Med cruises lack imagination?

Is it me or do the Med cruises on AZ lack imagination. They are not on their own as some other cruise lines are replicating destinations we have done before. I am looking for a Med cruise on AZ for next year and nothing grabs is at all. I'am not sure if it's because our Middle Eastern cruise was so good with places we have not done before.

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You're right. Azamara's itineraries, in general, are not as innovative as they would have you believe. There are a lot of repetitive ports and mainstream destinations - they could do much better with their Mediterranean and Caribbean options. Azamara's big selling point now are their overnight stays and land experiences. But as much as we enjoy those highlights, the boring itineraries have pretty much chased us to other cruise lines.

Michael

Itinerary Planning is an artform and we are lucky to now have one of the best planners, Michael Pawlus. He joined the Azamara team last summer. He brings years of experience, and I'm sure we will see many new & creative itineraries. Feel free to send along input on your dream itineraries!

Here's a Seatrade article on Michael: http://www.seatrade-cruise.com/news/news-headlines/destination-expert-pawlus-ensures-azamaras-brand-promise-is-true.html

Itinerary Planning is an artform and we are lucky to now have one of the best planners, Michael Pawlus. He joined the Azamara team last summer. He brings years of experience, and I'm sure we will see many new & creative itineraries. Feel free to send along input on your dream itineraries!

 

Here's a Seatrade article on Michael: http://www.seatrade-cruise.com/news/news-headlines/destination-expert-pawlus-ensures-azamaras-brand-promise-is-true.html

I note he was previously with Silversea. Two years ago we did a marvellous itinerary on Silver Wind, Cape Town to Ghana. I would have thought West Africa was a good fit for Azamara.

I love the Azamara Med itineraries and would not be at all interested in West Africa. You think Norovirus is bad....well Ebola is still endemic in many West African countries and the flare up's continue. There are new ones in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea....all in West Africa, as I write this. Ebola has a 70% fatality rate...even with sophisticated and immediate Western treatment. Personally I would not be booking any Cruises to West Africa anytime soon. As the Americans say, YMMV.

There are still so many interesting options in The Med and I hope Michael Pawlus will consider adding them to Azamara's itineraries in 2018.

I do wish they would call at more French Riviera ports....I love Sanary sur Mer and I'm doing Sete with Oceania in October. Cassis would be lovely, more Sicilian ports and much more often too, but NOT Palermo or Taormina, much as I love it there and I'm going again in two weeks with Journey. Haven't been to Trapani yet or Siracusa yet.

How about San Remo, Puglia, Savona, Trieste, Croatian ports such as Porec, Rovinj and Opatija. Greek islands like Symi, Kefalonia, Zante, Hydra, Cyprus and nearer to Aghios Nicolaos than Chania on Crete....maybe Rethymnon as well?

What about more Fjords cruises? I would love to sail with Captain Johannes to his homeland and these cruises seem rare...And they sell out very quickly. How about Portugal? Don't see many of these ports on Azamara.

So many options and so little vacation time...Can't wait to retire! 😄

I love the Azamara Med itineraries and would not be at all interested in West Africa. You think Norovirus is bad....well Ebola is still endemic in many West African countries and the flare up's continue. There are new ones in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea....all in West Africa, as I write this. Ebola has a 70% fatality rate...even with sophisticated and immediate Western treatment. Personally I would not be booking any Cruises to West Africa anytime soon. As the Americans say, YMMV.

 

There are still so many interesting options in The Med and I hope Michael Pawlus will consider adding them to Azamara's itineraries in 2018.

 

I do wish they would call at more French Riviera ports....I love Sanary sur Mer and I'm doing Sete with Oceania in October. Cassis would be lovely, more Sicilian ports and much more often too, but NOT Palermo or Taormina, much as I love it there and I'm going again in two weeks with Journey. Haven't been to Trapani yet or Siracusa yet.

 

How about San Remo, Puglia, Savona, Trieste, Croatian ports such as Porec, Rovinj and Opatija. Greek islands like Symi, Kefalonia, Zante, Hydra, Cyprus and nearer to Aghios Nicolaos than Chania on Crete....maybe Rethymnon as well?

What about more Fjords cruises? I would love to sail with Captain Johannes to his homeland and these cruises seem rare...And they sell out very quickly. How about Portugal? Don't see many of these ports on Azamara.

 

So many options and so little vacation time...Can't wait to retire! 😄

Thanks LottieA! Such good suggestions...I'll forward this to Michael.

Did you see I just started a new thread on Siracusa, Sicily? It's a blog post written by one of our guest bloggers.

Thanks LottieA! Such good suggestions...I'll forward this to Michael.

Did you see I just started a new thread on Siracusa, Sicily? It's a blog post written by one of our guest bloggers.

Bonnie, I have just read Lee's blog....now I really must go to Siracusa! :)

We are on our first Azamara cruise HK to Singapore in December and the ports all had appeal .It would have been back to back if the following cruise was not so Indonesia centric. The West coast of Thailand, Burma and India all have better weather in December

Lottie has some great suggestions, It would be lovely to see more Sicilian Ports also some different Spanish ports and more of Portugal and cypress please. I think I could be a tour guide for santorini and Mykonos beautiful as they are there are only so many times you want to visit.

I am sympathetic to the OP's view but I personally love the Med and don't care how many times I visit glorious places like Barcelona either on a cruise ship or on a land holiday.

I think Azamara has to take account of the fact that many non Europeans do not have the opportunity to visit the Med as often as us and will always want to see Florence, Rome and similar cities hence the limitless amounts of calls to ports like Civitavecchia and Livorno.

Having said that and with a huge amount of its business comprising repeat cruisers, Azamara could be a little more creative. There are small ports in Spain that the ship has never visited both in the Med and along the Cantabrian coast not to mention some little gems in Corsica that few people know about.

I hope Azamara's new itinerary planner will incorporate some new ports for us all to enjoy in the future

I agree that Azamara's itineraries are repetitive. I guess part of the problem is that there are only two ships. To keep attracting sufficient new customers, they simply have to sail the Caribbean and the Mediterranean regularly. I've strayed to other lines for creative itineraries: a norther transatlantic with 3 stops in Iceland and 5 (!) in Greenland (Azamara's first northern transatlantic this year is boring), a cruise up and down the Amazon river, a cruise to Antarctica with landings, a NorthWest passage sailing from Vancouver to New York over the top of North America, cruises around South Africa and Namibia, etc. etc. All much more fun than the gazillionth call at Livorno...

Despite the ill-informed pooh-poohing of my suggestion of West Africa as a destination (above) I still think it is a good fit for Azamara.

With regard to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the World Health Organisation lifted its Public Health Emergency of International Concern with regard in March 2016. There have been a handful of isolated cases since, but these are well contained.

Other countries in West Africa have NOT been affected by Ebola, for example Ghana, Togo, Benin, Cameroon, Sao Tome, Angola, Namibia - all very interesting places to visit.

If we are looking at alternative Med destinations, I would add Saranda in Albania (great for visiting the wonderful archaeological site of Butrinti), Skopelos in Greece and Genoa and Bari in Italy.

I noticed that last July when we were staying in Kas, Turkey that one of the Azamara ships was docked there (I couldn't see which one). But that is a wonderful town and I hope Azamara will revisit.

Despite the ill-informed pooh-poohing of my suggestion of West Africa as a destination (above) I still think it is a good fit for Azamara.

Sadly the masses are ill informed (as proven by the replies to your suggestion) and it's those masses Azamara needs to fill its ships. The same public anxiety has caused many cruise lines to pull Istanbul completely unnecessarily.

Despite the ill-informed pooh-poohing of my suggestion of West Africa as a destination (above) I still think it is a good fit for Azamara.

 

With regard to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the World Health Organisation lifted its Public Health Emergency of International Concern with regard in March 2016. There have been a handful of isolated cases since, but these are well contained.

 

Other countries in West Africa have NOT been affected by Ebola, for example Ghana, Togo, Benin, Cameroon, Sao Tome, Angola, Namibia - all very interesting places to visit.

 

If we are looking at alternative Med destinations, I would add Saranda in Albania (great for visiting the wonderful archaeological site of Butrinti), Skopelos in Greece and Genoa and Bari in Italy.

 

I noticed that last July when we were staying in Kas, Turkey that one of the Azamara ships was docked there (I couldn't see which one). But that is a wonderful town and I hope Azamara will revisit.

You are right that Genoa is a great port. We have been fortunate enough to have called there twice with Azamara when the winds were too strong to use the tenders in our scheduled stop of Portofino.

Many passengers were very disappointed and I can understand why because Portofino is gorgeous though tiny. We on the other hand who had been lucky enough to visit Portofino at least ten times were happy to explore a new city and Genoa didn't disappoint. It would be simple to add this super location to many Med itineraries

One issue with the med is you can be creative with ports but as just about everyone flies if you don't stop at the main hubs with plenty of air choice it bumps up the cost a lot or make getting there far less convenient.

That means somewhere like Rome,venice,Athens and Barcelona have to be a change over port, plenty of air and good attractive pre/post cruise option.

Once you have those in the schedule then fitting stuff round them starts to limit the options.

Where being creative can work is identifying events that can be attractive to new customers.

There was a Full Eclipse in northern Europe over the North sea near the Faroes, none of the majors bothered to stick a ship there with a bit of clever planning(these are not surprise events they can be planned years ahead) with an early Transatlantic a line could have made a shedload of money.

Fred Olsen Sold out 3 ships at great(for them) prices.

As a newbie to Azamara, and one who's only sailed the Med. twice, and both on the way to somewhere else (Black Sea and Iberian Peninsula to U.K.), I'm totally happy to do a simple Rome-Rome this September. I always said I would never book an Italian Med cruise that *stopped* at either Florence or Rome--Rome only makes sense as a begin or end point I think, and if Florence, it should be an overnight so that pax could spend the night off the ship.

I'm not a big advocate of European ocean cruises at all, really. I believe land trips are a much better way of seeing places. But the Rome to Rome itin. is appealing because it gets down to Sicily and Malta, both places I doubt I'd visit on my own, and it invites pre- and post-cruise wanderings, which I'm going to do.

I like the fact that Azamara spends overnights in places. I agree that unusual ports would be great, but with the proviso that cruises need to start or end mostly in: Istanbul, Athens, Venice, Rome, Genoa, Monte Carlo, Nice, Barcelona, or perhaps a few other places in the Med.--not only must the port be accessible to an air hub, but the ship needs provisioning as well, and good docking. So this means that the "interesting" ports need to be reached in between--longer itineraries are better for this, obviously.

I'm also keenly aware of the disruptive forces of cruise ships--even smaller ones like Azon smaller potential ports, off the beaten path.

If we decide we like Azamara, I'm sure we'll be back to Europe to enjoy the ship, whatever ports there are, and to explore from there on our own.

Despite the ill-informed pooh-poohing of my suggestion of West Africa as a destination (above) I still think it is a good fit for Azamara.

 

With regard to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the World Health Organisation lifted its Public Health Emergency of International Concern with regard in March 2016. There have been a handful of isolated cases since, but these are well contained.

 

Other countries in West Africa have NOT been affected by Ebola, for example Ghana, Togo, Benin, Cameroon, Sao Tome, Angola, Namibia - all very interesting places to visit.

 

If we are looking at alternative Med destinations, I would add Saranda in Albania (great for visiting the wonderful archaeological site of Butrinti), Skopelos in Greece and Genoa and Bari in Italy.

 

I noticed that last July when we were staying in Kas, Turkey that one of the Azamara ships was docked there (I couldn't see which one). But that is a wonderful town and I hope Azamara will revisit.

OK, not wishing to cause controversy here but perhaps you should know what my job is before you state I am "ill informed". I am a Doctor and I do not post information about subjects where I am lacking in knowledge.

I have a patient, a young man, who contracted Ebola while on a holiday to Sierra Leone a few years ago....this was before the recent severe Ebola outbreak, which proved fatal to so many. He is only alive due to the heroic efforts of Medecin San Frontieres medical and nursing staff in West Africa and then the expert treatment at The Royal Free Hospital in London. He suffers from severe disability as a direct result of the Ebola infection and is very unlikely to survive more than a year or two. I do know the current infection rates in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea and they are not "a handful of isolated cases", but also not yet at reportable epidemic level. That may change at any point.

While I would agree that there are several West African countries not effected (as yet) by Ebola, there is evidence that parts of northern Nigeria have had recent significant outbreaks, but it is very difficult to obtain accurate statistics as the area is controlled by Boko Haram terrorists.

So as you said, you might want to visit West Africa at present and of course, it is your choice to do so. It's not mine....or I would think, many Azamara cruisers. I may be wrong and American and British guests may flock to book a cruise in that area....but given the general concern about visiting many perfectly safe places in Europe at present, somehow I doubt it.

Definitely agree with your choices of Skopelos, Bari, Genoa and Kas though. I have been to Genoa three times now and it is a lovely city...very underrated in my opinion.

Considering that some of my American friends won't even go to Europe right now, I doubt if they'd want to go to West Africa. I certainly would, after doing a careful risk assessment at the time. But then we visited Egypt last fall, so we are somewhat risk-takers.

Based on my recent experience, I doubt that there would be many West Africa takers. This spring I took a Silversea cruise from Cape Town to Barcelona. The ship had been in Southern Africa for the winter, and this repositioning cruise took it back to the Med. There were stops in 11 West African countries. However, none of these were places where there had been recent unrest or where cases of Ebola had ben reported. The trip was a real deal with a low base fare and a 25% single supplement. My overall cost on a daily basis was less than any of the four Azamara cruises I have purchased. Yet, even with this great fare, Silversea only managed to book 177 passengers on a ship with a capacity of 296. This did result in great service from the crew of 222.

In talking to people from Silversea on the cruise, I found out why this lack of interest. Some of the reasons: (1) Many of the countries are predominately Muslim, and this scares many Westerners away. (2) Many Westerners are concerned about diseases like Ebola, yellow fever, and malaria. You are required to have the yellow fever vaccine if the ship stops on Ghana (as most do), and there are those who are leery of this vaccine because of numerous possible side effects. (3) All the ports are industrial container ports with no facilities for cruise passengers. Often, they are some distance from what there is to see. (4) Tourist infrastructure is not good. Many of the busses and vans would not be allowed on the road in the U.S. or Europe. Whether the air conditioning would function was about 50-50. Guides are often not very good and/or difficult to understand. (5) Conditions are less than ideal. Many people live in poverty, which is hard to see day after day. Infrastructure is pretty bad unless you enjoy being in traffic jams on pot-holed roads and seeing crumbling buildings. (6) The scenery is not all that pretty, and the countries are strewn with garbage. (7) What passes for a museum often contains items that most of us would probably throw in the dumpster.

Most savvy travelers would learn much of this with a little research or from talking with former travelers to these places. They would not get a vibe that this part of the world is real exciting to visit.

Also, look at the number of cruise ships that visit these ports. Most of them average only 4 to 8 a year.

All this being said, did I find the cruise interesting? Yes. Would I go to this part of the world again? Possibly to Namibia, South Africa, or Morocco, but not to the other places. And I would not highly recommend others to visit when there are so many better places.

Based on my recent experience, I doubt that there would be many West Africa takers. This spring I took a Silversea cruise from Cape Town to Barcelona. The ship had been in Southern Africa for the winter, and this repositioning cruise took it back to the Med. There were stops in 11 West African countries. However, none of these were places where there had been recent unrest or where cases of Ebola had ben reported. The trip was a real deal with a low base fare and a 25% single supplement. My overall cost on a daily basis was less than any of the four Azamara cruises I have purchased. Yet, even with this great fare, Silversea only managed to book 177 passengers on a ship with a capacity of 296. This did result in great service from the crew of 222.

 

In talking to people from Silversea on the cruise, I found out why this lack of interest. Some of the reasons: (1) Many of the countries are predominately Muslim, and this scares many Westerners away. (2) Many Westerners are concerned about diseases like Ebola, yellow fever, and malaria. You are required to have the yellow fever vaccine if the ship stops on Ghana (as most do), and there are those who are leery of this vaccine because of numerous possible side effects. (3) All the ports are industrial container ports with no facilities for cruise passengers. Often, they are some distance from what there is to see. (4) Tourist infrastructure is not good. Many of the busses and vans would not be allowed on the road in the U.S. or Europe. Whether the air conditioning would function was about 50-50. Guides are often not very good and/or difficult to understand. (5) Conditions are less than ideal. Many people live in poverty, which is hard to see day after day. Infrastructure is pretty bad unless you enjoy being in traffic jams on pot-holed roads and seeing crumbling buildings. (6) The scenery is not all that pretty, and the countries are strewn with garbage. (7) What passes for a museum often contains items that most of us would probably throw in the dumpster.

 

Most savvy travelers would learn much of this with a little research or from talking with former travelers to these places. They would not get a vibe that this part of the world is real exciting to visit.

 

Also, look at the number of cruise ships that visit these ports. Most of them average only 4 to 8 a year.

 

All this being said, did I find the cruise interesting? Yes. Would I go to this part of the world again? Possibly to Namibia, South Africa, or Morocco, but not to the other places. And I would not highly recommend others to visit when there are so many better places.

Thank you for your insight Keystonetraveler. I appreciate we are all different but a West African cruise would not appeal to me at whatever price.

A friend did a Crystal cruise which called at several West African ports and cited many of the issues you raised. She will not return to this part of the world.

I would love some new destinations.

I am currently very happy still with Azamaras European itineraries. As long as each cruise has a smaller port or something the big boys cannot do I am very happy. Yes there are a lot of other ports that could be considered. In the UK there are so many Western Islands, I'm thinking Stornoway area, Benbecula, Islay - now what a great distillery day that would make for guests. What about Aberdeen - for Royal Deeside, it might have to be a tender stop but the North Island overnight ferries all can get in

I'm thinking a 7 night round Scotland cruise, Edinburgh to Glasgow which guests could combine with a second West coast England/Wales trip. I have always wanted to do the Hebriddean Princess but the prices said no - and HRH keeps chartering it for her summer holidays

Thank you for your insight Keystonetraveler. I appreciate we are all different but a West African cruise would not appeal to me at whatever price.

 

A friend did a Crystal cruise which called at several West African ports and cited many of the issues you raised. She will not return to this part of the world.

If the price was right I would treat it as a cruise with sea days(like a TA) if it was starting and ending somewhere I wanted/needed to be as an alternative to flying.

I do like the idea of Islay and the distilleries - but I fear I might never find my way back to the ship.

Based on my recent experience, I doubt that there would be many West Africa takers. This spring I took a Silversea cruise from Cape Town to Barcelona. The ship had been in Southern Africa for the winter, and this repositioning cruise took it back to the Med. There were stops in 11 West African countries. However, none of these were places where there had been recent unrest or where cases of Ebola had ben reported. The trip was a real deal with a low base fare and a 25% single supplement. My overall cost on a daily basis was less than any of the four Azamara cruises I have purchased. Yet, even with this great fare, Silversea only managed to book 177 passengers on a ship with a capacity of 296. This did result in great service from the crew of 222.

 

In talking to people from Silversea on the cruise, I found out why this lack of interest. Some of the reasons: (1) Many of the countries are predominately Muslim, and this scares many Westerners away. (2) Many Westerners are concerned about diseases like Ebola, yellow fever, and malaria. You are required to have the yellow fever vaccine if the ship stops on Ghana (as most do), and there are those who are leery of this vaccine because of numerous possible side effects. (3) All the ports are industrial container ports with no facilities for cruise passengers. Often, they are some distance from what there is to see. (4) Tourist infrastructure is not good. Many of the busses and vans would not be allowed on the road in the U.S. or Europe. Whether the air conditioning would function was about 50-50. Guides are often not very good and/or difficult to understand. (5) Conditions are less than ideal. Many people live in poverty, which is hard to see day after day. Infrastructure is pretty bad unless you enjoy being in traffic jams on pot-holed roads and seeing crumbling buildings. (6) The scenery is not all that pretty, and the countries are strewn with garbage. (7) What passes for a museum often contains items that most of us would probably throw in the dumpster.

 

Most savvy travelers would learn much of this with a little research or from talking with former travelers to these places. They would not get a vibe that this part of the world is real exciting to visit.

 

Also, look at the number of cruise ships that visit these ports. Most of them average only 4 to 8 a year.

 

All this being said, did I find the cruise interesting? Yes. Would I go to this part of the world again? Possibly to Namibia, South Africa, or Morocco, but not to the other places. And I would not highly recommend others to visit when there are so many better places.

We did what sounds like the identical itinerary on Silver Wind in February 2014. Whilst I agree that the infrastructure was not ideal, it was a very interesting cruise. We saw and experienced things that we would never normally get to see - even if some were a little disturbing.

Everyone we spoke to on board enjoyed the cruise. All were well travelled and were well aware of what to expect.