Stem to Stern

This turned into my mini-review of Azamara Onward 11-night Caribbean December 2022 My sentiments about Azamara echo many of the above comments. We have sailed mostly with Celebrity along with one fantastic Crystal cruise. I had been eager to try something different on a smaller ship. I researched Azamara, Oceania (both classes of ships, now there are three), Viking, Windstar, and Silversea. The Azamara boards offered a lot of useful information and opinions from several active posters. Azamara's deal (they change regularly) with a hefty OBC led me to pull the trigger. We were on our first and only Azamara cruise in December 2022. We were on the same sailing as Mr. and Mrs. @DCPIV on board Azamara Onward in the Caribbean. Meeting fun people like them helped us overlook some of the shortfalls. The smaller ship atmosphere was very socially engaging with a broad range of ages of guests. I don't recall there being any children. Even though there are fewer venues around the ship to have a drink or a bite to eat, this wasn't perceived as a huge limitation. The Den would be hopping when the fun piano playing was on the keys. The Den was also the place to visit the shore excursions team or grab a book. The Living Room had more books and a small buffet of nibbles, but not a flurry of activity happening while we were in there. Atlas Bar (still labeled The Drawing Room on the Onward deck plans on their website) is a cool space with friendly bartenders, six barstools, some cool lounging furniture, and a video screen showing "live" performers. A Grand Foyer-style atrium does not exist on these ships, so no silent discos, dance parties, or other large gatherings. We were not missing any of these anyway. The on board house band played on the pool deck on occasion and nightly in the Living Room. She did not sing that great and their loud volume in the Living Room inhibited guest conversations. Food and drink didn't quite measure up to the atmosphere. We bought the Indulgence Package which included three visits to the specialities and the Ultimate Beverage Package, so we could have whatever we wanted. Well as it turned out Ultimate was not defined as "whatever" "anything" "everything" or "all-inclusive." Meiomi was poured at dinner in the MDR by the waitstaff one evening. (The waitstaff often covered for the sommelier as this sailing was running with only two sommeliers on board.) Well when I asked for the Meiomi the next night I was sharply informed by the sommelier that my previous evening's pino noir pouring was a MISTAKE. Wine selection under the Ultimate Package turned out to be a bit more scant than what I expected. Wine is an ongoing topic on the Azamara boards, so I wasn't blindsided by the exclusion. It was more the way the exclusion was presented by the young man. We learned later in the cruise he was the sole sommelier in the entire MDR every night. The other sommelier on board handles the two specialty restaurants which includes the Chef's Table dinners which are pretty involving. Normally there are three sommeliers on board, but this sailing was short one. The MDR food wasn't any better than what we experience on Celebrity. Our favorite meal was in Aqualina which is a beautiful specialty restaurant. We had a terrific waiter from Bali. We loved having our buffet breakfast on the Sunset Verandah. The breakfast and lunch buffet selections on the smaller ship were fewer as expected, but we always found something delicious. Every morning our waiter from Bali took my order for made-to-order waffles or French toast and delivered it to my table with a smile. Every lunch was accompanied by several glasses of Whispering Angel and was completed with a scoop of one of the various flavors of hand scooped gelato. The Patio was a nice alternative venue for lunch where you are seated at an area of the pool deck, order from a menu, and are served. The company, visible officers, and friendly crew worked very hard to deliver a broad range of activities including daily trivia, deck lunches, white party, Azamazing evening show on land, and more. We pre-booked two sailing excursions through the Azamara website and enjoyed both of them immensely. We were joined on one of them by a shore excursions crew member and he was so fun. The sea day deck lunches definitely put a damper on pool deck life. Many loungers were put away to make room for four-top tables for guests to eat at. We ended up finding loungers up on the windy Deck 11 Sun Deck. There was some type of disturbance happening in the mid-Atlantic during our cruise. We experienced less than smooth seas during the nights. We were in a V3 on the aft-third of Deck 6. Nearly every night I did not sleep that soundly because of the pitching and rolling. To me it sometimes Iiterally felt like the ship was going to roll over. I caught myself waking up and grabbing onto the edge of the bed. Normally the gentle motion of the ocean rocks me right to sleep and I am not bothered. My husband normally sleeps like a log, so he was not bothered by the situation in the least. Having been the only ship of this size that we have ever been on, I can't say if this much movement is normal for an Azamara ship or if there was an issue (nonfunctioning or lack of?) with the stabilizers. The seas forced the captain to put safety first and alter two of our port stops. We understand this type of situation can happen, so the changes to the itinerary did not bother us in the least. Instead of tendering at St John we turned up at the dock at Havensight, St Thomas. Instead of tendering at Virgin Gorda we docked at Road Town, Tortola. The ship produced an alternate list of excursions for each of these alternate port stops and the shore excursions team scrambled to assist with guests' rearrangement of plans. Our plans for both of the original ports were to go it on our own and we did the same at the alternate ports. Would I book another cruise on Azamara again? Yes, but.... Now that I know about the crowded pool deck situation, movement of the ship, and the food and wine situation, I think I would prepare myself to be in the right frame of mind to sail them again. I would choose Azamara as a floating hotel on a unique, port-intensive itinerary especially if the small ship would get us up a river into places closer in than larger ships. For a relaxing floating Caribbean resort with several days at sea, I would probably revert back to Celebrity or opt for a slightly larger ship on another line. I am still keeping Viking and Oceania (O-class and their new ship) on the radar. I am not sure I am still eager to jump on a tiny Windstar ship at this point. We have more future relaxing Caribbean cruises booked on Celebrity. We will also be trying out the Yacht Club on our first MSC cruise later this year. We have never been on such a massive ship as MSC Seascape. But it is fun to have options and try new experiences. I understand a lot of this is subjective. I would be happy to answer any questions.

@kelitino There is nothing at the port. The town of Porto Corsini which you pass through on the way to the port has a grocery store of some sort according to Google. Whether or not said store sells any type of alcoholic beverages is unclear. Based on their website it does not appear so. https://www.crai-supermercati.it Based on most of the Google reviews their prices are high, but one review mentions wine. I think your best bet is to bring your wine with you from wherever your transfer originates. Based on what we saw of this town it is not a tourist area, but more of a working class area.

Happy travels. I enjoyed your report.

I have realized that I prefer Burt’s Bees brand. Just cleared out several Celebrity lip balms from my bathroom drawer right into the waste bin. Wish I had known there was a lip balm shortage.😂

Breakfast is all that much better with the sea as the backdrop. Wow! Thanks for taking us along.

Not opposed to having my favorite soup every night on board since I would not have it any other time at home. However, I do appreciate your personal opinions. The idea to request an appetizer portion of a particularly appealing entree is definitely a great idea for opening up the appetizer options. Enjoy your cruise.

Watch it before. Loved the behind the scenes look. Very interesting. Literally a city at sea.

Late checkout from Adult Camp at Sea = PRICELESS. Also very tactful parenting by not putting a damper on the little ones’ Social Lives at Sea with a ten o’clock curfew. See what I did there? For kids’ sake; not just martinis’ sake.😂 After following GenZ’s week of relaxed luxury, I am eager to witness her reactions to MSC Seascape aka City at Sea. Tonight I watched The Secret Life of The Cruise on Prime featuring MSC Seaside. Can you say Sensory Emersion Overload? Thanks again for taking us all along. Safe travels home.

"Are you GenX's husband?" Poor, poor Jeremy. Hee hee.

Sharing is caring.😇😇😇

^^^So nauti.^^^😇😇😇

Me too!!!

Captain dropped the keys overboard? 🤣🤣🤣

Excited to follow your report. We will be on our first MSC on Seascape later this year. I love the red fonted highlights, but I will be reading every single word.🤓😉 Please forgive my ignorance, but may I ask why was your stateroom so much less expensive than the one your husband and son are in?

We had one at the bottom of the stairs. We were all by ourselves.

Pack some in your carry on.

I have not done this tour, but I can’t logically imagine the content of the tour would rotate after only 1-2 years. As an example menus on board remain the same for years and years. As another example the two inside access tours I have done on two different ships in recent years had very little difference from each other.

So it seems to be shaping up early on that Mini Me won’t be relying on Mommy to keep her entertained every waking hour. 🎀😂😂😂🎀

Bon Voyage! Looking forward to following along. Enjoy your cruise!

Wishing you a belated Bon Voyage!!

Mini-Me is capturing my heart. Like mother like daughter. The hand-on-hip strike-a-pose pose. The smile. The sunglasses. The bow. Her most adorable luggage ensemble. Oh, loved the matching lucky t-shirts, too. Enjoy your cruise, Gens!!

Bon voyage!

Yes. This was a nice bonus. I wonder if this will still be the case until Azamara has all of their new ducks in a row with their new system. BTW, the points total on my Celebrity app is now up to date also.

That did it. I had to google how to delete cookies on iPad. Deleted them and logged back into Celebrity again and now the webinar points are in the total. Thanks again for the suggestion. Oh and me too too.

Me too. Webinar 5 pts and Survey 1 pt both showing in Points History, but only 1 pt added to my total points. Same on app. Same on my Azamara account. Tried logging out and logging back in, but that didn’t help.