Charming and friendly small ship, but is that enough?

Lets start by mentioning the massive dry dock list of redecoration and improvements this young company are planning for both ships in 2016, when comfort and style will greatly improve.

We had a most relaxing trip up the coast of Norway into the Arctic Circle even.

At the moment cabins are drab and we hated the huge mirror facing us at the bottom of the bed.The fitted cabin furniture is poor and will be replaced but we had good storage space. TV news was good.

Cases go under the bed.

The shower size will never change so lets hope they can smarten them up with the best curtains and shower products, at the moment it is only caravan quality despite good storage,ventilation and good towels.

From the Captain down the crew are very friendly and atmosphere excellent, the smart little ship is hugely popular with repeat customers mainly retired North Americans, there were very few young passengers.

Food service was mainly good, despite simple white crockery and cutlery. Breakfast finished early for us and room service is never quite the same.Lunch buffet food always looked cheap compared to the MDR menu (which felt as if it improved night by night) ending very well indeed. We paid to use "Aqualina" once and felt it was ordinary and only offered a quieter space.My only comment about the food was that expensive meat and fish does not appear enough.While bread baskets were excellent, I did not like the cake/dessert baking. The so called "complimentary" wines and cocktails were just good enough and we did not pay for more.

Entertainment was also good enough for a small ship.

I thought the "Art Sales" intrusive and spoiled the look of the ship.

As usual I did not see the Gym, but the pool and 2 hot tubs on deck were very clean and warm.

We did not purchase tours.

The Captain and I thought being a small vessel we would always score a central dock space, but in fact these days priority is often given to ships with larger passenger numbers, however the Quest tender boats were excellent.

Boarding at Edinburgh was rather cramped and lack luster, but departure in Copenhagen was perfect with excellent baggage and coach to the airport.

We had a very good cruise BUT, either the price has to fall or the catering (and inclusive drinks) have to improve if we are to sail Azamara again, there will always be more spacious small ship cabins out there.