New to Azamara... Questions

[CSIMelissa]

Hi all! I plan on sailing with Azamara in 2010 on their Best of Italy cruise. I LOVE that itinerary!

 

I do have a few questions.... What sets Azamara apart? Just curious to see what everyone has to say about the line.

 

Too, seems like I have read in places that if you are not taking an Azamara shore excursion in a tender port, you have to pay to have access to the tener to board the ship. Is that true?

 

How's the service in the dining room?

 

Looking forward to booking with them whenever they open up their 2010 itineraries.

[Andy]

Hi all! I plan on sailing with Azamara in 2010 on their Best of Italy cruise. I LOVE that itinerary!

 

I do have a few questions.... What sets Azamara apart? Just curious to see what everyone has to say about the line.

 

Too, seems like I have read in places that if you are not taking an Azamara shore excursion in a tender port, you have to pay to have access to the tener to board the ship. Is that true?

 

How's the service in the dining room?

 

Looking forward to booking with them whenever they open up their 2010 itineraries.

 

 

Hi Melissa !

 

Welcome to the Azamara Board. Some of the many things that set Azamara apart from the larger lines are : the great service, smaller ship and relaxed feel, outstanding food (especially in the Specialty Dining venues), resort casual dress and open seating for dinner, and limited smoking (if that appeals to you). Many recent passengers have reported the Dining Room service is excellent.

 

I cannot answer your tender question with certainty. I will leave that for our other Cruise Critic friends to answer.

 

Azamara should open 2010/2011 itineraries/bookings in the next 1-3 months. I am trying to get a more specific date, so stay tuned.

 

If you have any additional questions, feel free to ask !

[CSIMelissa]

Hi Melissa !

 

Welcome to the Azamara Board. Some of the many things that set Azamara apart from the larger lines are : the great service, smaller ship and relaxed feel, outstanding food (especially in the Specialty Dining venues), resort casual dress and open seating for dinner, and limited smoking (if that appeals to you). Many recent passengers have reported the Dining Room service is excellent.

 

I cannot answer your tender question with certainty. I will leave that for our other Cruise Critic friends to answer.

 

Azamara should open 2010/2011 itineraries/bookings in the next 1-3 months. I am trying to get a more specific date, so stay tuned.

 

If you have any additional questions, feel free to ask !

Hello Host Andy!! Thanks for your reply.

 

The smaller ship size is what appeals to me and I am definitely looking forward to sailing with Azamara. It seems like most cruise lines' ships are getting bigger and bigger! I have a feeling my 2010 Italian cruise with won't be my first cruise with them!

[sailoruk]

Hi all! I plan on sailing with Azamara in 2010 on their Best of Italy cruise. I LOVE that itinerary!

 

I do have a few questions.... What sets Azamara apart? Just curious to see what everyone has to say about the line.

 

Too, seems like I have read in places that if you are not taking an Azamara shore excursion in a tender port, you have to pay to have access to the tener to board the ship. Is that true?

 

How's the service in the dining room?

 

Looking forward to booking with them whenever they open up their 2010 itineraries.

 

We have very recently cruised on the Journey - which we loved, and can advise that we did not pay to use the tender to go ashore. We did do a ship's tour in Nicaragua (tender) and in Cabo Sa Lucas (tender )we did our own thing, one could come and go as pleased. Hope this helps

[critterchick]

We were on Journey with SailorUK (hi, Hilary). There is no charge to use the ship's tenders. I'll let you know when we get back from our Best of Italy in May whether there was a charge to use the shuttle busses in the various ports (that may be what you've read about).

 

As for the dining room, we had bad luck there, but many more people have had great food and service, so I suspect we're in the minority there. The specialty restaurants are sublime - food, service and ambiance are just fabulous. They are, IMHO, well worth the $5 per person suggested gratuity. The buffet also has some very nice options, and I think we'll be using it frequently on the port very-intensive itinerary.

 

What sets Azamara apart for me is the itineraries - we are comfortable (and enjoy) travelling around Italy on our own, and would not normally cruise there. But the Best of Italy has overnights in 3 ports, which will allow us time to explore, have dinner ashore and do things that we would not otherwise be able to do on a typical "8 hours in each port" cruise.

 

I also liked having only 690 fellow passengers instead of $2000+. The only real crowds we encountered were peak hours in the buffet, the ship is easy to navigate and you can chat with crew, staff and officers to get a real feel for the sailing life from their perspective. You can also meet people casually one day and then see them all over the ship (that has its plusses and minuses, LOL).

 

I don't think of Azamara as a luxury line, even though that's how they position themselves. I think of the them as more of the intrepid explorers that happen to feed you really well along the way.:)

[CSIMelissa]

Oh critterchick I am jealous that you are doing the Best of Italy in May!! I am in love with that itinerary and I haven't even booked it for 2010 yet. Are the crowds bad that time of year? Considering May or June.

 

Is the crew from different countries like the other cruise lines, or do they tend to be from one particular country? I always like the multi-national feel of a cruise.

[sailoruk]

Oh critterchick I am jealous that you are doing the Best of Italy in May!! I am in love with that itinerary and I haven't even booked it for 2010 yet. Are the crowds bad that time of year? Considering May or June.

 

Is the crew from different countries like the other cruise lines, or do they tend to be from one particular country? I always like the multi-national feel of a cruise.

 

I think that was one of the "good" things about Azamara, was all the different nationalities. All the "crew" wore their names with the country they were from, I stopped counting after 10;) maybe "critterchick" (hi from us in the UK) will remember the figure - think it was 60 or so - great.

[critterchick]

They were from all different countries, but I saw more Europeans, mainly Eastern, than we see on Royal Caribbean. I don't remember the exact number of countries, though.

 

We've never been to Italy in May, have gone in October, when the crowds are thinning. It's technically shoulder season, since schools are still in session in the US and Europe, but when searching for hotels in Rome, I noticed that they were all charging high season rates. I'm still hoping it won't be too mobbed.

 

We were drooling over this itinerary in 2008, so when it opened for booking we jumped on it. I am sad that we only have 1-1/2 days in Venice (probably so we can save fuel going to Dubrovnik), but we'll make the most of our time there!

[denims]

What are the dates in May?

[critterchick]

This year it's May 16-30. 2010 hasn't been released yet.

[Project_gal]

 

Azamara should open 2010/2011 itineraries/bookings in the next 1-3 months. I am trying to get a more specific date, so stay tuned.

 

quote]

 

Andy

 

I assume that you will be alerting us once you know the likely date. Please. We shall be away/cruising for a month from 3 April and are keen not to miss the early bookings. [As UK citizens, I believe that we will not be able to book onboard.]

 

Sue

[CSIMelissa]

Yes, Andy, as I said earlier, let us know dates! I am going to jump on this Best of Italy cruise for 2010 as soon as dates open up.

 

Debating between May and June. June is my b-day month but may be too busy. Too bad they don't have this itinerary in September.

[camano]

i did not think the quality of the food is 5 star. most of the food we were served on our trans-atlantic cruise i would compare to a very mediocre restaurant.when the kitchen would run out of an ingredint for a dish they would substitute ,but the server would never inform us of the change.the entertainment is not very good.the butler is a joke.as far as the crew we found them to be extremely polite and helpful.

[Susan-M]

...when the kitchen would run out of an ingredint for a dish they would substitute ,but the server would never inform us of the change.

 

Was it quite obvious (such as substituting mushrooms with carrots), or was it subtle and a bit of a guessing game each time (such as substituting cilantro with parsley)?

[camano]

it was quite obvious,as it was usually a key ingredient.the description on the menu was not what was coming out of the kitchen.many of the passengers on our cruise were not satisfied with the cuisine.

[cruiseyguy]

"camano" has previous posts on this board. It is not clear from these posts whether "camano" was a guest or former employee. Just FYI.

[critterchick]

Was it quite obvious (such as substituting mushrooms with carrots), or was it subtle and a bit of a guessing game each time (such as substituting cilantro with parsley)?

 

We gave up on the dining room early in the cruise because we just didn't find the food to be all that good. The substitution (unannounced) in my dinner was that the eggplant and acorn squash "hash" was instead stacked slices of eggplant and plain yellow squash, with no real seasoning to speak of. I don't know if that's subtle or obvious, but the squash substitution was obvious to me because I only like yellow squash if it's chopped up in soup. The "broiled tomato" was a wedge of uncooked tomato and the warm apple tart was stone cold. Twice. The third time it was lukewarm (we didn't have plans for the evening, LOL).

 

Having said all that, and as we digress wildly from the original question, the food in the specialty restaurants was out of this world. So, although we didn't care for the dining room, we certainly enjoyed our remaining dinners!:)

[camano]

i was a passenger on the dec. 2 trans-atlantic from barcelona to miami.some how i have been portrayed as a disgruntled employee because i did not have the cruise experience that azamara advertised.hopefully some one from azamara will improve the cuisine ,& entertainment.

[cruisePRN]

I did not like the dining room at all. I ate mostly at the specialty restaurants and a few times at the buffet. I was disappointed in Azamara not delivering what it's ad campaign stated. Now that's not to say I didn't like my cruise, I loved asia and my fellow passengers especially the Cruise critic group I sailed with. I prefer smaller ships so they fit that bill. I found not having the same serving staff every night (open seating) did not yield the same service as the traditional seatings.

The butler is the cabin steward with some added duty as shoe shining upon request or making dinner reservations. It wasn't what i thought a butler would be.

Because of the ship is small getting on and off at ports when all 690 passengers want to go is no problem and takes just minutes. On RCL they usually take your sea pass card from you and put it in the machine, here you do it yourself. That may be some of the reason it goes so fast.

[Susan-M]

I did not like the dining room at all. I ate mostly at the specialty restaurants and a few times at the buffet. I was disappointed in Azamara not delivering what it's ad campaign stated.

 

Our thoughts are just the opposite ... we enjoyed the food and service in Discoveries (as well as the SR's, and Windows was a good choice for a couple of dinners 'under the stars'). We also felt that Azamara provided all that we expected, and more. Hard to believe how different our experience on Quest was in October was from yours a few months later.:confused:

 

We've cruised on Celebrity 4 times and enjoyed the food and service, but Quest was a more enjoyable experience overall for us.

[CSIMelissa]

Can't wait to experience Azamara and see what I think of it all in 2010!

[Parknslide]

Didn't pay for tenders, however I read something about them charging for tenders in Venice. Shuttle buses from port to town was $8 roundtrip an for all day.

[nevernever]

As several people have commented elsewhere, reaction to various aspects of a cruise is governed so much by personal experiences and expectations. I suspect that my wife and I were on the same cruise as cruisePRN, yet our experiences in the Discoveries dining room were similar to those reported above by Susan. Maybe we were lucky with the waiters that were allocated to look after us, or perhaps with the dishes that we selected, although our experiences were repeated on the five occasions that we ate dinner in the Discoveries dining room (always had lunch and breakfast elsewhere).

 

nevernever