Comments about Food and Wine

[Larry Pimentel]

[FONT=Calibri][COLOR=black]I hear a lot of praise for the food and wine served on Azamara voyages. It comes from all over the place - telephone calls and email from guests, personal notes to shipboard staff that are passed along to me, and certainly from CruiseCritic Forum posts. And the onboard, end-of-voyage surveys rated by guests have been going through the roof. [/COLOR][/FONT]

[FONT=Calibri][COLOR=black]Fine Cuisine and Wine constitute one of the principal positioning points of the Azamara Experience. Others are Destination Immersion (you’ve heard that one before, right?) and the Extraordinary Service our crew provides. Our cuisine is under the direction of a remarkable team of culinary professionals. I’m also proud that we have one of the most notable wine cellars at sea with select vintages from the major wine-producing regions of the world. I love wine and I have been personally involved with our hotel staff and onboard sommeliers in searching out little-known but exceptional wines that we serve on a complimentary basis at luncheon and dinner. [/COLOR][/FONT]

[FONT=Calibri][COLOR=black]A lot of your posts this week have been comments and questions about Azamara’s food and wine. Let me address some of them:[/COLOR][/FONT]

[FONT=Calibri][COLOR=black]In reference to the Specialty Restaurants, one poster on the forum identified as [I]'FLL'[/I] was expecting more of a gourmet experience - “and it was kind of vanilla.” I accept [I]'FLL’s' [/I]comment and am turning it over to our chefs for them to ponder. They like feedback. Another poster, [I]'tabathal,'[/I] praised the Discoveries Restaurant and thought the dining experience there was better than in Aqualina or Prime C. That’s food for thought, as they say. This poster went on to say, “I can’t praise the MDR (main dining room) staff enough, particularly Theadora and numerous wait staff who looked after me wonderfully …. so good in fact that we stayed on the ship an extra week.” Theadora and the others will love hearing that.[/COLOR][/FONT]

[FONT=Calibri][COLOR=black]We constantly assess the menus in all of our restaurants. Recently, after more than six months of intense study, we upgraded the menus for our Discoveries Restaurant and I hope '[I]tabathal'[/I] experienced the new cuisine. We also did a thorough review of the cuisine in our specialty restaurants and made some significant changes. So if you haven’t been aboard recently you are not aware of these. I might add here that our guests comprise more than 50 nationalities and taste preferences are not common to all. My feeling is that our chefs perform miracles in dealing with appetites that span the globe. [/COLOR][/FONT]

[FONT=Calibri][COLOR=black]There were several posts that dealt with the cost of dining in the Specialty Restaurants now that we have priced the experience at $25 per person, up from $15. One of these, from '[I]commencemilo,[/I]' pointed out that another cruise line does not charge for the specialty restaurants. Obviously '[I]commencemilo[/I]' believes Azamara should do the same. I’m sorry, [I]'commencemilo,[/I]' but I don’t agree. Some other posters don’t either. A forum poster named Albert Ross said, “For only $25 per person it is still one of the best meal deals at sea.” [/COLOR][/FONT]

[FONT=Calibri][COLOR=black]Food costs are continually rising and in my judgment $25 is still a modest price. Further to this, not only are food costs rising but so too are fuel costs to ship the containers of food all over the world. So if you are not occupying a suite and therefore entitled to dine in the Specialty restaurants at no additional charge, you may want to consider the added value of doing so. But if the $25 specialty restaurant charge exceeds your budget, please dine in the Discoveries Restaurant or in the Windows Café. They’re getting raves. The fact is we are not in the business of keeping up with the Joneses - or in this case with the many fine cruise lines that are out there. It’s not a competition we are interested in. We just want to be as good as we can be. Travelers need to book what they believe to be the best for them. Many of you believe the best for you is Azamara and we are grateful for your support. [/COLOR][/FONT]


[FONT=Calibri][COLOR=black]Larry[/COLOR][/FONT]

[Local17]

Larry,

First let me commend you for coming to visit Cruise Critic. It takes a lot for the boss to show up in the trenches. Also, having a Chief Blogging Officer is a great way to stay connected to the customer. I shows that the ship(s) you pilot are most definitely customer driven.

Your enthusiasm for wine shows not only in this post, but on the ships. Unfortunately for the bride and I we are not "fans of the grape". Our one Azamara Cruise we vowed that would change. We would try a suggested wine with lunch and dinner. . . After 3 days we finally reverted to diet soda. Yes, we loved the cruise, but are just not into wine. Nor beer for that matter.

Since I’ve seen others here mention it I’ll ask you to look into not only beers, but soft drinks. Perhaps we’re just not suited for Azamara, but I wish that the passion you show for wine was carried over to other beverages, if not because of your interest, but for ours.

Yes, beers, and even soft drinks. Be bold and give your passengers tastes that they’ve never tried before. With over 50 different nationalities aboard, tap the best of their local offerings and delight us. Tonical is a western Mexico treasure that can best be described as a vanilla soda. Wikapedia has a list different soft drinks by country.*

Try and make every part of our cruise a sensation and you’ll force us to come back!

THANKS Larry
Local 17

* [URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_soft_drinks_by_country[/URL]

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[dfishner]

Larry, I made the comment about the speciality restaurants being kind of vanilla and was actually referring to Prime C. I like Prime C but for my taste it was no better then Chops on RCL or Crown grill on Princess. I looked at Azamara as a boutique line and that creates a picture of higher end cusine to me.

There is nothing wrong with a good steak and that is what you get at Prime C a good steak that taste more like choice or wet prime instead of dry aged. I found the steaks difficult to cut and chewy and I understand that happens with a steak now and then. I know Prime C is not going to change and thats is fine I just wanted to say if you are doing a steak house if should be the best and that means Prime dry aged beef.

I also have to say even at $25 now it the speciality restaurants are still a good price.

[Divaduchess]

The food on the Journey is exellent.
From the MDR to the buffet to the coffee bar treats to the specialty restaurants, every single meal we had was excellent.
The service was just as wonderful with enthusiastic and accomodating servers in every venue. The dinning onboard exceeds any from the many cruises we have taken.