Azamara (any room) compared to suite life on Celebrity Eclipse

[uktog]

I have posted a short review on the Celebrity

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2448478 board

but thought I'd concentrate on the pluses and minuses of a comparison here.

 

As I said in that review the cruise was "fine" but we will not be rushing back. Even though we were in a suite on Celebrity we believe the mainstream Azamara product is far superior and we regret not pushing to rejig my work diary to be on Quest last week.

 

What I liked about Celebrity over Azamara

 

*. The shore excursions were excellent. They had a small group programme in place max 20 guests. The price was far more realistic than Azamara charges and the quality of the excursions we took was very high - mind we chose very carefully so avoided the standard island tours

* Celebrity have combined the stateroom attendant and assistant role - so one person looks after a fewer number of rooms. This works really well as you are working with one person and you don't have the potential breakdowns in communication which can arise in Azamara's system

* The internet was excellent- fast, great reliable connections

 

Where Azamara wins hands down

 

*The crew - on Azamara all crew care about guests on Celebrity it was very much - if there might be something in it for them they looked after you. We saw this behaviour again and again, as soon as they knew you had a drinks package, in most instances the service level went to the floor because there was no tips in it for them (all bar staff get a pooled share of the package service charge). We saw none of the Azamara can do attitude - what barman on Azamara would tell you he was too busy to get a beer from another bar and no he could not call to have one brought up or tell you he was too busy to make cocktails for an hour? We sensed whist passenger to crew ratios might be similar on paper there are so many staff working in the various sales outlets so the number who actually look after you is far lower per guest.

 

*Destination Enrichment talks or Onboard local tourist information- on Celebrity it's the usual port shopping guides sponsored by Diamonds International who know nothing about the ports. No local information or other maps are available. No really specialist speaker either - I don't count the Cruise directors talks on 10 things you did not know about a subject to be enriching

 

* Officer engagement- to be fair the Captain was visible and chatting to guests, others were certainly walking around in pairs but no guest eye contact etc. We had a future cruise manager join us the dinner after our market tour - he should not have bothered, he arrived mid way through Course 1 and left at the end of Course 2, ate nothing and claimed he'd had a call to go and attend something else. Azamara junior officers are all absolutely charming hosts with excellent interpersonal skills.

 

* There is not the sell, sell, sell focus on Azamara. You can't walk along a corridor on Celebrity having a conversation with other guests, you will be interrupted. Likewise, Azamara photographers leave you alone once they know you are a no photo person, not so on Celebrity it's in your face, constant and comments are made like your going to regret not having a picture of tonight .... (no I'm not!)

 

* Azamara's speciality restaurants are far better value - Murano is still good but now without a package it is $45 each. Tuscan is the same price but the food was no better than Azamara main dining room - actually it was worse!

 

* You just cannot compare the two lines evening buffets. Azamara it's a genuine themed buffet with good service Celebrity it's a mish mash of foods aimed at the speed diner and don't try and get a drink served once they know you have a package.

 

* Without a doubt the final nail in Celebrity's coffin for us - you have to be out of your cabin/suite by 7am on departure morning - whilst I realise some people need an early start, for other guests it was a really horrible change that's been introduced but no one would tell us why

 

Where Azamara wins - but it's a personal preference

 

* Entertainment- whilst the big production shows have the glitz and glamour in their settings and a much bigger cast including four specialist aerialists the singers are not a patch on Azamara's. There is a lot of reliance on backing tracks and in one show some very poor miming.

 

* The orchestra- same size but not as talented. We were surprised they did not back all the shows or some of the guest artists who also used backing tracks. We were told there is not enough opportunity for rehearsal to allow this to happen but could not work out why as the hard working Azamara orchestra can fit it in.

 

*. The quality of the food in the main dining room is far better on Azamara. We dined in Luminae and often had to go for the MDR choices as the Luminae options did not appeal. Azamara's MDR menus are much more innovative and better presented/cooked. There is no local sourcing on Celebrity- the claim is legislation prevents it.

 

So you can see, for us, the smaller ship more personal service works for us. We don't like the "two class system" that's developing on Celebrity even though on this trip we had as suite guests access to everything.

 

We were horrified at the misinformation onboard about Azamara. They have old ships, three of them, they go to the Galapagos and other places but it's not good because their cruises go on for weeks. The average passenger age is at least 20 years older than Celebrity and there is no real evening entertainment. This was how our dinner host positioned Azamara to the table. On second thoughts maybe his urgent business he left to do was some swotting up as DH did query his knowledge of the product.

 

We did meet several couples, particularly in the suite lounge who had cruised with Azamara and like us did not now plan to use Celebrity or who were through with Celebrity and were going to research Azamara for future cruises. The cost of the Celebrity cruise was only £10 per day less than our next Azamara cruise so Celebrity suite life prices are going to send more over to Azamara when you take into account the product differences.

 

So hopefully the future is bright for Azamara!

[florisdekort]

Thanks Ann! I agree 100%. After 26 cruises and 309 nights I have moved on from X as well and it's highly unlikely I'll ever go back... Perhaps only once to check out Edge. I'm sure Azamara's future is bright and am already looking forward to 2019's itineraries coming out in March... more to look forward to [emoji846] Seabourn is now my 2nd line of choice.

 

 

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[Lottie A]

I have only done two past Celebrity cruises Ann, but reading your detailed review and also listening to Phil's thoughts on his last X cruise, I am beginning to think it's no longer the cruise line for me. There have been some great X deals in my inbox recently but now I'm thinking.... maybe there is a reason for that.

 

I must say that Azamara will always be my number 1, closely followed by Silversea and Viking. We really enjoyed our recent Viking cruise and I think that you both would enjoy it too. The food and service was outstanding and we loved the Scandinavian clean lines of the cabin and the ship Viking Sea, in general. Maybe a cruise line alternative to our favoured Azamara for you and C to consider in the future?

[ProfessorEFFE]

uktog,

 

Thank you for your review. DW and I are/were looking for something a little different. We signed up for a b2b Azamara Cruise. The 2nd is a TA. We sailed on the Allure and the Epic. 2 different brands with +'s and -'s like every brand. I think we really loved our first Zenith cruises. Although the Zenith probably carried 3 times the pax as Azamara. We loved the intimacy you had with the other pax. Hoping this will happen on the Quest as well. I also believe the MDR on the Zenith was at least equal to most specialty restaurants on other ships.

 

Also we decided on an inside for the first part, and an Ocean Suite for the TA. Your review really solidified our decision to go Azamara.

 

I still would rather travel X than RCI, NCL, or Carnival. Not that I had a bad cruise on any line (except Celebrity) and that wasn't so bad.

[Grandma Gilly]

Quite agree with you but we do have an X cruise booked for the end of the year. It's itinerary based. We do like the suites lounge (Michaels Club) on X but it does go against everything I've ever thought about segregation. On Azamara, we are all treated the same whether an in owners suite or an inside cabin.

[TxnAquarian]

Thanks for such a detailed review!

 

We have way more Celebrity cruises under our belt than Azamara, and we vouch for most of what you said. While we do think that Celebrity's suite class is WAY better than Azamara's product, the pricing for X suites are getting way out of hand. We had to downgrade to Aqua Class for our 2017 Xmas cruise, as paying $16,000 for the lowest category suite is not a possibility. Also, even though staying in a suite on X feels rather nicely insulated, you still have to share the ship with the rest and be subjected to the pushy sales people and annoying photographers. On my X cruise last month, we tried to dodge the embarkation photos and the lady photographer grabbed our belongings and said that we had to take the photo for security reasons (uh, against the huge cheesy backdrop of the ship photo??). It's things like that that are steering us away from Celebrity.

 

We have one more Celebrity cruise coming up for Xmas that is itinerary-driven, but after that, I think we will stick to Azamara or Seabourn. Azamara is a consistent, quality-driven product that, even with escalating prices, we find worth the expense.

 

 

Michael

[Melissaghoti]

Thanks for your excellent review. I'm so, so fortunate to have happened upon Azamara to begin my cruising 'career', brief as it's been. It's a perfect fit for me and I'm certain I wouldn't have been hooked had it been any other line.

The unintended but happy benefit is reading posts from British passengers that have broadened my vocabulary. I'm loving that! We in the U.S. may have EDD (English Deficiency Disorder) and sure don't have 'swotting up'. Had to Google it and will add it to my lexicon. It's way better than 'boning up' which is the U.S. equivalent. Thanks!

 

 

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[nonrev1]

I think your review was spot on! My only experience that was different was with the photographer. We did have a pushy, aggressive one on our last Azamara cruise and we were both put off and surprised by it. We told him very politely that we did not want pictures and he did not want to take no for an answer. At this point in our cruising lives, we don't need anymore walking down the gangway pictures, dinner table or fake backdrop pictures. We recently took our first O cruise. While Azamara hands down is our favorite, I do like that O does not have ship's photographers.

 

Azamara offers a superior product to Celebrity.

[excitedofharpenden]

Ann, I concur. My own recent experience of Celebrity has been too many hot and cold spots as far as service is concerned and this seems to have been exacerbated by introduction of the "suite life" for a greater proportion of cabins. Aside from that the public areas of the ship are often too loud and the piped music very annoying. Never say never, but I think November's trip on Reflection will be my last on Celebrity.

[upwarduk]

the public areas of the ship are often too loud and the piped music very annoying.

 

I wonder if the piped music occurs in the Caribbean Phil?

I really wasn't aware of it on our T A on Infinity (2013) or to the Baltic on Eclipse (2015)

[uktog]

I wonder if the piped music occurs in the Caribbean Phil?

I really wasn't aware of it on our T A on Infinity (2013) or to the Baltic on Eclipse (2015)

 

We were told on Eclipse (where Muzak was an issue I just did not include it I should have) that they are directed by Miami on the times and volumes and are not allowed to change it. Did not get any sense it was location related we did however notice it was higher on port days (? To chase you ashore???) than sea days. Apart from our balcony no outside space was safe. Evenings had disco/beatbox/Ibiza fun party in the Martini Bar- you could not hear yourself think!

[excitedofharpenden]

I wonder if the piped music occurs in the Caribbean Phil?

I really wasn't aware of it on our T A on Infinity (2013) or to the Baltic on Eclipse (2015)

 

No Jackie, it was there in October and November around the Med and also transatlantic. The design of the S-Class ships whilst very good looking also gives no quiet spots because it's very open. Library, card room etc off the main atrium are very noisy if there is anything being held on deck 3. The music in the Martini Bar (they now have a DJ set up there in the evening) varies from pretty ok to way too loud. It never used to be like this, but it's getting worse in my view. I love loud music, but I like to choose my venue and time to listen to it.

[bob278]

I would concur with the consensus for the most part. Our cruising history so far (completed plus booked through April 2018) has been about 44% X, 40% RCL (although not so much in the last 5-6 years), 14% Azamara and 2% others. But our case is limited to comparing CC cabins to Sky and Celebrity Suites on X.

 

Because of that split, we don't get the best (in my opinion) benefit of the LCV (free nights on level change) so what X offers adds quite a bit for us (drink package, unlimited internet and laundry for example) when we sail with them. But even with that, we would pay some extra to sail with Azamara over a comparable cabin on X. But to get the price down to an acceptable difference, we have to find a BOGOHO or similar sale that includes CC cabins as, in our advancing age, we find the balcony cabins on Azamara just too small (but as with so many things that is a very individual thing).

 

Since sales that include the CC category are not that common, we have to be lucky to find something we want on Azamara. The good news is that we got lucky for this year and next as we have a b2b in Australia/NZ on Journey next month and a b2b TA/Med on Quest next year where we were able to take advantage of the BOGOHO while on board and combined the benefits of the LCV discount, booking onboard, and the BOGOHO sale. Really made the decision a no-brainer.

 

Our service experience on X has been better than most describe here although we, too, have seen inconsistencies. But on every cruise we have been on and gone to Luminae, the service there has been very close to what we get on Azamara. The bad news about that is that it points out the vast difference with what you get in other places on board. Sadly (for X), you have to find the hot spots of excellent service there to match what is common on Azamara.

 

We still consider X a very good experience, just not the outstanding experience we get on Azamara. But the difference in the experience is worth only so much so our future cruising will most likely continue to include both. Not a bad position to be in. :D

Edited January 26, 2017 by bob278

[ClaudiaB]

We have done 14 Celebrity cruises, most 10-14 days and most in a sky suite or Celebrity Suite. Our first Azamara cruise is not until July 2018. We're looking forward to it. We won't be taking any cruises on any line until then. Lots of US travel ahead of us, which we always love. Cruising is only one little part of our vacation budget/plan.

 

I have no comparison (yet) but I have to say we have always had terrific service on X even with the beverage package. We haven't had to chase down a bartender and we haven't sensed any attitude issues. I don't feel like we are treated any differently with a package than without. On occasion we've sat at the Martini Bar area and not at the bar - and the service is slower, but we're really never in a hurry - after all we're on a relaxing cruise. The service at Slush near the pool is so-so, I will admit.

 

Michael's and Luminae are a great addition to the suites, although MC can be a bit 'dead' at times. We have had outstanding service in Luminae. The food is very good, as is our experience at the specialties. I will say, though, that our Eclipse service there in 2015 was far better than our Equinox service in 2016. The sommelier Maggie on Eclipse is amazing. I cannot imagine a better one anywhere. She went all over the ship to hold bottles she knew we'd enjoy.

 

As far as the upselling goes we just ignore it and it doesn't hit our radar. We don't make eye contact with the people standing in the shops or with the photographers, and whatever they may or may not say to us makes no difference in our cruise. We say no thank you and keep going. And honestly, there isn't that much. We have heard none of the comments like 'you'll be sorry' on any of our cruises.

 

I am looking forward to the new Edge ships too, but even more than that - my Azamara cruise. I hear there is no Park West. Sure wish they'd go away everywhere!

[AllisonJames]

Thank you for your review and having sailed a number of lines I concur with your assessment of Celebrity. We were very excited to take our young adult children on Celebrity Silhouette and ended up disappointed and went back to Princess for our family cruising after that experience (we are however, trying Viking Ocean over Christmas 2017). Had the beverage package and had difficulty getting a refill on wine in the dining room and it felt like they ignored us at the bars over serving guests who were paying as they went. Disliked the obvious class system and it seemed to us like there were a higher number of loud, demanding, obnoxious, status-seeking guests (certainly much more so than on Azamara) on our cruise. We did not feel it was really any better than Princess and certainly it cost more. Celebrity did beat Azamara in one category in our opinion -- the standard balcony cabin on Silhouette is somewhat larger than on Azamara. Room enough for a full-size couch. Can't wait to try Viking Ocean as our future family cruise line. We love Azamara as a couple but it's not a good fit for our family.

[Texed]

Thank you so much for posting. We like Azamara and Celebrity. :)

[Tom47]

Thanks for the review. We are taking our first Azamara cruise in March. We have been on 8 Celebrity cruises.

Tom:)