Celebrity vs Azamara (Asia) 2016

[ellbon]

Diamond Princess has what sounds like great ports - but it looks nasty :-(

 

Singapore

Penang, Malaysia Tender

Langkawi, Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur (Port Kelang), Malaysia

Singapore

At Sea

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

At Sea

Nha Trang, Vietnam Tender

Ho Chi Minh City (Phu My), Vietnam

At Sea

Sihanoukville, Cambodia Tender

Bangkok (Laem Chabang), Thailand

Ko Samui, Thailand Tender

At Sea

Singapore

 

several of these ports i never need to see again.. plus no time in Bangkok. I use to sail Celebrity but been over 3 years and no rush to go back. nice cabins and good shows but to big and iget tired of going to deck 15 to sunbathe . you forget oen thing or need somethoing it is a long way down.

[pvkatmom]

I agree with Ellbon/Robin-- one reason we don't like big ships anymore is that it is often quite a trek from where one is to get back to one's cabin. I forgot my sweater once and it was a bit chilly at dinner, but I just toughed it out without the sweater as it'd have taken me 20 minutes to go get the sweater and return-- this incidentally was on Diamond Princess which we were on about 5 years ago to Syndey/New Zealand. Not a real friendly ship, either. We've also been on Celebrity Constellation to Caribbean over Christmas/New Years and enjoyed it--wonderful New Years party. We now like AZ and Seabourn, great ship size, friendly people, no lines for anything. Loved AZ Buenos Aires/Rio trip Christmas 2014 (another fabulous New Year's seeing the fireworks off Copacabana Beach) and loved Venice/Athens Seabourn Odyssey trip May 2015. On these ships we often just take the stairs rather than waiting for elevators. Can't wait for our AZ Dec 2016 Christmas New Year's Singapore/Indonesia/Bali trip!!!

Crystal is nice, too and although bigger, the lines are not too bad and the food is very good. But we just love being on smaller ships these days (but don't like Silversea). Were I in OP's shoes, I'd take the AZ trip-- docking far away from the city center/where you want to be, makes you lose lots of precious time, and also you miss the wonderfulness of sailing right in and out of the heart of the port city.

Edited July 23, 2016 by pvkatmom
Forgot something

[Kingofcool1947]

Especially to and from the MDR. :). 20 minutes of walking is not even enough for a good cardio workout.

[upwarduk]

The Princess ship has too many tender ports for me. We had a dreadful experience tendering from Eclipse in Split, it took 3 hrs, so an entire morning was wasted. I was told to book ship's excursions in the future in tender ports, so ensuring we would be first off the ship.

[ellbon]

I do not remember the last time I waited to get off a ship in a tender port. if I need to be I just get off on the 1st tender.. if no rush go about 10 or 11 am.

[Spursgirl]

The Princess ship has too many tender ports for me. We had a dreadful experience tendering from Eclipse in Split, it took 3 hrs, so an entire morning was wasted. I was told to book ship's excursions in the future in tender ports, so ensuring we would be first off the ship.

 

This is not an issue on Azamara. On our Journey cruise last month every port required a tender.

 

We got off whenever we liked and the longest we waited in line was about five minutes. It was the same when we wanted to return to the ship.

[upwarduk]

This is not an issue on Azamara. On our Journey cruise last month every port required a tender.

 

We got off whenever we liked and the longest we waited in line was about five minutes. It was the same when we wanted to return to the ship.

 

My point is that the Princess ship has many more passengers than Axamara, so I would go for Azamara, even I have yet to sail on an Azamara cruise.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Yes, tendering would be a problem on Princess (or Celebrity) unless you take a ship's excursion -- or have VIP status. Of course, for the price of Azamara you could book a suite on Celebrity and then you would have VIP status and just get on any tender any time you like. [To get off the ship that is -- I think everybody waits on the same long line to get back onboard :eek:] It has also been pointed out somewhere that in some ports tendering is actually better than docking, because the large docks are far from the center of town but tenders go in very close. So the best choice may vary from port to port and cabin to cabin.

[aussie travel bird]

Having been to a number of Asian ports with Azamara, one of the best reasons to cruise Azamara over Celebrity in the locations was the berthing position. For example in Bangkok you will dock at Klong Toey and be provided with a no cost shuttle the 4km to the city centre, whereas the bigger ships will dock at the industrial port many miles (and hours) away. In China, Shanghai you sail right up the river and dock opposite the Pearl Tower, almost at the end of the Bund with another shuttle to get you to the Bund. You can't do that in a big ship. If I'm doing Asia again, my preference would be Azamara. Lines for tender boats, in tender ports are unheard of in my experience.

[pvkatmom]

Especially to and from the MDR. :). 20 minutes of walking is not even enough for a good cardio workout.

 

Well, given that when my husband and I are in a port city, we may've well already been walking for 7-8 hours since we are good walkers/hikers and want to see everything in a port-- (we walk all over) I'm not down for another 20 minutes of walking to get a sweater during dinner, especially because I'll miss a lot of time with my dinner companions by doing so. My point was more about the TIME to get to and from one's cabin on a large ship, than the walking. On AZ, we rarely take the elevators anywhere, we just walk up and down the stairs-- given the size of the ship, nothing is very far. And we use the AZ gym, if we haven't already walked our legs off, or if it is a sea day.:)