Emerald Azzurra Review

5.0 / 5.0
30 reviews

Emerald Azzurra down the fabulous Dalmatian Coast

Review for the Eastern Mediterranean Cruise on Emerald Azzurra
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pmbank
10+ Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Apr 2022

We chose Emerald Azzurra because it was unique, a brand new small 100 passenger ship that sailed down the coast of Croatia, able to pull into small coastal ports. We sailed from Venice to Greece which was two cruises back to back,( highly recommend doing that if you have the time and money) It was our first experience with Emerald Cruise line. Once we got to the ship we LOVED the whole experience. The staff are wonderful and the locals that we got to meet were thrilled to have tourists back. We sailed in April so we really were one of the first ship to sail the region since the wind down of the pandemic. I highly recommend sailing in April or May rather than the peak summer season. The weather was coolish but the benefits of no crowds, no lines, Spring flowers far outweighed not being able to use the water toys on the ship.

The ship is impressive, lots of different gathering places and it has a much more laid back, causal atmosphere than the typical river cruises that we have done. Since this is a new ship and new itineraries, you do need to be prepared for a learning curve by the staff. Some of these ports were totally new to them, they could not give us advice on what to do out in town or help us arrange private outside tours. We booked just about all of our included and “extra expense “ excursions thru Emerald with the help of our travel agent “ahead of time”. The marketing of their excursions both before and when you get on the ship seems to be a weak point with Emerald. They cancelled several of our excursions because not enough people signed up but they didn’t promote the excursions far enough ahead of the cancellations dates. The excursions were good to excellent. Some of our guides were very new, again they had not worked in 2-2.5 yrs so it took a while for them to get organized with the VOX boxes etc. Croatia is beautiful, like nothing I’ve seen in All our travels thru Europe. Quaint towns, clean, everyone speaks English, signs are in English . We did a Self driven jeep tour and the Buggy tour and had a great time on both. I will say that you need to be in pretty good shape to do most of the excursions. There are LOTS of stairs, climbing, uneven surfaces at the ruins that are hazardous for some folks. Our activity director do not warn people about these issues during the evening briefs. We had two people fall on one of the ruins hikes . Even getting onto the tender boats, you needed to be stable on your feet. So if you have knee and hip issues or walk with a cane, talk with the activity director privately before you decide to go on some of the excursions.

The food was pretty good: the buffet is set up for breakfast and lunches. It is a little different setup then most ships, no steam tables, the hot dishes are served in pots on a heated marble surface. You can order special made to order items like pancakes. They did not advertise that but they are more than happy to make it if they have the ingredients. Evening meal is more formal, several choices of entrees, some local fare. You can customize your order, some groups had special dinners prepared just for their table and they made those arrangements a couple days in advance. Can’t say it enough, the ship’s staff is wonderful, they remember your name and room number, your favorite drinks or type of tea you like. Evenings had a few game nights and on our ship Pablo sang and played his guitar. He was very good. The cabin was nice sized, we had an ocean view cabin with a huge window and lots of extra storage , we loved it’s convenient location to everything.

Cabin Review

Cabin was a nice size. Bed was comfortable. Sound proofing was amazing. Never heard the engines or the anchor. No sounds from the lounge or adjacent rooms.

Shower design not good, some days water leaked under the door all thru the bathroom other days we did fine. As with any new ship (we were on the 5 th sailing of this ship) there were things that needed work. Ours Toilet didn’t flush for part of one day but they fixed it right away. Our tv/ ship info system went down in our room for 3 days. They tried to fix it each day and eventually had a tech come onboard and then things worked fine.

Bed was very comfortable, slept better on the ship than air do at home

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