First Time Azamara Cruiser - Full Report

[TxnAquarian]

As we sit docked here in Buenos Aires on the last night of this 9-night cruise, I just wanted to give a quick report on our first Azamara experience. Most of my cruises have been with Crystal and Celebrity - my favorite ships being Celebrity's Solstice Class. My husband and I are in our mid-30s and cruise twice a year. We almost cancelled this cruise a couple times, due to concerns about fellow travelers, old ships, dated decor, etc. But as this cruise comes to an end, we are so happy we decided to try AZ.

 

As soon as we boarded the Journey in Rio all of our concerns about an old ship were alleviated when we saw how well the "classic" decor really works. It's a lovely ship - very cozy and well- maintained. Yes, the style isn't my personal taste. But it works here. We were in a Club Continent Suite (8063) and were Wow'd by the amount of space. It was much bigger than we expected. Huge balcony and bathroom as well. We won't be able to sail in any lesser room type on these ships from now on. Overall the ship looks great, but some renovations do need to be done - especially in the hallways and soft goods in the rooms. Hopefully this will take place sooner rather than later.

 

We found the service to be great, overall. The ladies working guest relations were cranky and unfriendly. But everyone else was lovely. Everyone who works onboard says "Good Morning" or some acknowledgement in passing. The drink servers are constantly checking to make sure you don't need a drink - a great change from Celebrity where it is next-to-impossible to get a drink. I have sat through several meals on Celebrity with no drink at all. The staff is friendly and attentive on AZ. The daily offering of goodies from our butler was lovely as well.

 

Food was uniformly excellent in all venues, although the lunch options in Windows Cafe needs some work. We loved the main dining room, always able to get a table for the three of us and great food. Prime C and Aqualina were also fantastic - better than any venue on Celebrity.

 

The Azamazing Evening in Rio was a "Samba Spectacular". It certainly wasn't "amazing", but we enjoyed it and appreciated doing something that we wouldn't have done otherwise. We think that it would have been nicer to offer local appetizers, since we don't drink. The dinner offered before the event was too early for us and the small sandwiches offered onboard afterwards were kind of gross.

 

I have heard some people on here complain about AZ's increasing prices. I don't know what the fares used to be, but we felt that the current fares are very fair for the high level of service we received. We paid about 2k more than we usually do on Celebrity and about 1k less than Crystal. Very reasonable.

 

Yes, we missed the Solarium and large casino on Celebrity (and I don't see us doing an AZ cruise longer than 10 days because of this), but we truly loved this ship and the AZ product. Celebrity and AZ will be our first choices for cruises in the future. Very happy first-timers here :)

 

 

 

 

Michael

[OctoberKat]

Appreciated your fair-minded report.

[uktog]

A lovely fair perspective. You balanced the need for modern amenities with your desire for good service very well and got a great outcome as a result, this should help others who are unsure see an alternative perspective

Thanks

[Grandma Gilly]

So pleased your fears were allayed. You boarded in Rio as we disembarked. I do agree with you about the 'softs' and I too prefer more modern decor but somehow the ships just work.

Never is a long time but I too don't think I could go back to a regular balcony cabin.

Food is always such a personal thing and we love the lunches in window where we can get a simple sandwich or salad. We have found the lunches on other ships too compicated. We are happy to have 'fine dining' in the evenings.

Hope you are now an Àzamara convert!!! Have a safe journey home.

Gill

Edited December 22, 2014 by Grandma Gilly

[JVNYC]

Thanks Michael for your great review. My partner and I are also considering our first Azamara cruise. Was wondering how you felt Azamara compared with Crystal (as we are also considering Crystal). Would you choose one over the other now?

 

So the lunch buffet wasn't great? I must admit, I always enjoy a good buffet after a long morning in port. Was it the food quality or the lack of choices? I'd love to hear from others as well on what they think of the lunch buffet.

 

Thanks again!

 

Joe

[excitedofharpenden]

Great to hear you had such an enjoyable cruise. The casinos certainly aren't the hive of activity you see on Celebrity. Depending upon itinerary and coupled with the overnights the ship does it is sometimes rarely open.

 

Here's to your next Azamara!

 

Phil

[ellbon]

I sent a note to the ship about the front desk. .mention you loved the ship over all- food etc. felt service was great but not there. i found them more formal than QS this summer. but blamed that on they did not me know me.

 

i am sure this will be address .so that next time they are warmer and more friendly...

 

Robin

[TxnAquarian]

Thanks Michael for your great review. My partner and I are also considering our first Azamara cruise. Was wondering how you felt Azamara compared with Crystal (as we are also considering Crystal). Would you choose one over the other now?

 

So the lunch buffet wasn't great? I must admit, I always enjoy a good buffet after a long morning in port. Was it the food quality or the lack of choices? I'd love to hear from others as well on what they think of the lunch buffet.

 

Thanks again!

 

Joe

 

 

Hi Joe,

 

For me, Crystal and Azamara are pretty neck-in-neck. Crystal's overall service is so flawless, but I much prefer the Country Club Casual dress code on Azamara. It was great not to drag suits with us. The Azamara staff are equally friendly and genuine to Crystal's - in fact, I was a little turned off during my most recent Crystal cruise by the endless amounts of time the staff spent engaging the people who cruise half the year on those ships. Those of us occasional cruisers felt ignored. Azamara staff were equally friendly to regulars AND newcomers. Crystal's ships are nicer and modern after recent multi-million dollar facelifts. But AZ's ships are still lovely and comfortable.

 

My main issue with the lunch buffet was the lack of variety - the food was uniformly good. But they offered potatoes and blue cheese pasta and rice and fish every day. And the salad bar is minuscule. It wasn't bad at all. It just got boring after a few days. We did find the food quality to be on the same level as Crystal. But Crystal offers more options and variety.

 

I really enjoy both lines about the same , but AZ wins out for bring more casual. And the size of the Club Continent Suite is much larger than the Veranda Room we get on Crystal (and is at the same price point, basically).

 

Michael

[hubofhockey]

Thank you for posting your report. We have never cruised on Azamara or any other luxury line and had our concerns. It's always something we wanted to do and booked with the double upgrade special, getting a balcony cabin for $5,700 and $150 OBC as well on a 7-day Venice to Venice Croatia cruise. I am not going to complain about that pricing. It may be a little more than we pay for mass market cruises, but with no gratuities and some drinks included, it's not bad at all. We figured that seven days was perfect to test drive Azamara and also spend 7 days doing a land vacation in Italy (we have done two previous Med cruises).

 

Our concerns are entertainment and finding things to do on a small ship. Most of our cruises are on larger ships and we always find something to do. We figure, at worst, we'll have a great time with a port intensive itinerary and have nice dinners and drinks at night. That's not a bad scenario.

 

Other concerns include limited roll calls which prevent sharing of smaller private tours. We'll either book ship excursions or join larger independent excursions. We have over a year to figure that one out.

[marinaro44]

Thank you for posting your report. We have never cruised on Azamara or any other luxury line and had our concerns. It's always something we wanted to do and booked with the double upgrade special, getting a balcony cabin for $5,700 and $150 OBC as well on a 7-day Venice to Venice Croatia cruise. I am not going to complain about that pricing. It may be a little more than we pay for mass market cruises, but with no gratuities and some drinks included, it's not bad at all. We figured that seven days was perfect to test drive Azamara and also spend 7 days doing a land vacation in Italy (we have done two previous Med cruises).

 

Our concerns are entertainment and finding things to do on a small ship. Most of our cruises are on larger ships and we always find something to do. We figure, at worst, we'll have a great time with a port intensive itinerary and have nice dinners and drinks at night. That's not a bad scenario.

 

Other concerns include limited roll calls which prevent sharing of smaller private tours. We'll either book ship excursions or join larger independent excursions. We have over a year to figure that one out.

I think you'll find Azamara roll calls to be very active with opportunities for arranging private tours.

[beachseeker]

I think you'll find Azamara roll calls to be very active with opportunities for arranging private tours.

 

our Mediterranean cruise had a very, very small roll call and very little early planning. Several posted within a couple of weeks of sailing and wanted to join private excursions. Our Caribbean cruise last year had a bit larger roll call and we were able to put a couple of really nice private excursions together and made some very special friends. But, both were very small roll calls and not very active when compared to roll calls on the mass market cruise lines. Our cruise roll call in February on the Eclipse has over 200 pages and has been active for almost two years.

[hubofhockey]

That's what I thought. We'll do some ports on our own and some ship excursions. If roll call materialized, great. If not, we're good. I've been on many good Princess roll calls filled with tour sharing.

[Familygoboston]

Thanks for your review! Like Len (hub of hockey) we also just booked AZ for the first time. We considered a handful of luxury lines, and after looking at Windstar, Oceana and AZ, we chose AZ for the more casual vibe, even though the ship has more passengers than Windstar (another causal line) it was cheaper and we could take advantage of some of our reciprocal Diamond/Voyager perks.

 

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed your cruise, we are hopeful ours will be something between the small expedition sized ships and the large mass markets we've taken in the past.

 

It's funny Len- we almost booked that same cruise, both Venice and Croatia seem very intriguing, but the summer timing doesn't work for us!

[pmacher61]

I was on the same Rio to Buenos Aires 9 day cruise that disembarked Dec 22.

I've been on over 70 cruises including now 2 on Azamara, 2 on Oceania, Seabourn, Crystal, and a range of other lower price point lines over the past 25 years. I have been at sea for 100 days this year. In my opinion, service by all staff, crew and officers (with one exception by Guest Services) was excellent. In particular, all dining room/buffet staff were extraordinarily efficient, polished and friendly without being intrusive. Heike, the Hotel Mgr, was more hands on than any other 4 striper I have ever observed at sea. She does a great job with staff.

 

I can not say the same for the food. I have occasionally written about food/restaurants for a couple of small So Am publications. In anticipation of the platitudinous "tastes in food are so subjective" rejoinder, it's my observation that there are sufficiently well-defined limits to the subjectivity of food taste and quality that most people can generally agree that something is good, bad, or in-between, e.g. most would prefer a well prepared lobster to poorly prepared frozen fish sticks.

 

We tried the French chef's table ($75 pp add-on) and I was disappointed. As is customary with haute cuisine, there were no condiments on the table (insulting the chef and all that). Unfortunately, my appetizers/soup would have benefitted from some spicing up. Please pass the non-existent pepper and olive oil for that tuna tartar. Lackadaisically, I chose not to bother asking our waiter to retrieve some. My bad.

The main course of beef loin was, not surprisingly, as flavorless as it was tender. Change the cut or sauce it more elaborately. The sommelier droned on with esoteric comments on the wines to such length that one was tempted to start a food fight or do anything else that would get him to stop talking and start refilling glasses. I find it hard to believe any of the 12 diners were interested in how long before the must is separated from the pomace of each wine.

 

I experienced the same disappointment in Aqualina ($25 pp add-on). The ravioli pasta encasing a lobster flavored filling (vaguely so flavored owing to the apparent paucity of lobster) was gooey/mushy almost to the point of inedibility. Were they reheating these things in a microwave? In order to constitute a decent portion, the two large shrimp scampi of my main course had to be plated along with 3 medium shelled shrimp, the kind served throughout the ship. What about just adding one or two more large prawns cooked as scampi? The pasta side (a requested substitute for rice) was dry and ordinary.

 

I fared better in Prime C, but just barely. The lobster bisque was nothing like the rich creamy concoction I have had in other specialty restaurants on other lines. The one spaghetti noodle floating in the dish was as much a surprise to my waiter as me. He later informed me it was designed as the raft supporting the lone miniscule piece of lobster served atop the bisque. The veal tenderloin main was okay, but I would have preferred the option of a more flavorful veal chop. The accompanying baked potato was obviously reheated/nuked, but it still arrived insufficiently warm. Service was okay, but no better than the MDR.

 

Speaking of the MDR, I ordered the Chef's Selection on the first night - pork scallopini with a crab sauce. It was not good. Nor was I impressed (favorably) with any of the subsequent meals in the MDR. Ditto for the buffet in Windows Café. I have to believe Azamara has cut back on food costs. Either that or it needs to reexamine its home office menus/preparation. The paradigm example of ineptitude were the corned beef finger sandwiches served after returning from the Azamazing evening - 2 inches of bread (not rye) surrounding a thin sliver of beef. They got the bread and the beef confused!

 

The hamburgers served at the pool grill can stand to be upgraded and why was sweet pickle relish only available upon request? Unlike the hamburgers, the veggie burgers were prepared freshly each time and were very good.

 

Lastly, what is with the all inclusive drink list? The house wines were fine, but I thought that the selection of mixed drinks that were not included made little sense. After all, other mixed drinks using identical or almost identical ingredients (no cost differential) were included. I could have a bloody mary, grasshopper, marguarita, or screwdriver free , but not a Negroni or cosmo? It struck me that there was little thought given to the composition of the all inclusive drink list. A minor distraction, but perhaps an indication of the frugality of the executive menu makers.

 

p.s. When operating in So Am waters some thought should be given to keeping the dining venues open later in the evenings. People who live in Bs. As. seldom sit down to dinner before 9 pm - when the MDR and specialty restaurants were closing down.

p.p.s. I would have liked some more dance music before dinner. The orchestra was great, but seldom played for dancing.

p.p.p.s Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed the cruise. Food was disappointing only because I had higher expectations.

Edited December 24, 2014 by pmacher61

[jollyjoyce]

As we sit docked here in Buenos Aires on the last night of this 9-night cruise, I just wanted to give a quick report on our first Azamara experience. Most of my cruises have been with Crystal and Celebrity - my favorite ships being Celebrity's Solstice Class. My husband and I are in our mid-30s and cruise twice a year. We almost cancelled this cruise a couple times, due to concerns about fellow travelers, old ships, dated decor, etc. But as this cruise comes to an end, we are so happy we decided to try AZ.

 

As soon as we boarded the Journey in Rio all of our concerns about an old ship were alleviated when we saw how well the "classic" decor really works. It's a lovely ship - very cozy and well- maintained. Yes, the style isn't my personal taste. But it works here. We were in a Club Continent Suite (8063) and were Wow'd by the amount of space. It was much bigger than we expected. Huge balcony and bathroom as well. We won't be able to sail in any lesser room type on these ships from now on. Overall the ship looks great, but some renovations do need to be done - especially in the hallways and soft goods in the rooms. Hopefully this will take place sooner rather than later.

 

We found the service to be great, overall. The ladies working guest relations were cranky and unfriendly. But everyone else was lovely. Everyone who works onboard says "Good Morning" or some acknowledgement in passing. The drink servers are constantly checking to make sure you don't need a drink - a great change from Celebrity where it is next-to-impossible to get a drink. I have sat through several meals on Celebrity with no drink at all. The staff is friendly and attentive on AZ. The daily offering of goodies from our butler was lovely as well.

 

Food was uniformly excellent in all venues, although the lunch options in Windows Cafe needs some work. We loved the main dining room, always able to get a table for the three of us and great food. Prime C and Aqualina were also fantastic - better than any venue on Celebrity.

 

The Azamazing Evening in Rio was a "Samba Spectacular". It certainly wasn't "amazing", but we enjoyed it and appreciated doing something that we wouldn't have done otherwise. We think that it would have been nicer to offer local appetizers, since we don't drink. The dinner offered before the event was too early for us and the small sandwiches offered onboard afterwards were kind of gross.

 

I have heard some people on here complain about AZ's increasing prices. I don't know what the fares used to be, but we felt that the current fares are very fair for the high level of service we received. We paid about 2k more than we usually do on Celebrity and about 1k less than Crystal. Very reasonable.

 

Yes, we missed the Solarium and large casino on Celebrity (and I don't see us doing an AZ cruise longer than 10 days because of this), but we truly loved this ship and the AZ product. Celebrity and AZ will be our first choices for cruises in the future. Very happy first-timers here :)

 

 

 

 

Michael

 

Michael, I am so happy you enjoyed your cruise. We were on the cruise too and really enjoyed it (our 5th with AZ).

I was sorry not to have the chance to meet you...and put a face to the CC name....but you didn't come to the CC Meet & Mingle on the first day.....did you not get an invitation in your cabin or did you just not want to come...anyway, sorry not to have met you.

You forgot to mention in your report....and I do really hope you attended it....the wonderful Christmas Show put on by the Amazing Eric De Gray.....it was fabulous and a fitting finale to a wonderful pre- Christams cruise.

[hubofhockey]

Thanks for your review! Like Len (hub of hockey) we also just booked AZ for the first time. We considered a handful of luxury lines, and after looking at Windstar, Oceana and AZ, we chose AZ for the more casual vibe, even though the ship has more passengers than Windstar (another causal line) it was cheaper and we could take advantage of some of our reciprocal Diamond/Voyager perks.

 

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed your cruise, we are hopeful ours will be something between the small expedition sized ships and the large mass markets we've taken in the past.

 

It's funny Len- we almost booked that same cruise, both Venice and Croatia seem very intriguing, but the summer timing doesn't work for us!

 

Kathleen, who knows? We may be on another cruise together. We do like the July 4 week because our teens (now much older) are away and I can combine with work holidays. I do think we will be on the third Oasis ship in 2017. For every reason that we loved the Allure, I have fears about Azamara. I love really good entertainment and fun things to do. Loved the comedy club on the Allure as well. With Venice/Croatia and seven days on the Journey, we'll relax more on the ship and energy will go into days in ports and a week in Italy after the cruise.

 

I'm sure the food will be fine for us. The mass market lines are all using previously frozen foods and dining has gone down the hill, even in many specialty restaurants. We're looking forward to longer dinners on the Journey with more time for wine, etc. If there's entertainment, we'll find it.

[Host Jazzbeau]

The mass market lines are all using previously frozen foods and dining has gone down the hill, even in many specialty restaurants.

 

Meat and fish are pre-frozen because they need to source from certified vendors -- but we had a galley tour on Princess and all fruits and vegetables are fresh and all baked goods are made from scratch (bags and bags of flour even near the end of the cruise).

[CintiPam]

Thank you for posting your report. We have never cruised on Azamara or any other luxury line and had our concerns. It's always something we wanted to do and booked with the double upgrade special, getting a balcony cabin for $5,700 and $150 OBC as well on a 7-day Venice to Venice Croatia cruise. I am not going to complain about that pricing. It may be a little more than we pay for mass market cruises, but with no gratuities and some drinks included, it's not bad at all. We figured that seven days was perfect to test drive Azamara and also spend 7 days doing a land vacation in Italy (we have done two previous Med cruises).

 

Our concerns are entertainment and finding things to do on a small ship. Most of our cruises are on larger ships and we always find something to do. We figure, at worst, we'll have a great time with a port intensive itinerary and have nice dinners and drinks at night. That's not a bad scenario.

 

Other concerns include limited roll calls which prevent sharing of smaller private tours. We'll either book ship excursions or join larger independent excursions. We have over a year to figure that one out.

 

Our second Azamara cruise was this itinerary in September 2013, and we had a lovely time visiting such a beautiful area. We had a very active roll call and shared several interesting private tours. Hopefully you will find the same.

 

We spent some time pre-cruise exploring more obscure (and therefore not crowded sites) in and around Venice and post-cruise went on to Milan and then to Paris on the high-speed train.

Edited December 26, 2014 by CintiPam

[excitedofharpenden]

 

I can not say the same for the food. I have occasionally written about food/restaurants for a couple of small So Am publications. In anticipation of the platitudinous "tastes in food are so subjective" rejoinder, it's my observation that there are sufficiently well-defined limits to the subjectivity of food taste and quality that most people can generally agree that something is good, bad, or in-between, e.g. most would prefer a well prepared lobster to poorly prepared frozen fish sticks.

 

We tried the French chef's table ($75 pp add-on) and I was disappointed. As is customary with haute cuisine, there were no condiments on the table (insulting the chef and all that). Unfortunately, my appetizers/soup would have benefitted from some spicing up. Please pass the non-existent pepper and olive oil for that tuna tartar. Lackadaisically, I chose not to bother asking our waiter to retrieve some. My bad.

The main course of beef loin was, not surprisingly, as flavorless as it was tender. Change the cut or sauce it more elaborately. The sommelier droned on with esoteric comments on the wines to such length that one was tempted to start a food fight or do anything else that would get him to stop talking and start refilling glasses. I find it hard to believe any of the 12 diners were interested in how long before the must is separated from the pomace of each wine.

 

You are correct that food is indeed subjective. I've spent just short of 100 days on Azamara this year (said as an endorsement of experience rather than as a brag and I feel very fortunate to be able to have done it) and most of the time found the food very good indeed. Sometimes excellent and occasionally disappointing. However I would never describe the food or its advertisement by Azamara as "haute cuisine". There just isn't the food supply chain or individual preparation time to achieve that.

 

Phil

[pmacher61]

You are correct that food is indeed subjective. I've spent just short of 100 days on Azamara this year (said as an endorsement of experience rather than as a brag and I feel very fortunate to be able to have done it) and most of the time found the food very good indeed. Sometimes excellent and occasionally disappointing. However I would never describe the food or its advertisement by Azamara as "haute cuisine". There just isn't the food supply chain or individual preparation time to achieve that.

 

Phil

Phil, thanks for taking time to comment. Re the description of the chef's table dinner as haute cuisine... that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet; however, when I spend an additional 75 bucks pp for a meal I would expect elaborate cooking, e.g. haute cuisine. Especially when the charge for the "specialty" restaurants is $25.

I did the chef's table aboard the Norwegian Breakaway earlier this year. It was also for 12 people, cost $100, included a galley tour, three 7x12" photos, and a better much meal.

 

Aboard the Journey I was disappointed by the quality of food in general. I had a few good meals, but there were too many disappointments. If Azamara's competition is Oceania and if my experience is any indication of the comparison, Oceania wins hands down.

Edited December 26, 2014 by pmacher61

[excitedofharpenden]

Re the description of the chef's table dinner as haute cuisine... that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet; however, when I spend an additional 75 bucks pp for a meal I would expect elaborate cooking, e.g. haute cuisine. Especially when the charge for the "specialty" restaurants is $25.

The up charge mostly reflects the extra courses and wine pairing with the meal.

 

Phil

[BBMacLaird]

Phil, thanks for taking time to comment. Re the description of the chef's table dinner as haute cuisine... that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet; however, when I spend an additional 75 bucks pp for a meal I would expect elaborate cooking, e.g. haute cuisine. Especially when the charge for the "specialty" restaurants is $25.

I did the chef's table aboard the Norwegian Breakaway earlier this year. It was also for 12 people, cost $100, included a galley tour, three 7x12" photos, and a better much meal.

 

Aboard the Journey I was disappointed by the quality of food in general. I had a few good meals, but there were too many disappointments. If Azamara's competition is Oceania and if my experience is any indication of the comparison, Oceania wins hands down.

 

Hello pmacher61,

I am sorry to read you found the food onboard your first Azamara cruise not up to your expectations. I have shared this thread with our Executive Corporate Chef.

 

I also found your post script suggestions (post 14) intriguing, such as a late dinner seating per the South American tradition. And I was interested in your comments about what other lines include in their Chef's Table experience.

 

We value every guest's comments, good and bad, since we find there are ever more ways to improve the brand and the service.

 

Thank you for taking the time to post. I hope we will welcome you back aboard soon.

 

Bonnie

[Host Jazzbeau]

Bonnie -- I view the Chef's Table as a reasonable value, given the number of courses and the wine pairings. But my wife doesn't drink, so the charge for the two of us is much less appealing. I have read that some lines offer a reduced charge if one party eschews the wine. Does Azamara do that? Or could it be considered? Thanks.

[BBMacLaird]

Bonnie -- I view the Chef's Table as a reasonable value, given the number of courses and the wine pairings. But my wife doesn't drink, so the charge for the two of us is much less appealing. I have read that some lines offer a reduced charge if one party eschews the wine. Does Azamara do that? Or could it be considered? Thanks.

 

GM Host Jazzbeau, seems like a good idea, but this is a question for our Hotel/F&B department. I'll see what they say. I should have an answer Monday.

[Grandma Gilly]

The 'oh, so subjective' food issue. We disembarked Journey as the OP got on. We enjoyed most meals. We were on Oceania this summer and found the food only ok.

We didn't try the chefs table but ate in the speciality restaurants every other night and they have the same kitchen.