We cruised on the Azamara Journey 30 June 2009 12 night Baltic cruise out of Copenhagen, stopping in Warnemunde (3 hours from Berlin), Helsinki, St. Petersburg (3days, 2 nights), Tallinn, Stockholm (2 days, 1 night) and Travemunde (near Lubeck). We signed up quite late (10 June) for a 1A (or higher) Balcony Guaranty at what we felt was a very good price considering that tips and air from Washington Dulles (IAD) were included. We had discussed doing a Baltic cruise sometime, and having cruised Celebrity a number of times we had discussed trying Azamara, but other than those two facts this sudden discussion was driven by the price offered.  Our GTY ended up being a Sunset Veranda (SV) facing forward immediately under the ship's Bridge (normally priced higher than a 1A).

Our Azamara last-minute procured air had a one hour British Air connection in London Heathrow (LHR). Although one hour is listed as a legal connection within Terminal 5, I think it would be missed probably 90% of the time, given that one has to deboard, go to the boarding pass check point, stand in line there, go up a floor, go through a Security Inspection, go down a floor and then locate your new gate. The Flight Service Manager [Purser/ Chief Flight Attendant] on our IAD-LHR could not believe this was a legal connection. Not only did we and the other Azamara couple on our IAD flight miss our LHR-CPH connection, but we were joined by 16(!) other people from other flights who also missed this connection. British Air did nothing to expedite our connection in LHR, but the service desk did get all of us on a later flight to CPH, and BA called Azamara's Copenhagen port agent for us so that we could let them know that we were confirmed for a 15:30 arrival at CPH. We arrived CPH at 15:30 and after getting all our suitcases (amazingly no bags had gone astray) and making it to our bus transfer we were on the ship at 17:00 (the Journey's scheduled departure time). We spent part of the extra time in LHR to buy some wine to have in our stateroom. There was actually a group of 14-16 (presumably from a connecting airport other than LHR [I never confirmed that]) who were trailing us by about half an hour who also made it to the ship. A Gold Star to the Journey for getting us on-board with grace, but a Black Star to Miami for starting with an overly optimistic schedule.

Arrival at the Journey was painless. Although I did not realize it at the time, upper level management including the Hotel Manager were there to make sure that everything went smoothly. On the ship we were greeted with Champagne and had a White Glove escort to our stateroom. In the Stateroom we had a notice that the Cruise Critic kick-off party was in half an hour, so were off. The Cruise Critic Mix & Mingle was relatively well attended by CC members, and I think (by this time I was a little groggy) by the AZ Journey Hotel Director, Cruise Director, Captain's Club Hostess and other officers. In as much as the ship was leaving the harbor of Copenhagen I don't think the Captain was in attendance, but that is certainly understandable. Read more