Live from Quest

[excitedofharpenden]

Arrived in Barcelona on Thursday and boarded Quest on Saturday. It's great to be back on the ship. Truly feels like home. We are in Palma de Mallorca today and the weather is supposed to be mostly sunny and 75 degrees. I will try and post every so often with the odd picture and update.

 

A message for Lottie. Many thanks for the bottle of wine you left for me which was waiting in my cabin. That was very kind of you!

 

Phil

[uktog]

Sounds like you are in the perfect place Phil. Do let us know when you meet the new Captain

[Andy]

Arrived in Barcelona on Thursday and boarded Quest on Saturday. It's great to be back on the ship. Truly feels like home. We are in Palma de Mallorca today and the weather is supposed to be mostly sunny and 75 degrees. I will try and post every so often with the odd picture and update.

 

A message for Lottie. Many thanks for the bottle of wine you left for me which was waiting in my cabin. That was very kind of you!

 

Phil

 

Hi Phil,

 

Wishing you a wonderful time on Quest. Look forward to hearing your insights on your sailing, and also about Captain Nilsen.

[Spursgirl]

Hi Phil,

 

Lottie and I got off Quest yesterday and are now safely at home although it was a little disconcerting to have to make my own breakfast this morning.

 

Hope you have as fantastic a time as we did.

 

Please say hello to Russ and Sarah Lou from me.

 

Have fun.

 

Ciao

 

Hazel

[Lottie A]

Arrived in Barcelona on Thursday and boarded Quest on Saturday. It's great to be back on the ship. Truly feels like home. We are in Palma de Mallorca today and the weather is supposed to be mostly sunny and 75 degrees. I will try and post every so often with the odd picture and update.

 

A message for Lottie. Many thanks for the bottle of wine you left for me which was waiting in my cabin. That was very kind of you!

 

Phil

 

 

Hi Phil,

 

I thought you would find a good home for it! I bought it in a winery near Lucca.....I thought it was very acceptable for a pre dinner drink on the balcony.

 

We had great weather for our cruise and an absolutely wonderful time......I hope the same goes for you.

 

Please would you tell Sarah Lou "Hi from Lottie" (and Hazel and Anne) and wish Russ a Happy Birthday from the Girls. Tell him he's "the bomb"......he will understand! :D

 

Have a great time Phil.

[cruisemuse13]

Yea! A fun thread to look forward to reading. I hope you have a wonderful cruise and that the good weather continues, and that the Blue Waves are made the way you like them.

 

thanks to your help last March, I am booked at the Antiche Figure for my trip next month. I see the hotel is now fully booked for the time I am there so I feel fortunate. Thank you again for your assistance to a stranger.

[CintiPam]

Hi, Phil,

 

Having mostly lurked on the Azamara forum this past year after signing up for our first Azamara cruise, I have so enjoyed your helpful posts. We are on the Quest next week right after you disembark and look forward to our unique itinerary, which is fabulous for lovers of history and ruins.

 

Have a great cruise; I look forward to your updates.

 

Cordially,

Pam

[pacheco18]

Hi, Phil,

 

Having mostly lurked on the Azamara forum this past year after signing up for our first Azamara cruise, I have so enjoyed your helpful posts. We are on the Quest next week right after you disembark and look forward to our unique itinerary, which is fabulous for lovers of history and ruins.

 

Have a great cruise; I look forward to your updates.

 

Cordially,

Pam

 

Exactly. Phil is one of the reasons I decided to book an Azamara cruise.

[TerryAndDoug]

Thanks for posting, Phil. It's always fun to hear "live" from the ship. Enjoy!!

 

Doug

[excitedofharpenden]

We are back from a great ship tour to the Drach caves in Majorca. *A real surprise as they were really fascinating. *It was a reminder of why I enjoy the Azamara excursions. *Two large buses both of which were a third full. *Lots of space. *Very civilised.

 

Onto something I never thought I would do. *Buy a drinks package. *However when I looked at the daily price ($39.95) which includes my favourite Soli Elit vodka and other premium brands, Tanqueray etc and all wine and beers up to $10 a glass it kind of made sense. *It means I can have one of the less expensive champagnes with lunch if I want to. *It's recently(?)been reduced by $10 a day too.

 

Glad you looking forward to hearing about the trip. I will pass your messages to Russ and Sarah-Lou. *Off to the show tonight and we set sail at 11pm. * A number of Canadians are flying into Palma today to catch up with the ship. *Their Air Canada flight was cancelled last minute and about 50 as I understand it missed the ship. *Sea day tomorrow.

 

Phil

[Andy]

Hi Phil,

 

Thanks again for your updates. Have a wonderful Cruise !

[Lotus Girl]

Exactly. Phil is one of the reasons I decided to book an Azamara cruise.

 

I'll second that as well! Having sailed with Phil last month, we've now booked our first cruise on Journey for 2013 - I think he should be getting free cruises from ACC now for recommending them to so many (there were also others on the cruise last month that also said great things about ACC) :D

 

And enjoy the drinks package - you know it makes sense - especially from what you witnessed on Connie last month - remember and try the "Lesley" frozen thingy :eek:

 

Karen x

[Sparkle 123]

Glad you are having a great time Phil, looking forward to reading more updates as you sail along!:)

[May B]

We are back from a great ship tour to the Drach caves in Majorca. *A real surprise as they were really fascinating. *It was a reminder of why I enjoy the Azamara excursions. *Two large buses both of which were a third full. *Lots of space. *Very civilised.

 

Onto something I never thought I would do. *Buy a drinks package. *However when I looked at the daily price ($39.95) which includes my favourite Soli Elit vodka and other premium brands, Tanqueray etc and all wine and beers up to $10 a glass it kind of made sense. *It means I can have one of the less expensive champagnes with lunch if I want to. *It's recently(?)been reduced by $10 a day too.

 

Glad you looking forward to hearing about the trip. I will pass your messages to Russ and Sarah-Lou. *Off to the show tonight and we set sail at 11pm. * A number of Canadians are flying into Palma today to catch up with the ship. *Their Air Canada flight was cancelled last minute and about 50 as I understand it missed the ship. *Sea day tomorrow.

 

Phil

 

Phil,

 

You are definitely one of several whose posts I always enjoy. Thank you so much for starting this thread! And it's a delight to hear how much you are already enjoying your cruise.

 

--May

[excitedofharpenden]

An update on our first sea day. We sailed a little early last night toward the end of the "Danzare" show which was very enjoyable and well routined.

 

We ate in Aqualina the first night and had a wonderful meal there with great service. You might have read here before about my experience on my Azamara Asia cruise in March of the waiter who went off to get me room service and served it to me at past 10pm on the aft deck in Hong Kong. That was Pedrak and he is in Aqualina and it was great to see him again.

 

Last night was the MDR and even though I had the available every day chicken breast it was delicious. Nicely cooked, not dry or layered in garlic. I'm comparing to Celebrity and I still feel the food is a step above. BTW the Goats Cheese and Potato Tian (sp?) runs the famous Goats Cheese Souffle a very close second for me or I think I might actually prefer it.

 

Lottie, Hazel and Anne, I gave Russ the "bomb" message and he laughed. He told me the story. Just as well I'd taken him a piece of chocolate cake from the dining room. The three of you seem to have made a very favourable impression onboard with him and Sarah Lou.

 

Ok, breakfast in the dining room soon. First picture is from the balcony this morning. We have adjoining suites so our great butler Ravin has opened the divider. He said he could only do this when we are in port because go the danger of it breaking in the wind, but it's so still and calm he has left it open for us.

 

Phil

 

Apologies for any stars appearing in this message. I am copy and pasting from notepad on the iPad. Oh and thank you for the lovely comments on this thread. Unexpected and much appreciated. Well done on the booking Karen. We will talk when I'm back.

 

[uktog]

Great to here all continues to be good Phil

I had forgotten about the goats cheese tian - oh dear you have no idea how painful that reminder is as I sit here suffering my pre cruise diet efforts.

Is Edwin on board just now, tell him we will forsake Journey to check out Quest again ( but not til 2014)

[Lottie A]

Hi Phil,

 

Oh Yes - the Goat Cheese Tian! :) And wasn't Danzare a great show? The Russian Dancers are incredibly talented. I think the revamped shows are really good. Don't miss the last show with Russ.....there will be a surprise at the end.....LOL.

 

Thanks for giving Russ and Sarah Lou the message......and I hope they didn't tell you quite all the details.....otherwise tell them they are in BIG trouble! :D

If you get the chance, then please say Hi to Max as well.

 

Have you met Captain Stieg yet? And Yes Ann, Edwin was onboard for my cruise.

 

Looking forward to your Blog and Pics Phil.....so wish I was still onboard. I think we would have had a lot of fun.

[mare s.]

Thank you for your posts from Quest and especially the photo (keep 'em coming) Can't wait until our January cruise!

[gkm]

Phil, it sounds like you're having a wonderful time. I'll be looking forward to seeing your posts.

 

Garry

[excitedofharpenden]

Today we are in the very pretty little town of Portoferraio on the island of Elba, docked right in the heart.

 

All four of us are loving the cruise. I spoke to the others last night and they couldn't really fault anything. Two of them were on Silver Spirit in January and prefer the Azamara experience for the wonderful service.

 

Our stop in Bonifacio a couple of days ago was interesting. It was windier and rougher than the forecast and after the first few tenders left for their excursions it got rougher. We were waiting in the lounge as the next ones off and finally after trying to reposition the ship, hauling and redropping the anchor it was decided to abandon Bonifacio and head full speed to Porto Vecchio on the leeward side of the island to pick up those who had been able to do their tours and for those who wanted to go ashore on their own to be able to do so. The Captain said the wind on the decks was 62 knots as we headed up to PV.

 

Rome was mobbed yesterday. The service station used as the normal pit stop must have had 50 coaches in the car park. The queue for the toilets was extremely long. First time I have been a bit disappointed in an Azamara shore ex. For the first time there was no Azamara host on the bus and with the busyness of Rome and the fact that the bus was pretty much full made it a challenge for the tour guide to make sure nobody got lost. We arrived back at the ship one and a half hours late, but the friend I took with me said she enjoyed it and wanted to come back to Rome as it was here first time. So that was good.

 

Food has been really good. We had a nice Italian themed buffet yesterday in Windows which was great after a day in Rome.

 

We saw the show "Voices" last night. I haven't seen it before and I would highly recommend not missing it. The best singing production show I have seen on a ship. Choose the right songs and have great singers and dancers (Olga and Anton are just great) and you can't go wrong. Really excellent and Azamara should be very proud.

 

Our new Master, Captain Stig is a really nice guy. Very friendly and easy to talk to. I understand he had his name down for Azamara for a little while, thanks to the suggestion of another Azamara Norwegian Captain and when things moved along he had an hour to make up his mind!

 

So, Elba today and a quiet one after fighting the crowds going to see the Pope yesterday.

 

A couple of pictures whilst docked in Civitavecchia yesterday and Elba this morning.

 

Phil

 

 

[autumn lass]

Thank you Phil for updating us on your trip. You are whetting our appetite for January. We are looking forward to meeting Captain Stig then as according to Andy's list we should have had Captain Karlsson. We never met Captain Karlsson as he was always disembarking as we boarded, but we have enjoyed sailing with Captain Carl and Captain Johannes.

 

Enjoy the rest of your holiday. Give our regards to Theodora in the MDR. Is Mosaic still as busy?

 

Regards

 

Hilary & Colin

[ellbon]

loving the updates and pictures.. i will be on the ship as of jan 15th and looking forward to relaxing on the ship and meeting new officers and crew.

heard good things about your butler- going to try and get him.

robin

[Eileen G]

I'm really enjoying your review. I'm sorry you all had to miss Bonofacio as it was one of our favorite ports. When we were there a couple of weeks ago it was very windy and the swells were terrible. Fortunately we were able to tender. Maybe thats why more ships don't stop there.

[Lottie A]

Hi Phil,

Glad your cruise is going well. We were in Elba on Quest last July and I think it is a charming place.

 

Tell us more about Captain Stieg if you can.....I was told onboard that this is how he spells his name. He kept a very low profile on our cruise, so we only caught glimpses of him really. He seemed very nice though.

 

Are you enjoying some Vodka Martini's? :D

[Andy]

Hi Phil,

 

As always, thanks for your wonderful update & photos. Enjoy your Cruise !