Since we were both Captain's club members, we got two coupon booklets.

 

There was also a coupon for wine 'flights', but we didn't use that.

 

There was a coupon for a specialty (alcoholic) coffee in the specialty dining room, so we both used our coupons one night.

 

I know of many people who brought wine on board.

You are either entitled to 2 bottles per stateroom, or 2 per person (I think they are very lenient with this, so if you want to try 2 per person it would most likely work). I don't know when they drank them...maybe in their room, or brought them ashore. I don't think bringing them to the dining room would be advisable.

 

Supposedly you could not bring liquor onboard from ports, but I don't think they enforced that rule either. We brought limoncello and no one took it from us. We didn't consume it onboard, but we could have done so.

 

The gym is free. It is located in the spa area. There were classes at 8 am and 5pm each day (even port days), and machines were always available at all times. I didn't try it at all, since we were off at ports 12 out of 14 days and wanted to rest the other 2 days at sea! But my husband used the machines and thought they were great.

 

I'll be happy to answer any other questions you have. It was a great cruise! I'm working on my review right now.

[Lobbylin]

Howlpat,

 

How were people dressed for events like the Captains cocktail party in view of the Azamara casual dress code? ...just curious

 

Thanks:)

[Skeezics]

You can bring your own wine to the dining room - even to the specialty restaurants. There is a corkage fee, believe $15 or $20. We have done this many times on Celebrity.

[howlpat]

We had a 14 night cruise, only 2 of which were sea days. The 2nd night was our Captain's Cocktail Party and also happened to be our first sea day. That is traditionally the time for this type of party. Actually, I wouldn't even say it was much of a 'party', because the Captain only did his toast at the beginning of the second "showtime", but they handed out free champagne and chocolates about a half hour before the first and second show.

 

I would say that this is the only night during our cruise when most people tended to 'dress up'. You just "noticed" that most people were a bit dressed...if they had brought a sport jacket or a skirt, they wore it on that night. That doesn't mean to say that you would feel out of place if you didn't have a sport jacket or skirt, it just means that it was a more noticeable pattern with most of the people. I would say that if you did not desire to bring clothes of this type, collared shirts and long pants for the men, and nice pants for a woman would be fine as well on that night, as on any night.

 

I don't remember seeing any men in suits, and I definitely don't remember any tuxedos. I don't remember seeing any women in gowns, perhaps a few sparkley dresses or pants suits, but mostly just what one would consider 'country club casual'.

 

On other nights, if you had on a sports coat or a dress, people would assume you were going to a specialty restaurant. You could wear that or not, and it did not matter, but it would have been more the exception than the rule. The general dress on the other nights was a collared shirt for men and long pants, and pants with a nice top for women.

 

Hope that helps.

[Lobbylin]

Thanks Howlpat - very reassuring!:)

[Hlitner]

We skipped all the parties on our 18 day Journey cruise because we just did not feel like waiting in lines for a free drink of warm champagne. But, the other comment about wine brings up one of pet peeves about RCI, Celebrity and Azamara. The wine prices on all three lines are simply out of line with what we see on other mass market cruise lines (Princess, HA, etc). On the Journey it was difficult to keep the cost of a bottle of drinkable wine under $40 (this would include the 18% service charge). Three days after we left the Journey we started a 20 day Grand Princess cruise where we could easily buy a bottle of drinkable wine for about $30 (which included their 15% service charge). Wine mark-ups on Azamara and other RCI lines often exceeds 600% for the lower cost wines (lower cost meaning $35 - $45). I truly hope some RCI executives see my post, because there is some degree of price elasticity involved with wine sales. The line could sell significantly more wine if they lowered prices by 25% (their mark-ups would still be several hundred percent) and there would be a lot of "happy" passengers. We understand the need to maximize on-board revenue, but the trade-off is a reduction in sales and some unhappy wine drinkers who can run to HA or Princess for wine savings. The cruise lines have all done well in a great economy, but things have slowed down and it is again becoming a buyers market. RCIs new move to attract the European market is probably a great short-term policy, but if they lose a chunk of the USA market to competitors they might find that the lost loyalty among Americans will not serve them well in the long term.

 

Hank

[gosport11]

hi found the prices to be in line with british pub prices,so not cheap if you drink beer try the draft its good and a fair price,we dont drink a lot of wine so it really didnt worry us,bought 2 bottles a shore and con summed them in cabin,if your going to euro land the price of drinks can soon add up a shore we were on quest 10-24 may ,the cocktail parties were the norm one night in the resturant we had a local italian wine which was good for 22 +18% graham

[PoRo]

We are on the July 19th Quest cruise. What kind of gym classes are there, and is there a charge. Thanks, Jan

[marilyn35406]

We just got an email from Azamara confirming that there will be a CC social on the Journey cruise commencing June 6.