Alternatives to Azamara?

[Mackdogmolly]

5 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

UK is 90 days.  Only North Americans are so lucky...

Which is why I’m surprised that the Viking demographic seems to lean heavily towards passengers from the US

[Host Jazzbeau]

17 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Which is why I’m surprised that the Viking demographic seems to lean heavily towards passengers from the US

Viking's ubiquitous marketing brings in first-time cruisers.  They have a good time and aren't aware that other cruise lines have better payment terms.

[Mackdogmolly]

7 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Viking's ubiquitous marketing brings in first-time cruisers.  They have a good time and aren't aware that other cruise lines have better payment terms.

I’m booked on a fall Viking cruise, but I did so relatively last minute. I don’t think I would ever book one a year or more in advance with those terms.

[avw]

I just concluded 24 nights on Oceania's new Vista. It's a gorgeous ship (incredible bathrooms!) with delicious food, but the "vibe" didn't begin to approach Azamara's. Everything had a corporate feel to it. The captain didn't even show up to several parties allegedly hosted by him. I believe that the person at the top sets the tone for the rest of the staff, no matter what the industry. There were 1200 passengers, which seems to be too big for me. Passengers were not as friendly as Azamara's passengers. They seemed to be trying to impress each other. I can't wait to be on Azamara again for my trip to Japan in April. 

Edited August 27, 2023 by avw

[marinaro44]

8 hours ago, avw said:

I just concluded 24 nights on Oceania's new Vista. It's a gorgeous ship (incredible bathrooms!) with delicious food, but the "vibe" didn't begin to approach Azamara's. Everything had a corporate feel to it. The captain didn't even show up to several parties allegedly hosted by him. I believe that the person at the top sets the tone for the rest of the staff, no matter what the industry. There were 1200 passengers, which seems to be too big for me. Passengers were not as friendly as Azamara's passengers. They seemed to be trying to impress each other. I can't wait to be on Azamara again for my trip to Japan in April. 

This exactly captures our two experiences on Regent, Oceania's "luxury" big sister.  Ambitious menus, better liquor, but a not especially attractive "vibe."  Words like impersonal, cold, anonymous come to mind as descriptors.  Depends, I suppose, on what your priorities are.

[Chewbecca]

We are completely disloyal to any cruise line and sail with many different lines at all different levels. Our next cruise is in one week on Azamara (our 3rd Az) but our first time in the OS so really looking forward to trying that.

We have sailed on Seabourn once and really loved the cabin, the service and food. We didn't enjoy the entertainment though, we mostly enjoy trivia and live music and both were really lacking so we probably wouldn't do Seabourn again. 

Our next two bookings are with Celebrity (we are X regulars, this time in the Retreat) and HAL (less luxurious but we feel very at home on HAL & the trivia and live music is good!).

The next booking is likely to be a great Amazon itinerary on Oceania, we have only sailed once on Oceania but would definitely go again. I'd like to try their slightly larger ships.

We have also sailed RC (not for us), Princess (no major issues but didn't feel at home), MSC (we were YC which was nice but the rest of the ship was awful). I can't remember who else!

Would like to try Windstar, Star Clippers, Viking and Saga. Silversea and Regent are probably beyond our budget. Plus the American river cruise lines are also on our radar.

[Homerody]

9 hours ago, avw said:

"... Passengers were not as friendly as Azamara's passengers. They seemed to be trying to impress each other..." 

That is the one side of cruising that I find sooooo off-putting.  Regardless of line, there is a snobish appeal to more upscale cruising.

 

But we've found a few cruisers on each sailing we've been on who like to share their travel experiences without the Do You Know Who I Am aura.

 

 

 

 

[ECCruise]

On 8/26/2023 at 10:58 PM, avw said:

I just concluded 24 nights on Oceania's new Vista. It's a gorgeous ship (incredible bathrooms!) with delicious food, but the "vibe" didn't begin to approach Azamara's. Everything had a corporate feel to it. The captain didn't even show up to several parties allegedly hosted by him. I believe that the person at the top sets the tone for the rest of the staff, no matter what the industry. There were 1200 passengers, which seems to be too big for me. Passengers were not as friendly as Azamara's passengers. They seemed to be trying to impress each other. I can't wait to be on Azamara again for my trip to Japan in April. 

That was pretty much our feelings after our last sailing on Oceania (25 night Amazon RT Miami).  This was our 6th O cruise and it just had a different feel.  Staff just a little too standoffish.  Although not a huge deal, officers were virtually never seen.  Food good but Specialty reservations very difficult (we were low CAT verandah).  

And if we heard it once, we heard it many times, "This is our XX Oceania cruise.  And how many is this for you?"

So for us, it was 6 and done with O.

 

Enjoy Japan on Azamara.  We just did that in May this year. 

Edited August 28, 2023 by ECCruise

[blag]

On 8/27/2023 at 1:07 PM, marinaro44 said:

This exactly captures our two experiences on Regent, Oceania's "luxury" big sister.  Ambitious menus, better liquor, but a not especially attractive "vibe."  Words like impersonal, cold, anonymous come to mind as descriptors.  Depends, I suppose, on what your priorities are.

I have recently returned from a 15—day cruise with Regent, and I cannot say that I found the crew, or the staff, impersonal or cold. In fact I would go almost as far as to say that you could exchange the crew/staff from 'Seven Seas Voyager' with any Azamara ship, and you've be unaware of any difference. 

I thought the entertainment better, and the theatre is certainly far superior.

Other things that Regent did better than Azamara: embarkation process; boarding, safety drill, booze in general.

Stuff that I thought wasn't as good: there was no decent English bacon (had to make do with  Canadian); the showers in the standard suites are smaller than in Azamara's CC suites; and there are significantly fewer activities during the day.

Equal: although the menus are more imaginative the execution was sometimes quite poor; for me the 'vibe' was every bit as good as Azamara. 

Having said this, I could never, ever justify paying Regent's prices. We got a last-minute irresistible bargain, which made this cruise exceptionally good value. 

[Grandma Cruising]

Surprised you found English bacon on Azamara!

[marinaro44]

Blag, I'm pleased you had that experience on Regent.  We've spent 49 nights on Regent, and our experiences were very different.  You'll note I wrote the menus were "more ambitious."  Like Crystal with it's more ambitious menus, the execution was often, as you wrote, poor.

[Homerody]

20 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Surprised you found English bacon on Azamara!

Hip hip hooray for streaky bacon rashers! 😀

[Grandma Cruising]

1 hour ago, Homerody said:

Hip hip hooray for streaky bacon rashers! 😀

But only smoked. US style.

[Belfastman]

3 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Surprised you found English bacon on Azamara!

There was English bacon every morning on Onward for our last three cruises.

[nordski]

5 hours ago, blag said:

 

Stuff that I thought wasn't as good: there was no decent English bacon (had to make do with  Canadian); the showers in the standard suites are smaller than in Azamara's CC suites; and there are significantly fewer activities.

 

 

Now wait just a gosh darn minute here. Several years ago I had to enter the trenches on this forum to defend the honour of Canadian back (peameal) bacon. And as a long ago hog farmer I am certainly willing to vigorously defend the quality of the source of that bacon.

 

Being of a peaceable nature I am going to assume that maybe there is a confusion in terminology between Canadian bacon and what the English seem to call “streaky” and what we would call American bacon.

 

But be warned that I will not stand for any slander of our fine Canadian bacon (either back or peameal)

[blag]

5 hours ago, Homerody said:

Hip hip hooray for streaky bacon rashers! 😀

No, no, no.

Not streaky. Good, honest, back bacon. I cannot abide streaky.

Streaky was Regent s version of English bacon. Yukkk! 

[blag]

4 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

But only smoked. US style.

Yukk! And crispy - even yukkier!

[blag]

52 minutes ago, nordski said:

 

 

Now wait just a gosh darn minute here. Several years ago I had to enter the trenches on this forum to defend the honour of Canadian back (peameal) bacon. And as a long ago hog farmer I am certainly willing to vigorously defend the quality of the source of that bacon.

 

Being of a peaceable nature I am going to assume that maybe there is a confusion in terminology between Canadian bacon and what the English seem to call “streaky” and what we would call American bacon.

 

But be warned that I will not stand for any slander of our fine Canadian bacon (either back or peameal)

I was not slandering it!

I liked the Canadian bacon. For me it was the only viable bacon on Seven Seas Voyager.

Their English bacon was that vile streaky stuff. The American bacon (Applewood smoked, as I recall) was also very streaky and invariably offered in a near-cremated form, and therefore, to me, disgusting. 

[blag]

It is bizarre how one comment is picked on and takes a thread off at a petty tangent.

I admit to fuelling this, but nevertheless I feel uncomfortable. 

[blag]

5 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Surprised you found English bacon on Azamara!

I have enjoyed English bacon in Windows on every Azamara cruise. 

We cannot get it where we live, and it is something I really miss.

It is usually on the starboard side of the 'forward-most' breakfast servery, but if you don't see it, ask. 

Edited August 29, 2023 by blag

[nordski]

9 minutes ago, blag said:

I was not slandering it!

I liked the Canadian bacon. For me it was the only viable bacon on Seven Seas Voyager.

Their English bacon was that vile streaky stuff. The American bacon (Applewood smoked, as I recall) was also very streaky and invariably offered in a near-cremated form, and therefore, to me, disgusting. 

Thanks for the clarification! We take out peameal bacon so seriously that there was a feature movie about it, although it WAS a comedy.

[nordski]

10 minutes ago, blag said:

It is bizarre how one comment is picked on and takes a thread off at a petty tangent.

I admit to fuelling this, but nevertheless I feel uncomfortable. 

I apologize that the humour in my response was not clearer.

 

 

[1985rz1]

23 minutes ago, blag said:

Yukk! And crispy - even yukkier!

That's the way it should be: streaky and crisp 🥓 .  But we're "Merkins." 😄

[Ayden]

11 minutes ago, nordski said:

I apologize that the humour in my response was not clearer.

 

 

Must be a Canadian thing.  I thought it was pretty humorous and a refreshing change of pace..

[blag]

16 minutes ago, nordski said:

I apologize that the humour in my response was not clearer.

 

 

My comment was not directed at any specific individual!

Your humour did not escape me, and I guess that you realise that this 'bacon' thing is petty, but please let's not expand this digression.