New to Azamara - Some Questions

[OfTheSeasCruiser]

Hello all!

 

We are new to Azamara and are considering a Mediterranean sailing on the Pursuit in 2024. I've been perusing the Tips for Newbies thread and have narrowed down to a few questions.

 

We cruised with Royal Caribbean for many years, but have moved on from them. We tried Celebrity this past year and loved it. We were hoping to sail with them in the Med, but am having a hard time finding an itinerary that fits in our budget and in our timing. Azamara caught our attention because they seem to have great service and we love the port intensive itinerary. A few questions:

 

1. We were in AquaClass on X and loved the experience in Blu. We had a lovely server and a great bar server/sommelier with great recommendations for wines as well as cocktails. For anyone familiar with X/Blu, can we generally expect a similar experience in the Discoveries Restaurant? I understand no one can predict service levels, but just trying to get an idea of the Azamara experience.

2. The sailing we are looking at includes a Premium Beverage Package as part of the promo. I found the liquors and beers that would be included. Can you confirm what wines are included?

3. If we like to try different wines every night, should we consider upgrading to the Ultimate Beverage Package? Am I correct that it would cost us $7/person/day and that not everyone in the cabin has to upgrade? How/when would we process the upgrade?

 

Thanks in advance! 

 

[takemewithyou]

52 minutes ago, OfTheSeasCruiser said:

Hello all!

 

We are new to Azamara and are considering a Mediterranean sailing on the Pursuit in 2024. I've been perusing the Tips for Newbies thread and have narrowed down to a few questions.

 

We cruised with Royal Caribbean for many years, but have moved on from them. We tried Celebrity this past year and loved it. We were hoping to sail with them in the Med, but am having a hard time finding an itinerary that fits in our budget and in our timing. Azamara caught our attention because they seem to have great service and we love the port intensive itinerary. A few questions:

 

1. We were in AquaClass on X and loved the experience in Blu. We had a lovely server and a great bar server/sommelier with great recommendations for wines as well as cocktails. For anyone familiar with X/Blu, can we generally expect a similar experience in the Discoveries Restaurant? I understand no one can predict service levels, but just trying to get an idea of the Azamara experience.

2. The sailing we are looking at includes a Premium Beverage Package as part of the promo. I found the liquors and beers that would be included. Can you confirm what wines are included?

3. If we like to try different wines every night, should we consider upgrading to the Ultimate Beverage Package? Am I correct that it would cost us $7/person/day and that not everyone in the cabin has to upgrade? How/when would we process the upgrade?

 

Thanks in advance! 

 

1.  Yes, I would say the experience in Discoveries would be similar to Blu.  Once you find a waiter you like, you can request that waiter when you dine in Discoveries and they can usually accommodate that.  We also always loved Blu and Aquaclass on X.

2. The Premium package does not include any wines beyond what it is in the complimentary selection.  If you want upgraded wines, you will need to go to the Ultimate Package, bring your own (for $10 corkage fee currently)  or purchase upgraded wines by the bottle from the sommelier.

3.  Yes, it should cost $7 pp extra per day and not everyone In cabin had to upgrade.  You can not upgrade until you are on the ship and that is of benefit to you because you can see exactly what wines on the Ultimate Package they actually have on the ship.  Sometimes, there are substitutions and they may not be what you expect!

[nordski]

41 minutes ago, takemewithyou said:

1.  Yes, I would say the experience in Discoveries would be similar to Blu.  Once you find a waiter you like, you can request that waiter when you dine in Discoveries and they can usually accommodate that.  We also always loved Blu and Aquaclass on X.

2. The Premium package does not include any wines beyond what it is in the complimentary selection.  If you want upgraded wines, you will need to go to the Ultimate Package, bring your own (for $10 corkage fee currently)  or purchase upgraded wines by the bottle from the sommelier.

3.  Yes, it should cost $7 pp extra per day and not everyone In cabin had to upgrade.  You can not upgrade until you are on the ship and that is of benefit to you because you can see exactly what wines on the Ultimate Package they actually have on the ship.  Sometimes, there are substitutions and they may not be what you expect!

takemewithyou has provided excellent guidance.

 

I would only add that our last experience in Blu   (Eclipse early 2020) was rather different than previous ones.

 

It seemed that they wished to limit the area used by diners, so we were limited in where we could sit (mostly at the windows) resulting in rather cramped quarters. Secondly, we struggled somewhat to communicate with the Maître D concerning food allergies.

 

Given those issues although we previously would have ranked Blu as almost equivalent to Discoveries, that particular experience did not live up to that assessment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[OfTheSeasCruiser]

3 hours ago, takemewithyou said:

1.  Yes, I would say the experience in Discoveries would be similar to Blu.  Once you find a waiter you like, you can request that waiter when you dine in Discoveries and they can usually accommodate that.  We also always loved Blu and Aquaclass on X.

2. The Premium package does not include any wines beyond what it is in the complimentary selection.  If you want upgraded wines, you will need to go to the Ultimate Package, bring your own (for $10 corkage fee currently)  or purchase upgraded wines by the bottle from the sommelier.

3.  Yes, it should cost $7 pp extra per day and not everyone In cabin had to upgrade.  You can not upgrade until you are on the ship and that is of benefit to you because you can see exactly what wines on the Ultimate Package they actually have on the ship.  Sometimes, there are substitutions and they may not be what you expect!

Thank you very much for the response. This is helpful. Happy to hear Discoveries is like Blu. It was a highlight of our Millennium cruise.

[Edinburghgirl1]

10 hours ago, OfTheSeasCruiser said:

Hello all!

 

We are new to Azamara and are considering a Mediterranean sailing on the Pursuit in 2024. I've been perusing the Tips for Newbies thread and have narrowed down to a few questions.

 

We cruised with Royal Caribbean for many years, but have moved on from them. We tried Celebrity this past year and loved it. We were hoping to sail with them in the Med, but am having a hard time finding an itinerary that fits in our budget and in our timing. Azamara caught our attention because they seem to have great service and we love the port intensive itinerary. A few questions:

 

1. We were in AquaClass on X and loved the experience in Blu. We had a lovely server and a great bar server/sommelier with great recommendations for wines as well as cocktails. For anyone familiar with X/Blu, can we generally expect a similar experience in the Discoveries Restaurant? I understand no one can predict service levels, but just trying to get an idea of the Azamara experience.

2. The sailing we are looking at includes a Premium Beverage Package as part of the promo. I found the liquors and beers that would be included. Can you confirm what wines are included?

3. If we like to try different wines every night, should we consider upgrading to the Ultimate Beverage Package? Am I correct that it would cost us $7/person/day and that not everyone in the cabin has to upgrade? How/when would we process the upgrade?

 

Thanks in advance! 

 

We sailed with Azamara for the fist time in November and have previously sailed Celebrity  mainly in Aqua Class last time being April 2022 .  In terms of the ambience Discoveries is nothing like Blu. Blu is more comparable to a speciality restaurant in that it’s small and more intimate whereas Discoveries  is more comparable to the main dining room on any cruise ship large and can be noisy. In terms of service in Discoveries   we found this overall pretty good and comparable to Celebrity and as others have said if you find a server you like ask to be placed in their area. We were in a Club Continent suite which meant we could have breakfast in Aqualina,  one of the speciality restaurants , and that gave us the Blu experience. 

Edited January 2, 2023 by Edinburghgirl1

[OfTheSeasCruiser]

2 hours ago, Edinburghgirl1 said:

We sailed with Azamara for the fist time in November and have previously sailed Celebrity  mainly in Aqua Class last time being April 2022 .  In terms of the ambience Discoveries is nothing like Blu. Blu is more comparable to a speciality restaurant in that it’s small and more intimate whereas Discoveries  is more comparable to the main dining room on any cruise ship large and can be noisy. In terms of service in Discoveries   we found this overall pretty good and comparable to Celebrity and as others have said if you find a server you like ask to be placed in their area. We were in a Club Continent suite which meant we could have breakfast in Aqualina,  one of the speciality restaurants , and that gave us the Blu experience. 

Thanks for the feedback. If Discoveries’ food and service are like Blu, I’ll be happy. 
 

Overall, how did you like Azamara compared to Celebrity?

[Edinburghgirl1]

4 hours ago, OfTheSeasCruiser said:

Thanks for the feedback. If Discoveries’ food and service are like Blu, I’ll be happy. 
 

Overall, how did you like Azamara compared to Celebrity

 

 

We thought the buffet on Azamara, although it had less choice than Celebrity,  the food was better quality. We loved the Patio for lunch much better than the Mast Grill on Celebrity. The food in the MDR was on a par with Celebrity   and the service. The ship was a bit tired in places and lacking routine maintenance. The standard  cabins and their bathrooms are tiny so Celebrity is  better on that count. The pool area is tiny, as you would expect on a smaller ship , but I hated the way the loungers were crammed together. I tended to sunbathe up a deck in an area at the front if the ship where there was more room to move. The pool area was also devoid of any background music so not much atmosphere. It would appear that’s what most Azamara cruisers want from previous comments. Ours wasn’t a port intensive cruise so unless you played bridge or wanted to take part in an art class there wasn’t much going on round the until the trivia started at 3.00pm. The evening shows and guest entertainers were pretty good  as were the house band  and DJ. 
We enjoyed our cruise but overall due to lack of atmosphere  and more entertainment venues to chose from we would choose Celebrity over Azamara especially the Millennium class ship you were on. Hope this helps. 

[voyager1964]

24 minutes ago, Edinburghgirl1 said:

It would appear that’s what most Azamara cruisers want from previous comments.

If you go down the main page on Cruise Critic, you will see a long list of the members who happen to have a birthday today. It turns out that vast majority from this list over any given day in a year, are members with 0 posts. To me, this means that the tiny fraction of members with >0 posts is not a representative sample of the CC member population. Not to mention that the CC community itself is a tiny fraction of people who cruise, and may or may not be representative of the general "cruise" population..

[uktog]

13 minutes ago, voyager1964 said:

If you go down the main page on Cruise Critic, you will see a long list of the members who happen to have a birthday today. It turns out that vast majority from this list over any given day in a year, are members with 0 posts. To me, this means that the tiny fraction of members with >0 posts is not a representative sample of the CC member population. Not to mention that the CC community itself is a tiny fraction of people who cruise, and may or may not be representative of the general "cruise" population..

Good point 

To be fair, its not just cruise critic members though that influenced Azamara's decision.  Around the time of start up post covid, there was a lot of surveying of guests who had cruised with Azamara before and also non cruisers (probably accessed that group via Captains Club) a whole section was on pool entertainment.  The outcome was there was no change to the pre pandemic model - lunch time slots for entertainment on sea days only

[dabear]

Having cruised on both lines a number of times, IMHO Blu is more like a specialty restaurant on A and Discovery is more like the main dining rooms on X. Service usually is better on A since it's a smaller venue.

[D. B.]

We are going on Quest April 3-18,2023 for the Japan cruise. It will be our first experience with Azamara and we chose this one because it is port intensive. 

  I found out today that Azamara would no longer equal our Celebrity Captains Club Elite+ perks after February 1, 2023 because of the change of ownership.

   I look forward to our cruise and how we like it will determine if we sail with Azamara again.

[jelayne]

On 1/2/2023 at 4:35 AM, Edinburghgirl1 said:

We sailed with Azamara for the fist time in November and have previously sailed Celebrity  mainly in Aqua Class last time being April 2022 .  In terms of the ambience Discoveries is nothing like Blu. Blu is more comparable to a speciality restaurant in that it’s small and more intimate whereas Discoveries  is more comparable to the main dining room on any cruise ship large and can be noisy. In terms of service in Discoveries   we found this overall pretty good and comparable to Celebrity and as others have said if you find a server you like ask to be placed in their area. We were in a Club Continent suite which meant we could have breakfast in Aqualina,  one of the speciality restaurants , and that gave us the Blu experience. 

I agree.  Discoveries is comparable to the MDR noisy and we experienced waits for seating every night ranging from 15- 25 minutes, with one night 55 before the Hotel Director took pity on us.  We were not able to be seated in the same area for more than 2 nights.  

[Benthayer Gonbak]

9 hours ago, D. B. said:

We are going on Quest April 3-18,2023 for the Japan cruise. It will be our first experience with Azamara and we chose this one because it is port intensive. 

  I found out today that Azamara would no longer equal our Celebrity Captains Club Elite+ perks after February 1, 2023 because of the change of ownership.

   I look forward to our cruise and how we like it will determine if we sail with Azamara again.

There are several perks that Discoverer plus would give you like some free laundry and internet minutes. But, there are free internet promos and there are laundry facilities.

 

we really enjoyed our fall Japan in 2019, complete with a couple if routine typhone changes.   Hope you enjoy your trip.

[Grandma Cruising]

6 hours ago, jelayne said:

I agree.  Discoveries is comparable to the MDR noisy and we experienced waits for seating every night ranging from 15- 25 minutes, with one night 55 before the Hotel Director took pity on us.  We were not able to be seated in the same area for more than 2 nights.  

The wait for a table in Discoveries is very dependent on the time you arrive. On Quest recently there was a notice at the entry to Discoveries bar saying what times were likely to be busiest to help you avoid them.

[KevintheIrishDJ]

6 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

The wait for a table in Discoveries is very dependent on the time you arrive. On Quest recently there was a notice at the entry to Discoveries bar saying what times were likely to be busiest to help you avoid them.

Since we isolate, we requested a table in the corner (against a wall) by ourselves. We found one on the Dec. 1 cruise. Some times we got it, some times we didn't, until I gave the hostess a tip. On the Dec. 22 cruise we got it every night (we always arrived at 6PM).

[Mackdogmolly]

1 hour ago, KevintheIrishDJ said:

Since we isolate, we requested a table in the corner (against a wall) by ourselves. We found one on the Dec. 1 cruise. Some times we got it, some times we didn't, until I gave the hostess a tip. On the Dec. 22 cruise we got it every night (we always arrived at 6PM).

I’d like to think that tipping the hostess had nothing to do with it. Not really keeping with the Azamara ethos.

[marinaro44]

We ask for one of these four tables against the wall in the rear corners of Disvoveries as they are relatively private.  If one is available, we'll be given it.  Cannot imagine tipping the host or hostess.

[uktog]

Agree it’s nothing to do with tip it’s first come first served. And as you walk through the dining room with your escort if you see another table you’d prefer you can just ask to go there - for example if you’d then be adjacent to an acquaintance 

[KevintheIrishDJ]

23 hours ago, Mackdogmolly said:

I’d like to think that tipping the hostess had nothing to do with it. Not really keeping with the Azamara ethos.

It worked. We also tipped the wait staff and cabin steward. All were very happy.

[KevintheIrishDJ]

23 hours ago, marinaro44 said:

We ask for one of these four tables against the wall in the rear corners of Disvoveries as they are relatively private.  If one is available, we'll be given it.  Cannot imagine tipping the host or hostess.

The problem with the tables in the back is that there is traffic going by them.

[KevintheIrishDJ]

23 hours ago, uktog said:

Agree it’s nothing to do with tip it’s first come first served. And as you walk through the dining room with your escort if you see another table you’d prefer you can just ask to go there - for example if you’d then be adjacent to an acquaintance 

Then how do you explain before and after the tip?

[Edinburghgirl1]

37 minutes ago, KevintheIrishDJ said:

It worked. We also tipped the wait staff and cabin steward. All were very happy.

We also tipped wait staff and room steward and from speaking to others found we were in the minority and those that were leaving a tip for their room stewards the average was  less than a dollar a day  for a 14 night. cruise!!!  Most of the cruises I’ve been on have had tips included but I still like to tip extra especially to the room stewards. We always bring dollars specifically for this purpose. 

Edited January 8, 2023 by Edinburghgirl1

[JM0115]

Tipping is always so controversial but I am reminded of a trip to Africa many years ago. We went to a market and a young boy was selling a t-shirt with an elephant on it. I really liked it. He said it was $10. I thought that negotiation was normal so I offered $8.  He said, $10, because $2 means a lot more to me than it does to you!  I will never forget that.  People should tip what they feel comfortable doing, but I would personally be embarrassed to leave just a $14 tip! 

[Edinburghgirl1]

2 minutes ago, JM0115 said:

Tipping is always so controversial but I am reminded of a trip to Africa many years ago. We went to a market and a young boy was selling a t-shirt with an elephant on it. I really liked it. He said it was $10. I thought that negotiation was normal so I offered $8.  He said, $10, because $2 means a lot more to me than it does to you!  I will never forget that.  People should tip what they feel comfortable doing, but I would personally be embarrassed to leave just a $14 tip! 

Me too but many we spoke to were leaving their room steward $10 for a 14 night cruise with no hint of embarrassment. 

[JM0115]

3 minutes ago, Edinburghgirl1 said:

Me too but many we spoke to were leaving their room steward $10 for a 14 night cruise with no hint of embarrassment. 

Whatever you are comfortable with I guess.