Azamara Quest Med Cruise 3rd August 2014

Just returned from our Azamara Quest cruise around the French and Italian med. It was a full on week with a different port each day so there were no sea days.

The ports were fine; the best in our opinion were those on the Italian coast. We started at Monte Carlo and then on to Saint Tropez. This was followed by two different ports in Corsica and then a day in Sardinia. Then Sorrento, Amalfi and Civitavecchia to go to Rome to fly home. We had lovely weather, most days in was in the mid 30’s which is what we like.

So the itinerary was fine but the ship, well that was a bit like the proverbial Curates egg: It was good in parts but also bad in parts and I am not sure for us that the good outweighed the bad.

On the good side the staff were always smiling and helpful. The shows were exceptionally good as was all the entertainment. Our cabin was an outside and had plenty of room and whilst the bathroom was a bit on the small side it was adequate and neither of us had the problem with the shower curtain that so many reviewers comment on. The bed was very comfortable and there was plenty of storage space. We were on deck seven so easy access to all parts of the ship. We enjoyed the complimentary drinks and found the quality of the wines were just fine. I indulged myself in the top drinks package and enjoyed some fine spirits and as I enjoy quite a few of them got good value for money. The White Night party was fun.

However the bad stuff just kept on coming at us. First of all the food. We had one breakfast in the MDR, Eggs Benedict which we both love. It wasn’t nice at all, a soggy muffin with a rubbery egg and solid béarnaise sauce. From that point on we ate breakfast in the Windows café. Regretfully that was no improvement. The egg station was woefully slow so you could wait ten to fifteen minutes for and omelette or a couple of fried eggs! Most of the fried food was quite greasy and quite a lot of the fresh fruit had been frozen and sometimes not quite defrosted!! Lunch in windows was mat about the same standard. On one occasion they were serving roast beef which was so underdone the blood was pouring out of it and the chef kept trying to mop it up with serviettes. In the MDR the food was okay but nothing spectacular and the seating was very cramped. Tables for two were so close together they effectively became table for four of six!!

We ate in both speciality restaurants and did the Chefs table on one night. The food in Prime C was excellent and had all the food on the ship been that good we would have been very please, but it wasn’t. In Aqualina we were served a seafood platter which had no sauces, very few vegetables and not particularly full of flavour. The chefs table was a French themed meal and we were really looking forward to this as we both love French food (my OH used to live there). It started off well and for our main course we both chose the Seared Mediterranean Sea Bass. Imagine our surprise when were served something that looked extremely like cod and was, we were told Chilean Sea Bass. We later found out that this is actually a type of cod called Patagonian Tooth Fish, sold in the USA as Chilean Sea Bass. What it was not was Mediterranean Sea bass and it was definitely not “seared”!!

Up on deck nine there were sunbeds and a swimming pool. The beds were nice but not quite enough to accommodate all the passengers and the pool was very small. These points which are just down to the size of the ship sealed it for us and we have decided small ships are not for us. As for the Azamara experience we would say it’s better than RCI, certainly no better than P and O and not even close to the grills on Cunard. In our opinion we could not give it five stars but would probably award it three. As for small ships they are not for us, in fact we have cancelled a Caribbean cruise we had booked on P and O’s Adonia on the grounds that it’s an identical ship to Quest!!

Thanks for the review.

Thanks for your balanced review. I now tend to avoid the MDR for breakfast as I've had too many very average breakfasts there and the service on occasion has been very patchy. I love Windows now and more often than not have breakfast there.

I'm a great fruit eater and have to say I have never had any that has been frozen or below par. It sounds like you were unlucky or something wasn't right with the food prep on your cruise. Your other food complaints would have me saying something to the F & B Manager. Hopefully you mentioned it directly or through the cruise questionnaire that they emailed to you.

I've never had an issue finding a lounger, but some cruises have been busier than others.

Azamara and its small ships aren't for everyone. Hopefully you can enjoy your next cruise on a larger ship. Thanks again for your review.

Phil

Thanks for the report!

Hi Zombatar,

Thanks for your very informative review. Sorry that Quest wasn't everything you hoped for. I agree with Phil (excitedofharpenden), in that I would have asked to speak with the Food & Beverage manager regarding your dining concerns. Knowing how Azamara's onboard teams are fantastic, I'm highly confident they would have tried their best to make you happier. As I hope you will agree, what's not great for some, may be great for others. Case in point - Celebrity usually overcooks their prime rib at the buffet, which is a huge disappointment for me. If I saw rare prime rib, I'd probably be very pleased ! Of course, I can see why that might not work for some.

As for the loungers, I always thought there were plenty to go around... but I suppose that depends on the itinerary.

Thanks very much for your insights, and welcome home !

I was on this cruise and our party loved the beef, we wouldn't have had it if it was well done, so as Andy says it takes all sorts.

Again we didn't have a problem with the egg station in Windows but that could be due to the timing of breakfast and we only used the MDR on the last day. I do wish they would continue breakfast later than 10am though because when you have long days in port you can afford a more leisurely start to the day.

Generally we found enough loungers but a couple of the ports were a bit small and whereas this isn't usually a problem,they didn't hold enough interest if you were not on a tour. This meant a lot of people were back on the ship very early and it was sometimes difficult to get a bed in the shade, always seemed to be plenty on deck 5 though. I have to say that we have always found this more of a problem on bigger ships though.

Most of our cruising has been with P and O, RCI and Princess on larger ships and all of our party thought that the food on Azamara was the best. We have found that all the American ships are a bit stingy with the vegetables and we always asked for extra. We found the Azamara staff extremely obliging when it came to varying the accompaniments of the meals. Nothing was too much trouble.

They are never going to please everyone all the time but they made a very good attempt at keeping our party happy.