Azura Transatlantic

[Pariscruiser]

Hi All!

 

I am hoping that some of you P&O experts out there can help me :-)

 

We are looking at booking the Azura transatlantic for either Oct 2010 or March 2011 for a special family occasion. There will be 6 adults in 3 cabins. We are looking at booking balcony cabins, but as I am unfamiliar with the ships I would appreciate some pointers on areas to avoid, for example as they are overlooked, or little gems that have bigger balconies within a category.

 

We took a HAL transatlantic (Noordam) last Oct and if we were to book with them we know exactly what we would go for as there are some balconies on deck 4 with larger than ave balconies but only in their VD category if you are familiar with that - ie in the middle of the price range for balconies.

 

Cost is an issue, and we appreciate that the categories are priced according to size and location - but we are not really bothered about location, we are more interested in getting a good balcony and are not so bothered by it's location.

 

Sorry to be so long winded, but this will be a one and only cruise for at least 2 members of this trip (due to financial reasons) so we are anxious to make it as good an experience as possible for them.

 

Thank you all for reading my question :-)

 

Sarah

[richardj]

Hi Sarah

 

The balcony cabins on C deck are the ones to go for as they have much bigger balconies than the other decks. The balconies are part open and part shaded by the deck above. The only problem is everybody has cottoned on to this so they go quickly as they are not that much more expensive than the other balcony cabins. The D deck mini suite balconies are totally open for everyone to look down on you so no privacy at all! We have just started looking at the October transatlantic ourselves today! For more information look at the Princess boards for the Crown, Ruby & Emerald Princesses as they are sister ships to the Azura more so than the Ventura is.

 

Regards

Richard & Gill

[tom_uk]

I concur with the point about the C deck balconies - they are just about twice as large as a normal balcony cabin balcony. This is achieved because these balconies are twice as deep - that is, the distance from the cabin sliding window to the rail is twice that of normal balconies. The width is the same as on normal balconies.

 

Interestingly, these cabins are not even the most expensive balcony cabins. We've just booked one on Ventura, and it was classed as a JD cabin (on a scale running from JA to JF, I believe).

[jenny wren]

We did the transatlantic on Ventura last October and had a C deck balcony which was great although we only had upright chairs and small table ....there was room for sunloungers and apparently p and o are going to put sunloungers on some balconies......so might be worth checking before you book if that is important for you...but it was great as the overhung section wasn't overlooked at all from above and did offer a bit of shade sometimes...someone did suggest taking a cheap air bed to lie on if you want to sunbathe and leaving it there!!

We did totally overlook the deck below though which was the mini suites....

[StLucia]

We did the Ventura transatlantic last October and had a balcony on B deck. We were slightly envious of those on the deck below who had bigger balconies but had paid less than us as we had tried to get one but non were available. I think P&O have caught on to the demand and increased changed the grading for C deck. We have booked Azura for its October 2010 transatlantic and managed to get a good deal on midship balcony on C. Don't forger POSH, port out starboard back if you want sunshine.

 

If you do book the Ocober crossing come and join our rollcall.

[Pariscruiser]

Thank you all so much - this was exactly the information I was looking for. Now we just have to decide between Oct 2010 and March 2011!

 

I'll join the appropriate roll call as soon as the booking is made in a couple of weeks.

 

Sarah :-)

[Pariscruiser]

Just to let you know that I have now booked 3 portside cabins on C deck for the Oct 2010 crossing. Thank you all so much for your help in selecting the best cabins for us.

 

Only 18 months to wait ............. :eek:

 

Sarah :)