Feedback from Mar14th Quest Beijing to H Kong

[Lobbylin]

Be warned this is long!!

 

We booked this cruise primarily for the itinerary, and also because of our previous excellent experience with Celebrity. We love to travel and visit new and exciting places, and cruising is a wonderful way to explore parts of the world that we would otherwise struggle to visit on our own steam. This itinerary from Beijing to Hong Kong, via Dalian, Incheon (Seoul), Osaka (Kyoto), Hiroshima, Busan, & Shanghai was excellent and gave us a real flavour of these places. Highlights were Japan and China, which we would happily return to as there was so much more to see. South Korea was very interesting, but not somewhere we would rush back to as a tourist destination. Hong Kong we have visited many times and always manage to find something new and interesting to do there. I cannot comment on the ships tours as we never take ships tours, preferring to organise private tours.

 

What do we look for in cruising? We are from the UK, aged 43 and 54 and have done around 12 cruises with Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Princess, NCL, Silverseas, Star Cruises, Ocean Village and have now have completed our first cruise with Azamara. This was our 3rd “small ship” experience and I would describe us as having discerning tastes.

 

Our priority when choosing a cruise is for an “interesting” itinerary, followed by a “reputable” cruise line, with “excellent” food and service. We rarely attend the on board entertainment so that is not important to us.

The burning question is would we cruise with Azamara again? Yes, we would if the itinerary was right.

 

The Azamara experience was very good and offered some very nice touches which does set it above other mainstream quality cruise-lines; but IMHO they also let themselves down in minor areas, which individually did not spoil the experience, but cumulatively detracted from the total overall experience and undid some of the great things they are striving and managing to achieve.

 

What did we like?

 

• We were in Sky Suite 8039, which was the nicest Sky Suite we have stayed in compared to Sky Suites on Celebrity Infinity and Mercury. The cabin was well laid out with floor to ceiling windows that covered the entire balcony, which made it appear larger, brighter and more airy, compared to the Celebrity equivalent. The décor was modern and appealing to the eye, and the chairs and sofas very practical and comfortable, which is not always the case on some cruise-lines. The bathroom was modern with good quality Elemis Spa toiletries and a good shower. The water temperature was always constant and we never suffered from luke-warm water. We particularly liked the balcony with chairs and a proper table, and took advantage of some good weather days to enjoy breakfast and lunch out there.

 

• Complimentary soft drinks in our Sky Suite – there was always 2x 1 lit bottles of Evian and assorted cans of soda/fizzy drinks topped up every day. The free bottled water is a real plus-point.

 

• Our cabin staff: butler Marites and assistant Jorge, were excellent and inobtrusive in keeping our cabin very clean and tidy. They quickly learned our daily routine, making sure our cabin was tidied within minutes of us vacating it. This is huge plus point for us as we have often returned to our cabin 2hrs later on other cruiselines to find that the cabin has still not be made up.

 

• The Speciality Dining rooms were outstanding. We dined in Prime C 4 times and Aqualina twice and did not have difficulty getting reservations, although we had to be flexible on timings when we booked on the day which is perfectly acceptable. The food, service, presentation and ambience are excellent. We had different wait staff each time and they all deserve a special mention as they all go above and beyond in making it a wonderful experience. These two dining experiences are a credit to Azamara and we had no issues with the $5pp recommended gratuity to dine here, when you compare this to dining in speciality restaurants on other cruise-lines.

 

• Food in the main Discoveries Dining Room was very good in general, and we were never disappointed with the quality or choice of the food. Generally, service was very good and staff were very helpful with a real desire to please, but we did have the odd lapse in service which does unfortunately impact on your dining experience. Other passengers also commented on occasional lapses in service in the main dining room.

 

• The bread baskets in all the dining rooms are wonderful – lots of choice of several different types of freshly made bread with a selection of butter and dips at dinner in the main dining room. One lady next to me requested houmous dip with her bread and it appeared a few moments later as testament to the flexibility and service of the servers.

 

• Small touches like the nice, modern plate-ware used in the dining rooms and also for the savouries delivered to your cabin. The Savouries (canapés delivered in our cabin) too, were more interesting and of a better quality than you get on other cruiselines. The room-service breakfast menus (for the Sky Suites) were excellent, and my husband loved the Steak and Eggs that he ordered one morning, which is something we have never seen on other cruiseline room service breakfast options. He said it was cooked perfectly and were it not so big, he would probably have ordered it a few more times!

 

• On-board entertainment does not feature as a key importance for us and we prefer things that are low-key so did not attend any of the shows, but because this was a “cooler” weather cruise, we did spend evenings in the Mosaic Bar with pianist/entertainer Jim Badger who was very pleasant & entertaining; and also in the Sky Lounge with the Azamara Trio. Florence, who sings with the Azamara Trio has a beautiful voice (Florence should sing more of the songs as the other 2 members of the Trio are not the greatest singers….). By the end of the cruise we knew all these entertainers and wait staff in these establishments well, as well as other passengers, and this is one of the nice things about cruising on smaller, more intimate ships. The wait staff again went above and beyond, often going to other bars or the dining rooms to get us the specific brand of wine that we liked to drink. Michael in the Skylounge deserves a special mention, and also received many compliments from other passengers also.

 

• There were some major hiccups/delays in the itinerary, primarily due to Chinese Customs officials who succeeded in delaying us in every Chinese port we visited, but IMHO Azamara coped very well given the circumstances and rose to the challenge. In the port of Dalian, Azamara provided free shuttle busses into town and also offered a bargain $25pp 2.5hr city tour, all arranged at very short notice. I really don’t think that other cruiselines would have delivered such a rapid and favourable response in the same circumstances.

 

• Embarkation was horrendous, again due to delays by Chinese Immigration turning up late, but disembarkation was prompt and efficient, and one of our quickest ever for disembarking a ship.

 

• Both Captain Carl Smith and Captain Carlson were excellent in briefing us on what was happening in terms of general information and sailing delays etc and genuinely went out of their way to give us extra time in port where possible where delays occurred. We also found the main head staff and cruise director to be helpful, friendly and informative.

 

• Azamara laid on the best Cruise Critic get-together that I have ever attended – champagne, bucks fizz, canapés and all the key staff present to answer any questions. We later went on to dine several times with fellow CC posters, which is part of what Cruise Critic is about – sharing information and making future friendships.

 

• We also attended the complimentary Captains Club Wine Tasting (I think it was just for Elite & Select) which was a great session with a very informative sommelier, who always stopped and said hello when he met us around the ship during the rest of the cruise.

 

• We also participated in afternoon tea many times in the various locations on the ship and the lovely warm scones with jam and cream plus all the other savoury and sweet goodies were excellent. Once I went on my own and was greeted by server whom I knew from the Prime C (Aldwin) who went out of his way to make sure I did not feel uncomfortable because I was on my own.

 

• All the staff and crew of the Quest were pleasant and helpful. We were invited to dine with the Staff Captain and HR Manager one evening, which was tastefully organised and we also enjoyed conversing with Dominic who used to be the Maitre’D from the SS United States Restaurant on the Infinity, who was temporarily visiting the Quest.

 

• The port lecturer, John Flemming was interesting in his content and presentation, and his lectures were well attended.

 

• The Shore Excursions staff were also extremely helpful with maps and recommendations and handouts with the port information written in the various foreign languages. In Hong Kong for example, I had a card which said “drive me to…” and several choices below it written in both Chinese and English. I have found other cruiselines to be lacking when it comes to information if you want to go it alone, so this was a breath of fresh air that was very much appreciated and applauded.

 

• Finally, we changed various currencies on board as we went from country to country and I was pleasantly surprised that the Azamara exchange rates were very fair.

 

What detracted from our Azamara Cruise experience?

 

• Inconsistency in information supplied, both in the daily Pursuits newsletter and also in general as to what was going on.

o Photocopies of our passports appeared in our cabin one evening without explanation, which we then needed several days later.

 

o The Pursuits newsletter said we had to complete and return health forms for Busan port by a certain deadline and when we told reception that we had not received these forms, they said it was a mistake in the Pursuits newsletter and that the forms were not required.

 

o Cruise facts such as speed, location, distance travelled, weather etc was pretty much always incorrect on the TV channel. It stated we had travelled 495 nautical miles for 6 consecutive days, and our speed would vary from 6 to 35 to 23 to 18 knots all in a matter of 1 minute on the screen!!

 

• The in-cabin TV failed several times and had to be re-set by calling Reception on at least 4 occasions. We went all day on the first occasion without TV thinking it was a ship-wide issue which is wasn’t. We later learned that it was common place and other passengers also experienced ad-hoc blips in TV service.

 

• We were overcharged for 2 bottles of wine:

o The first we spotted when signing the bill so had it credited and corrected then and there.

 

o The second was for a $40 bottle of Pinot Grigio which we paid for (plus the 18% gratuity, which is the highest % rate that we have paid on any of the cruiselines we have sailed on) only to realise the next day that we had actually been served a cheaper brand of Pinot Grigio that sold at $30. We did query if it was the right bottle when the server brought it to us, but he was adamant it was the correct one so we drank it and paid up as we had not ordered this wine before and did not know what the bottle looked like. We took a hit on that loss as it all sounded too difficult to try and correct it.

 

• The contentious issue of Azamara Butlers vs Celebrity Butlers.

o We ordered room service breakfast on at least 5-6 occasions – some were delivered by our head butler Zoran, some were delivered by other wait staff, none were delivered by our butler Marites. Half of our breakfast orders arrived late and often with things missing, sometimes they called to say it was on the way, other times no-one called. All a bit hit-and-miss and very disappointing. By the end of the cruise we were ordering room-service breakfasts 30 mins before we wanted it, so it arrived on time, which is unacceptable.

 

o The Azamara Butler service really needs to be re-worked as it just does not compare in any way to the Celebrity butler service. For Celebrity, it is a great service which is a true jewel in their crown, but it falls far short (and is a bit a joke) on Azamara, and as I consider it to be a critical perk of booking a Sky Suite, I will have to think hard about paying for that in future.

 

• Enforced Pre-Paid gratuities – I think this only applied to non-US cruisers, which were the majority on this cruise. Part of the tradition of cruising is to reward those who serve you well, so it felt strange not to get envelopes or pre-paid slips that you could give to your chosen key staff. My question is why bother at all and not just include these costs in the price of the cruise if everything is so black and white?

 

• Future Cruise sales – why was it advertised in the daily Pursuits that you could register for a future OBC if it was not open to International Guests – which was the majority of passengers…??? Do Azamara know how irritating that is? Why not rub our noses in it a little more??

 

• Windows Buffet – I am sorry to say that IMHO Windows Cafe just does not compare to buffets on other cruise-lines.

 

o It lacked enough space for everyone on a cold weather cruise as people could not utilise the outside tables, so breakfast were a real bun-fight in finding a table.

 

oThe food was never really hot enough, sometimes it was lukewarm. There was a hot cooking station where the chef would cook up a meal for you and I did hear several compliments about that, but on the one evening occasion that we dined there I waited at the stand and no-one came along so I ended up eating the main buffet food.

 

o The choice of foods on offer was good: soups, salads, pizza, pasta, carvery, desserts, sushi in the evenings and well laid out, so no criticism there, but I did find the Asian offering on the evening we dined there to be a little bland, which surprised me as Asian food on most cruiseships is usually excellent.

 

o The hot dishes are not clearly labelled and one passenger asked the server which was the pork curry and which was the lamb curry. The passenger asked 3 times as he felt the server was giving him the wrong information. When I came to eat the said pork curry, it turned out to be lamb curry. That is unacceptable for passengers who need to know what they are eating.

 

o At the beginning of the cruise, wait staff would offer to bring tea/coffee/soft drinks, but this petered out by mid-cruise and was non-existent without heavy prompting by the end of the cruise. I expect consistent service on a cruiseline like Azamara. This may have been due to the fact that passengers were not allowed to touch the utensils and serve their own food and drinks at the start of the cruise due to previous Norovirus outbreaks, and this restriction was lifted mid cruise.

 

 

The negatives are small by comparison but did grate on you at times. When Azamara can improve upon these minor irritants, they will have created a very good cruise product that will rate highly alongside some of the 5 star cruiselines at a competitive price.

 

As I said mid-way in my feedback – Would we cruise with Azamara again? Yes is the answer.

Azamara, please continue to offer these exciting and interesting itineraries. I know they can be challenging at times, but they are greatly appreciated.

 

Finally, for those of you wondering about Norovirus on the Quest – this is gone now, so pack your bags and look forward to you cruise! Enjoy….

 

Linda :)

[Moeve]

Welcome home Linda - I begining to think it was better we only got the chinese at the end of the cruise. Although we didn't have any trouble in Shanghai.

[nevernever]

Hi Linda. Thanks for offering a very fair and balanced report on your cruise. My wife and I had been on an earlier cruise from HK to Singapore, and also enjoyed the experience (so much so that we will be on the Quest again in November). Interested to hear of your experience regarding the OBC. Maybe you were only wishing to reserve the option of an OBC on some as yet undetermined cruise. However, we had no trouble in making provisional bookings on three future cruises, two of which we subsequently decided not to proceed with, and had everything costed in AU$, with OBC guaranteed. Interesting to read your comments about the gratuities, as considerable comments has been made on this and other forums over the past few months. I do not know what is happening elsewhere, but the Australian RCI/Celebrity/Azamara office has now replaced the term 'gratuity' with 'service charge.'

 

Nevernever

[Lobbylin]

Hi Linda. Thanks for offering a very fair and balanced report on your cruise. My wife and I had been on an earlier cruise from HK to Singapore, and also enjoyed the experience (so much so that we will be on the Quest again in November). Interested to hear of your experience regarding the OBC. Maybe you were only wishing to reserve the option of an OBC on some as yet undetermined cruise. However, we had no trouble in making provisional bookings on three future cruises, two of which we subsequently decided not to proceed with, and had everything costed in AU$, with OBC guaranteed. Interesting to read your comments about the gratuities, as considerable comments has been made on this and other forums over the past few months. I do not know what is happening elsewhere, but the Australian RCI/Celebrity/Azamara office has now replaced the term 'gratuity' with 'service charge.'

 

Nevernever

 

 

Yes, re the future OBC - I am looking for a cruise for Dec 2010 and none have been released yet so I wanted to take the option of the "undetermined cruise", and it is that option that is not open to International guests.

 

Apologies for any confusion

 

Linda :)

[Lobbylin]

Welcome home Linda - I begining to think it was better we only got the chinese at the end of the cruise. Although we didn't have any trouble in Shanghai.

 

We embarked late at Tianjin as they turned up late for that, then sailed late from Tianjin as a crew member had to be taken to hospital for an emergency op, but immigration would not let us leave that person behind as they did not have a visa. So the ship managed to get a visa for that person and we finally sailed around 11pm, which meant we were 30 mins late into Dalian (going full speed of course!;), and then Dalian Immigration made us wait a hour before they even showed up to clear us... giving us just 2.5hrs in port.

 

In Shanghai, we were early and they were booked for a 7am arrival , but they turned up at 8.30am and we were given clearance at 9.30am.

 

Having said that, I still loved China!:D

[uktog]

Linda

Welcome back and thanks for your great review. Maybe we Brits think very alike as what you said was the exact same experience we had on 17 Jan sailing. Also our UK friends on 3 Jan had the same butler and breakfast issues as you - our head butler did not make as many mistakes but was still below the Celebrity standards

Your assessment of the mdr vs specials is so spot on

 

Thank you for also highlighting the issue re future open bookings on board - every future cruise consultants tell us every time that it is coming shortly for UK passengers but 2 years on no progress. To be honest now there are all sorts of limits on combining credit for on board bookings I have found it better to book direct with X UK and negotiate combinable credit with them.

[uktog]

Linda

Welcome back and thanks for your great review. Maybe we Brits think very alike as what you said was the exact same experience we had on 17 Jan sailing. Also our UK friends on 3 Jan had the same butler and breakfast issues as you - our head butler did not make as many mistakes but was still below the Celebrity standards

Your assessment of the mdr vs specials is so spot on

 

Thank you for also highlighting the issue re future open bookings on board - every future cruise consultants tell us every time that it is coming shortly for UK passengers but 2 years on no progress. To be honest now there are all sorts of limits on combining credit for on board bookings I have found it better to book direct with X UK and negotiate combinable credit with them.

[Lobbylin]

Linda

 

Thank you for also highlighting the issue re future open bookings on board - every future cruise consultants tell us every time that it is coming shortly for UK passengers but 2 years on no progress. To be honest now there are all sorts of limits on combining credit for on board bookings I have found it better to book direct with X UK and negotiate combinable credit with them.

 

I didn't know that was possible - I have been using a USTA in the main on most cruises when the GBP was strong, but now I need to consider all options to get the best price.

 

Thanks :)

[Scotswoman]

Welcome home, Linda, and thank you for a very balanced review. We are glad you enjoyed your trip. Since almost all of us who have posted here after the trip had considerable problems with the authorities in Dalian, it would probably make good sense for Azamara to give this particular city a wide berth in future. There were, in my opinion, not enough spectacularly interesting things to see and experience in Dalian to merit the hassle Captain Smith and his staff had on our cruise.

Morven

[cruiseyguy]

One of the "problems" for Azamara is that it is part of Celebrity and Celebrity cross-staffs between the two lines. What that often means is that a "butler" on Azamara was often simply a stateroom attendant on Celebrity who has transferred over to Azamara to gain the skills to be a butler on Celebrity. Azamara probably would have been better off as a stand alone company within RCL but having big brother Celebrity has probably insulated it from some of the effects of the economic downturn.

[Moeve]

We mised Dalian due to high winds - it seems that that was not too much of a loss. It did however mean we had to do immigration in Tianjin and they were not going out of their way to get us off on our merry way in any sort of hurry.

 

Linda we are however glad to hear the those nasty Noro viruses didn't rear its nasty head again.

[Lobbylin]

Moeve / Alexandra

Personally, I didn't think much of Dalian, so you didn't miss much. As Morven said, you could lose Dalian completely in view of the "immigration nuisance" factor.

 

One other interesting thing I heard on board is that Azamara seem to acknowledge that this particular itinerary is just not suitable for Jan/Feb sailings. Even during our "nice" March weather, we were fogged in at Incheon which delayed us by 5hrs+ and so missed our 5pm arrival into Osaka, instead arriving around midnight which was too late for anything.

 

Linda

[YOSLK]

We thoroughly enjoyed the Quest cruise although the tv breakdowns and the misleading info in the daily pursuits bulletin were minor irritations. Can't speak highly enough about the enthusiasm of the crew and the talent of most of the entertainers. Jim Badger was a particular favourite. the food in Pime C and Aqualina was outstanding whilst the main restaurant and the buffet were a bit vin ordinaire.

 

All in all a wonderful 2 week cruise.

[PrincessRobbo]

Glad that you enjoyed the itinerary as much as we did. It does sound as though things improved somewhat after our cruise and you were lucky to avoid the Norovirus.

 

Like you I found the niggles do start to mount up and I'm sure could be remedied. One thing I think Azamara should do is to stop advertising the cabin stewards as 'butlers'. It doesn't set expectations at the correct level and is frustrating for the passengers and I'm sure equally for the staff. Like your our steward got to know our movements and we had very good service but we didn't ask for anything extra. I have filled in my post cruise questionaire for Azamara and I hope that they take notice of peoples responses.

 

I have gone off cruising for the time being as I find the pricing structure for non US and Canadian passengers to be very unfair.I object to paying twice as much as other people for the same experience. Shame really as I was starting to love cruising and I have certainly enjoyed talking to others on these boards.

 

It has been nice sharing information with you.

 

Lynda

[Lobbylin]

 

I have gone off cruising for the time being as I find the pricing structure for non US and Canadian passengers to be very unfair.I object to paying twice as much as other people for the same experience. Shame really as I was starting to love cruising and I have certainly enjoyed talking to others on these boards.

 

It has been nice sharing information with you.

 

Lynda

 

Hi Lynda

 

Thank you to you too for all your helpful info over the months in planning this particular cruise.

 

With regards to future cruising, we're already addicted (in fact I booked a Dec 2010 cruise just yesterday:D), but I am having to search harder for the deals!

 

Linda

[Aussie Gal]

Linda,

 

I have finally got around to reading your review which was excellent.

 

We too had trouble with our TV quite a number of times. The first time we thought it something we had done but after getting it fixed by Reception and then it happened again a few more times, we then knew there was a fault within the ship which should be rectified.

 

We never received canapes in the afternoon. Only after reading your review that I remembered we were supposed to receive those so I am wondering if it was because of the norovirus cleanup that they were omitted.

 

We too found the buffet to be not up to expectations and therefore we ate all our breakfasts and lunches in the dining room. You also must have had warmer weather than us as there wasn't anyway that we could have eaten breakfast on our verandah.

 

We had a great cruise and met some delightful people but we are not sure if we would cruise again with Azamara. If a good itinerary appears then we will consider it, but at the moment we are more inclined to look at Oceania, Princess and HAL.

 

Jennie

[Lobbylin]

Linda,

 

We had a great cruise and met some delightful people but we are not sure if we would cruise again with Azamara. If a good itinerary appears then we will consider it, but at the moment we are more inclined to look at Oceania, Princess and HAL.

 

Jennie

 

Hi Jennie

 

If Azamara continues to offer interesting itineraries and the price is right then we would go with them. It's a tough call, as I prefer a more consistent overall cruise experience; but on some itineraries, the benefits of being in a smaller ship outweighs other cruiselines - eg sailing up the Ho Chi Minh river, which the bigger ships just cannot do.

 

At this moment there are some great deals to be had on lots of cruiselines (in fact we have just found out that we have been given $2000 OBC on our Nov 09 Crystal cruise!!:D, which then makes that VERY competitive compared to the likes of Azamara....)

 

Linda :)

[little britain]

Linda

Many thanks for this great review. I am now eagerly waiting for the 2011 Asian itineraries to be released tomorrow even more now!