Azamara Quest Review

Azamara-relaxed elegance for serious travelers

Review for the Eastern Mediterranean Cruise on Azamara Quest
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comcox
First Time Cruiser • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Oct 2008

My husband and I sailed on the Azamara Quest 25 October to 7 November 2008 for their Ancient Empires14-day eastern Mediterranean cruise. We booked the cruise through our travel agent who brought this new cruise line to our attention when we mentioned we wanted something special to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. We debated between this cruise, which offered stops in several Turkish ports, or a Mediterranean/Black Sea cruise on Holland America's Prinsendam, a ship on which we had sailed before and loved. When I read Azamara's brochure and discovered their very strict smoking policy (smoking is only permitted in two small areas of the ship) and their dress policy (no formal nights; dinners were all resort casual), I decided the new guys were worth the try. We were very pleased with our cruise; so much so, we booked another cruise for 2009 while still on board (something I've never done before).

We elected to book our own air transportation and to arrange our own pre and post cruise stays. The cruise was scheduled to begin in Athens, Greece and to end in Rome (actually Civitavecchia). Since we had already visited Rome in the past but not the Amalfi coast, we had our travel agent arrange for us to disembark at the previous port of Sorrento. We had pre-arranged airport to hotel transport through Grayline Tours and I am really glad we did. Workers at the Athens airport called a strike the day we were to arrive and we were held at Frankfurt for several hours. Finally the strike ended at 3 pm and we were given the go-ahead to fly. When we landed around 5 pm, the line for public taxis was over the length of a football field; our driver, however, was waiting for us at the customs exit and we were taken straight into town. I had thought the taxi line an anomaly, but heard from other passengers later that they encountered a similar situation on other days. We arrived in Athens four days before the cruise and stayed at the wonderful small Hotel Adrian right in the heart of the Plaka district. The hotel's rooftop terrace, where we ate breakfast, gave us beautiful views of the Acropolis; our room was comfortable and quiet. We were able to walk to most attractions and were close to a metro stop for travel elsewhere.

On embarkation day we elected to take a pre-arranged taxi to the port. Although we had considered using the metro to Piraeus, I'm glad we didn't as the stop was a considerable walk from the cruise terminal and it turned out several cruise ships were all boarding the same day. The cruise information we received said not to arrive before 3 pm even though sailing was scheduled for 5pm. Since we needed to check out of our hotel, however, we ordered our taxi for 11 am. Our driver arrived early and we ended up at the cruise terminal at 11:05 am so I expected a long wait. Boy was I wrong! An Azamara agent met us at the door of our taxi and had a porter instantly take our checked bags. She then walked us into the terminal, which was crowded with other ships' passengers, directly to the check-in desk. Once we had our papers, she accompanied us to a separate passport control desk. Once through immigration, another agent walked us through security and then we were offered the option of waiting a few minutes for a shuttle bus or walking "about 5 minutes" to the ship. We elected to walk. Immediately upon boarding we were greeted with the usual champagne, taken to a desk were we could check our carry-on bags, and then directed to the buffet for lunch. By 11:30 we were sitting down to eat—25 minutes from taxi to lunch—amazing! Around 1:15 pm we were allowed to go to our staterooms.

Cabin Review

Cabin 2A

Very quiet location except for occasional engine rumble and vibration. All cabins on the ship are "snug" but the two of us did fine.

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