We could not get off so join us in the Caribbean

[uktog]

So it is a week since we landed back home like many from our three cruises, hit by a temperature drop and now the chaos that we manage to create around our Christmas plans. The time gap has given us time to reflect on our cruises and here is our summary.

 

Journey is a well run and happy ship with many stars onboard providing excellent service.  There are a few who do not hit the mark and when they let you down it really flashes like a giant red alarm bell.  Maybe the lapse or issue isn't that big but in the context of the onboard service it is so obvious.  That might explain some posts you see that you might think surely thats a trivial matter but it affects the guest.

 

The standard of food onboard is excellent.  We had one cruise mixed between buffets, speciality and main dining room, one exclusively speciality and one exclusively main dining room (Discoveries).  Honestly we found no difference in the quality of food or presentation between the two venue types.  We lucked out on great servers in Discoveries and over time preferred their less ostentatious approach to service (but recognise thats a personal thing).  Some other minor highlights - the scones in the Living Room are far better, for me the breads tasted far better and the lunchtime salads were more innovative.  The only glitch was the patio which needs to be staffed by more competent staff and it was the one eating venue where there was a lack of "oomph"  (few smiles, slow service, too many mistakes). Such a shame it has great potential.

 

Bar service is very good indeed considering on some of the cruises they had attracted groups that wanted a lot of service.  Despite that bar service was also with a smile and within a very reasonable time span considering.  A very few waiters at lunchtime in Windows let out an audible sigh when they discover you are on a package and want a different wine but they were very much in the minority.  

 

Stateroom attendants continue to be very busy, we rarely saw ours (we had three lots) but that was absolutely no issue for us.  We know they are very busy people.  We had a butler one of the cruises.  He was on his second contract having been a stateroom attendant before.  Looks like corners are being cut here - its a big jump up and he told us he had no additional external training to prepare him for the job, just shadowing a more experienced colleague.  He lacked the real skills of the old school butlers, probably had the potential but was much more a dressed up stateroom attendant than a butler.

 

Entertainment was better than ever in terms of the resident acts - superb trio, (and added band for two cruises) excellent piano bar player and very good singers, dancers and cruise director.  The imported acts were less successful, again a personal view but for us, a hypnotist is not the kind of act we expect to see on Azamara and as they used him as the only outside act on the 9 and 7 night cruise this disappointed.  The enrichment talks also disappointed, we used to enjoy such good quality, stimulating speakers on Azamara.  However we typically make our own entertainment and bring our own enrichment which we leave in the library so it did not spoil the overall experience.

 

I have commented elsewhere land discoveries continues to be a huge disappointment.  High % of experiences cancelled and solutions not really great.  Shops also very poor so how do you spend the OBC?  Very difficult, spa also disappointed, they tried a neat way to use my use my OBC by trying to overcharge over $100 on a $200 treatment.  Yes it got fixed immediately but hmmmm.

 

LCV benefits continue to disappoint (well commented on elsewhere but our gripes include two members getting only one laundry benefit, effectively losing all the onboard benefits if you have a suite, reward nights for reaching a tier being worthless for us, upgrade programme being very suspect etc etc).  Staff are now sales focused and not interacting (certainly on cruises 2 and 3).

 

So the question for everyone is what matters to you - food, comfort and service rather than entertainment and add ons are the key for us.  Will we be back on Azamara again beyond whats booked?   Based on the experiences we had onboard it should be a yes, but and yes its a huge but, having been burned again on pricing games on these cruises and seeing eye watering prices for even ocean views at present for 2021, we sadly cannot see that happening.  

 

It was interesting on all three cruises Azamara had reached out to a new audience, 66% or so first timers each cruise.  One side effect of this, you get to chat to people with different perspectives.  Some clearly really were large ship people and the test failed for many of them, but several also introduced us to what we might enjoy on other lines (both small or slightly larger ships).

 

Time will tell......

Edited December 16, 2019 by uktog

[tompeter]

Great summary, thanks!

[nordski]

Great summary!

 

The seeming unpredictability of pricing means attention has to be paid on a fairly regular basis for possible savings.

 

As I posted earlier we have had a very nice drop in price on a 2021 cruise. Perhaps still not a major bargain and yet acceptable.

 

But a 2020 summer cruise has actually significantly increased to a price that is rather ridiculous and one that we would never consider.

 

Of course, that cruise is Scotland Intensive and that would explain the attraction! 😄

 

Selfishly I think Azamara should consider creating more cruises centred on the British Isles. Then there could be a repositioning cruise via Iceland and Newfoundland.

 

For us,  that would be a dream itinerary.

[uktog]

And us!

[travelberlin]

4 hours ago, uktog said:

So it is a week since we landed back home like many from our three cruises, hit by a temperature drop and now the chaos that we manage to create around our Christmas plans. The time gap has given us time to reflect on our cruises and here is our summary.

 

Journey is a well run and happy ship with many stars onboard providing excellent service.  There are a few who do not hit the mark and when they let you down it really flashes like a giant red alarm bell.  Maybe the lapse or issue isn't that big but in the context of the onboard service it is so obvious.  That might explain some posts you see that you might think surely thats a trivial matter but it affects the guest.

 

The standard of food onboard is excellent.  We had one cruise mixed between buffets, speciality and main dining room, one exclusively speciality and one exclusively main dining room (Discoveries).  Honestly we found no difference in the quality of food or presentation between the two venue types.  We lucked out on great servers in Discoveries and over time preferred their less ostentatious approach to service (but recognise thats a personal thing).  Some other minor highlights - the scones in the Living Room are far better, for me the breads tasted far better and the lunchtime salads were more innovative.  The only glitch was the patio which needs to be staffed by more competent staff and it was the one eating venue where there was a lack of "oomph"  (few smiles, slow service, too many mistakes). Such a shame it has great potential.

 

Bar service is very good indeed considering on some of the cruises they had attracted groups that wanted a lot of service.  Despite that bar service was also with a smile and within a very reasonable time span considering.  A very few waiters at lunchtime in Windows let out an audible sigh when they discover you are on a package and want a different wine but they were very much in the minority.  

 

Stateroom attendants continue to be very busy, we rarely saw ours (we had three lots) but that was absolutely no issue for us.  We know they are very busy people.  We had a butler one of the cruises.  He was on his second contract having been a stateroom attendant before.  Looks like corners are being cut here - its a big jump up and he told us he had no additional external training to prepare him for the job, just shadowing a more experienced colleague.  He lacked the real skills of the old school butlers, probably had the potential but was much more a dressed up stateroom attendant than a butler.

 

Entertainment was better than ever in terms of the resident acts - superb trio, (and added band for two cruises) excellent piano bar player and very good singers, dancers and cruise director.  The imported acts were less successful, again a personal view but for us, a hypnotist is not the kind of act we expect to see on Azamara and as they used him as the only outside act on the 9 and 7 night cruise this disappointed.  The enrichment talks also disappointed, we used to enjoy such good quality, stimulating speakers on Azamara.  However we typically make our own entertainment and bring our own enrichment which we leave in the library so it did not spoil the overall experience.

 

I have commented elsewhere land discoveries continues to be a huge disappointment.  High % of experiences cancelled and solutions not really great.  Shops also very poor so how do you spend the OBC?  Very difficult, spa also disappointed, they tried a neat way to use my use my OBC by trying to overcharge over $100 on a $200 treatment.  Yes it got fixed immediately but hmmmm.

 

LCV benefits continue to disappoint (well commented on elsewhere but our gripes include two members getting only one laundry benefit, effectively losing all the onboard benefits if you have a suite, reward nights for reaching a tier being worthless for us, upgrade programme being very suspect etc etc).  Staff are now sales focused and not interacting (certainly on cruises 2 and 3).

 

So the question for everyone is what matters to you - food, comfort and service rather than entertainment and add ons are the key for us.  Will we be back on Azamara again beyond whats booked?   Based on the experiences we had onboard it should be a yes, but and yes its a huge but, having been burned again on pricing games on these cruises and seeing eye watering prices for even ocean views at present for 2021, we sadly cannot see that happening.  

 

It was interesting on all three cruises Azamara had reached out to a new audience, 66% or so first timers each cruise.  One side effect of this, you get to chat to people with different perspectives.  Some clearly really were large ship people and the test failed for many of them, but several also introduced us to what we might enjoy on other lines (both small or slightly larger ships).

 

Time will tell......

Thanks very much for this summary. It would be nice if you write a review. I am glad your experience onboard was as good as always. Unfortunately I cannot say the same about the Pursuit. 

[Bloodaxe]

Excellent report has usual, Journey has always been our favourite probably because it was our first Azamara in 2008 but it has been a few years since we were onboard.

Our recent cruises have been on Quest and Pursuit which we enjoyed but not quite has much.

Nothing booked at the moment but have a few under consideration, like you and others we are not happy with current pricing but you never know.

Edited December 16, 2019 by Bloodaxe

[hamrag]

4 hours ago, uktog said:

So it is a week since we landed back home like many from our three cruises, hit by a temperature drop and now the chaos that we manage to create around our Christmas plans. The time gap has given us time to reflect on our cruises and here is our summary......

 

......So the question for everyone is what matters to you - food, comfort and service rather than entertainment and add ons are the key for us.  Will we be back on Azamara again beyond whats booked?   Based on the experiences we had onboard it should be a yes, but and yes its a huge but, having been burned again on pricing games on these cruises and seeing eye watering prices for even ocean views at present for 2021, we sadly cannot see that happening.  

 

It was interesting on all three cruises Azamara had reached out to a new audience, 66% or so first timers each cruise.  One side effect of this, you get to chat to people with different perspectives.  Some clearly really were large ship people and the test failed for many of them, but several also introduced us to what we might enjoy on other lines (both small or slightly larger ships).

 

Time will tell......

We were part of the 66% first timers, but Az has not wowed us...that said, at the right pricing and itinerary we would return and we have no regrets and thoroughly enjoyed the cruise overall. They position themselves at the top end of the premium, and might even believe they creep into the luxury, market....we respectfully disagree.

 

For us, Crystal have a far superior product at similar pricing and we didn't think Az were any better than the best of other mass cruiselines e.g. HAL, Cunard or Celebrity. An emerging favourite of ours is MSC Yacht Club, far superior to Az, which is an enclave within a ship i.e. similar to NCL Haven but at sensible pricing approximating and usually less than Az. The beauty of it is that the big ship experience is still there when you choose to have it, but then you can return to the sanctuary of the Yacht Club which has it's own restaurant, huge lounge facility and pool deck area....all for around 250 guests on a ship of 4000 or thereabouts. For us, that gives the best of both worlds....check it out!

[uktog]

8 minutes ago, hamrag said:

We were part of the 66% first timers, but Az has not wowed us...that said, at the right pricing and itinerary we would return and we have no regrets and thoroughly enjoyed the cruise overall. They position themselves at the top end of the premium, and might even believe they creep into the luxury, market....we respectfully disagree.

 

For us, Crystal have a far superior product at similar pricing and we didn't think Az were any better than the best of other mass cruiselines e.g. HAL, Cunard or Celebrity. An emerging favourite of ours is MSC Yacht Club, far superior to Az, which is an enclave within a ship i.e. similar to NCL Haven but at sensible pricing approximating and usually less than Az. The beauty of it is that the big ship experience is still there when you choose to have it, but then you can return to the sanctuary of the Yacht Club which has it's own restaurant, huge lounge facility and pool deck area....all for around 250 guests on a ship of 4000 or thereabouts. For us, that gives the best of both worlds....check it out!

Thanks, MSC Yacht Club, Crystal and Oceania were the three names that kept on coming up in conversations onboard.  Having done research, I can see why.  

I agree they are not a luxury line, but I thinks sometimes its the agents not the line itself that uses that "handle".

[Werangels]

3 hours ago, hamrag said:

We were part of the 66% first timers, but Az has not wowed us...that said, at the right pricing and itinerary we would return and we have no regrets and thoroughly enjoyed the cruise overall. They position themselves at the top end of the premium, and might even believe they creep into the luxury, market....we respectfully disagree.

 

For us, Crystal have a far superior product at similar pricing and we didn't think Az were any better than the best of other mass cruiselines e.g. HAL, Cunard or Celebrity. An emerging favourite of ours is MSC Yacht Club, far superior to Az, which is an enclave within a ship i.e. similar to NCL Haven but at sensible pricing approximating and usually less than Az. The beauty of it is that the big ship experience is still there when you choose to have it, but then you can return to the sanctuary of the Yacht Club which has it's own restaurant, huge lounge facility and pool deck area....all for around 250 guests on a ship of 4000 or thereabouts. For us, that gives the best of both worlds....check it out!

Interesting.  We did our first ever cruise this Summer and chose Azamara on the itinerary and size of ship.  Do MSC have interesting itineraries or do they tend to be run of the mill?  Thanks.

[hamrag]

45 minutes ago, Werangels said:

Interesting.  We did our first ever cruise this Summer and chose Azamara on the itinerary and size of ship.  Do MSC have interesting itineraries or do they tend to be run of the mill?  Thanks.

I would say they are mostly run of the mill, certainly in the Med and Caribbean. The best itineraries and value in YC are repositioning cruises....we have 12 nights booked on Meraviglia for October 2020 which transitions from NYC to Miami, via the Caribbean. It does some Canada/NE cruises prior to that.

 

What MSC do is match your best cruise status into their Voyager Club and, even at low levels of Voyager status, that entitles you to 5% credit. They also have what they call 'Voyages Selection Departures' for which you get an additional 5, 10 or 15% discount plus $50 OBC for each passenger. The cruise I mention is 5% plus 15% discount so, in addition to an automatic 11% discount from the web TA which I use, we have a 30% total discount on that cruise!

[Werangels]

12 minutes ago, hamrag said:

I would say they are mostly run of the mill, certainly in the Med and Caribbean. The best itineraries and value in YC are repositioning cruises....we have 12 nights booked on Meraviglia for October 2020 which transitions from NYC to Miami, via the Caribbean. It does some Canada/NE cruises prior to that.

 

What MSC do is match your best cruise status into their Voyager Club and, even at low levels of Voyager status, that entitles you to 5% credit. They also have what they call 'Voyages Selection Departures' for which you get an additional 5, 10 or 15% discount plus $50 OBC for each passenger. The cruise I mention is 5% plus 15% discount so, in addition to an automatic 11% discount from the web TA which I use, we have a 30% total discount on that cruise!

Thank you.  Great discount!

[StartrainDD]

Thank you Uktog for the cruise report.  We were also on the 16 days and were part of the 66% new to Azamara.  We were rather "Wowed" by most aspects.  No, we did not witness some of the unpleasantries mentioned early the second segment.  Not at all to hijack your thread but my log/reviews have been posted.  How we came to be on board with you is a bit of a story in itself.

 

Long story short, we were booked on the Celebrity Xpedition in the Galapagos over Thanksgiving (2019).  Two weeks before our sailing the Xpedition ran aground so our cruise was canceled (we rebooked for 2021).  We had vacation time planned and needed a quick "Plan B."  There were four options (2 HAL, 1 "X", and the Azamara Journey).  We chose the Journey as it went to ports we have not been to before and we wanted to try something different.  We did a B2B, first a nine night Miami - San Juan and then a seven night RT San Juan.  If you are interested in the log/reviews here are the links:

 

11-21 sailing:  https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=672279&et_cid=3214772&et_rid=268596365&et_referrer

11-30 sailing:  https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=672280&et_cid=3214772&et_rid=268596365&et_referrer

 

I also posted to the general Azamara board that these reviews were posted.  All the best!

[StartrainDD]

I forgot, one other comment.  We pretty much gave up on ship's shore excursions years ago.  Some times the same thing happened (canceled last minute) and other times the price is just so crazy compared to a private tour that even if it is OBC why pay 4-5 times the local price?  We did do one ships excursion (the photo tour in Barbados) which actually was very good.  Pretty sure it only ran as folks from canceled tours hopped on it to give us 17 people on the tour.

 

We were just looking at a port on our April cruise (not Azamara) and what we can do independently for less than 40 british pounds the cruise line wants $189/pp.  Exactly the same outing!