M109

I have a serious issue with Azamara sailing that part of the world where the weather is very unpredictable and the sea can become extremely rough, when the ship is effectively only able to operate one screw and they can’t heat the ship correctly. Just completely bonkers and tells you a lot about the financial status of the company when they are not prepared to cancel a cruise because the ship has mechanical problems.

Dudelgo I have just returned from an Azamara cruise that called into Kanakkale and you will need to be a little careful about assuming lots of taxi drivers waiting to take you off on tours. It's very small port that is 20 mins outside of the city and gets very few calls from cruise liners. The two places to visit are the Gallipoli WW1 battlefields and the ruins of Troy. We did the battlefield tour which was very good and there are a lot of old trenches still visible etc and a great museum. It takes 8 hours only because the bus has to cross the straight so the bus gets there 20/30 mins before the ferry sails, it then takes 30 mins to cross and then you are pretty much straight into the battlefields. Great tour if you are interested in this sort of history. I have done Troy before and to be honest it is quite disappointing I guess because we all imagine Troy to be like the film depicted it to be eg huge. Its not, its a very small site with not a lot to see. Enjoy your cruise

Hi Swigso our cruise ended in Istanbul and we overnighted on the ship but we arrived at about 0830 in the morning. I would expect if the ship is arriving the day of the passengers departures they will aim to get there earlier. Point to note the new Cruise Terminal is massive and can involve a long walk to immigration (like 15 mins). It is all underground including bus pickups, (truly massive area) You will need to get your taxi service to be very clear where they are intending to meet you otherwise it will involve another long walk. Many of the older guests where late for their buses to the airport as they had not taken into account the long walk. I have to say that the cruise port puts every other port I have been to to absolute shame as it's amazing. Real night life with all the high quality shops and eating places. Enjoy your cruise.

Thanks Lisiamc but I am pretty certain that I checked under the lights and sides and top mof the lights which were slightly difference to the ones in your pics. Does not matter now as we managed to keep it all going on the one socket we took with us. But f we cruise again on quest I will certainly know where to have another look. Thank you for the pics.

Hopefully a little less pork loin that was another item seen at almost every lunch and evening meal. I remember many years ago one particular lunch where they had a whole suckling pig in the buffet, now that was special.

Yes it’s a shame that flights have gone up so much in the last year or so. Used to be easy to get return flights to the major European cities for £60/70 now it’s at least double that before you start adding in paying for luggage. The pandemic has a lot to answer for or at least the various Govts handling of it.

Thanks Chuck but I am aware of how things work with regards to booking cruises after 20 odd years of cruising. It can work the other way as well as long as you are prepared to wait it out. That last cruise was booked 2 months out and I got it hugely reduced because it was nowhere near full. Flights cost more but as we live in the UK it’s fairly easy to get a last minute flight. Funny enough the flight to Athens was quite expensive £200 odd one way but the flight back from Istanbul was only £85. It was still a big saving on what Azamara wanted to charge for a flight arranged by them. PS the ship was offering people who could stay on board the next cruise back to Athens at £900.

I looked long and hard for those outlets including by the bedside are you sure they are on the Quest?

ChucktownSteve we were in a club balcony on deck seven and the £3000 is for one person. Currently advertised Azamara in the Med in Sept this year 11 days club balcony is £5000 each. Under no circumstances would I pay anywhere near that amount for what I just enjoyed but had issues with. We had no problems with service but then the ship was only just over half full, but the food was very average to say the least and at that sort of price I would want it to be top notch and would not be expecting to pay extra for the two restaurants. Maybe my expectations are too high but Azamara food used to be amazing.

They need to put more money towards food, especially the buffet and if that meant no Amazing evening (which must have cost a fortune) then that’s the what I would do. If you really had to you could also cut back to beer and wine at lunch and dinner only with other booze being paid for. I am not sure what they really stand for at the moment and where they excel. They have the small ships which a lot of people really like compared to the enormous ones around today. They have a good crew but then most lines have that going for them. White night is a great night but it’s not enough to make people think I must come back. The Capt mentioned that he is always asked when are Azamara going to build a new ship and his answer was book more cruises with us which is a bit telling. The R type ship is a lovely ship and for me a perfect size, I love what they have done with removing the casino, could have done with a slightly more upbeat piano player but he was okay for background music. However, these R ships are getting very old and whilst they keep them looking good the maintenance cost must rise each year. Let’s hope the new owners have a plan for the future.

Hi Ithikan fish sticks are actually made of pollock but they are quite cheap and nasty. Riocca is right they used to be called crab sticks but as no crab is involved they are now fish sticks. I did not mention it but I found seafood night a disappointment as there was not much in the way of seafood eg big prawns, octopus, calamari etc. Now I don't know if this is a recent thing or if I am forgetting the quality of the first trips. I would put the quality of the food at Celebrity level after this trip, so I will need very good prices to come back again and certainly will not be prepared to pay over £3000 for a 12 day cruise.

A little bit of background for you all. My wife and I have enjoyed cruising for 20 years now and have tried most of the favourite cruise lines, several times at least and we have completed about 22 cruises and 2 river cruises. We were lucky enough to sail with Azamara twice in the first 2 years of it's existence which we both enjoyed immensely. Loved the small ship, crew and the food. In these early days the speciality restaurants were included in the price and were top notch. Sadly prices increased significantly as Azamara became popular and of course you now had to pay for the speciality restaurants unless you paid up for the larger rooms. So we were back to Celebrity and Holland America for a few years and then we decided to try Oceania on their new ships. We really liked that experience and sailed with them for three trips before they became too expensive. More recently we have river cruised in Europe which we were great fun. So I was delighted earlier this year to find Azamara in range again and so we were off again to the Quest which we had sailed on the previous two cruises. We joined in Athens after a rather arduous journey with the flight delayed out of Gatwick by 41/2 hours which meant arriving at 2 o'clock in the morning, but we where still met by the hotels driver with no fuss about us being late. Lunch time it was a lift back to the airport to catch the metro to Athens port which was about a 45 minute ride followed by a walk around the edge of the port to the cruise terminal where the Quest sat basking in the sun. Of interest also along side was one of the new Scenic cruise ships that looked amazing, rather like a super yacht. Due to the shenanigans with the new website I had not booked in on line and I am glad I didn't as it took us no more 5 minutes to book in with the group of people who were stood waiting for us. All done on an Ipad including the photo, very clever and quick I must say. Had to wait 10 mina on the bus to travel the 100m to the ship which was a bit daft as we were happy to walk and there were no port restrictions as the crew were walking out. Any how we were quickly on board and greeted with a glass of bubbly and quickly ushered off to the theatre where we were given the lifeboat drill talk and film which lasted about 5 mins and then we were free to go. A couple of the Americans had to be told quite sternly by a ships officer that no they could not wander off and that this was compulsory. Much better than the old days of putting on the lifejacket and then standing in the sun on the deck I can tell you! Our room was a normal veranda on deck 7 which had been changed up since our last voyage with them and I thought it well done and as a whole I thought the room looked really good. There were a few things that need sorting like the wall paper was starting to come away at the edges where they joined strips and I was surprised there were no charging points for all the electricals we all now carry, however all in all very nice, although we has forgotten how small the bathroom are and yes that shower with the curtain is definitely a squeeze. I am not going to take you through all the ports visited but will go through some of the good and some of the not so good. The good The crew are still very good and a pleasure to be around. The ship as a whole is still in good nick with just the odd bit of rust showing up but nothing big and of course kept immaculate. The free drinks on board were absolutely fine and the wine I thought was of a perfectly drinkable standard and I like my wine so most should be fine without having to pay more. The special Azamara night was put on for us at Ephesus and we were given on arrival possibly one of the worst mugs of wine I have tasted for a while but it was supplied by the firm who put on the night on for Azamara so difficult to blame the ship. The small amphitheatre where we sat was a delight but I would imagine whoever did the risk assessment must have run a mile at seeing it. Steep uneven steps with 20/30ft drops off to the side was asking for 70/80 year olds to fall and badly hurt themselves. However, 70/80 year old are from a generation made of sterner stuff and they all made it safety even if it meant going down on their bum's. The only person to have a fall was a 50 year old fellow who slipped down 4/5 stairs in front of the 450 people attending and once everybody realised he was fine got a good cheer. The ensemble was not my type of music however the setting was superb. Personally I would have loved to walk down the main street of Ephesus in the dark when the building were lit up but sadly that was not allowed. White night was put on as we were leaving a small Turkish port and was great fun although it was a bit of a bun fight to get to the food, dread to think what it would be like with a full ship, but great fun anyway and the combination of all the singers and bands on board played some great music that had us all up and dancing. The not so good Sadly as food lovers we were disappointed with the quality of the food. It was difficult not to remember back to when we first cruised with Azamara when we thought the food was amazing. The main dining room was good, especially breakfast which was exceptional. The buffet was, however, not that good. Luch everyday had a large selection of Asian and Indian curries etc. Now as a Brit I like my curries but curried boiled egg for breakfast was a bit to much. I strongly suspect that the curries were a way of using up left over food from previous meals, but I may be wrong but anyway there was to much curry going on throughout the cruise. I did mention this on the mid cruise survey and the head chef sought me out the next night at supper which whilst I appreciated he came to chat finding me a supper sat with others was an unusual time to discuss matters. Not that anything changed but hopefully Azamara will at least have a think on matters (PS seafood salad with seafood sticks chopped into it is not really my idea of good quality food). We ate in both speciality restaurants and the steakhouse meal was poor, the quality of my steak just was not there (it was the same with the steak I had in the dining room). The Italian restaurant was brilliant and was miles better, so we booked another meal there. The squid ink pasta with lobster and seafood was just sublime. I know food is subjective but having watched the argument between Azamara fans and Oceania fans as to who has the better food in our view it's not close at the moment and Oceania wins hands down. Hopefully Azamara can raise it's game again and compete once more because we enjoyed the overall experience. Shore excursions were extremely expensive $150 average I would say. Worrying The ship was about two thirds full at about 500 passengers but the next cruise back to Athens it was going to be less than half full before being full at the start of school holidays. This must be a worry as these small ships need to be full to make money. Azamara need to work out a way to get these ships full whilst providing a good level of cruising. Conclusion Loved returning to the small ship experience and level of service Azamara provide Food not so good. Happy to answer ant sensible questions.