Stelvio69

11 hours ago, late2cruisin said:

The key to enjoying White Nights is to get there early so you can find a good table, get in the buffet line early so you don't have to wait forever for your lobster tails/steak/lamb chops, etc.  It also helps if the weather is good and if you are docked in a scenic port! (We enjoyed one White Nights with the Rock of Gibraltar in the background)

Well, when you're until late in port, isn't it a pity that you have to quit your land excursion so early just to be sure to get a table at White night? On a cruise line that describes itself as "destination immersive"? For most people it seems to have priority to be early at White Night, our priority was to make most out of the destination we visited that day. 

15 hours ago, crazyman3 said:

Also, your remarks about the entertainment do not fill us with confidence: we never go to the shows, preferring singers and other musicians in bars. What were they like on your cruise?

 

 There was this Ladies-Trio "Fancy Triplets" and they performed regularly in the Living Room (before and after dinner) and poolside at seadays or sailaway. They did what I would call semi-playback or play-a-long music of well known pop music.You always heard a full band of drums and bass and rhythm section but there were just one lady playing keyboards and one with a saxophone and the third with a guitar and all alternating singing. They were really not bad, but they were not electrifying at all.

We didn't see anybody dancing while they performed, but after they quit (at 10/10.30) and after a break (a lot of folks left - why don't they do a smooth flow without stopping music?) when the DJ took over on most evenings the dancefloor was - well, not really packed but well used.

And there was a piano player in spirits bar, but obviously his performances didn't fit to our schedule; always when we came through spirits bar in the evening he just had a break. I can't say anything about his performances.

It opened at 7am every day on our March 1st, 2019 cruise on Journey. Never tried to geht in before 7 but when we arrived daily at 7.15/7.30 we were never the first.

Last week on Journey. Besides that a three ladies band from Ukraine, „Fancy Triplets“ playing poolside and in the Living Room

We had to pick a boarding time for our March 1st cruise on Journey  as well but arrived one hour earlier and this was no problem. We had our boarding  passes within 3 minutes.

1 hour ago, marinaro44 said:

We've had verandas and owner's suites on the stern, most recently on Pursuit's deck 8 two months ago, and found minimal soot and no smell.

I think it has a lot to do with wind direction and speed of the ship.

We are a German couple in our late 40s (well, one of us turned 50 during the cruise) and have been on 8 previous cruises on AIDA (german), NCL, RCCL and Celebrity. This cruise on Azamara Journey, March 1st, 2019 was the first cruise after a break of seven years for us. We did this break because we did not like the bigger and bigger ships and the aspect of pollution - one can't deny that a cruise is a quite dirty way of travelling....

But undisputable a cruise vacation is one of the nicest vacations you can have and so we chose Azamara Journey for this birthday vacation. And we really had a great time! But some of our expectations were not reached.

Random thoughts:

Ship size:

Azamara ships are not really small. Small enough to get to destinations where the big ships can't go to - and that's the good thing about it. But nearly 700 passengers is still a lot and in some situations it didn't feel less crowded than on a 3000-passenger ship. For example pool deck on a sea day. If you arrived after 10 am you could not find any free sunbeds (of course not all of them occupied ones with people on them, but reserved with books, sunglasses, hats or other personal belongings. The crew did not remove this reservation stuff, I asked twice and then gave up) Or dinnertime at discoveries restaurant. We always showed up between 7.30 and 8.30 and never got a table at once, always were asked to have a seat at discoveries bar. But except of one evening there was no free chair at discoveries bar and we had to move to mosaic everytime.

Food quality:

Food in the main restaurant was not better than what we experienced at the mass market lines. Some things were quite good, like steaks, some other things disappointed: Shrimp in shrimp cocktail were watery and tasteless, dressing of Caesar's salad was not authentic, I tasted neither anchovis nor garlic and the Parmesan cheese was not sliced as it should have been but grated. The serving size of dishes, especially appetizers varied from two bites (spring roll) to full plates (ravioli) and you never knew before...

Breakfast in both discoveries and windows cafe was good and with very good service.

The brunch on the first day at sea in discoveries was good in variety and quality. The chocolate buffet one night at mosaic cafe looked good as well but it was so crowded I nearly couldn't grab anything. I think this is not the adequate location for it.

Tapas in Living Room is a nice add-on, we only were there twice and both times nearly were the only ones.

Aqualina was good and especially had a much nicer atmosphere with much lower noise and light level than discoveries. The food was good but in our opinion not worth the extra charge of 30$ pp. And nothing tasted like real Italian.

Both specialty restaurants were sold out very quick for the whole cruise and unfortunately I only made one reservation on embarkation day. We were on wait list for Prime C for any of the last 4 days but had no good luck. Other cruisers told us they had luck by just trying right at the restaurant later than 8.30. We did this at Prime C twice as well but they did not take us although there were at least five empty tables. In Aqualina we had better luck (and the maitre was much friendlier, too!) and so we got a table without reservation for a second dinner.

The Patio had a really nice salad bar and from burgers to sandwiches to lamb skewers to tuna wraps we liked everything we had there. We would have been there more often for dinner than just once, but there is a permanent annoying noise (I assume from the fume hood above the grill). For a quick lunch that noise didn't bother too much, but we didn't want to go back for dinner.

Room service was excellent, food was served hot and tasted good. The Caesar's salad from room service was much better than the one in discoveries, and with sliced parmesan!

Entertainment:

Although the singers and dancers and musicians were all really good and cruise director Eric seems to be a nice guy we didn't like the shows in Cabaret lounge. Too boring for our taste.

The ladies trio "Fancy Triplets" was technically not bad, too, but never created what I would call a good vibe. And I don't understand how the times of their performances were scheduled, for example in the living room from 5.30 to 6.30 pm and Tapas time was from 6 to 8. It would be nice to have some pre-dinner snacks with live music in the background!

Nearly every evening there was a music break from 10-20 minutes when they quit playing before the DJ started. Why?

The Azamazing evening was great. The Jamaican Reggae band "Third World" performed right at the pier in St.Maarten and they are really great. What a pity they only performed about 45 minutes.

We didn't like White Night. When we arrived at the pool deck a few minutes after 7pm there was of course no more free table; we don't mind sharing and I asked at a couple of tables where only two out of four chairs were occupied - these were all reserved for friends. I asked a waiter to find us some free chairs without any success. Finally other cruisers who mentioned that we were searching invited us to their table for 6. We didn't manage to get lobster as people in the line told us they waited for nearly 30 minutes now. The line for grilled meats was about 15 minutes. Beef and chicken was good and hot, vegetables were cold as ice. The line for desserts was very long, too - so we skipped it. The entertainment's highlight was a polonaise led by CD Eric - something we would do at a stag party or at Octoberfest style parties over here but did not expect on a higher class cruise ship. If we choose to book another Azamara cruise we definitely would not attend White Night

Staff:

Really very friendly and helpfull, especially our room attendents and most waiters. Officers very visible and friendly, too. Captain Johannes is a real entertainer, too!

Cabin:

I already commented in the cabins thread about our Aft balcony room 7121. We liked the room and the balcony but had soot and exhaust issues far more than expected

All Inclusive:

We appreciate that gratuities and most beverages are included. Our room attendent gave us "unlimited" bottles of water which was great, most complimentary wines were OK, the complimentary cocktails and longdrinks were adequate for us.

Flexibility:

We had to skip Punta Cana because of the expected swell and wind and the captain decided to go to Samana instead of Punta Cana. Big Plus, as most other ships that have to skip Punta Cana (and that seems to happen quite often) just make it an additional day at sea.

Again?

If price and itinerary fit we'll perhaps cruise again with Azamara. But I have to admit that we had higher expectations and Azamara did not really wow us.

On 6/26/2017 at 4:05 PM, laurieb said:

Quest, Category VX 7121

Standard size cabin with a much larger verandah than other cabins. Deck 7 is a perfect location, very quiet. Very peaceful watching the ships' wake! The table is much larger than other balcony cabins so it's easier to eat outside. Unlike verandahs in other categories, the aft verandah seemed to lack privacy; people standing at the edge are very visible, on the sides and up and down. Also, got a very good look at the guest staying in the adjoining cabin through the glass divider as the mirror reflected them into our cabin; please use caution regarding what you are or are not wearing!

We did have soot on our table and chairs every morning, and sometimes the smell of diesel fuel was quite strong.

I've wanted to stay in an aft balcony cabin since we started sailing on the R ships in 2003 and I'm happy I have had the opportunity to do so. If the price was the same as standard balconies I might choose this cabin again, but I wouldn't pay a premium for it.

Just have been in 7121 on Journey at the March 1st 2019 voyage.

I want to underline what laurieb said about soot and espacially smell of exhaust gases. The first days of our cruise we went upwind and although the balcony was cleaned regularly from soot you could not sit outside and enjoy breakfast because the smell was so strong. Actually we even had to close the balcony door at night because of the stinking exhaust gases. And one of the main reasons for us to chosse a balcony cabin ist to sleep at open windows! 

On the way back to Miami the wind was more from behind and there were much less problems with soot and smell.

We did know what to expect concerning privacy and this was not a problem for us.

The larger size of the balcony and the view of the wake are of course big advantages oft an aft cabin. But like laurieb we only would take an aft balcony again at a very good rate because oft the smell issues, otherwise we'd prefer a standard balcony at the side.