Reunionmama

Which ship are you on? Food quality?

I would not, before or after the cruise, put Azamara and Silversea in the same category. We were first time Azamara cruisers, and we looked at the experience without the benefit or detriment of preCovid performance. We had a very pleasant cruise, with a great itinerary and no major service letdowns. You are spot on with your comment about capacity. The crew appeared to us to still be a bit green and heavily supervised. They all clearly embraced their service commitment and knew their own job. However, there was limited ability to stretch outside that job (eg waiters not very knowledgeable about the liquor packages, butlers unable to comment on the port being visited) that hampered total crew efficiency a bit. Whether by design or not, a lower complement of guests helped mask this. Were there elements that could have been improved? Of course. But we recognize that the Quest crew was working as hard as possible to make the experience enjoyable and, so close to exiting the pandemic, we appreciated that.

Sorry to be late on response to this, but was also on the same Quest voyage as mdpa. And while I would not rate the full experience 10/10, the boarding experience in Barcelona was also flawless for us as was the service and responsiveness of the crew. I would like to give a special shout out to the captain and bridge crew for navigating up the river to Seville instead of docking at Cadiz - a pretty challenging feat for an R class ship through that lock that really enhanced guest experience in that port. Based on what I read on these boards, I would concur that there is some unevenness in product across the ships.