We have just returned from a roundtrip cruise from Singapore down to the Indonesian Islands on the recently refurbished Azamara Journey. This was our sixth cruise with Azamara and as usual it lived up to our expectations. We booked the cruise as a package with flights and pre-cruise hotel stay in Singapore at the lovely Conrad Centennial hotel. Due to the Journey spending an extra day in dry dock, we were fortunate to spend two nights here which was a perfect start to the holiday. The hotel was fabulous with amazing views from our room on the 25th floor, excellent buffet breakfast, extremely comfortable beds and free wifi. Our extra day gave us time to visit the Gardens at Marina Bay by day and night, take a lift up to the top of the Marina Bay Sands hotel for the magnificent views, visit Raffles Hotel and Sentosa Island.

Embarkation was efficient and quick and we were soon on board enjoying a glass of sparkling wine. There was a 'mix up' in that we had been sent an email saying that no lunch would be served on embarkation day as boarding did not start until 3pm but this was incorrect as the Windows buffet was indeed open for lunch until 5pm. Azamara's admin is the one area that could do with improvement!

The refurbishment has certainly brightened up the ship. The new tiling around the pool is modern and stylish and the new sun loungers a great improvement. We had misgivings about them replacing the old wooden ones which were very comfortable but the new ones are equally comfortable, much easier to move around and look very smart with their big new mushroom coloured towels. The new soft furnishings and carpets in the restaurants and Mosaic Cafe have also given these rooms a new lease of life and the new balcony furniture is more comfortable, our only reservation being that the new square table is quite large, especially on a standard balcony cabin verandah which is very small and does not leave much room to move around. Read more