Azamara or Celebrity????/

[Rotterdam]

We would appreciate your thoughts on these 2 lines....my partner & I (48 & 51 years old)are planning a winter (Jan / Feb) 2010 Panama Canal full transit cruise....both lines have 14 & 16 day cruises Sandiego / Miami.

 

We really prefer the smaller ship(Azamara) and country club dress code(we live in NYC & do the tux thing often enough here at home)...but from what I am reading the average age is about 100. We do not want a party atmosphere but a little nite life would be great.

 

I was on Celebrity back in the 1990's several times...a good product but management was horrendous -

 

Has anyone saile don these lines & your thoughts......

 

Thanks

[YHZcruiser]

We would appreciate your thoughts on these 2 lines....my partner & I (48 & 51 years old)are planning a winter (Jan / Feb) 2010 Panama Canal full transit cruise....both lines have 14 & 16 day cruises Sandiego / Miami.

 

We really prefer the smaller ship(Azamara) and country club dress code(we live in NYC & do the tux thing often enough here at home)...but from what I am reading the average age is about 100. We do not want a party atmosphere but a little nite life would be great.

 

I was on Celebrity back in the 1990's several times...a good product but management was horrendous -

 

Has anyone saile don these lines & your thoughts......

 

Thanks

 

My partner and I have sailed twice now on AZ and loved it. We are the same age as you and your partner. We're not good at staying up late (we're beat after those vacation days!) but here are some thoughts.

 

On the Quest, I thought the entertainment was pretty good, save two nights which were well below average. Out of 14, not bad. The age group on the ship is not 100 (honest), but there are some older folks - who were a lot of fun and very active. I would say we had a good mix, including plenty of people our age and younger with whom we had a great time. Unfortunately, as I said earlier, can't really comment on the night life per se but I know they have very good musicians for having heard them in other venues.

 

The country club atmosphere/dress code is very enjoyable. The ship is actually elegant without being stuffy. We felt very comfortable.

 

In our opinion, food was very good. We always looked forward to dinner, whether in the MDR or the two specialty restaurants -- Prime C or Aqualina. Excellent service. Others will have had a different experience, it is all a question of preference.

 

We enjoyed our daily pre-dinner drinks in the Looking Glass lounge. Our favourite spot!

 

Let's just say that we will be sailing again with AZ.

 

Happy cruising!

[ikelmay]

Hi, we have just booked a Panama with Azamara for January 2010. We have taken the Quest before and really enjoyed the trip. We also are similar in age to you and found the entertainment to be very professional and well up to a par elsewhere.

 

Celebrity on the other hand seems to be becoming more of an older demographic - it may be that as we take longer cruises the ships tend to have an older cross section of passengers, but our last trip (Mercury) seemed to have a much older skew which was disappointing. It was very similar to our one HAL trip that also seemed to be full of passengers half way to the next life.

 

We prefer smaller ships for many reasons and love the closer contact and connection that you have with other passengers and the crew - this R-class ship is the perfect size for us.

[bz]

We did a med cruise on the Azamara Quest in Sept & thought of 12 cruises this was far & away the best ever. It's like getting caviar at a fish price. What I mean is well worth any extra dollars. Dress code is reasonable, people were nicely dressed, with no exceptions on our cruise. Food was quite good, mostly excellent. Specialty restaurants at $5 pp, what more could you want? Crew was the best ever, quite different from our other cruises - Celebrity, RCI, Princess & HAL.

[brk55305]

I've been on both. Was on a Azamara on a 28 day cruise from Singapore to Athens April 2009 and loved it. Ship was nice size and speciality resturants supurb. There was a mixed crowd age wise (I am in your age grouping and went alone.) There were many Austrailians, New Zealanders and British ... in fact the Americans were a minority. Somehow the FOD all seemed to find each other.

 

I am going on the Celebrity/Infinity in February 2010 on a 14 day cruise out of Buenos Aires to Antartica, planning a land tour on my own for two weeks and then to catch the same ship in Valparasio mid March which goes up the coast thru the Panama Canal to Ft. Lauderdale. I've liked the Infinity in the past, hate the formal dress aspects but throw on a jacket and have not had a problem because I am not formally dressed.

 

I think either way you will have a good time. While I prefer smaller ships for longer cruises, the bigger ones are fine for shorter ones. Either way you will have a good time. Feel free to write if you have more questions. brk55305@yahoo.com

[Gwa123]

Hi Guys,

We sailed on the Celebrity Infinity in April Panama Canal, it was a fantastic cruise, the ship is well maintained and the age group late 30's - 50's. There were obviously some older people but that's to be expected on any quality cruise ship. We are both 42 and didn't feel too old or young, we have previously sailed HAL and did feel decidedly young on those cruises.

There was a great welcome for Gay guys with a scheduled FOD meeting every night! usually there were 15 -20 of us there each evening!

There is always loads to do onboard and its not bed by 10pm! the food is great.

I would highly recommend Celebrity, in fact we have booked another cruise in January

if you want any other info, including details of ports etc then please contact me.

Have a great vacation whatever you decide to do.

Grant & Patrick

[patseacruiser]

My cousin and his partner have been on both lines and they like Azamara a little more than X but told me that they would choose either one. But they are not big partiers and liked the small ship feel of Azamara he said. So either way - enjoy!

[Rotterdam]

right now the Azamara Journey is our choice - the open seating & Country club casual dress is a big plus - we hope the food & service will be a bit better due to the size of the ship & the higher price point.....

 

We have had a couple of rough years - both my parents had cancer - so we will enjoy the sea days & canal...right now all I think of is being in my bathing suit all day by the pool & that aft bar...everything else is optional.....

 

 

Thanks again...Bon Voyage to all!!!!

[jblazzze]

We really prefer the smaller ship(Azamara) and country club dress code(we live in NYC & do the tux thing often enough here at home)...but from what I am reading the average age is about 100. We do not want a party atmosphere but a little nite life would be great.

 

 

 

My partner and I have never been on Celebrity but we were on Azamara a couple years ago when we were 37/38. We were definitely the "youngsters" on the ship, but we did have a good time. There were a few couples that were semi-close to our ages that we ended up on shore excursions with.

 

We found the service wonderful. The staff went out of their way to be uber-accommodating. The food was fantastic. All in all, a great experience. I highly recommend them.

[jblazzze]

I take back my endorsement of Azamara. We were booked for a cruise which they turned into a Charter cruise. The TA said that their reimbursement offer was the "most pathetic that she had ever seen in 20 years". We will get our deposit back, but it is unclear if we will we will get enough in compensation to cover the cancellation fees for the airline tickets.