Please sell me on Azmara

We just completed our first cruise on the Azamara Journey and I included it on my blog. Please read and enjoy! We can't wait to return to Azamara! alwayslookforthebrightside.blogspot.com

Oooh. Super. Will look at it.

- Joel

Joel, we also just returned from our "first" and blogged as well as posted a review here on this forum...both are listed in my signature below:

 

 

 

In general, we found the experience well worth it for the destinations, and the nimbleness of the ship and the interesting itinerary, as well as the friendly fellow passengers and crew! It was one of our top cruises, even though it had more passengers than some others we've sailed.

Thanks!

- Joel

We just completed our first cruise on the Azamara Journey and I included it on my blog. Please read and enjoy! We can't wait to return to Azamara! alwayslookforthebrightside.blogspot.com

Just finished reading your review. Great photos. Captured a feeling of being with you nicely.

Thanks.

- Joel

It does vary from cruise to cruise, but in general I've not had an issue getting a seat. If it's very busy I'm happy to sit on a stool at the bar and this often keeps you out of the heat of the sun. I think you said before you are on the Dubai to Athens trip? Be aware that it can get very hot there because of the lack of breeze. It's beaten me on that route a few times!

 

 

 

What isn't clear from photos post-refurbishment is if there are more seats than before. That would help. Also the waiters are very efficient at clearing the tables. If you find yourself having to wait then I've found making myself known to one of them good as they'll keep an eye out for a table to become free. It's never that long, but you might need to hover for a bit.

 

 

 

Enjoy your first Azamara cruise. I'm excited to be leaving on Journey in 10 days.

 

 

 

Phil

Thanks Phil,

Yes you are correct we are going on the Dubai to Athens trip and very excited to be going to a new destination on a new ship. I like the heat but will heed your warning.

Hope you have a great cruise too. [emoji1]

I want to want it. Have been on Celebrity and HAL but would like a smaller ship with nicer quality feel to the surroundings, really good service, really good food. This is it, right? What do you like and not like about this line?

 

- Joel

Thanks for posing the question, we were very curious as well - and like you both we are Celebrity fans, and have cruised the line for about 13 years, with a Princess sprinkled in here and there. We were on a similar R- vessel and general layout (same size as Journey and Quest) and enjoyed the smaller ship experience, sailing through the Amazon.

If you both enjoy sea days, there is an October 26 sailing out of NOLA which hits the Caribbean and French West Indies, a nice 16-day cruise. We booked this as our honeymoon cruise and our first experience on Azamara, Quest. Really looking forward to the service, suite, food and smaller ship experience.

Hope you both try it as well and enjoy. Happy Cruising!

Thanks for posing the question, we were very curious as well - and like you both we are Celebrity fans, and have cruised the line for about 13 years, with a Princess sprinkled in here and there. We were on a similar R- vessel and general layout (same size as Journey and Quest) and enjoyed the smaller ship experience, sailing through the Amazon.

 

 

 

If you both enjoy sea days, there is an October 26 sailing out of NOLA which hits the Caribbean and French West Indies, a nice 16-day cruise. We booked this as our honeymoon cruise and our first experience on Azamara, Quest. Really looking forward to the service, suite, food and smaller ship experience.

 

 

 

Hope you both try it as well and enjoy. Happy Cruising!

Thanks. I like how this sounds. We do love sea days. I think a perfect balance would be around 50% port days. I'm booked up for cruises till summer of 2017 but thinking about options after that.

- Joel

There is a Roll Call for the 26 October cruise from NOLA, Mermen.you could have aloof at it and sign in on it. Don't forget to sign up for the CC meet and mingle party.

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We are holding a reservation but I am so disappointed to have $800.00 of shipboard credit that has to be used for shore excursions that I am considering cancelling. This is not a way to reduce the price in my opinion. I usually do my own thing with shore excursions but would consider them from the cruise line but as others have noted, I would have to wait until being on board to use the credit.

Would love to hear some reason to accept this crazy deal. No other cruise line is tying the OBC to the shore excursions like this as far as I can see including Celebrity.

We are holding a reservation but I am so disappointed to have $800.00 of shipboard credit that has to be used for shore excursions that I am considering cancelling.

It isn't clear to me why you believe your OBC must be used for shore excursions only. The only way I know of that this would happen would be if you knowingly booked with a promotion giving you OBC for only shore excursions, in which case it shouldn't be a surprise. In all other cases OBC from Azamara should be able to be used for any on-board expenses...shops, specialty restaurants, spa, special wines or drinks, etc., as well as excursions.

I was aware of the promotion that had $400.00 of on board credit - the More to Like/Love etc.

There was another credit that was given by Azamara/Celebrity of $400.00 that is not restricted according to my invoice but when my TA reviewed the fine print in her invoice, it indicated that it was restricted. She was very surprised and has called to object since it was not clear to the client.

We have just booked our first Azamara cruise for 2017. We have been looking to experience Azamara for some time and luckily got a good deal so we just booked it. This thread has been great in reassuring me that it was a good decision. We are RC Diamond members and like others have recently spent more time on Celebrity. The jump from Celebrity to Azamara seems to be the 'norm' from reading everyone's posts!

We have never had any problem booking excursions once on board. Last year we had $1000 onboard credit and spent most of it on excursions, all booked as soon as we got onboard.

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Grandma Cruising - that is reassuring. I am sure that this is destination dependent. Maybe someone can comment on their experience in the Caribbean.

Thanks

Thanks to all the experienced Azamara cruisers for their comments here. We've been on Regent a lot, and although the experience is great the pricing is causing us to reconsider. Been on Oceania once, Riviera on a transatlantic, and was less than impressed, although Wendy "the Wanderer" likes it better than I. My favourite by far is the Paul Gauguin in French Polynesia (6 times and counting), but comparing that experience to any other is not fair to the others. So your comments are helpful in deciding whether to give Azamara a try. Standard disclaimer: everybody's list of what is important and what is not is an individual matter. For me, open seating for meals and all-inclusive are important, but "your mileage may vary." [Random observation: Cruise Critic's spell checker insists that I've mis-spelled 'Azamara', even on this Azamara board.]

All these endorsements sound great. Just a question about excursions. Do most Azamara cruisers go with the ship's excursions, or do they "roll their own" like Oceania cruisers seem to do? I.e., are Azamara-sponsored excursions considered good value?

We did HAL 2 times on the smaller ones and did the Journey on Xmas. Azamara is overal better.

Real pro's

- If you look at the prices for HAL with real balcony and than the prices with the included tips and drinks on Azamara. The Azamara price is same or better.

- Officers (incl the captain) are more mixed with the passengers and easy to talk with/to

- selfservice restaurant on HAL is real selfservice. On Azamara it is buffet with lot of help.

Con's

- The very small bathroom (douche)

- I think food in main restaurant is better on HAL (but as always this is personally taste/feeling)

- Shows are a little better on HAL

All these endorsements sound great. Just a question about excursions. Do most Azamara cruisers go with the ship's excursions, or do they "roll their own" like Oceania cruisers seem to do? I.e., are Azamara-sponsored excursions considered good value?

I couldn't tell you if most go with the ship's excursions, but we have done so a few times when we were anxious about time constraints. I would say that they were, for the most part, well organized and fun, given that it was a whole bus load of people. Our one negative experience was in 2009 when the company was fairly new, so not worth discussing now. As for value, not sure...we are not frequent cruisers and have only done shorex with Regent and Azamara, therefore have little basis for comparison. Regardless of cruise line, we prefer to arrange our own. That's how we roll nowadays!

I couldn't tell you if most go with the ship's excursions, but we have done so a few times when we were anxious about time constraints. I would say that they were, for the most part, well organized and fun, given that it was a whole bus load of people. Our one negative experience was in 2009 when the company was fairly new, so not worth discussing now. As for value, not sure...we are not frequent cruisers and have only done shorex with Regent and Azamara, therefore have little basis for comparison. Regardless of cruise line, we prefer to arrange our own. That's how we roll nowadays!

We often do our own excursions-- either I book a private guide (way in advance) or we walk around on our own (armed with a map and guidebook) as we can walk for hours. But, as said by the poster above, sometimes due to time constraints, we do Azamara excursions. We went to see Iguazu Falls from the ship in Buenos Aires and given that it involved planes and buses (and we were gone from 4am to 7 pm) and there were about 25 of us, it was masterfully executed. Another great Azamara excursion was to Lopes Mendes beach in Ihla Grande, Brazil (said by Vogue magazine to be one of the ten most beautiful beaches in the world). It was gorgeous. We did several other Azamara excursions on our South America trip (Christmas 2014/New Year's 2015) and they were all very well done. An officer from the ship accompanies each excursion, both to monitor the quality of the guide service and to be in immediate contact with the ship should a guest get injured or to advise the ship of any delays/problems. On our excursion to Lopes Mendes beach, Azamara Journey's guy in charge of TV and Internet IT stuff was with us (he told us this info) and we enjoyed talking with him as we hiked to the beach (it's a 40 minute hike from where you get off a smaller speedboat, which is likely why its such a beautiful, unspoiled beach). Azamara offers some VERY nice excursions to places either off the beaten path or that would be difficult to arrange to get to on your own in the time you have. Strongly recommend that you look at and print out the Azamara shore excursion offerings well in advance of boarding the ship and think about what you might like to do--- you may choose to do some excursions with Azamara and others on your own.

An observation, having poked around with the online booking engine: it seems like finding a Club Continent Suite is almost impossible, unless you jump on one as soon as the sailings are published. Is this a fair observation?

An observation, having poked around with the online booking engine: it seems like finding a Club Continent Suite is almost impossible, unless you jump on one as soon as the sailings are published. Is this a fair observation?

Just checked the six cruises we have booked for this year and next and all show CC suites being available.

Just checked the six cruises we have booked for this year and next and all show CC suites being available.

Okay, I checked back at some cruises this September 2017 and I can see I was mis-lead by the UI. For example, on the Select a Suite page, the summary says that the minimum suite available is $22,572 (OS). But when I click on that, it shows me a selection of suites available, including a CC suite for $12,871.

Just a badly-designed interface. Glad I figured this out. Now I'll check 2016...