Review from a first-timer!

To give some context, our cruise experiences have run the gamut – from mass market (RCL, NCL & Princess) to premium (Celebrity) to luxury (Seabourn and Silversea) and on ships of a wide variety of sizes from the 10K ton Seabourn Legend to the 140k ton Navigator of the Seas. We cruise on the larger ships with our children (now 19 and 23) and the smaller, more upscale lines as a couple. We have never met a cruise we didn’t like, although I have to say our Celebrity experience did not meet our expectations and we probably wouldn’t sail that line again as, among other issues, we did not like the obvious “class” system and just didn’t think it was worth the additional cost as compared to Princess. SB and SS is now mostly out of our price range, especially for longer cruises (we are working professionals with a child in college) so we were anxious to try the Azamara experience to see if it was a good fit for us as a couple. When we found the 11-night Irish Seas cruise with the Perry Golf package that coincided with our 30th Anniversary, we were very excited as it seemed tailor-made for us.

To cut to the chase, we enjoyed our experience enough that we have booked another Azamara cruise with the golf package for next year. We had read a lot about the benefits of the “R” class ships and in that regard the Quest did not disappoint. It had all the amenities we enjoy without the challenges of a large ship such as long lines (especially for embarkation, disembarkation and tendering) and crowds. Loved the fact that we could get anywhere on the ship in 1 – 2 minutes and Deck 7 was a good location as it is only 2-3 flights up or down from everything. I think we only took the elevator twice the entire cruise. Plenty of dining options for us and an upscale on-deck experience with couches, Bali beds, blankets if needed and no fighting for space. We were particularly lucky with the weather so spent more time on deck than we expected to. A favorite place were the couches on the forward sun deck. Read more