Azamara cp Celebrity Aqua Class

Azamara Quest / Celebrity Millenium Aqua Class comparison.

 

Context:

My husband (Pete) and I started cruising in 2009. Our first cruise was with Azamara Quest, we have now sailed 4 times with them. Once with Oceania Marina and once with Oceania Insignia.

This was our first Celebrity cruise and we took an Aqua class cabin Deck 9 A2 on Celebrity Millennium*

All of our Azamara cruises have been in a balcony cabin.

 

This is my comparison of the two cruise experiences and I would like to state at the outset that it is my opinion alone (with the occasional additions from my husband). I do not want to enter into any

controversial arguments through my postings. There may be one or two inaccuracies and I will happily correct any errors.

 

Embarkation:

Equally smooth. Virtually straight out of the taxi, bags taken from us, quickly into line, welcome glass of fizz and cabins were ready, quicker on Celebrity (even though the ship had had a deep clean that morning).

 

Cabin:

Virtually identical. Shower Celebrity hands down superior, with jets and nozzles at chest and leg height along with overhead dish shower. Pete said best shower ever and if we could we would have one installed at home. No clingy curtain on Celebrity, proper fitted perspex doors. Bathroom products equally good.

 

Housekeeping:

On Azamara our cabin steward highlights the Do Not Disturb / Make up my room card almost as soon as we meet him. This seemed to ensure our cabin is cleaned as soon as we leave it and without exception we have returned from breakfast each day to find our cabin 'spick and span!'

 

On Celebrity there is only a DND card, in multiple languages so consequently we didnt have our room made up any day on our return from breakfast.

 

Overall appearance of both ships

Azamara:

I met a lovely elderly American gentleman on our last Azamara cruise who summed up the atmosphere of Quest by saying that he felt he was on the set of Downton Abbey!

Yes, if you look hard theres some wear and tear, some rust spots here and there but the overall feel of the ship is Country House Hotel.

 

Celebrity:

I had read so many negative reviews on the state of the Millenium that I was apprehensive. Simply no need! Its in the Azamara mould. Yes, there are also rusty bits here and there, carpets that may have seen better days but I really liked all the public areas. Celebrity's Christmas decorations, like Azamaras last year are elegant and understated.

 

Cleaning:

On both ships there was constant cleaning and maintenance during our 2 week trip.

 

Restaurants:

Celebrity Blu

Was our assigned restaurant and its like a speciality restaurant. We can eat breakfast and dinner there and the food and service have been outstanding. A special mention for the soups, all of them were delicious!

 

 

 

 

Celebrity Main Dining Room:

Have eaten lunch there on port days. Very good, waiter service but you cant access the wine from Blu, our assigned restaurant. Maybe a good thing to have water only with lunch!!! Did not eat dinner here as Blu was our assigned restaurant and we loved it.

 

Celebrity Buffet restaurant

Very busy. Ate breakfast there on day 1 as Blu wasn't open at the time we got up!

There was nothing like the selection of dishes offered on Azamara. Also self service cutlery, tea/ coffee/water. It felt like a canteen.

On Azamara this is all waiter service and feels more like a restaurant.

 

Celebrity Specialities

Apart from Bistro on 5, where we ate on embarkation day (we were in the restaurant on our own).

We didnt eat in any of the Speciality Restaurants as we loved Blu.

 

Azamara Discoveries Dining Room:

Lovely atmosphere, staff v. attentive. Food mostly good but soups often tepid and fish slightly overcooked.

 

Azamara Windows Buffet:

Because of the small size of the ship this feels more like a dining room. Candles add atmosphere to themed evening buffets.

 

Azamara Speciality Dining:

As the main restaurant satisfied us most of the time we didnt feel the need to eat in the speciality restaurants on our last sailing. We have eaten in both previously, the food was delicious but very rich.

 

Elegant afternoon tea

On Celebrity only open to Elite Elite+ Zenith

Azamara open to all.

 

Captains Club

Celebrity: As this was our first cruise we didnt have any activities for our tier of membership unless we missed them.

Azamara :Captains Club drinks and canapes for all

 

Afternoon canapes delivered to your stateroom:

Far superior on Azamara.

 

Room Service Breakfast:

Far superior on Azamara

 

 

Cruise Critic

On Celebrity We had 2 meetings*

Both were in the morning with coffee and pastries. The first one was an introduction to the Captain and the Senior officers by the Cruise Director. Noone apart from the Cruise Director spoke. All participants had sticky name badges, no introductions but there were 80+ attending.

 

Azamara, evening drinks and canapes. Introductions by Cruise Director and then a few words from the Captain and then the senior officers. All attending were then given the opportunity to introduce themselves with their Cruise Critic name and then mingle.Captain Senior officers

Not visible at all on Celebrity. The opposite on Azamara*Self Service Laundry:

Laundry:

None on Celebrity, separate costs for items to be laundered and items to be pressed.

Azamara washers and driers free to use, with soap provided on deck 7. 2 irons and boards.

 

Internet Minutes

Celebrity: we didnt qualify for any internet minutes as it was our first sailing.

Packages $59 for 90 minutes. Those we spoke to said it was painfully slow.

Azamara:

I think no free internet minutes on first sailing but then 80 minutes free on subsequent sailings.

We were able to use them in our cabin on ipads.

 

 

The Library

Despite being on 2 floors and looking very cosy (Celebrity) Azamara has far more books. Maybe the age of the kindle and e readers is having an impact.

 

Celebrity Concierge:

For Aquaclass guests to be found in the Library.

We found this to be a wonderful resource. Whilst everyone else was queueing at Guest Relations to book shore excursions after our change of itinerary. The concierge did this for us from her desk in the Library.

Also I needed 2 safety pins to hold together a dress one night and the concierge went down to the crew quarters for me and came back with them!

 

Sunbeds

Azamara beds are luxurious and the same all over the ship.

 

Celebrity's are very poor, at least the ones that we've managed to get, no doubt the last ones left on the pool deck as sunbed bagging goes on. Some beds on Celebrity are vey luxurious, almost like a double bed with a thick mattress but just a few, some are very acceptable and then there were the ones we had with rubber ribbons slatted across, no mattress.

There are also a few wooden lacquered upright chairs which look like and feel like a mediaeval form of torture. They are in the thalassotherapy pool and on Deck 4. Awful!!!!

 

Thalassotherapy pool

Azamara has a charge for this

Celebrity open to all

Celebrity Persian Garden free to Aqua Class I loved the eucalyptus room.

Azamara nothing equivalent to Persian Garden.

 

 

Shore Excursions

We tend to make our own arrangements and steer away from the ships tours, mainly because they are so expensive.

Celebrity prices, I thought seemed more reasonable than Azamara prices.

Our one and only Azamara shore excursion was to Cairo in 2009. It was £100 each and the tour consisted of a very long drive from Alexandria to the Pyramids with very little time at the Pyramids. A visit to an uninteresting Museum, a papyrus factory and lots of hard sell of tee shirts and jewellery.

 

We have had very little option other than to take Celebritys tours on the new ports of call on this cruise*

 

Our first Celebrity excursion was to a village in Vietnam. It consisted of 4 stops. a temple, a market, a rice paper making house and a Pavilion, where monks were trained and the elderly were looked after. There was no hard sell, our guide was good and we found it enjoyable and informative.

 

Our second excursion was 'Bangkok on your own' it took 2 hrs from the container port by bus. We had 5 hrs there and then the return journey. We loved Bangkok but we didnt have enough time to do the city justice. We weren't leaving the port until midnight so Im unsure why we couldnt have been given more time in the city.

 

 

Evening Entertainment

Celebrity Theatre venue is far superior to Azamaras, but the ship holds 3+ times the number of passengers so you would expect this.

I saw a brilliant violinist, Raphael on Celebrity. A soprano not to our taste but who was possibly brilliant in her hey day. Shaolin Monks interesting but could have cut their act by half.

 

Azamara have the White Nights Party and the Azamazing Evening. We really enjoyed both and its another opportunity to interact with Captain and Officers.

The entertainment generally on Azamara is improving as its been an area for criticism in the past.

 

Day time entertainment.

Most of our Azamara cruises have been port intensive with at most 2 sea days. Some attempt at providing extra activities plus a speciality brunch. Very small area for shops, never went in any.

 

Celebrity large area for shops and lots of sales. Watches, jewellery, Park West etc etc.

For the size of the ship and the number of sea days activities were limited.

 

Drinks:

Azamara: all the drinks we had were included in our cruise fare, this in fact meant we drank far more than we should have done!

 

Celebrity: lots of people were on the drinks package, sadly not us so we bought wine packages i.e. 7 bottles of wine for $250 + 15%? We found this the most cost effective way of having wine with dinner. We also had a bar set up package when we boarded, which was 1 litre of gin 6 tonics and some nuts.

 

 

 

*we were on the cancelled Gems of Indonesia Cruise. We were told that we would not be calling in to Bali for 3 days and also not going to Komodo Island. Both of these destinations were the reason we booked the cruise and we had no communication before hand.

 

The first we knew of it was at embarkation check in when a very young girl had the onerous task of delivering this information to us. What were we to do? We'd travelled over 7,000 miles to get here.

 

Our new destinations were to be Saigon and Bangkok. We haven't been there before but Id spent weeks researching our Bali trip. Id booked drivers on 2 separate days and also booked a trip to see the Komodo dragons.

 

We were now on the ship with 2 new destinations, no time to research, no internet minutes (everyone said it was so painfully slow anyway). We really had no choice but to book the ships tours.

We also hadnt realised that our 2 new destinations were both a 2 hour journey both there and back from the port.

 

As we'd already booked Kuala Lumpur, 1 1/2 hrs there and back we really weren't keen on 2 more days spending that amount of time on a coach.

 

So... Which would I prefer? If the price is right and destinations appeal I would happily sail on either ship.

Azamara and Celebrity do a good cruise. You nicely descibed the differences. I sail on both lines. Azamara prices are way up. Celebrity prices are up too. However, Azamara includes more items like shuttles, drinks, tips, etc. Azamara has evolved into a more quiet cruise. I prefer the variety of entertainment on the Solstice type ships. I like the M class too. S class are my favorite. Value for price puts Celebrity way ahead for me. I don't drink. I also sail on other cruise lines. Dates, ports, and price are key factors in choosing a cruise. I also pay attention to air connections and costs. Last year, my spouse wanted to do a Celebrity cruise that disembarked in Perth. The price was okay. The air arrangements were awful. It would have taken us almost 40 hours to get home. Needless to say, we did not book that cruise. We are sailing on the Eclipse in a few weeks. Beyond that, we have not booked another cruise. Waiting for a price drop on a few cruises that I am watching. If prices continue to increase, I may opt out of cruising in favor of independent travel. There are lots of places that I would like to visit that are not cruise ports. Staying in the USA is looking very good.

A very fair and balanced assessment thanks for thinking about so many aspects in your review

Thank you for the thorough and informative review.

We have sailed with Celebrity 3 times and really enjoyed the experience.

I would like to stay in Aqua Class sometime to experience Blu. Your review makes me want to try it even more.

 

We have an Azamara cruise booked for 2016, and your notes make me think we will enjoy it very much.

I enjoyed your excellent review Freckles49. What was the reason for your port changes?

 

Have had wonderful cruises on both Celebrity and Azamara but know I am in the minority of people who is not over impressed with Blu. The showers in Aqua class are terrific though.

Very balanced review. I would have to agree !!!

I enjoyed your excellent review Freckles49. What was the reason for your port changes?

 

Have had wonderful cruises on both Celebrity and Azamara but know I am in the minority of people who is not over impressed with Blu. The showers in Aqua class are terrific though.

 

Still not 100% sure we were told it was for 'ethical reasons.' .....which covers a multitude.

To the OP, thanks for the comprehensive review. Even though this was you first cruise with Celebrity, you have membership points with them because you have already sailed 4 times with Azamara. Azamara and Celebrity allow you to accumulate points on both.