* Background Information This was our fourth cruise and first on Azamara. Previous cruises were on Celebrity Century and Millennium, so this was the smallest size ship we cruised on. But certainly it was our favorite cruise as it was so easy to get on and more importantly off the ship without any waits, the ship gad all the amenities of the larger ships but just a little more intimate, the crew and passengers were all friendly and everyone seem to have a great cruise. * Hotel Info In Barcelona we stayed an extra day at the Intergerra Hotel on the top of the Ramblas about a block away. To get to the ship we took a cab ride which we found cabs cheap in Barcelona and we used them the day before to visit sites rather than on the hop on hop off tour buses. * Ship Info The ship was wonderful and anyone who has been on a Celebrity cruise will find the similar facilities in bars, dining rooms, spa etc. What was different is that this was mostly couples, only two children, and the age range was 30 to 70 with most in the 55 to 65 age group. Most seemed to have traveled before and there were a number of passengers from Europe and UK. * Activities We went to all the evening entertainment except one night with the regular dancers/singers as one night of them was enough. They did have some really great acts on other nights including a comedian/magician (great), a female singer/impersonator who was terrific and an excellent classical pianist. The lounge was very intimate and you could get great seats on three sides of the lounge performance floor which was superior to the larger ships with their impersonal movie theater type theaters. Also excellent was the musicians that were in the Martini bar each night before every dinner. You had to get there early to get a seat. * Service This was great. We hardly ever saw our cabin staff but everything was done perfectly without any intrusion. * Shore Excursions We went on three excursions and picked ones that weren't all day so we could visit the ports on our own. The longer excursions were very expensive like $200-$400 while the shorter ones were $60-$90. The ones we took were worth the expense with bus trips to the surrounding country side and visit to a couple olive farms. Since the ship docked right at the ports or had quick tendering to the center of town one didn't need the excursions on this tour. One item that was so great was the tendering when we were at Sorrento and Dubrovnik. It was fast and very well organized. Considering there were only 600 passengers and the tenders are the same size of the larger ships tendering went very fast. On larger ships tendering is a nightmare at least in our experience on two Celebrity ships where it could take hours on both ends to get off or on the ship. On the Journey you just walked down to level 3 and got right onto a tender and off it went with other tenders queuing up. * Summary The best cruise we have taken yet and would definitely look at this cruise line for our next cruise. Note: this is NOT a cruise for kids or families expecting kids will enjoy themselves. This is an adult cruise ship, kids could come along but not run around the ship, screaming like we have heard goes on other lines.

* Travel To Port of Embarkation In Barcelona there are lots of taxi cabs and they are quick and easy to get to the dock. Barcelona is NOT a dock you can walk to from downtown. * Stateroom Our stateroom was like other Celebrity ships. We had a nice but small balcony. The room seemed larger than other staterooms of the same size as the corner of the bathroom wall and cabinet on the hallway leading into the room was truncated which made the room seem wider and more open. Everything works great although the TV while being a LCD screen didn't have much at all to watch and the CNN station seemed to repeat the same news over and over every half hour. I have seen comment about the small size of the bathroom and shower in the staterooms. We thought they were fine as one doesn't LIVE in the bathroom. The shower is a little small so it is not for two people sharing. * Dining The main dining room was excellent and we really liked the informal dress and open seating. We asked for tables with 6 people and we met some nice people who also asked to have new tables. We heard you could arrange to sit with others or just enter the dining room at the same time. We ate at both of the "specialty" restaurants which required reservations and an extra $5/person tip. We were pretty disappointed as the food was the same or in one evenings meal pretty awful and we sent back two entries that were almost inedible at the one specialty restaurant. The specialty restaurant had a problem finding our bottles that we had stored at the main dining room and after 30 minutes brought us a bottle which we were sure was not ours and was off tasting. So we were glad to get back to the Main dining room where we had excellent food, lots of variety and very attractively plated. * Children's Clubs i don't think it existed * Entertainment See above. It exceeded our expectations as we new it wasn't going to be a big Vegas production but the entertainment was good, personal and live! * Disembarkation Just walked off the ship and caught a cab - couldn't be easier. Our luggage was all sorted out in small groupings according to the tag colors and numbers and took maybe 15 seconds to collect bags.