Considering Azamara with our friends...Help tell us why its a good choice

[Solstice23]

Hello Azamara Board...

 

My wife and I are thinking of doing the 8 night Azamara Caribbean Sailing next march 2012. As you can see from the list of our Cruise history we have sailed often as we can...we will both be age 34 then with friends amd family ranging from 32-54.

 

My question to you is what can we expect? On Celebrity we usually book Aqua Class or Sky suites and Concierge balconies. We wnjoy good service but not over the tope but friendly I guess you could say and interaction with Officers is also nice.

 

Thanks for any comments or advice you can give us

[Zouave]

Hello Azamara Board...

 

My wife and I are thinking of doing the 8 night Azamara Caribbean Sailing next march 2012. As you can see from the list of our Cruise history we have sailed often as we can...we will both be age 34 then with friends amd family ranging from 32-54.

 

My question to you is what can we expect? On Celebrity we usually book Aqua Class or Sky suites and Concierge balconies. We wnjoy good service but not over the tope but friendly I guess you could say and interaction with Officers is also nice.

 

Thanks for any comments or advice you can give us

 

We took our first Azamara cruise last July in the Med. After 10 pervious cruises (Winjammer, NCL, Celebrity, and Princess [we only sail small ships in the OS category]) I can honestly say Azamara has been the best.

 

Reasons:

 

(1) Service in concierge class was over the top. Our true butler, Ayup (from Turkey, always dressed in spotless formal vest and coat tails) was our personal Paspartu. He was everywhere doing anything we needed to include giving us a special invite to the Orient Club in Istanbul (we already booked before the cruise) on his business card that got us front row and a bottle of champaigne! Then he even came to the club around mignight to check on us and make sure we got back to the ship. Ayup would find us on the pool deck at afternoon tea time and would bring us and our passenger friends tea service right where we sat. Then during the outdoor barbeque dinner, Ayup, knowing my wife loved fresh fish, served and boned the catch of the day (the food service manager basically bought up the catch at the Santorini market that morning) with such skill that my wife was in tears thanking him. Although tips were included in our fare I gave him the largest tip I have bestowed.

 

 

(2) The ship is really cosy and you get to know alot of people. I still correspond with most of the folks we met. No Formal nights, and a demographic that is 40-50's for the most part.

 

(3) Food and beverage service is excellent. The speciality restruants will get you anything off of both menus. Most of all, complementary wine with lunch and dinner really sells this line. Our normal bar tab is heafty but this "no nickle and dime" action is really welcome.

 

(4) The "can do" attitude of the officers and staff is unique. I never had a request denied and was always greeted with a smile and "what can I get for you?" The true expression of this was on leaving the ship at the conclusion of the cruise - the CD and Hotel Manager waited at the dock to say good-by. Nice tuch.

 

We recently did a weighted decision matrix to decide on either Ocenia and Azmara for the same basic cruise. After weighing the costs (to include business air) Azmara was far better in price. We'll be sailing on Journey in August.

 

Zouave

[WesW]

Hooah Zouave +1 (well said and well analyzed) must have been an IG in your former life :)

[Zouave]

Hooah Zouave +1 (well said and well analyzed) must have been an IG in your former life :)

 

Roger that Wes - DAIG for five years.

 

What are you guys planning for cruises?

[WesW]

Will help translate for our Az CCr's IG is abbreviation for Inspector General, DAIG stands for Department of the Army Inspector General..Zouve and I were both privledged to serve our country as Soldiers.

 

We have our eyes on the Azamra Quest for 12 February 2013 (Rio to Miami, 18 nites) Bill Leiber, CBO, has some due diligence to perform to fill out the itinerary for us tho. For this year, 2011, we are booked on Seabourn's new ship, Quest (maiden crossing) this November 8-21 (we love (our 3rd in 4 yrs; Regent (2), Silversea (1) and now Seabourn) westerly crossings (ship being the destination) since we were both served over a decade in Europe (Germany, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia) thus we have seen most Med/baltic major cities.

[Jade13]

Will help translate for our Az CCr's IG is abbreviation for Inspector General, DAIG stands for Department of the Army Inspector General..Zouve and I were both privledged to serve our country as Soldiers.

 

We have our eyes on the Azamra Quest for 12 February 2013 (Rio to Miami, 18 nites) Bill Leiber, CBO, has some due diligence to perform to fill out the itinerary for us tho. For this year, 2011, we are booked on Seabourn's new ship, Quest (maiden crossing) this November 8-21 (we love (our 3rd in 4 yrs; Regent (2), Silversea (1) and now Seabourn) westerly crossings (ship being the destination) since we were both served over a decade in Europe (Germany, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia) thus we have seen most Med/baltic major cities.

 

I see no confirmation from Azamara that there is an 18 night cruise from Rio to Miami on Feb 12, 2013. If anything I thought it was posted that the deployments were still being worked on and nothing was set. I also thought Azamara was avoiding Miami, so it is still possible Quest will end it's South America season in 2013 somewhere else.

[Project_gal]

Our true butler, Ayup (from Turkey, always dressed in spotless formal vest and coat tails) was our personal Paspartu. He was everywhere doing anything we needed to include giving us a special invite to the Orient Club in Istanbul (we already booked before the cruise) on his business card that got us front row and a bottle of champaigne! Then he even came to the club around mignight to check on us and make sure we got back to the ship. Ayup would find us on the pool deck at afternoon tea time and would bring us and our passenger friends tea service right where we sat. Then during the outdoor barbeque dinner, Ayup, knowing my wife loved fresh fish, served and boned the catch of the day (the food service manager basically bought up the catch at the Santorini market that morning) with such skill that my wife was in tears thanking him. Although tips were included in our fare I gave him the largest tip I have bestowed.

 

Zouave

 

Zouave

 

Ayup was our butler when we were on Quest. He had been temporarily promoted to butler but was wonderful and we did so hope that he would get his wish to become butler permanently. We leave tomorrow for Quest again and it would be wonderful if he was our butler again.

 

Sue