This was our 21st cruise and our second on Azamara. We are both in our 60's and love traveling. We boarded in Monte Carlo after spending a pleasant night at the local Novotel Hotel after a 10 hour train ride from Bayeux, France. Boarding was fairly easy and we were in our suite by 1:30 after a leisurely lunch. Service, as on our previous Azamara Cruise was fantastic throughout the cruise. Our suite was very nice and our Butler was helpful but rarely utilized. We had booked a Veranda room but got an upgrade call a few days before leaving for France and jumped on the $398 upgrade fee. Lucky us!
We thought the quality and variety of food was no better than less expensive cruise lines we have recently been on. It was also not as good as our previous Azamara cruise three years ago. One night on the dinner menu was Chicken Parmigiana with a side of French fries as an entree. I have been on many cruises and eaten at thousands of restaurants in my life but had never seen that combination. Soups were generally very good. Entrees were hit and miss with a lot of misses. The Lunch buffet on deck was small and decent most days but not really reflective of a supposviely luxury cruise line. The pizza was really bad. The grill on deck by the pool put the hamburgers and hotdogs many days in steamer pots and you served yourself which left a lot to be desired for freshness. We thought the speciality restaurants were very good with great service. The complementary wine flowed freely throughout the cruise and your glass was not empty long, if at all. We did not upgrade the free drink package and were very happy with the complementary drinks. Our group of four likes to have happy hour at 5:30 or so, and many nights our favorite bar the Looking Glass would be closed or having trivia or some film/lecture. Other bars having events at this time were also a problem. Never have had this problem on any other ship.
Entertainment was somewhat disappointing except for the cruise director who was very talented. We have found over the years the smaller the ship the weaker the overall entertainment. I guess that is to be expected.
We arrived at our hotel late and boarded the ship after a short taxi ride to the port. Would liked to have seen more.
Got a taxi tour. Saw the highlights.
Hired a taxi for the half day trip up and back. Sure beat the bus tour.
Good, not great. Buy your tickets in advance.
We had taxi city tour with a limited English speaking guide which was our fault. Make sure they can speak more than I will give you a good tour. We also toured the Piccasso Museum which was interesting. We also went to the Montserrat Monestery which is beautiful to see and worth the cost.
Hired taxi for a short tour.