We have been sailing the Celebrity Brand since 1990 and decided to try Azamara last year when it was still the high-end brand of Celebrity. We sailed on the Quest to Southeast and Northeast Asia last winter and were extremely pleased with all aspects of the two - 14 day back-to-back cruises. Thus we booked this 16 night cruise on the Journey while still on the Quest.

Since the Journey and the Quest are essentially the same ships there are very little differences in their layouts. However, our veranda cabin on deck 7 on the Journey had a more convenient layout than the one on the Quest. On the Quest we had a cabin on deck 8 (8031) while this year we were on deck 7 (7075). The deck 8 cabin had the bed next to the veranda door while on deck 7 the love seat sofa is next to the veranda door. The deck 7 layout made it much easier to get into and out of bed for the person sleeping on the side facing the veranda door. They have installed a wall mounted flat screen TV's in the cabins which has the added benefit of freeing up additional storage space where the older CRT type TV monitor was situated.

Our room butler and her assistant were outstanding and we rewarded them with an additional gratuity for their wonderful service. The ship's officers and service staff were friendly, courteous and responsive to any requests we had. Since Azamara Club Cruises only has two ships, it was not surprising to meet crew members from our previous cruise on the Quest. The Hotel Director, Philip Herbert, was on the Celebrity Galaxy when we sailed on it in the Mediterranean Sea in 2006. The hotel services (housekeeping and dining) crew's morale reflects his high devotion to the comfort and cruise experience of the guests and their well being. Read more