Azamara board is something special

I am new to the Azamara board having just booked my first cruise the end of January. I have been looking at 3 different premium/luxury cruise lines off and on for the past 3 years. Having just become empty nesters 4 years ago we are in the early stages of travel. Our first foray into over seas travel have been with Uniworld river cruises. I found CC and the river cruise boards in early 2014 and found a wealth of information and extraordinarily helpful regulars. Like all internet blogs there will be occassional disagreements but for the most part the threads are respectful and enjoyable to read. When I started researching a luxury ocean line that would compare favorably to Uniworld I started reading several boards for premium/luxury lines. I was always taken back by the amount of ugliness that was pervasive on these boards. I found it so off putting I would back off my thoughts of sailing with them. I was concerned if it was representative of the people who sail those lines I felt I wouldn't fit in well. But in recent months I've found Azamara and even before posting I've enjoyed the helpfulness and friendliness of its regular posters. I also found it very helpful that Azamara communicates directly with the CC community through Bonnie. I find both of these things incredibly rare from the lines I've been researching and I wanted to take a moment to say thank you to the Azamara CC community and to Azamara directly for dedicating the resources to allow Bonnie to be such an active part of this board. Thank you in advance for your help as I continue to prepare for our first Azamara cruise next year which I feel will be the first of many.

Brian

I agree this board is a pleasure!

I think you will find your fellow passengers on Azamara to be a pleasure to be around, too. :)

I think the board is representative of Azamara in general - the crew, the senior officers and fellow passengers.

I would definitely agree with the above posters. This is a very helpful board....with very rarely one or two exceptions. :)

The passengers onboard Azamara are generally well travelled, friendly and interesting people. I have made some lifelong friends onboard and that includes crew as well....you know who you are and I am so glad I met you all. Can't wait for my three Azamara cruises in 2017.

As an Azamara newbie, I can agree with the previous posts. The passengers we met on our recent cruise were (with one possible exception) a lovely bunch of interesting, friendly people. The crew were also, without exception, friendly, professional and accommodating.

The people on the Cruise Critic boards are a very small fraction of the number of people who actually take cruises. So, I caution you to not generalise from the toxic nature of some of the threads for some of the cruise lines to an impression of the people who actually are on the ships.

I won't mention any brands, but in my experience most people are lovely and a pleasure to be around for all the lines I've sailed on.

That said, there are usually one or two folks that are just nasty, regardless of the line. I've sometimes mused that they are hired by the cruise lines so that the passengers have something to talk about: they are great entertainment if you can suppress your anger.

Also I concur about the overall lovely social ambience of Azamara.