@Vineyard View We just completed a 16-day circum-navigation of New Zealand on Azamara Journey. Our go-to cruise line has been Oceania, so we were wondering how Azamara would compare to O's R-ships. We were pleasantly surprised.
We booked a Club Continent Suite, as we usually book a PH on O, so the comparison is pretty close. We were pleasantly surprised. The Journey needs some refreshing, but nothing that detracted from our experience.
The food was quite good, not quite as good as we had on O, but close.
The entertainment and the lectures were better on A than on O, and we did have an off-shore AzAmazing Evening, as well as a terrific White Night. A's ship excursions were very good to excellent.
Although the stateroom was of the same size as on O, A felt a bit more cramped in the "living" because of its layout. We prefer the sofa arrangement of O over the rather old fashion high back chair and desk chair which we did not find very comfortable. The butler was not as good as we've had on O.
The senior staff was around and friendly, and the Captain very much involved with the pax, especially in keeping us informed, a big difference from O, where the officers seem to hide.
Given the same itinerary, we would still chose O over A because we like the food, the feel and the slightly more comfort of O. But itinerary drives us and A has better itineraries. We have no qualms abut booking A again In fact, we have a 27-day b2b booked next year...and we have 2 O cruises later this year.