Our journey South took at least 30 mins. longer than usual due to an accident near the start of our journey requiring us to use an alternative route, congestion when we wanted to merge onto the original route and the traffic delays in Southampton. We had not given any allowance for the increased traffic caused by over 3,000 passengers boarding the ship and Queen Mary was also loading at the same time! When we reached the dock side our car was taken care of quite quickly but we had to unload our own luggage and take it to the deposit point. Not a good start, especially after such a horrible journey but better was to come.

As we are Portunus Gold Members we did not have to queue and after the security check which did not take too long we were guided to the Malabar nightclub, a lovely place to start our cruise, where we were served delicious sandwiches and a very good champagne.

After about 30 mins. we were told our cabin was ready - quite a spacious super deluxe cabin with a fair sized balcony with 2 chairs and footstools and small table. The best bit was the champagne on ice and the Azura chocolates waiting for us on the occasional table. There were 2 T.V.'s facing in opposite directions as the room was quite long. Computer access through the T.V. enabled us to use room service, check the day's menu and our onboard account . There was plenty of drawer space and hanging space in the walk-in wardrobe and plenty of sitting space with a 4-seater sofa. The bathroom was of a reasonable size with lots of storage space and the shower was good although there still was the horrible shower curtain. I did expect in a new ship to have a fixed screen! If you leave the bathroom door ajar the draught usually causes the curtain to stick to your body but it wasn't too bad on Azura as the bottom of the curtain was weighted. Read more