Tips From a Just-Returned First-Timer

Sorry you weren’t ‘wowed’ by Azamara as we were on our first cruise.

I’m surprised about ‘slow drinks service’ - that’s not generally been our experience - in fact lunchtime wine pouring has been a bit too quick at times, resulting in afternoon sleeps!

Where was your cruise - Excursions usually include some ‘active’ Tours - for example our upcoming Athens to Dubai Cruise includes 1 & 2 day Tours to Petra and Luxor, both of which are pretty active. As far as beach trips are concerned, I guess if they want to go to the beach, most people would just get a taxi, as that’s always going to be cheaper than any ship’s tour.

You were lucky to be able to get included wine served with room service, that’s not usually the case.

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Re room service and included wine there was a previous post re an owners suite where their guests were complaining that they had to "run upstairs" to get more free wine at sailaways.

1: You could always swap the included spirits for wine as we have done in the past

2:They could actually have bought wine ashore .

We may be getting towards reverse rum runners where wine is provided for room service and is actually bottled and taken home.

I sure hope this does not become a trend !!!!

Cruiserbornin75, It sounds as if you may have set yourself up for "failure" with preconceived expectations that Azamara is a luxury cruise line. It's a premium line along with Oceania positioned between mass market lines such as Celebrity or Royal Caribbean and luxury lines such as Regent, Seabourn and Silversea.

I'm sorry your very odd list (your words) caused you to have a less than an enjoyable Azamara cruise. Perhaps moving up to the premium lines might suit you better. I sailed Journey in August having sailed several Celebrity cruises. I found the experience far superior to my previous cruises on Celebrity. I had a couple of small misses on the Journey cruise, but I didn't let it diminish my enjoyment.

As a side note, I never book cruise line excursions because they're usually twice as expensive than if you booked the identical tour with an independent company.

 

Here is my list of cons...a very odd list in my opinion!

*i have never experienced "last call" on a ship before... Not even on a river cruise! The blink the lights and everything - every night.

*casino closes even though still in international waters... I guess taking money from just a handful of people isn't profitable enough.

*drink service is slow... From coffee and juice in the morning, to pool side and at the grill. I guess when it is included there is no reason to expedite. The selection of what is included at the various levels is also incomprehensible and there were no local choices included, which seemed counter-intuitive to the immersion approach.

*while I was a first timer on this line, my status on another line translated to this line, which was nice. But the returning guest reception required us to return almost two hours early from the port. If you like the port, don't come back early for the reception. You aren't missing much. They even took away already poured drinks rather than give them out. Maybe they would rather dump them out, but I couldn't help but think they were recycling them.

*as someone already mentioned, you have to seek out port maps instead of providing them in room. Strange approach.

*the time on port seemed off. Ports where there were many things to do time was short. Where there wasn't much the departure was late. When I say there were things to do, most of what I refer to is activities we would plan on our own. The excursions were geared towards a much older crowd. No beach excursions, no volcano/hot spring excursion which were things we had found on our own but couldn't schedule due to departure times.

*no storage in the bathroom. Two women sharing a cabin doesn't work with this bathroom configuration.

 

Overall, a good experience, but not a luxury line.

I guess if those are the only complaints we'll have an amazing trip in January since we don't gamble, aren't nighthawks, can swing by a bar if we want a drink in our room, and can grab a cab to the beach if that's our plan or research the local area before arriving in port.

We've been invited to loyalty events on Celebrity that are also during time in port. Unfortunately sometimes there are so many events scheduled, especially if there are very few sea days they just have to schedule them when they can. The nice thing is you can either choose to attend or not.

I wonder if they dumped the drinks because they'd been sitting out for a period of time. I think they'd rather give someone a fresh cocktail or glass of wine rather than one that has been sitting and either diluted and warm from melted ice or just warm from sitting out.

What time was last call?

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Do balcony cabins get robes, please?

Yes, and slippers too!

No port on ultimate or premium beverage packages.

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I just arrived back in the US after an unbelievably wonderful cruise with Azamara on the Adriatic. Our expectations were exceeded! I thought I'd note a few not immediately obvious things which I discovered (some of these are also noted in other threads on this board)

• Embarkation, the muster drill, and disembarkation are as brief and painless as possible
  
• This was the first cruise we had taken with open dining and I was slightly worried that there would be less comraderie in the dining room between us and the waitstaff. No worries!!!! The waiters were all wonderful and treated us as favorite relatives!
  
• The room was not nearly as small as it appears on the website! There were a couple of spaces that were a bit tight but we were not at all uncomfortable. There is plenty of storage space. The bathroom, however, was pretty tiny and the shower the smallest I've seen. Shaved my legs out of the shower
  
• There are tapas served in The Living Room every night before dinner -- we often went there for the beautiful view and a pre-dinner drink
  
• Maps of the ports do not come to your room every night as they do on many ships. They are available at the Guest Services desk, and recommended shopping/dining sites can be found as you exit the ship in the security area. Also, there is a "local representative" who comes on deck and is stationed in the Guest Services area who can answer questions and help you with arrangements.
  
• The small ship advantage of docking close to the town and the Azamara principle of staying late in port make an enormous difference in your day! There are fewer lines, time in port when the crowds clear out, and times when you go back and forth from the ship to town multiple times per day. It makes for a much more relaxing experience
  
• Eating on the back deck, especially during sunset, is beautiful
  
• There is table service for dinner at the grill on the Pool Deck
  
• There is breakfast in the dining room with different items than appear in the buffet
  
• Do not, under any circumstances, miss the White Night Party or the Azamazing Evening! They are truly magical experiences and so much more fun than you can imagine. Even my husband, who is not necessarily a "joiner" or a fan of organized group activities, loved both of them
  

Hope these help!! We loved every second on this cruise!!