This cruise could have been a disappointment. For that matter, this Greece-Turkey cruise could have been a dud. Instead the trip turned out to be our second thoroughly satisfying vacation on an Azamara ship this year.

When we first booked the Black Sea cruise last year, we were really looking forward to finally going to Istanbul and seeing a different part of the world. Then the geopolitical landscape worsened, and a trip to the Black Sea region became untenable. Also, due to a scheduling mistake on our part, we had to move the hoped for June-July cruise on the newly acquired and refurbished Onward to a August-September itinerary on the Journey. We almost canceled the cruise at a couple of different points, especially considering the replacement itinerary overlapped with the Greek Intensive we took with Azamara in 2019. Ultimately, we decided to go, and we are very happy we did.

The Azamara Journey is not nearly as old or historical as any of the ports we visited. Yet we enjoyed this ship as much as we enjoyed the Quest on our Caribbean cruise in March. The size and design of R class ships apparently suit us and our needs. During a brief conversation with an officer, he said in reference to the Journey, "She has some years on her, but she still has some good years in her". Read more