First off this is a beautiful ship. The wow factor is on offer in spades. The ship is beautifully furnished. The cabins, we had a balcony on level 7, were just fine. Even the tiny bathroom was adequate. We chose the cruise initially because of the ports of call in the Black sea and we were not disappointed. We benefited from a very knowledgeable guest lecturer who would stand on deck, with a mike, from time to time but especially in Gallipoli, telling the story of the area. However it was not all good!! First off the food. We tend to prefer to eat in the self service areas on ships. We find the food tends to be better than in the main restaurants, fresher and the choices are more obvious Having said that we decided to give the restaurant a go on the first night. I ordered turkey parmesan. This dish may or may not have ever seen a grain of parmesan but it was dry and inedible. I complained. They attempted to restore the dish, by adding cheese, with limited success. The following night as recompense, they made me, as a special, rack of lamb. It was great; they can do it right when they want. I did not feel I could ask for this special treatment every night so we went to the Windows cafe for the rest of the cruise. A lovely place to be with wonderful staff. The kitchen staff, however, had not been trained in how to preserve food once it had left the kitchen and before serving. This meant that high quality food was invariably cold or dry. I pointed this out and they improved but why didn't they know? So food quality was patchy. To say the least.

The other disaster occurred around the pool. The pool area is adequate. I decided to give it a try. There must have been some kind of chemical imbalance in the water. My eyes started to stream, became painful and red. They are still a tad sore now, one week later, as with many large organisations they went into denial when told of a problem but others were also seen to be suffering. THIS WAS ABSOLUTELY UNFORGIVABLE. Special mention must be made of Richard, the food and beverage manager, and the Hotel Director. Two really nice guys who took personal ownership of problems and aimed to sort things out. Now Azamara, as many will know, have just completed a rebranding. Wines are now "free", gratuities are built into the price etc. etc. We were fortunate; we paid the price prior to the new rates being announced. The cruise may well have been worth the old price.

I doubt that it was worth the new money.