AmerikanMatt

Thank you all so much for the thoughtful advice. I totally agree that both entertainment and food are subjective to some degree based on your personal tastes and experience, so agree with the “To each his Own” concept. 
 

That being said, hearing other perspectives allows one to decide which seems more in line with your own tastes so all of your posts were super helpful. 

Personally, I think our taste in entertainment and what we’re looking for on a cruise that has sea days (cause let’s face it - it’s really ALL about the destinations right?) is more in line with Leo than it would be with Flying Shoes. Again….. neither is incorrect…. We just really gravitate towards things like trivia and other fun group games throughout the day. Too much idle time on a cruise ship just gets boring for us. I can read a book anywhere. Lol. 
 

Also, we really don’t like cruise excursions. We hate being herded around like cattle. We always either explore on our own and make our own itineraries….. or we book a private tour so it’s just a guide and us. The awesome part that we can see from Azamara is that you’re in port FOREVER! Most of them until like 9:00 PM so we will be able to do both in most ports. Like a 4-hour tour to get to know the place and then off on our own to meet locals, eat, drink, site-see, and be merry!!!
 

Also, because we’re in port so long, we won’t even be eating on the ship very often. We’ll do breakfast, lunch, and dinner in port…. What a great perk! 
 

Also, ANYTIME there is an overnight, we ALWAYS book a hotel room and stay overnight in port. It’s really an awesome way to experience a new place. We did that in St. Petersburg Russia and I gotta tell you…… that night cruising the harbor and staying out till 2:00 AM was the highlight of our trip. Overnight in Venice was pretty spectacular too. I always recommend that you do that when cruising as returning to the ship is always the worst part of the day….. lol. 

So…. Bottom line, we booked a 12-night Black Sea cruise on Azamara. Starting in Athens and ending in Istanbul. We’ll stay in Istanbul for a few days after also as that is just an AMAZING city. Soooo can’t wait!!

The only thing we’re trying to decide now is whether to upgrade our cabin. We’re currently in a Continental Suite, but it’s super small….. but man those upgrades are EXPENSIVE!  Not sure if the Spa Suite or the World Suites are worth the up charge as they are comparable in Price. Any thoughts or suggestions there? Will our experience be THAT much better if we fork out another $4K to get a monster suite? Would love your thoughts there as we always have just done a standard suite with balcony, but they are way bigger than standard rooms on most lines. Very small on Azamara so we don’t feel like our current “suite upgrade” is really very much if an upgrade. I think it got us like another 150 at or something silly. 
 

thoughts appreciated!

Thanks again everyone! It’s kinda cool to talk to others who share the same love of seeing the World and making friends as we do. 

Bon Voyage and may all your days be Great Ones. 
 

On 10/25/2021 at 5:36 AM, Vivasea said:

Have sailed many times with Azamara Always try to book Continental Suite NI.  We prefer suite with shower but have been in both and no complaints.  For us personally we like to be 8049 area.  Of course its what is available at booking.  Always look at deck plan to see what you are underneath.  You will be happy with Continental Suite.

Can I ask why deck 8? We just booked a Suite on Quest and they chose Deck 6 for us as best-available but there were tons available on 8. They chose 6054 for us which is ADA accessible (which we don’t need) so we thought it might be a bit bigger? Thoughts on mid-ship deck 6 vs. 8? 

Thanks in advance!

Man you guys are too awesome! I knew I'd find the right advice. Thank you so much for the great info. Definitely sounds like Azamara is our line. So much so that I just closed my eyes and booked!

Got a Suite leaving Athens on 06/19/23 and arriving in Instanbul on 07/01! SO EXCITED!

Now... off to the Roll Calls and questions forums. I have a feeling I'll be fairly active over the next 18 months.... lol....

Thanks again all!!!!

I’m glad this topic was bumped because my wife and I seem to have quite the decision to make. 

We’re in our mid-40’s…. And have only cruised on Carnival and NCL. We did a Northern Baltic 11-Day and a Mediterranean 9-Day - for our Honeymoon and then our 5-year. Now, it’s time for our 10-year and we are absolutely intrigued by the itineraries being offered for June, 2023 on the Black Sea (have been wanting to do Greece and Instanbul and Bulgaria forever!) on both Crystal and Azamara. Really can’t wait to get back to Russia too….. 

But alas… which cruise line?

For me, I’m pretty mellow…. The ports are everything so as long as the food is good and there are some decent things to do on sea days, and maybe some nice people to converse with… I’m happy as a clam.

My wife on the other hand, found NCL super-boring compared to Carnival. She is always on the go… we did trivia, and bingo…. Spent time in the casino….. all the things. But we’re also pretty young at heart….. we like to dance, have some libations, and generally just try to be as young as we can while we still can.

So - reading the reviews on here - it seems that both options have some pros and cons.

Crystal Cruise Lines seems to be more up my wife’s alley as far as entertainment and activities, and I was going to book there based on that… but then I read about the muckity-muck older, snobbish crowds on there and that is a DEFINITE no-no for us. We absolutely hate rude, sucky people who think they’re better than everyone else. I make plenty but you’d never know it. If we run into a snob, who acts all entitled, or tries to play some sort of class-game with us, we’re more likely to laugh out loud at them and point at them and make fun of them…. (After a few drinks of course) than anything else. I’m semi-kidding, but seriously, who likes crappy people on vacation? We’re the types who know our cabin stewards and bartenders by name on Day 2. We tip generously and really enjoy just being friendly and having fun.

Then…… hearing that Azamara has awesome people and crew, but no casino and a smaller, less activity-based ship…. I’m fearing my wife will be bored to tears after our 250th game of Cribbage on the pool deck.

Both itineraries are great and price isn’t a factor whatsoever….. so… after what you’ve all read - What would you recommend I do? 

Is there another cruise line in this class you’d recommend me looking into? These are the only two with this itinerary I’ve been able to find and I’m ready to book the best one.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Thank you so much!!!

In order to maximize the time in St. P., I'm thinking of booking a room for the night in a hotel, instead of returning to the ship in the evening and going out again in the morning, saving some travel time.

 

Do u have to be back on the ship for the night?

 

Thanks:D

We do this for all the overnights on all of our cruises. We have a hotel for SPB also. I called the cruise line and they thanked me for letting them know as this is standard and they can mark you down as not returning that night. Should be no problem.

I appreciate the responses.

 

Did anyone get their own Russian VISA and do St. Piotrsberg independently, or did everyone here go with guided VISA-free tours?

My wife and I got the Russian Visas and booked a hotel in St. Petersburg for the night. The whole process took about three weeks, start-to-finish. Considering the outrageous cost of the tours, we figure we saved about $700 total and get to do SPB on our own.......eat dinner at a nice restaurant... maybe see a show.

If you need any info on how to obtain the Visa, just ask. It was pretty painless.

Lots of great threads on here about St. Petersburg, but I wanted to get some advice from those of you who've cruised there.

I called NCL to book the 9-day Baltic cruise out of Copenhagen, and didn't book after I was told about the Visa issues with going to Russia. This cruise seems perfect for us, other than this issue with Russia. So I wanted to tell you about my wife and I and get some honest opinions about this -

My wife and I vacation a lot. The last cruise we took was an 11-night European Cruise out of Barcelona about 5 years ago on Carnival. The reason we don't always cruise is that we LOVE to just put a backpack on, and walk around the City, meeting people, having some cocktails, eating in restaurants, and just enjoying the local flavor of an area. Most cruise stops are too quick for that, so we tend to shy away from them - although we've been on like 5 cruises in the last decade or so. For example, on our European Cruise, we only did excursions in like 2 or 3 of the 7 ports we stopped in. We like excursions, but we find we don't get to know the area very well. We also LOVE the overnights. On our last cruise, we got a hotel room in Venice and stayed on dry land for 2 days. We were looking forward to doing that in Russia too, and now we found out we can't......so I'm second-guessing the cruise altogether.

My question is - what is there to do in St. Petersburgh on an excursion? Is there any way to do 2-full days there and not feel like you were just bussed around from museum to museum? Are there any excursions that let us actually wander off on our own? What makes this port special?

I was hoping some of you could post about this port and help convince us to still go on this cruise. I really want to see all of these places, but if we're going to be stuck on a bus in Russia for 2 days and have to eat dinner on the ship while looking out the window at the restaurants in St. Petersburgh, I'm thinking we might just go forgo this one.

Any advice? Thoughts? Reasons to book?

Thank you all in advance!