azamara food service not quite so amazing

[tmfsmith]

I jut got off my third Azamara cruise in the last year. I was stunned at how the quality and selection of food aboard the Qwest had declined so significantly just since Christmas when I last sailed the Qwest in SE Asia. Although all the service personnel on board were great, the dining room is having serious problems that -- if not corrected -- will make this Azamara cruise my last one on the line. Even the food quality and service in the specialty restaurants was very poor. Food often came out cold -- if it ever came out -- even in Aqualina, patrons at our table missed a course of two.

 

Now that Azamara is offering free wine during lunch and dinner, it seems the goal is to load folks up with wine -- a glass never went empty -- but the rest of the meal is ignored. It has changed the whole dynamic of the dining experience on Azamara. No longer do you have a waiter to take drink orders or a sommelier to take wine orders. Your waiter and bus person does it all.

 

So, some might see the changes of complementary wine to be a "deal;" I found it not quite so amazing.

 

It was not unusual to wait nearly an hour before one course was served -- thank goodness for the bread basket. There is something to be said for leisurely dining. But, this passed that point. Waiters seemed to be doing their best, but the problem often seemed to be in the kitchen.

 

Evven the menu, however, had been reduced from pervious cruises. And the food often looked as bad as it tasted. We had been told that Royal Caribbean was playing a more prominent role in making the changes in the dining room. One can only hope that Azamara sends those folks back to Miami to manage the mass-production that characterizes RCCL ships.

 

Nevertheless, Azamara offers a nice product by virtue of being a small ship that sails to interesting ports. It is certainly competitively priced. The staff cannot be more friendly. But, this last cruise was not so "amazing" as the previous two Azamara cruises. Maybe, others are beginning to realize that as well as the ship did not sail even close to being full. This made the poor dining room and kitchen service even more surprising -- one wonders what it would have been like with a full ship.

 

So, I will be thinking more than twice about booking on Azamara again. And will look for another ship that does almost the same amazing itinerary.

 

tom

[Project_gal]

This is extremely worrying as it appears to coincide with Royal Caribbean taking over responsibility for the F&B on Azamara from Celebrity. The problems mentioned [e.g. reduced menu, no sommelier] do not appear to be teething problems connected to new processes and sound more like an attempt to cut costs. I am especially concerned that the speciality restaurants have suffered in a similar way to the MDR.

 

I sincerely hope that this is a temporary blip.

 

Sue

[Bella36]

I hope that other people have not found this deterioration in either the food or the service onboard. We have booked our first cruise on Azamara Quest (not Qwest!) for this October and were looking forward to an improvement in both food quality and a more personalised service than we have recently received from the more mass market lines.

 

Friends of ours cruised with Azamara in June and raved about the food and service - especially in Aqualina, so we have been very much looking forward to the cruise.

 

I hope Tom's experience may have been a one off situation and others have not found this drop in standards of service and food quality.

[JeffK]

Yes - there are problems my friends on the Quest associated with food services in all the restaurants. We found the best way to resolve -- or at least attempt to resolve -- the problem was to make concerns known to staff and managers. Not only those I was traveling with but other passengers told me they found after making their concerns known, there was an increase in staff serving that table. Too bad for others that had to suffer as staff tried to cover up for the problems.

 

There appears to be less service personnel, or it is a redistribution. They said that RCCL was shifting all the kitchen operation to their way along with "new" menus. Sad for me these new menus were less offerings of my liking compared with my previous 2 other Azamara sailings over the past year.

 

Just hope Azamara is not being made into a glorified RCCL. Once when on RCCL they told me to think of them as only 4 star compared to Celebrity 5 star.

[alidor]

Not really a question about the food or the variety but about the actual menus. Are they still paper inserted in a hard cover booklet? May be a strange question but we were on the Quest in Asia in January and I remember my very first meal onboard being handed this hard cover menu. No problem with that but when I opened it, the cloth ribbon like binding or edge or whatever the proper term might be, was stained and dirty. Must tell you it didn't exactly stimulate one's appetite. The itinerary was great but I found things like that throughout the entire cruise.

[Bella36]

I have read the details of the "old menu's" posted on here and they sound very good. Has anyone any details of the "new menu's" please?

[mare s.]

I must post a different opinion. Also just got off Quest and found the service amazing! Of course, we quickly found the best waiters in Discoveries (John and Tayfun) and we requested their table every night we ate there. The one night we didn't get their table, the service was okay and we found service in Prime C (we didn't eat in Aqualina) to be very good also. As for the new menus, we were quite intrigued with the choices. We're relatively easy to please (except for coffee and tea...more about that later) but we thought all the meals were good and some actually outstanding (we relied a lot on John's suggestions...he told us that the wait staff sampled all the new items on the menus each day and so were able to really describe the food prep and make recommendations) We particularly enjoyed a couple of the on deck special buffets...especially the seafood buffet! To watch Chef Lisa bopping to the music "My Kind of Town" while barbecuing fresh sea bass was so much fun and the food was delicious. (There was even an excursion to go with Chef Lisa to the fish market...unfortunately space was limited and we didn't get to go)

Food is really a matter of personal taste and it's true that some wait staff are better than others, but speaking up when you're dissatisfied does help. We were very disappointed in the coffee and tea and politely made that known early on. Well, from that point our table was visited every evening by the maitre d' who discussed the situation with us and stopped by for our opinion of that night's coffee...our two wonderful waiters especially made our coffee and cappucinos for us (got a lot better when they did) and we received two telephone calls from the Food and Beverage department thanking us for our input and promising that they'd pass on our suggestions about making changes in the coffee and tea vendors. We were told that the new menus were just starting to roll out and I think they will be tweaking some items, but on the whole, we were quite happy with food and service on Quest. JMO

[tmfsmith]

My recent trip on the Quest was my 60th cruise (only my third on Azamara), and I agree with Mare that the best food was at the seafood buffet on deck. I was able to join the seafood shopping excursion in Corfu. It was great fun, but Lisa was unable to lead it. (But, that wasn't sea bass -- according to the chefs who led the seafood market shopping.)

 

Unfortunately, Lisa does not appear to be in control of the kitchen these days. Lisa was the head chef on the Journey last summer when we took our very first cruise on Azamara. I was told that RCCL brought a new chef on board and they were using this cruise to put a new menu in place and a new style and operation of food service. Lisa is great like so many of the Azamara staff.

 

Please don't take this the wrong way -- but after talking with the restaurant manager who is there "temporarily" from RCCL's Oasis of the Seas, it was clear that the new mindset on Azamara -- at least on this cruise -- is that passengers will not be very discerning when it comes to food choices. There were some nights that there was nothing even on the menu that seemed appetizing. If you like pork products, however, you may have been in your element on this ship. When I ordered the NY Strip (which is always available -- my usually reliable standby), I was served the 6 oz. breakfast steak. There was a time you would have your choice of four soups on Azamara -- no more -- you have your choice of two.

 

Every night, the waiter starts by telling you the chef's selections -- they are no longer written on the menu as the chef selections -- because that whole section of the menu now carries information on wines to be served that night. After a while, it got to be a joke with our waiters because the chef's selections were usually so bad, that was an indication to us to look elsewhere on the menu. If you have sailed on an RCCL ship recently, the menu looks very similar to what you would find on an RCCL ship.

 

I was in a suite and could eat any night at no charge in the speciality restaurants. But, the food quality was not good in either Prime C or Acqualina. I heard so many complaints from other passengers about the specialty restaurants as well and witnessed a couple of heated arguments in Prime C between passengers and the restaurant manager. Even the maitre d' told me that passenger ratings for the dining room exceeded the speciality restaurants' ratings on the last several cruises of the Quest.

 

Many people will find the service and food quality on the Quest to be superior to the larger cruise lines. But, if you have been a past passenger on Azamara, you will not help but be surprised by the changes. Again, the wait staff work very hard and do their best -- but they can't deliver food that does not get cooked promptly or that must be sent back -- the problem is in the kitchen. The maitre d's do their best. But, the restaurant manager indicated to me that he has been around a long time and that criticism simply just rubs off. I was surprised by that comment, but, like Mare, I had several calls and got a lot of attention. But, the problem is more systemic. As was mentioned in another thread, more dining room staff were assigned to our table and we ended up using the same waiters and bus staff for most of the cruise. They were very good. But, the food was still poor and the service was still slow.

 

But, thank goodness for those two seafood buffets -- they were the best of the cruise.

 

On a positive note, now that wine is being served at no charge in the dining room, Azamara does offer some very good wine deals each night if you don't like the free wines and want to purchase a better selection. Other than that and expressing my appreciation for all the hard work of the wait staff, I really have nothing positive to say about the food for dinner aboard Azamara. Lunch and breakfast service in the buffet were far superior to dinner and superior to most other ships that I have been on.

 

tom

[quivet c]

The comments about the food and new menus is very troubling as I expect upscale food in the MDR and even better food in the specialty restaurants for the price Azamara charges its passengers. I have always had great food on Oceania and would expect Azamara to be on par with or very close to its competition (otherwise it is not surprising why Azamara is getting there butts handed to them by there competition). If I get RCCL or even Celebrity food on my cruise in a couple weeks I will be very disappointed considering the price difference between Azamara and those other cruise lines.

[Andy]

Hi Everyone !

 

I'd like to offer some advice. While the OP is totally entitled to his comments, and I thank him for posting, it's important to mention that whenever our Cruise Critic friends share their thoughts about Cuisine, we should all be aware that this topic is extremely subjective, and is not cause to panic. Whenever I write about my Dining experiences, I always urge our Cruise Critic friends to take my comments with a huge grain of salt. After all, it's only my opinion :)

 

I hope this thread does not become about accusations and second guessing. Thank you for your consideration.

[ikelmay]

Hi Everyone !

 

 

I hope this thread does not become about accusations and second guessing. Thank you for your consideration.

 

I don't see any evidence of accusations and second guessing, I see well thought out and rational reviews. I am quite happy to write off those reviews where someone seems to have a personal axe to grind, but these don't strike me as falling into that category.

 

We are also returning passengers and will be curious to see if things have been changing for the better or worse. We experienced the slight chaos in the dining room of one of the first cruises on board Quest, and it will be interesting to see if both the service and the food standards are any different.

 

On our last Journey voyage, the service and food in the specialty dining rooms was excellent - we had wonderful servers who made our meals a very special occasion. I hope the standards are as good but we will see. I am still unconvinced about the main dining room, but then I found the noise and vibrations from the engines to be very intrusive. It reminded me of that ridiculous 'sensurround' back in the 70's that cinemas used for the movie "Earthquake".

[Andy]

I don't see any evidence of accusations and second guessing

 

 

Hi Ikelmay !

 

Just to clarify, You didnt see the evidence, as a couple of posts were deleted. I didnt want this thread to go off the deep end, so that's why I made that comment.

[Project_gal]

While accepting Andy's comment that food is very subjective, my husband and I are still extremely concerned about the comments we are reading here. I picked out a couple of points from the OP which go belond personal food taste [more limited menus and the lack of a sommelier]. The comment below is even more of a concern

 

but after talking with the restaurant manager who is there "temporarily" from RCCL's Oasis of the Seas, it was clear that the new mindset on Azamara -- at least on this cruise -- is that passengers will not be very discerning when it comes to food choices.

 

We are planners and book our cruises as far ahead as we can so, to date, we have only cruised once with Azamara and have only one other cruise booked with them at this stage but we choose to have a PH and have high on board spends. Although we do not fit the Azamara ideal demographic, we spend something in the region of 50% of our income cruising. We are already have some concerns about the value for money of Azamara since rebranding and we, personally, dislike the increased numbers of overnight stops in port but were starting to come round to planning our 40th anniversary cruise with them in December/January 2012/13. However, food is extremely important to us. We felt that we had to give up eating in the MDR on Quest after a single visit on our first cruise and for a representative of Azamara to assert that "passengers will not be very discerning when it comes to food choices" has lead us to consider whether this cruise line is still a good match for us and we should cancel our cruise early next year. [Remember, we are in the UK and will forefit our deposit as well as other non-refundable expenditure we have already made.]

 

On a positive note, now that wine is being served at no charge in the dining room, Azamara does offer some very good wine deals each night if you don't like the free wines and want to purchase a better selection.

 

Much of our on board spend is wine and the free wines are unlikely to interest us except, perhaps, for lunch. We accept that the wine choices on cruise ships will be more to the North American rather than European tastes and that any offers are unlikely to be of interest. However, the lack of access to a sommelier to help choose the wine is a huge problem indicating that Azamara appears to assume that "passengers will not be very discerning when it comes to wine choices".

 

We are hoping to hear via cruise critic that Azamara rethink their assumptions in the near future because we enjoyed their original offering so much.

 

Sue

[piscean]

We are past passengers of Azamara and we are due to be onboard the Quest in September.Apart from the friendliness of ther staff and 'nothing is too much trouble' the food was excellent. However having just returned from Regent Voyager where we found the food not so impressive we were looking forward to the 'much better food' on the Quest. I do hope they see these posts and do some positive changes as the food quality is very important. Especially to people who are paying the new prices. Futher I do not drink and will not be happy waiting for poor food to arrive!

[roberts2005]

Anyone out there able to post a new menu?

[schmidlapp]

We are if you want to call it "foodies" and will try to get menus to post while onboard the Journey starting the 19th. It will be interesting to see if Azamara is improving food service in the MDR with the changes or

as some have said cost savings instead by using Royal Caribbean staff.

By Mid September they should have adequate time to work out any "kinks" in their new system. We will be happy to report back objectively.

It surprises me that they woud use Royal Caribbean staff as Azamara is supposed to be a much "higher end" product even higher than their Celebrity sibling...

[Project_gal]

We are if you want to call it "foodies" and will try to get menus to post while onboard the Journey starting the 19th. It will be interesting to see if Azamara is improving food service in the MDR with the changes or

as some have said cost savings instead by using Royal Caribbean staff.

By Mid September they should have adequate time to work out any "kinks" in their new system. We will be happy to report back objectively.

It surprises me that they woud use Royal Caribbean staff as Azamara is supposed to be a much "higher end" product even higher than their Celebrity sibling...

 

Thanks. Looking forward to your report.

 

Sue

[Dr H]

Food, service, and attitude may be very subjective, but I find the majority of these posts to be highly disturbing, to say the least. They also seem to concentrate on passenger experiences on Quest rather than Journey. My wife and I are booked for the Eastern Med in late October on Journey. A few points that I seem to be picking up on. Mr Smith and Jeff both have presented very calm, very rational complaints, which I think give much more credence to those complaints. We are both essentially first time cruisers, and I for one don't really care if I only have a choice of 2 soups rather than 4, as long as there is a decent list of appetizers to choose from. I would, however, be ticked off, to say the least, if the soup choices were between Campbell's quality cream of chicken soup or barley vegetable soup. Obviously, there is no way to judge without actually being there. To order a strip steak and be served a 6oz overdone breakfast steak is totally beyond the pale, certainly at these prices.

 

So as I love to say, what is the solution? What is a lowly, miffed passenger to to to correct the situation? I can understand the kitchen having a bad day, a waiter having a bad day, but continuous poor service would cast a major pall over my trip. Is it appropriate to approach the Maitre 'D on day 1, and tell him/her that I've heard some really, really bad things about the food service, and I expect (not hope, but expect) to be proven incorrect? That I expect decent coffee, not as we say in Italy, "aqua sporco?" Does anyone have any recommendations re waiter on Journey?

 

I throw this out the the audience looking for positive, beneficial responses. The blog makes it abundantly clear that there are indeed major problems going on, that while several posters actually did have excellent service, those who are complaining do not appear to be hysterical or overboard with those complaints. Personally, I would like to prevent as much heartburn as possible.

 

My final point. I got the impression when I first learned about about the menu changes, whatever those mysterious changes may actually be, that AZ was leaning away from a North American (read American) dining experience to one that is more "international/European". That would be fine with me, in fact, when I first examined the old menus in detail, the only thing that bothered me was that they were so very "American". If I wanted American, I didn't have to spend a huge chunk of money to go to Europe, and I could have stayed home. Does anyone have any info to share as to what these nice people are feeding us these days? Other than some of it is overcooked, skimpy, and slovenly served?

 

I'm going into this trip with an open mind, but also with open eyes. This thread was the first in which I've heard of a sea-food grill/buffet, which is sounds great. I love my wine, and if the house special is okay, that is fine, if the specialty wines are affordable, that is better, and if they fired the sommelier, somehow, I shall survive the loss. I just want a dynamite vacation, with good food, choice, proper service, and no excuses for poor service. Comments anyone? And perhaps a little reassurance?

[mare s.]

Dr. H, please be somewhat reassured. Tastes are very subjective. Certainly not every item on a menu will be perfectly to everyone's palate. Even in the finest restaurants there will be an occasional glitch or a poor waiter. I love pastries and I found that a lot of the dinner desserts involved ice cream, mousses, etc. which are not particularly my favorites but then there was the night of the banana tartin...absolutely delicious and quite unusual. I did hear a complaint about the New York strip steak from a fellow passenger, but our filets in Prime C were excellent. I thought the seafood presentations were uniformly very good (even the lobster was good...not the usual watery tasteless mess I've eaten on other cruise lines) The pasta selections were quite nice (we ordered one for the table every night just to taste...the lobster ravioli were lovely) The complimentary wines were really quite nice...selections from Chile, New Zealand, South Africa, and Italy. The seafood buffet on deck was amazingly good as I've mentioned with almost everything being cooked to order as we watched. I don't want or need a sommelier (but I can understand that some people prefer this experience) but I do expect friendly, attentive (but not intrusive) service and we certainly received this with our two great waiters and the maitre d'. Coffee, however, was a big issue...but this might not be as important to others as it was to us. I do hope you'll enjoy your cruise...we certainly did.

[nuneham]

Just back from the same cruise as mare and we endorse most of what she says. Overall we were very pleased with the food we received - but I accept that this is subjective and that our tastes are more European than American. We found the meat dishes, particularly, to be very good and were delighted to be served meat rare or very rare when requested. And it was still very tender. There was always a Classic menu from which we could choose, as well as the menu of the day - which I think had 3 appetisers followed by 2 each of soups and salads and then the mains. We switched courses around, requested elements we fancied from different items on the menu and had the Aqualina dessert in Prime C because we didn't like anything on offer. Briefly, they went out of their way to make the dining experience a pleasure. We thought the food much better than with Celebrity. We did have a waiter for food and a different waiter for drinks each night. We don't like evening buffets but the fish at the first was very good and the atmosphere amazing. Lunches in Windows were excellent. It's unlikely every meal will be equally memorable, but overall this was very good. And if you don't like what you get, say so at the time. They will replace it. We thought the Restaurant Manager courteous and helpful - we had complained that the open dining in the MDR doesn't work well at times. They needed more staff in there and I suspect that long-term they need another dining venue. He was neither dismissive nor condescending, but did all he could to make us happier. By the way, if you don't like the wine of the day, they will usually find you the one from the previous day. Be reassured and enjoy.

[Andy]

Just back from the same cruise as mare and we endorse most of what she says. Overall we were very pleased with the food we received - but I accept that this is subjective and that our tastes are more European than American. We found the meat dishes, particularly, to be very good and were delighted to be served meat rare or very rare when requested. And it was still very tender. There was always a Classic menu from which we could choose, as well as the menu of the day - which I think had 3 appetisers followed by 2 each of soups and salads and then the mains. We switched courses around, requested elements we fancied from different items on the menu and had the Aqualina dessert in Prime C because we didn't like anything on offer. Briefly, they went out of their way to make the dining experience a pleasure. We thought the food much better than with Celebrity. We did have a waiter for food and a different waiter for drinks each night. We don't like evening buffets but the fish at the first was very good and the atmosphere amazing. Lunches in Windows were excellent. It's unlikely every meal will be equally memorable, but overall this was very good. And if you don't like what you get, say so at the time. They will replace it. We thought the Restaurant Manager courteous and helpful - we had complained that the open dining in the MDR doesn't work well at times. They needed more staff in there and I suspect that long-term they need another dining venue. He was neither dismissive nor condescending, but did all he could to make us happier. By the way, if you don't like the wine of the day, they will usually find you the one from the previous day. Be reassured and enjoy.

 

 

Hi Nuneham !

 

Thank you for sharing your comments with us. Welcome Home !

[ikelmay]

It could be of course, that the 'new' Azamara is being held to higher standards and is experiencing a more critical customer base because the line itself has repositioned itself towards the 'luxury' end of the cruise spectrum.

 

The new-look Azamara Club cruise has to meet the higher customer expectations and deliver, or else not be surprised at negative feedback.

 

I find it interesting that parent RCCL seems to be involving itself directly in the catering operations on board, and I wonder whether this is related to costs or to concerns about the occasionally uneven product. For me though, the ambience, the ship size and the wonderful crew more than make up for the occasional hiccup with the dining experience.

[Dr H]

Thank you, Mare S. My blood pressure is coming down, rapidly I might add. I began with this posting this AM, and afterwords, all I could think of was all of the excitement, the fun of the planning, and boy are we in for a major, very costly disappointment. I feel much better. RE pastas. I don't really remember seeing all that many on previously posted menus. This could be that my photographic memory might have been out of film, but are the pasta dishes one of the new changes? As for banana tartin, sound fine to me, but I can see my wife heaving ho. Can one put in a request for pastries for desert, say a classic apple tart tatin? Again, we are new to cruising, and I don't know if such a request is unrealistic and overboard, you should excuse the expression, or would be welcomed. (And I might point out that I never go into a restaurant expecting each and every selection to be tailor made to my personal tastes. I just want to know that whatever I do actually choose, somewhere on board ship, is going to exceed my expectations.) Again, very good posting, very reassuring, and I would appreciate hearing more of the praises, and why you are praising the services. This is all extremely helpful.

[mare s.]

Dr H...had to laugh at your post...I guess banana tartin is not for everyone! But they also had a very nice apple tart tartin too! I always found something good to eat (even at dessert) so never made a special request. Actually, I found pastries at lunch at Windows to be quite good...and some really delicious "no sugar added" ones both at lunch and dinner (chocolate lava cake no sugar added was surprisingly tasty) As for pasta, there was one special pasta dish each night as well as one "healthy choice" in addition to the Classic menu and the changing nightly offerings. I was quite happy. (By the way, the pool grill was very good...cooked to order hamburgers, veggie burgers, and turkey burgers and fresh french fries...my husband enjoyed those for a change) and there was soft serve ice cream as well as ice cream by the scoop at lunch time...simple pleasures to be sure, but nice all the same.

[wripro]

Perhaps instead of the banana tatin they could serve and apple cream pie.