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Azamara

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Very Good

Azamara Journey

Azamara Quest

Palma de Mallorca (Majorca)

Our first Azamara started brilliantly when we were offered the pay for upgrade to a suite from a veranda on the basis of our captains club / LCV status. WOW, we expected a real step up from everything we experienced on Celebrity.

We had a wonderful time on this cruise Dubai to Singapore. The ports of call were all fascinating and exiting to visit. On the ship some things were Azamazing others a little less so.

Azamazing

The Officers and crew on the ship are wonderful, engaging, friendly and helpful. They are the star in Azamara’s crown. We had the wonderful Raphael as our butler and with Caitano and Russell we were very well looked after. The whole team in Prime C were fantastic.

Azamazing evening was truly amazing. In Kerala on the celebration of Diwali we were greeted by Elephants and music. We had a wonderful show, great food and drinks and also we were able to try having our palm read, have a henna tattoo (temporary) and see local crafts and costumes. A wonderful night ending with a Diwali fireworks show. White night party. The evening was too hot for us to eat outside, however we joined the fun, dancing and music outside later. It was well attended and very enjoyable for all ages.

Talks and lectures were very interesting and helped us get far more out of our destinations – we didn’t see them live but watched on our TV as we were getting ready to go out.

Spa deck area. This is for suite guests or I think you can pay a small amount to access it. This was a quiet small area which housed the Thalasso pool.  We enjoyed it very much. Drinks service was available by phone.  Nice furniture and nice loungers.

Small ship size made for speedy embarkation and debarkation at ports

We are Independent tourers and were well catered for, with guest relations assisting in helping us meet tour times. 

Special events like the Officers BBQ and the Dim Sum buffet were well organised in the main dining room.

Cleanliness on board was noticeable. I like the idea that buffet food is served for the first 2 days and that the cleaning regime was heightened in higher risk countries. 

Less Azamazing 

Despite letting Azamara know in advance that we had organised our own hotel and transfers in Dubai, we were met at the airport. Messages just hadn’t got through – This wasn’t to be the first time!

Embarkation at Dubai was quick and easy until we were given our key cards. We had 4 people listed for our suite. We questioned it but the additional keycards were removed and we were told not to be concerned.  We should have been! We got the wrong mail for days, and did not receive invites to events including the meet and mingle event. This meant we were unable to meet others with whom we had arranged private tours and we also missed meeting Bonnie from the Azamara cruise critic board.

Our passports were checked for India visas before boarding.. I don’t understand then how many passengers ( I understand 70+)boarded with either no visa or an electronic visa which wasn’t sufficient.  These passengers were very disgruntled were not allowed off the ship at Mumbai or Goa. Eventually a group visa was arranged for out last stop in India.  Understanding the visa requirements hadn’t been easy and Azamara just referred us to an expensive visa company. After contacting the Indian Embassy we realised we required full visas.  Those caught up in this mess were very unimpressed with Azamara.  Many felt they had been misled or uninformed by their TA. Others said they had evidence of being misled by Azamara. Whatever the truth visiting areas of the world like this isn’t as straightforward and Azamara should do more on these sailings to confirm guests fully understand the requirements well in advance. 

The ships are well overdue the planned bow to stern refit. Dark woods and patterned carpets dominate.  The whole feel is of an old world hotel. It is well maintained on the whole but the heavy rain in Kuala Lumpur resulted in leaks in several public areas on the ship. 

Drinks and food were served with less style and panache than we are used to on Celebrity

Suite verandahs are small and with a large square table taking a lot of space. No lounger or footstools on the verandah.  I would have thought branded toiletries should have been supplied in suites rather than the rose scented types.

We were really looking forward to Aqualina but found it a little disappointing. Service was good, but disappointed that the H’ors deuve trolley wasn’t taken to table for a choice, no tableside cooking in either speciality restaurant. Fish was boned in Aqualina tableside. There were some very odd combinations of fish and pasta . Other items like the Zabaglione were memorable. We switched our bookings to Prime C which we enjoyed very much. The other food on the ship we found to be a little patchy.

A great irritant was the drinks packages. We like a good glass of wine and some quality spirits and a great martini. A good sommelier once told us that after the 1st 4  glasses it gets more difficult to discern the quality of a wine. The included wine was we though BBQ standard and not for us so we chose a 10 bottle package which suited us better and enabled us to have sparkling and sweet wine if we preferred it.  We took the premium drinks package but found it very irritating that bar staff went through the ingredients of martinis to see what was and wasn’t included. We are on holiday and don’t want to consult lists or be told that a cheaper alternative will be used as the correct ingredient isn’t included. No sparkling wine either, or glasses of premium wine in the package. This whole arena needs to be modernised as per Celebrity to make it better and easier for guests. Martinis were small and very old fashioned. Cocktails were not served with the panache we have come to expect from  Celebrity. Our bottled water packaged was delivered in single servings. Sometimes we had 4 servings each in the hot dry climate and the waiter had to keep running back and forth instead of supplying a large bottle in the 1st place! We tried to trade 2 of the 4 half bottles of spirits supplied in our suite for wine. Eventually the wine was delivered but we were very disappointed to find it was the free pour wine used all over the ship. We were also misled that we couldn’t have drinks from our package delivered to our stateroom. Eventually towards the end of our cruise Guest relations confirmed that there had been a change and we could do this….too late!

No Meet and mingle invite delivered.

The LCV celebration was just for 1 couple and all the music dance etc was for them. Don’t get me wrong they were a nice couple who had cruised a lot with Azamara but we found it sycophantic and embarrassing.

Finally the Photo disc we were sold on the basis that the photos were for our trip and ports of call was not as promised. Some nice photos however when we downloaded them they were from 2010 to 2014. Not our sailing, not our Azamazing evening. We felt we had been stung.

Would we sail Azamara again? We would love to especially where destinations and ports are more unusual. We loved the crew and the small ship experience. We will look to see what the refit brings and will look to a change to a more modern approach. In the meantime the Celebrity suite enhancements mean it is a better option for us right now delivering a luxury small ship experience within a large luxury ship! We wanted this to be a 5 star luxury experience. For destinations it was but Azamara don't quite step up to a luxury brand......yet.

Celebrity cruiser tries Azamara

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