Friday, October 7, 2011

Azamara Club Cruises

OK so we're not in Nice, France today as previously anticipated. This is because the high seas prevented us from entering the harbor, and would have made tendering too exciting for even the more adventurous among us. So, instead we are having a leisurely day at sea while we cruise to Barcelona.



As this is our first Azamara cruise I thought I would give our initial reactions---we're sold!

On this ship (they only have 2 and they are sister ships) there are about 700 passengers and 404 crew. The Captain is from Guildford, England and the crew is genuinely friendly--not paid to be friendly. Plus, with the ratio of crew to passengers you can actually engage someone in conversation and not feel like you are keeping them from doing their job.



The food is excellent! Dinner is open seating between 6 & 9:30--no reservations, just come when you want. We've met some really nice people at dinner and Fritz likes that there are no formal nights. The complimentary wine has been very good, each night featuring a different country. We've had Italian, U.S. and Australian so far and they just keep pouring. Add to that the free champagne when boarding in Rome, the free drinks at the Captain's party, the open bar at the frequent cruisers party and we're on our way to needing a 12 step program! We'll start that as soon as we have finished our 2:30 wine tasting and tomorrow's winery tour of Barcelona.

Some of the other things we've particularly liked so far are:

The Gelato Bar
The excellent lattes served with little biscotti dipped in dark chocolate
No bingo, no art sales, no constant photo snapping-- in fact we don't feel like every minute is a sales opportunity
Things are that bit more refined--the buffet is manageable with no shoving and they use real plates, not plastic ones
The front desk said "let me follow up on that for you and I will call and let you know"--and they did!




So far, the only thing we would change is the size of the cabins. They are pretty small and the balconies barely have room for a couple of chairs under a small dining table. Four people for wine would have to be pretty good friends!





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1 comment:

Molly said...

This sounds like a great cruise line! We'll have to try it for our next family trip! Bummer about Nice...you could have gone sun bathing :)

Love you!