Azura - after the refit!

Hi - we have just got back from a fabulous holiday on Azura. Can't believe the amazing weather and flat calm seas we had!

To be honest you will not see a huge change in Azura after her refit. The main changes are new carpets in Venezia and Verona and also in the corridors and stairs. Venezia and Verona had also been either deep cleaned or re-upholstered.(definitely looked cleaner and smarter than before) . Other changes in the buffet includes tea and coffee being served at your table during breakfast. Great idea - however not entirely working at the moment - some days you were offered tea and coffee others you ended up going to get your own! Could just be teething problems.

It was very apparent that there were several problems - the Italien restaurant (Trattoria - I think it was called) has been replaced with "The Beachouse" Diner - the same as on Ventura. With a new menu and new staff (apparently a lot of experienced staff had been moved onto Brittania) it was chaos. I don't think it was helped with the new ordering system using Ipad type machines. In fact - one couples order never even reached the kitchen and they waited forever to get there meal. This did seem to settle down throughout the cruise however. There is now also a £5 per person cover charge.

I am pleased to say the pizza oven is back and working - however you cannot order the pizza of your choice anymore - instead there is a Cheese and tomato pizza daily and a chefs special. The pizzas are made, sliced and left under heat lamps and you help yourself to what you want. This was ok if you like what was on offer and the pizza hadn't been sat too long. Not keen on this new change tbh.

The other change was a grab and go fridge has been placed by the poolside grill. Great idea - as long as you like bacon, lettuce and tom on a brown baguette or brie, rocket and cranberry on a white baguette. There were also some wraps and some salads. The choice of baguettes and wraps did not change at all throughout the cruise. I find it very strange that P and O who cater for the" British " market cannot provide classic sandwiches / baguettes eg. Beef ,ham, cheese ,chicken, turkey salad, or egg mayo ,tuna mayo, cheese and tomato etc At least give us a little more variety.

The other change which I really did not like was the poolside grill. Now also a grab and go. Food is precooked and left under heat lamps. In doing this P and O have solved the problem of people queuing for the grill - mainly cos the food is so awful now. There are now only three choices - beefburger in a bun, hotdog with onions or chicken goujons. Sadly there are no chicken burgers or fish goujons anymore. The result of this change is lukewarm food - the fries are ok if you manage to get them fresh but can be rock hard and cold if they have been hanging around for a while. The burgerbuns are dried out on the bottom as they have been sat on a hot plate. My daughter was disappointed as all the hotdogs come with onions, which she does not like. I tried to take them off, but she hardly ate it. I can see why P and O have done this change but it just does not work - I can only hope enough people complain and they change it back. Here's hoping!

No real changes to the cabins apart from a new shower curtain! No new mattresses unfortunately - we found ours pretty uncomfy tbh.

There are now two freedom dining restaurants and there are no longer wine waiters in the main dining rooms. This did not bother us - however it did make a massive difference to the number of staff serving drinks and clearing tables around the pool decks. You could easily wait 30-40mins before being able to order a drink. So in the end we just went to the bar to order as it was quicker. It was not a problem for us but it could have been a problem for someone less mobile.

Other than that the only other real changes are the shops have been re- shuffled around. The one strange change for me was putting the general store type shop on deck 5. It's really tucked away down in the corner and took me a while to find.

Finally of course she has had her new livery - looks great from a distance , just don't look too close!!!!!

Anyway - hope I haven't bored you all too much. We still had a great cruise despite some of these changes and are looking forward to next years already.

Sue

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Forgot to say - new check in process was superb. Quickest ever- it took about 20mins from entering the building to getting onboard - amazing

Well done P and O

Sue

Thanks Sue.....we were on Azura in November and are back on her in 6 weeks so your review has answered all my questions.....so looking forward to our cruise :D

Nicola

Thanks for posting Sue. Reassuring and a little disappointing at the same time! Was hoping for new carpets & mattresses in cabins but I guess both of these can actually be carried out whilst ship is operational rather than in dry dock. We had new carpet fitted in our cabin on one cruise a few years ago - only inconvenience was being asked to nominate a day/2 hr time slot when they could fit it!

I'm not particularly bothered about the grab & go / pizza/ burger issues as I wouldn't use them anyway.

really pleased the check in process has improved - presumably that was at the Mayflower terminal?

Still very much looking forward to Friday......! 2 weeks on Azura around the med - can't wait!

Thanks for the review, Sue.

Can you elaborate a bit more on this bit, please?

....and there are no longer wine waiters in the main dining rooms. This did not bother us - however it did make a massive difference to the number of staff serving drinks and clearing tables around the pool decks.

We've noticed in the past if you were unlucky with your table the wine waiter arrived to take your drinks order either too quickly or too late. How do you order wine now in a MDR?

Thanks for posting Sue. Reassuring and a little disappointing at the same time! Was hoping for new carpets & mattresses in cabins but I guess both of these can actually be carried out whilst ship is operational rather than in dry dock. We had new carpet fitted in our cabin on one cruise a few years ago - only inconvenience was being asked to nominate a day/2 hr time slot when they could fit it!

 

I'm not particularly bothered about the grab & go / pizza/ burger issues as I wouldn't use them anyway.

 

really pleased the check in process has improved - presumably that was at the Mayflower terminal?

 

Still very much looking forward to Friday......! 2 weeks on Azura around the med - can't wait!

Hi - No it was Ocean terminal that we used for embarkation.

I also very much got the impression that they were still finishing job's onboard and so as you say they could still change matresses / carpet etc whilst the ship is in service. One other change I did notice was that the cabin steward had an additional helper with him on some occasions there were three people doing our cabin. I think possibly they have more cabins to do but do them between them, either that or perhaps ours was new and needed showing the ropes. But that was not the impression I got though as he seemed to know his job tbh.

Sue

Thanks for the review, Sue.

 

Can you elaborate a bit more on this bit, please?

 

 

 

We've noticed in the past if you were unlucky with your table the wine waiter arrived to take your drinks order either too quickly or too late. How do you order wine now in a MDR?

Basically you order with your normal waiter who then has a runner who goes and fetches the wine for you.

Didn't seem to be causing any problems although some were moaning about the waiters lack of wine knowledge.

Hope that helps

Sue

Hi - No it was Ocean terminal that we used for embarkation.

 

 

 

I also very much got the impression that they were still finishing job's onboard and so as you say they could still change matresses / carpet etc whilst the ship is in service. One other change I did notice was that the cabin steward had an additional helper with him on some occasions there were three people doing our cabin. I think possibly they have more cabins to do but do them between them, either that or perhaps ours was new and needed showing the ropes. But that was not the impression I got though as he seemed to know his job tbh.

 

 

 

Sue

Yes there were still contractors onboard who where there for the full 12 nights. Mainly trim experts. I went to the front of the ship as we were sailing out of La Palma and there was loads of the new carpet drying after the water leaks.

Sue &/or Marty

Thanks for your updates on azure after her refit. We haven't sailed on her before (always sailed on Oriana or Aurora). We are planning to sail on her in October however to the med.

A couple of questions if you could answer would be great:

1. Were short tennis competitions scheduled on sea days?

2. What is the daytime food in the buffet restaurants like? my family like to eat healthily

3. What times does the glasshouse and sindhu serve food in the day? we do not tend to eat until 3pm.

Many thanks

Amanda

Sue &/or Marty

Thanks for your updates on azure after her refit. We haven't sailed on her before (always sailed on Oriana or Aurora). We are planning to sail on her in October however to the med.

A couple of questions if you could answer would be great:

1. Were short tennis competitions scheduled on sea days?

2. What is the daytime food in the buffet restaurants like? my family like to eat healthily

3. What times does the glasshouse and sindhu serve food in the day? we do not tend to eat until 3pm.

 

Many thanks

Amanda

Hi - I don't think there were any tennis competitions as far as I am aware , but someone may well correct me on this. I certainly didn't hear of any.

The food in the buffet is reasonable - there is a good choice of salad, cold meats etc. Sometimes there are prawns. Bread rolls are always available. There is usually soup, some sort of curry or spicy dish such as goulash, rice, sometimes pasta, jacket potatoes etc.

Sorry can't help with opening times for The Glasshouse and Sindhu .

Sue

Hi - I don't think there were any tennis competitions as far as I am aware , but someone may well correct me on this. I certainly didn't hear of any.

 

The food in the buffet is reasonable - there is a good choice of salad, cold meats etc. Sometimes there are prawns. Bread rolls are always available. There is usually soup, some sort of curry or spicy dish such as goulash, rice, sometimes pasta, jacket potatoes etc.

 

Sorry can't help with opening times for The Glasshouse and Sindhu .

 

Sue

The glass house is open from lunchtime I think....we are at around 3pm in there ..it was lovely. The buffet serves healthy food....salad, vegetables, rice, baked potatoes, fruit salad....along with burgers, chips and cakes lol....we always have a healthy lunch and then a cake 😃

Hi - I don't think there were any tennis competitions as far as I am aware , but someone may well correct me on this. I certainly didn't hear of any.

 

 

 

The food in the buffet is reasonable - there is a good choice of salad, cold meats etc. Sometimes there are prawns. Bread rolls are always available. There is usually soup, some sort of curry or spicy dish such as goulash, rice, sometimes pasta, jacket potatoes etc.

 

 

 

Sorry can't help with opening times for The Glasshouse and Sindhu .

 

 

 

Sue

No tennis that I remember either.

We love the short tennis matches on the other ships. Will be disappointed if non on Azura. If you have a sea-day horizon newspaper please could you post what activities are offered in the sports court. A scanned copy would be lovely ;-)

Amanda

Thanks for the review - hope I'm as lucky with smooth seas on my Azura cruise in June :) Did you have a "tropical" night? It's on the list on the P&O website but it's been listed for my other cruises too and we didn't have one. I'm hoping as we're going to the Canaries we will have one (don't want to buy hubby a hawaiian type shirt if he doesn't need to have one!)

Thanks

Thanks for the review - hope I'm as lucky with smooth seas on my Azura cruise in June :) Did you have a "tropical" night? It's on the list on the P&O website but it's been listed for my other cruises too and we didn't have one. I'm hoping as we're going to the Canaries we will have one (don't want to buy hubby a hawaiian type shirt if he doesn't need to have one!)

Thanks

Yes we had it the night we were in Tenerife :-)

Yes we had it the night we were in Tenerife :-)

Thank you Matty, I wondered if it would be Tenerife because that seems to be the port we are in the longest - do they still do the deck BBQ?

Those changes to the pool side grill are terrible. :(

So much for those nice chicken burgers they used to do. And hot dogs with onions - yuk!

Thanks for the update on Azura. I'm looking forward to seeing the changes for myself - less than 7 weeks to go! Pity that they changed the shower curtains for more shower curtains, I was hoping that maybe they would modernise a bit and put shower doors on instead. There's nothing more disagreeable than shower curtains sticking to your legs in such a confined space. Still, I'm sure that I'll manage!

As Sue said the embarkation was a breeze but the same can't be said for disembarkation. It was a total nightmare. We were told where yo wait and that there would be no tannoy announcements. Our time yo leave came and went and no sta ff were yo be seen. Some folk started queuing and an officious little man told them yo go back but provided no further information. In the end we were over an hour leaving on the coach and ended up not getting home until 11.30pm!

I thought it a disgrace that they used a room that was riddled with leaks. The buckets to catch the leaks were breeding and they had 2 industrial blowers going. Not the nicest place to do a quiz.

Our waiter told us they now have more people to serve in the dining room. We found the service slow.

Our cabin was fine apart from the really dirty carpet. Why did they not shampoo them if they were not to be replaced?

Overslept we were not impressed.

Basically you order with your normal waiter who then has a runner who goes and fetches the wine for you.

 

Didn't seem to be causing any problems although some were moaning about the waiters lack of wine knowledge.

 

 

Hope that helps

 

Sue

The wine waiters were one of my main complaints on Ventura. If you didn't order wine on a regular basis, the waiter would either never turn up or arrive halfway through your meal.

We love the short tennis matches on the other ships. Will be disappointed if non on Azura. If you have a sea-day horizon newspaper please could you post what activities are offered in the sports court. A scanned copy would be lovely ;-)

Amanda

I'm on Azura on Friday...won't be scanning anything in until I get home but can give you a general update sometime over the next week if that helps?

A problem with discussing refits is they mean different things to different people. for us passengers what we think of as a refit is probably a re-decoration plus new carpets, cushions etc. for the cruise line it is mechanical stuff plus building projects

The wine waiters were one of my main complaints on Ventura. If you didn't order wine on a regular basis, the waiter would either never turn up or arrive halfway through your meal.

That must be why we have never had a problem with any wine waiter. :) :) :)

Me too! I always phone the wine line for some on the first night, and always find the waiters serve it as I arrive and come back with suggestions for the future. As they receive commission on drinks served, indicating that you like to drink wine with your dinner usually gets you prompt service. I often look at the next day's menu (they will let you see it if a wine order is involved) and decide, so it's waiting for me. Or I see the menu after lunch and order during the afternoon from the wine line.

Many thanks mystical mother. An update on sea day activities in the sports court would be fab. Have a great cruise :-)