Azura - the good, bad and downright awful...and how it compares with competitors

[amurray88]

Hello all,

Just back from Azura and a few brief opinions below on my thoughts as well as how it compares to my previous cruises (RCL, NCL & MSC).

 

Pre-cruise - this unfortunately nearly made us cancel the cruise. It really was horrific - the P&O shore side customer service have a huge amount of work to do to be close to acceptable. 1/10 - bottom of the pile compared to the rest.

 

Check in - due to our awful pre-cruise experience I was desperate for this cruise to go well so turned up to the airport hoping for the best. Jet2 staff were excellent, it was quick and easy. The bus to the port is a faff, potentially a necessary evil but could P&O handle the luggage (the same way they do on the return) and could they even use the north airport? Not sure if this is possible. When we arrived at the port terminal again it was quick and easy. Staff were helpful. 10/10 can't compare as have never done fly cruise before but check in was on par with other cruise lines in my experience.

 

Ship - I was surprised - I heard alot of people saying the ship was showing her age, she was dated etc. we didn't find it this way. It's not sparkly but there's a charm in the wood interior. We had a big issue (as you'll read later) with the layout and design of the ship but I don't see that as being dated. The ship is newer (I believe?) than admittedly my favourite, Oasis class ships (we'll Oasis OTS). So the design isn't dated, it was just poorly designed in the first instance. On embarking the lifts took forever however, during the cruise I felt the lifts were quick. Theatre is adequate although could definitely do with more accessible seating at the back. The buffet wasn't good, what a poor layout and service 👎. And by that I don't mean the staff, but to only have small parts of the buffet open at any given time is strange. The main restaurants (we ate breakfast/lunch&dinner in MDR) most days - was great and they were very understanding of us having a baby with us. Shop prices are high - they were selling a Radley purse for £96 that was £36 on sale on the Radley website. The bars weren't great and the flow of people was strange. Main theatre shows at 8:30, coming out at 9:15, show at Manhattan starts at 9:30. Literally hundreds of people moving from one side of ship to the other to find the venue already full. Bit odd.

Ship - 6/10. Nicer than NCL Epic, not as nice as RCL or MSC ships IMHO.

 

Food - MDR food was very good. Menus on the whole were very good but felt that one night the menu was a little strange - that's all down to opinions. The buffet food we didn't really touch but on the whole looked fine. Someone told us they put hot chocolate out at 11pm and although not normally for us, it was very good. Our biggest let down was Sindhu. I had heard amazing things about this but the service really was awful. We were 1hr 40mins between arriving and receiving our mains. On arriving we asked for a pot of boiling water for our babies bottle. We then reminded them 30mins later when the poppadoms came. And reminded them 30mins later when our starters came. We were told the chef was making it (seriously?). By this point we were a bit anxious as babies don't cope well with being hungry 😂. The water came with our main course (1hr 40mins after requesting)...as did the screaming. We tried to eat the main course but baby was screaming so much we had to leave. No apology for time taken and full bill was charged). Beach house was excellent...I think it gets a bad name on here but I was really pleasantly surprised.

Food - 7/10 better than RCL, slightly worse than NCL (MDR is equivalent, although NCL's speciality is better) and worse than MSC.

 

Staff - they were excellent. Couldn't find a fault. When we sailed MSC last year we found that the ground staff were great but restaurant managers, bar managers etc were very poor to customers and colleagues. With P&O we found the staff from top to bottom were great (apart from the pre-cruise experience mentioned above).

Staff - 10/10 better than MSC and RCL (RCL waiters must have been under alot of pressure as they kept saying on surveys we must give 5/5 as RCL see 4/5 as being unacceptable) and probably better than NCL although it felt like they had alot more staff on NCL.

 

Cabin - cabin was great. Biggest complaint might be that there are no bedside plugs. Could have done with a bigger TV but this doesn't bother us at all. But please...please sort the toilet paper. Surely there's no need for the sand paper they currently use 😂 Cabin - 6/10 bit worse than others due to plugs and TV... And go get a deal with Andrex!

 

Entertainment - surprisingly good. The general theatre company put on a few decent shows that were entertaining and the 2 bands on board were excellent. The Vinylettes were good and the Privateers really stole the show - very very good.

Entertainment - 7/10 - worse than RCL (can anything really compete with Oasis class entertainment?) and NCL - Better than MSC. 

 

Ports - our favourite port was La Palma although the cruise was more for a break with sunshine rather than ports. The other ports were blah. I found the overnight in Tenerife frustrating - I enjoy cruising and unless in a major city I'm not into overnights.

Ports - 3/10. Can't compete with major Med cities.

 

Accessibility - maybe it's because it's our first cruise with a baby but this was really disappointing - as was the layout of the ship. On embarking we were faced with steps and no other option (even though 7 days later there was a ramp). In Madeira there was "ramp" but with steps fitted on to the ramp. There were 2 options for baby pools - the Coral pool (1.8m deep at it's shallowest which was too deep for us to enjoy with a baby in our arms) or the perfect baby pool...which was on deck 16 and only way to access it was to lift the pram up a set of steep stairs. On the promenade deck there's a set of stairs to enter/exit...it really wouldn't take alot of money to change one of these into a ramp. Several events were advertised in Horizon with the strap line "this event is not suitable for passengers in wheelchairs" - surely this is crazy in this day and age?

 

The layout of the ship - don't get me started. There were 2 decks on the whole ship out with cabin decks, that you could walk from one side of the ship to the other. Far far far too many "go up a deck, go along, go down a deck" or "this lift only goes to this deck, you'll need to go to that lift to get to that deck".

 

We found the layout of the Glasshouse very odd. Beach house is in the buffet but done very well. Sindhu was fine for layout. But the corridors that run through Glasshouse with people walking through tables of diners just odd. Wouldn't go to the Glasshouse because of this.

Accessibility - 2/10 - far worse than competitors.

 

Other passengers - 99% were great. Given that we had our baby with us, most were very friendly. The ones that stick in your head though are the ones that commented about babies shouldn't be allowed on ships, or shook their heads, or pushed their way in front of you. An older gent in a wheelchair was struggling to get into his cabin one day. I tried to help him as he said he couldn't get his card to work. I tried his card and a woman came out the room, extremely rudely, told us to get away from her door, this isn't our room and to stop bothering her. The older guy was clearly disabled and a bit confused - no need to talk to others like that.

Passengers 8/10 - better than MSC passengers but that's not saying much 😂

 

Amenities - it was a wee treat to have a sauna included at no additional cost. This then broke on day 3 and wasn't fixed for the duration. I could moan that it wasn't fixed...or praise that it was free. Either way, it was good while it lasted.

 

Lastly - Value

It was very good value for money. To get all that we did for ~£1000 is excellent. Would I go back? If I knew I wouldn't have the pre cruise hassle I probably would go back if the price is right. Lets face it - the ship is uninspiring. The destinations are bland. So I wouldn't go back for those reasons...but for a week in the sun, it is significantly cheaper than any full board, 3-4 star hotel, with flights, transfers etc.

 

[zap99]

7 minutes ago, amurray88 said:

Hello all,

Just back from Azura and a few brief opinions below on my thoughts as well as how it compares to my previous cruises (RCL, NCL & MSC).

 

Pre-cruise - this unfortunately nearly made us cancel the cruise. It really was horrific - the P&O shore side customer service have a huge amount of work to do to be close to acceptable. 1/10 - bottom of the pile compared to the rest.

 

Check in - due to our awful pre-cruise experience I was desperate for this cruise to go well so turned up to the airport hoping for the best. Jet2 staff were excellent, it was quick and easy. The bus to the port is a faff, potentially a necessary evil but could P&O handle the luggage (the same way they do on the return) and could they even use the north airport? Not sure if this is possible. When we arrived at the port terminal again it was quick and easy. Staff were helpful. 10/10 can't compare as have never done fly cruise before but check in was on par with other cruise lines in my experience.

 

Ship - I was surprised - I heard alot of people saying the ship was showing her age, she was dated etc. we didn't find it this way. It's not sparkly but there's a charm in the wood interior. We had a big issue (as you'll read later) with the layout and design of the ship but I don't see that as being dated. The ship is newer (I believe?) than admittedly my favourite, Oasis class ships (we'll Oasis OTS). So the design isn't dated, it was just poorly designed in the first instance. On embarking the lifts took forever however, during the cruise I felt the lifts were quick. Theatre is adequate although could definitely do with more accessible seating at the back. The buffet wasn't good, what a poor layout and service 👎. And by that I don't mean the staff, but to only have small parts of the buffet open at any given time is strange. The main restaurants (we ate breakfast/lunch&dinner in MDR) most days - was great and they were very understanding of us having a baby with us. Shop prices are high - they were selling a Radley purse for £96 that was £36 on sale on the Radley website. The bars weren't great and the flow of people was strange. Main theatre shows at 8:30, coming out at 9:15, show at Manhattan starts at 9:30. Literally hundreds of people moving from one side of ship to the other to find the venue already full. Bit odd.

Ship - 6/10. Nicer than NCL Epic, not as nice as RCL or MSC ships IMHO.

 

Food - MDR food was very good. Menus on the whole were very good but felt that one night the menu was a little strange - that's all down to opinions. The buffet food we didn't really touch but on the whole looked fine. Someone told us they put hot chocolate out at 11pm and although not normally for us, it was very good. Our biggest let down was Sindhu. I had heard amazing things about this but the service really was awful. We were 1hr 40mins between arriving and receiving our mains. On arriving we asked for a pot of boiling water for our babies bottle. We then reminded them 30mins later when the poppadoms came. And reminded them 30mins later when our starters came. We were told the chef was making it (seriously?). By this point we were a bit anxious as babies don't cope well with being hungry 😂. The water came with our main course (1hr 40mins after requesting)...as did the screaming. We tried to eat the main course but baby was screaming so much we had to leave. No apology for time taken and full bill was charged). Beach house was excellent...I think it gets a bad name on here but I was really pleasantly surprised.

Food - 7/10 better than RCL, slightly worse than NCL (MDR is equivalent, although NCL's speciality is better) and worse than MSC.

 

Staff - they were excellent. Couldn't find a fault. When we sailed MSC last year we found that the ground staff were great but restaurant managers, bar managers etc were very poor to customers and colleagues. With P&O we found the staff from top to bottom were great (apart from the pre-cruise experience mentioned above).

Staff - 10/10 better than MSC and RCL (RCL waiters must have been under alot of pressure as they kept saying on surveys we must give 5/5 as RCL see 4/5 as being unacceptable) and probably better than NCL although it felt like they had alot more staff on NCL.

 

Cabin - cabin was great. Biggest complaint might be that there are no bedside plugs. Could have done with a bigger TV but this doesn't bother us at all. But please...please sort the toilet paper. Surely there's no need for the sand paper they currently use 😂 Cabin - 6/10 bit worse than others due to plugs and TV... And go get a deal with Andrex!

 

Entertainment - surprisingly good. The general theatre company put on a few decent shows that were entertaining and the 2 bands on board were excellent. The Vinylettes were good and the Privateers really stole the show - very very good.

Entertainment - 7/10 - worse than RCL (can anything really compete with Oasis class entertainment?) and NCL - Better than MSC. 

 

Ports - our favourite port was La Palma although the cruise was more for a break with sunshine rather than ports. The other ports were blah. I found the overnight in Tenerife frustrating - I enjoy cruising and unless in a major city I'm not into overnights.

Ports - 3/10. Can't compete with major Med cities.

 

Accessibility - maybe it's because it's our first cruise with a baby but this was really disappointing - as was the layout of the ship. On embarking we were faced with steps and no other option (even though 7 days later there was a ramp). In Madeira there was "ramp" but with steps fitted on to the ramp. There were 2 options for baby pools - the Coral pool (1.8m deep at it's shallowest which was too deep for us to enjoy with a baby in our arms) or the perfect baby pool...which was on deck 16 and only way to access it was to lift the pram up a set of steep stairs. On the promenade deck there's a set of stairs to enter/exit...it really wouldn't take alot of money to change one of these into a ramp. Several events were advertised in Horizon with the strap line "this event is not suitable for passengers in wheelchairs" - surely this is crazy in this day and age?

 

The layout of the ship - don't get me started. There were 2 decks on the whole ship out with cabin decks, that you could walk from one side of the ship to the other. Far far far too many "go up a deck, go along, go down a deck" or "this lift only goes to this deck, you'll need to go to that lift to get to that deck".

 

We found the layout of the Glasshouse very odd. Beach house is in the buffet but done very well. Sindhu was fine for layout. But the corridors that run through Glasshouse with people walking through tables of diners just odd. Wouldn't go to the Glasshouse because of this.

Accessibility - 2/10 - far worse than competitors.

 

Other passengers - 99% were great. Given that we had our baby with us, most were very friendly. The ones that stick in your head though are the ones that commented about babies shouldn't be allowed on ships, or shook their heads, or pushed their way in front of you. An older gent in a wheelchair was struggling to get into his cabin one day. I tried to help him as he said he couldn't get his card to work. I tried his card and a woman came out the room, extremely rudely, told us to get away from her door, this isn't our room and to stop bothering her. The older guy was clearly disabled and a bit confused - no need to talk to others like that.

Passengers 8/10 - better than MSC passengers but that's not saying much 😂

 

Amenities - it was a wee treat to have a sauna included at no additional cost. This then broke on day 3 and wasn't fixed for the duration. I could moan that it wasn't fixed...or praise that it was free. Either way, it was good while it lasted.

 

Lastly - Value

It was very good value for money. To get all that we did for ~£1000 is excellent. Would I go back? If I knew I wouldn't have the pre cruise hassle I probably would go back if the price is right. Lets face it - the ship is uninspiring. The destinations are bland. So I wouldn't go back for those reasons...but for a week in the sun, it is significantly cheaper than any full board, 3-4 star hotel, with flights, transfers etc.

 

Hope you find a flight to Tenerife North .

[amurray88]

5 minutes ago, zap99 said:

Hope you find a flight to Tenerife North .

5 minutes ago, zap99 said:

Hope you find a flight to Tenerife North .

Not the end of the world...and might not even be possible. But seems odd as it seems much closer to the port.

[carlanthony24]

Tenerife north is purely domestics from mainland Spain and other Canary Islands. I don’t think they really have an immigration hall. Regarding cases it works putting them on the coach since it’s a 45 min transfer at least and with so many flights and little space even for the P&O coaches it would be chaos. By them coming with you at least they are not taking forever to reach the cabin so to speak. 
 

Over night in Tenerife no different to the overnight in Barbados just logistics they allow the overnight encase people can’t get out, cancellations etc. surprised you found Maderia not to you’re liking. 

[amurray88]

31 minutes ago, carlanthony24 said:

Tenerife north is purely domestics from mainland Spain and other Canary Islands. I don’t think they really have an immigration hall. Regarding cases it works putting them on the coach since it’s a 45 min transfer at least and with so many flights and little space even for the P&O coaches it would be chaos. By them coming with you at least they are not taking forever to reach the cabin so to speak. 
 

Over night in Tenerife no different to the overnight in Barbados just logistics they allow the overnight encase people can’t get out, cancellations etc. surprised you found Maderia not to you’re liking. 

Madeira was fine...it rained so maybe that spoiled it a wee bit. Found a lovely wee cafe which was ridiculously cheap (£4 for 2 coffees and 2 cakes). Thought the Christiano Ronaldo museum/hotel/restaurant a bit tacky?

 

We went off the boat after dinner for a quick wander into the gardens.

 

In fairness to the ports they were lovely but I'm normally up at 5am for a 5:30am train to Rome and not back on the boat til 5-6 type of guy. We found ourselves going off the boat for a quick wander (couple of hours) and that was it. I knew that when I booked it, the ports definitely weren't the attraction so happy to not worry too much about it.

[amurray88]

To be fair too .. the value really was incredible. Some MSC ships don't charge for babies but most other companies do (RCL is pretty much a full fare). For P&O not to charge AND give him a seat on the flight was incredible. What a difference it made having that extra seat.

[zap99]

1 hour ago, amurray88 said:

Not the end of the world...and might not even be possible. But seems odd as it seems much closer to the port.

Not too odd. In 1977 the worse disaster in aviation history occurred at that airport. 583 people died when 2 747's collided on the runway. That airport is renowned for being subject to fog. Hence Tenerife South.

[Thejuggler]

Grand class ships layout and accessibility are considered very poor and always have been, even with refits.

 

Madeira (and Portugal in general) prices show how expensive the UK has become.  In Faro last year I went in a bar for two 330ml bottles of Super Bock and took a €10 note. It cost me €2.60.  Coffees were never more than €1.50.

[amurray88]

27 minutes ago, Thejuggler said:

Grand class ships layout and accessibility are considered very poor and always have been, even with refits.

 

Madeira (and Portugal in general) prices show how expensive the UK has become.  In Faro last year I went in a bar for two 330ml bottles of Super Bock and took a €10 note. It cost me €2.60.  Coffees were never more than €1.50.

That's exactly what I said! We went into Starbucks in London today to get boiling water for babies bottle (I wouldn't give them the £ for coffee). They had a hot chocolate (no marshmallows) at...wait for it.... £6.35! What is going on!

[amurray88]

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

Not too odd. In 1977 the worse disaster in aviation history occurred at that airport. 583 people died when 2 747's collided on the runway. That airport is renowned for being subject to fog. Hence Tenerife South.

Didn't realise that...let's stick with the extra 30min transfer. Unless they can bring the boat to the airport instead?

[amurray88]

I love Oasis class ships but I've just seen the menu for one of the Icon of the Seas milkshake bars... $14 for a milkshake plus service fee... $16.50 for a milkshake. I think I'll stick with P&O from now on!

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, Thejuggler said:

Grand class ships layout and accessibility are considered very poor and always have been, even with refits.

 

Madeira (and Portugal in general) prices show how expensive the UK has become.  In Faro last year I went in a bar for two 330ml bottles of Super Bock and took a €10 note. It cost me €2.60.  Coffees were never more than €1.50.

We had 2 coffees and 2 pastel de nata in a promenade cafe in Funchal last February which cost €14 euros, and we both remarked on how much more it was than pre covid. 

[amurray88]

1 minute ago, terrierjohn said:

We had 2 coffees and 2 pastel de nata in a promenade cafe in Funchal last February which cost €14 euros, and we both remarked on how much more it was than pre covid. 

We stopped at a cafe right next to the shopping centre. Was lovely and I could not believe how cheap it was. 14€ definitely sounds expensive for that

[amurray88]

1 minute ago, zap99 said:

It's well known that the airport experiences foggy conditions more often than the South. International flights don't use it. Nuff said.

Just watching a video from UK guys who were on Aida Cosma (was intrigued as the ship pretty much followed us) and they flew into the North airport. Very strange. Would rather be safe than risk it though!