Food Questions

[rollie]

Hello everyone, we are thinking about doing our first Azamara cruise.  We have 40 plus cruises under our belts [mostly on Celebrity, elite plus]  I have seen a lot of You Tube video's on Azamara that really peeked my interest, but now have read some, not so glowing reviews on their food.  I know that, for some, food is not the primary reason for cruising with a particular line, but for me it is.  Thanks for any help.

 

Rollie

[excitedofharpenden]

Food is subjective, but this is my opinion having done a lot of cruises on each. I guess if I were comparing the main dining room on Azamara with Celebrity I would say it is better on Azamara.  Better presentation and tastier. More personal service. The food in the Specialty restaurants on Azamara are more than a match for those on Celebrity, but the choices are more limited. 

 

Casual dining in the buffet I enjoy on both. Once again the choice on Celebrity is better. A couple of things of the buffet in the evening. The tables are properly dressed on Azamara. It's much more civilised and like a restaurant rather than a refectory that Celebrity resembles. The themed evenings make a much more prominent appearance on Azamara and are popular, especially Indian night. 

 

I like the food on both, but prefer Azamara, even with less choice. 

 

Phil 

Edited November 28, 2020 by excitedofharpenden

[rollie]

Thanks Phil,  that's what I was looking  for.  Our first Celebrity cruise was in 2001, and it was wonderful.  But over the years Celebrity's product has degraded.  It's still very good, but we're looking for our first Celebrity cruise experience.  I'm thinking we can get that on Azamara.

 

Rollie

[TeaBag]

Wow, Rollie, I wish we were on the same cruise.  We could compare notes.  I could have written your first post.  We booked the Journey May 13, 2022 as our first experience with Azamara.  I'm sure you know you will be classified as Discoverer Plus because of your Elite + status.  Hope we both enjoy the food.

[NC&KY]

I would say we are both "foodies," and we've never been disappointed with Azamara. Not stunned, but never disappointed.

[mj_holiday]

Regents is our cruise line of choice, but we do consider itinerary and did sail Azamara for their Cuba itinerary (great itinerary) and we have another Azamara cruise booked to the Black Sea.

 

Our one cruise so far with Azamara was very nice.  We missed some things going on with the dining because I didn't read the daily news as carefully as I should have.  Dinner in the main dining room was very nice.  We always had a table for two, and the tables did seem closer together than I felt on Regents, but the table itself was larger making plenty of room for all you needed to have on the table.  We enjoyed the menu selections and for included wines they offered two reds and two whites.  The menu was not as varied as Regents (lobster every night) we always found something for dinner that we enjoyed.

 

Some mornings there would be a small buffet in the Main Dining room plus ordering from the menu.

 

The buffet for breakfast and lunch in Windows had a nice selection, but there were no table clothes, (just placemats that they wiped).  Also there was not the service we had on Regents, like a crew member always ready to carry your plate to you table.  I do not remember if they have cook to order items.

 

We did not enjoy the white night they have where everyone wears white and they have a huge bar b que on the open deck.  I am sure the food was good, but the lines were so long I could not tell what line I was in.  (but we do not like this type of thing anywhere).  I missed in the daily that the dining room was open that evening, and that is where we will dine the next time.

 

One other thing I missed in the daily, was that the Windows buffet had different themes for dinner (like German, Italian, Cuban etc) and some of these would have been nice, but we really prefer not to do buffets for dinner.

[SteveH2508]

We have done 2 Azamara cruises so far. we normally would use the MDR on a cruise for dinner, but on Azamara we almost always went to the buffet.

 

The different themes made the buffet good - I particularly enjoyed the suckling pig one night.

 

Pudding was almost always the gelato stand - 6 choices with all of the trimmings.

 

One area that was occasionally problematic was the egg station for breakfast - I got 'forgotten' a couple of times - no biggie though.

 

The Patio was also another go to area - there was a lovely lamb kebab available.

 

We never felt the need to try the upcharge restaurants - the food was really good overall.

[excitedofharpenden]

On 11/28/2020 at 5:05 PM, rollie said:

Thanks Phil,  that's what I was looking  for.  Our first Celebrity cruise was in 2001, and it was wonderful.  But over the years Celebrity's product has degraded.  It's still very good, but we're looking for our first Celebrity cruise experience.  I'm thinking we can get that on Azamara.

 

Rollie

I'd have to agree with you. I did my first Celebrity cruise in 2002 and over a period of time the food in the MDR went downhill. The focus became more toward the Specialities and latterly, Luminae.  I'm looking forward to the concept of dining on the Edge Class. 

 

I did my first Azamara in 2011 and the MDR food to me is as good as ever, albeit with a less relaxed way of serving. I think that's probably to do with staff numbers in the main dining room.  Like Steve I often find myself eating in the buffet or The Patio, especially after a full day of touring and never feel short changed going to them. Sometimes it's just good to eat relaxed and if the weather is nice enough then dining out at the back (with the patio heaters on if needed) gives you the best view. 

 

Phil 

[rollie]

2 hours ago, excitedofharpenden said:

I'd have to agree with you. I did my first Celebrity cruise in 2002 and over a period of time the food in the MDR went downhill. The focus became more toward the Specialities and latterly, Luminae.  I'm looking forward to the concept of dining on the Edge Class. 

 

I did my first Azamara in 2011 and the MDR food to me is as good as ever, albeit with a less relaxed way of serving. I think that's probably to do with staff numbers in the main dining room.  Like Steve I often find myself eating in the buffet or The Patio, especially after a full day of touring and never feel short changed going to them. Sometimes it's just good to eat relaxed and if the weather is nice enough then dining out at the back (with the patio heaters on if needed) gives you the best view. 

 

Phil 

Thanks for your reply Phil.  We will be sailing the Apex in Jan of 2022, in a sky suite.  We got a great price and really wanted to try the Retreat.  Price for suite have gone through the roof on Celebrity, and we can not longer afford the prices.  

 

Rollie

[rollie]

Thanks everyone for your replies.  You have been very helpful with our decision to book a future cruise with Azamara.

 

Rollie

[excitedofharpenden]

3 hours ago, rollie said:

Thanks for your reply Phil.  We will be sailing the Apex in Jan of 2022, in a sky suite.  We got a great price and really wanted to try the Retreat.  Price for suite have gone through the roof on Celebrity, and we can not longer afford the prices.  

 

Rollie

I hope you enjoy Azamara. The smaller ship and superior and more consistent service has been a real draw for me. Coupled with a universally amazing crew. 

 

I'm on Apex in October next year, but sadly no Retreat for me as not in a suite and that benefit has just been pulled from my loyalty perks. Temporary they say. I know what I think about the whole thing. Don't get me started! Lol 

 

Phil 

[jelayne]

I have also sailed primarily Celebrity but did a Azamara cruise in late 2018.  After all the comments about how great the food was  we were very disappointed in the dining room.

 We book Aqua on Celebrity with an occasion suite.  So our comparison was not  the MDR on Celebrity vs the MDR on Azamara.   Since we paid a significantly higher price  for Azamara we expected the dining to be at least equal to what we were used to in Blu - it didn't come close in our opinion.  Waits of 20 - 40 minutes to be seated.  MDR was noisy, cramped and and food was  just okay most nights but 3 nights we had to return our meal to the kitchen.  We did love the Patio for lunch and the food at the White Night party was very good.

 

There were things we liked about Azamara, and for the right itinerary we would book again but only in a Suite to we could dine the the specialty restaurants.  We were only able to get a reservation 1 out of the 10 nights of our cruise.

[Covepointcruiser]

We sailed Azamara twice in 2019 and never had a wait for dinner, we went around 7, and really enjoyed the Food as it was much better than Luminae.

Luminae had weird menus, one night it was all baby animals and one fish.  Azamara has a better MDR, great theme nights in the buffet and loved the Patio.   If you like Celebrity just sail with them and leave Azamara to us.

[nordski]

3 hours ago, jelayne said:

I have also sailed primarily Celebrity but did a Azamara cruise in late 2018.  After all the comments about how great the food was  we were very disappointed in the dining room.

 We book Aqua on Celebrity with an occasion suite.  So our comparison was not  the MDR on Celebrity vs the MDR on Azamara.   Since we paid a significantly higher price  for Azamara we expected the dining to be at least equal to what we were used to in Blu - it didn't come close in our opinion.  Waits of 20 - 40 minutes to be seated.  MDR was noisy, cramped and and food was  just okay most nights but 3 nights we had to return our meal to the kitchen.  We did love the Patio for lunch and the food at the White Night party was very good.

 

There were things we liked about Azamara, and for the right itinerary we would book again but only in a Suite to we could dine the the specialty restaurants.  We were only able to get a reservation 1 out of the 10 nights of our cruise.

We have sailed several times in Aqua Class, most recently last February on Eclipse.

 

We are fans of Blu, but would not consider the offerings better than the MDR on Azamara. In dealing with food allergies the service on Azamara is, in our view, clearly superior. 
 

As for cramped and noisy, for some reason on Eclipse we were herded into an area by the windows in Blu that, in area, consisted of no more than 1/2 the floor space available. The tables were very close together in the utilized section, so close that it was rather hard to maintain any sort of privacy during the meal. The empty rows of tables also gave a strange impression of a dining area that was not very popular.

 

We took it that the changes in Blu not only saved on staffing but also were an incentive to move to a suite and thus dine in Luminae.

 

 

[Bloodaxe]

We have never sailed in a suite on Azamara have always had a balcony.

Never found it a problem  booking the specialty restaurants if you are not to picky about dining times.

Usually dine about 50/50 in the main dining room and specialities, we book the dining packages which are good value.

[rollie]

10 hours ago, nordski said:

We have sailed several times in Aqua Class, most recently last February on Eclipse.

 

We are fans of Blu, but would not consider the offerings better than the MDR on Azamara. In dealing with food allergies the service on Azamara is, in our view, clearly superior. 
 

As for cramped and noisy, for some reason on Eclipse we were herded into an area by the windows in Blu that, in area, consisted of no more than 1/2 the floor space available. The tables were very close together in the utilized section, so close that it was rather hard to maintain any sort of privacy during the meal. The empty rows of tables also gave a strange impression of a dining area that was not very popular.

 

We took it that the changes in Blu not only saved on staffing but also were an incentive to move to a suite and thus dine in Luminae.

 

 

We also liked Blu.  We asked the Matitre d' for a table against the wall.  Very nice and quiet location.  

 

Rollie

[marinaro44]

Specialty dining room reservations are made on a first-come, first-served basis, regardless of your stateroom category.

[nordski]

14 minutes ago, rollie said:

We also liked Blu.  We asked the Matitre d' for a table against the wall.  Very nice and quiet location.  

 

Rollie

 

If you are referring to the "banquette' seating at each end of the windows I agree, that is a great suggestion!  We too took advantage of it  when we could, but on our cruise there was a bit of a tussle to sit there.

 

If/when we return to Celebrity, Aqua Class will no longer be an automatic choice.

 

[jelayne]

9 hours ago, marinaro44 said:

Specialty dining room reservations are made on a first-come, first-served basis, regardless of your stateroom category.

Maybe it was just the sailing we were on but we boarded by 1pm and headed up to Windows to make reservations for the  2 specialty restaurants. We told the gentlemen taking reservations that we were fine with any night except White Night and the Azamazing Evening and any time 7 or later.  He explained they were heavily booked by the suite guests who  " of course"  get preference in days and times.  He managed to squeeze us in at 9 pm  for 1 night.  

Based on his comment I thought that some space was held back for those in Suites..

[uktog]

I think more likely he was trying to justify the situation with an excuse rather than reality. I’ve seen that problem on a cruise even in a suite. We found at the time of the world cruise the guests on that had their bookings in ahead of boarding time coupled with a large group sailing who’d arranged to have one of the restaurants booked out to them one of the nights. This meant on the remaining nights there were very slim pickings for all including suites. 
 

If you don’t get a great option, recheck again a few days in and even on the evening. They get a lot of cancellations on some cruises. Some suite guests who can get bookings book every night then part way through decide (not surprisingly) that’s too much. So space does open up. 

[Mackdogmolly]

7 hours ago, uktog said:

I think more likely he was trying to justify the situation with an excuse rather than reality. I’ve seen that problem on a cruise even in a suite. We found at the time of the world cruise the guests on that had their bookings in ahead of boarding time coupled with a large group sailing who’d arranged to have one of the restaurants booked out to them one of the nights. This meant on the remaining nights there were very slim pickings for all including suites. 
 

If you don’t get a great option, recheck again a few days in and even on the evening. They get a lot of cancellations on some cruises. Some suite guests who can get bookings book every night then part way through decide (not surprisingly) that’s too much. So space does open up. 

That’s a great idea.

[NC&KY]

8 hours ago, uktog said:

If you don’t get a great option, recheck again a few days in and even on the evening. They get a lot of cancellations on some cruises.

We have checked on our way to the MDR.

[excitedofharpenden]

8 hours ago, uktog said:

If you don’t get a great option, recheck again a few days in and even on the evening. They get a lot of cancellations on some cruises. Some suite guests who can get bookings book every night then part way through decide (not surprisingly) that’s too much. So space does open up. 

This is great advice. 

 

Phil 

[TeaBag]

Thank you, uktog, that is good advice.  I hope we remember this by the time we get to sail.  It's a long way away.

[Lynda S]

On 12/2/2020 at 11:56 AM, TeaBag said:

Thank you, uktog, that is good advice.  I hope we remember this by the time we get to sail.  It's a long way away.

Tea Bag, we are on the same cruise as you in 2022 and are really excited about it!  We have been on one Azamara Cruise (last November Lisbon to Rio) and it was AZAMAZING!  We live in your vicinity (we are an hour an half outside of Vancouver in the country), if you would like to chat on the phone one day if you have questions about Azamara I would love to answer any questions!  Let me know and I can give you my email address on here.