My husband and I have been on approximately 20 cruises on lines ranging from Carnival to Crystal. We prefer a larger ship but my husband liked this itinerary because of the overnight docking in several ports. We decided to think of it as a "hotel" to see the area and attend Carnivale in Rio.

Azamara is A "semi-luxury" line with a crew to passenger ratio of 2:1. We booked a suite, the class of service we usually use so we expected a superb experience on this smaller ship.....WRONG!! In the interests of brevity, I will describe the experiences we had on the first day of the 12 days on the ship. These situations were repeated numerous times during the cruise.

CABIN SERVICES: Before we left we indicated twice to two separate representatives that I am allergic to down and flowers, so the cabin should be free of these materials. Of course, this was not the case which happens half the time in any cruise line. The problem was that even though the cabin steward spoke excellent English, it took 3 notes and a phone call to get him NOT to put flowers in the cabin. I don't know what is so difficult about "No flowers please", but he just didn't get it. Read more