A first timer’s first thoughts on June 17 Journey

We are having a wonderful time. Yes, we encountered many delays with the Kiel Canal and arrived late in Copenhagen. Shore excursion times were reassigned and mostly all went well.

We are doing lots of comparing with our experiences on Viking and are finding many splits for first place in this or first place in that. We will probably do a specific list of that soon.

Following this thread with interest as our first Azamara cruise will be Nov 2018.

Azamara is doing most everything right. Food, service, shore excursions are all very well done. The food is great and we really appreciate the creative extras like the tapas in the Living Room during cocktail hour. On the flip side, we prefer the brand new Viking Ocean ships and their larger (and quieter) cabins/bathrooms.

Are you talking about the noise from hallways or from where? I agree nit soundproof as well,as some other lines.

Azamara is doing most everything right. Food, service, shore excursions are all very well done. The food is great and we really appreciate the creative extras like the tapas in the Living Room during cocktail hour. On the flip side, we prefer the brand new Viking Ocean ships and their larger (and quieter) cabins/bathrooms.

That's all great to hear, thank you. Glad you are having a good time. As we haven't sailed with Viking, we won't know any diference. Ignorance is sometimes bliss!

Have a lovely day.

Lynne:)

overall, how does Viking compare to Azamara? What are the higlights of each line? I really want to sail on a Vikinig Ocean Cruise, however they seem to be more expensive based on the itineraries Ive looked at. Our upcoming sailing on Azamara will be our first step out of the mainstream lines, dont get me wrong we still really like Celebrity and have more sailings booked with them, but I wonder if the small ship experience will be enough to sway us over to "the dark side"? ;)

overall, how does Viking compare to Azamara? What are the higlights of each line? I really want to sail on a Vikinig Ocean Cruise, however they seem to be more expensive based on the itineraries Ive looked at. Our upcoming sailing on Azamara will be our first step out of the mainstream lines, dont get me wrong we still really like Celebrity and have more sailings booked with them, but I wonder if the small ship experience will be enough to sway us over to "the dark side"? ;)

We are in the process of moving away from the mainstream lines, especially Celebrity.

The value is just no longer there for us. When comparing AQ on Celebrity (let alone the goofy suite prices) it is not that big a jump to Azamara, Oceania, Viking. All 3 offer, IMHO, an experience much more in tune with our needs and wants. So over with the same same on all the mainstream lines. Same theme nights. Same game shows. Same overpriced shopping.

Viking might be a bit more than AZ, but so much of that is itinerary driven. If you want something special (which is all we book now) you'll likely be paying a hefty premium for both.

Advantages AZ: Grats are included. Complimentary drinks that can be upgraded and available all day/night. Involved, dedicated staff.

Advantages V: 8 dining choices, no extra charges. Free wifi. Free shore excursion in every port, upgradeable.

We kept going back to Celebrity after our previous "small ship" sailings, largely due to price, but have largely made the decision that it is either on a smaller ship or a land tour, both of which offer better value to experience.

The timing of your post couldn't be better as we are due to embark on Journey on June 29 in Stockholm. Appreciate your information!

We are in the process of moving away from the mainstream lines, especially Celebrity.

The value is just no longer there for us. When comparing AQ on Celebrity (let alone the goofy suite prices) it is not that big a jump to Azamara, Oceania, Viking. All 3 offer, IMHO, an experience much more in tune with our needs and wants. So over with the same same on all the mainstream lines. Same theme nights. Same game shows. Same overpriced shopping.

 

Viking might be a bit more than AZ, but so much of that is itinerary driven. If you want something special (which is all we book now) you'll likely be paying a hefty premium for both.

 

Advantages AZ: Grats are included. Complimentary drinks that can be upgraded and available all day/night. Involved, dedicated staff.

Advantages V: 8 dining choices, no extra charges. Free wifi. Free shore excursion in every port, upgradeable.

 

We kept going back to Celebrity after our previous "small ship" sailings, largely due to price, but have largely made the decision that it is either on a smaller ship or a land tour, both of which offer better value to experience.

We will be doing our first AZ in Dec. From a price standpoint our AZ Cruise in a V2 is considerably more than our recent 4 Celebrity cruises 3 were in Aqua with the Premium beverage package, gratuties, unlimited internet and $150 OBC each. The per day per person for Aqua was $201, $218 and $233. The 4th cruise was in Celebrity Suite with all perks for $332 per person per day. Our AZ V2 is costing $311 per per per day with limited included beverages and Included gratuities. So the added cost to upgrade the beverages and purchase internet will take the AZ price to about $340-350 per day.

We are looking forward to AZ but doubt we will be jumping ship so to speak.

We will be doing our first AZ in Dec. From a price standpoint our AZ Cruise in a V2 is considerably more than our recent 4 Celebrity cruises 3 were in Aqua with the Premium beverage package, gratuties, unlimited internet and $150 OBC each. The per day per person for Aqua was $201, $218 and $233. The 4th cruise was in Celebrity Suite with all perks for $332 per person per day. Our AZ V2 is costing $311 per per per day with limited included beverages and Included gratuities. So the added cost to upgrade the beverages and purchase internet will take the AZ price to about $340-350 per day.

 

We are looking forward to AZ but doubt we will be jumping ship so to speak.

Agree about the pricing.

We are not doing less Celebrity because of the price. We are just really bored with the product. NCL, RCCL, Princess, Celebrity, all of which we've done in the last year, too much alike for our tastes.

Azamara, Oceania and Viking all click for us. =X= after 300+ days, not so much.

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I just returned from my first Azamara cruise. There were several regular Celebrity cruisers also on AZ for the first time and we all agreed that Azamara was a step above Celebrity in everything except for the small cabins and bathrooms. The food, service, and friendliness of the crew and passengers was definitely superior to Celebrity as was the overall small ship experience. I will be cruising Azamara more in the future, in spite of the higher cost, which I believe is more than worth it for the superior experience Azamara provides.

We had a week on a Princess cruise at the beginning of May - 7 nights in a standard balcony room, plus drinks (bottle of wine each night with dinner, four other drinks in total each day), plus gratuities, amounted to £2,100 (£300 per day total for two of us).

Our upcoming cruise on Azamara Journey on August 30 - 11 nights in a guaranteed balcony room, including drinks and gratuities amounts to £3,338 (£303.45 per day total for two of us).

I know that we got a good deal on Azamara by watching for a price drop 12 weeks before sailing and that we don't yet know which balcony stateroom we will be allocated but I also know which line I'd rather sail on for just £3.45 per day more.

Lynne:)

It seems if your willing to shop you can get good deals on AZ. Does this apply to others like Viking and Oceana? Comparing base fares isnt apples to apples as many have stated here based on the perks AZ includes over the mainstream lines. Also, with only ~700 pass. on AZ you would expect a higher level of service, and the reviews seem to back that up.

Our upcoming Celebrity cruise to the ABC islands is costing an extra $405pp to get included gratuities / wifi / premium drink pkg / $150 OBC, that brings our total $278/day (vs $233/day for base fare in A1 Aqua Class). If a similar cruise was offered for $20-30/night more on an upscale line it seems like a no-brainer to make the jump! But, we're paying $400/night on AZ for our Nov cruise to Cuba. Im sure there are ways to get that down, but we like to book 6-12 months out.

Do, or should, Celebrity Captains Club perks carry over to AZ? Like cabin upgrades, discounts, etc?

I'm very excited to cruise AZ this Nov, but have to admit I'm equally excited to cruise the new Edge in March! I think for us, assuming we enjoy AZ as much as I think we will, our futures cruises will be a mix of "small ship" and mainstream. Variety is a good thing!

I just returned from my first Azamara cruise. There were several regular Celebrity cruisers also on AZ for the first time and we all agreed that Azamara was a step above Celebrity in everything except for the small cabins and bathrooms. The food, service, and friendliness of the crew and passengers was definitely superior to Celebrity as was the overall small ship experience. I will be cruising Azamara more in the future, in spite of the higher cost, which I believe is more than worth it for the superior experience Azamara provides.

Interesting. We have just returned from our third Azamara cruise....10 night Islands of the Med on Quest. This one cost us considerably more than the previous two.

Most of our cruises have been and continue to be with Celebrity. I completely agree with you when you say everything on Azamara is a step above Celebrity but this time, whilst we enjoyed the cruise, I’m afraid we came to the conclusion that the differences just did not justify the higher price...the value was just not there.

We will sail with Azamara again, for a unique itinerary, but only for the right price.

To answer an earlier question about noise ... we are in a Club Continent Suite on deck 8 and the noise from above is really bad.

To answer an earlier question about noise ... we are in a Club Continent Suite on deck 8 and the noise from above is really bad.

Can you share your location/cabin #?

To answer an earlier question about noise ... we are in a Club Continent Suite on deck 8 and the noise from above is really bad.

Mmm.... we've been on the old Royal Princess and the current Pacific Princess. Both are old R vessels. We were in a suite at the rear of the Royal.... Deck 8. Very noisy. The furniture was being 'thrown' into position by the deck hands first thing in the morning. Awful. We complained after a few days and it was reduced but still annoying.

When we went on the Pacific Princess, we took a suite under our previous one ---perfect.

So, is your noise from deck hands with furniture or is the noise of guests? Difficult to deal with the latter!

Good luck with the problem!

May depend on deck 8 location. We're usually in an N2 CC suite aft of the rear elevators. The only noise we hear is the rolling of some kind of cart before and after meals in Windows above. Lasts 20-30 seconds each time.

Our first Azamara cruise cabin was 8037. The first one forward of the CC suites. Admittedly, I'm a light sleeper, but we, too, experienced a lot of noise which we determined was the moving of the loungers on the

pool deck above at an extremely early hour (before six). It lasted for quite some time, and was really disturbing. They had the old loungers back then, and they were quite heavy.

So, when I wanted to try a CC Suite, the cabin sticky really helped me choose 8056, which was much quieter, but I still could hear footsteps every morning, like a woman in high heels. Go figure. It wasn't that early or disruptive and we were on a port intensive cruise anyway.

The ships have a vibration and I can hear runners at 6 in the morning on one cruise. another like a 3 to 330 run daily. i was mostly in cabin then. i move to a spa suite and much better.

We are in CC 8047, which has us under the Patio Grill. Every time someone moves so much as a chair (which is constantly and all day), the sound here in the cabin is jarring. It is hard to understand how they haven’t put some kind of soundproofing in place.

They are well aware of the noise problems in these few cabins under the Patio Grill. They showed us another cabin on day 3 but the size of that cabin, especially the bathroom, was unbearable for my claustrophobic husband.

We’ve loved our cruise and really, the biggest downside has been this exceptionally noisy cabin.

They say the ones on the other side under the bathrooms are quieter. never stay aft of stairs,