A Beginner's Guide to Azamara--Quest Christmas Voyage 2013

[123glenn]

Thanks, all, for the nice comments. I'm glad you're reading.

 

Rob and I spent our two sea days exploring the ship. Note to Phil: we found Scrabble boards and other games in the Looking Glass on deck 10. There were lots of people playing games so all that was left for us was the Spanish version, which we managed very well despite it having two Qs. :eek:

 

One nice thing about games in the Looking Glass is that if you stay too long and find yourself perilously close to Cocktail Hour, a waiter will rescue you with an offer of drinks!

 

We attended an enrichment lecture given by Eric Ball on the topic "Islands in the Sun." Mr. Ball was very informative but honestly, I felt like I was 18 years old again and back in World History 101. He was not a very exciting or captivating lecturer.

 

What we did like was the beautiful entry passage to the Cabaret Lounge on deck 5 where the lecture was held. We live in a house that's nearly a hundred years old and it still retains its original dark woods, paneling, and archways. Walking through this passage, we truly felt the Azamara greeting "Welcome home." Such a nice coincidence for us!

 

 

Spots on photo courtesy of one rough sea. We'd been outside reading on the loungers on the deck 5 promenade and the salt spray was getting everywhere. It was actually kind of spectacular. You're not that far from the waterline to begin with when you're on the promenade, and we you add in high, crashing waves, you get salt spray. Lots of it. I took my camera out to take some photos and the lens got the better of it. After an hour on the loungers, Rob and I were literally crusted with a fine salt coating. Any self-respecting Indiana deer would have had no qualms in using us as a salt lick.

It's 16 degrees here in Boston and I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying your report and actually getting a terrific preview of an Azamara cruise. We will be seeing you in Greece in May and appreciate all the time and energy that you've put into your review. I'm so excited about the quality of the food and the pampering that you've described. Tell us more!!! Dottie

[autumn lass]

Lovely review. We aren't on Quest again until September and reading your review has us looking at April Med sailings as we have realised we can't wait that long to get back on board with our Azamara family.

 

Hilary

[dln929]

When I returned from my Quest cruise a few months back, I kept looking around for my daily cafe latte, but my server never appeared here at home.;)

 

Thanks so much, Deirdre, for posting this very lovely and comprehensive review, even more appreciated this time of year! Your words and photos really exemplify the importance of one's attitude when vacationing, as in most things in life.

 

Pam, it's not much of an effort for me to write positively about Azamara and have a good attitude. We were treated very well on the Quest--as was everyone--and I do think that when there's a culture of behaving in a manner that sets your passengers at ease and makes them feel both welcomed and comfortable, well, it pays itself forward. What is it called? Rising to the occasion? Rob and I couldn't fail to notice that for the most part (with only a few exceptions) there was a genuine respect if not camaraderie on board. Despite our uncomfortable beginnings!

 

All Ashore, Maties!

 

Finally, land, blessed unrocking land. We docked at the sub station, more commonly known as Crown Bay. It's a much prettier sail in than the one we had last year on the Equinox, which went to the larger Havensight dock. There are several shops, great if you wanted discount diamonds or sunglasses or more sunscreen but otherwise nothing of note.

 

This is where we parked.

 

This is where they parked. :cool:

 

We booked an Azamara tour to Sapphire Beach. It included snorkel equipment, a drink, and an island tour afterward. We all piled onto one of St. Thomas' open air buses and off we went. There were lounge chairs waiting for us at the beach and everyone enjoyed their first ocean swim.

 

At the far end of Sapphire Beach you could walk a small trail that led to a hotel pool area. Someone had obviously dragged the chairs from the pool but that didn't stop us from sitting down to soak up the view.

 

[midwestchick]

I'm sitting here in my kitchen, on a bitterly cold day, reading more of the review and loving it. Anxious to read more...keep up the good work. :D

[dln929]

We were at loose ends after our bus driver brought us back to the ship in the early afternoon. He gave us the choice of stopping in town to do some shopping, but frankly the area looked grubby to us and we passed on the chance for last minute Christmas shopping.

 

It was then I remembered reading about Water Island and sure enough, the water taxi dock to Water Island was conveniently located only steps away from the Quest's dock. And we arrived only minutes before it was due to leave, even better! A $10 r/t boat ride took us to the island in no time flat.

 

You can see just how close we were to the marina where the water taxi was located.

 

On Water Island's dock with the Quest in the background. The beach on the island was a short, hilly walk away. It was in a protected location and the water was very calm in contrast to the livelier water we found at Sapphire Beach. There was also a covered area, which came in handy when a not entirely unexpected afternoon downpour drenched us.

 

 

 

[dln929]

Back on board the Quest around 4 pm-ish and we promptly headed up to our beloved Sunset Bar for a draft Becks. Refreshing!

 

The Azamazing Evening awaited. We knew it had been moved onboard because notice of it was in the Pursuits from day one. Frankly, we did NOT mind that the venue had been moved. As I mentioned, we had taken the open air bus on a tour of St. Thomas. They're cute and colorful, yes, but state-of-the-art comfortable? No way. And St. Thomas is hilly and the roads are narrow and bumpy. We drove past Blackbeard's Castle on our way back to the ship from Sapphire Beach, and while it would have been interesting to have had our Evening there, I (secretly) breathed a sigh of relief that they were bring the mountain to us rather than trying to transport us to it. ;) I spoke to others and they didn't share my opinion, but I think Azamara made the right call on it. If memory serves, during our Meet and Mingle one of the officers remarked that they didn't want another St. Kitts fiasco on their hands. So if you can accuse Azamara of making an error, they erred on the side of good judgment and in our best interests. It really was a wonderful and fun Evening. See for yourself.

 

This was about an hour before start time. Lots of banners and pirate decorations everywhere!

 

We all had a chance to watch the sunset before the party started in earnest.

 

 

I find most steel band music repetitively annoying (sorry!) but these guys were fantastic. Their music was exuberant. You couldn't help but be happy upon hearing them play. Their name was Rising Stars Steel Band.

 

 

[dln929]

And before we knew it, the time flew by and our Azamazing Evening morphed into the White Night party and there was enough booty shaking to shiver me timbers. :D:D

 

[dln929]

Christmas Eve brought us to beautiful St. John, one of my favorite islands but of course my view is rose-colored due to the sweet brewery in town (I've made mention of our love of craft beer, yes?). We started our day...three guesses and the first two don't count...at the Cafe where we had....are you waiting for this...steak and eggs for breakfast! Talk about decadent. And delicious. The Cafe was decorated with lots of holiday trimmings.

 

By the way, the ship bakery worked overtime to make these adorable gingerbread houses and decorations which they set out all over the ship. A day before I happened to go by Prime C just as they were setting down the big gingerbread house. The lawn of the house was decorated with jelly beans! I love jelly beans and was very happy when the Chef said I could liberally sample some right then and there. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. :p

 

We booked the catamaran and snorkeling ship excursion. Afternoon booking. This proved to be a good decision on our part. Who says the early bird gets the worm? Sometimes they don't, and today they didn't. Our afternoon excursion had a grand total of 13 people whereas those earlier outing was jam packed. Why people want to get out of bed early when they're on a cruise is beyond me, especially when there are later options available! We had a leisurely morning on board and tendered to town where we boarded the Dancing Dolphin catamaran. Excellent crew. They were safety conscious to a "T" but still very fun. We had a great afternoon snorkeling. We docked to a downpour the likes of which I've never seen. Monsoon rains! What to do but make a speedy exit to the aforementioned brewery at Mongoose Junction, where a pint or two of craft brewed St. John beer set us to rights. :D

 

 

 

[YOW]

Hey Deirdre! This is great, what you're doing here... really enjoying it. Brings back nice memories of our cruise. :) And I like the approach you're taking -- kudos to you for putting the 'effort' (or the time anyway) to do this.

 

Still going through all our photos here. Might have gotten a few good ones. ;)

Edited January 7, 2014 by YOW

[dln929]

Towards the end of our snorkeling catamaran tour on St. John Island just before the skies let loose.

 

This boat sailed alongside the catamaran. I have no idea what the wording painted on the side of the boat meant, but there has to be a story behind it, and surely a fascinating one. "Degraded by Some. Dominated by None. The People's Choice. #1 Native Son"

[cpgrneyes]

Diedre, this is fantastic! It's been nearly a year since our last stay on Quest, and we won't be back until summer 2015 (land trips to China and France/England in 2014), but your review is making me homesick!

[dln929]

Diedre, this is fantastic! It's been nearly a year since our last stay on Quest, and we won't be back until summer 2015 (land trips to China and France/England in 2014), but your review is making me homesick!

 

But the best kind of homesick, huh? ;) We know what you mean about that hard choice between land and sea vacations. With us, the sea is winning out. We live in land-locked, forested Indiana and every day in the wide open space that is the sea is a treasure.

 

Christmas Day

 

The 25th of December brought us to Virgin Gorda. I'd been waiting for this port. The Baths have always fascinated me and I was raring to go. We tendered to town and walked to the Baths. Everyone else took the taxi. I think it may have been $5 pp. Not us. We'd been stuffing ourselves onboard like fat Christmas geese and needed to walk off some of the excess (fat chance :rolleyes: ). Nonetheless, we hoofed it despite shouted entreaties from all the taxi drivers that it was too far away. It wasn't. Maybe about 35-45 minutes walk. It's well sign-posted along the way and there's plenty of feathery company along the way.

 

So one Virgin Gorda rooster says to another, "Why did the chicken cross the road?"

 

The Baths! Everyone must have some places that for some reason hold a fascination for them. The Baths was one of mine. Sort of like Madeira. I'd seen an advertisement for Madeira when I was in my 20s and it was like I'd seen Shangri-La. I obsessed for years about it and finally last year we took a cruise and saw it. It wasn't Shangri-La. Neither was the Baths. I've mentioned that we're late risers and in this case, it worked against us. We boarded the tender just as our friends Kathy and Jim got off. They'd taken the early morning ship's tour and said the Baths was uncrowded when they arrived, and busy as they left. When Rob and I got there it was a madhouse. There was a Club Med2 ship tendered nearby the Quest, and I heard that a Costa ship was docked at Tortola. The Baths was wall-to-wall people. We made a vain attempt to see the caves but gave up. We swam and snorkeled a bit (this was fun) but after a while we tired of all the suntanned swarms of humanity and left for a more serene place.

 

You might think this is the Baths, but it's not. I will give a hint, though. It's only a short walk up the road.

 

There's a very handsome ship tendered in the background.

 

The snorkeling kept us occupied for hours and we weren't elbow-to-elbow with other swimmers.

 

[dln929]

Christmas evening the skies brought forth a sunset that had to have been a gift from above. But before that...the Club Med ship I mentioned. Gorgeous ship. LOUD ship. We were sitting on our balcony minding our own business and the Club Med ship started rumbling. As in, fun fun fun rumbling. If I ever thought that the esteemed Joff Eaton on the Independence of the Seas was a wild one, the French Cruise Director on the Club Med one-upped him and then some. I couldn't translate everything I heard but I can tell you they were whupping it up with gusto. They had one hell of a deck party going on (think of our White Night party on steroids and you get the idea :D). And then they sailed, beautifully and improbably, into the sunset.

 

[dln929]

Christmas sunset came upon us so quickly that Rob didn't even have time to change for dinner before I urged him, glass filled with champagne, to the upper decks. It was lovely. Captain Jose even posted a photo or two of our sail-away on the Azamara Facebook page. It was one of those picture-perfect sunsets that you see on the pages of glossy magazines.

 

It began with a Christmas kiss...

 

 

which deepened into a crimson sky.

 

and ended with a sip of champagne.

 

[dln929]

Dinner in Discoveries

 

I forgot to mention that we did indeed manage to tear ourselves away a day or so earlier from the Windows Cafe to eat dinner in the main dining room. On that evening we had asked for a two top which was found for us within minutes. It was the middle table of a bank of three two tops lined up very closely in a row. I've read complaints over and over about the proximity of two tops in that they're so near to each other you may as well be dining with someone else instead of each other.

 

I won't dispute that but I will say it has to be sheer luck of the draw if you get the privacy you seek. More often than not, when we're dining with each other we end up talking to the couples at the adjoining tables. Rob says it's my fault, that I'm too talky and I'm the one who starts the conversations. That also I will not dispute. I do talk a lot sometimes. ;)

 

The first evening we dined in Discoveries, however, it was a different story. There was a young Spanish speaking couple to our left and a couple about our age to the right. Neither acknowledged us as we sat and we did not acknowledge them. So in essence we got our own private table and it was very nice, although I have to admit to eavesdropping on the couple to the right. I couldn't help myself. I couldn't figure out exactly what their situation was so I had to listen! In the end I think they were newly dating because they seemed to be telling each other things that established couples already know about each other. But that made me think, are they in separate cabins or...? I know I shouldn't have eavesdropped but I was too wicked not to. Rob, ever the perfect gentleman, had no clue about what was going on to the right of him or to the left. I suppose he was concentrating on the delicious meal that was set before him.

 

But that was a few days ago. On Christmas night we dolled up and asked for a table for two. There was a wait of half an hour and Rob told the maitre'd that that was perfectly fine with us. We gave our cabin number and went off to listen to some piano music in the lounge. After half an hour Rob went to check on our reservation and much to his delight, he was instantly greeted by name. How could they memorize his name so quickly? It was very flattering.

 

We got a fabulous table at the far end of the dining room near that beautiful mirrored wall. Ross, the Music Director, and his parents were seated at the next table and we said hello (and I did not butt in on their conversation, I swear!). We had a very nice meal. The Hotel Director treated everyone to a very special white wine that evening which I sampled liberally.

 

 

I've mentioned how impressed I was with the art work on the Quest. On Christmas night we dined under this oil painting done in the 1920s by an Italian painter by the name of Tarchetti.

Edited January 8, 2014 by dln929

[marinaro44]

Dinner in Discoveries

We got a fabulous table at the far end of the dining room near that beautiful mirrored wall. Ross, the Music Director, and his parents were seated at the next table and we said hello (and I did not butt in on their conversation, I swear!). We had a very nice meal.

 

 

I've mentioned how impressed I was with the art work on the Quest. On Christmas night we dined under this oil painting done in the 1920s by an Italian painter by the name of Tarchetti.

That's one of our favorite tables, Deirdre. Also, glad you enjoyed the embarkation day chocolate cake. I hope they're serving it on Journey next month.

[dln929]

Boxing Day--December 26--brought us to Gustavia, St. Barts. We had booked a one hour mini bus tour of the island at 9 am and as such missed out on the Boxing Day Brunch held from 10 am to 1 pm. What a nice gesture to all the English and Canadians onboard to have a brunch honoring their holiday! I wasn't sorry we had a tour lined up but I was sorry we missed the brunch because we heard there were ice sculptures and all sorts of delectable goodies.

 

The seas were a bit choppy and boarding the tender was tricky. Our tour was called and our large group left the Cabaret Lounge only to find ourselves waiting and waiting and waiting in the lower stairwells. I got a little impatient, thinking why did they call us if they weren't ready for us? However, word filtered up the stairs in due course that the tender was bobbing around a bit making embarkation difficult. And indeed it was. You had to wait until just the right "bob" before you could step/hop onto the tender. It wouldn't have been safe otherwise. Hats off to the crew who helped us on and off. They did a fantastic job.

 

 

There were several mini-vans waiting for us in Gustavia and in short order we were all lined up and loaded up. The tour description said that it was an island tour, not a narrated guided tour and as such we shouldn't expect our driver to speak good English or talk much with us. Fair enough warning. Rob and I took the island tour to get a grasp of what was where so we could better judge where to explore later in the day. To our delight, our driver spoke excellent English and we had a fully narrated tour. Great introduction to what proved to be a spectacularly beautiful island.

 

After our tour was over Rob and I wandered up the hill towards the airport. Rob is an aircraft engineer by profession but he also flies small planes like the Cessna 178. We both love watching planes taking off and landing so being able to visit one of the world's most dangerous airports was a treat and a half. The hike up to the airport was STEEP. And no sidewalks either. Anyone else with an ounce of common sense in their heads would have taken a taxi but it was the same old thing...we were desperate for some exercise after all the sumptuous dining and drinking! I think we may have worked off some calories getting ourselves to the airport. ;)

 

I took this photo from the roundabout at the top of hill on the edge of the airport property. We were only days away from New Year's Eve and the planes were coming in one after the other. Gustavia had big celebrations planned for NYE and apparently everyone wanted to be in on it.

 

And here it comes!

 

[dln929]

This is the entire length of the airport runway. Short little thing, isn't it? You can understand why only small craft fly in.

 

Having sated ourselves watching numerous planes come and go we headed down the hill to the St. Jean public beach. On the far edge of the beach is the famously luxurious Eden Rock hotel. We swam for a bit and then trudged back up the hill. For some more plane spotting, of course. :D

 

It was HOT. Like sweaty sweaty hot so what to do but find another beach to go swimming again. It was an easy and thankfully flat walk out of town to Shell Beach where we found a nice spot to lay out our towel. It's a lovely beach. Had we wanted, we could have rented a beach chair set up from Do Brazil, but we were more interested in being at the rocky end of the beach where we knew the snorkeling would be good. And it was.

 

Water shoes are a definite must on Shell Beach! And blinders, too, if you have any qualms about seeing people in all stages of undress. Swim suits stay on in the area in front of Do Brazil, but the far end of the beach? Anything goes. Off. :cool:

[dln929]

One of Azamara's huge selling points is the late stays in ports. We weren't scheduled to depart Gustavia until 10 pm so we headed back on board in the late afternoon with the idea that we'd come back in the evening to see all the streets with their Christmas decorations lit.

 

We were glad we did.

 

 

 

[English Tim]

Deirdre, thanks for a wonderful review and the link to using photos. I usually upload them to FB, then copy the link to CC.

[dln929]

Thank you everyone for the nice comments!

 

And now let's take a break from the sublime and talk about the ordinary. Like laundry.

 

We're Elite on X which gave us automatic entry to Discoverer loyalty level on Azamara which gave us...a free bag of laundry! Yippee! We'd packed fairly lightly for this cruise and the laundry service was much appreciated. I stuffed the cotton laundry bag found in our closet with about 50 pounds of clothing. Well, maybe not that much but close to it. I can never be accused on not taking advantage of benefits. :D

 

We were so impressed with Azamara's laundry service. Magnificent. See for yourself what an excellent job they do.

 

I had no sooner started tearing into neatly wrapped package of freshly washed small items than I remembered to take a photo.

 

You'd think Rob, after 30 years, should be unsurprised at what I take photos of but apparently not. But look how beautifully pressed and hung our clothing is! Like they've just come back from the dry cleaners instead of the laundry service.

 

My pajamas never have been so well pressed! I salute the Azamara crew that took such good care of our laundry. Now that's what I call truly azamazing.

[dln929]

Before sailing off to our next port, St. Martin, I'll share some random ship photos.

 

 

Late one afternoon we walked through the library only to find the chairs pushed aside and two long tables set up under the domed ceiling. There were several waiters busy at work laying down table settings. The tables fit exactly under the ceiling as if the room had been built not to hold books but gorgeous dinner parties. A while after Rob and I were down at Mosaics getting lattes and we ran into Captain Jose. We ended up talking to him for a rather long time (about his beautiful homeland of Portugal, one of our favorite countries). He told us that as much as he wanted to linger, he was running late for dinner...in the library. Lucky man!

 

Remember how I said that from seeing website photos, I thought the library might have been an "old ladyish" room? Striking contemporary artwork such as this, near the library entrance, breathed life and vitality into was really was a very traditionally built and furnished room.

 

On our first day on board Ross told us during our tour that when you exited the elevators, you would always find yourself facing forward. Handy hint for the directionally challenged like myself.

[dln929]

On the first day onboard, before people got their bearings about where things were on the ship, you had to be careful around the stair landings and doorways. More than few people would stand pondering the ship map oblivious to other people on the stairs or entering/exiting the door. We saw this only on the first day though--the Quest isn't too hard to navigate (even for me, eventually ;)).

 

These have to be the loveliest stairwells on the seven seas. I like the juxtaposition of the original furniture from the Renaissance Cruise days and the modern art on the walls.

 

This is a great place for the piano to be. With one glaring exception. See the far wall where the bar is? On the other side of it is the casino. When there's someone playing at the slot machine, and you're seated at the chairs close to that wall listening to Max play the piano, what you hear first and foremost is the wildly irritating PING PING PING of the slot machine. It's a pity, really, that the two spaces are at war with each other. There were often lots of people in the casino area enjoying themselves and just as many people sitting in the Casino Luxe Bar enjoying Max's music. Sometimes it was a non-issue when no one was at the slots but other times...:(

 

 

Edited January 8, 2014 by dln929

[dln929]

For me, one of the great joys of being a sea is being on the upper decks watching the play of light and shadow as the day nears its end.

 

 

 

[dln929]

A Sampling of Ship Activities

 

-you could listen to the pianist Max DiFaz or the guitar playing of Simon Belair. One thing I noticed about both of them was that they were pretty good at sizing up their audiences, judging the average age, then playing music they knew people would enjoy most. Both had an easy rapport with their audiences.

 

-you could attend a lecture. We went to one given by Art Director (read, Park West) Mario. I was a bit hesitant about this, fearing it would be an infomercial about why we should attend art auctions on the ship, but I was dead wrong. Mario gave an engrossing lecture on the artist Salvador Dali which included the short film entitled "Destino." He spoke for over an hour and had us hanging on every word. If Mario repeats this lecture on subsequent sailings, don't miss it. It was a fascinating look into the life and loves of the artist.

 

-you could play team triva, learn some origami folding, participate in a quiz, learn line dancing, play bridge, do some pilates

 

In short, all the customary things one does on a cruise ship, in addition to what we like to do best: lounge around on the upper deck. As so.

 

We were having a bit of a hard time the afternoon I took this photo--it was a bit windy on the high deck and the sun kept shining in our eyes and then hiding behind clouds. We were, however, determined to get a game of Five Crowns in before retiring to our cabin to change for dinner. You will notice how the loungers are butted up side to side here. And how deep the cushions are. We found that by playing our game in the space between the two cushions that our cards were well shielded enough from the wind that they didn't blow away, and we had a built-in bar counter as well for our beers too! Win/win in my books, even when I lost the game. :o

 

You can't see from the photo but behind the sun beds is the shuffleboard area. It was well used, as were the ping pong table on the pool deck and the dart board alongside it.