Review: Azamara Journey Cuba Intensive (Feb 11-20 2019)

[nicedream]

Just back from my first cruise with Azamara, and I wanted to do a quick review/write up.

 

In short...

• The itinerary and seeing Cuba:  Excellent
• Overall impression and experience with Azamara: A definite disappointment

 

This was our 12th cruise.  We generally take one with Celebrity each year, and we've also done 2 with Royal Caribbean and 1 with Princess.  In 2017 we took a quick 4 day cruise with Royal that included a day in Havana, and when we came home we booked this Azamara cruise to see Cuba more in-depth.

 

Itinerary

Originally this cruise was supposed to have 2.5 days in Havana, leaving at 6pm on the third day.  A few months before the sail date, Azamara altered it slightly so that we left Havana at 1am, and then arrived in both Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba a day earlier.  So we ended up with overnights in all three cities in Cuba, which I was pretty happy with.

 

Havana - Day 1

Since we had been in Cuba once before and seen the historic old Havana, we booked a walking tour of Centro Havana through AirBnB.
https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/147182

This was probably the highlight of the trip, as Jose took us from the Capitol all the way to the edge of Vedado and gave us a glimpse into the daily life of regular Cubans.  We were probably the only tourists that we saw the whole time, and I would recommend it highly.

 

The entrance to Chinatown

 

 

 

 

 

A store where Cubans can get their subsidized rations with their libreta cards.

 

 

A barbershop

 

 

A butcher

 

 

An apartment parking lot, also where Jose's mechanic has his garage.  The tiny blue Fiat would fetch about $10,000 in the Cuban market,

 

 

A 1940s-era Chevy still on the road

 

 

A Paquete store.  Essentially a place where Cubans can pay for digital copies of movies, tv shows, and music, since Cuban television only has 5 channels

 

 

Edited February 25, 2019 by nicedream

[nicedream]

Havana - Day 2

The main activity this day taking the local commuter ferry to the Christ of Havana statue.  There are two ferries that leave from the a terminal just south of the cruise ship dock and go to Regla and Casablanca.  They only cost 10 centavos to ride, which comes out to a fraction of a penny due to the local peso (moneda nacional) being worth about 5 cents.  If you only have convertible (tourist) pesos, I saw a few people from my ship just paying 1 CUC to ride.  Once you get to Casablanca, there is a small hill which leads to small park, and just past that are some steps that lead to the statue of Jesus.

 

The ferry docked on the Havana side

 

 

Looking back at the terminal on the Casablanca side

 

 

Steps leading to the statue

 

 

A bit farther up the steps, looking back

 

 

 

 

 

Waiting for the ferry back, I bought this beer from a street vendor because I never had it before

 

 

Waiting inside the Casablanca terminal

 

 

The ferry ride back

 

 

Later that night I took this photo a few doors down from La Bodeguita Del Medio in Havana Vieja

[nicedream]

Cienfuegos - Day 1

We spent this day walking from the ship to the Plaza Jose Marti, then down the Paseo el Prado all the way down to Palacio de Valle.

 

 

Some homes seem to be well-maintained

 

 

10 pesos (MN) each

 

 

 

 

This store sold a bit of everything, including car parts

 

 

Lots of different rums here

 

 

A hot dog from a street vendor...not worth the 10 pesos I paid 

 

 

 

 

Not sure if any metal remains on the body of this car

 

 

Looking back at the ship

 

 

Along the waterfront

 

 

Found another new beer

 

 

Palacio de Valle

 

The rooftop

 

Looking down from above

 

Taxis waiting outside

 

 

Our taxi driver with his Vauxhall

 

 

Coppelia, the state-run ice cream parlor

 

 

The only type of advertisement found in Cuba

[nicedream]

Cienfuegos - Day 2

We took Azamara's excursion to the El Nicho waterfall, which I'll discuss a bit more when I post my complaints later.

 

 

 

 

 

[nicedream]

Santiago de Cuba - Day 1

We didn't get into port until the evening, so we just walked around a bit to see what we could find, hitting Parque Cespedes and Plaza de Marte along the way. 

 

We stopped for a drink at the rooftop bar on Casa Granda

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Domino's Pizza"

 

 

[nicedream]

Santiago de Cuba - Day 2

Two goals for this day before we set sail at 3pm:  See the changing of the guard at the Santa Ifigenia Cenetary, and the bullet holes on the Moncada Barracks building.

 

Passing by the rail station

 

 

 

 

 

Entrance to Santa Ifigenia Cemetary

 

Soldiers during the changing of the guard

 

 

Castro's tomb

 

 

Mausoleum of Jose Marti

 

 

 

Moncada Barracks

 

 

Two choices: Coffee or Pineapple Juice

 

 

Another one I hadn't tried before

 

Edited February 25, 2019 by nicedream

[Bimmer09]

Thanks for the excellent photos of places I didn't get to see on my visit there in January.

I particularly like the shop pictures that show what the average Cuban sees on a daily basis.

Some very dodgy looking electrical wiring to be seen in Cuba. Not up to code I would say.

The cemetery and Moncada barracks were stops I enjoyed although I haven't written about them yet.

I'm interested and following, particularly to see why you were disappointed in Azamara.

 

Many thanks for posting!

Norris

[nicedream]

Overall Impression

 

As I said at the start, the destination and itinerary were really the best things about this cruise.  Seeing 3 different cities in Cuba (all with overnight stays) was incredible.

 

My experience with Azamara as a cruise line was a definite disappointment, for the following reasons:

• Aside from the itineraries, all their talk about "destination immersion" seems to be just promotional puffery.
• When you compare price to the experience delivered, it's painfully obvious that Azamara is punching far above its weight class.

Problem 1

By far, the biggest gripe I had was with the El Nicho waterfall excursion we took in Cienfuegos.  The day before we were scheduled to go, my wife noticed the description in the brochure said "Due to local regulations, swimming is not permitted at the waterfall"

That seemed odd, because I could have swore that I saw picture of people swimming there at one point or another.  But the description seemed pretty unambiguous, so I just assumed that maybe this was a recent change that went into effect.  So imagine my surprise when we hike to the waterfall and are greeted with these scenes:

 

 

 

Dozens of people swimming....And they even have lifeguards on duty!  What the heck?

I asked our guide if swimming was allowed, and she said yes, of course it was....It just wasn't part of the itinerary for the Azamara excursions.

When we got back to the ship that day, I filled out my guest comment form and described what had happened.  Later I received a voice message from the excursions desk telling me that they had double checked and found that the description in the brochure *was* correct.  I went down to the desk to ask them - How can the description be correct when it's quite obvious that there is nothing that forbids swimming and lifeguards were even on duty?

The explanation was that the agreement between Azamara and the local authorities does not include a provision for guests on their tour to swim.  Whether this was due to money, insurance, or something else altogether, I don't know.  But I do know that the description provided by Azamara is an outright lie to their customers, and is probably worded that way to prevent their customers from booking private tours that are cheaper.

I generally try to just roll with the punches and I usually don't complain about things that are subjective, such as how delicious the food is or how comfortable the bed is.  But things like this tour (and its description) really leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Also - Just think about the absurdity of the situation for a moment: The park is full of tourists and locals, all enjoying a swim in the natural pools under the waterfalls.  While the guests who booked their tours through the cruise line that prides itself on "destination immersion" merely observe from the sidelines for a moment before continuing on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[nicedream]

16 minutes ago, Bimmer09 said:

Thanks for the excellent photos of places I didn't get to see on my visit there in January.

I particularly like the shop pictures that show what the average Cuban sees on a daily basis.

Some very dodgy looking electrical wiring to be seen in Cuba. Not up to code I would say.

The cemetery and Moncada barracks were stops I enjoyed although I haven't written about them yet.

I'm interested and following, particularly to see why you were disappointed in Azamara.

 

Many thanks for posting!

Norris

 

Thanks for reading.  I've been following along with your thread since before we went on our cruise, and continuing to still follow now that we're back.  My review here isn't trying to show every single thing that I did or saw. You have that pretty well covered  ;)

It's more of a quick summary of some of the main highlights and/or unique things that probably won't show up in every other review.  

[nicedream]

Problem 2

Azamara disappointed us again the first day in Santiago de Cuba.  The ship arrived into the port on schedule around 5pm.  We went to the grill on deck 9 for a quick & early dinner so that we could hopefully get a tender to be in the town before dark.  While eating we see one tender boat leaving empty.  Must be the government people that clear the ship or some other "official" business we thought, because no announcement had been made that guests could depart. 

After dinner, we go to deck 5 and watch the tender boat below.  One person in regular clothes (non-uniformed) gets in and it drives away.  We say to ourselves "who is that guy?"  He must be some frequent cruiser or other VIP guest getting some private tour or something.

A few minutes later....and *another* tender goes out, this time with just 2 guests on it.  What's going on?

I picked up the nearest phone and called the front desk.

 

"Hi, when will guests be allowed to leave the ship to tender to shore?"

"Sir, the tenders are already running.  You can leave at any time."

"Ummm....no one made an announcement."

"Oh I'm sorry, they must have forgotten.  I'll have them make the announcement right away."

 

As I said in the opening post, this is my 12th cruise.  I can't recall a single time when this announcement wasn't made.

So it was somewhat frustrating to be on the "destination immersion" line, which then forgot to make the announcement that it was time to immerse.

 

[.....fast forward a few hours.....]

We didn't make it to shore before dark, but oh well, we still made it.  The Azamara guide to Santiago de Cuba said that the best way to get to the center of town was by taking Vicente Aguilera street.  It wasn't the prettiest street, and there were lots of buses and motorcycles pumping out black smoke speeding by, but it did get us into town.

 

Eventually we walked all the way up to Plaza de Marte, and watched the party scene that was going on.  When it was time to head back, we noticed that just one block north of Aguilera was Jose Antonio Saco - a brightly lit pedestrian-only street that was full of vendors and restaurants, not to mention scores of families and other people out enjoying the night.

 

 

 

 

Check the satellite view on Google Maps.  This street goes from Plaza de Marte the entire way back to Avenida Jesus Menendez, where the tenders docked.  So why on earth would Azamara send us down a mostly deserted street with very little going on except for speeding vehicles, when there is a much more interesting (and much *safer*) street just one block over?  And on top of that, it's a street brimming with activity and full of real local Cuban people.

My best guess is that the person who wrote up the guide just quickly looked at the map and found the street that had the most direct route.  But again, a real disappointment from the destination immersion experience.

[nicedream]

Problem 3

Maybe I shouldn't call this a problem so much as heightened expectations that went unfulfilled.

We've been on many cruises, most of which were with one of the other two major brands under Azamara's corporate umbrella (Royal Caribbean and Celebrity).

I know that Azamara is not supposed to be in the same league as Seaborne or Regent, but I do know that they position themselves as a "boutique" cruise line, and a step above the other two lines I mentioned.

They even have the word "Club" in their name, to showcase themselves as a country club like environment at sea.

To be honest, I didn't really see any of that upscale-ness manifest itself in the delivered cruise experience.

 

As we all know from reading cruise reviews, things like food and service can be so subjective.  One person can have the best experience ever while the next finds it to be mediocre (or worse).  I can only give you our opinion: the food and service delivered did not live up to the image that Azamara projects.  I didn't eat in either of the specialty (upcharge) restaurants, but still I expected to be at least a little bit impressed somewhere along the way.  But while the food was adequate and I certainly didn't go hungry, I don't think I had anything in 9 days that was any better than what I've had on Royal Caribbean.  And I think Azamara has a long way to go before they can match the food on Blu in Celebrity.

 

Service was similar: Not terrible, but not what I expected from what some would refer to as a 4.5 star line.  Service was often a lot slower than I would have expected.  On the White Night, apparently they forgot to put salt and pepper on the tables on the upper deck.  I asked one waiter for some salt, and he went to get it....never to be seen again.

 

None of the hiccups with the food or service ruined our cruise.  In fact, we were off the ship much more than usual due to all the exploration of Cuba.  But overall Azamara really needs to step up its game considering its price point, and the quality of its sister brands.  We booked this cruise in November of 2017 and got a balcony cabin for ~$6400 all in after taxes, which I believe was at one of its lowest points.  Just for fun, halfway through our cruise we priced a balcony room for the 9 day Cuba intensive that sailed immediately after ours.  All in, it came to $11,100.  We had to laugh at how absurd it would be to pay that price for the cruise we were currently on.

 

Edited February 25, 2019 by nicedream

[MomC]

We are booked to sail this itinerary in November on Seabourn. Sorry you were so disappointed, but your criticism seems a bit overblown. Not being allowed to swim when clearly this was a tour operator problem? Missing the first three tenders because of the lack of an announcement? Being directed on a street one over from the more scenic one?  These are minor travel difficulties. I would count my trip a success if I had to contend with these problems!  Count yourself lucky that you didn’t have to battle the thousands of passengers as on your previous cruises.  Azamara offers a quieter, more tranquil experience.  Having cruised on 15 different cruise lines, I prefer the more intimate experience of small ships.  Having travelled to all seven continents, your problems seem overblown to a seasoned traveler.  To each his own.  I thoroughly enjoyed your pictures though.

[nicedream]

40 minutes ago, MomC said:

We are booked to sail this itinerary in November on Seabourn. Sorry you were so disappointed, but your criticism seems a bit overblown. Not being allowed to swim when clearly this was a tour operator problem? Missing the first three tenders because of the lack of an announcement? Being directed on a street one over from the more scenic one?  These are minor travel difficulties. I would count my trip a success if I had to contend with these problems!  Count yourself lucky that you didn’t have to battle the thousands of passengers as on your previous cruises.  Azamara offers a quieter, more tranquil experience.  Having cruised on 15 different cruise lines, I prefer the more intimate experience of small ships.  Having travelled to all seven continents, your problems seem overblown to a seasoned traveler.  To each his own.  I thoroughly enjoyed your pictures though.

 

Indeed, to each his own. After taking many cruises and hearing complaints from other passengers, I'm fully aware that something that can be a major issue for one person won't even be a blip on the radar to another (and vice-versa).  Make no mistake, we had a great vacation.

 

To be honest, I probably would have barely noticed the forgotten tender announcement and the poor street directions were it not for the constant hype about Azamara giving guests the local experience.

 

As for the waterfall excursion, I don't know where you draw the line between the tour operator and the cruise line. But when Azamara is the one selling the tour, which they have obviously planned out with a local operator, I don't see how they are absolved of responsibility here. Furthermore, Azamara alone is responsible for the copy that goes into their tour description, which is clearly incorrect and misleading.

 

Glad you enjoyed the pictures. 🙂 

I hope you enjoy your trip to Cuba. We thought it was absolutely fascinating. 

Edited February 25, 2019 by nicedream

[upwarduk]

Thankyou for the review and pictures. 

[uktog]

Thanks for your review.  The photos are really helpful and you’ve hit the right amount of detail for me (but we are all different in that respect 🙂 )

Sorry you had disappointments along the way.  Our experience also is that Land Discoveries is a weak link in Azamara’s chain lacking attention to detail at times but I know they are work8ng on it. 

The reason there would be no swimming may have been a timing issue, we’ve seen that before. Azamara may opt not to include elements because the time involved would mean the trip would run on eg over a meal time (which for some is an issue). To be honest the wording error in your tour description is minor compared to some they’ve committed- at least it was clear before you went there would be no swimming even if the reason was wrong in your experience.  

Id be interested in time to know how Seabourne shakes out on a similar itinerary and the per day cost comparisons between the two. You will have the advantages of the experience of this cruise under your belt when planning that one which is always helpful in a country like Cuba where all the cruise lines are finding their feet.   Enjoy! 

[mnocket]

I know how disappointing it can be when an expensive vacation fails to live up one's expectations.  The only way to find out if a given cruise line is a good match is to sail it and find out.  You did and now you know.

 

My experience with Azamara is that there are some things that are just a tad better than Celebrity and some things that are quite different - whether these things are important and/or improvements are subjective.  I really enjoyed the lack of crowds, never waited for drinks or elevator, never had an issue finding a desirable pool lounge, etc.  This was the most significant difference to me and I feel it's a significant plus (again to me).  Is it worth the price differential?  Maybe, maybe not.   My next cruise is on Celebrity, but Azamara is a contender for the future.

[Riocca]

The problem with swimming, or rather lack of it, could well be a hygiene issue. Any cruise line would be reticent allowing passengers in their care into water that they can’t ensure is safe from water borne bugs. We have seen occasions in the past on other cruise lines where passengers have brought the dreaded norovirus onboard after swimming in contaminated water.

 

[nicedream]

7 minutes ago, Riocca said:

The problem with swimming, or rather lack of it, could well be a hygiene issue. Any cruise line would be reticent allowing passengers in their care into water that they can’t ensure is safe from water borne bugs. We have seen occasions in the past on other cruise lines where passengers have brought the dreaded norovirus onboard after swimming in contaminated water.

 

 

Could be.  I really can't say what the reason was.  But I can confidently state that it was *not* due to "local regulations" as claimed in the Azamara description.

 

 

 

[mchell810]

On 2/24/2019 at 8:26 PM, nicedream said:

The Azamara guide to Santiago de Cuba said that the best way to get to the center of town was by taking Vicente Aguilera street.  It wasn't the prettiest street, and there were lots of buses and motorcycles pumping out black smoke speeding by, but it did get us into town.

 

On 2/24/2019 at 8:26 PM, nicedream said:

Eventually we walked all the way up to Plaza de Marte, and watched the party scene that was going on.  When it was time to head back, we noticed that just one block north of Aguilera was Jose Antonio Saco - a brightly lit pedestrian-only street that was full of vendors and restaurants, not to mention scores of families and other people out enjoying the night.

 

Perhaps the guide gave you driving directions, not realizing you preferred walking directions? This might be a simple miscommunication rather than a cruise line flaw.

 

[nicedream]

11 minutes ago, mchell810 said:

 

 

Perhaps the guide gave you driving directions, not realizing you preferred walking directions? This might be a simple miscommunication rather than a cruise line flaw.

 

 

Sorry for not being more clear in my description, but when I said "guide" I meant the printed guide to the city. Not an actual person. 

 

I went back and checked it to see if maybe it was aimed at driving, not walking, but it seems pretty likely that's not what they meant. 

 

 

[marinaro44]

On 2/24/2019 at 10:52 PM, nicedream said:

I know that Azamara is not supposed to be in the same league as Seaborne or Regent, but I do know that they position themselves as a "boutique" cruise line, and a step above the other two lines I mentioned.

Having spent seven weeks being treated coolly and with no personal attention or warmth on two Regent ships, it is clear to me Regent is not "in the same league" as Azamara.