First Time Azamara "Journey" for Celebrity Veteran

I really like your review, thank you so much for your pictures and informative and entertaining story.

We did this (same?) itinerary in 2009 on the Azamara Quest. It was a quiet ship, entertainment was zero, but to be honest...were we too tired to party the night away. We paid 5 dollar each at Prime C and Aqualina.

Absolutely devouring your fascinating report and all the wonderful photos. Thank you for taking so much trouble and enabling us to feel as though we are there with you.

Looking forward to the next instalment. I only want it to stop when I get on board the Quest, but can you keep going until October?

(Bye the way, I was on a X cruise some years ago and another CC member got you and I mixed up, probably because in the similarity of our CC names. I now know how you got yours; mine is because I was an editor and all my pursuits are literary ones!)

Lynne :)

Hello, Your pictures are simply breathtaking. Thank you

Many thanks for your wonderful review and amazing photos.

We have visited many of these ports but, being from the UK, think ... oh well, we can always come back again, and rarely see and appreciate everything there is to see and do....

We love Azamara but do sometimes think ..... we have seen all the shows, we wish there was a little more to do/see in the evenings...

We really enjoy the "late night" cabarets (when they do them) .. maybe a vocalist or the jazz orchestra playing in Looking Glass.

On our last cruise we didn't even have a guitarist and we love to sit at the aft bar with a glass of wine and listen to the live music .... (Victor Cruz .. we miss you!)

On our sailing there were a lot of people who looked like they stepped out of an Oceania catalog!!

Well, I love Azamara and Oceania, and I look more like I have stepped out of an outhouse with a Sears Catalog. :D

Sandi, thanks for the review and pictures. :)

Well, I love Azamara and Oceania, and I look more like I have stepped out of an outhouse with a Sears Catalog. :D

 

Sandi, thanks for the review and pictures. :)

Too funny.....couldn't find any waffles on Azamara Ed, btw.

Sunday, May 18 - Tendered near Sorrento

Sorry for the delay, 12 hour work day yesterday!

The plan for today had been for Scott and I to take the train from Sorrento to Pompeii. Well unfortunately Scott woke up with a bad sinus infection and didn't feel up to leaving the ship. (He went to the Medical Center as soon as they opened and reported that they were quite helpful and prescribed an antibiotic that had him feeling much better in less than a day. No charge for the visit either).

I didn't want to miss Pompeii so ventured out on my own. I had researched the travel route in advance so had a pretty good idea how to get there.

I took the first tender that left the ship at 7:30 a.m. and headed to shore.

I did have to wait on the tender for 10 minutes or so as there weren't a lot of people heading out that early so they waited until a few more showed up.

I had read that the train departed twice hourly so I wasn't on an exact deadline anyways.

Here's the view of the Sorrento coastline from the tender:

From the shore; the Regent ship was keeping us company.

I recalled reading that there was an elevator that would take you to the town (avoiding a steep climb) so I thought, why not...I knew I would be doing lots of walking in Pompeii....I saw a sign for the elevator indicating it was down a narrow sidewalk to the right and followed that until it came to a building. It looked rather like an office building lobby. There was a ticket window and I purchased the 1 Euro ticket for the elevator (just a regular building elevator) that whizzed me up to street level!

I didn't spend a lot of time looking around Sorrento at that point, as I wanted to get to the train station and to Pompeii before it became too crowded.

I think it took me about 15 minutes to walk to the train station (well, I did stop in a bakery for a corneto on the way!), a slight detour as I went in the entrance for a bus garage instead but was kindly pointed toward the train station. As advised by my travel guru (aka Rick Steves), I purchased a round trip ticket and was in luck as a train was waiting on the platform.

After about 10 minutes, we were on our way. There were multiple stops between Sorrento and Pompeii Scavi, but all in all the trip was only about a half an hour and it was interesting people watching

This link is a good guide to the journey:

http://gardenofeaden.blogspot.com/2013/05/how-to-get-to-pompeii-from-sorrento.html

Too funny.....couldn't find any waffles on Azamara Ed, btw.

There were waffles on Quest, at the entrance to the buffet. :)

The entrance to Pompeii is just a short distance (walk to your right) after you exit the train station and dodge the tour guides and souvenir sellers.

I did not book a tour in advance (they were quite pricey) but originally thought we might join a tour once we were in Pompeii. There were many guides advertising tours for 12 euros a person but I didn't really feel like joining a group on my own so opted for purchasing the audio tour (6 euros). Unfortunately, the ticket seller did not give me a map of Pompeii (and I didn't think to ask for one for some reason, thinking that the audio guide was in sequential order and that's all I'd need.

Luckily I had brought along my Rick Steves pages with his Pompeii tour and that helped, but I think I might have benefited from an actual map. By the time I realized most other people had a map, I didn't feel like trekking all the way back to the entrance and made do without it.

If this happens to you....GO BACK. As I discovered, Pompeii is huge and poorly signed. After a while the streets start to look pretty similar!

Off I set to explore Pompeii armed with my audio guide and Scott's camera and my iPhone at the ready!

Great view of Mt. Vesuvius which looms over Pompeii.

As I arrived shortly after the site opened, it was not too crowded - yet.

I was glad I had a hat and sunglasses as it was a bright sunny day.

I am just so impressed that you ventured out on your own. :)

Pompeii was not what I had expected. Firstly, it was so vast that I think it is difficult to take it all in with one visit. Secondly, a good tour guide (no offense Rick) would most certainly add to one's understanding.

Signage was rare so one did need either a guide or a good book to interpret what you were seeing. Otherwise, after a while a lot of it starting to look like piles of rubble....

Here are some of the original stepping stones to allow people to cross the streets without getting their feet wet.

The Basilica:

Temple of Jupiter:

Wear comfortable, sturdy shoes. As you can see in this photo, the roads are large, uneven cobble stones. There are sidewalks in some places, but they are quite narrow. I did see one boy in a wheelchair and he had to be carried in many places.

Temple of Apollo:

Looks like he's lifting the column:

While the vast public spaces and the remnants of the temples and public buildings were interesting, I enjoyed visiting the many intact houses and other structures that brought home that this was a community, filled with everyday people going about their lives. Quite poignant....

Outdoor food stand (also described as the first fast food restaurant!)

In the Public Baths:

I was amazed by how much had been preserved (and I understand most of the original statues and artifacts are now housed in the museum in Naples).

I will be posting more images of Pompeii tomorrow. I will need to consult a book at the library tomorrow to identify many of the buildings properly.

I am just so impressed that you ventured out on your own. :)

I didn't want to spend another day on the ship and I didn't want to miss Pompeii. It was pretty straightforward to get there and back and perfectly safe.

Hi Sandy

I so love reading your reviews and look forward to your reviews of RCCL. I have cruised them on my first transatlantic and loved it. I have also done Carnival, ugh, princess, disney but I am a fan of Celebrity after my last two cruises. My last one was a transatlantic. My partner and I, both in our 40's enjoy the modern luxury and some night life of Celebrity. We loved our transatlantic in April.

We also did pompeii after our cruise. We spent seven days in Rome and one day was in Pompeii. We did the Rick Steves downloaded audio tour. While it was great and I would recommend it, signage is so limited that we found we were back tracking many many times and spent over five hours there. I don't know how anyone with limited mobility could do the city. It was HUGE to say the least and surprising to find out there were still areas that had not be excavated.

Thanks for sharing all of this, I love your pictures and while I have considered Azamara, I think I will stick with Celebrity for now, at least until I can retire and try several different trips a year.

Sandi - I would have been too chicken to go touring in a strange place without anyone. I was admiring your courage. :) I suppose had I already been to a site, I could do it on my own, but I don't even like going shopping by myself. :D

Outdoor food stand (also described as the first fast food restaurant!)

I always thought that those were latrines. :eek: I have learned something today. Looked them up and found that I was wrong.

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/Italy/Campania/Pompeii-145697/Things_To_Do-Pompeii-Thermopolium-BR-1.html

I need to go back and look at my photos of Ephesus, Herculaneum (did this instead of Pompeii. I heard that Pompeii was overwhelmingly large and not as intact as Herculaneum) and Jerash (the most well preserved ruin site that I have ever seen) to see if I have mislabeled anything. I know that I have photos similar to yours ...some with my husband or brother sitting on them. :eek: I realize now that the latrines did not have the finished rims, and they also had forward slots in them. Thank you!

Which Regent Ship was that in Sorrento - looks smaller like Silverea?

LibraryLady I am enjoying your posts. They are quite welcome, as I am another long-time Celebrity cruiser who has booked a trip on the Journey for next May. Were you ever able to get the Pursuits scans uploaded?

This is kind of a crazy question and maybe I should post somewhere else. I was looking at the Azamara website and thought they had 3 ships. All I could find was the Quest and the Journey. I thought they had a newer ship called the Marina, maybe I am mixing it up with another cruise line. Can anyone shed any light on this or am I just a little crazy.

Norma

This is kind of a crazy question and maybe I should post somewhere else. I was looking at the Azamara website and thought they had 3 ships. All I could find was the Quest and the Journey. I thought they had a newer ship called the Marina, maybe I am mixing it up with another cruise line. Can anyone shed any light on this or am I just a little crazy.

Norma

That's Oceania's newer ship. Azamara just has the two.:)

 

I didn't want to miss Pompeii so ventured out on my own. I had researched the travel route in advance so had a pretty good idea how to get there.

Been reading your travel narratives with great interest - thank you for it.

I don't know if your library has it - but The Great Courses has a lecture courses on DVD on Pompeii. Might have more information than you really may want! But it is a good series.

Some readers mentioned the fact that they will be getting the movie "Pompeii". It is fairly interesting movie - as a adventure movie - but more for its effects than for historical fact!

I've enjoyed your review immensely as I am planning my first X cruise this year and considering Azamara for next year. I understand one of the advantages of Azamara over X is the fact that the ship is smaller so they dock closer to town (thus less transit time to/from tourist sites) and stay in port later.

Did you find this to be true and of benefit?

Some readers mentioned the fact that they will be getting the movie "Pompeii". It is fairly interesting movie - as a adventure movie - but more for its effects than for historical fact!

Yes. we saw the movie previews at the theater and it looked a little science fiction-y. :rolleyes: That's why we are renting and not paying to see it the movie theater. We gave it a thumbs down during the preview.

I've enjoyed your review immensely as I am planning my first X cruise this year and considering Azamara for next year. I understand one of the advantages of Azamara over X is the fact that the ship is smaller so they dock closer to town (thus less transit time to/from tourist sites) and stay in port later.

Did you find this to be true and of benefit?

In our case, not really. One thing to consider is whether ports are tender or docked. Even with an efficient tender service, there is still time to get to shore and wait for the tenders.

We did have a fairly long day in Santorini (a tender port) arriving at 7:00 a.m. and leaving at 9:00 p.m.

Malta, we docked so were able to walk right off the ship; as the Azamazing Evening was in Malta, we did return to the ship around 5:00 p.m. to get ready.

As I mentioned, I was not real happy with the Taormina stop as Azamara didn't really make it clear that it was quite an (expensive) journey to Taormina (and we wer not there any long that a larger cruise ship would have been).

We did like having the overnight in Sorrento, as there are so many things to do with Sorrento as a base.

Overall, I wouldn't say it was that big an advantage - other than the fact that it was easier to get on and off the ship with a small ship. Wouldn't be a dealbreaker for me.

Hi Sandy

I so love reading your reviews and look forward to your reviews of RCCL. I have cruised them on my first transatlantic and loved it. I have also done Carnival, ugh, princess, disney but I am a fan of Celebrity after my last two cruises. My last one was a transatlantic. My partner and I, both in our 40's enjoy the modern luxury and some night life of Celebrity. We loved our transatlantic in April.

 

We also did pompeii after our cruise. We spent seven days in Rome and one day was in Pompeii. We did the Rick Steves downloaded audio tour. While it was great and I would recommend it, signage is so limited that we found we were back tracking many many times and spent over five hours there. I don't know how anyone with limited mobility could do the city. It was HUGE to say the least and surprising to find out there were still areas that had not be excavated.

 

Thanks for sharing all of this, I love your pictures and while I have considered Azamara, I think I will stick with Celebrity for now, at least until I can retire and try several different trips a year.

Thought it was just me and my lack of map! I totally agree with your assessment of Pompeii. I spent over an hour just trying to find the ampitheaters - so many streets were closed and my map was unclear - and I never did find either one of them! I understand now why it is recommended to visit the more manageable sites such as Herculaneum. I definitely just scratched the surface of Pompeii's treasures.

More of Pompeii.....

Another 12 hour day at the library yesterday so I have been delayed in finishing this review. Thanks to all who are still following....

Here are a few more photos from Pompeii. I have not been able to identify with certainty what some of the buildings are so will not misname them. If someone can identify them, please let me know.

Forum:

Beware of the dog!

House of the Faun:

Another view of Mt. Vesuvius: