Celebrity promoted Azamara as an upscale experience, more opulent than the premium cruise lines of Princess, Holland-America, Royal Caribbean and competing for the same market as Oceania has targeted. After having sailed on the "maiden voyage" of the Azamara Quest, I can say that at this point in time Oceania really doesn't have to worry about this new source of competition. The experience is in some ways better than the regular experience on premium cruise lines, but it doesn't quite meet the standard of an upscale experience.
Azamara ships are identical in structure to the Oceania ships (Regatta, Insignia and Nautica) and two other Princess ships, however the Quest was not as well appointed as the Oceania ships. A beautiful piano bar was removed from the Quest to make room for the casino. The art consists mainly of photographic. The delightful sitting area, where the concierge on Oceania ships sits, has been converted to a retail area on Azamara. There is no concierge on board Azamara ships.
You'll meet some wonderful staff, people with great heart and who really care about the quality of service you get. Sometimes the systems get in the way of what the staff are supposed to do for you. First of all, the idea of a butler to provide for all of your needs isn't quite realistic. When we first boarded the ship (Saturday), we requested a dinner reservation for the following Thursday. The butler said he would take care of it. It finally took two visits to the Purser's Desk, two phone calls and finally a visit to Domenic, the manager of the specialty restaurants, before we finally managed to secure this reservation. For those that are counting it took five days to secure the reservation. While dining in the specialty restaurant, we noticed half the tables were empty and it was pretty obvious that they just weren't organized to handle their offer of one dinner in the specialty restaurant for every stateroom and two reservations for concierge level. Since we were "42" on a waitlist, it's evident that some people were disappointed Unlike Oceania, Azamara grants you one complimentary visit to one of their specialty restaurants. That's assuming you can even get a reservation into the restaurant. The cover charge for Prime C (the steakhouse) and Aqualina (Italian) ranges from $20 to $25, but for us, the food was not noticeably better than the dining experience in the Discoveries main dining room. The breakfasts in the Windows Cafe on Azamara are superb. They have a wide variety of fresh fruits, an extensive assortment of choices, excellent ham, assorted smoked fish, great waffles and a wonderful selection of cheeses. Lunch and Dinner in our view was comparable to most cruise lines, certainly not better, in fact the cut of meats tended to be inferior to what we have had on Oceania. The biggest disappointment for my coffee-holic wife was the lack of cream. Even in the specialty restaurants they only served milk with the coffee. Also be prepared to pay an $8 surcharge if you want Kobe beef. Caviar is available in the main dining room at a cost of $66 to $71, depending on whether you choose beluga or not. For an upscale experience, neither lobster nor king crab was ever served in any of the dining rooms. One request for a baked potato in the specialty restaurant was met with, "It comes with...." For the fit group they have an excellent smoothie bar along with freshly squeezed orange juice. For lunch and dinner Azamara has an open sitting policy rather than scheduled dining with regular tablemates. This hasn't worked effectively as yet, since the wait for a table during the hours of 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. ranged from 25 to 35 minutes.