Did 17th Jan Quest cruise compare well to Celebrity?

[uktog]

These are the reflections of our cruise on Azamara Quest from Singapore to Hong Kong on 17th Jan sailing. I know you have already read one blog on this cruise; not having the luxury of technology on board, we were not able to do the same, so I have decided for this post on the boards I will do this as a score card comparing Azamara with Celebrity which I hope people find helpful. I will pull together a more general review relating to ports to post in the review section tomorrow.

This was our first time on Azamara (we are Celebrity elite status) so we had open minds as to how we would find the concept but had booked this and another cruise on Azamara because of the itinerary.

 

Our flight arrangements and pre and post course plans were all done separate from the cruiseline so we will skip over them

 

Embarkation Azamara wins

 

From arriving at the port at lunchtime to stepping into our room was 14 minutes. Maybe Azamara got a helping hand from the efficiencies shown by the ever industrious Singapore handling agents, but it was clear from the outset small ship was going to mean less crowding.

 

Stateroom Celebrity wins

 

We have gone for Sky Suites in recent cruises and this trip was no exception. The rooms were broadly comparable and, with the lovely Elemis amenities in the bathroom, Azamara should have edged it, however the balcony was very disappointing with limited space and no sun.

 

Stateroom Service Celebrity wins

 

We were looked after by the Head Butler, the usual Butler, who is really a stateroom attendant and his assistant. The Stateroom Assistant, whom we never met, was amazing and our room was kept the cleanest we have ever had on many cruises. However, the “usual” butler was a mystery – absent at all times except tips night and the Head Butler was always telling us how busy he was and rushing from here to there. It did seem like he had a lot of rooms to provide support for and he was not quite of the calibre of the butlers we have enjoyed on Celebrity. Because he was always so busy, we did not ask him to do things we did ask our Celebrity butlers to do (ie shoe cleaning, in room dining etc).

Nice touch on Azamara is the night time treats made by the pastry chefs left in the room for you and the afternoon canapés had been replaced by lovely “tapas type” selections from Mosaic Café (Cova to those used to X!)

With better trained stateroom staff (and in the case of the Head Butler, his English needs some help) Azamara could easily nudge Celebrity out of top spot.

 

Food quality Azamara wins

 

Food was consistently excellent and the standards of presentation were extremely high. The range of choices in the Main Dining room was very good with a whole page of staple choices available very night (steak; salmon; prawn cocktail; Caesar salad etc) as well as a menu that changed nightly. Speciality Restaurants were very popular (it was very difficult to get reservations for most of the trip by then end of the first day of boarding) in our view Prime C was the best and the Black Angus steak in particular was memorable (says the one who usually avoids steaks and eats fish)

 

Dining room service Celebrity wins

 

In the Main Dining room (where we ate 4 nights) the service was struggling. We ate at table sizes ranging from 7 to 2. We never had a problem getting a table at the time we wanted – getting served and out in under 2 ½ hours was a different matter though! On our trip there was a high percentage of new crew (51 out of 420) and there was an illness problem for staff and guests so maybe the dining room team were stretched beyond capacity.

In the Speciality Restaurants, particularly Aqualina we generally enjoyed very good attentive service, though again there were “off nights” where service was way too slow.

These are easy problems that can be fixed though!

 

Pool Deck Draw

 

Azamara is smaller so does not offer a lot of pool space, and no indoor pool however if (and that was another issue that they did try and address during our cruise) you find a lounger, they are 110% more comfy than the ones on Celebrity.

 

Entertainment Celebrity wins

 

I have to be careful how I judge this one as our issue was we could not get to the entertainment because the dining room service was too slow. Shows tended to be at around 8 and if repeated 9.45, as we like to dine at around 8.15/8.30 (ie Celebrity second sitting) it was tricky to get to the 9.45 show where we should have been able to get there no problem. The entertainment of an evening was fine – we saw a nice song and dance show parody on TV programmes and heard a wonderful pianist and violinist. Sadly the harpist failed to inspire and was technically not of the standard we would have expected on a cruise so we missed the kind of classical pre dinner time we have enjoyed at Cova in the past.

We cannot comment on the DJ on board other than to say we met him and he was a really nice guy to chat to, but the rocking of the waves called us to the land of nod too easily each night.

 

Other daytime activities Azamara wins

 

Most activities are the same as Celebrity- quizzes, trivia, Pictionary, Battle of the Sexes however the Enrichment Series is enhanced. On this cruise there were three presenters, Jonathon Fleming who spoke about upcoming ports in a fantastic, informative way not focussed on the content of shore excursions and never based on shops to patronise. He gave historical and cultural background and as this was replayed in the stateroom TV it was a perfect way to get briefed ahead of each port at a time to suit yourself. There was also a psychologist and a water colours class which both got good reviews and again the psychologist could be viewed at a later time on TV if required.

 

Shore Excursions Azamara wins

 

Always a heated subjected and I am not a huge fan of the organised excursion but we had decided Vietnam and Cambodia posed too many risks to do it alone. Some guides were not good (language and timekeeping problems of the guides) but overall the structure and content of the excursions was very good. What was excellent was the attitude of the Shore Excursion Staff who went out of their way to give information on the Ports and not push the purchase of shore excursions. Joining the Shore Excursion was easy – only a few buses going to each place and buses were never filled to capacity.

 

General Staff attitude Azamara wins big time

 

There was a genuine will to please and the Officers were so visible – nice touches, they greeted you as you went ashore each day, there was always one officer present to greet you on your return. They genuinely wanted your feedback and I was impressed to have a personal call from John Howell (Cruise Director) in response to my suggestions on timings of shows at night that I put on the mid cruise feedback form – great idea to do a mid cruise check of views.

 

Disembarkation Azamara wins

 

Again, lower numbers on board and a slick process made it absolutely painless to disembark (other than the fact you are having to leave!) Officers line up to say their farewells another nice touch. You stay in your room until your colour is called – from calling the colour to being in a taxi with all our luggage took 7 minutes – wow!

 

In conclusion, Azamara and Celebrity are in my mind two distinct brands. There are lovely touches on Azamara and the food is definitely a notch up. You have to remember though it is a smaller ship and so numbers of staff is less. This can have advantages in terms of getting to know everyone but has limitations particularly if only a few are not available for any reason. And yes, I am looking forward to both our next cruises, one on Azamara and one on Equinox.

 

Feel free to ask any questions – particularly any relating to comparisons which I know was an area that bothered us Celebrity regulars before we sailed

[boatboat]

Thanks for the helpful comparisons, I am elite also and will be going on this first Azamara cruise in a few weeks. Looking forward to a pleasant voyage.

[lwing69]

thanx so much - we are doing 16 days T/A and were worried about small ship and open seating dining. We love Celebrity and your post makes me feel better about Azamara.

[Andy]

Hi Uktog !

 

Thank you for your excellent review, and very interesting comparison. I'm happy to hear you had a great Cruise on Quest.

 

Welcome Home !

[Project_gal]

UKtog

 

Thank you so much for this - I find comparisons really useful. I must admit that the review of the Head Butler service is really disappointing as this is the prime reason we chose to book a Sky Suite. Hopefully, Azamara will have taken on board that this aspect needs improvement.

 

May I ask a question? Do you enjoy the formal nights on Celebrity, as we do? If so, did you miss them on Quest?

 

Thanks.

 

Sue

[uktog]

thanx so much - we are doing 16 days T/A and were worried about small ship and open seating dining. We love Celebrity and your post makes me feel better about Azamara.

 

I think you will find a lot of things that you like on Celebrity - we were given the helpful advice, remember its a different line and go with an open mind. We did - and it really helped and we really enjoyed the trip. Open seating was not as bad as I feared and we did join others some times but had a couple of nights just the two of us. We were able to enjoy the services of the same wait staff on two of the repeat nights - we asked the Asst MD if we could dine in the same area and that was no problem.

 

I can see a lot of advantages with Azamara and I can see advantages of Celebrity. I think after our next Azamara cruise I may be in a better position to decide do I have a favourite.

 

As an interesting aside I have found another advantage of Azamara today. I found the food options more to my taste (lighter, less salty) and also found it much easier to avoid the elevators on the smaller ship. Usually on a 2 week cruise I can be looking at a 8-10lb weight gain, delighted to discover today a 3lb gain and yet I think I ate more this trip :)

 

A

[uktog]

UKtog

 

Thank you so much for this - I find comparisons really useful. I must admit that the review of the Head Butler service is really disappointing as this is the prime reason we chose to book a Sky Suite. Hopefully, Azamara will have taken on board that this aspect needs improvement.

 

May I ask a question? Do you enjoy the formal nights on Celebrity, as we do? If so, did you miss them on Quest?

 

Thanks.

 

Sue

 

Sue you are exactly like us - we liked dressing up and having a clear steer on the code to apply each night.

DH found it harder to cope with but we eventually developed our own code which I think really worked well- smartest (informal - he wore a jacket and tie on some nights) for the speciality restaurants and casual when we ate elsewhere.

The night of the Captains Toast, the first at sea at night, was the night people dressed up notes and there were options for photos most nights. Of course we saw hoodies in Aqualina twice but we never let what others chose to wear spoil our enjoyment and we never felt over or under dressed

If you ignore the fact you do not get the little intervening sorbet, the food in the Speciality exceeds anything served on formal night and at Aqualina every night is lobster and rack of lamb night.

As regards the Head Butler, both change in the next 3 cruises so you may be will hit a better time. As has been written by Julie Jean the compensation is Edwin the Chief Housekeeper. Many will remember Edwin the butler and he certainly remembers his old Celebrity friends. When we were "struggling" on Day One we happened to bump into Edwin and all we said was we were still trying to fully engage with our butler. Suffice it to say it all started to change then, but as he did not speak good English or understand either UK or US English 100% it was still not quite up to what Ricky, Edwin or Wilfred have done for us

 

 

Enjoy!!

[Grandma Gilly]

Hi UKTOG

Thank you for a very interesting report. We are travelling on the Journey next month and I have a few questions for you:

 

I was concerned about your comment about the number of sun beds on board - was it a struggle to find one? On Celebrity, I have never had a problem, even on busy 'sea' days.

 

Did you have to pay for coffee in the Mosaic and were the art classes free? Our last cruise was on Crystal and these were free.

 

Another concern was that your balcony had no sun - although we are only booked into a verandah cabin.

 

Many thanks Gill

[uktog]

Hi UKTOG

Thank you for a very interesting report. We are travelling on the Journey next month and I have a few questions for you:

 

I was concerned about your comment about the number of sun beds on board - was it a struggle to find one? On Celebrity, I have never had a problem, even on busy 'sea' days.

 

Did you have to pay for coffee in the Mosaic and were the art classes free? Our last cruise was on Crystal and these were free.

 

Another concern was that your balcony had no sun - although we are only booked into a verandah cabin.

 

Many thanks Gill

 

Hi Gill

 

There were certainly less sunbeds by the pool in proportion to the number of passengers (we were sailing at full capacity). It was possible to find sunbeds (ie on Deck 5 or on the top deck, which was breezy) but not two together.

There were a number of Europeans on board who were up very early securing sunbeds but not using them. By the second sea day, the crew were very prompt at moving on those who had just left belongings to hog chairs. But yes, it is harder to find a chair than on Celebrity

The coffees in Mosaic are charged for - less people were using it though as you could find reasonable coffee elsewhere on the ship once you worked out what you could do. Dear Ante the restuarant manager whom we knew from Century taught me his mix at the usual machines - two shots of expresso (sometimes 3 depending on how I felt) topped up with hot water) - no charge and available 24x7

They were having trouble getting crowds for Bingo (ie 10-12 players only) so they started running it in the Mosaic to encourage passers to join - we gave feedback we thought this was a retrograde move and I doubt this will happen again.

Art classes were free

 

A

[Julie Jean]

Welcome back and thanks for the excellent review! Glad to hear you had a great time. It sounds like we have similar views on the good areas and the areas for improvement!

 

Will drop you an email later in the week

 

Julie Jean

[Project_gal]

Sue you are exactly like us - we liked dressing up and having a clear steer on the code to apply each night.

DH found it harder to cope with but we eventually developed our own code which I think really worked well- smartest (informal - he wore a jacket and tie on some nights) for the speciality restaurants and casual when we ate elsewhere.

The night of the Captains Toast, the first at sea at night, was the night people dressed up notes and there were options for photos most nights. Of course we saw hoodies in Aqualina twice but we never let what others chose to wear spoil our enjoyment and we never felt over or under dressed

If you ignore the fact you do not get the little intervening sorbet, the food in the Speciality exceeds anything served on formal night and at Aqualina every night is lobster and rack of lamb night.

As regards the Head Butler, both change in the next 3 cruises so you may be will hit a better time. As has been written by Julie Jean the compensation is Edwin the Chief Housekeeper. Many will remember Edwin the butler and he certainly remembers his old Celebrity friends. When we were "struggling" on Day One we happened to bump into Edwin and all we said was we were still trying to fully engage with our butler. Suffice it to say it all started to change then, but as he did not speak good English or understand either UK or US English 100% it was still not quite up to what Ricky, Edwin or Wilfred have done for us

 

 

Enjoy!!

 

Thank you so much. This is a great help.

[Aussie Gal]

uktog,

 

A great post with all the necessary items listed. Thanks for going to the trouble.

 

We will be on the Quest in 3 and a bit weeks time and even though we have never cruised with Celebrity we have been on the smaller ships both on Princess and Oceania.

 

We are looking forward to our cruise and also to comparing the 3 different cruise lines. We have an interesting itinerary and we should have a wonderful cruise experience.

 

Jennie

[Lobbylin]

UKtog - excellent reveiw!

 

As a regular Celebrity cruiser in a Sky Suite, this was exactly the review I wanted to read, so your comments are spot on and very informative and objective.

 

Like you I book a Sky Suite because I am used to, and like the Sky Suite service that I am used to on Celebrity. It will be disappointing to know I have paid the extra to benefit from that, if it doesn't exist...:o

 

We are on the 14th March sailing, so maybe there will be a new head butler by then:)

 

To be honest, I will try not to let it bother me, as clearly Azamara offers so much more in other areas, and we are very much looking forward to this cruise, the itinerary, and experiencing what Azamara has to offer.

 

Thanks again, Linda :)

[gillianrose]

There were a number of Europeans on board who were up very early securing sunbeds but not using them.

 

Could you be specific about which languages you heard so that I can brush up on those languages in advance of cruising?

[uktog]

It was predominantly German - I believe that was also the biggest group on the previous cruise. Talking to some, there has been a major marketing initiative in Germany promoting Azamara

A

[joandbun]

Hello uktog - like you we are Celebrity fans & kept an open mind when we sailed on Quest last Sept. there are definitely influences of X but Az has its own style which we really liked & hope to try again soon.

I pretty much agree with your comparisons - although I cant compare suites as we had regular balcony cabin.

But I think its the overall pluses which we take from Quest - excellent senior staff & all round attitude, friendly atmosphere, great food & little extras we dont get on Celebrity.

enjoy your next cruise

 

jo

[spanglycruisegirl]

Hello uktog

 

Thank you so much for your review.We sailed (transatlantic) last April on the Quest (and we were very impressed) and have recently booked Singapore to Athens this April (hoping to be equally impressed !)

 

As regards the Head Butler, both change in the next 3 cruises so you may be will hit a better time. As has been written by Julie Jean the compensation is Edwin the Chief Housekeeper. Many will remember Edwin the butler and he certainly remembers his old Celebrity friends

 

Do you, by any chance, know Edwin's surname ?

 

Angela

[uktog]

I am afraid I cannot- but I will see if it is in the dailies I brought back

[Project_gal]

We sailed (transatlantic) last April on the Quest (and we were very impressed) and have recently booked Singapore to Athens this April (hoping to be equally impressed !)

 

Angela

 

Angela

 

We are thinking of booking a transatlantic next but are uncertain about Azamara for that itinerary and had thought an X Millennium class ship may be a better choice. Have you sailed transatlantic on any other ship to compare the two, please? [Would have discussed this on the Signapore to Athens but wanted to book before then.]

 

Sue

[uktog]

The only comment I would make is I felt Quest rolled a bit when we had 3 metre swells and whilst it was no real issue for us on this trip other than having to be very careful walking around. However we did comment that we wondered how this ship would handle a transatlantic

[spanglycruisegirl]

Angela

 

We are thinking of booking a transatlantic next but are uncertain about Azamara for that itinerary and had thought an X Millennium class ship may be a better choice. Have you sailed transatlantic on any other ship to compare the two, please? [Would have discussed this on the Signapore to Athens but wanted to book before then.]

 

Sue

 

Hi Sue

 

It was our first and only transatlantic so I'm afraid I am unable to make any comparisons. We had been a little concerned about how the ship would handle the crossing so booked a lower deck midships cabin and it was fine. However,we were very lucky with the weather and there wasn't really much of a swell.

 

Angela

[Project_gal]

Hi Sue

 

It was our first and only transatlantic so I'm afraid I am unable to make any comparisons. We had been a little concerned about how the ship would handle the crossing so booked a lower deck midships cabin and it was fine. However,we were very lucky with the weather and there wasn't really much of a swell.

 

Angela

 

Angela [and Uktog]

 

Thanks. The weather was good on our transatlantic as well so perhaps it the swell would not be a problem.

 

Sue

[gillianrose]

It was predominantly German - I believe that was also the biggest group on the previous cruise. Talking to some, there has been a major marketing initiative in Germany promoting Azamara

A

 

We met Germans who had flown to California for the Pacific Coast Itinerary Celebrity used to have, so there must be a lot of them who belong to the Captain's Club already.

[capegranny]

Thanks for your helpful comments. We've sailed twice on Celebrity and once on Azamara, and are booked on the Singapore to Hong Kong trip next February. I thought your comments were right on the money, although we found it VERY difficult to get lounges or even chairs on Celebrity last December - lots of people 'reserving' them by 7 a.m.! We had the same experience a year ago on Azamara Quest regarding the mid-sail feedback questionnaire; we had a call within hours from two staff in response to a small concern we'd raised and a suggestion. Just fabulous service! Glad to know you had a good opinion of the shore excursions in Asia. Friends are urging us to arrange our own tours in Bangkok particulalry, but you've convinced me otherwise; I'm also nervous about the ship's schedule being altered; heard some sailing had some high tides to contend with and that delayed the scheduled arrival times. And, yes, yes - we agree about dressing for dinner - had one gentleman on the Panama Canal cruise who wore a black tee shirt with the Grateful Dead or Harley logo every single night in the diningroom; but you can't let those things bother you!