P&O Azura

[H.Thorne]

I have booked a cruise on the Azura for the 27th November 2020 sailing from Barbados. I have never sailed on the Azura, I have also upgraded the flights on the chartered TUI flight and I have never flown with this airline. I don’t know what to expect from the ship or flights, can anyone give their opinions as I have seen mixed reviews. 👍🏻 

[Britboys]

Its difficult to say what to expect from an individual ship as we all experience them differently.  If you like large ships with options for eating and entertainment, then I am sure you will enjoy her.  It might be helpful if you could ask specific questions.

I haven't flown TUI with P&O but did so for a Marella cruise ex Jamaica.  I thought the Premium cabin was good and worth the extra.  It is a quieter cabin with quite a bit more personal space.  The food and service was very good.

[Presto2]

We sailed on Azura in April and had a brilliant cruise. Ironically we didn't like Ventura but loved Azura. We are giving Ventura another go just incase it was because of the cabin. I wouldn't hesitate to go on Azura again and would recommend her to anyone. Looking back, the crew we amazing, so friendly and so professional. It was a 'happy ship'.

[H.Thorne]

51 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

We sailed on Azura in April and had a brilliant cruise. Ironically we didn't like Ventura but loved Azura. We are giving Ventura another go just incase it was because of the cabin. I wouldn't hesitate to go on Azura again and would recommend her to anyone. Looking back, the crew we amazing, so friendly and so professional. It was a 'happy ship'.

Thanks, I do like the bigger ships like the Cunard QM2, I have sailed on the Oceana so I am expecting a similar atmosphere just on a bigger ship. 

[H.Thorne]

1 hour ago, Britboys said:

Its difficult to say what to expect from an individual ship as we all experience them differently.  If you like large ships with options for eating and entertainment, then I am sure you will enjoy her.  It might be helpful if you could ask specific questions.

I haven't flown TUI with P&O but did so for a Marella cruise ex Jamaica.  I thought the Premium cabin was good and worth the extra.  It is a quieter cabin with quite a bit more personal space.  The food and service was very good.

Thanks, this has put my mind at ease as my expectations were really low for an airline like TUI / Thomson as I normally travel on airlines like BA and Virgin Atlantic.

[Presto2]

1 minute ago, H.Thorne said:

Thanks, I do like the bigger ships like the Cunard QM2, I have sailed on the Oceana so I am expecting a similar atmosphere just on a bigger ship. 

We just love Oceana as we feel that she too is a happy, friendly ship with a happy crew. She reminded us of a bigger Oceana when it came to that aspect of the cruise. The Captain was lovely and the crew were just amazing.

[Britboys]

2 hours ago, H.Thorne said:

Thanks, I do like the bigger ships like the Cunard QM2, I have sailed on the Oceana so I am expecting a similar atmosphere just on a bigger ship. 

Just to manage expectations - don't expect Azura to feel as spacious as QM2.  QM2 is 151,000 tons and usually carries around 2,700 pax whereas Azura is 113,000 tons and usually carries around 3,100 pax.

[philred]

have cruised on the azura twice we love the ship so spacious with great staff  and fab entertainment food was top class always found something we both enjoyed we did the transatlantic  last march we  also like you upgraded to premium cabin to fly out to barbados we both thought it was worth the extra money we were lucky enough to fly out on the dreamliner cabin was so spacious the crew were very good always coming round with drinks & snacks we cruised back to southampton after a fantastic cruise around the caribbean islands  i am sure you will have a fantastic time   

[H.Thorne]

7 minutes ago, philred said:

have cruised on the azura twice we love the ship so spacious with great staff  and fab entertainment food was top class always found something we both enjoyed we did the transatlantic  last march we  also like you upgraded to premium cabin to fly out to barbados we both thought it was worth the extra money we were lucky enough to fly out on the dreamliner cabin was so spacious the crew were very good always coming round with drinks & snacks we cruised back to southampton after a fantastic cruise around the caribbean islands  i am sure you will have a fantastic time   

Thank you, I have only cruised with P&O Cruises once (on the Oceana) and I really loved the experience so I booked a cruise on the Azura. I normally travel on the Cunard Line so I look forward to the welcomed change. 

[philred]

have also cruised on the QV a few years ago  we enjoyed the experience but for the cost we can cruise more often with P&O drinks wise we found P&o to be much cheaper  

[AndyMichelle]

2 minutes ago, philred said:

have also cruised on the QV a few years ago  we enjoyed the experience but for the cost we can cruise more often with P&O drinks wise we found P&o to be much cheaper  

That's our thinking too. 

P&O are not perfect, but we find them good value for money, certainly good enough for us, enabling us to cruise more often. 

Be realistic with your expectations and you will have a fantastic time. 

Andy 

 

[H.Thorne]

1 minute ago, AndyMichelle said:

That's our thinking too. 

P&O are not perfect, but we find them good value for money, certainly good enough for us, enabling us to cruise more often. 

Be realistic with your expectations and you will have a fantastic time. 

Andy 

 

I agree, P&O aren’t perfect but good value for money for example I only paid approx £3500 for a mini suite on the Oceana for a week which is the equivalent of Princess Grill (I believe) and the princess grill would be approx £6000 for a week plus drinks. P&O are good value for money despite its faults. 

[Jennizor]

We have cruised on most P&O ships and Azura is our favourite. Personally I like the bigger ships. We were on Arcadia in June, only because we wanted to go to the Fjords, but I found it quite claustrophobic. We had sailed on her before, but after trying the bigger ships we now know we prefer them. Each to their own however. We have upcoming cruises on Britannia, Azura and Iona and wouldn’t go back to the smaller ships unless for the itinerary.

[H.Thorne]

54 minutes ago, Jennizor said:

We have cruised on most P&O ships and Azura is our favourite. Personally I like the bigger ships. We were on Arcadia in June, only because we wanted to go to the Fjords, but I found it quite claustrophobic. We had sailed on her before, but after trying the bigger ships we now know we prefer them. Each to their own however. We have upcoming cruises on Britannia, Azura and Iona and wouldn’t go back to the smaller ships unless for the itinerary.

Thank you. I have sailed on the QM2 so I do like the bigger ships but I do like mid-sized ships such as the Oceana. Thank you for this opinion. I am think about sailing on the Arcadia for the world cruise or Baltic cruise. 

[wowzz]

21 hours ago, H.Thorne said:

Thanks, this has put my mind at ease as my expectations were really low for an airline like TUI / Thomson as I normally travel on airlines like BA and Virgin Atlantic.

Personally, I think PE on TUI is better than WT+ on BA, and cheaper as well !

BA these days is no different, if not worse, than most charter and loco airlines.