Azamara Club Cruises - Christmas in July Day 1

We have an incredible opportunity for you to present your family or significant other with a voyage of a lifetime. For 12 days only, when you book one of our Christmas voyages, you'll receive an exclusive gift! Starting July 16, you'll receive a $1200 Onboard Spending Credit. But don't take too long to decide. The earlier you book, the better because your onboard spending credit goes down $100 each day of this promotion. Christmas in South America Departing December 18, 2012 with Azamara Quest® Vietnam & Thailand, Christmas & New Year Departing December 23, 2012 with Azamara Journey® Up to $2,000 ChoiceAir Credit per couple Complimentary Stateroom Upgrade from Club Oceanview to Club Veranda Stateroom Up to 50% savings on brochure rates 50% savings on Land Discoveries® when booked online prior to voyage Gratuities included for housekeeping, dining and bar staff Inclusive onboard amenities including boutique wines with lunch and dinner, self-service laundry, and more! CruseOne EXCLUSIVE add on's Plus our $100 Shore Excursion Credit Plus $200 additional Onboard Credit

Azamara Club Cruises is a proud member of the Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. family of cruise lines.

Uber Cool Coca Cola Machines on Royal Caribbean

 Coca-Cola® and Royal Caribbean Introduce Freestyle Machines Onboard

Hi my name is Bob Midyette, and I am the Director of Fleet Beverage Operations for Royal Caribbean International and our wonderful luxury line, Azamara Club Cruises. Sometimes you are in the right place at the right time to witness evolution leap forward, skipping what should be its next logical iteration. Here is an example of that.

Three years ago, I was invited to visit Coca-Cola¿s corporate office to explore our future efforts together. My gracious hosts were escorting me to various behind the scenes and highly restricted areas, like the famous Coke boardroom (I did not sit in Warren Buffets chair, but I did think about it) and the time capsule-like persevered office of Robert Woodruff President from 1923-54, where all the items in his office, or on his desk, are exactly where he left them.

Up to this point it was a surreal experience and the tour continued to a few more unique areas. However the best was saved for last, and just after lunch I was escorted to the Coca-Cola Innovation Lab for the final series of meetings. This hidden and tightly secured laboratory is a combination of the design lab at Apple and Willy Wonka¿s chocolate factory, (minus the peculiarities of the movie host). I found myself immersed in a world of futuristic flavors, packaging, machines, and technology. I worked very hard to keep my hands in my pockets and not lick the wallpaper, ever mindful of those naughty children from the movies. Eventually I was lead into a separate, purposely non-descript room, further sequestered from all of the other innovations. This was where I saw it, and for the remaining day and a half of my meetings with Coca-Cola, pretty much all I could think of. What was it that captured my attention so completely? It was not the fizzy lifting drinks, although cool, they are still not quite perfected.

It was a machine, designed by Ferrari, with the interface of an iPad (remember this was before the iPad even existed) and 125 flavors of various Coke products, all in a footprint smaller than the standard vending machine.
It was beyond sexy, it was über cool.

Using medical micro dosing technology, flavor cartridges just slightly larger than those of the standard ink jet printer opened a world of flavors never available before (Orange Coke, anyone? or Peach Fanta Zero?). It was like going from an IBM series 700 mainframe to an iPhone 4, skipping everything in-between. After a series of conversations, Coca-Cola agreed to work with us on being the first cruise line to deploy the Freestyle machine.

From that point forward, Coca-Cola and Royal Caribbean began the effort to integrate the changes needed for the machines to work onboard our ships, which included a few health code modifications for a marine environment as well as the addition of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) to use with our souvenir soda cups. The RFID cups allow guests to serve themselves for the period of their voyage and automatically expire after their voyage.

I am pleased to finally say that in early June, our multi-year efforts came to fruition. We completed the first installation of Coca-Cola Freestyle on Majesty of the Seas, with several other ships (all U.S. based) scheduled this year. We expect the deployment to continue well into 2013. As far as the Coca-Cola Innovation Lab, I have not been invited back since my initial visit, but if I do, I hope to find something else astounding to bring to the Fleet¿and I¿m not ruling out the fizzy lifting drinks either, by then they just might have it perfected.
 

What is Changing in the Cruise Industry Right now and where should you look to sail in 2012 ??

If you watch the trends you can get some amazing deals.  Cruising can be a bit like playing the stock market.  Will the fares go up?  Go down?  If I buy now do I have price protection if they do drop, etc, etc.

Basically everything that has to do with what a cabin on a ship will cost you at any given moment all comes down to capacity and how well they are doing at selling the cabins on that particular ship.  So of course that has to do with how many berths are in a certain area of the world competing for your business.

And for those of you who thing that the Cruise Lines are hurting or are sailing with empty berths are wrong.  Ships do now sail less that full capacity, at least not very often.  They will do everything they can to make certain that all the spaces that can hold bodies, do......  What guests spend onboard is more important in some instances that what you spend on your cabin.

It stands to reason that the more luxury type, truly all inclusive product seems pricey up front but you generally can easily walk off the ship with no bill as you paid for everything up front.

Have you ever noticed that the $399 cruise deal that you got wasn't such a great deal when you were faced with charges for everything you wanted to do on the ship and your bank account was suddenly less than it was when you walked on the ship?

Here at Real World Travel and Cruise One we dedicate ourselves to following the trends and knowing what is going on in the world with ship movement and where the deals are likely to strike.  Where it is best to travel right now, money wise, weather wise, crowd wise, etc.

Here is an article I found that is talking about the future and what you can expect and right now if you can get away to Europe, I highly recommend you do so before the end of the season and even next year.  There will still be plenty of ships over there.  Alaska is a great deal right now for the end of the summer. 

Especially the more up market lines are offering lots of incentives unheard of.  And if you are planning a big trip for 2012 or 2013 Australia is a great place to be looking.  I am looking at it myself.  Either there or Asia for 2012.  And of course I would love to have you join me.  I will announce that soon.  This is good reading....

Nancy

Next Generation Cruise Ships Might Not Be the Best

By Paul Motter

Published June 24, 2011 | FOXBusiness

A fundamental change is happening in the cruise industry right now that could affect cruise travelers. 

The major lines are still building new ships, but the long-standing belief that the newest ships are always the best might no longer be true. The next wave of cruise ships set to arrive in 2012 and 2013 will be optimized for the new economic reality.

Many of us thought the economy was fundamentally sound until late 2008 and the cruise industry was no different, believing any setback would be short term. Clearly they were all wrong.

The cruise industry is more pliable than many travel businesses, but cruise lines still have to plan several years in advance to design and build new ships. Between 2000 and 2006, several cruise lines designed and hired shipyards to construct the biggest, most elaborate ships ever including the Celebrity Solstice, Marina by Oceania, Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas, Holland America's Eurodam, Silversea’s Silver Spirit, Seabourn Odyssey and Disney Dream. This new generation was capped by the two largest and most impressive cruise ships ever, sister ships Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas from Royal Caribbean.

These new ships were not only much larger than previous ones, but the added room was generously allocated to provide more space per passenger - rather than crowding more people into each vessel. These ships were designed to attract a constantly-growing and financially-stable cruise audience--a group the cruise lines assumed they had.

Ironically, the most ambitious ships of this generation were placed on order around 2005, but the building process takes years, and the first of the new breed was delivered in late 2008--just after the economy tanked.

Even more critical, some lines ordered multiple ships of the same design; the shipyard's bid is based on a commitment to build between two and five of each vessel. For example, the original Celebrity Solstice order was for three identical ships, with an option for two more. The deadline to exercise the option for the final two ships came when the recession was still thought to be just a blip. The option to build the fourth and fifth ships was taken, bringing even more high-quality tonnage online at a time when the economy continued to slip.

Here is the big picture: We have just witnessed the introduction of dozens of new ships that are frankly too good for the current economy. They should command higher cruise fares than they are getting, but cruise lines can only set prices that the market will bear. The people who are fortunate enough to afford to cruise right now are finding bargains everywhere.

Changes in Future Ships

The wave of ships just introduced is the greatest generation, because they were conceived during the optimistic pre-2008 economy. But don't expect to see grand ships like these hitting the waters in the coming years. 

A new generation of ships based on the “new reality” is already on order from NCL, Princess and Royal Caribbean. As you might expect, these new ships will carry far more passengers per square foot in order to optimize fuel efficiency and return on investment per passenger.

Consider the Celebrity Solstice, designed in 2005 as a 128,000-ton ship (at the large end of the scale for cruise ships) that carries a mere 2,850 passenger berths. (Cruise ship "tonnage," by the way, is a measure of a vessel's interior space, not its weight.) This ship was delivered in November 2008. Compare this to the new ships ordered for delivery in 2012 and beyond.

But things have changed. NCL has two ships on order, “Project Breakaway” vessels slated for delivery in 2012 and 2013. These ships will have 4,000 passenger berths within 144,000 tons. This is about 30% more passenger capacity for a ship that is only about 11% larger. A far cry from Celebrity Solstice's space offering. In fact, when you consider third and fourth passengers in cabins, the total capacity for Project Breakaway ships could be far higher than 4,000.

The new Royal Caribbean order, “Project Sunshine,” calls for a 158,000-ton ship that will hold 4,100 passenger berths. Compare it to another Royal Caribbean ship of a similar size--Freedom of the Seas--which is smaller at 160,000 gross tons, but only carrying 3,634 passengers. 

The new Princess ships (2013) will come in at 141,000 tons and carry 3,600 passenger berths. Compare this to the line's Diamond Princess class of ships at 116,000 tons and a passenger capacity of 2,670.

What Does This Mean to You?

2009 was the first year in recent history when no new ships designs were ordered by major cruise lines. They already had too much new capacity coming online and were preoccupied with figuring out where to deploy and how to price these ships.

During the last two years, we have even seen a few bursting price bubbles when the cruise lines put too many ships in a specific region that subsequently suffered from lower-than-expected demand.

In 2009, for instance, cruises to Mexico were incredible bargains. There were twice as many staterooms in that market as there are now, but demand for those cruises evaporated almost overnight.

 In 2010, Alaska cruises were also going for deep discounts. This summer, in an effort to reduce their exposure to Alaska, more cruise lines positioned ships in the Mediterranean Sea, but now that region is suffering from overcapacity and reduced demand.

Many cruise lines are banking on Australia for 2012 and 2013, drawn by the strong currency (just as they were drawn to Europe for the stronger euro in 2010). But the number of ships going to Australia could easily outstrip demand, and 2013 could be the best time yet to cruise in Australia.

While the cruise lines will inevitably market the forthcoming cruise ships most ardently, in fact the “greatest generation” of ships is already here. For decades, the rule of ship selection had been “newer is better,” but with this coming generation of new cruise ships starting in 2012 and 2013, that will no longer be true. The best ships will still be those of the 2008 – 2011 vintage – and they could become relative bargains.


Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2011/06/24/next-generation-cruise-ships-might-not-be-best/#ixzz1QPYsRqy9

Azamara announces new Golf, Culinary, Spa program..... something for everyone

<><><><> <> <><><><> AZAMARA TEES UP AT THE WORLD'S FINEST COURSES Azamara Club Cruises® is taking destination immersion a step further with our new Azamara Club Golf Cruises in partnership with PerryGolf. These unique and exclusive packages let guests play exquisite, championship-caliber golf courses in Asia and Europe while traveling in the comfort and style of Azamara Journey® or Quest®. Let Azamara coordinate tee times, cart rentals, luxury transfers to the course, range time, golf balls, club storage and gratuities at each course as well as plan special cocktail parties and socials for golfers. Play a round on the world's dream courses knowing that Azamara's personal touch service is taking care of you. I have group space that offers extra amenities on these sailings as well as the lowest pricing and custom planning.  I have personal experience sailing with Azamara and they are at the top of my list right now!   Please contact me for details.

EACH PACKAGE INCLUDES: •   Pre-voyage golf program with overnight in specified hotel •   Luxury, air-conditioned transfers to and from golf courses •   Two group dinners, one in a specialty restaurant •   Bag and club handling and storage •   Selected special event for non-golfers such as the Spa Experience, culinary classes and wine tastings •   Greens fees, confirmed tee times, carts or pull carts •   Caddies on request at additional cost •   Golfers socials, cocktail parties and Hors d'oeuvres •   Standard beverage package for duration of the voyage •   Full-time Azamara Golf Manager •   Casual tournaments with awards and prizes for all participants AZAMARA JOURNEY® March 28, 2011 | 14 Nights | Hong Kong, China - Singapore March 28 - Olazabal Course, Hong Kong, China March 29 - Faldo Course, Hong Kong, China April 1 - The Montgomerie Links, Hue (Danag), Vietnam April 3 - Vietnam Golf & Country Club, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam April 7 - Thai Country Club, Bangkok, Thailand April 9 - Santiburi Country Club, Ko Samui, Thailand Voyage Rate $2,999 | Golf Land Package Rate: Golfer $3,798 | Non-Golfer $1,329 AZAMARA QUEST® May 15, 2011 | 11 Nights | Barcelona, Spain - Nice, France May 15 - PGA Catalunya, Stadium Course, Barcelona, Spain May 16 - Son Muntaner, Palma, Mallorca, Spain May 19 - Pont Royal, Marseilles, France May 21 - Fregate, Sanaray Sur Mer, France May 23 - Saint Maxime, St. Tropez, France Voyage Rate $2,849 | Golf Land Package Rate: Golfer $2,998 | Non-Golfer $879 May 26, 2011 & May 30, 2011 | 4/5 Nights (9 Combined) | Nice, France - Nice, France/Rome(Civitavecchia), Italy May 26 - Four Seasons Le Chateaux Course, Terre Blanche, France May 28 - Saint Maxime, St. Tropez, France May 30 - Cannes Mougins, Cannes, France May 31 - Rapallo Golf Club, Santa Margherita, Italy June 2 - Cosmopolitan Golf Club, Livorno, Italy Voyage Rate $3,199*/$1,149 | Golf Land Package Rate: Golfer $3,169 | Non-Golfer $898 August 29, 2011 | 10 Nights | Dublin, Ireland - Libson, Portugal August 29 - Portmarnock Golf Club, Dublin Ireland August 30 - Conwy, Holyhead, Wales August 31 - Old Head Golf Links, Cork (Cobh), Ireland September 3 - Medoc (Les Vignes Course), Bordeaux, France September 6 - Ria de Vigo Golf Club, Vigo, Spain Voyage Rate $2,749 | Golf Land Package Rate: Golfer $2,998 | Non-Golfer $848 September 8, 2011 | 9 Nights | Libson, Portugal - Nice, France September 8 - Oitavos Dunes, Cascais (Lisbon), Portugal September 10 - Montecastillo, Seville (Cadiz), Spain September 13 - PGA Catalunya, Stadium Course, Barcelona, Spain September 15 - Barbaroux, Sanaray Sur Mer, France September 16 - Saint Maxime, St. Tropez, France Voyage Rate $2,499 | Golf Land Package Rate: Golfer $2,998 | Non-Golfer $798 September 17, 2011 | 9 Nights | Nice, France - Nice, France September 17 - Four Seasons Le Chateaux Course, Terre Blanche, France September 20 - Pont Royal, Marseilles, France September 21 - Fregate, Sanaray Sur Mer, France September 22 - Saint Maxime, St. Tropez, France Voyage Rate $1,999 | Golf Land Package Rate: Golfer $2,655 | Non-Golfer $798 September 24, 2011 | 10 Nights | Nice, France - Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy September 24 - Royal Mougins, Cannes, France September 25 - Saint Maxime, St. Tropez, France September 26 - Fregate, Sanaray Sur Mer, France September 28 - PGA Catalunya, Stadium Course, Barcelona, Spain September 30 - Sperone, Bonifacio, Corsica Voyage Rate $2,399 | Golf Land Package Rate: Golfer $3,198 | Non-Golfer $940 Rates shown are cruise-only, for Club Interior Staterooms unless noted otherwise *Rate is for Veranda Stateroom and reflects back-to-back savings, Club Interior no longer available

AZAMARA TEES Azamara Club Cruises® is taking destination immersion a step further with our new Azamara Club Golf Cruises in partnership with PerryGolf. These unique and exclusive packages let guests play exquisite, championship-caliber golf courses in Asia and Europe while traveling in the comfort and style of Azamara Journey® or Quest®. Let Azamara coordinate tee times, cart rentals, luxury transfers to the course, range time, golf balls, club storage and gratuities at each course as well as plan special cocktail parties and socials for golfers. Play a round on the world's dream courses knowing that Azamara's personal touch service is taking care of you.

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