Photo Review- 1st Timer on Journey: Questions Were Asked, Answers Were Learned!

[Cruzin-K]

Azamara Journey Ship Tour

 

Deck 9 (starting in the stern)

 

Sunset Verandah/Windows Cafe Outdoors

This space slated to be an Asian Specialty restaurant was retained as the Sunset bar and outdoor dining, we were told this was decided based on passenger input, and to a person, everyone we spoke to agreed it is one of their favorite spaces! It was always populated and we dined out there several times during our voyage.

 

 

 

 

This is the photo that really caught my eye. It's difficult lighting (for me, anyway) and it's so sharp & vivid. Tell your hubby that he did a great job with this one.

[critterchick]

 

Did anybody play the harp? Thanks for being brave and posting your review!

[tv24]

Thanks. Great pictures of the Journey. Nice complement to the others that have been shown. Now I am really looking forward to seeing the new version of a lovely ship.

[perfect match]

Thank you for doing this review! I have read several of your previous reviews, so when I saw on the Royal board that you started this one, I headed right on over here. I'm really glad I did!

 

We are considering a Panama Canal cruise in late 2017, so I am in my early stages of researching that. I had hot been considering Azamara, but maybe I should be. Guess I am now. :cool:

 

Like you, I am usually all about the destinations when I cruise, and have bookmarked a number of suggestions for future excursions from your previous reviews. I'm sure I will be adding to that list from this review. I've settled in to a comfortable chair, and I'm ready to enjoy the Journey! :D

[portofrome]

Thanks for posting those great photos.

[excitedofharpenden]

We found them to be ok for sitting to dine, but not great for lounging.

 

 

These chairs are the ones that have been on the ship a while. I found the trick for a more comfortable "lounge" is to get a pillow from inside, move the chair back against the patio window glass, put the pillow behind your head and feet up on the rail. It's not perfect, but actually pretty comfortable.

 

Phil

[oliveau]

Great photos - Thanks.

 

But disaster stares me in the face in the MDR; A worse disaster then the lack of a clothesline!

My favourite 6 seat table, behind the flowers to the left of the entrance has gone!! Dear old Table 76, we have sat there every night on 3 cruises. Now I guess we'll have to abandon ship and go to 'O'...................

 

[Oh, and 'Hi Phil'.]

Edited March 6, 2016 by oliveau

[KirkNC]

Thanks, as AZ newbies your pictures speak a thousand words.

[reilly1]

Yeah! Where to? Enjoy!

 

 

Athens to Rome 12 nights. Normally cruise on Celebrity S Class so this is a real change for us. Was so excited to see all your photos. Can't wait now!

[upwarduk]

I am loving the pictures, just 'subscribing' so I can keep up to date, as the subscribe button isn't working on my iPad.

[BettyPC]

Will subscribe to keep following your journey!

[Familygoboston]

This is the photo that really caught my eye. It's difficult lighting (for me, anyway) and it's so sharp & vivid. Tell your hubby that he did a great job with this one.

No worries! Just wanted you to find post! It was a bit buried! Hubby says thanks, but he did say that using a VR (vibration reduction) lens and a camera with a full frame sensor in these low light situations makes a huge difference. As for his "toys" - this is it, no sports cars, or golf memberships, (or ex-wives, lol! ) so this is his folly, and it's a fun one because I get the most amazing photos...especially precious ones of friends and family!

 

 

Did anybody play the harp? Thanks for being brave and posting your review!

 

Thanks Critterchick! As for the harp, sadly no, it's seems to be a "relic" of a prior time. An art piece. I never saw anyone play it and the repeaters expressed sadness that there is no longer harp music in that area. It's still a very popular area for people to have a cocktail before dinner. One of the things I loved about this ship is that it's very easy to connect with dinner companions because you can troll the mosaic cafe/central harp area (not sure what this is called?) and the casino bars, and the discoveries lounge in one pass and find someone to join/ dine with even if you haven't made prior plans. The only other place for cocktail hour is the Living room, so we could be certain to find people, unlike larger ships where they could be in any of a 1/2 dozen bars, or loyalty lounges.

[Familygoboston]

Thank you for doing this review! I have read several of your previous reviews, so when I saw on the Royal board that you started this one, I headed right on over here. I'm really glad I did!

 

We are considering a Panama Canal cruise in late 2017, so I am in my early stages of researching that. I had hot been considering Azamara, but maybe I should be. Guess I am now. :cool:

 

Like you, I am usually all about the destinations when I cruise, and have bookmarked a number of suggestions for future excursions from your previous reviews. I'm sure I will be adding to that list from this review. I've settled in to a comfortable chair, and I'm ready to enjoy the Journey! :D

 

Thank you! This is why I bother to write them! I look for a review like this before I book any ship- a detailed photo review travelogue. I know It really helps me to get a feel for not just what the ship "looks" like, but also how it "lives". Now of course, everyone has different interests and activity levels, but I can usually tell from what someone posts in a day by day review, what's available on board, and ashore. Like you I "save" excursion ideas for places I haven't even booked yet, and have very often used them with great success! Please follow onto water and FB if you do those things, I add things weekly there, even when not cruising!

 

These chairs are the ones that have been on the ship a while. I found the trick for a more comfortable "lounge" is to get a pillow from inside, move the chair back against the patio window glass, put the pillow behind your head and feet up on the rail. It's not perfect, but actually pretty comfortable.

 

Phil

Love it Phil! I will cop to using the railings as a foot rest, it's one of the nice things about the "metal rail" vs the " plexi window" balcony rails!

[Familygoboston]

Great photos - Thanks.

 

But disaster stares me in the face in the MDR; A worse disaster then the lack of a clothesline!

My favourite 6 seat table, behind the flowers to the left of the entrance has gone!! Dear old Table 76, we have sat there every night on 3 cruises. Now I guess we'll have to abandon ship and go to 'O'...................

 

[Oh, and 'Hi Phil'.]

Oliveau- I too found the shower "lacking" sigh, the clingy curtain and the lack of clothes line. More on that in some posts about what we liked and didn't like in the new cabin design. But as for the dining table, although it's sad to not return to a place where so many memories were made, I cant imagine a change of lines would be necessary when the Maitre D would likely be delighted to give you a grand tour of the new configuration, arm and arm, until you found a suitable table where you could make new memories with new friends! We found the dining room to be roomy and subdued...no waving towels or flaming bubaloo, the only thing that appeared to change was the furniture! ;)

[silkismom]

Enjoying

[Familygoboston]

Some more details on the Re-Imagined Journey

 

So, yeah, we haven't actually sailed yet! Disembarkation was pushed back due to a lot of pallets needing to come on board and loading had not finished. Captain Johannes was excellent about communication with us about these things and we were told we would leave at about 8:30 PMl!

 

But everyone really wanted to see the ships photos of the new Journey, and that was what we spent most of the afternoon doing, taking photos and exploring the ship and then posting those photos while we were still connected to the cellular network.

 

With nothing to compare it too, Journey looked lovely to us! The colors are all very light and bright and neutral, taupes and greys- The over all look is very elegant without being stuffy or overly formal. The rugs are a riot of color and pattern, which in general is good at disguising wear and stains, but we noticed that the cabin deck hallway carpets were very light in color and even after just 10-20 days were already looking stained and more than once we saw the crew going at them with seltzer water. Did this affect my cruise? Heck no, I'm not cleaning them!! But it does seem a shame that something so new and costly would look so beat up so soon.

 

So lots of folks have wondered, how are the newly re-imagined cabins working out? There was hearty debate about this, and here are the notes I made about our V2 Verandah cabin. Overall, we found the design to be very beautiful and once we arranged things to our liking, comfortable for a 10 day stay.

 

 

Works:

 

-Three hooks on the back of the bathroom door

 

-A flat screen tv big enough for a bar room on the wall at the foot of the bed. It doesn't "tilt" toward the love seat, but it's so large, truly you can't miss it from anywhere in the cabin!

 

-the rugs are patterned but dark enough to hide stains.

 

-Wifi the signal in our cabin was very strong, for the first 4 days I had no trouble posting messages, receiving and sending emails. When we reached Panama, I could no longer get onto the wifi at all. We didn't try uploading photos, but downloading most of the things we tried went faster than any other ships sat wifi that we've used. It's unfortunate we couldn't connect one night. It's obviously slower at 3 and 4 in the afternoons on a sea day than at 11 or 11:30 PM when I usually posted. However, sometimes it gets slow at around 12 midnight, when I suspect more crew is off duty and using it!

 

-The secret USB port. Actually it's great, but like an elusive hummingbird in Costa Rica, you have to find it first! I'll let you in on a little secret the Captain Johannes told me (and 300 of my friends at the Captain's talk) It's hiding under the gold part of the light by your bed!

 

 

 

 

 

Another little secret, the reading light "pops" out and can be twisted in any direction, including "cap holder" mode!

 

 

 

 

 

Not Loving:

-The coffee table with the love seat is a little too large, we ended up rearranging the furniture to create more room by the verandah door.

 

-The grabby little shower curtain instead of a plastic door, sigh...

 

-The very narrow triple shelve behind the toilet- too small to hold our fuller toiletry bags. But it will hold small bottles. I don't like to use the low shelf under the sink for toiletry storage because of its proximity to the toilet (ick!)

 

-No hooks for clothes in process or towels in the cabin, although the closet handles are vertical, so you can hook things to the handles.

 

-No pull across clothes line for hanging wet items in the shower, which I solved with this ingenious invention I read about on on of the AZ threads moaning about the lack of clothesline.

 

 

 

 

 

-No shelves beside the mirror in the bath (are you seeing a trend here? There is just not a whole lot to be done in these teeny bathrooms to improve them. We are slimmish people who don't spend a lot of time in the bathroom. If neither of those descriptions fits, it may be best to upgrade to a cabin with a roomier one!)

 

-When the closet door is open, (like during those times you need to look into the closet to decide what to wear!) it blocks the ceiling light, making it dark inside the closet. This was irritating enough that I will bring my headlamp next time and leave it in the closet. I was constantly fumbling to find matching pairs of shoes- and I didn't bring that many!

 

 

 

 

Loving:

 

-The bar area is big enough to use as a bar area, and has an outlet too, so this is where we've left our power strip and it can easily hold several electronic devices/ chargers at the same time. But then we haven't been using it as a bar! (it might be tight to "mix" anything in that cubby, but we didn't try) A shelf above that works for our excursion items, such a hats, sun lotions, snacks, pareo, etc.

 

-the big wide desk/vanity, with a huge horizontal surface there is room for paperwork and charging appliances as well as putting on my pretty face.

 

-There are also 2 outlets for both European style round plugs and North American square style plugs ( don't ask me to explain the voltage - I only passed high school physics because my mother would not allow me out to Friendly's for ice cream with DH {then he was DBF} until I finished my homework, and DH helped me with my physics home work! And by helping I may mean "DID". I'm resting my science brain cells to explain all the fluid dynamics coming up with the canal transit!)

 

-The little round pole shelf in the shower that hold at least 6-8 sample size shower items- shampoo, conditioner, body wash and at least a handful of my own products from home. There are also 2 larger corner shelves, with plenty of room for larger sized bottles in the shower. It doesn't intrude into the useful space because the corner was already too tight to be of use.

 

-One bedside table has texture topped so small items such a glasses (and glasses!) "stick" to it, even on a night with high seas!

 

- the other bedside table is round wood topped, but both tables feature lots of storage with drawers and cubbies.

 

-Beds are high enough to stash all our luggage underneath.

 

-And something I loved that didn't exist-the clock doesn't feature an blaring LED light, there is a bar to press to light it up when you want to see what time it is, but it doesn't keep you up all night with a blue light shining in your face! (Unfortunately, if one person presses the bar to see the time, it does make a loud "beep" which could disturb another person in the room. There might be a way to disable this, but we didn't touch the clock, because as Captain Johannes personally told me (and 300 of my friends who attended the Captains talk) he cannot figure out how to set the alarm clock. Tutorials have been held, manuals have been read, experts consulted and if a man who is brilliant (as we say in Mass, "wicked smaht") and can operate a complex, technical, paperless multi million dollar cruise ship with aplomb and skill, if that man needs to keep the alarm set to 6 PM so it doesn't inadvertently wake him at 3 AM; we knew it was best to not even try!

 

On our original inspection of the room we had the impression that we would not be able to have enough space for storage, but after unpacking, we discovered it to be very accommodating! Hopefully, folks with concerns will find the same thing, even as they do battle with that *&^&% shower curtain every morning!;)

(Above- all 'bad" pictures, mine!)

[Wacktle]

-The secret USB port. Actually it's great, but like an elusive hummingbird in Costa Rica, you have to find it first! I'll let you in on a little secret the Captain Johannes told me (and 300 of my friends at the Captain's talk) It's hiding under the gold part of the light by your bed!

 

Thanks for the great photos and useful info. However, I may be a bit dim, but what can the USB port be used for?

[Familygoboston]

Feb 7: Miami Embarkation

 

The big excitement for the night was the Super Bowl Party. The SB celebration was moved from the planned pool deck area because of the cold, to the Cabaret, and the regularly scheduled evenings entertainment was moved to the Living Room. I was sorry to miss a daylight sail away from Miami, which is always fun with folks waving from their condos and the beach- it's a fun place to sail out!

 

A pretty good crowd...most of the Aussies and Brits wondered about the fuss, but there were a few international fans too!

 

 

 

 

Coin toss on the "big screen"

 

 

 

 

These die hard fans set up their viewing spot shortly after muster and were rewarded with a win!

 

 

We teased the gentlemen on the left mercilessly all week, because every day he had on a different Broncos branded outfit...even a polo shirt at dinner (Formal wear- I joked with him!) Eventually, I did ask him what he would have worn that week had the Broncos lost, and he admitted he pretty much would have had to go around nude!

 

 

 

 

 

We watched the SB in good humor with new friends, Derek and Natalie and many fans of both teams. There was a nice spread of hot dogs, hamburgers and french fries offered, but I got a plate of pasta from the pasta station in the Windows Cafe and carried it down to the Cabaret Lounge. Hubby fetched gelato later and we got coffees at the Mosaic Cafe during the commercial breaks.

 

The Super Bowl Buffet

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you've never enjoyed an American sporting ball spectacular from a cruise ship, you might not know that they use ESPN International, and all of the commercials are for cricket and futbol, which sadly meant there were not any of the wacky, interesting Super Bowl commercials. This caused quite a few not-so-die-hard fans to depart for the casino! At the 3 rd quarter with things looking dull, we headed up to the living room at 9:30 for Eric's welcome and hear Virtuosos, a clarinet and piano duo, backed by the ships band. The music was excellent, but by 10:20, we were tired, and we tried to be gracious watching Peyton Manning's victory lap on our cabin TV as we prepared for bed. But there are some things this Boston fan just doesn't need to see!

 

(again sorry for the poor quality photos, DH was far more interested in the game and I shot these with my iphone which does poorly in low light)

[BBMacLaird]

Thank you familygoboston for the lovely comments about your cruise Miami-Caldera, and the fabulous pictures of the Journey! I will be sure to share this thread :)

[Maverine]

Thanks for the great photos and useful info. However, I may be a bit dim, but what can the USB port be used for?

 

 

The USB port is useful for loading smartphones, tablets and other devices like speakers.

[Familygoboston]

I'm going to post the Pursuits for Day One and Day Two, Feb 7th and 8th here. I hope this gives new folks an idea of the things that go on during embarkation day and on a sea day. Because the destination focused itineraries change from week to week, they aren't useful for planning (such as which night to book specialty restaurants) since as I mentioned, with such nimble itineraries, there are no 'set" days that anything happens. It all depends on when the Azamazing evening might be, which ports have overnights etc, and of course it can all change on a dime! It's useful to pay attention to the captains message at noon, things change frequently, but are very well communicated!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you would like to view The Pursuits for the rest of our cruise, you can find them here...

 

http://www.goseeittravel.com/azamara-pursuits-2016

 

I do not have the last day Quepos because we disembarked and somehow didn't take that one with us. If anyone we traveled with saved theirs and is willing to scan it as a jpeg and email to me...let me know, I will add it to the webpage!

[Familygoboston]

Thanks for the great photos and useful info. However, I may be a bit dim, but what can the USB port be used for?

 

Don't miss the Usb port...it's got gorgeous beaches! :p

 

Ok, I'm just kidding you! As Maverine pointed out most cameras, computers and smart phones charge with a cable called a usb cable...the usb port is a power outlet that allows high tech passengers like ourselves to keep our devices topped up on energy! Low tech passengers won't notice or miss them ;)

[Familygoboston]

Thank you familygoboston for the lovely comments about your cruise Miami-Caldera, and the fabulous pictures of the Journey! I will be sure to share this thread :)

 

Thanks Bonnie! And thank YOU for all your help before we sailed answering questions and responding. I'd be happy to "guest blog" too! You can get an idea of what we do on our website. (it's linked in my signature) These kinds of Cruise Critic reviews started that, and I've continued writing them in this style on Cruise Critic, but our other content is a bit different!

 

Thanks for reading and sharing! More to come tomorrow...the rest of today I plan to enjoy with our daughter, who has returned from college for spring break! (and after seeing our photos was very jealous she didn't get to join us on this trip! ;))

[sparty1]

Familygoboston: Love your style and your "running" review! Really enjoying your perspective too. We were on the Journey after you, and it's nice to compare and contrast. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

[Francophile]

As a fellow introvert, I can say it's never been a problem! Rest easy!