Azamara Onward

[fruitmachine]

47 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

We were on the same cruise as you and had the opposite experience. The vast majority of our meals were good to excellent, service was considerably better than we had on our last couple of cruises. The only disappointment was the total absence of the senior officers, with the exception of the Cruise Director, Grace, who was brilliant and very evident.

Were as we, who were also on that same same cruise, thought that we saw senior officers a lot!  I wonder if it has something to do with when and where you eat, as the most frequented location by them is Windows.

[hamrag]

10 hours ago, Toronto Guy said:

We were on board from Sept 13 to 30th and had the opposite experience.  It was really inconsistent for us.  Some nights good, other nights really not good.  I was so disappointed with the Onward.  Third time on the ship and it will be the last.  We are actually completely done with Azamara after this cruise.  It was a major disappointment, and we felt all areas were greatly diminished compared to previous.  It's too bad.  They have too much competition to not keep their game up.

Cannot speak for your first 13 days, we were on 11 nights from 26th September to 7th October. We found the Discoveries Restaurant to be average at best, tried it one night on our 4 night cruise and again on the 7 night cruise. We reverted to what we always do, and mix it up with the Specialties.....more so on this cruise, and they are excellent. l only recall a couple of meals in Discoveries, across our 6 cruises (41 nights) to have been above average even very good.

 

The Windows Cafe has really gone south, the food quality and offerings for lunch are really poor apart from gelato. Food that ought to be hot is barely warm at times. Freshly cooked egg area for breakfast is really good tbf. We often ate lunch in the Patio, where your order is freshly prepared, which we did enjoy.

 

As many have reported there is no doubt the Senior Officers were generally absent, Grace the Cruise Director aside, and certainly for the most part ignored passengers in the public areas. Whilst nice to have their interaction, this is a tiny part of our cruise expectation so it's no big deal for us. What is important to us is crew service and interaction which we found to again be excellent.

 

There is much which we continue to enjoy with Azamara and, as described earlier, the poor culinary experiences can easily be mitigated and that certainly works for us. YMMV.

Edited Sunday at 09:06 AM by hamrag

[Oslo Dutch]

We disembarked the Onward last Monday in Monaco after an excellent 7 day France intensive. 

 

Service, Crew and Food were excellent as usual. This cruise had a bit of a different crowd which like us dined late. Which meant we had to wait for a bit around 8-840 pm before a table for two became available. No problem, we just had a drink in the Den and one of the staff came over to us once the table was ready. Food was great as always, however I imagined the main course portions were a bit smaller this time. (Perfect for me)

 

After a couple of days we had a new captain from Sweden who was very visible. (I think we sailed with him on the Quest in April this year too) Every morning I could see officers at the gangway once people started to leave the ship.

 

We did two tours to Carcassonne and Le Castellet & Bandol  which actually exceeded my expectations. 

 

This time we had an Oceanview 4024 which we liked a lot. I didn't miss a balcony at all as the weather was a bit cool at times.

 

Onward is in great shape, however some furniture is different as the Quest/Pursuit and not that comfortable. (no proper back support). We also noticed piped elevator music around the ship and in the dining room. Quite tacky and rather unnecessary. 

 

White party, we arrived way too late around 7pm and had to eat in the Windows. So arrive early! Lobster and Crepe Suzette were delicious.

 

Disembarkation was in Monaco, which is not the most ideal port to do so. We were notified well in advance about lack of local taxis (close to a 100) however there were transfers available to Nice Airport. We stayed in Monaco for a couple of days so we were on our own. Like many others, after having left the ship around 9 AM we found ourselves wandering with all our luggage around the rainy port area to find something to get us into town. (taxi stand had a very long line) In the end we sheltered ,waited a bit and managed to call a taxi to bring us to our destination. Azamara could have arranged a shuttle for all of us into town. It was not a pretty sight and this was all a bit weird. 

 

However once again an excellent cruise, We'll be happy to be back again next year on Pursuit again, a long  3 week voyage from Lisbon to Capetown.

[Grandma Cruising]

4 hours ago, fruitmachine said:

Were as we, who were also on that same same cruise, thought that we saw senior officers a lot!  I wonder if it has something to do with when and where you eat, as the most frequented location by them is Windows.

That might explain it, as we didn’t eat in Windows at all. We only saw the Hotel Director twice in total. She was in Prime C when we dined there, at the Best of the Best table and she was at the bottom of the gangway when we went ashore for the Azamazing evening. Tbf we did see the Captain quite a bit.

[excitedofharpenden]

Our itinerary included two river navigations and that was a reason given why we didn't see much of the Captain. I do understand that, but his way when I did see him was totally at odds with anything I've previously experienced. It's ok. He got us safely to our destination. 

 

Phil 

[Xcelsior]

6 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

We were on the same cruise as you and had the opposite experience. The vast majority of our meals were good to excellent, service was considerably better than we had on our last couple of cruises. The only disappointment was the total absence of the senior officers, with the exception of the Cruise Director, Grace, who was brilliant and very evident.

It took 9 days for the hotel director to appear after I requested a meeting regarding the ongoing and ridiculous noise  problems coming from above our cabin every morning  at 5 am  from the promenade deck above. Only after I bumped into her on white night did she finally acknowledge the request and issue.  While she finally offered a sizeable onboard credit as an apology, it was not money I was seeking, I simply wanted a meeting and an assurance it would be resolved as guest relations proved incapable. Worst absent hotel director I have ever encountered.  Elisabeth in comparison always had that ship running smoothly and was always visible.  She is top notch and missed.  I won’t sail Azamara again and have booked my next cruise back on Celebrity.  It’s just a better all around consistent product these days in my opinion.  I realize others disagree on that front.  I like a smaller ship, but when everything is just “meh” and average in quality it doesn’t make up for it.  Entertainment is absolutely lousy as well.  It’s too bad as the crew members and service levels continue to be outstanding.  

[Toronto Guy]

5 hours ago, hamrag said:

Cannot speak for your first 13 days, we were on 11 nights from 26th September to 7th October. We found the Discoveries Restaurant to be average at best, tried it one night on our 4 night cruise and again on the 7 night cruise. We reverted to what we always do, and mix it up with the Specialties.....more so on this cruise, and they are excellent. l only recall a couple of meals in Discoveries, across our 6 cruises (41 nights) to have been above average even very good.

 

The Windows Cafe has really gone south, the food quality and offerings for lunch are really poor apart from gelato. Food that ought to be hot is barely warm at times. Freshly cooked egg area for breakfast is really good tbf. We often ate lunch in the Patio, where your order is freshly prepared, which we did enjoy.

 

As many have reported there is no doubt the Senior Officers were generally absent, Grace the Cruise Director aside, and certainly for the most part ignored passengers in the public areas. Whilst nice to have their interaction, this is a tiny part of our cruise expectation so it's no big deal for us. What is important to us is crew service and interaction which we found to again be excellent.

 

There is much which we continue to enjoy with Azamara and, as described earlier, the poor culinary experiences can easily be mitigated and that certainly works for us. YMMV.

The 4 night cruise is not something I ever wish to experience again.  A completely different crowd on board to drink and eat as much as they possibly could.  It was a stark difference to the 13 night crowd which was the complete opposite (to be completely honest, I was bored to death on the 13 night cruise, it would have been nice if it was a little more lively).   Hard to find a happy balance I guess.  I couldn't help but laugh when I would hear piped in music at the pool knowing how much many on here hate any form of music on the pool deck.  When they hosted their first ever silent disco party on the pool deck I thought there was going to be a mutiny.  Interesting that they were able to pull that off on the pool deck on the 13 night cruise; but it was an epic fail on the 4 night cruise because people were absolutely unwilling to move from their loungers to make way for a dance floor.  The entertainment team recognized this and essentially just gave up.  Removing lounge chairs on the pool deck was an ongoing issue.  As there were 3 nights on the 13 night voyage that they had outdoor dinner buffets, I felt sorry for the crew always having to do tear down and set up.  This takes away from white night in my opinion....it didn't seem like a special event when they were doing outdoor dinner buffets so often, and it got people upset when they got up in the morning and tables were already set up on one side of the deck for dinner that night with not enough lounge chairs.  Then as the day wears on they would displace more and more people.  Understandable that they need to do this....but 3 nights?  They even did it 2 nights out of 4 nights on the shorter cruise.  This seems a bit excessive to me.  This then takes away from the service levels in Discoveries when these events are going on....as it was often a little too cool to sit outside and we preferred to eat in the dining room.  One night we actually left Discoveries without our main course because it never came. The staff were just too strained to keep up. I will also say that the food in Windows was of far less quality on the 4 night cruise than on the longer voyage - obviously so.  I was quite suprised by that.  The food at the Grill was excellent as always, I just wish it was on the back deck and not next to the pool as that area is just crazy loud at peak times.

Edited Sunday at 02:11 PM by Toronto Guy

[wjfan417]

17 hours ago, marinaro44 said:

MDR was excellent on Onward August 11 through September 3.

I agree-it was excellent when we were on in July and August. 

[manc]

1 hour ago, excitedofharpenden said:

Our itinerary included two river navigations and that was a reason given why we didn't see much of the Captain. I do understand that, but his way when I did see him was totally at odds with anything I've previously experienced. It's ok. He got us safely to our destination. 

 

Phil 

Like you Phil we understand that the captain was busy but there are plenty of other officers who could have interacted with us on that cruise. It was do different from the previous 16 with  Azamara. We wonder what our next booked one will be like. We don't desperately need to speak to officers but it was such a marked difference from all our other experiences.

[Grandma Cruising]

Having complained about the senior officers non-visibility, I have to compliment the F & B Manager on his response to a complaint we had. We did an evening excursion which meant we were off the ship during the normal dinner times for Windows & Discoveries. They did open Windows early, but we really didn’t want our dinner at 5:15, so decided to order room service when we got back. We ordered at 9:40 and our meal didn’t arrive until nearly 11:15 - and half of it was wrong. It became apparent that very many of the 90 people who attended the evening event (flamenco show in Seville) had decided to order room service and this hadn’t been anticipated. I complained to Guest Relations and asked for a meeting with either the F& B Manager or Hotel Director. I got a very quick response and had a meeting with the F & B Manager (Irtan) the same day. I wasn’t looking for any compensation, just an assurance that in the future they might plan for such an eventuality. I ended up with a bottle of Piper-Heidsieck (which they’d run out of in the bars!).

[excitedofharpenden]

6 hours ago, manc said:

Like you Phil we understand that the captain was busy but there are plenty of other officers who could have interacted with us on that cruise. It was do different from the previous 16 with  Azamara. We wonder what our next booked one will be like. We don't desperately need to speak to officers but it was such a marked difference from all our other experiences.

I think someone mentioned it before. It's led from the top. Like you, not a big deal, but their visibility has always been something that has set Azamara apart for me. It's the first time I've sailed with this particular captain. 

 

Phil 

[betsey]

We were on the Spain Intensive cruise on September 13, and had a great time. This was I think our 8th cruise on Azamara, and to give some background, many decades ago i used to work for a couple of cruise lines. I've been on many cruises over the years. I do know that sometimes the officers are dealing with things behind the scenes that may make them less visible than the guests on Azamara may want them to be. On this sailing, there was the rescue of two people who were in distress, which I'm sure added to their workload. I've never experienced that while on a cruise, and one of the crew members said that the ship had never had that either. I did enjoy the dinner on deck (which wasn't a buffet - it was a plated dinner) called "Dinner Under The Stars" while we were sailing up river into Seville. Kudos to the ship management who realized that the sailing into Seville was something that the guests might want to watch, and that it was happening during the dinner hour. We had to go through a big lock, then under a large bridge, after that, as Captain G. announced, we made a "pirouette," and turned the ship completely around and backed up the last few miles into the center of town in Seville. This was the reason we picked this itinerary, so we could stay in the heart of town. Seville is 64 miles from the ocean. It was magical, and we had a front row seat. I really appreciated the crew who served us up on deck so we could watch all of this.  The next evening was a buffet of Spanish foods and a local Spanish band. They were great.  Looking forward to my next trip.

[Toronto Guy]

On 10/13/2024 at 11:35 PM, betsey said:

We were on the Spain Intensive cruise on September 13, and had a great time. This was I think our 8th cruise on Azamara, and to give some background, many decades ago i used to work for a couple of cruise lines. I've been on many cruises over the years. I do know that sometimes the officers are dealing with things behind the scenes that may make them less visible than the guests on Azamara may want them to be. On this sailing, there was the rescue of two people who were in distress, which I'm sure added to their workload. I've never experienced that while on a cruise, and one of the crew members said that the ship had never had that either. I did enjoy the dinner on deck (which wasn't a buffet - it was a plated dinner) called "Dinner Under The Stars" while we were sailing up river into Seville. Kudos to the ship management who realized that the sailing into Seville was something that the guests might want to watch, and that it was happening during the dinner hour. We had to go through a big lock, then under a large bridge, after that, as Captain G. announced, we made a "pirouette," and turned the ship completely around and backed up the last few miles into the center of town in Seville. This was the reason we picked this itinerary, so we could stay in the heart of town. Seville is 64 miles from the ocean. It was magical, and we had a front row seat. I really appreciated the crew who served us up on deck so we could watch all of this.  The next evening was a buffet of Spanish foods and a local Spanish band. They were great.  Looking forward to my next trip.

We also appreciated this effort, albeit our food was served stone cold.  We found the food to be very inconsistent in all dining venues compared to previous voyages.  We won't rush back.  The crew are awesome, officers and entertainment were not.  Itinerary was fantastic. Just my opinion.