We love Azamara for its informal, friendly feel, along with excellent service, great food and inclusive wines. We definitely enjoy the small ships and interesting itineraries. Having experienced one mega-ship cruise, we will never go above 700 capacity again.
Staff were brilliant throughout the ship. One thing we love about Azamara is that the staff make such an effort to use your name, to always smile and say hello, and do that little bit extra, which makes the holiday for us.
We ate in Discoveries, Prime C and Aqualina. If you love meat then Prime C is worth the small extra cost, but the food in Discoveries is very good, so there is no need to upgrade. The thing that distinguished Prime C and Aqualina from Discoveries was the more formal feel, and extremely attentive service. That isn't something we particularly value when the service in Discoveries is good anyway.
We booked an inside cabin based on price and the fact that we only sleep there. The Onward's cabin was almost identical to those we have stayed in before on the other Azamara ships. The only item that was missing was the sofa - There was a round coffee table in its place, and we weren't sure whether the sofas hadn't yet arrived, or whether a decision had been made not to put one in... we didn't miss it (we spend our time elsewhere on the ship), and the cabin felt more spacious without it.
The Acropolis has to been seen at least once in a lifetime.
We love Istanbul and spent a week in Cappadocia then Istanbul before the cruise. There is just so much to see in Istanbul... even if you lived there I don't think you would ever run out of interesting things to see and do!
Fabulous Medieval City. A perfect cruise port as everything is walkable. So picturesque and a Unesco World Heritage site with incredible architecture. We had an extra night here as we were sadly not to able to stop at Mykonos, due to bad weather. But the extra time in Rhodes made up for it.
The walk from Santorini Fira to Oia is spectacular, and the local bus back was efficient (if crowded). Yet another bucket list item ticked off on this cruise!