Quick review of the August 20th sailing

We are just back from our two week food and wine cruise and we loved the itinerary, and as usual the staff were wonderful. This was our fourth Azamara in the last 18 months and we did notice some differences from the others.

When we went to our rooms on embarkation day, there was no fruit plate, no flowers, no sparkling wine, and the TV was still displaying the names of the previous guests. This was mostly corrected during the evening turn down service. For the first time our room had a musty smell, and now there was no more room spray to mask the scent. I soon realized that the off odor was coming from the shower curtain and asked to have it changed, that fixed the problem but it should not have happened in the first place. Had this been our first cruise with Azamara, we would not have been impressed with day one.

The dining room and bar staff were great throughout the cruise. The cruise director Tony, and captain Jason were rarely seen, with the latter giving off a decidedly standoffish vibe, much unlike our past captains. To his merit, captain Jason did manage to get us a berth in Bayonne when the seas were too rough for us to tender in from St. Jean De Luz. Richard, the hotel director, was ever present and always pleasant.

The food was very good in all the venues and we had no complaints. Bar service was excellent, with wines from prior days always happily provided. The shows were adequate. Nathan, the guitarist, was excellent. We enjoyed the disco with DJ Marcio. We did not attend any activities, so I cannot comment on those. Our fellow cruisers were all great and we enjoyed chatting. The internet service was terrible and if we had been paying for it, as we will be in the future, we would have been complaining constantly.

The Amazing Evening was anything but. The venue was a 45 minute bus ride away and by the time our bus got there it seemed like we were late to the party. The entertainment was limited to a girls choir preforming a few songs. The wine was very good, but the accompanying cheese was placed on platters with no toothpicks in evidence in some cases, or with people placing used and new toothpicks together when toothpicks were present. This resulted in people touching the cheese with their hands...for a ship that is always trying to avoid GI, this didn't seem to be a very good measure. We were only at the venue for approximately 45 minutes, when they announced that the buses were ready to take people back, thus resulting in a stampede by some. Had we known what it would be like, we never would have attended.

The shuttle service provided by Azamara was very good and we appreciated being able to easily get to the centre of town in each place we visited. Debarkation was very smooth.

Despite a few setbacks it was another great cruise for us, though for the first time we do not have another one booked.

Jasona good Captain who kept us safe thru a couple of storms on other cruises.But I never see him . he and his wige were on my tender and he did laufgh when we talked. bnut he is not out there like Cark and Johnannes. I much prefer Russ over Tony. I do not spend much time with Eric but he is more around at night than the others.. we all like something different or a type of person.. but the fun part of A is seeing the officers.

I agree that some mishaps do happen more than usual, ref your shower curtain. Jason is Jason. Very nice guy and a great captain, but he is not as outgoing as Johannes. Azamazing Evenings seem to be 50/50 successful. Some are great and some become logistically difficult. Tony was great the last time, but he is not Russ or Eric. Oh, and yes. He is hugable.:)

Thank you for the review.

I agree that some mishaps do happen more than usual, ref your shower curtain. Jason is Jason. Very nice guy and a great captain, but he is not as outgoing as Johannes. Azamazing Evenings seem to be 50/50 successful. Some are great and some become logistically difficult. Tony was great the last time, but he is not Russ or Eric. Oh, and yes. He is hugable.:)

I have hugged Tony.. but he did not hug me goodbye.. this was the same day of the so/so Cc party that night. .amybe he had a bad morning.

i liked the part Jason is Jason..

Thank you for the reveiw. I will keep in mind the fact they will change the shower curtain if requested. I'll really miss the room spray. :(

I'm so happy Johannes will be returning from vacation in time for our B2B.

Thank you for the reveiw. I will keep in mind the fact they will change the shower curtain if requested. I'll really miss the room spray. :(

I'm so happy Johannes will be returning from vacation in time for our B2B.

No need to miss the room spray, just ask your stateroom attendant for it.

We did so and got in on the Quest just 2 weeks ago.

No need to miss the room spray, just ask your stateroom attendant for it.

We did so and got in on the Quest just 2 weeks ago.

Really? I thought I had read they completely did away with it. Thank you for the heads up.

We are just back from our two week food and wine cruise and we loved the itinerary, and as usual the staff were wonderful. This was our fourth Azamara in the last 18 months and we did notice some differences from the others.

 

When we went to our rooms on embarkation day, there was no fruit plate, no flowers, no sparkling wine, and the TV was still displaying the names of the previous guests. This was mostly corrected during the evening turn down service. For the first time our room had a musty smell, and now there was no more room spray to mask the scent. I soon realized that the off odor was coming from the shower curtain and asked to have it changed, that fixed the problem but it should not have happened in the first place. Had this been our first cruise with Azamara, we would not have been impressed with day one.

 

The dining room and bar staff were great throughout the cruise. The cruise director Tony, and captain Jason were rarely seen, with the latter giving off a decidedly standoffish vibe, much unlike our past captains. To his merit, captain Jason did manage to get us a berth in Bayonne when the seas were too rough for us to tender in from St. Jean De Luz. Richard, the hotel director, was ever present and always pleasant.

 

The food was very good in all the venues and we had no complaints. Bar service was excellent, with wines from prior days always happily provided. The shows were adequate. Nathan, the guitarist, was excellent. We enjoyed the disco with DJ Marcio. We did not attend any activities, so I cannot comment on those. Our fellow cruisers were all great and we enjoyed chatting. The internet service was terrible and if we had been paying for it, as we will be in the future, we would have been complaining constantly.

 

The Amazing Evening was anything but. The venue was a 45 minute bus ride away and by the time our bus got there it seemed like we were late to the party. The entertainment was limited to a girls choir preforming a few songs. The wine was very good, but the accompanying cheese was placed on platters with no toothpicks in evidence in some cases, or with people placing used and new toothpicks together when toothpicks were present. This resulted in people touching the cheese with their hands...for a ship that is always trying to avoid GI, this didn't seem to be a very good measure. We were only at the venue for approximately 45 minutes, when they announced that the buses were ready to take people back, thus resulting in a stampede by some. Had we known what it would be like, we never would have attended.

 

The shuttle service provided by Azamara was very good and we appreciated being able to easily get to the centre of town in each place we visited. Debarkation was very smooth.

 

Despite a few setbacks it was another great cruise for us, though for the first time we do not have another one booked.

We also just returned from this cruise and as usual had a wonderful time and I would agree with many of the points made. I have one additional comment and it relates to the Meet and Mingle.

The night we sailed from Southampton the meet and mingle was scheduled for 6:00 PM. The event was a disaster thanks to Azamara's planning. It started with Tony the cruise director telling us how important Cruise Critic was to Azamara and then he introduced a few of the officers that were present. There were about 80 people signed up for the event and it was held in the Cabernet lounge which was not a good place to be able to meet fellow passengers. He then proceeded to tell us that because of the number of people there would be no introductions of each of us like normally occurs and he then the meet and mingle event after about 10 minutes. It made it difficult to meet people that we were going to share tours with. Further to insult to injury after we meet the two couples that we were going to tour with and talked for about 5 minutes we were kicked out of the caberret lounge because the dancers had to rehearse.

The whole event was a waste of time and not up to Azamara's standard. If Cruise Critic is truly so important to Azamara then Tony should have done a better job with the event.

We are just back from our two week food and wine cruise and we loved the itinerary, and as usual the staff were wonderful. This was our fourth Azamara in the last 18 months and we did notice some differences from the others.

 

When we went to our rooms on embarkation day, there was no fruit plate, no flowers, no sparkling wine, and the TV was still displaying the names of the previous guests. This was mostly corrected during the evening turn down service. For the first time our room had a musty smell, and now there was no more room spray to mask the scent. I soon realized that the off odor was coming from the shower curtain and asked to have it changed, that fixed the problem but it should not have happened in the first place. Had this been our first cruise with Azamara, we would not have been impressed with day one.

 

I understand that on 8/20 there was a lengthy Coast Guard inspection in Southampton which didn't wrap up until 12 noon. With embarkation beginning at 12:30 the crew had to scramble to get everything ready. The good news is that the Journey passed inspection with flying colors!

Of course the bad news is some of the cabins were not 100% ready with the special touches we like to have to greet you.

I was also on the same cruise. It certainly did not match our previous cruises on the Journey. We also had our TV on listing the previous guests(?) and us. 4 people in the cabin? I hope not. Although the cabins are a nice size, 2 is the limit. Only 1 in the tiny bathroom. If the cabins were truly clean and venilated well, there would not be a need for a cover up room spray. Our shower drain was clogged from day 1 to day 14 even though we asked that it be cleaned. One day when we went to the MDR, Munna, the maitr'd, made us wait a long time for a table. As we stood at his podium, I read the report about the food preparation areas. He left it sitting out on the podium. It was less than wonderful. I also saw a man at the next table to us, find a large piece of hard plastic in his meal. Luckily for him, he did not swallow it or break any teeth. We were also not thrilled with the lack of interaction by the staff. Were they sick? It was so unlike my previous Azamara cruises. What happened to the Azamara that I really liked?

On our last cruise the M&M was also disturbed by the usual "we are sorry but wr we have no time for this", then we were left to entertain ourselves with presentations. Next cruise I will probably choose a venue for ourselves and keep it out of Azamara's hands:confused:

We're also just back, having also enjoyed the Lisbon to Barcelone cruise and we loved both. We found Tony very approachable, personable and available. Captain Jason had his family with him for a good chunk of the first cruise and was understandably less available than in Asia last year but he certainly was visible and approachable on that cruise. We thought he did an excellent job as captain when he made the difficult call to move on from St Jean de Luz due to the dangerous tendering sea conditions. The whole cruise experience was wonderful.

We are just back from our two week food and wine cruise and we loved the itinerary, and as usual the staff were wonderful. This was our fourth Azamara in the last 18 months and we did notice some differences from the others.

 

When we went to our rooms on embarkation day, there was no fruit plate, no flowers, no sparkling wine, and the TV was still displaying the names of the previous guests. This was mostly corrected during the evening turn down service. For the first time our room had a musty smell, and now there was no more room spray to mask the scent. I soon realized that the off odor was coming from the shower curtain and asked to have it changed, that fixed the problem but it should not have happened in the first place. Had this been our first cruise with Azamara, we would not have been impressed with day one.

 

The dining room and bar staff were great throughout the cruise. The cruise director Tony, and captain Jason were rarely seen, with the latter giving off a decidedly standoffish vibe, much unlike our past captains. To his merit, captain Jason did manage to get us a berth in Bayonne when the seas were too rough for us to tender in from St. Jean De Luz. Richard, the hotel director, was ever present and always pleasant.

 

The food was very good in all the venues and we had no complaints. Bar service was excellent, with wines from prior days always happily provided. The shows were adequate. Nathan, the guitarist, was excellent. We enjoyed the disco with DJ Marcio. We did not attend any activities, so I cannot comment on those. Our fellow cruisers were all great and we enjoyed chatting. The internet service was terrible and if we had been paying for it, as we will be in the future, we would have been complaining constantly.

 

The Amazing Evening was anything but. The venue was a 45 minute bus ride away and by the time our bus got there it seemed like we were late to the party. The entertainment was limited to a girls choir preforming a few songs. The wine was very good, but the accompanying cheese was placed on platters with no toothpicks in evidence in some cases, or with people placing used and new toothpicks together when toothpicks were present. This resulted in people touching the cheese with their hands...for a ship that is always trying to avoid GI, this didn't seem to be a very good measure. We were only at the venue for approximately 45 minutes, when they announced that the buses were ready to take people back, thus resulting in a stampede by some. Had we known what it would be like, we never would have attended.

 

The shuttle service provided by Azamara was very good and we appreciated being able to easily get to the centre of town in each place we visited. Debarkation was very smooth.

 

Despite a few setbacks it was another great cruise for us, though for the first time we do not have another one booked.

I understand where you're coming from as your feelings about this cruise mimic mine about our May 12th cruise on the Journey. We had a great time in May--how could we not when we were traveling with our daughter and good friends--but the vibe was a little off. Just as it was with the sailing you were just on. Compared to our cruise last Christmas on the Quest, the Journey in May was lacking and it was with a bit of trepidation that we boarded our September 3rd sailing from Lisbon. I am glad to say that I shouldn't have worried because we had one of the best cruises we ever had. I liked Captain Jason very much even though he is pretty scarce around the ship compared to Captains Johannes and Jose. I appreciate his English humor a lot and he gave us a very interesting lecture one afternoon. His style of running a ship is simply different, that's all. As is Tony's way of being a Cruise Director. My husband and I took to Tony straight away and when we debarked in Barcelona it was Tony who gave me a great big hug goodbye and wished me safe journey home. Oh! and our Azamazing Evening was at the other end of the spectrum. It was a memorable evening that went off without a hitch. It delivered everything we expected and more. What I took away from this cruise was the realization that every Azamara cruise is unique and has its own flavor and some are going to be perfectly wonderful all around and others are going to be perfectly wonderful only in patches. Like yours for the August 20th and mine for May 12th.

Disembarking from the August 20th cruise was nothing special. We left when called, walked down the gangplank , boarded the van, picked up our bags that were lined up on the dock outside, and got a taxi to the airport. Nobody from the staff said good bye. I just put my cruise card into the machine and left. I did see the hotel director, Richard, talking to some staff members. He hardly had any contact with us during the 14 night cruise. Why would I expect any warm goodbyes? On my previous Azamara cruises, Heike or Philip were on the deck with other staff saying good bye to each guest. This did not happen on my last cruise. The atmosphere on that cruise seemed to be one of indifference. The Azamara style that I loved was missing. It was the dullest cruise that I have ever been on.

Thank you for your review...At first I didn't know if it was the Azamara Quest or Azamara Journey...I looked up the Captain and found the Azamara Journey. :):):):)