Azamara: should I take the plunge?

[rizello]

Hello:

 

I am a relatively new cruiser.  I have taken one Carnival cruise many years ago, and then most recently a Viking ocean and river cruise.  I really enjoyed Viking a lot as most things are included, the ship is nice and quiet, and rooms are large with balconies, etc.

 

But, it looks like Azamara offers some different opportunities that other cruise lines don't.  I see the variety in dining options, the Azamazing excursion, White Nights, etc. 

 

I have read many of the posts on CruiseCritic and watched videos to get a feel for the ships, how things work, etc.  I really was spoiled by Viking with all balcony rooms, large rooms, generous bathrooms, included excursions, free wi fi, etc.

 

I admit the Azamara rooms seemed smaller and the bathrooms especially.  So, I'm hoping to hear from veteran Azamara cruisers who have done other lines.  Should I give Azamara a try?  What do you think is the big difference?  Or is there really no substantial difference and I should focus on itinerary to determine a cruise line?  (I have also looked at Oceania but their pricing structure seems way too confusing.)

 

Thanks for considering this post.  I appreciate all input.  

 

 

[alcpa1]

We are rather experienced cruisers and are itinerary driven.

Yes the regular balcony cabins are small. The bathrooms are even smaller BUT the itineraries are why we sail.

The unique itineraries, the overnights and the onboard ambiance are the lines strongest selling points.

We haven't been on Azamara since Covid but will be back onboard in the spring.

We also sail Oceania and the key to booking your first sailing is to find one of their preferred or connoisseur agents who can demystify the booking process. Oceania also sails R class ships with the same construction as Azamara plus two larger ships with a third type sailing in '23. 

We've sailed other lines but not Viking. Viking has static itineraries, no children, and no casino.

You can take cruise line tours on Azamara and Oceania of course. We always research our ports and book independent excursions. In 35+ years of cruising we have only booked a handful of ships excursions. Because of the smaller passenger counts the A and O excursions tend to be for fewer passengers too. 

Find a cruise travel agent who knows both lines. Book and enjoy......................

[Nippy Sweetie]

We're just on our first Azamara cruise right now and really wishing we were back on Viking. The comparison is interesting and maybe says more about us than anything though. The uncluttered comfort of Viking taken together with all its inclusions and the way you feel really looked after certainly beats Azamara so far. 

Edited October 11, 2022 by Nippy Sweetie

[uktog]

We are currently enjoying 2 12 night cruises on Azamara and have used them many times but have also sailed Viking and will do so again in 2023 purely driven by itinerary. 
We liked Viking and could see a lot of merit in the additional space but found their crew less engaged and the experience much less personal. Viking do not seem to have the capacity to react to situations as Azamara do. For example on Viking they cancelled two ports so we had four consecutive sea days. Locals were amazed in both ports the vessel did not arrive. Azamara had an issue with one port (same part of the world) but found a solution of an alternative port. 
The food on Viking was acceptable but not as diverse as on Azamara. 
I would agree Viking rooms are better but how long do you stay in your room?

[Riocca]

7 minutes ago, uktog said:

We are currently enjoying 2 12 night cruises on Azamara and have used them many times but have also sailed Viking and will do so again in 2023 purely driven by itinerary. 
We liked Viking and could see a lot of merit in the additional space but found their crew less engaged and the experience much less personal. Viking do not seem to have the capacity to react to situations as Azamara do. For example on Viking they cancelled two ports so we had four consecutive sea days. Locals were amazed in both ports the vessel did not arrive. Azamara had an issue with one port (same part of the world) but found a solution of an alternative port. 
The food on Viking was acceptable but not as diverse as on Azamara. 
I would agree Viking rooms are better but how long do you stay in your room?

Very fair assessment of our experience of Viking versus Azamara, on Quest recently at the Captains Q&A we were told there’s always a plan B & C for every port especially those known to present potential problems where they may have a plan D as well.

[Nippy Sweetie]

The ship itself matters to us. The Scandinavian design is to our taste as is the food. Pleasant staff who are efficient also suit us. 

Viking river cruises are also excellent with beautiful, well designed ships. Very well organised throughout the travel experience.

[wjfan417]

We cruise with Azamara because of the officers and crew! Everyone is so friendly and helpful. We’ve been on other cruises where the Captain never engaged with the passengers, and Azamara Captains are always around and approachable. It also seems like passengers are a lot friendlier. 

[Vivasea]

After cruising with various companies we tried Azamara - wow - never looked back now 13 cruises and two more in April.  Wonderful friendly crew and officers - helpful and happy - you will have great time and wonderful memories.  If you can book a Continental Suite .

[Mackdogmolly]

2 hours ago, Vivasea said:

you will have great time and wonderful memories.  If you can book a Continental Suite .

Or even if you can't! 🙂

[lisiamc]

We still cruise with other lines sometimes, but Azamara is definitely our favourite. I think it is the crew and the officers that make it special for us.

[federalexpress]

Perhaps I shouldn't be commenting because I've not even cruised on Azamara- first time will be this January-but my choice happened to be between Viking and Azamara for my S America trip. The main reason for going with AZ was that Viking pre package their flights but were totally uncompetitive on Business class upgrades and if I wanted to book myself, the fare reduction was very meagre, only £500, and I can't believe they are paying as little as that for Economy class fares between London and Santiago/Buenos Aires.

 

The Viking ships looked wonderful, I like the Scandi vibe. Azamara looks more to me like one of those ever so slightly faded country house hotels, but I like that vibe too. Like you, the smaller cabins didn't appeal, but the extra money for a CC suite still brought it in at roughly the same price as a Viking Veranda cabin so that swung it for me. Not that it's easy to tell from websites etc, but I also got the impression that AZ may be a little less formal, a bit more relaxed, which also suits me.

[federalexpress]

2 minutes ago, federalexpress said:

Perhaps I shouldn't be commenting because I've not even cruised on Azamara- first time will be this January-but my choice happened to be between Viking and Azamara for my S America trip. The main reason for going with AZ was that Viking pre package their flights but were totally uncompetitive on Business class upgrades and if I wanted to book myself, the fare reduction was very meagre, only £500, and I can't believe they are paying as little as that for Economy class fares between London and Santiago/Buenos Aires.

 

The Viking ships looked wonderful, I like the Scandi vibe. Azamara looks more to me like one of those ever so slightly faded country house hotels, but I like that vibe too. Like you, the smaller cabins didn't appeal, but the extra money for a CC suite still brought it in at roughly the same price as a Viking Veranda cabin so that swung it for me. Not that it's easy to tell from websites etc, but I also got the impression that AZ may be a little less formal, a bit more relaxed, which also suits me.

 

I forgot to add that I also got $1000 OBC which I'm using against an Indulgence package which means I pay an extra $500. That gives me $700 for some shore excursions(most I'll arrange myself), free wifi (to the extent it works) $250 spa credit, free laundry, a chef's table event and, most importantly, an upgraded drinks package, so I'll get wines at least as good as Viking, if not better. And I'm still some way below the Viking veranda price. Tbh, I think Viking is a more premium line than AZ but there are things you can do with Az to somewhat mirror the experience.

[Riocca]

3 hours ago, Nippy Sweetie said:

You're right I shouldn't have to justify my preference nevertheless it seems like you're not allowed to criticise Azamara on this forum!

It’s not that you’re not allowed to criticise but you have to accept why others choose a cruise line. As they say there’s a cruise line for everyone you just have to find the one you like best and human nature is to defend your choice. We have tried almost 20 lines over the years and Azamara is the one that suits us best. Friends love NCL we really didn’t but that’s their choice and it’s fine, we’ve been on Viking both oceans and river wouldn’t rule them out but only for the right itinerary. For us as Viking have new bigger ships there is more space but we found them bland, management was weak and unresponsive and main restaurant food was always served cold, on the up side thought the Chef’s Table was fantastic.

[montythecat]

Our experience is based on two Viking cruises pre-COVID and five on Azamara 

in the last twelve months. We have two bookings on Viking for 2023 (one a river).
My advice would be to definitely try both. They have different strengths and

weaknesses and we love both of them. Itineraries will, for us, always be the

final determining factor with cost following close behind. 

Azamara’s intensive cruises where they concentrate on a relatively small

geographical area are very imaginative if you want to learn a lot about perhaps 

just one or two countries. I do like newer ships, if possible, which might tip the

balance towards Viking, but only where the above caveats are taken into

account. Arguably, Azamara is probably more fun.

I think food and service are of an equally high standard.

[boxman52]

Done both.

The Viking ships are much better. I'd say in every regard

There is more included in Viking

The food was nicer on Viking

The staff seemed to be friendlier on Azamara

The events on Azamara are good, they make a big effort and it shows

More to do on Viking on board during the evening

Both have merits

We look at itinerary and price and make our choice

 

[lisiamc]

We like Viking as well, but Azamara is our favourite. It’s just got a certain charm that Viking doesn’t quite have. I also prefer the food on Azamara, but food and charm are both very subjective. Torshavn on the Viking ships is a great night spot, and the Viking bars have a better selection of premium rums and other spirits. 

[Storylady]

We just came back from our first Azamara Cruises. We are experienced sailors and our preferred line is Holland America. When Viking jumped into ocean cruising, we thought we would take a Viking cruise. But I quickly realized that their itineraries are cookie cutter itineraries. They go to all the same ports that the big ships do. They build a ship for an itinerary. As for their free excursions, we have done all of them on previous cruises.

 

The reason we didn’t sail on Azamara before as we were aware of them since 2008, was we sailed on the Prinsendam which was actually built by the owner of Viking Cruises. But unlike Viking, the Prinsendam went to lots of small ports all over Europe and South America. You could stay on her for several months with very few repeat ports. Unfortunately HAL sold her in 2019.

 

So we looked at Viking again. Unfortunately for us their itineraries are not exciting. So we tried Azamara, booking their Continental Club Suite which came with a butler. The butler was like a concierge on HAL. He booked shore excursions, restaurant reservations. Our room was much larger than the 175 sq Ft balcony/veranda rooms. We were very pleased with it. The itineraries for both cruises included 4 on the first cruiseand 5 ports on the second we have never been to. They also included two long shore excursions that I have never seen offered before. The one from Kusadasi which we have visited numerous times took us to Pamukkale and Hieropolis. And the second tour took us to Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Both tours were great as were the others we took. All the new ports were great.

 

As suite people we had use of the speciality restaurants for no fee. All the wine onboard is free. If you would like a better wine than the house wine, you can buy a package. We also loved their Windows Cafe which quite often had a set menu for say, France, Germany, Greece, Grest Britain.

 
I can’t comment on the shows and other entertainment as we were still being careful due to covid still lurking about. Also, we have seen so many shows over our almost 20 years of cruising that we are interested anymore. Same is true of the speakers, plus 10 port calls does leave much time for speakers.

 

We loved the White Nights even though, we aren’t party people. Our first White Night was Santorini and it was a perfect evening for the event. We found a perfect table overlooking the Pool area. I must also add, we are not young so partying into the night wasn’t for us.

 

They also have a wonderful library. Azamara speciality is immersive cruises. On our Greek Cruise, we visited 9 Greek ports, plus Turkey. On our Mediterranean East Cruise, we visited Slovenia, four ports of call in Croatia (Pula, Zadar, Hvar and Dubrovnik), Montenegro and two more Greek Islands. Another thing we noticed was that Azamara doesn’t often dock in industrial ports. We docked on the Main Street of Thessaloniki. And the real plus was we anchored off the old port of Dubrovnik. We were lucky we did as another Azamara ship had to dock at the new port. We were told, they dock in downtown Seville, Bordeaux and several other cities due to their size.

 

You won’t be disappointed in Azamara, especially if you are interested in seeing unusual places. 

 

 

[Mackdogmolly]

So glad you like your first Azamara cruise! Thanks for your report.

[takemewithyou]

@StoryladyI remember you from the Holland America board.  Welcome to Azamara!  I never got to go on the Prinsendam.  I always wanted to!  I understand it was a very special beautiful ship!  
I loved your remarks about your first Azamara cruise.  I think you captured the Azamara experience perfectly!   
 

[Baynanno1]

"They also have a wonderful library."

 

They do indeed, on Quest, Journey and Pursuit.

Onward has a cocktail bar in the former library space and a miniscule "library" in the Living room.

[Host Jazzbeau]

6 hours ago, Storylady said:

They also have a wonderful library. Azamara speciality is immersive cruises.

One thing I discovered on Journey earlier this month is that they also have a comprehensive collection of Travel Guidebooks located in the Den near the Cruise Again desk.  They seem to have every book in every series (Rick Steves, Insight, Fodors, you name it).  On our destination-intensive itinerary there wasn't any time to study them, but on a transoceanic cruise I would be spending a lot of time among those books dreaming of the 'next' (collective noun...) cruise!

 

Here's a picture from Pursuit showing just the tip of the Guidebook iceberg.  Everything from this bookcase to the starboard corridor is similar bookcases full of travel books!  They're below eye level, so I only noticed them when cooling my heels waiting for Shore Excursions to open...

[lisiamc]

8 hours ago, Baynanno1 said:

"They also have a wonderful library."

 

They do indeed, on Quest, Journey and Pursuit.

Onward has a cocktail bar in the former library space and a miniscule "library" in the Living room.

I have been told that more books and more shelving have been ordered for the new library area in the side of the Living Room. We are on board next month, and I will report. I like the “library everywhere” concept on Viking, and wonder if Azamara could go a bit more down that route.

[Storylady]

23 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

One thing I discovered on Journey earlier this month is that they also have a comprehensive collection of Travel Guidebooks located in the Den near the Cruise Again desk.  They seem to have every book in every series (Rick Steves, Insight, Fodors, you name it).  On our destination-intensive itinerary there wasn't any time to study them, but on a transoceanic cruise I would be spending a lot of time among those books dreaming of the 'next' (collective noun...) cruise!

 

Here's a picture from Pursuit showing just the tip of the Guidebook iceberg.  Everything from this bookcase to the starboard corridor is similar bookcases full of travel books!  They're below eye level, so I only noticed them when cooling my heels waiting for Shore Excursions to open...

Alan discovered the travel books about when our cruise ended. Glad to see Azamara values books!

 

P.S. We had a wonderful time cruising with you. Thanks for hosting the wonderful Cruise Critic M&M on our 2nd cruise.

[dcsam]

We’ve cruised aboard both.  While we enjoy Azamara, Viking is our favorite.  Love their walk-around promenade deck, space ratio per person, food, and the ship layout.  I’d rate them:

1.  Viking

2. Oceania

3.  Azamara

 

We haven’t cruised with Seabourn yet. 

[Storylady]

17 hours ago, Storylady said:

Alan discovered the travel books about when our cruise ended. Glad to see Azamara values books!

 

P.S. We had a wonderful time cruising with you. Thanks for hosting the wonderful Cruise Critic M&M on our 2nd cruise.

 

On 10/28/2022 at 10:28 AM, Storylady said:

We just came back from our first Azamara Cruises. We are experienced sailors and our preferred line is Holland America. When Viking jumped into ocean cruising, we thought we would take a Viking cruise. But I quickly realized that their itineraries are cookie cutter itineraries. They go to all the same ports that the big ships do. They build a ship for an itinerary. As for their free excursions, we have done all of them on previous cruises.

 

The reason we didn’t sail on Azamara before as we were aware of them since 2008, was we sailed on the Prinsendam which was actually built by the owner of Viking Cruises. But unlike Viking, the Prinsendam went to lots of small ports all over Europe and South America. You could stay on her for several months with very few repeat ports. Unfortunately HAL sold her in 2019.

 

So we looked at Viking again. Unfortunately for us their itineraries are not exciting. So we tried Azamara, booking their Continental Club Suite which came with a butler. The butler was like a concierge on HAL. He booked shore excursions, restaurant reservations. Our room was much larger than the 175 sq Ft balcony/veranda rooms. We were very pleased with it. The itineraries for both cruises included 4 on the first cruiseand 5 ports on the second we have never been to. They also included two long shore excursions that I have never seen offered before. The one from Kusadasi which we have visited numerous times took us to Pamukkale and Hieropolis. And the second tour took us to Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Both tours were great as were the others we took. All the new ports were great.

 

As suite people we had use of the speciality restaurants for no fee. All the wine onboard is free. If you would like a better wine than the house wine, you can buy a package. We also loved their Windows Cafe which quite often had a set menu for say, France, Germany, Greece, Grest Britain.

 
I can’t comment on the shows and other entertainment as we were still being careful due to covid still lurking about. Also, we have seen so many shows over our almost 20 years of cruising that we are interested anymore. Same is true of the speakers, plus 10 port calls does leave much time for speakers.

 

We loved the White Nights even though, we aren’t party people. Our first White Night was Santorini and it was a perfect evening for the event. We found a perfect table overlooking the Pool area. I must also add, we are not young so partying into the night wasn’t for us.

 

They also have a wonderful library. Azamara speciality is immersive cruises. On our Greek Cruise, we visited 9 Greek ports, plus Turkey. On our Mediterranean East Cruise, we visited Slovenia, four ports of call in Croatia (Pula, Zadar, Hvar and Dubrovnik), Montenegro and two more Greek Islands. Another thing we noticed was that Azamara doesn’t often dock in industrial ports. We docked on the Main Street of Thessaloniki. And the real plus was we anchored off the old port of Dubrovnik. We were lucky we did as another Azamara ship had to dock at the new port. We were told, they dock in downtown Seville, Bordeaux and several other cities due to their size.

 

You won’t be disappointed in Azamara, especially if you are interested in seeing unusual places. 

 

 

Thanks everyone for the likes. I really appreciate your liking my review and recommendation to try. Azamara. I. Hope you all realizes, I left out “not” interested in shows and “not” interested in port talks and speakers, especially on a short cruise. 
 

I also made another mistake. We visited 3 Greek Islands on our second cruise. Corfu (the only day in two months it rained), Zakinthos and 

On 10/28/2022 at 10:28 AM, Storylady said:

We just came back from our first Azamara Cruises. We are experienced sailors and our preferred line is Holland America. When Viking jumped into ocean cruising, we thought we would take a Viking cruise. But I quickly realized that their itineraries are cookie cutter itineraries. They go to all the same ports that the big ships do. They build a ship for an itinerary. As for their free excursions, we have done all of them on previous cruises.

 

The reason we didn’t sail on Azamara before as we were aware of them since 2008, was we sailed on the Prinsendam which was actually built by the owner of Viking Cruises. But unlike Viking, the Prinsendam went to lots of small ports all over Europe and South America. You could stay on her for several months with very few repeat ports. Unfortunately HAL sold her in 2019.

 

So we looked at Viking again. Unfortunately for us their itineraries are not exciting. So we tried Azamara, booking their Continental Club Suite which came with a butler. The butler was like a concierge on HAL. He booked shore excursions, restaurant reservations. Our room was much larger than the 175 sq Ft balcony/veranda rooms. We were very pleased with it. The itineraries for both cruises included 4 on the first cruiseand 5 ports on the second we have never been to. They also included two long shore excursions that I have never seen offered before. The one from Kusadasi which we have visited numerous times took us to Pamukkale and Hieropolis. And the second tour took us to Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Both tours were great as were the others we took. All the new ports were great.

 

As suite people we had use of the speciality restaurants for no fee. All the wine onboard is free. If you would like a better wine than the house wine, you can buy a package. We also loved their Windows Cafe which quite often had a set menu for say, France, Germany, Greece, Grest Britain.

 
I can’t comment on the shows and other entertainment as we were still being careful due to covid still lurking about. Also, we have seen so many shows over our almost 20 years of cruising that we are interested anymore. Same is true of the speakers, plus 10 port calls does leave much time for speakers.

 

We loved the White Nights even though, we aren’t party people. Our first White Night was Santorini and it was a perfect evening for the event. We found a perfect table overlooking the Pool area. I must also add, we are not young so partying into the night wasn’t for us.

 

They also have a wonderful library. Azamara speciality is immersive cruises. On our Greek Cruise, we visited 9 Greek ports, plus Turkey. On our Mediterranean East Cruise, we visited Slovenia, four ports of call in Croatia (Pula, Zadar, Hvar and Dubrovnik), Montenegro and two more Greek Islands. Another thing we noticed was that Azamara doesn’t often dock in industrial ports. We docked on the Main Street of Thessaloniki. And the real plus was we anchored off the old port of Dubrovnik. We were lucky we did as another Azamara ship had to dock at the new port. We were told, they dock in downtown Seville, Bordeaux and several other cities due to their size.

 

You won’t be disappointed in Azamara, especially if you are interested in seeing unusual places. 

 

 

Thanks everyone for the likes. I really appreciate your liking my review and recommendation to try. Azamara. I. Hope you all realizes, I forgot to include “not” interested in shows and “not” interested in speakers on short cruises with hardly any sea days.

 

I also missed a Greek island on our 2nd cruise. We actually visited 3 Greek islands, “Corfu, Zakinthos and Kelafonia. We had been to Corfu numerous times, but not Zakinthos and Kelafonia. Both were very interesting and in both, we were in short walking distance of town. I must add Zakinthos was a tender port. With less than 500 onboard, it doesn’t take long to tender.

 

Also, I for got to add that the suite comes with 240 minutes of free WI-FI. I used those in conjunction with T-Mobile which by the way in Greece was 5 G. Also, we got a free bag of laundry and one free pressing for the room on each cruise. We also received a bottle of champagne which we exchanged for a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. We also could have had liquor, but we quickly realized we weren’t going to drink it so we returned it. 
 

When I said experienced travelers, I was referring to almost 20 years of cruises. “So when I look at itineraries, I am interested in ports we have never visited”. Viking and also Oceania, except for their World Cruises, don’t fit the bill for us. As they visit the same ports of call that our preferred line goes to. There I get a suite for the same price as Viking, plus other amenities due to the number of years I cruised with them. If you haven’t been cruising long, pick a cruise line you are comfortable with and at reasonable price. But if you are looking for a small ship experience (which we love), great itineraries specializing in one country, friendly staff (waiters are basically from the Philippines), a ship without long lines to board and disembark, great shore excursions, great restaurants, visible officers and less people to get COVID from, you can’t go wrong with Azamara. Seaborn has great itineraries also, but they are a luxury cruise line thus you are paying more for the same experience. And for those who want free shore excursions, you might consider Regent (another luxury cruise line). All of their shore excursions are free, not just the 2-3 hour highlight tours.