Positive review of the Journey

[John&Betty]

Six of us were on the April 25th sailing out of Barcelona on the Journey. We were all very happy with the ship, the service and especially with the food. We arrived at the dock about 1:30 and boarding went smoothly. We were greeted with the traditional glass of Champaign and immediately escorted to our cabins.

 

Our 2a veranda cabin was well laid out and seemed similar in size to the Millennium class ships we are used to. There was plenty of storage space, a flat screen TV and a very small refrigerator. Andrew, our cabin steward was a delight. He never failed to bring our ice in time for our in cabin cocktail and was quick to make dinner reservations for us. One night a whole bunch of appetizers showed up unexpectedly. We called to say they must have been delivered to the wrong room only to find out Andrew had ordered them because he knew we had late dinner reservations at one of the specialty restaurants.

 

One really nice touch. Lysle, the Captain’s Club Hostess, called me the night before our first tender port to ask if we had a private tour arranged and needed priority tender tickets. We are Elite CC members. I told her that yes we did but the other 2 couples with us were not Elite. She told me to bring them along and meet her at her desk in the morning. We were on the first tender.

 

The Captain was all over the ship. We met him and his wife in the elevator the first day we were on board and saw him almost every morning getting a cup of coffee in the Windows café. We were also given a tour of the bridge where he and the First Mate explained the navigational systems.

 

We also had a tour of the galley. The food is basically prepared to order. Steaks and seafood are not cooked until the order comes in to the galley. The plates are very hot and everything we had came to the table fresh and hot. The quality of the food was the best we have ever had on a cruise ship.

 

The only complaint we had was the cost of the wine. My wife drinks Chardonnay and I drink Merlot. One glass of medium priced wine apiece with the 18% gratuity added in came to over $23. One bottle each of the same wine at the table came to over $93. I will say that we had no problem bringing wine aboard for use in our cabin. We still went through $750 worth of shipboard credit plus another $200. That amounts to our $25 of gratuities plus an average of $70 per day.

 

All in all it was a great cruise. The open seating with no formal requirements was perfect for this itinerary. We will sail on Azamara again in the near future.

 

John & Betty

[uktog]

Thanks for taking the time to post the review. There is a lovely trend here, it seems both the Azamara ships are getting things right and in particular it is lovely to hear that the Captain is everywhere, inevitably that will have a positive impact on the overall service levels

A

[kay0522]

John & Betty:

 

Thanks for the great review. We are booked on Azamara in December, departing from Barcelona. It's our first time on a smaller ship and you eased our fears. We really appreciate cruise critic members that return and share their experiences.

 

Karen & David

[YHZcruiser]

John and Betty,

 

Thank you for the review and for taking the time to prepare it. I am glad to read you enjoyed yourselves. We are sailing on Journey Sept. 27 out of Barcelona. Very much looking forward to it.

 

I am stunned at the price of wine by the glass. At $23, I sincerely hope it was a quality wine well worth the cost. I wonder if the wine list/prices are available somewhere. We love a glass of wine or two with our meals, so I hope they have other selections at a more moderate price.

[orchestrapal]

If it's anything like it was on Oceania, it only pays to buy a bottle and save the balance of what you don't drink for the next night. We found bottles of decent wines for $30-40. It makes a glass much cheaper.

I hope the Azamara policy of keeping a bottle for you is he same. I guess we'll find out next May.:confused:

[HawkeyeCruisr]

"I will say that we had no problem bringing wine aboard for use in our cabin."

 

John & Betty,

 

Does this mean that you were able to bring wine aboard subsequent to the initial 2 bottle per cabin allowed upon embarkation? Were you able to purchase wine at your various port stops and bring that aboard?

 

It's nice to read such a positive review!

[John&Betty]

Hi,

 

Understand, the wine was $23 for 2 glasses and yes they keep it for you for another night. They even go get it when you are at one of the specialty resyaurants.

 

Yes we were able to bring wine and beer aboard at ports along the way. I never saw anyone have a problem with that.

 

John

[Literary Lynne]

Thank you so much for posting your review. It sounds as though you had a wonderful time and what you say has increased my excitement and anticipation!

 

I do hope the wine isn't too outrageously priced. We usually have a bottle with dinner each evening (never any left for the next day)! I was glad to hear that you had no problem bring the odd bottle on board after a day in port.

 

Were there any interesting lecturers on board?

 

Thanks and best wishes

Lynne:)

[YHZcruiser]

Hi,

 

Understand, the wine was $23 for 2 glasses and yes they keep it for you for another night. They even go get it when you are at one of the specialty resyaurants.

 

Yes we were able to bring wine and beer aboard at ports along the way. I never saw anyone have a problem with that.

 

John

 

Thank you for the clarification. Now that makes sense and I'll be happy to indulge a bit more! Like Literary Lynne, we like to have a bottle of wine at dinner. I am also glad to hear about bringing wine on board during the trip, although I have read from other CC members that they usually don't allow that. We'll just have to test the system... considering we'll be stopping along the coast of Italy, a country known for some delicious wines.

 

SF

[rubinstein2r]

Thanks for the positive and useful review. We will be sailing on Quest in a few weeks and were wondering how much information, etc. the cruiseline gives you on the ports. Did they give you maps? Were there shuttles out of the port areas and in which ports?

 

Thanks for any info.

 

--Leo & Myra in AZ

[John&Betty]

Hi Leo,

 

Yes there were maps and some information about each port. You didn't mention what your itinerary is so don't know about shuttles. We rented cars and arranged for private tours at every port.

 

John

[rubinstein2r]

Thanks, we're doing Rome to Athens on 6/7/08.

 

--Leo & Myra

[Hlitner]

Good to hear the positive review. We do agree that the wine prices on Azamara (and the other RCI brands) are horribly overpriced (mark-ups are often in excess of 600%). This point was hammered home to us on two recent cruises (the first on the Journey and the 2nd on the Grand Princess). We only had 3 days between these two cruises so everything was fresh in our minds. On the Journey it was impossible to find a drinkable wine for less than $35 per bottle (I am including the 18%). When we got on the Grand Princess there were many drinkable wines priced in the low to mid twenty dollar range.

 

Hank

[gosport11]

hi on the quest draft beer 4.5$ a glass of pinot grigio 8$ + of course ,:) 950$ ours was a fair bit more , we dont get on board spend either

[LuAnn]

It was a wonderful trip...the Captain, Carl Smith, was excellent and really had his challenges is most ports.

 

The staff bent over backwards to make everything right..and really took care of the CCer's on board!

 

I have been on Oceania twice and find them wonderful..I think Azamara are biting at their heels...with perhaps a better price break...many of the staff were on Oceania and moved to Azamara..I would not hesitate to book with AZ again..it seems Oceania is getting much more expensive..either way..if you love the smaller ship experience you can't go wrong! LuAnn