capegranny

Loving your review!  We've been in Portugal twice, and have booked a Douro river tour for October of 2020 with Tauck.  You are giving us great photos and wonderful descriptions.  Some have told us that this is a somewhat "unexciting" itinerary, but you've managed to describe the reasons we've chosen this trip.  Thanks!

Expanding horizons for cruising

We loved these itineraries:

Norwegian coast, up and around the top, above Arctic Circle- particularly beautiful mid-June thru end of July when sun is up so long.

Singapore to Hong Kong, with Bangkok and 3 ports in Viet Nam.

Dublin to Edinborouh.

Montreal to NYC - or Boston - particularly lovely late summer and through Early October.

Galapagos .... and add some time on Amazon and in Peru.

River cruising - will seem expensive compared to ocean cruising but look at all that is included;

So many destinations, so little time and money! Just spread your horizons abit.

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Cabin Number 7090/7104

Ship Quest

Month/Year sailed 8/10 and 1/13

Would you choose this room again Y/N Most definitely

Is noise an issue Y/N No

Balcony size Normal/Larger/Smaller Normal veranda

Any other comments (keeping these succinct so the spreadsheet does not grow too much) Love floor 7 you are between cabin floors so no noise from public areas unless you're right opposite the laundry rooms (I think they are around 7078?.)

We have a wonderful TA who knows all there is to know about the ships: cabins that are below pool area so likely to hear lounges begin moved around at 6 a.m. when they clean; vents from the kitchen so the smells drift up to your balcony; traffic to the laundry room that passes by your door; too close to the service areas; etc., etc. If you are using a TA who doesn't know this stuff, get someone else. That's what these folks are so very, very good at doing - knowing things about every ship that we can't possibly accumulate. The only time we've disagreed was when our TA wanted to put us into a cabin that I thought was a bit too forward for me (prone to seasickness), but she explained that although it was a high deck it always was in the shadow of the 'bump out' above so no sunshine on the balcony. AHA! Perfect for us because husband hates the sun and i an always go to the pool deck for some rays.

Really loving your thorough review and marvelous pictures. We were on a similar itinerary with Quest almost 3 years ago and you r bringing back great memories. Of all the ports visited, I think Valletta and Malta were the biggest surprise and certainly one of our favorites. Mdina is mind-boggling, and the co-cathedral was completely unexpected. We were particularly delighted to see the exceptionally large Caravaggio painting that hangs there, particularly because it's in the very room where, if I remember correctly, Caravaggio was ex-communicated for pairing scenes considered too gory (e.g., the be-heading of John the Baptist).

We have 7 cruises with Azamara under our belts and find your comparisons with the Celebrity S ships helpful because we are book on the Solstice for next February around the 'top end' of Australia. I've been a bit hesitant about going to a somewhat larger ship, but your review tells me we will be quite happy with our cabin even if there are some other areas that might not be our top choice. I am struck once again that we all do have different preferences - and isn't that a good thing?!! We like the occasional classical music on the Quest and Journey, don't care at all about the late-night dancing every night; very much enjoy the easy-going sea days - although Iron Chef is certainly shoot! Our preference is for the slightly longer journeys; won't do 7-nights anymore unless it can be back-to-back, which is just a terrific treat! We'd sure like to see Azamara up-date its decor and make those bathrooms a bit larger! But it's not the most important thing to us. Service is, as are the itineraries although after travels far and wide we recognize that we'll like some ports and not others, that there will be occasional mis-steps in every ship's plans or execution of plans, but that we'll always come back knowing that we're a little more aware of the world and our fellow-man than we were before we left.

Keep up the great work! Love your posting!

Thought it was just me and my lack of map! I totally agree with your assessment of Pompeii. I spent over an hour just trying to find the ampitheaters - so many streets were closed and my map was unclear - and I never did find either one of them! I understand now why it is recommended to visit the more manageable sites such as Herculaneum. I definitely just scratched the surface of Pompeii's treasures.

Like many of you, we often prefer to make our own way to some of these places rather than be involved with a busload of others. But for sites such as Pompeii, it really does pay to arrange in advance for a private guide if you aren't a 'ship's excursion person.' Our guide took the time to give us a brief outline of the areas he planned to cover and asked if there was anything else we were particularly interested in seeing. We were in a group of 6 that we'd 'found' pre-cruise through CC and one of the couples made the arrangements for the Pompeii tour.

Is there some reason that you can't use a converter with the appropriate adaptor plug? I've done this all through Europe, India, and several South American countries where the power supplying hotels typically is 240 v.

thanks! i am hoping to catch a special, such a port intensive cruise i will need some pampering :)

It's good to go visit the spa when you first get on-board - or talk to their rep before boarding if they have someone in the

boarding' area, as they often do. That should give you some idea of the various specials and when they're running. I just heard that Celebrity has changed its spa contractor to Canyon Ranch (a huge positive, in my opinion), so that may be true for Azamara as well.

I knew I could count on the CC folks! Thanks so much for your advice - although I may have liked it because it confirms what I'd been thinking! Apparently the tours at various stops now are included in the price, with some stops (e.g., Adelaide) offering a choice of tours. If we can work out the schedule, we're definitely going to do this. I wonder if Celebrity might offer the trip as a pre-cruise overland package? Think I'll look into it.

Hi. We are booked on Celebrity's Solstice for February of 2015, departing from Perth and ending in Sydney. We were in Australia about 10 years ago and particularly enjoyed the overnight ride on the Ghan train from Adelaide to Alice Springs. I've always wanted to do the Indian-Pacific from Sydney out to Perth - 3 nights on the train as I understand it. Could some of you tell me what you might know about this and if it's as interesting a trip as I think it is. We'll spend a couple of days in Sydney first and may do some additional short trips after the cruise. We're looking at the Gold service; would love Platinum but not sure the price difference is really worth it. Any thoughts on the whole idea would be greatly appreciated.

The bottom line is that some venues work and some don't. Unfortunately it seems this is sometimes being discovered on the fly, instead of having the proper due diligence by the Shorex folks ahead of time. At least if its on-board, we have the easy option of walking away if its a dud.

Couldn't agree more! We were on-board for the event at the Titanic Museum in Belfast, which was simply spectacular (although not so great for those folks who were in the golfing groups that had limited time to get to the museum and, consequently, limited access to the museum and to decent seats for the dinner/entertainment). We also were on-board in Alesund, which just didn't work, in spite of a very imaginative 'stroll' through the town with entertainment every few blocks. In that case, the venue for food and beverages was much too small for the crowd, there was no fire exit access - with candles as our light! - and we never got any food at our table. Isn't anyone checking out these things in advance? Hard to imagine that when someone's job is event planning they can't figure out transportation, ability of the passengers to walk up hills and a half-mile or so on cobblestone streets, stand for performances, food and drink distribution, etc. As someone else said, one of the most troublesome parts of this is that the officers and crew are, generally speaking, knocking themselves out to provide a memorable and enjoyable cruise. They're being undercut by these inexcusable examples of poor planning. My guess is that if they'd keep the specialty restaurants open and Discoveries, too, the crowd going ashore would be quite small and those staying on-board would be much happier.

On one night the TV was tuned to an NFL game but the sound was muted. Max played on, some watched him, some watched the TV. The casino was dead, but the Luxe bar was often busy with people listening to Max or just hanging out. Have a nice cruise!

Definitely the best of both worlds! And for what it's worth, Max began his career, I believe, playing at bars in Boston; he told us that if having a TV going bothered him he would have given up before he even got started. He's terrific!!

Thanks for your other info, flyingshoes, re the Captain's remarks about the future of Azamara.

We've done a few B2B and typically there are ship-arranged excursions for departing passengers that end up at the airport, but every once in awhile the ship has been able to arrange to drop continuing passengers back at the port area. More often, however, we've arranged something on our own. In many places we've just done hop-on, hop-off buses after getting a notion of spots we wanted to visit. In Mumbai, we arranged several tours with Mumbai Magic, that were just terrific and I think you will find information about them in several places, including Trip Advisor and also the Destinations section here on CC. Being on-board ship isn't bad! Laundry is less-crowded than it will be once all the new people come on, in warm weather ports, it's a great time to sit on your balcony or out on deck. The gym isn't crowded, etc., etc. We LOVe B2Bs!

I hope someone will ask him about the report that supposedly was made by the Captain of the ship on Quest's November 25 sailing in which he is said to have acknowledged that there were a great many unknowns about the future of Azamara. Apparently the question was whether the line was up for sale.

Can someone please tell me exactly wht is meant by "air deviation" and how does that differ from "custom air?" Thanks.