Impressions from first time Azamara cruiser

[ak1004]

On 4/14/2019 at 8:04 AM, iata said:

For the Sao Paulo tour, i was on one of the tour, we were lucky and left Sao Paulo at a good time, there was a big car accident on the  highway that's why there was a gigantic traffic jam.  When we were at the site of the accident our guide phone other buses and he told us that you had to slow down because of the heavy rain, and the traffic will increase even more as time past.  That's not Azamara's fault.  They could not know that there will be a big accident and heavy rain.  We were able to have time to shower, change for white and have a couple f drinks  before the white night start. For the tour, they did the tour as it was in the tour descriptive, nowhere it says walking tour in the city. The restaurant for lunch had a view to die for but for me it was the food that was not good, i ate two bites and that was it, but that's me.  It did not change my exerience. We had a great guide. All the tour we took were great and we never have problem with waiting but we alway took the 08:00 tour.  We read carefully each desciptive, and we choose wisely.  We took the ilhabella tour beach with jeep, Paraty , waterfalls by 4x4 ,Buzios the Trolley, Rio the Tijuaca forest by 4X4, and the second day the Christ, sugar loaf and transfer to the airport, on that one the lunch was long because the service was slow.  The azamazing evening was wonderful except one thing, they did gave a glass of wine as we enter the venue, then walk like 20 steps and then you had to give ypur glass back before entering the room, so we had one sip of wine, that's it.  That was a lot of wine lost. 

 

The rain and the accident was obviously not Azamara fault. My point was why to do the white night on a day when many people take a long tour with few hours drive? They had two sea days plus few much more relaxed days in ports with much shorter tours and no drive time. Even with no accident the tour was expected to end around 5:30pm. 

 

Plus us they decided to stick to the date of the white night despite weather forecast of 90% rain. Which turned out to be correct.

 

as for the tour - yes, it was according to the description, but it doesn't mean it was good. And since this was the only tour to São Paulo we didn't have much choice if we wanted to taste the city. Just saying that it was very poorly organized.

[iata]

They mostly do white night at a late departure port, i never had it on sea day.  For logistic reason, i don,t remember them change the day for weather. I had a couple cancel for wearher, and that's it. Captain Carl decide to do it even if the forecast was not great to please passengers, because people are disapointed when it's cancel.  We had a nice diner, great atmosphere, yes the party was cut short but we had a white night. 

Maybe i'm an optimistic person but for us we had a fantastic cruise. We can't find anything to complain about. We met great passengers, we had great service, we slept well, well fed, happy with the shore excursions. Azamazing evening and the white party is a plus for us. The good thing is there is so many cruise line when you don't like one you can try another one. That's what we did. Then we found Azamara, and it was a perfect match :)

[ak1004]

There are a lot of things we loved about this cruise and Azamara. Definitely few steps above Celebrity, Princess and HAL. And if the itinerary and the price are right, we will definitely be back.

 

However, it doesn't mean that everything was perfect. We met few other couples who were not happy about the São Paulo tour and the white night. If the forecast says 90% rain, you don't need to cancel, just to reschedule. For us, The whole event lasted less than an hour between our return from the tour and the rain. And we could not find a table to eat. 

 

Constructive criticism helps everyone to become better, to improve how things are done.

 

That said, despite few setbacks, we had a fantastic time.

[excitedofharpenden]

Rescheduling a port is not going to happen because of weather. It's just one of those things. I also think you are being unfair on the White Night question. For an 11 night cruise as yours was it is very tight on scheduling all events and as has already been mentioned, most of the time they have to be arranged when the ship is docked late in port because of the wind on deck under sail can make it dangerous. 

 

With the overnight Montevideo arranged as the Azamazing Evening that only left São Paulo when you left late.  Add to that one night set aside for the Captain to be at the Best of the Best meal organised for the top suites and VIPs and you can see they really didn't have an option.  It's just unfortunate that the weather didn't cooperate for you. It's happened to me too and you just have to go with it and understand the organisational factors involved. 

 

Phil 

[ak1004]

I was talking about rescheduling the white night, not the port. But I see your point. And I understand that the size of the pool is a given that cannot be changed. It cannot really accommodate all guests on the white night, so guests who are late (for any reason) have a problem to find a table.

 

it is what it is. Still a great experience overall.

[Floridiana]

We cruised on Oceania's Riviera and Regatta and liked the Riviera better, size, space, art work, restaurants, newer build. I would compare an Azamara ship to one of the same size in the Oceania fleet to be fair. Will do so soon because we have a cruise on the Quest coming up.

 

Our last cruise on an Azamara ship was years ago. Although we have been on ships that are much smaller, I felt the old Renaissance ships are a bit cramped for the number of passengers in the space, or maybe it was just the annoyingly small size of the bathroom.