Our Azamara vs Celebrity experience

[uktog]

I have also posted this on the Azamara board. Some background, we were due on Azamara Journey, but it was cancelled due to a propellor issue the day we were starting our trip out to Shanghai to join the ship. We would not automatically have chosen a Celebrity cruise at this time and not one to the Caribbean but we only had this tight window of opportunity. Within 24 hours we had the arrangements for the new cruise in place.

We enjoyed our two cruises, but I have to be honest, week one was spoilt by the large groups of drinkers. We are not entirely happy with the direction they are taking the line and will be cautious about booking a suite experience on Celebrity.

 

There are some lovely hardworking staff on board and Chandru, Gareth, Armish and Christophe did so much to make our experience positive. Maybe it's us, we do not now fit the head office target demographic.

 

Here is the review

 

Well, there was that massive lemon, the cancelled cruise, the temporary lemons, when we had issues persuading the cruiseline to allow a rebook before the compensation package was agreed and one or two Celebrity lemons but I am back to say, we did get a holiday and it was a cruise and we had a pretty good (cannot give it great) time.

 

I hope this post will also give a useful insight to those wondering about suite life on Celebrity vs a room on Azamara, particularly now Celebrity is relaunching its suite experience.

 

Our cruise was in fact two cruises back to back covering the Eastern and Western Caribbean. For our first week, we had a Royal Suite and the second a Celebrity suite. Because we were such late bookers, we did not get any perks, though on both both cruises the majority of other guests had free beverage packages. Late booking had other disadvantages, a lot of week one issues were defended with comments that of course we had not been expected and that was what the issue was. They were silly things and we were also very grateful for the help of the Guest Support Manager at Azamara UK who interacted with the ship to smooth things over. He has to leave the company very soon as part of the restructure, I do not believe we will get such support in the new operation and that remains a concern.

 

Our rooms both weeks were beautiful with fantastic showers, plenty space and generally better than we get on Azamara, however the service was sadly lacking during cruise one. We had a butler who I am sure would have been walking down the gangplank by Day two on Azamara. It was his way or no way, his command of English was very poor despite being the Head Butler and he kept making out he had done things for us when get had not (like bringing some champagne and roses) when they were in fact a gift from someone else. The cleaning of the room was also very poor. We were left no comment card by the team on week one, we wonder if this was deliberate as we had had to raise issues during the week - such a pity we knew the score and got a form direct from Guest Relations.

We changed room team week two when we changed rooms, and our Week two team would have been excellent fits on Azamara, it was a chalk and cheese experience. Our stateroom assistant sang all day long as he worked and when the two were in the room they both sang as they worked - such a positive impression!

 

Food was good, but not the same attention to detail in presentation or seasoning you see on Azamara. Service was very spotty, there were great wait staff and bar staff and there were some shockers. Numbers have been cut back so the staff are at times seriously overworked and that shows in their automaton type guest engagement and generally far fewer smiles. It was the silly things, not remembering orders or addressing you by name, hunting for tables that had been cleared whilst staff just watched not clearing space for you and no carrying of plates back for you that left you feeling very much part of a mass market crowd, even though the cost of the b2b cruises and our original Azamara booking were very similar.

 

There are no evening buffets on the scale offered by Azamara, however the speciality restaurants were better, albeit if you are paying, much more expensive although there are discounts to be had and of course from next year they will be free for suite guests (it was one visit per seven nights that was free at present).

 

One real disappointment was the ice cream, it was just supermarket quality and very standard offerings in terms of flavour, not the special tastes of Azamara - as Captains Club members we had some free scoops of the pay for ice cream at the Gelaterie and this was only marginally better than the buffet ice cream and again miles off the Azamara ice cream.

 

A lot of the issues stemmed from poor supervision and poor training and a general "clumsiness" with how to handle guests. In all sections we just did not see team cohesion as we see on Azamara and individuals often pushing themselves forward at the expense of their colleagues, especially in the run up to the end of the cruise, no doubt hoping for tips or being named on comment cards. One example of clumsiness, on night 3, we had to send back two entrees that were cold, it was rectified as you would expect. On Azamara, when this has happened, the maître d has checked next night all is well, but on future nights when he/she speaks with us, the conversation has moved on. In Blu on Celebrity for the next ten days we had the maître d every night as we walked into the restaurant saying loudly "nice and hot food tonight". We actually asked him, could we just drop the fact there was an issue on night 3 but he did not get it and kept on at it, carrying on every night when the waiter brought food to our table and he was near us. Again I felt this maître d was well short of Azamara quality although the delightful hostess Anita (so lovely to see her promoted, we met her last year as an Assistant waitress on Solstice) was excellent and to our eyes ran that restaurant whilst the Maître d just wandered around aimlessly, very rarely giving his team a hand.

 

We realised how important the ambience of Azamara matters to us now. The areas where this hit us most were

The "entertainment" - whilst we loved the shows and guest entertainers, the resident groups were not great and worst of all, it's not a Max experience when sipping a martini, it is a loud electronic rapp trio that comprises two drummers and someone manipulating a computer called Miami DJs - if they are on a ship near you, pack earplugs! You also have loud loud pool games and music complete with a hyperactive member of the Activities Staff on a microphone booming out commentaries even on the Lawn based games (incidentally the lawn is in a really poor state, no putting, it's mostly fenced off as they try and repair it).

The up selling pressure - it is all over the ship, at times very hard not to walk from A to B without an approach. I know there is upsell on Azamara but there when the guest declines that is graciously accepted. On Celebrity, dialogue continues in a way that leaves you feeling your views do not matter or you are somehow ignorant about the benefits of the product offering. Celebrity do offer guests a 2 hour event each night where complimentary drinks are served, it is very nice but is now a "hawking event". Every night the little man from Qsine approached us with his iPad, same starting line asking us to look at the offerings - every night we said we did not plan to visit Qsine, next night back he comes..... maybe we look very different each night but as there was only about 20-30 people at these drinks each night, the art of remembering guests was missing.

The passenger mix - tricky one, with x4 guests it's going to be difficult but whereas included drinks on Azamara has brought no issues in our experiences, free beverage packages promotions have changed Celebrity for the worse. We had guests so drunk they were throwing up at the Martini Bar, a large group, identified by group t shirts highlighting their purpose on the cruise was to drink taking over the sunset bar and playing loud drinking games on sea days, a large group taking over the Molecular Bar all, regardless of gender, wearing red frocks and pushing and rudeness in elevators the likes of which you just do not see on Azamara. These were not young people, age group 40-55 seemed worst.

 

A lot is made about the officer interaction on Azamara. I have to say we did have a lot of interaction I believe because we were in a RS and then as top cruisers. For other guests there was interaction, it was more structured and formal, they had meet the officers hours some evening, and I would suspect it was much less personal than how you see it on Azamara. The Captain is outgoing and was more visible than many we have had on Celebrity.

 

One area Celebrity is getting it right, certainly on Silhouette, is they have split the concierge role - you have a concierge based within Guest Relations, in our case Gareth who is high class professional "Azamara" material and Amrish who is a destination concierge customising a menu of shore excursions for small groups of guests. These are small number events and are not offered on the main shorex menu. The pricing is very fair. We had two great trips out organised by Amrish, the highlight in St Kitts was a day at a restored plantation house, a personalised Caribbean cookery demo and lunch based on what Janis cooked and use of the house pool in the afternoon. He would have taken up to 12 guests on the trip, in the end only 4 went, so it cost a little more but at under $300 for two for a whole day out and memories of a really special trip. When I look at what some of the standard shore excursions on Azamara cost in this region, I hope they too can adopt this Destination Concierge concept - which is just being rolled out on Celebrity, this was the one area Celebrity is currently doing much better than Azamara on. This comment is based only on these specialised trips, we did no standard trips so cannot comment there.

 

So our conclusions - of course we will sail again later this year on Celebrity as they are going to New England and this is not offered by Azamara. It is not a bad experience, it is a very different experience. I think Celebrity's new suite offering is going to struggle unless they can achieve consistency of service across all areas of the ship and I see a conflict between how they operate onboard ship for the mass market (hawking products, loud music, a party drinking culture) and what suite guests will want - unless they stay in their suites and their dedicated lounge.

 

Our heart is still with Azamara, but we are so thankful we can cruise and that in the situation we found ourselves in on 26 Feb, we could make some lemonade with the lemons that landed in our laps, albeit not top shelf quality lemonade.

[Lastdance]

You did say, I believe, you sailed the Caribbean and not Europe. Also that you were on a tight schedule - Spring Break with drink packages all over the ship...that might be one issue. You add Spring Break, free drink packages, along with sailing the Caribbean and that adds up to some of your complaints. finally throw in a newbie package for some suites and that's what you get. I understand what you are saying, and am glad that some of your experiences were good.

Edited March 17, 2014 by Lastdance

[warmwinds]

Thanks for your insights.

 

I think many of the things you mention are just a function of Celebrity being larger and more mainstream, Azamara being smaller and more boutique. You often mention that some things were not of a very high standard (for example the ice cream) based on your price paid to be in a suite, but remember the great percentage of the passengers on board are not in suites, paid a fraction of what you did, and are happy with any kind of ice cream (this is just one example).

 

However, one thing that jumped out at me was the fact that every night in Blu they would make a big deal about the cold food incident - that would bother me...a lot. We try to fly under the radar and for them to keep embarrassing you in that way would have been very bad for me. I'm sure he thought it was a "joke" but it sounds like it got taken too far.

[uktog]

I should have said the ice cream was also not as good and the range more limited than we had on Infinity in June. I would agree with posters on the other threads, the cutbacks are very evident

[Freckles49]

Oh dear! As a fan of your previous considered reviews I am now v worried over our first sailing with Celebrity Millenium in November. We are fairly new to cruising, having sailed 3 times with Azamara. We thought it time for a change and as part of the same fleet we hoped Celebrity would fit the bill.

We were advised to book an Aqua class cabin which we have done but I have since read that on deck 9 many balconies have either an overhang or no sun.

We dont have the drinks package and with research which I should have done previously, drinks seem very expensive.

For us the best part of the cruise, and I had hoped it would be the same on Celebrity, was the service, interaction between officers and clientele and general happy atmosphere.

Thank you for taking the time to write this.

[uktog]

Freckles

You are correct on Millennium Deck 9 there is quite an overhang

Blu should give you a dining experience more aligned to Azamara as it is quieter and the guests in there were generally very pleasant. The louder groups were often seen with pizza and burgers and from what I gather did not dine in theMDR except on formal night when, and I do not want to start a dress code thread I have to say anything went - shorts, flipflops, caps the lot(though never in Blu)

 

Lastdance

I should have been clearer, we were comparing suite prices with suite prices albeit on Azamara we would only have been in a sky suite equivalent.

 

I think the Caribbean contributed to some of the issues but not all, there is a change in direction and "standards" on Celebrity. The Hotel Director had just changed, maybe that contributed to the overall issues the first week, he was certainly very visible after a few days and very approachable.

[Project_gal]

I think the Caribbean contributed to some of the issues but not all, there is a change in direction and "standards" on Celebrity. The Hotel Director had just changed, maybe that contributed to the overall issues the first week, he was certainly very visible after a few days and very approachable.

 

As others have said, I find that your posts add much needed sanity to these boards however, in this case, I am not sure that you have given sufficient weight to the type of cruise you were on. Having recently completed a 15-night transatlantic B2B with a 5-night Caribbean on the same ship [Constellation] and virtually the same crew, there could not have been a greater contrast between our two experiences.

 

I accept that it is likely that there is huge difference between the ambiance and service on a 7-night Azamara and 7-night Celebrity cruise especially if the Celebrity cruise is in the Caribbean and the Azamara one almost anywhere else in the world. However, having experienced large groups on Azamara, if there was to be a large group on one of my cruises, I would much prefer to be on a Celebrity ship than an Azamara one. In my view, the small ships are less able to absorb large groups.

 

As for guests abusing the drinks packages, we experienced the same problem with certain types of guests and the Azamara "free pours" but, again, with less opportunity of avoiding them.

 

Our own personal experiences on a cruise will always colour our future attitudes. Although my husband does not feel as strongly, I am extremely unlikely to choose an Azamara cruise again. We are both looking forward to the introduction of the new Celebrity Suite Class.

 

Despite what I have said, thank you for your review as it has been a great help in deciding what we are likely to book next. We want 12 to 14 nights in the Caribbean in Spring 2016. I was wondering if we should consider two 7-nights cruises B2B hoping that a 7-night would be better than a 5-night cruise. I think that has now dropped of our list of options.

[uktog]

I think my main point re the suite experience is the need for consistency, the destination had no impact in many of the issues such as the incompetent butler and the cleanliness of our room in our first week.

If that was the standard I would experience on the suite experience in the future, I would be very very unhappy.

Having had several Azamara cruises since drink was included I have not seen behaviour on the scale I saw onboard last week. I see another review has also reported the issue in a really good comparison between Celebrity and RCI where the two cruises were effectively back to back.

Even allowing the size of Celebrity, it was very hard to find a place to have a drink that did not either have a large group of drinkers or loud music.

Edited March 18, 2014 by uktog

[upwarduk]

Despite what I have said, thank you for your review as it has been a great help in deciding what we are likely to book next. We want 12 to 14 nights in the Caribbean in Spring 2016. I was wondering if we should consider two 7-nights cruises B2B hoping that a 7-night would be better than a 5-night cruise. I think that has now dropped of our list of options.

 

Project Gal,

We have mainly taken 14-16 night cruises. We have never seen the 'party' atmosphere, as described above.

 

UK Tog.

I hope you have a very different experience on the Summit, Canada / New England cruise.

[Stateroom_Sailor]

This is comparing a luxury line to a premium line, of course it's going to seem downgraded. Comparing Crystal Cruise Line for instance, would be more lateral.

 

You will probably enjoy New England more if you think of in terms of value. Hampton Inn for $80 vs Hyatt for $140 might both be good deals, the same for eating at the Macaroni Grill vs Lawry's.

[Redtravel]

I was hesitant to sail Celebrity again after Azamara. My first Azamara cruise was in 2009. I never thought I could be happy on Celebrity again. Wrong. I enjoy Celebrity. Love the S class ships. M class is good too. Azamara has better food, excellent service, and very friendly staff. Azamara costs a lot more than Celebrity...and is worth it. Celebrity is also very good. You get more personalized service on Azamara. Ship is smaller. Less crowded. Celebrity does have larger ships. More crowded. However, I like both Celebrity and Azamara. Celebrity has more ships and thus sails to more places. Azamara is limited to 2 small ships. They keep trying to change their sailings to go to new ports. I sail on both lines. Prefer Azamara in Europe and Celebrity in the Carribbean.

[cruzsnooze]

You are comparing a mass market line with 3000 + passengers to an upscale line with 600 passengers. Azamara runs $300 pp per day for an outside cabin VS $100 for the same category on Celebrity. I was bored with the lack of entertainment on Azamara when I sailed on her to Asia. One thing Azamara had that Celebrity could copy would be their sorbet bar. They had flavors so true to the fruit it was fabulous.

[Project_gal]

I was hesitant to sail Celebrity again after Azamara. My first Azamara cruise was in 2009. I never thought I could be happy on Celebrity again. Wrong. I enjoy Celebrity. Love the S class ships. M class is good too. Azamara has better food, excellent service, and very friendly staff. Azamara costs a lot more than Celebrity...and is worth it. Celebrity is also very good. You get more personalized service on Azamara. Ship is smaller. Less crowded. Celebrity does have larger ships. More crowded. However, I like both Celebrity and Azamara. Celebrity has more ships and thus sails to more places. Azamara is limited to 2 small ships. They keep trying to change their sailings to go to new ports. I sail on both lines. Prefer Azamara in Europe and Celebrity in the Carribbean.

 

Our first Azmara cruise was in 2009 and was wonderful. Personally, we did not like Azamara nearly so much after their rebranding to Azamara Club Cruises. [This was nothing to do with the additional cost because we booked prior to the changes being announced and so got the new product at the old price.]

 

We are perhaps atypical or extremely unlucky but, with just one exception, we have received a much more personal service on Celebrity than our 2011 Azamara cruise. And, as I said previously, we definitely found Azamara the second time around far more crowded than on any of our Celebrity cruises. We do not like the MDR on Celebrity but, then, we have only eaten in the Azamara MDR once. On our second Azamara cruise, the specialty restaurants were as crowded as the MDR. On Constellation, on our last cruise, they were breaking all records in Ocean Liners with up to 100 covers per evening. Despite this, Ocean Liners never seems crowded and the service did not slip.

 

I have to admit that, although we like to visit new places, we would never choose a cruise if we wanted to really explore somewhere and, therefore, the high frequencies of overnight stops by Azamara are also less to our liking.

 

Luckily, different people like different products. Each to their own.

[miched]

I have 3 cruises booked on X. After reading this I am thinking of canceling

 

 

 

🍸🍹🍷🍺🇺🇸⚓️

[miched]

I am thinking of canceling the one booked on the Azamara, and adding another Celebrity. Don't think that I would fit in with the Azamara crowd.

 

 

 

 

 

🍸🍹🍷🍺🇺🇸⚓️

[BosoxI]

You are comparing a mass market line with 3000 + passengers to an upscale line with 600 passengers. Azamara runs $300 pp per day for an outside cabin VS $100 for the same category on Celebrity. I was bored with the lack of entertainment on Azamara when I sailed on her to Asia. One thing Azamara had that Celebrity could copy would be their sorbet bar. They had flavors so true to the fruit it was fabulous.

 

But, obviously, sorbet, however good, does not justify a $200 difference in cost . :D What about the differences in clientele, if any.

[alreadypacked]

I have also posted this on the Azamara board. Some background, we were due on Azamara Journey, but it was cancelled due to a propellor issue the day we were starting our trip out to Shanghai to join the ship. We would not automatically have chosen a Celebrity cruise at this time and not one to the Caribbean but we only had this tight window of opportunity. Within 24 hours we had the arrangements for the new cruise in place.

We enjoyed our two cruises, but I have to be honest, week one was spoilt by the large groups of drinkers. We are not entirely happy with the direction they are taking the line and will be cautious about booking a suite experience on Celebrity.

 

There are some lovely hardworking staff on board and Chandru, Gareth, Armish and Christophe did so much to make our experience positive. Maybe it's us, we do not now fit the head office target demographic.

 

Here is the review

 

Well, there was that massive lemon, the cancelled cruise, the temporary lemons, when we had issues persuading the cruiseline to allow a rebook before the compensation package was agreed and one or two Celebrity lemons but I am back to say, we did get a holiday and it was a cruise and we had a pretty good (cannot give it great) time.

 

I hope this post will also give a useful insight to those wondering about suite life on Celebrity vs a room on Azamara, particularly now Celebrity is relaunching its suite experience.

 

Our cruise was in fact two cruises back to back covering the Eastern and Western Caribbean. For our first week, we had a Royal Suite and the second a Celebrity suite. Because we were such late bookers, we did not get any perks, though on both both cruises the majority of other guests had free beverage packages. Late booking had other disadvantages, a lot of week one issues were defended with comments that of course we had not been expected and that was what the issue was. They were silly things and we were also very grateful for the help of the Guest Support Manager at Azamara UK who interacted with the ship to smooth things over. He has to leave the company very soon as part of the restructure, I do not believe we will get such support in the new operation and that remains a concern.

 

Our rooms both weeks were beautiful with fantastic showers, plenty space and generally better than we get on Azamara, however the service was sadly lacking during cruise one. We had a butler who I am sure would have been walking down the gangplank by Day two on Azamara. It was his way or no way, his command of English was very poor despite being the Head Butler and he kept making out he had done things for us when get had not (like bringing some champagne and roses) when they were in fact a gift from someone else. The cleaning of the room was also very poor. We were left no comment card by the team on week one, we wonder if this was deliberate as we had had to raise issues during the week - such a pity we knew the score and got a form direct from Guest Relations.

We changed room team week two when we changed rooms, and our Week two team would have been excellent fits on Azamara, it was a chalk and cheese experience. Our stateroom assistant sang all day long as he worked and when the two were in the room they both sang as they worked - such a positive impression!

 

Food was good, but not the same attention to detail in presentation or seasoning you see on Azamara. Service was very spotty, there were great wait staff and bar staff and there were some shockers. Numbers have been cut back so the staff are at times seriously overworked and that shows in their automaton type guest engagement and generally far fewer smiles. It was the silly things, not remembering orders or addressing you by name, hunting for tables that had been cleared whilst staff just watched not clearing space for you and no carrying of plates back for you that left you feeling very much part of a mass market crowd, even though the cost of the b2b cruises and our original Azamara booking were very similar.

 

There are no evening buffets on the scale offered by Azamara, however the speciality restaurants were better, albeit if you are paying, much more expensive although there are discounts to be had and of course from next year they will be free for suite guests (it was one visit per seven nights that was free at present).

 

One real disappointment was the ice cream, it was just supermarket quality and very standard offerings in terms of flavour, not the special tastes of Azamara - as Captains Club members we had some free scoops of the pay for ice cream at the Gelaterie and this was only marginally better than the buffet ice cream and again miles off the Azamara ice cream.

 

A lot of the issues stemmed from poor supervision and poor training and a general "clumsiness" with how to handle guests. In all sections we just did not see team cohesion as we see on Azamara and individuals often pushing themselves forward at the expense of their colleagues, especially in the run up to the end of the cruise, no doubt hoping for tips or being named on comment cards. One example of clumsiness, on night 3, we had to send back two entrees that were cold, it was rectified as you would expect. On Azamara, when this has happened, the maître d has checked next night all is well, but on future nights when he/she speaks with us, the conversation has moved on. In Blu on Celebrity for the next ten days we had the maître d every night as we walked into the restaurant saying loudly "nice and hot food tonight". We actually asked him, could we just drop the fact there was an issue on night 3 but he did not get it and kept on at it, carrying on every night when the waiter brought food to our table and he was near us. Again I felt this maître d was well short of Azamara quality although the delightful hostess Anita (so lovely to see her promoted, we met her last year as an Assistant waitress on Solstice) was excellent and to our eyes ran that restaurant whilst the Maître d just wandered around aimlessly, very rarely giving his team a hand.

 

We realised how important the ambience of Azamara matters to us now. The areas where this hit us most were

The "entertainment" - whilst we loved the shows and guest entertainers, the resident groups were not great and worst of all, it's not a Max experience when sipping a martini, it is a loud electronic rapp trio that comprises two drummers and someone manipulating a computer called Miami DJs - if they are on a ship near you, pack earplugs! You also have loud loud pool games and music complete with a hyperactive member of the Activities Staff on a microphone booming out commentaries even on the Lawn based games (incidentally the lawn is in a really poor state, no putting, it's mostly fenced off as they try and repair it).

The up selling pressure - it is all over the ship, at times very hard not to walk from A to B without an approach. I know there is upsell on Azamara but there when the guest declines that is graciously accepted. On Celebrity, dialogue continues in a way that leaves you feeling your views do not matter or you are somehow ignorant about the benefits of the product offering. Celebrity do offer guests a 2 hour event each night where complimentary drinks are served, it is very nice but is now a "hawking event". Every night the little man from Qsine approached us with his iPad, same starting line asking us to look at the offerings - every night we said we did not plan to visit Qsine, next night back he comes..... maybe we look very different each night but as there was only about 20-30 people at these drinks each night, the art of remembering guests was missing.

The passenger mix - tricky one, with x4 guests it's going to be difficult but whereas included drinks on Azamara has brought no issues in our experiences, free beverage packages promotions have changed Celebrity for the worse. We had guests so drunk they were throwing up at the Martini Bar, a large group, identified by group t shirts highlighting their purpose on the cruise was to drink taking over the sunset bar and playing loud drinking games on sea days, a large group taking over the Molecular Bar all, regardless of gender, wearing red frocks and pushing and rudeness in elevators the likes of which you just do not see on Azamara. These were not young people, age group 40-55 seemed worst.

 

A lot is made about the officer interaction on Azamara. I have to say we did have a lot of interaction I believe because we were in a RS and then as top cruisers. For other guests there was interaction, it was more structured and formal, they had meet the officers hours some evening, and I would suspect it was much less personal than how you see it on Azamara. The Captain is outgoing and was more visible than many we have had on Celebrity.

 

One area Celebrity is getting it right, certainly on Silhouette, is they have split the concierge role - you have a concierge based within Guest Relations, in our case Gareth who is high class professional "Azamara" material and Amrish who is a destination concierge customising a menu of shore excursions for small groups of guests. These are small number events and are not offered on the main shorex menu. The pricing is very fair. We had two great trips out organised by Amrish, the highlight in St Kitts was a day at a restored plantation house, a personalised Caribbean cookery demo and lunch based on what Janis cooked and use of the house pool in the afternoon. He would have taken up to 12 guests on the trip, in the end only 4 went, so it cost a little more but at under $300 for two for a whole day out and memories of a really special trip. When I look at what some of the standard shore excursions on Azamara cost in this region, I hope they too can adopt this Destination Concierge concept - which is just being rolled out on Celebrity, this was the one area Celebrity is currently doing much better than Azamara on. This comment is based only on these specialised trips, we did no standard trips so cannot comment there.

 

So our conclusions - of course we will sail again later this year on Celebrity as they are going to New England and this is not offered by Azamara. It is not a bad experience, it is a very different experience. I think Celebrity's new suite offering is going to struggle unless they can achieve consistency of service across all areas of the ship and I see a conflict between how they operate onboard ship for the mass market (hawking products, loud music, a party drinking culture) and what suite guests will want - unless they stay in their suites and their dedicated lounge.

 

Our heart is still with Azamara, but we are so thankful we can cruise and that in the situation we found ourselves in on 26 Feb, we could make some lemonade with the lemons that landed in our laps, albeit not top shelf quality lemonade.

 

Could you please be more specific as to what was poor regarding the cleaning of your room during Week One (e.g. bathroom not sufficiently cleaned, carpet not vacuumed etc.)?

 

Also you state that your Week-Two stateroom attendants would have been "excellent fits" for Azamara as they "sang all day" while they worked apparently giving "such a positive impression". Unfortunately, these descriptions shed no light as to how their cleaning performance exceeded the Week-One stateroom team's maintenance of your room.

 

Could you please be more specific as to how the Week-Two stateroom team took care of/cleaned your room better than the Week One team?

[uktog]

During week one we started to notice surfaces were not being wiped and unlike on previous trips the balcony was not being swept. This continued and as a specific example, we had strawberries in the room on Day 3. I accidentally left a stalk on the table and my husband realised on Day 4 he had "missed the bin" when throwing one of his stalks (this was after the room had been "cleaned")

We left both stalks as an experiment and they remained in situ to the end of the cruise.

 

On several occasions, bins were not emptied.

 

The surface around the sink was not wiped as items were not moved and small eyeshadow spills remained and the day we were at the beach, sand remained on the bathroom floor until we asked for it to be swept.

 

The stateroom attendant/ assistant were non communicative, they did not even respond to a "good morning" and would leave you to find your key card to open the door when they were standing nearby.

 

My comment about the singing is an indirect link to how one team seem engaged and proud to be working (and week 2, the taps shine, the balcony was clean, it was clear from the positioning of items that surfaces were wiped, we had our good mornings returned with conversations or a song and on the one time we did meet in the corridor, the door was opened).

 

I had not wanted my original post to run on so did not give all the specifics, but yes we did raise the issues onboard and more importantly, during week two we gave positive feedback to the Chief Housekeeper about our new team. We know he acted on it, because next morning our assistant said "thank you for the kind comments you gave my manager about me yesterday"

[uktog]

You are comparing a mass market line with 3000 + passengers to an upscale line with 600 passengers. Azamara runs $300 pp per day for an outside cabin VS $100 for the same category on Celebrity.

 

But the point I made in my post the pp per day on the cruises we took vs the Azamara cruise we had booked were virtually the same. It may differ in some categories but at suite level there is not a great difference, so our expectations are there needs to be greater comparability in the product.

 

Looking at this purely from a suite perspective

* Celebrity wins hands down in terms of room finishing and bathroom

* Azamara butlers are far better trained and more perceptive as to what a guest does or does not want

* Currently suite guests on Azamara have unlimited speciality restaurant access, Celebrity guests have one or two visits included. Whilst this changes next year, so does the per dime cost based on my initial review of the 2015brochure

* Azamara suites have access to a private sunbathing area, Celebrity do not

[chamima]

I should have said the ice cream was also not as good and the range more limited than we had on Infinity in June. I would agree with posters on the other threads, the cutbacks are very evident

 

 

 

We were on the Solstice with you last year and have recently sailed on the Eclipse (14 days).

We noticed the same cut backs as you.

There seem to be less crew in each area, leaving the people that are left to work stressed.

So disappointing!:(

 

 

Have to comment on Anita - we LOVED her on the Solstice . We knew she was being groomed for a better position, so nice to hear that she's the assistant manager in Blu. I'm sure she'll be Maitre D' soon.

We would so love to see her again!

Edited March 19, 2014 by chamima

[uktog]

 

Have to comment on Anita - we LOVED her on the Solstice . We knew she was being groomed for a better position, so nice to hear that she's the assistant manager in Blu. I'm sure she'll be Maitre D' soon.

We would so love to see her again!

 

Were you sneaking a look at our comment card then? ;). We suggested that next promotion was due

 

Anita held Blu together IMHO. She was unwell two nights and oh dear did the wheels come off the operation these nights! The maître d really was clueless and his team just ignored him but it was clear they all respected and took guidance and direction from Anita

Edited March 19, 2014 by uktog

[Redtravel]

I sailed on the Eclipse in January. Booked same cruise again for next January. It was excellent. I also have a cruise booked on the Journey this summer. I like both types of cruises. I do not think of it as an either or situation. I book on both lines depending upon destination, time restraints, and transportation getting to/from the cruise.

[Gordoncruickshank]

I have also posted this on the Azamara board. Some background, we were due on Azamara Journey, but it was cancelled due to a propellor issue the day we were starting our trip out to Shanghai to join the ship. We would not automatically have chosen a Celebrity cruise at this time and not one to the Caribbean but we only had this tight window of opportunity. Within 24 hours we had the arrangements for the new cruise in place.

 

We enjoyed our two cruises, but I have to be honest, week one was spoilt by the large groups of drinkers. We are not entirely happy with the direction they are taking the line and will be cautious about booking a suite experience on Celebrity.

 

 

 

There are some lovely hardworking staff on board and Chandru, Gareth, Armish and Christophe did so much to make our experience positive. Maybe it's us, we do not now fit the head office target demographic.

 

 

 

Here is the review

 

 

 

Well, there was that massive lemon, the cancelled cruise, the temporary lemons, when we had issues persuading the cruiseline to allow a rebook before the compensation package was agreed and one or two Celebrity lemons but I am back to say, we did get a holiday and it was a cruise and we had a pretty good (cannot give it great) time.

 

 

 

I hope this post will also give a useful insight to those wondering about suite life on Celebrity vs a room on Azamara, particularly now Celebrity is relaunching its suite experience.

 

 

 

Our cruise was in fact two cruises back to back covering the Eastern and Western Caribbean. For our first week, we had a Royal Suite and the second a Celebrity suite. Because we were such late bookers, we did not get any perks, though on both both cruises the majority of other guests had free beverage packages. Late booking had other disadvantages, a lot of week one issues were defended with comments that of course we had not been expected and that was what the issue was. They were silly things and we were also very grateful for the help of the Guest Support Manager at Azamara UK who interacted with the ship to smooth things over. He has to leave the company very soon as part of the restructure, I do not believe we will get such support in the new operation and that remains a concern.

 

 

 

Our rooms both weeks were beautiful with fantastic showers, plenty space and generally better than we get on Azamara, however the service was sadly lacking during cruise one. We had a butler who I am sure would have been walking down the gangplank by Day two on Azamara. It was his way or no way, his command of English was very poor despite being the Head Butler and he kept making out he had done things for us when get had not (like bringing some champagne and roses) when they were in fact a gift from someone else. The cleaning of the room was also very poor. We were left no comment card by the team on week one, we wonder if this was deliberate as we had had to raise issues during the week - such a pity we knew the score and got a form direct from Guest Relations.

 

We changed room team week two when we changed rooms, and our Week two team would have been excellent fits on Azamara, it was a chalk and cheese experience. Our stateroom assistant sang all day long as he worked and when the two were in the room they both sang as they worked - such a positive impression!

 

 

 

Food was good, but not the same attention to detail in presentation or seasoning you see on Azamara. Service was very spotty, there were great wait staff and bar staff and there were some shockers. Numbers have been cut back so the staff are at times seriously overworked and that shows in their automaton type guest engagement and generally far fewer smiles. It was the silly things, not remembering orders or addressing you by name, hunting for tables that had been cleared whilst staff just watched not clearing space for you and no carrying of plates back for you that left you feeling very much part of a mass market crowd, even though the cost of the b2b cruises and our original Azamara booking were very similar.

 

 

 

There are no evening buffets on the scale offered by Azamara, however the speciality restaurants were better, albeit if you are paying, much more expensive although there are discounts to be had and of course from next year they will be free for suite guests (it was one visit per seven nights that was free at present).

 

 

 

One real disappointment was the ice cream, it was just supermarket quality and very standard offerings in terms of flavour, not the special tastes of Azamara - as Captains Club members we had some free scoops of the pay for ice cream at the Gelaterie and this was only marginally better than the buffet ice cream and again miles off the Azamara ice cream.

 

 

 

A lot of the issues stemmed from poor supervision and poor training and a general "clumsiness" with how to handle guests. In all sections we just did not see team cohesion as we see on Azamara and individuals often pushing themselves forward at the expense of their colleagues, especially in the run up to the end of the cruise, no doubt hoping for tips or being named on comment cards. One example of clumsiness, on night 3, we had to send back two entrees that were cold, it was rectified as you would expect. On Azamara, when this has happened, the maître d has checked next night all is well, but on future nights when he/she speaks with us, the conversation has moved on. In Blu on Celebrity for the next ten days we had the maître d every night as we walked into the restaurant saying loudly "nice and hot food tonight". We actually asked him, could we just drop the fact there was an issue on night 3 but he did not get it and kept on at it, carrying on every night when the waiter brought food to our table and he was near us. Again I felt this maître d was well short of Azamara quality although the delightful hostess Anita (so lovely to see her promoted, we met her last year as an Assistant waitress on Solstice) was excellent and to our eyes ran that restaurant whilst the Maître d just wandered around aimlessly, very rarely giving his team a hand.

 

 

 

We realised how important the ambience of Azamara matters to us now. The areas where this hit us most were

 

The "entertainment" - whilst we loved the shows and guest entertainers, the resident groups were not great and worst of all, it's not a Max experience when sipping a martini, it is a loud electronic rapp trio that comprises two drummers and someone manipulating a computer called Miami DJs - if they are on a ship near you, pack earplugs! You also have loud loud pool games and music complete with a hyperactive member of the Activities Staff on a microphone booming out commentaries even on the Lawn based games (incidentally the lawn is in a really poor state, no putting, it's mostly fenced off as they try and repair it).

 

The up selling pressure - it is all over the ship, at times very hard not to walk from A to B without an approach. I know there is upsell on Azamara but there when the guest declines that is graciously accepted. On Celebrity, dialogue continues in a way that leaves you feeling your views do not matter or you are somehow ignorant about the benefits of the product offering. Celebrity do offer guests a 2 hour event each night where complimentary drinks are served, it is very nice but is now a "hawking event". Every night the little man from Qsine approached us with his iPad, same starting line asking us to look at the offerings - every night we said we did not plan to visit Qsine, next night back he comes..... maybe we look very different each night but as there was only about 20-30 people at these drinks each night, the art of remembering guests was missing.

 

The passenger mix - tricky one, with x4 guests it's going to be difficult but whereas included drinks on Azamara has brought no issues in our experiences, free beverage packages promotions have changed Celebrity for the worse. We had guests so drunk they were throwing up at the Martini Bar, a large group, identified by group t shirts highlighting their purpose on the cruise was to drink taking over the sunset bar and playing loud drinking games on sea days, a large group taking over the Molecular Bar all, regardless of gender, wearing red frocks and pushing and rudeness in elevators the likes of which you just do not see on Azamara. These were not young people, age group 40-55 seemed worst.

 

 

 

A lot is made about the officer interaction on Azamara. I have to say we did have a lot of interaction I believe because we were in a RS and then as top cruisers. For other guests there was interaction, it was more structured and formal, they had meet the officers hours some evening, and I would suspect it was much less personal than how you see it on Azamara. The Captain is outgoing and was more visible than many we have had on Celebrity.

 

 

 

One area Celebrity is getting it right, certainly on Silhouette, is they have split the concierge role - you have a concierge based within Guest Relations, in our case Gareth who is high class professional "Azamara" material and Amrish who is a destination concierge customising a menu of shore excursions for small groups of guests. These are small number events and are not offered on the main shorex menu. The pricing is very fair. We had two great trips out organised by Amrish, the highlight in St Kitts was a day at a restored plantation house, a personalised Caribbean cookery demo and lunch based on what Janis cooked and use of the house pool in the afternoon. He would have taken up to 12 guests on the trip, in the end only 4 went, so it cost a little more but at under $300 for two for a whole day out and memories of a really special trip. When I look at what some of the standard shore excursions on Azamara cost in this region, I hope they too can adopt this Destination Concierge concept - which is just being rolled out on Celebrity, this was the one area Celebrity is currently doing much better than Azamara on. This comment is based only on these specialised trips, we did no standard trips so cannot comment there.

 

 

 

So our conclusions - of course we will sail again later this year on Celebrity as they are going to New England and this is not offered by Azamara. It is not a bad experience, it is a very different experience. I think Celebrity's new suite offering is going to struggle unless they can achieve consistency of service across all areas of the ship and I see a conflict between how they operate onboard ship for the mass market (hawking products, loud music, a party drinking culture) and what suite guests will want - unless they stay in their suites and their dedicated lounge.

 

 

 

Our heart is still with , but we are so thankful we can cruise and that in the situation we found ourselves in on 26 Feb, we could make some lemonade with the lemons that landed in our laps, albeit not top shelf quality lemonade.

 

 

I take it that you were on the Silhouette. We have just returned from 2 cruises, firstly on the Eclipse, and then on the Western Caribbean on Silhouette and we found that the Silhouette had a totally different feel to the Eclipse.

 

The company seemed much younger which we put down to it being a Canadian school week and also tied up with the US spring break. The Eclipse had the same feeling that it has had on our previous trips but the Silhouette felt different.

 

We didn't find any issue with the maître in Blu - Fernando who worked hard alongside Anita all week clearing tables and getting stuck in with the rest of the staff

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[gkbiiii]

For the money involved, why not skip Azamara and go with Crystal. I was looking at my (now booked) Dec 2015 Crystal Serenity Transatlantic crossing, and for the money, Crystal was a much better buy. I have looked at both Azamara & Oceania and they both look overpriced compared with Crystal, Cunard, or Seabourn.

 

 

Perhaps, we are in a time, when Luxury lines are the best deal (truly all inclusive) than premium/mainstream lines?

[uktog]

We didn't find any issue with the maître in Blu - Fernando who worked hard alongside Anita all week clearing tables and getting stuck in

 

Ah you were the top cruiser on board from Scotland Fernando referred to. Most guests we spoke to commented how little he did, glad you were able to spot him in action!