Azura Maiden Caribbean

[Janey]

Just off the Azura on Saturday, Left Barbados in 33 degrees and landed to minus 12. I am still suffering from shock as we have had over 14 inches of snow here, our town was on the national sky news.

No cut backs on Azura, everything top quality. Food , drink, flowers, sweets, free bubbly and canapes on gala night and at the Portunus party. Great ship and great facilities but I do wish the staff would smile a bit, they all had such dead pan expressions all the time. They could do with a bit of Princess training methinks.

[mrspjotter]

Hi Janey - we are doing our 1st P&O cruise on Azura in Feb - have done 2 RCI cruise previously.

 

Someone mentioned on the P&O website about a chocolate buffet - did you have one of these on your cruise?

 

Can I also ask about the dress code on formal nights - does it relate to the whole ship - again something we aren't used to on RCI?

 

Many thanks - hope you warm up soon!

[Janey]

Yes we had a chocolate buffet. The formal dress code didn't apply to the buffet dining rooms or the outside bars. You would even get casual wear in the inside bars and no-one said anything. There are notices up outside the main dining rooms saying what the dress code is and of course also in the ship's newspaper but you always get people who ignore these. As far as semi-formal went only half the men wore jackets in any of the dining rooms or bars. It was very hot and humid so I think semi formal is quite unnecessary. It seems to be a very relaxed ship as far as rules go.

[mrspjotter]

Thanks for your quick reply Janey - are kids allowed to the chocolate buffet? What time of day is it and can you remember if it was a sea day or a port day?

 

Thanks for the info on the dress code - i've got mixed answers on the P&O website and having been used to formal dress code for just the MDR on RCI then I just wanted to check out the rules before I go!

[u2cruiser]

Just off the Azura on Saturday, Left Barbados in 33 degrees and landed to minus 12. I am still suffering from shock as we have had over 14 inches of snow here, our town was on the national sky news.

No cut backs on Azura, everything top quality. Food , drink, flowers, sweets, free bubbly and canapes on gala night and at the Portunus party. Great ship and great facilities but I do wish the staff would smile a bit, they all had such dead pan expressions all the time. They could do with a bit of Princess training methinks.

 

Probably still snowing at your place? It certainly is here in the Pennines.

 

Azura sounds great. I hope to find out for myself next year :D.

Wonder why the crew were miserable? They were very smiley on Ventura last month, though quite a few complained about the heat; that it would take some getting used to.

[38anchor]

Hi Janey,

glad you seemed to enjoy Azura, and its such a shame you have had to come back to such cold weather :(

 

We are cruising first time with P&O next year and I was just wondering how the Retreat is working in the Caribbean. Are they doing full cruise passes, or just per day passes? I don't suppose you know how busy it was, and how the booking process worked?

[Janey]

The Choc buffet was in Venezia and yes children could attend. Cannot remember which day though but I think we went after we had got back from a trip. It was not advertised in the daily paper nor was the winetasting in the Glasshouse. I picked them up from the cruise review paper in the cabin on arrival and the winetasting was sold out by the 2nd day of the cruise, only 24 people per session and they were on sea days.

The Retreat is available for whole days only, £20 for a sea day and £12 for a port day. You ring the Spa, or visit them. and book up for whichever day or days you want. They advertise in the daily paper if there are spaces left for the next day but they are usually fully booked. You don't have to go early and queue up!

Yes we have had another 6 inches of snow since we got home. I haven't been over the doorstep yet. I wonder how the flights will do on Friday going to Barbados to link up with the Ventura?

[38anchor]

The Retreat is available for whole days only, £20 for a sea day and £12 for a port day. You ring the Spa, or visit them. and book up for whichever day or days you want. They advertise in the daily paper if there are spaces left for the next day but they are usually fully booked. You don't have to go early and queue up!

 

Thank you

[themommy]

Thanks for this post - very reassuring.

We found the dress code on Ventura to be very well adhered to and hope Azura will be better.

I have asked P&O if Dry Cleaning is available and they have said yes it is - can you confirm please?

The only other time we experienced non-smiley staff was on Oceana when the Captain had directed staff not to personalise too much with the pax?! Hope its not the same with Azura.

 

So glad you had a nice cruise and thank you again for your views

[jeanlyon]

Must have changed the staff since I was on board in September :-) They were all great! Didn't like the ship, but couldn't fault the staff.

[tom_uk]

I think it all depends on the individual crew members we each come into contact with, and that's not a lot out of the whole crew. In fact I reckon that on a reasonable-length cruise, we might interact regularly with perhaps a dozen staff. There's our cabin steward and perhaps the steward for the next block of cabins as well; there's the two dining room waiters; the restaurant wine waiter; we tend to see the same couple of drinks waiters at perhaps three bars; and perhaps someone at the coffee shop. That's about a dozen, out of well over 1000 on Ventura and Azura. And of course our dozen could be completely different from everyone else's dozen. So I think it's quite possible for two people to come back from the same cruise with very different opinions of the crew, and both be right.