Why Azamara?

[mpslaw]

I'm interested in learning why Cruise Critic Azamaranians have chosen this relatively new line. Are most of you former Celebrity or current Celebrity veterans? Is it because Azamara is a "child" of Celebrity? Is it because folks are curious whether the new kid on the block is as good as Oceania?. Or is it as a result of a previous great cruise with Azamara? Or maybe you just took a chance?

 

Have Cruise Critic "Azamaranians" cruised with lines other than HAl, NCL, Princess, Celebrity and like cruise lines? What about in the luxury cruises, Silverseas, Crystal etc. If you did luxury 6 star cruises why now Azamara (other than price!)

 

I'm not a travel agent nor have any interest other in learning about others who chose Azamara. We have booked Azamara because of the dates of the cruise; my life long wish to go through the Panama Cana and because I would like to see how Azamara stacks up with Oceania.

 

Thanks for the feed back.

[schmidlapp]

This could be a long answer but to make it as short as possible,

First go to the reviews section of this website, read for yourself what

passengers have been saying.

Second it fits our requirments best, Classy but not stuffy, informal dress code, open dining, excellent staff, pricing is a good value for what you get, mostly excellent ports, very good to excellent food and a great size, not to big and not to small, maybe we should call it the "goldilocks" line.

We were big Windstar fans, no balcony cabins and they ran out of new places to go.

We will be back again with them but for now Azamara's the one.

[Emdee]

Please refer to my Azamara and Regent comparison on the Regent board.

 

I have travelled Celebrity in the past as well as RCCL but more recently mainly Regent. I tried Azamara for the price and also to keep my status for the future. I really enjoyed the cruise as well as the service. The service is wonderful and food is pretty good. Felt the demographic was what I wanted and not that of Oceania which was much older.

 

I will definitely return to Azamara just looking for the correct itinerary.

[Jade13]

I'm interested in learning why Cruise Critic Azamaranians have chosen this relatively new line. Are most of you former Celebrity or current Celebrity veterans? Is it because Azamara is a "child" of Celebrity? Is it because folks are curious whether the new kid on the block is as good as Oceania?. Or is it as a result of a previous great cruise with Azamara? Or maybe you just took a chance?

 

Have Cruise Critic "Azamaranians" cruised with lines other than HAl, NCL, Princess, Celebrity and like cruise lines? What about in the luxury cruises, Silverseas, Crystal etc. If you did luxury 6 star cruises why now Azamara (other than price!)

 

I'm not a travel agent nor have any interest other in learning about others who chose Azamara. We have booked Azamara because of the dates of the cruise; my life long wish to go through the Panama Cana and because I would like to see how Azamara stacks up with Oceania.

 

Thanks for the feed back.

 

Yes. We were on SilverSea last year and canceled one for next year in favor of Azamara.

 

We have cruised with HAL, Celebrity, Swan Hellenic, SilverSea and some smaller local cruise ships.

[suec12]

I tried Oceania one time because they offered my dream itinerary, Athens to Istanbul - I found that I really liked the size of the ship, open dining, and (for the most part) cuisine. The next fall we were booked on O again but then found almost the same itinerary on Azamara for hundreds! less (that was pre-Azamara Club). With the current pricing I think Az is still a tiny bit less, so its a bit of a toss-up - alot would depend on itinerary. But my overall impression leans to Azamara - I enjoyed my fellow guests more on Az, was very pleased with the wine offerings and even liked the food better as well. In the past I had sailed several of the main stream lines but none of the luxury brands. I am actually considering a Celebrity Carribean sail this winter but I'm afraid I will be wishing I was back on Azamara - but I will not despair, I have a trip booked with on the Journey for next Oct. Wishing you a pleasant sail thru the Panama Canal - report back when you return and give us your comparison.

[ikelmay]

We have sailed most of the bigger lines, Azamara is our first smaller line. We particularly like the size of the ships (you get to know fellow passengers and crew better), the fantastic staff who really do go above and beyond, and the general ambience.

 

The food and service is improving with every cruise and the inclusion of gratuitities and other amenities was a welcome step up.

 

We will continue to cruise with other lines as and when itineraries permit, but we will always check Azamara first as they are such a comfortable fit for us.

[3418ahl]

The best example I can give is when we were at guest relations asking where we could buy some bubble wrap on shore to wrap a souvenir. While we were talking to someone at the desk, who didn't know, the other desk person said, "excuse me madam, but I just called below and there will be 4 yards of bubble wrap awaiting you when you go to your cabin"!

 

The service and personnel are outstanding. The food is good, the ship small, and the itineraries port intensive.

 

When we were in Istanbul on Republic Day, the ship delayed departure for 4 hrs. so we could all view the fireworks!

[maryann ns]

Last year for our first cruise ever I chose Azamara partly by good luck and partly good research. The sale prices were great, they were going where I wanted and when I wanted. When I started reading reviews it seemed to be a good fit for us. It was even better than expected. We loved the small ship and the fantastic food, but most of all the amazing crew. The passengers were great too.

 

Now with the included wine it is an even better fit for us. I am counting the days!

[palamoh]

Silversea has always been a favorite of mine, last year because of the ship size, we choose the Journey for a 10 day Cruise. Loved it. Price difference between the two is significant. But the main reason is the Smoking Policy that Azamara has, My wife is extremly alergic to Cig smoke. Thus we have been converted to Azamara for now and for the future.:)

[alcpa1]

We are so fortunate to have sailed on The Journey. We have sailed for over 30 years and probably as many sailings from an inside cabin to a royal suite. We had sailed on five cruise lines prior to our Journey voyage in July.

Our first cruise will always be our favorite but the Journey cruise equaled the ambiance and fantastic crew of that first memorial cruise.

We are partial to Celebrity and wanted the refinement of their medium sized ships in a smaller configuration with the itinerary to match. Azamara was a wonderful choice.

We will sail Azamara again.

[hapicruisin]

We have had 10+ cruises on Celebrity M class ships over the past few years, though we have been more than happy with Celebrity we wanted to try a smaller ship and after reading up on what CC members had to say, Azamara seemed to be ideal for us. We sailed on Journey earlier this year and found it excellent and will be on Journey again early next year. We liked the small ship feel and the ease of getting around the ship. Staff, crew, passengers were very friendly and all were very much to our liking, as were the new amenities that we enjoyed, which came on stream shortly before our first Journey trip.

 

We still love Celebrity and will be very happy to cruise on any of their M class ships (or smaller) any time we find a price/itinerary that suits. But now we also love Azamara and, therefore, we have more cruising choice.

 

I must admit I am not particularly interested in trying the newer Celebrity ships - they seem too large for us. So it is really wonderful to have found Azamara as Silversea, Regent, Oceania etc cost more than we wish to pay. We now have more of a choice of ships and ports which is wonderful.:):)

[emel]

Reasons for cruising on Azamara?

Destinations, size of ship, SERVICE, FOOD, and AMBIANCE

So impressed we've booked another cruise for summer 2011

[lovecruzin]

We had sailed on Celebrity almost exclusively and wanted to try a smaller ship and a more upscale cruise experience. We still like Celebrity but we have our 3rd cruise on Journey booked for March, we keep coming back because of the service, ambience and lack of formal nights.