Azura

Just back from a week to the Fjords and I can report that all is well with this fine ship.

Freedom dining and plated meals no problems at all, excellent service and good food. The menus are very much unchanged from recent years but plenty of choice and all well cooked. We ate 3 times a day in the Peninsular and thoroughly enjoyed every meal.

Bar service is indifferent, I do wish they could think up a few decent cocktails. Prices seemed to have risen sharply.

Entertainment is still at the usual P&O level of mediocrity, so no disappointments on that score.

Cabin and public areas well kept and clean.

Embarkation and disembarkation well organised and speedy.

Apologies for the brief review, happy to answer questions ;)

I love Azura also. Going on. her again for the 3rd time.

Like yourself, maybe a few niggles. Not a big fan of the entertainment on any of the ships to be honest. Just not our thing but cant wait for the experience again in December.

Also back today from the Norwegian fjord cruise on Azura. This was only our second cruise (both with P&O) and we weren't disappointed, we enjoyed pretty much every minute.

We had a balcony for this trip and it was worth every penny for the views that the fjords offered, the weather was also very kind to us with blue skies greeting us most days.

The service was second to none as far as we were concerned with the waiters in the peninsular always extremely friendly and helpful. We dined in the peninsular sometimes 3 times a day and were on Freedom Dining. Incidentally why do some people choose to share a table and then not utter a word or make any attempt at conversation? I would say 20% of the time we had those 'awkward' meals where the conversation just didn't flow. On the plus side, we met some great people whilst dining and some real characters, it really made the holiday for us.

Drinks prices seemed pretty fair to us, nothing to steep.

We did seem to struggle to find somewhere to sit and have a drink or two after dinner each evening though, the Manhatton, Malabar, Brodies, Blue Bar etc all seemed to be full to bursting.

The shows all seemed popular, my wife and daughter enjoyed them and we also saw the comedian Tucker a couple of times.

We found the price of photos staggering though, £18 for 10x8 image with little or no incentive to buy 5 or 6 of them for say £50. The quality of them was excellent though and the queues proved the popularity of them, hence the high price I suppose.

The shops were ok, definitely geared up for women, how about a 'blokey' electronics shop with cameras, gadgets, kindles etc ?

Embarkation was fine, disembarkation was also ok although the pickup/drop off did become a little chaotic.

I'll write more as I remember. All in all a great trip, we're already looking at what's available for next year :)

I always worry about space in bars, 3000+ people in 15 bars hope there's space for my party of 4 over Christmas

itsbeentoolong.

Very valid point regarding space for 3,000 + people on Azura, but having been on Britannia which is much larger, I never felt like I was tripping over people except people that were walking slowly nor did I feel squashed so you and your party will be totally fine on Azura

I love Azura so much so I`m onboard in 2016 for the 4th time !!

Cruisefan2012

I too was on this cruise and couldn't agree more with all of the comments - apart from one aspect - compared to other cruise lines, disembarkation was a shambles. You were supposed to select a time, we did, 9.30 which we were told was the first time independent travellers were allowed to leave (unless you wanted to take your own luggage off). In the end, over 500 people were asked to go to the theatre where we waited - only the for a member of staff to choose the left side of the auditorium first, then the middle, then the right - all within 5 mins of each other, with the result being 500+ people using one staircase and one exit, all at the same time - farcical!!!

Why they don't operate the same process as Celebrity or Princess, I don't know, where by you either select or are allocated a time and a room - much more civilised, and less stressful.

Apart from that one point, and the shambles of breakfast in the buffet - the cruise was fantastic, all helped by the weather, which thankfully didn't live up to the forecast...

We go to the entertainment less and less these days, only our consistent feedback will improve the offerings. We always self disembark, we have to carry our own cases but are usually in the car between 7-7.45

 

Apart from that one point, and the shambles of breakfast in the buffet - the cruise was fantastic, all helped by the weather, which thankfully didn't live up to the forecast...

I went to the buffet once, for a glass of water ;) and yes we were very lucky with the weather.

I too was on this cruise and couldn't agree more with all of the comments - apart from one aspect - compared to other cruise lines, disembarkation was a shambles. You were supposed to select a time, we did, 9.30 which we were told was the first time independent travellers were allowed to leave (unless you wanted to take your own luggage off). In the end, over 500 people were asked to go to the theatre where we waited - only the for a member of staff to choose the left side of the auditorium first, then the middle, then the right - all within 5 mins of each other, with the result being 500+ people using one staircase and one exit, all at the same time - farcical!!!

 

Why they don't operate the same process as Celebrity or Princess, I don't know, where by you either select or are allocated a time and a room - much more civilised, and less stressful.

 

Apart from that one point, and the shambles of breakfast in the buffet - the cruise was fantastic, all helped by the weather, which thankfully didn't live up to the forecast...

We've been on Azura twice, the last time in June and we were allocated a time and a room for disembarkation....it was very smooth and we were in the car 15 minutes earlier than anticipated :-)

We go to the entertainment less and less these days, only our consistent feedback will improve the offerings. We always self disembark, we have to carry our own cases but are usually in the car between 7-7.45

We were also on this cruise and found the entertainment to be very good, but I have nothing to compare it to as this was our first cruise. We also ate in the buffet at lunch most days and were happy with the selection and the childrens tea was excellent too (the kids club in general was fantastic)