Freckles49

Azamara Quest / Celebrity Millenium Aqua Class comparison.

Context:

My husband (Pete) and I started cruising in 2009. Our first cruise was with Azamara Quest, we have now sailed 4 times with them. Once with Oceania Marina and once with Oceania Insignia.

This was our first Celebrity cruise and we took an Aqua class cabin Deck 9 A2 on Celebrity Millennium*

All of our Azamara cruises have been in a balcony cabin.

This is my comparison of the two cruise experiences and I would like to state at the outset that it is my opinion alone (with the occasional additions from my husband). I do not want to enter into any

controversial arguments through my postings. There may be one or two inaccuracies and I will happily correct any errors.

Embarkation:

Equally smooth. Virtually straight out of the taxi, bags taken from us, quickly into line, welcome glass of fizz and cabins were ready, quicker on Celebrity (even though the ship had had a deep clean that morning).

Cabin:

Virtually identical. Shower Celebrity hands down superior, with jets and nozzles at chest and leg height along with overhead dish shower. Pete said best shower ever and if we could we would have one installed at home. No clingy curtain on Celebrity, proper fitted perspex doors. Bathroom products equally good.

Housekeeping:

On Azamara our cabin steward highlights the Do Not Disturb / Make up my room card almost as soon as we meet him. This seemed to ensure our cabin is cleaned as soon as we leave it and without exception we have returned from breakfast each day to find our cabin 'spick and span!'

On Celebrity there is only a DND card, in multiple languages so consequently we didnt have our room made up any day on our return from breakfast.

Overall appearance of both ships

Azamara:

I met a lovely elderly American gentleman on our last Azamara cruise who summed up the atmosphere of Quest by saying that he felt he was on the set of Downton Abbey!

Yes, if you look hard theres some wear and tear, some rust spots here and there but the overall feel of the ship is Country House Hotel.

Celebrity:

I had read so many negative reviews on the state of the Millenium that I was apprehensive. Simply no need! Its in the Azamara mould. Yes, there are also rusty bits here and there, carpets that may have seen better days but I really liked all the public areas. Celebrity's Christmas decorations, like Azamaras last year are elegant and understated.

Cleaning:

On both ships there was constant cleaning and maintenance during our 2 week trip.

Restaurants:

Celebrity Blu

Was our assigned restaurant and its like a speciality restaurant. We can eat breakfast and dinner there and the food and service have been outstanding. A special mention for the soups, all of them were delicious!

Celebrity Main Dining Room:

Have eaten lunch there on port days. Very good, waiter service but you cant access the wine from Blu, our assigned restaurant. Maybe a good thing to have water only with lunch!!! Did not eat dinner here as Blu was our assigned restaurant and we loved it.

Celebrity Buffet restaurant

Very busy. Ate breakfast there on day 1 as Blu wasn't open at the time we got up!

There was nothing like the selection of dishes offered on Azamara. Also self service cutlery, tea/ coffee/water. It felt like a canteen.

On Azamara this is all waiter service and feels more like a restaurant.

Celebrity Specialities

Apart from Bistro on 5, where we ate on embarkation day (we were in the restaurant on our own).

We didnt eat in any of the Speciality Restaurants as we loved Blu.

Azamara Discoveries Dining Room:

Lovely atmosphere, staff v. attentive. Food mostly good but soups often tepid and fish slightly overcooked.

Azamara Windows Buffet:

Because of the small size of the ship this feels more like a dining room. Candles add atmosphere to themed evening buffets.

Azamara Speciality Dining:

As the main restaurant satisfied us most of the time we didnt feel the need to eat in the speciality restaurants on our last sailing. We have eaten in both previously, the food was delicious but very rich.

Elegant afternoon tea

On Celebrity only open to Elite Elite+ Zenith

Azamara open to all.

Captains Club

Celebrity: As this was our first cruise we didnt have any activities for our tier of membership unless we missed them.

Azamara :Captains Club drinks and canapes for all

Afternoon canapes delivered to your stateroom:

Far superior on Azamara.

Room Service Breakfast:

Far superior on Azamara

Cruise Critic

On Celebrity We had 2 meetings*

Both were in the morning with coffee and pastries. The first one was an introduction to the Captain and the Senior officers by the Cruise Director. Noone apart from the Cruise Director spoke. All participants had sticky name badges, no introductions but there were 80+ attending.

Azamara, evening drinks and canapes. Introductions by Cruise Director and then a few words from the Captain and then the senior officers. All attending were then given the opportunity to introduce themselves with their Cruise Critic name and then mingle.Captain Senior officers

Not visible at all on Celebrity. The opposite on Azamara*Self Service Laundry:

Laundry:

None on Celebrity, separate costs for items to be laundered and items to be pressed.

Azamara washers and driers free to use, with soap provided on deck 7. 2 irons and boards.

Internet Minutes

Celebrity: we didnt qualify for any internet minutes as it was our first sailing.

Packages $59 for 90 minutes. Those we spoke to said it was painfully slow.

Azamara:

I think no free internet minutes on first sailing but then 80 minutes free on subsequent sailings.

We were able to use them in our cabin on ipads.

The Library

Despite being on 2 floors and looking very cosy (Celebrity) Azamara has far more books. Maybe the age of the kindle and e readers is having an impact.

Celebrity Concierge:

For Aquaclass guests to be found in the Library.

We found this to be a wonderful resource. Whilst everyone else was queueing at Guest Relations to book shore excursions after our change of itinerary. The concierge did this for us from her desk in the Library.

Also I needed 2 safety pins to hold together a dress one night and the concierge went down to the crew quarters for me and came back with them!

Sunbeds

Azamara beds are luxurious and the same all over the ship.

Celebrity's are very poor, at least the ones that we've managed to get, no doubt the last ones left on the pool deck as sunbed bagging goes on. Some beds on Celebrity are vey luxurious, almost like a double bed with a thick mattress but just a few, some are very acceptable and then there were the ones we had with rubber ribbons slatted across, no mattress.

There are also a few wooden lacquered upright chairs which look like and feel like a mediaeval form of torture. They are in the thalassotherapy pool and on Deck 4. Awful!!!!

Thalassotherapy pool

Azamara has a charge for this

Celebrity open to all

Celebrity Persian Garden free to Aqua Class I loved the eucalyptus room.

Azamara nothing equivalent to Persian Garden.

Shore Excursions

We tend to make our own arrangements and steer away from the ships tours, mainly because they are so expensive.

Celebrity prices, I thought seemed more reasonable than Azamara prices.

Our one and only Azamara shore excursion was to Cairo in 2009. It was £100 each and the tour consisted of a very long drive from Alexandria to the Pyramids with very little time at the Pyramids. A visit to an uninteresting Museum, a papyrus factory and lots of hard sell of tee shirts and jewellery.

We have had very little option other than to take Celebritys tours on the new ports of call on this cruise*

Our first Celebrity excursion was to a village in Vietnam. It consisted of 4 stops. a temple, a market, a rice paper making house and a Pavilion, where monks were trained and the elderly were looked after. There was no hard sell, our guide was good and we found it enjoyable and informative.

Our second excursion was 'Bangkok on your own' it took 2 hrs from the container port by bus. We had 5 hrs there and then the return journey. We loved Bangkok but we didnt have enough time to do the city justice. We weren't leaving the port until midnight so Im unsure why we couldnt have been given more time in the city.

Evening Entertainment

Celebrity Theatre venue is far superior to Azamaras, but the ship holds 3+ times the number of passengers so you would expect this.

I saw a brilliant violinist, Raphael on Celebrity. A soprano not to our taste but who was possibly brilliant in her hey day. Shaolin Monks interesting but could have cut their act by half.

Azamara have the White Nights Party and the Azamazing Evening. We really enjoyed both and its another opportunity to interact with Captain and Officers.

The entertainment generally on Azamara is improving as its been an area for criticism in the past.

Day time entertainment.

Most of our Azamara cruises have been port intensive with at most 2 sea days. Some attempt at providing extra activities plus a speciality brunch. Very small area for shops, never went in any.

Celebrity large area for shops and lots of sales. Watches, jewellery, Park West etc etc.

For the size of the ship and the number of sea days activities were limited.

Drinks:

Azamara: all the drinks we had were included in our cruise fare, this in fact meant we drank far more than we should have done!

Celebrity: lots of people were on the drinks package, sadly not us so we bought wine packages i.e. 7 bottles of wine for $250 + 15%? We found this the most cost effective way of having wine with dinner. We also had a bar set up package when we boarded, which was 1 litre of gin 6 tonics and some nuts.

*we were on the cancelled Gems of Indonesia Cruise. We were told that we would not be calling in to Bali for 3 days and also not going to Komodo Island. Both of these destinations were the reason we booked the cruise and we had no communication before hand.

The first we knew of it was at embarkation check in when a very young girl had the onerous task of delivering this information to us. What were we to do? We'd travelled over 7,000 miles to get here.

Our new destinations were to be Saigon and Bangkok. We haven't been there before but Id spent weeks researching our Bali trip. Id booked drivers on 2 separate days and also booked a trip to see the Komodo dragons.

We were now on the ship with 2 new destinations, no time to research, no internet minutes (everyone said it was so painfully slow anyway). We really had no choice but to book the ships tours.

We also hadnt realised that our 2 new destinations were both a 2 hour journey both there and back from the port.

As we'd already booked Kuala Lumpur, 1 1/2 hrs there and back we really weren't keen on 2 more days spending that amount of time on a coach.

So... Have I got a favourite? If the price is right and the destinations appeal we would happily sail on either ship.

According to this article, X is going to give some OBC (amounts unspecified) and 30% off a future crusie. Not bad compensation at all (and not really needed under the T&C's either, so VERY generous in fact).

I beg to differ that this is very generous! I have yet to speak to anyone onboard who sees the offer as generous.

The onboard credit weve been given has been swallowed up with the cost of Celebrity shore excursions which many of us have now booked. Both Saigon and Bangkok are 2 + hrs drive each way and we are berthed in container ports miles from anywhere.

Several of us had booked taxis on Bali and private tours on Komodo, several people had also booked hotel overnight stays on Bali and have lost money.

This is our first Celebrity Cruise and our disappointment is such that we may never risk booking a further cruise.

We have been on several cruises previously where one port has been missed or changed which is acceptable, but to have a whole chunk of a cruise billed as Gems of Indonesia, where theres no Indonesia

Is beyond disappointing. I understand all the bribe arguments but it would seem this is not a new issue.

I use Emirates for all my Australasia flights in economy. I'm sure you'll benefit from the chance to stretch your legs between flights, and from the high baggage allowances. The A380s are really good to travel in, just avoid sitting close to the galley areas if you are trying to sleep;).

 

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Forums mobile app

Thank you so much for this reassuring post!

Jen

Hi Jenna,

Pete and I are on the Singapore leg of this cruise so Im eagerly awaiting your reports.

SO envious of your flight arrangements! We, on the other hand are travelling economy from Newcastle to Dubai, have a longish wait in Dubai, then on to Singapore.

We are hoping our Emirates experience is going to be better than any of our previous flights to Europe and the US.

In any case its all part of the holiday experience and I intend to enjoy it.

See you at the meet and mingle!

Jen

Congratulations, Deirdre. What an honor it must be for you as a guest blogger. Enjoyed your review and pictures.

What a very special honour and very well deserved. Look forward to reading more!

Regards to yourself and Rob.

Jen and Pete

Jen, take a moment and read this thread 'Live" from the Millie.,

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2109695

Thanks, have followed these ardently!

I love this site!

Many thanks for your speedy replies.

I will print this all off so I have it to hand.

Jen

We are sailing on Millenium to Asia next month. Im trying not to let those negative reviews get to me!

Its our first Celebrity cruise and we are in an Aqua class cabin. My confusion is around what is and what is not included on the food and drinks front.

We dont have a drinks package, so realise we will have a bill here. I understand we have water freely delivered to our cabin but can we drink anything else free on the ship? Lemonade? Teas and coffees? Only in some places or everywhere.

I also realise you have to pay to eat in the speciality restaurants but what about the Aqua Spa Cafe? Cafe Bacio, sorry if thats misspelt also has a charge, i know.

And I think Ive read that icecream is complimentary. I dont mind if there is a cost attached to any of the above but I would like to be forewarned if possible.

Thanks

Jen

If you booked them through Celebrity you should have a page showing flight details and vouchers for hotels and transfers. You do not need anything for your flights these days as your passport is all you will be asked to show. However, I would be concerned that nothing was showing on your eDocs. You may or may not actually need you hotel and transfer vouchers but, again, should have them.

 

As you booked through a TA, you need to be certain whether your flights, hotels and transfers were booked with Celebrity. If that is the case, the TA should provide the necessary and they will not show on your eDocs.

 

What ever the situation, you need to contact whoever you booked with and ensure that there are no problems. You mention that you received a "booklet". Celebrity do not send a physical booklet any more [unless you pay extra for them and, in the past, I have found that even if you are willing to pay, they have still not been available in the UK]. Perhaps your TA put a booklet together for you and just forgot to include everything?

Yes you are all right. Our TA did book our flights separately as we wanted to fly via Dubai and stay on in Dubai on the way home. Our son lives and works there.

So... Im not too worried about the flights but I am waiting for a call back from our TA re our transfer and hotel vouchers. After a very long journey from the UK to Singapore to have any kind of a hitch would be an awful start to our holiday!

Thanks again

Jen

This came available yesterday for our November cruise but unlike ones weve received before, from Azamara, it doesnt contain any information regarding our flights, transfers, pre cruise hotel stay.

We do have these on our ATOL certificate and TA confirmation invoice.

Is this normal?

Jen, we booked the West Indies cruise which is almost a duplicate of the one we went on where we met you and Pete. November 21, 2016. Don't you want to go back again with us....hint hint .....:D

Yes!! Would love to cruise with you both again someday. Trying to plan a cruise for 2015 at the moment..2016 is just a bit too far off for us. Very best wishes to you both.

By the way we set sail for Indonesia with Celebrity at the end of Nov. so Im going to try and do a comparison review afterwards.

Jen

One happy camper reporting in. We booked a week next September on the Quest and 10 days in balmy West Indies next November (2016) on the Quest, too, both at really reasonable fares. Great promo! :D

Nope, not working for me. Each time I go on the site I get gobbledegook and page not working messsage.

VV FRUSTRATING!

Jen

As always your review brings such pleasure to so many people. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this.

Yourself and Rob look so well!

Im now feeling very guilty about not yet submitting my Quest review.... But I will!!!

Very best wishes to you both.

Jen and Pete

for your reply.

The original flight did go ahead and I have contacted my TA with the details.

They have forwarded this on to Azamara and I await a reply.

As I said in my original post this is the second time we have had problems with our flights post Azamara Cruise and we are still waiting for a reply from the first incident.

Yes, we had a wonderful cruise. Thankyou.

Jen

Has anyone else had a last minute flight cancellation?

This has happened to us twice.

On our last Azamara cruise we had return flights direct from Nice To Manchester 18.55 p.m. which were changed 3 weeks prior to departure to a 16.10 p.m. flight Via Charles de Gaulle.

This meant that instead of having a 3.30p.m. transfer to the airport, we had a 9.15a.m. transfer, a 6 hr wait, 4 hrs with our suitcases at Nice.

A flight to Charles de Gaulle, a 3 hr wait , a flight to Manchester, and then a 3 hour drive home to Newcastle.

We contacted our TA on our return who forwarded this to Azamara.

Whose responsibilty is this?

Jen

We have just left Quest after our wonderful cruise July 27th - August 3rd Barcelona to Monaco.

Our Azamazing evening was in a chateau in Aix en Provence. It was about 40 mins on a coach but the transport arrangements worked like clockwork. V impressive. We wondered about eating as we had to be ready to board buses by 7pm. Neednt have worried, they put on a spectacular buffet in Discoveries from 5.30 onwards.

On arrival at Aix we were treated to fizz and canapés. Local music and dancing, lovely!

We were then invited into a large perspex marquee where we listened to a wonderful female opera singer, sorry should have noted her name. She sang, with breaks for an hour. Really enjoyable.

Before embarking our coaches home we were treated to more entertainment in the grounds of the castle..... Fire eaters, dancers.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening and I think Azamara have had some teething troubles with these events but its an experience and for me I would always give it a go!

You will love Celebrity I am sure. On our first Celebrity cruise I did a LIVE FROM with loads of tips, 30 second video clips and photographs of the food. You may find this useful to get a feel of Celebrity. Here is a link.

 

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1454387&highlight=jo+s+tip

 

I tried to do a "Jo's tips" entry throughout the posts (they will appear bright red as this is how I found the thread using the search forum facility) which could be particularly handy for the non cruisers in your family but also may help you as you are new to Celebrity.

Hi

We are also new to Celebrity after having sailed with Azamara and Oceania previously.

I was interested in the replies to the original post and then discovered your wonderful videos and postings. Many many thanks for doing this. A huge daily committment.

We are sailing on Millenium in November and have read many negative reviews in this site for Asia cruises.

Im hoping we have the same enjoyable experience as yourselves.

Thanks again

Jen

......So much for this information.

We are on Quest in 12 days time and we will now be ready and prepared to book speciality restaurants.

We left it far too late on our last trip, mainly because we loved Discoveries, and when we did fancy a change the only times offered to us were very early or very late. We took the late option and the restaurant was practically empty????

Jen

We have just returned home from our first cruise on Quest. Whilst we have to agree that the crew are fabulous we are slightly disappointed with certain elements of the cruise. For the cost of the cruise was surprised that "nibbles" were never brought around with the pre dinner drinks and had to ask for nuts etc. even had to go to the bar on several occasions to request a drink. Never had this service on celebrity, Silversea or Oceania. Think Azamara need to "up their fame" if they want to compete with other lines. If the price and itinerary was acceptable would cruise Azamara again but would not be my first choice.

Oh dear, Im so sorry that you were disappointed with your cruise on Quest.

We have sailed 4 times on Quest and are boarding again in 2 weeks. Azamara for us is pure luxury, and we have enjoyed every single aspect of this cruise line, so far.

Were there any other factors which caused you to be disappointed other than drinks and nibbles?

Jen

Yes, it would be nice if Bonnie would find out...haven't seen her on here lately.

Have sailed on 4 Quest voyages, and loved them all. Have never had this room spray... But have loved the fresh flowers, fresh fruit and everything else.

Jen

I have checked in online. No tags available yet. Each time I call, I get a different response. It seems out of line that a "luxury" line cannot provide tags. It is not that important. Just gives guests an uneasy feeling. This never happened on previous cruises. Why now?

Contacted my TA yesterday and had an immediate response. TA contacted Azamara and hey presto! Buttons for guest documentation booklet and luggage tags both there.

Luggage tags still diy but can cope with that!

Just printed E-Docs and Luggage Tags for our first Azamara cruise on the Journey in August

 

This is what I did -

 

Once you have completed all the online check-in

 

https://secure.azamaraclubcruises.com/dc/myAccount/onlineDocumentation/home.do?cS=SIDENAV

 

Enter the information on the link above and submit

 

select View Details - Online Check-in Summary

 

The next page should show E-Docs and Luggage Tags

 

Well it did for me

 

Cheers - Peter

Nope!!! Tried and tried but no next page for me! So sailing in 4 weeks have completed on line check in, printed xpress pass with 'diy luggage tag' Do I need anything else. We have transfers included but no hotel pre cruise?

There will be a button that will appear about 8 weeks out below your checkin summary, click that and you should get luggage tags pretty soon after. Looking at your sail date I'd check back next week to see if the order luggage tags button is showing up, you are just a little early just now

Hi

Jen here from Newcastle. We sail on Quest at the end of July and although I have completed on line check in and printed out the xpress pass I cant find this elusive button? There is, as part of the xpress print out a very 'home made affair' of a luggage tag, which is better than nothing but Im concerned we dont have any documentation relating to our transfers. Maybe I dont need to be!

Hi Jen, that's a wonderful itinerary you're going on! I forgot to answer your question about the AzAmazing Evening we had on the Journey last month--it was in Malta, not Marseilles, like yours will be. However, ours was a wonderful evening and I'm sure yours will be too. There were no hiccups with transporting all the guests to and from the event and everything ran smoothly. Azamara seems to have gotten the logistics of their Evenings down pat. ;)

 

To answer this question though. Not on Azamara but on Royal Caribbean, same boat as you with a late flight out. We took the ship's tour with airport transfer. Our luggage was loaded onto the bus, we took the 3 hour tour, and they dropped us all off at the airport at which time Rob and I checked in our bags for our flight and took the local airport express bus back into town for an afternoon of sightseeing. It all worked out really well.

 

I am not sure Azamara offers a late debarkation option. I read somewhere on CC that they were trying it out but that was a few years back so who knows if they do it now. In any event, you still have to get out of your cabin in the morning and typically you can stay on board only until noonish. I'd sooner take an excursion with transfer and do some sightseeing!

Pleases can you email me at jensloyan@ hotmail.com There are a couple of questions I need to ask you. Thanks

Jen

What a wonderful report- thank you!! We were on the same cruise, our first on Azamara, and loved every bit of it-onshore or in ports. Dreaded the shower curtain but didn't have a problem!! Thank you for taking the time to do this!!! Dottie

I am loving reading all of this. We have sailed Azamara Quest 4 times now and have a 5th booked for the end of July. We met Deidre and Rob on our last cruise, Christmas in the Caribbean and enjoyed their company very much.

I feel I am on the Quest with you, your report is so evocative. i am especially interested in comparisons with Celebrity as we have booked an Aquaclass cabin, deck 9 Millenium to Asia in November.

Thanks again Sandi, a lot of work but very much appreciated by so many of us!

Jen