Interesting Comment on new ship.

[oliveau]

Hopefully Azamara will bring their ships up to Oceania Standards. We are trying A for the first time after the dry dock. Fingers crossed!

 

Are you sure you haven't got that back to front..........???

[LuAnn]

Hopefully Azamara will bring their ships up to Oceania Standards. We are trying A for the first time after the dry dock. Fingers crossed!

 

as a passenger many times on O and AZ I think you can "un-cross" those fingers....But I guess we will see based on your experience. ;) Because we each have our own criteria .....

 

We have sailed both lines...and find them both to be wonderful. Granted...the O ships are very different from the R ships...(based on design and size) and we have sailed both types of ships...but we have found both lines to be wonderful in many aspects. Food/staff/ports and many others areas we feel are similar...and TBH...the senior staff on AZ is very friendly...it that is of interest to you.

 

And don't get ME started on how the 2 lines treat CC members...NO pre-cruise help re M&Gs/luncheons etc. on O...and so much help on AZ...with senior staff..including the Captain and many other senior staff there for the M&G. LuAnn

Edited May 4, 2015 by LuAnn

[orchestrapal]

as a passenger many times on O and AZ I think you can "un-cross" those fingers....But I guess we will see based on your experience. ;) Because we each have our own criteria .....

We have sailed both lines...and find them both to be wonderful. Granted...the O ships are very different from the R ships...(based on design and size) and we have sailed both types of ships...but we have found both lines to be wonderful in many aspects. Food/staff/ports and many others areas we feel are similar...and TBH...the senior staff on AZ is very friendly...it that is of interest to you.

And don't get ME started on how the 2 lines treat CC members...NO pre-cruise help re M&Gs/luncheons etc. on O...and so much help on AZ...with senior staff..including the Captain and many other senior staff there for the M&G. LuAnn

 

Thanks so much LuAnn that is reassuring.

My hope is that the dry dock will bring a walk in shower to the OS as Oceania has done. We look forward to two great cruises on Azamara and hopefully will enjoy the differences as well as the similarities.

[nordski]

We've just returned from a 12 day cruise on the "M" class Constellation.

 

I kidded my wife that some of the security officers on the "Connie" were stealing the tag line from Azamara when, several times they welcomed us "home" instead of the more usual "back". Perhaps, I argued, they were preparing for their new role as part of Azamara's fleet.

 

On a more serious note the service in Aquaclass, especially the dedicated restaurant Blu, was excellent and approached Azamara's standards. My wife's dietary issues were handled with aplomb, and I think any of Blu's staff would easily fit into Azamara's expectations.

 

As well, the other staff on board were very friendly, although we saw little of the officers.

 

All that being said, I agree that it would be extremely difficult for that ship to fit into Azamara's corporate culture:

 

1/ The Oceanview Café would present interesting logistical issues. We never did figure out how its service flow was supposed to work, and redesigning it would be challenging. The best we can say about it is "impersonal". We ate in Blu as often as possible.

 

2/ Throughout the ship passenger flow seemed "quirky" with dead ends etc.

 

3/ On sea days public spaces seemed very busy indeed and, again, design issues made these spaces seem, to us, to lack intimacy.

 

4/ Finally, I think Celebrity is trying to ameliorate the size issues by dividing service into a series of levels, Suite, Aqua, etc. Since the new Luminae restaurant has just been added, its hard to imagine deciding to undo now.

 

Thus, I agree with the posters who argue that the 2000 passenger size is just not suitable within the Azamara fleet and I would be surprised if these ships were added. We shared 2 dockings with the Quest in Istanbul and Santorini. Not surprisingly, there certainly is a major difference in the footprint of each.

[81Zoomie]

Looks like the new ship will not be the Adonia. CCL announced a new line of Social impact cruising today. "Fathom" travel's first ship will be the Adonia.