Azmara Vs. Oceania

I haven't cruised on either but I am thiking of either one for a Summer Med cruise

How do the two compare in terms of facility on ship, food, cabins, ports of call, and price?

I haven't cruised on either but I am thiking of either one for a Summer Med cruise

 

How do the two compare in terms of facility on ship, food, cabins, ports of call, and price?

This topic has been discussed here before. The search is down at the moment but you can search later.

In the mean time here are 2 threads that I could find:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=844993

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=836716

You may also want to check out the Azamara board as I believe they too covered that topic.

Welcome to the CC.

We just returned from our first Azamara trip, after 3 O cruises. If Silversea is a 10, and Royal Caribbean a 5, I give O a 9 and Azamara an 8. Both food and service were definitely a full notch below O, but then so was the price.

We just returned from our first Azamara trip, after 3 O cruises. If Silversea is a 10, and Royal Caribbean a 5, I give O a 9 and Azamara an 8. Both food and service were definitely a full notch below O, but then so was the price.

merryecho - thanks for that useful comparison.

Will you be posting a full report? I am "eyeing" Azamara due to their better pricing of a similar product.

Paul- hadn't planned on a full report, but here is a nutshell version. Azamara can't seem to escape the RCCL mindset. Some service was great, some wasn't, for example when we came aboard the hotel manager personally brought us a glass of champagne and the restaurant manager invited us to eat at one of the 'extra' restaurants that night- just say our name and he would make sure the maitre'd expected us. Super. Only problem was when we showed up later that night the maitre'd said "never heard of you".

On O you can't make it to a chair in the buffet area without someone offering to bring you a drink. On A it was 4 days before I realized there was anyone who was even supposed to do that for you.

Some food was great, but an awful lot of it was pretty bland, and sometimes the buffet was just not good- one day I had meatloaf that was raw in the middle.

There was a complimentary bottle of champagne in the room, but it was sitting in a bucket of warm water.

Little things like that which, taken alone, are pretty picky, but put enough of them together and it takes away from the feeling of being pampered.

Entertainment seemed about equal to O, but we rarely go to shows, so are not qualified to rate it. Some days at sea they showed a movie on a TV near the casino, but made really poor choices- a teen film with lots of foul language. the crowd of 20 or so all left before it was over.

Drinks were expensive, house wine was 11$/glass, including tip. Room gratuities were $16.25 per day each person in a butler served suite- I don't remember what they are on O.

One of the main things I liked less was two days in port that were very short- you had to be back onboard by 2-3, which reminded me of RCCL.

We did get a great price on this trip though. All in all, I guess I would say that I would be willing to pay an extra $1,000 to do the same trip on O rather than A, but probably no more than that.

Thank you for the concise report - very helpful.

I am most interested in ports (destinations) and Azamara has a very nice B2B Adriatic cruise that visits multiple ports in the former Yugoslavia. O does not have anything comparable. I cannot do it in 2009, but if they offer the same itinerary in 2010 I will do it (especially for a better price, even if I have to sacrifice a little on food quality/service - but not too much I hope).

Thanks again.

I haven't cruised on Oceania but have sailed Seabourn quite a lot. I took Azamara's "Best of Italy" cruise earlier this year and thought the food in all the restaurants was quite good and the food in the two alternative restaurants was as good, if not better, than that on Seabourn. Celebrity, the parent company, is obviously spending whatever it takes in order to provide a first-class dining experience. The service was not nearly as polished as that on Seabourn but everyone was extremely friendly and eager to help. And the ship was very attractive--even beautiful in some areas. I can't comment on whether Azamara is a viable alternative for an Oceania fan but I certainly enjoyed my cruise on the Quest and thought it was a very good value.

CruiseIsFun: Check out the Azamra Board as there have been many comparisons there. Thy seem to be getting better and better as time goes on. :)

I agree with Orchestrapal. There is a posting at the moment on the Azamara Board and it is being posted directly from the ship.

We did the 35 day cruise on Nautica from Hong Kong to Athens in April/May and it was a fabulous cruise but then again the itinerary was fantastic, the weather was great and our fellow passengers were the best. To us, it has been the best cruise we have ever done.

We are cruising on Azamara's Quest in late Feb when we do China, Korea and Japan and I will be comparing both cruiselines. From what I am reading from Azamara's Board, they seem to be offering a few extras that Oceania doesn't offer and they seem to be catching up very quickly to Oceania's standard plus the price is so competitive. Already since we booked in May, our cruise has dropped considerably in price which has helped us with our ever falling dollar.

We will be cruising with an open mind and it will be an interesting comparison.

Jennie

We will be cruising with an open mind and it will be an interesting comparison.

 

Jennie

Hi Jennie,

I will be looking forward to your observations from your Azamara trip.

Paul

PS For selfish reasons I wish we were cruising in Australia this January instead of 2010 - who knows what our $ will be worth by then.

Hi Paul,

Your dollar will always stand up to most currencies. Our poor dollar seems to go up and down at the moment without any rhyme or reason. I just wish we had bought loads of U.S. currency when it was at its peak back in July! Instead we only bought enough for our trip to Alaska and there isn't a lot left over unfortunately.

Jennie

Hi Paul,

 

Your dollar will always stand up to most currencies. Our poor dollar seems to go up and down at the moment without any rhyme or reason. I just wish we had bought loads of U.S. currency when it was at its peak back in July! Instead we only bought enough for our trip to Alaska and there isn't a lot left over unfortunately.

 

Jennie

Jennie,

it's "only" money (lol) - have a great trip!

Paul

Jennie- too bad about your dollar, we Americans now have a better understanding of the pain of currency drops. We enjoyed last Christmas in New York, full of smiling Aussies enjoying their strong dollar on shopping trips!

Hi Paul,

 

Your dollar will always stand up to most currencies. Our poor dollar seems to go up and down at the moment without any rhyme or reason. I just wish we had bought loads of U.S. currency when it was at its peak back in July! Instead we only bought enough for our trip to Alaska and there isn't a lot left over unfortunately.

 

Jennie

Any economists out there able to shed some light on this? For those planning future cruises, we read somewhere that all other currencies are likely to continue to decline. So in this uncertain world, each person makes his/her bet, and the chips will fall wherever they may!

Not being economists, we don't understand (though we like the phenomenon). The U.S. subprime mortgage is the culprit of the present economic trouble, but instead the US$ appreciates a lot against all currenices other than the Japanese yen. It also shows how the U.S. strength is recuperated through its crisis, resulting in a major realignment of international economic order (perhaps back closer to what it should be?)

 

Any economists out there able to shed some light on this?

My spouse posits that the US dollar is stronger because oil is traded/priced in US dollars.

We have been on two O cruises and this Summer were on Az.

Overall we prefer O because we felt the food and service were overall that much better. However we had a great time on Az and would certainly go back with them.

We noticed that where O had plenty of staff in the Speciality restaurants this was more limited on Az and the attentive service promised was never there.

On all cruises we were in OS and on both the purported Butler Service was a waste of time but the suites were comparable.

Our problem is that we just cannot find anything new for Summer 2009 on either.

Brian

I haven't cruised on Oceania but have sailed Seabourn quite a lot. I took Azamara's "Best of Italy" cruise earlier this year and thought the food in all the restaurants was quite good and the food in the two alternative restaurants was as good, if not better, than that on Seabourn. Celebrity, the parent company, is obviously spending whatever it takes in order to provide a first-class dining experience. The service was not nearly as polished as that on Seabourn but everyone was extremely friendly and eager to help. And the ship was very attractive--even beautiful in some areas. I can't comment on whether Azamara is a viable alternative for an Oceania fan but I certainly enjoyed my cruise on the Quest and thought it was a very good value.

Actually, Celebrity is not the parent company, Royal Caribbean is. Royal Caribbean owns both brands, Celebrity and Azamara. When they first purchased the former Renaissance ships, they branded them under the Celebrity label. Not too long after, they spun them off as a separate "luxury lite" brand, Azamara.

Actually, Azamara is operated within the Celebrity operational structure and Dan Hanrahan, the President of Celebrity, is head of Azamara. RCL, of course, owns and operates Celebrity.

I have taken 3 cruises on Oceania and 1 on Azamara ( Baltic Cruise 2008). Both have the exact same ships but the similarities end there. Overall Oceania does a much better job. Service levels are higher, food on Oceania is outstanding and the excursions are excellent. The negative with Oceania is:

Pricing and a poor loyalty program for repeat customers.

Azamara does a better job with their pricing and they do provide a lot of

on board incentives. Since they are fairly new, they do try harder.

We've been on both A and O and we thought they were quite comparable. I thought the food on O was a notch better and more creative but my wife thought A was better. Service comparable, O a bit more polished but A tries very hard. I did think the entertainment on A was better and both have overpriced drinks and excursions. We found it easier to get extra visits to the specialty restaurants on A. You couldn't go wrong w either and my choice for nother cruise would be based upon itinerary cabin choice and price.

Before I go into detail, let me say that we are not "your typical" cruisers. The ship is our destination. We are not interested in heavy duty shore excursions. Saw lots of places when I worked for an international airline. Now we want to relax, hence our preference for Atlantic crossings. Yes, in some ports we'll get off the ship to walk about a bit. With that in mind, I will concentrate on an apple to apple comparison. Both cruises were trans-Atlantic, O Miami-Barcelona and A Miami-Rome, A was a bit more expensive (on a per diem basis) and two years later than our cruise on O. Both crossings were done in aft balcony cabin #6093. We also did a crossing last November back to the US on Regatta in cabin #6090.

Cabin/balcony:

O had a small glass table, A had a small wooden table in front of the sofa.

O had an old-fashioned TV (CRT), A had a flat-panel TV with poor picture quality.

O has real teak deck on the balcony, A has faux teak decking, which looked better than O's, but during a wet day, O's real teak sits above the puddles, whereas on A you can't use the balcony because of the standing water.

O had a small round table and two soft webbed/netted chairs, which are good for relaxing and catching some rays.

A has a real rectangular table and two straight chairs. Excellent for dining but uncomfortable for sunning.

Room servicing:

Both lines have two stewards taking care of the cabin. A calls the senior one 'Butler'. That's the only difference we noticed. Both crews were very friendly and efficient. Both teams caught on to our routine rather quickly and had our cabin fresh and ready while we were gone.

On A we had fresh flowers, on O I don't remember any. A also offered canapés which we declined, because we would have had to be in the cabin to receive them. Too much food anyway.

Library:

The size is the same, of course. However, on A the starboard side shelves are stocked with glasses instead of books.

There are a couple of tables for reading, writing or playing games. O did away with them in favor of a huge ottoman surrounded by deep chairs.

We did enjoy the singer/harpist on Quest by the grand staircase. That was our only entertainment.

Food and service in the GDR and specialty restaurant were good. What can I say? We liked the food and that is what counts. Was one better than the other? Can't tell. We never had a problem getting a reservation upstairs or getting a suitable table in the GDR.

We had all our breakfasts and many lunches and dinners in the buffet.

That is where O shines and A has lots of room for improvement. A reminded us more of NCL's buffet.

In the morning (on A) a waiter would take our drink order: 1 coffee, 1 tea. OK. He comes back with a mug of coffee and a mug of tea. Since I like cream in my coffee, he goes back to get a pot with milk or cream and proceeds to pour some into my coffee - argh!! Ah, how do we stir this now? Goes back to get a tea spoon. Come on! I just as soon get the drinks myself, but since he offered. . .

A's buffet is understaffed, and it seems that the staff has not been trained properly. Main gripe: The hot food stations have two rows of chafing dishes, one in front on the passenger side and another one behind it on the server side. Since you need to help yourself, you have to reach over the front dish to (barely) reach the far dish. It is awkward to say the least. On O there seems to be a staffer behind every station to serve you, on A you frequently have to ask somebody from another station to assist you.

I agree with Ask4jay that Oceania's buffet for breakfast and lunch is fantastic. We haven't sailed on Azamara yet, only 75days to go, but having sailed on other lines, I have never had such good meals for breakfast and lunch as we did on the Nautica in Apirl/May this year. I still dream of the wonderful berries and fresh fruit that was available each morning. Even at the end of the 35 day cruise, the fresh fruit was still varied and delicious.

We are looking forward to experiencing the difference between the two cruise lines and from our experience we will probably have found our "perfect' cruise line as we love the size of the ships and the interesting and varied itineraries that both cruise lines offer.

Jennie

Here's a review making a comparison as of about a year ago. Hopefully, Azamara has improved since then.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=35968

owl61,

Your link to that review is so out of date. Since then there have been some fabulous reviews on the Azamara Board. Here is a more updated link.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=743598

Jennie

I haven't cruised on either but I am thiking of either one for a Summer Med cruise

 

How do the two compare in terms of facility on ship, food, cabins, ports of call, and price?

Same ship you know! Same great service!!! Better food on Azamarra!!! Same cabin! Great housekeeping on both!!! Price is cheaper on Azamarra we still don't know why cause now on some they are including the airfare too!!! Do your homework! We've done 2 Oceania and 1 Azamarra Journey. Would do Azamarra tomorrow!!!!! Oceania's itinerary is getting boring..........more choices with Azamarra who also has better excurions!!!

Good luck