Love it or leave it?

[capsplace]

We have a first time Azamara cruise scheduled for January 2024 to South Africa on the Pursuit, and are considering canceling.  We also have a pre cruise land safari package scheduled as well.   Recently, on a Celebrity cruise, DH was talking with two different sets of folks on differing occasions who recently cruised on Azamara and both had lots of negative remarks about all sorts of experiences, from food to ship conditions, service, and excursions.  Please share thoughts on why we should NOT cancel.  Thanks in advance.  

[lisiamc]

We did an itinerary from Cape Town to Lisbon in March 2023, our 19th Azamara cruise, and had a great time. If your friends were complaining that there is no casino, no kids club, no two-tier, ship-within-a-ship for suite passengers, and no cohort of 2,449 other passengers, you might not be happy on Azamara.
 

But if you’re looking for a lovely small ship that can dock in places where the big ships can’t, with fellow passengers who are fun to sail with, unusual itineraries, very good food, and friendly, helpful crew members who will do everything they can to ensure that you have a great time, you are very likely to enjoy your cruise.

Edited May 22, 2023 by lisiamc

[Grandma Cruising]

17 minutes ago, lisiamc said:

We did an itinerary from Cape Town to Lisbon in March 2023 our 19th Azamara cruise, and had a great time. If your friends were complaining that there is no casino, no kids club, no two-tier, ship-within-a-ship for suite passengers, and no cohort of 2,449 other passengers, you might not be happy on Azamara.
 

But if you’re looking for a lovely small ship that can dock in places where the big ships can’t, with fellow passengers who are fun to sail with, unusual itineraries, very good food, and friendly, helpful crew members, you are very likely to enjoy your cruise.

I couldn’t have put it better. Our last 2 cruises in October 22 and March 23 were every bit as good as the 11 we did before them.

[2ndsailing]

Agree with lisiamc and grandma cruising.  Have been to South Africa twice.  First time we did a land trip (planned independently not with Azamara) then boarded the Quest in Cape Town (February 2020). A week after boarding the world started closing their doors to cruise ships, so we sailed around the Indian Ocean for 11 days looking for somewhere to dock.  It was one of my favourite cruises.

 

We have sailed many times on Celebrity and Azamara, but I have to stay Azamara is my "go to" cruise line at the moment.  Food, crew are the best.  That personal service and care that you receive on board makes Azamara a very special cruise line.  We like it so much, we're booked on the World Cruise in 2024.

 

[beatnix]

In 2022 we spent 6 weeks = 4 cruises on Azamara ships. And I can tell you we enjoyed every single minute. lisiamc explained it very well.

Next week we will embark again for another 2 weeks. 

For me the people - crew and guests - and also the ports make it such a wonderful experience. And we have also travelled with other lines.

 

[govanguy]

We cruised with Azamara in Oct22.

We had a further cruise with Celebrity in January 2023.

The Celebrity cruise was , to say the least, poor. Service bad, food poor(meatloaf in Aqua Blu), Impossible to obtain a sun lounger. The ship was just too small for the number of people onboard. That was onboard Silhouette.

We've sailed with Celebrity on 20+ cruises . Never again.

The fact that I emailed a complaint on the Sunday after arriving home and receiving a response on the following Tuesday with an apology and £200 each F.C.C. says it all to me. They know there are issues onboard Celebrity. 

There is no comparison between Celebrity and Azamara. For us, Azamara,  wins heads up in every respect. 

Recently, we sailed Oceania which was excellent and it's now a toss up between Azamara and Oceania.

We currently have 2 future Azamara trips booked.

However, in view of the recent issues with Azamara web pages, our slant is toward Oceania right now. 

Booking Oceania on Sunday (yesterday) I can see my cruise/ status and tours on my account today.

 

[Keeria]

54 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

I couldn’t have put it better. Our last 2 cruises in October 22 and March 23 were every bit as good as the 11 we did before them.

I feel the same way. Wonderful crew, beautiful ship, interesting itineraries. 

[aliaschief]

Our recent experience was great and I’m reading great reports from here and various outlets.

[Toronto Guy]

I personally think Azamara is inferior to Celebrity in just about every measure, however I like the itineraries that Azamara offers so I continue to sail with them as well.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Celebrity used to be our favorite cruise line, and although we aren't brand-loyal we have the most cruises with them and the highest loyalty status.  But no more.  January 2022 on Edge gave us the full new-Celebrity experience, so highly touted by their management team – and we hated everything new about that ship and the direction of the cruise line.

 

Thankfully we had already experienced Azamara in 2016 and 2018 and realized that Azamara includes everything we loved about Celebrity [compared to, say, Princess] and doesn't include any of the things that bother us about Celebrity [including what we now see as a large number of passengers, and the trend toward edgy entertainment and cutbacks on food and service].

 

Our October 2022 Azamara cruise was absolutely as good as the earlier ones had been.  It also gave us a comparison to Oceania, which we did for the second time (on Riviera) in January 2022.  Oceania has better food, IMHO, but you have to pay for all alcohol [so there's no point in complaining about Azamara's free wine], and Riviera has larger more modern cabins than the R-ships.  But – and it's a big But – Oceania does not have the interesting itineraries that make Azamara so great.  And Oceania has always been notorious for having the worst docking locations [cheaper?] and for cancelling ports without making any effort to replace them [this is one of Azamara's strengths] – and lately there are complaints that they have been shortening time in ports 'to save fuel' but only announcing these changes after final payment [which tells me this isn't about saving the planet, but about saving NCLH's precarious balance sheet]

 

So my cruise planning at this point starts with Azamara as having the largest ships we care to sail on, with the best itineraries, with very good food and service, and entertainment and shore excursions that are quite acceptable to us [on our October cruise we did 100% Azamara excursions because we had so much OBC, and they were very good] – plus the opportunity to plan your own shore excursions because you can count on Azamara's port plans as well as anybody's.

 

The website is a disaster at present, but we lived through Scenic's hacked website disaster and had a fabulous river cruise with them in April 2022.  Azamara will eventually fix all the website problems – and that will make them the best starting place for cruise planning as far as I am concerned.

[excitedofharpenden]

11 hours ago, capsplace said:

We have a first time Azamara cruise scheduled for January 2024 to South Africa on the Pursuit, and are considering canceling.  We also have a pre cruise land safari package scheduled as well.   Recently, on a Celebrity cruise, DH was talking with two different sets of folks on differing occasions who recently cruised on Azamara and both had lots of negative remarks about all sorts of experiences, from food to ship conditions, service, and excursions.  Please share thoughts on why we should NOT cancel.  Thanks in advance.  

If i was talking to the people you met I'd give them many reasons I love Azamara and many reasons that I no longer enjoy the Celebrity product. Everyone is different, but if you talked to me I'd say give Azamara a go. I think you'd be missing something. 

 

Phil 

Edited May 23, 2023 by excitedofharpenden

[cruiseaholic78]

Azamara Onward March 2023, need I say more?

[Heartfelttraveler]

11 hours ago, capsplace said:

We have a first time Azamara cruise scheduled for January 2024 to South Africa on the Pursuit, and are considering canceling.

Which sailing date are you currently booked?  We are also sailing Pursuit South Africa in January 2024?

[capsplace]

4 hours ago, Heartfelttraveler said:

Which sailing date are you currently booked?  We are also sailing Pursuit South Africa in January 2024?

Yes!

[capsplace]

Thank you all!  Great feedback!  I’ll share with DH!

[capsplace]

6 hours ago, capsplace said:

Yes!

Jan 3 sailing date.

[Heartfelttraveler]

1 hour ago, capsplace said:

Jan 3 sailing date.

We are also on the January 3, 2024 sailing.  We are traveling with another couple.  We just purchased our airfare.  I see that you started the CC Roll Call for January 3.

 

We really like Oceania Cruise Lines.  We have several friends that like the R Class ships with 600-700 passengers.  They have traveled both Azamara and Oceania and like them both.

 

We started out on Celebrity but found that comparing port times, itineraries and price, they fall short.  We have traveled on NCL in top suites.  After the last two cruises my husband said he is done with NCL - pretty bad food.  The cabins were still very nice and the service excellent.  I will continue to check Celebrity and NCL out for future trips.

 

We have also booked three nights in Victoria Falls, one transit night in Johannesburg, three nights at Kurger Shalati, and another night in Johannesburg before we fly home.  We are doing this on our own.  We booked our own airfare, and the hotels will arrange airport transfers.

 

We saw an Apple+ tv show staring Eugene Levy called "The Reluctant Traveler" (8 episodes), one of the episodes was Kruger Shalati.

 

Will you be flying through Atlanta?

[capsplace]

No, Newark.  See you on the roll call! 😉

[ECCruise]

32 Celebrity past cruises so fairly familiar with their product. Sailed every ship in the fleet from. Horizon to S class with lots of good sailings. Zero desire to sail Edge class. Have 4 Celebrity booked because the itineraries fit. 

But head to head?  Azamara by a wide margin. Better food. Friendlier, more attention crew. Senior officers that will engage you every day throughout the ship. A more personalized feel all around. Overnight and longer port stays. 

Sitting on our balcony on Quest right now, day 35 of 40. And looking forward to our 5 booked in Europe,  South America and Africa. 

[molemaui]

Brief analysis - Azamara's pre cruise service and website was abysmal. It was difficult to believe a consumer driven company could offer such poor or non existent service. Once I got on the ship (Pursuit), I liked the size of the ship and thought the on board service was north of excellent. My big sticking point was the food. Possibly some of the worse food I've experienced on a cruise. Sure there was a good meal or two but nothing excellent. Meat was tough and always overcooked. Fish smelled fishy and was usually overcooked as well except for the salmon. My basis of food comparison is: Celebrity Retreat-Excellent food, Norwegian Haven-Excellent food, Oceania- Outstanding food, Windstar-Excellent to outstanding food, Silversea- Outstanding food, Regent- Excellent food, Viking Ocean-Fair to good food. 

 

As good as everything else was, I can not get over the poor quality food and will likely not sail Azamara in the future even though I love the size of the ship and the excellent staff. 

 

Your experiences may vary! LOL

[Toronto Guy]

1 hour ago, molemaui said:

Brief analysis - Azamara's pre cruise service and website was abysmal. It was difficult to believe a consumer driven company could offer such poor or non existent service. Once I got on the ship (Pursuit), I liked the size of the ship and thought the on board service was north of excellent. My big sticking point was the food. Possibly some of the worse food I've experienced on a cruise. Sure there was a good meal or two but nothing excellent. Meat was tough and always overcooked. Fish smelled fishy and was usually overcooked as well except for the salmon. My basis of food comparison is: Celebrity Retreat-Excellent food, Norwegian Haven-Excellent food, Oceania- Outstanding food, Windstar-Excellent to outstanding food, Silversea- Outstanding food, Regent- Excellent food, Viking Ocean-Fair to good food. 

 

As good as everything else was, I can not get over the poor quality food and will likely not sail Azamara in the future even though I love the size of the ship and the excellent staff. 

 

Your experiences may vary! LOL

Agree completely.  The food on my 3 Celebrity cruises this year was vastly superior to what I had on both the Journey and Onward this year.   

[Marylebone37]

3 hours ago, molemaui said:

Brief analysis - Azamara's pre cruise service and website was abysmal. It was difficult to believe a consumer driven company could offer such poor or non existent service. Once I got on the ship (Pursuit), I liked the size of the ship and thought the on board service was north of excellent. My big sticking point was the food. Possibly some of the worse food I've experienced on a cruise. Sure there was a good meal or two but nothing excellent. Meat was tough and always overcooked. Fish smelled fishy and was usually overcooked as well except for the salmon. My basis of food comparison is: Celebrity Retreat-Excellent food, Norwegian Haven-Excellent food, Oceania- Outstanding food, Windstar-Excellent to outstanding food, Silversea- Outstanding food, Regent- Excellent food, Viking Ocean-Fair to good food. 

 

As good as everything else was, I can not get over the poor quality food and will likely not sail Azamara in the future even though I love the size of the ship and the excellent staff. 

 

Your experiences may vary! LOL

My experience varies. I was on 3 Celebrity cruises earlier in the year (but NOT in the Rereat).  And on the Pursuit right now.  The lovely food on Pursuit is incomparable to the mass market fare on Celebrity. Pursuit is superior in every single way based on my experiences over the last few months. 

 

[Mackdogmolly]

10 hours ago, molemaui said:

Brief analysis - Azamara's pre cruise service and website was abysmal. It was difficult to believe a consumer driven company could offer such poor or non existent service. Once I got on the ship (Pursuit), I liked the size of the ship and thought the on board service was north of excellent. My big sticking point was the food. Possibly some of the worse food I've experienced on a cruise. Sure there was a good meal or two but nothing excellent. Meat was tough and always overcooked. Fish smelled fishy and was usually overcooked as well except for the salmon. My basis of food comparison is: Celebrity Retreat-Excellent food, Norwegian Haven-Excellent food, Oceania- Outstanding food, Windstar-Excellent to outstanding food, Silversea- Outstanding food, Regent- Excellent food, Viking Ocean-Fair to good food. 

 

As good as everything else was, I can not get over the poor quality food and will likely not sail Azamara in the future even though I love the size of the ship and the excellent staff. 

 

Your experiences may vary! LOL

Wow. Certainly NOT my experience on the Pursuit in March! And we dined mostly in the MDR with no complaints.

[Grandma Cruising]

2 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Wow. Certainly NOT my experience on the Pursuit in March! And we dined mostly in the MDR with no complaints.

Quite agree, food in the MDR was great on the Pursuit in March. Patio was excellent too.

[lisiamc]

17 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Wow. Certainly NOT my experience on the Pursuit in March! And we dined mostly in the MDR with no complaints.

I agree. Not our experience in any of our Azamara cruises, pre- or post-Covid. I’m a picky foodie snob, and while not every dish I ordered was a perfect fit,  I found plenty to enjoy.