Transatlantic Redux – Azamara Journey or HAL Noordam?

[MightyQuinn]

We’re taking a westbound TA Barcelona-Miami on Oceania Regatta later this year. We booked FF air round-trip rather than one-way & we plan to use the return ticket for an eastbound TA Miami-Barcelona next spring. We’re considering either:

 

1) Azamara Journey: 14 nites, 9 sea days, 5 ports (4 new to us)

2) HAL Noordam: 13 nites, 8 sea days, 5 ports (2 new to us)

 

We’ve not cruised Azamara before so we don’t know what to expect on their small ships. Our upcoming Oceania TA will give us a first-hand impression but we need to make a decision before then. On the other hand, we’re regular HAL cruisers & know their product well. Our HAL cruises have been on their smaller ships (793-1380 pax) but not on the larger Vista class (1918 pax).

 

Pricing is similar on both for our cabin category so that’s not a deciding factor. There are pros/cons to each & we’re bogged down in analyzing them. :eek::eek:

 

Would appreciate any feedback/insights from others who have done TAs on Azamara or on HAL Vista. What is great & not so much? What would you suggest? Many thanks.

[cirpi]

We’re taking a westbound TA Barcelona-Miami on Oceania Regatta later this year. We booked FF air round-trip rather than one-way & we plan to use the return ticket for an eastbound TA Miami-Barcelona next spring. We’re considering either:

 

1) Azamara Journey: 14 nites, 9 sea days, 5 ports (4 new to us)

2) HAL Noordam: 13 nites, 8 sea days, 5 ports (2 new to us)

 

We’ve not cruised Azamara before so we don’t know what to expect on their small ships. Our upcoming Oceania TA will give us a first-hand impression but we need to make a decision before then. On the other hand, we’re regular HAL cruisers & know their product well. Our HAL cruises have been on their smaller ships (793-1380 pax) but not on the larger Vista class (1918 pax).

 

Pricing is similar on both for our cabin category so that’s not a deciding factor. There are pros/cons to each & we’re bogged down in analyzing them. :eek::eek:

 

Would appreciate any feedback/insights from others who have done TAs on Azamara or on HAL Vista. What is great & not so much? What would you suggest? Many thanks.

 

My wife and I did a 16-day TA from Miami to Barcelona in March on the Journey and we were so impressed with the ship, the crew and the food that we hope to book a East-West crossing on the Journey next year. We had bum weather and rough seas much of the way, but the ship handled it well. We made three previous crossings on the Celebrity's Millennium. We now prefer the smaller ships.

[MightyQuinn]

My wife and I did a 16-day TA from Miami to Barcelona in March on the Journey and we were so impressed with the ship, the crew and the food that we hope to book a East-West crossing on the Journey next year. We had bum weather and rough seas much of the way, but the ship handled it well. We made three previous crossings on the Celebrity's Millennium. We now prefer the smaller ships.

Thank you so much for your quick reply! Your experience is a pretty solid endorsement of Azamara & the smaller ships. We're not concerned about rough seas - we like the rockin & rollin! Does Azamara do a good job of on-board programming during TAs? 7+2 sea days is a stretch no matter how we look at it. :eek::eek:

[Jade13]

Hi there. I'm curious on the "new" ports for you on each?

 

I've been on the Noordam. We prefer the smaller ships but the Eastern Med itinerary last year was great. HAL's service and food is still the best.

 

Regarding Journey, we'll be on Quest in February. Friends of ours that we met on Westerdam went on Journey to Antarctica (driveby). They said it was their number 1 favorite cruise and they have been on about 40. The jogging track looks like a big plus and the problem we have with the smaller ships (45-132 passengers - PAII) is that there is limited outdoor space and very small gyms). I'm guessing Azamara will be the perfect size for us.

[MightyQuinn]

Hi there. I'm curious on the "new" ports for you on each?

Hi Jade!

 

This is a tough call for us. We usually select port-intensive cruises where itinerary is the deciding factor. But on a TA with so many sea days, the choice really becomes more about the ship & its amenities/service. Hence our dilemma.

 

Here are the ports for both TAs. Those with * would be new for us. Any reaction?

 

Azamara Journey

 

Ponta Delgada, Azores*

Gibraltar*

Cartagena, Spain*

Palma de Mallorca*

Barcelona

 

HAL Noordam

 

Funchal/Madiera

Cadiz

Malaga, Spain*

Alicante, Spain*

Barcelona

[Jade13]

Hi Jade!

 

This is a tough call for us. We usually select port-intensive cruises where itinerary is the deciding factor. But on a TA with so many sea days, the choice really becomes more about the ship & its amenities/service. Hence our dilemma.

 

Here are the ports for both TAs. Those with * would be new for us. Any reaction?

 

Azamara Journey

 

Ponta Delgada, Azores*

Gibraltar*

Cartagena, Spain*

Palma de Mallorca*

Barcelona

 

HAL Noordam

 

Funchal/Madiera

Cadiz

Malaga, Spain*

Alicante, Spain*

Barcelona

 

Well, my first reaction would be Journey because I've been on Noordam and have been interested in the Azores. However, I was in Malaga and it is really nice. I can give you advice on Mallorca since I've been there. This is a hard call. We prefer HAL but I believe would go with the smaller ship.

 

Yes, if I were you I would try Journey with the 4 new ports. There will be a new cruiseline and 4 new ports. You can always try Noordam later. Btw, I think the Noordam's East and West Med cruises from Rome are the best itineraries out there.

[Bosscat]

The overwhelmingly excellent reviews for the Azamara ships, against the so-so ones I repeatedly see for HAL lead me to say go with Azamara.

[Jancruz]

I vote for Azamara also..and four new ports is always fun!!

Jancruz1

[MightyQuinn]

Thanks for the replies. Azamara looks promising. :):)

I’d like to get a better idea of daily programming on sea days. We don’t need to be endlessly entertained but we appreciate some planned activities. We enjoy things such as cooking demos, wine tastings, lectures, trivia & afternoon tea. Are these usually available on Azamara or is it left to the discretion of each individual CD?

[MightyQuinn]

I’d like to get a better idea of daily programming on sea days. We don’t need to be endlessly entertained but we appreciate some planned activities. We enjoy things such as cooking demos, wine tastings, lectures, trivia & afternoon tea. Are these usually available on Azamara or is it left to the discretion of each individual CD?

OK ... I don't want to appear too needy here ... but can anyone help out with my question about sea day activities? I've searched the Azamara website but would very much appreciate some first-hand knowledge. The reviews I've read are mixed. Help! :o:o

[tonyd285]

We have sailed on the Journey but never on HAL. Still, I would strongly recommend the Noordam for a TA. The Journey is quite small with only a limited number of venues. The theater can only accomodate small acts, the casino is small with limited options, there are only a couple of stores, etc. Considering the number of days at sea I believe the larger ship would afford more opportunities for diversion. The Journey is perfect for a cruise with port calls nearly every day but for a TA it is probably not ideal.

 

We recently (in April) did a TA on Celebrity's Summit and had a great time.

[Jade13]

OK ... I don't want to appear too needy here ... but can anyone help out with my question about sea day activities? I've searched the Azamara website but would very much appreciate some first-hand knowledge. The reviews I've read are mixed. Help! :o:o

 

MightyQuinn, I don't want to confuse you (but probably will), but I thought about this some more last night and with a TA it really is more about the ship. I'd probably stick with HAL for the cooking demos, Royal Dutch Tea, Asian Tea, entertainment, incredible staff and more.

 

One thing I would like to see answered is what will not be offered to first time cruisers on RCCL/Celebrity/Azamara? The reason I bring this up is that we did a 5 night on Celebrity Century in Feb 2008 and, while I'd never say never, more than likely not be back on Celebrity. This is if HAL has a similar itinerary we want or we could put monies towards a land tour such as Africa or Peru etc. It was a great cruise for the price and offered a good value to take my teenage stepdaughter and her friend (in an inside, we were in concierge level).

 

One thing I did not like was Celebrity's unwillingness to bend on some rules. This included no cruise critic party on a 5 night cruise, even though we had a roll call with over 25 people, and one person called Miami who had been on over 10 cruises with Celebrity, yet they could not rope off an area and provide tea, coffee and cookies. Also, I asked onboard about a Kitchen tour because my DH is a Chef (and in the hospitality industry). They preceded to tell us no kitchen tours were done after 911 (when we knew one was being conducted for "Elite" cruisers. I bring this up also because people I know who have been on tons of cruises aren't interested in these tours or have already been on one on the same ship). Another issue (again apparently isolated to this a 5 night cruise) was that I was interested in afternoon tea in the dining room. I'm a big tea drinker. On this 5 night cruise the only tea was in the buffet line but they were having a tea in the dining room for cruisers who had been on 5 cruises as a repete customer "perk". Well, the afternoon before I asked the Matre D if things were different on a 7 night cruise. He wanted to know why I asked and if I was interested in afternoon tea as I could go as his guest. Well, he put me on the list so I showed up. There were 5 or 6 tables and about 18 guests to tea in that entire dining room. In any event, it put me off that in an effort to create past passenger perks Celebrity was denying some activities that are just standard for everyone on every other cruise line we have been on, including HAL.

 

I posted a review with these details and also wrote a letter to Celebrity in which I did receive a phone call from Miami but it was very canned with "I'm sure your next Celebrity Cruise will be better". I also received some not so nice responses on the Celebrity board asking why I thought I was entitled to the same perks as past passengers (my issue was being lied to that Celebrity doesn't do any behind the scenes tours after 911).

 

Well I hope Azamara will be better. We got a great price and my expectations are that we are getting off in some great ports. Sorry this is so long, but I think a question to ask is what will be offered (or not offered) if you are not Elite to RCCL/Celebrity/Azamara since this is not a port intensive cruise.

[MightyQuinn]

Sorry this is so long, but I think a question to ask is what will be offered (or not offered) if you are not Elite to RCCL/Celebrity/Azamara since this is not a port intensive cruise.

Your comments are very helpful Jade. They didn’t confuse me at all but they did get me thinking about stuff that I hadn’t even considered! Thanks for raising those excellent points. ;);)

 

We have no status at all on Celebrity/RCCL so I appreciate that we may be excluded from some events on Azamara. Not a biggie as long as there are other interesting activities open to us. Bummer that you had such difficulty on Celebrity. Maybe they need to strike a better balance between their loyal repeat customers & first-timers. Happily, that doesn’t seem to be much of an issue on Azamara, at least it’s not mentioned in the CC reviews or in the mini-reviews posted in the Sticky here. Anyone have other comments?

 

On balance, we’re leaning towards Azamara. We want to try the line anyway & this is a great opportunity. The cruise is a day longer than HAL, leaves a month sooner & we visit 4 new ports. We’re pretty low-maintenance & have no problem amusing ourselves on extended sea days. But having said that, we really enjoy the cooking demos, wine tastings & afternoon teas on HAL. So if we go with Azamara, we’d have to adjust our expectations. And who knows? Maybe the new CEO will have a positive impact (look at all the excellent suggestions offered here) before we sail.

 

In an ideal world, we’d make our decision after our Oceania cruise in Nov/09 when we’ll have first-hand info on the ship & about TA sailings. But we dare not leave it till then as the FF seats would be long gone!

[Gemmajam]

I'm not sure if this might help you or confuse you more. I have done four transatlantic crossings on Oceania from Barcelona and Lisbon to Rio. Azamara is trying to copy what Oceania does so I'm assuming what I experienced on my crossing will occur on Azamara's.

 

On sea days there were cooking demos, wine tasting, lectures, trivia-type games, scrabble championships, afternoon tea and then one grand tea. Azamara and Oceania have the exact ships (formerly Renaissance ships). Their theatre is set up more like a supper club and so they are limited by their space in their productions. Don't expect the Broadway type shows of Princess or Celebrity. The gym is fairly well equipped but again is smaller than what one would get on the larger ships.

 

On itineraries that are port-intensive, one actually does not get to enjoy all the amenities the ship has to offer. On a transatlantic, one has an opportunity to relax and enjoy the ship. But then of course some people can't relax and need new ports each day. On one of our crossings several years ago, a number of friends booked the cruise together. One couple I guess booked without knowing the itinerary. I thought the husband was going to jump overboard at one point. He kept complaining that there weren't new ports each day for him. I suppose someone failed to communicate to him that he was taking a transatlantic crossing--not many ports to stop at. It always pays to do your own homework and see what will work for you.:)