gregeol

We just got back from a 13 night cruise on the Azamara Journey that included three nights in St. Petersburg. We were a group of 8 and chose Best Guides Group for a three day tour. Our guide was Olga and she was wonderful. Her English was excellent and her knowledge and insight was extraordinary. The arrangements and tour went flawlessly and the bus that we had was in great condition. Our driver Sergei was very professional. I would recommend Best Guides Group to anyone.

More interested in the 10/14 cruise that we already have booked, Rome to Barcelona.

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Stags Leap petite sirah

Funny. I was the first to criticize Azamazing evenings on Cruise Critic (after the evening in Alesund/Norway in July) but had a blast in St Maarten on December 30! Yes, people were standing in front of us, but guess what, we just stood up and moved 2 inches to the side. Problem solved. :rolleyes:

 

Given the last minute venue change, I think the Quest team did a remarkable job. We enjoyed the punch and fresh fruit skewers, the child orchestra, the exotic dancers, the fire dancers, etc. etc. I also thought they did a good job decorating the site. As for the ship's officers, contrary to what gregol writes, they were standing next to the 'stage' the whole evening: Captain Jose, Ryszard, Russ, even the Chief Engineer. No one left.

 

On a different topic, the New Year's Eve celebrations, an 'extended' white night party, were even more spectacular. We had diverted to St Maarten due to difficulties with the tender operation in St Barts due to swell, so could enjoy both a great deck party with ice sculptures, balloons, live music and delicious food as well as the local fireworks above the bay. A night to remember!

 

The staff and crew on this ship are working exceptionally hard (beyond believe actually) to make this a memorable journey and I don't agree the above criticism is deserved. Just my opinion.

 

Greetings from Quest and a happy, healthy and very successful 2014 to all of you!

 

Floris

I'm truly glad you enjoyed the evening, I imagine others might have as well I can only report on what my experience was. I will dispute two things with you however. First when I spoke of officers I really meant anyone in authority who could be contacted. I knew that Captain Jose was on stage, but I did not know about the others because I could not see the stage. I went to the back to try and find someone and all that were there earlier were no where to be seen. I certainly didn't feel in a position to go to the stage and talk to the Captain.

As far as "taking a couple of steps to the side and voila" goes that may have worked for one or two people but not many more than that. The area that people were standing in was about 30' wide with chairs set up on either side, so there wasn't much room to manuever. At one point the standing crowd was 8-10 deep and 20-30 across. I'm 5'7" so even standing I would have seen nothing if I was behind the second row. We did not jump up and run up to stand because we assumed the staff from Azamara would have everyone sit down since that was clearly intended the way the seats were set up. I think that my biggest problem was Azamara's poor execution of the event and lack of attempt to manage the situation.

The only thing amazing about the Azamazing evening on St. Maarten on 12/30 was how badly executed it was. The venue was changed due to heavy rains and standing water at the original site, which is understandable. The other problem with the original site was transporting 700 people on an island that has limited large transportation and pretty much shuts down at 6. The event was moved to the cruise pier so the passengers could walk. Chairs were set up along the sides of the walkway and the entertainment was supposed to occur between the seats. About the time the entertainment was to start the late arrivers came and stood in the walkway in front of the seated guests. Despite repeated requests they refused to move so that those seated could not see. No one moved, in fact more people continued to come and stand. One of the people was Larry Pimental who stood pretty much in front of my chair. The people in charge of the event made several announcments for everyone to clear the middle, but no one including Mr. Pimental paid any attention. My wife finally commented loud enough so he could hear that she got there early to get a good seat and now she couldn't see anything. He just looked at her and never moved. The ship's officers left when the performance started so there was no one left to talk to from Azamara. Finally the ladies in charge of the venue brought more chairs from the back and told the people to sit down. Many people started leaving at that time, about half way through the performance. The entertainment itself were local dancers and children playing steel drums. The kids were cute and played fairly well, but that was early in the show and we only heard it, we couldn't see. The dancers were fairly amateurish. The rest of the evening was taken up with line dancing and exhorting the crowd to make noise. The only drinks provided were rum punch and fruit punch. Food consisted of a few desert items. Also because of the evening only a buffet was offered in the main dining room. All-in-all the whole evening was poorly planned and executed and pretty disappointing. If this is the best Azamara can do they should just forget it and not hype it up so much.

We are booked on the Coral for an Alaska cruise next August. We also did the land package preceding the cruise. When we are in Denali we are booked on the four hour natural history tour but would like to book the 7 hour tundra wilderness tour. Does anyone know who we talk to to make this switch? Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

I quite agree that the cruise is the main thing , and I will have a great time on my next Azamara cruise just as I did on my last one. The main problem as I see it is that Azamara builds expectations by leaking these announcements and then falls short of the expectations in execution. Beer has been an issue in some context with Azamara on these boards for quite some time. The current inclusive beers are an example. It appears to me that the beers were selected by bean counters based on which brewer gave Azamara the best price. It seems logical to me that if a person doesn't like Budweiser then they probably don't like Bud Light either. Unfortunately on my next cruise the ship will be stocked in the US so the Beck's as other people have observed will not be of the same quality as it is in Europe. This is where my frustration comes from. Technically there are three beers to chose from but in reality there are only two. So unless there is a huge difference in cost between similar types of beer it seems that Azamara is creating some disappointment by not offering a wider variety.

My prior comments about Cutty Sark remain the same, it is a low cost, low quality Scotch.

While I know there is no way to please everyone the liquor list is very disappointing. The beer selection is atrocious, two tasteless rice beers and one so-so German lager. The worst is that just one scotch is included and that is Cutty Sark a truly rotgut brand. I was hoping Jameson would be included, since I'm an Irish drinker but I did not expect it to be. Looks like I'll still be paying for my drinks. The wines for the most part have always been enjoyable and the staff has always been accommodating if you found one you really liked. So my feeling is that the wine program is good, but the inclusive liquors are a major disappointment.