Charles wrote:
> I booked the Journey after finding out about good prices on the Sept.
> 1 sailing from some r.t.c. friends. When I e-mailed Lori of Skysc.r
> Tours for a quote I had expected the price was going to be out of range
> of what I was willing to pay for a cruise to Bermuda during hurricane
> season because I had made several price checks on the Journey Bermuda
> sailing's and those came back with high prices. Much higher than I had
> paid in past years for cruises on Zenith in the same time period. To my
> surprise she had a price I could live with for a ship that was being
> touted as better than Zenith. So I booked. I probably should not have
> been surprised since I have found in the past that Lori and her agency
> often have had the best deals that can be found. Several from r.t.c
> booked the sailing and we formed an ad-hoc group.
>
> The Journey was one of the former R ships from the defunct Renaissance
> cruise line that had been transfered from RCI's acquisition of
> Pullmantur which had acquired two of the ships. These are small 30,000
> ton, 770 passenger vessels. Azamara also now has the other R ship
> from Pullmantur that will start sailing soon and is called Quest,
> Oceania has three of these sister ships and Princess has three. At the
> time of booking it was still the Celebrity Journey which they later
> re-branded as a sub brand called Azamara as a deluxe brand of RCI
> under Celebrity. The brand features a resort casual dress code, open
> seating dining, and butlers in every cabin. Very much an emulation of
> Oceania from what I have heard of that cruise line.
>
> Embarkation was pretty fast. Small ship and number of passengers. The
> embarkation port was Bayonne, New Jersey. I took the train up from
> Washington which works out well for that port. First impressions, the
> ship had a fairly classical and elegant decor. Outside cabin is about
> the same size as cabins on Celebrity, Royal Caribbean or Princess.
> Storage areas seemed smaller. Bathroom was smaller than usual. Balcony
> cabins are about the same size plus a small balcony. Room had a small
> rather useless refrigerator. The flat screen TV had no swivel pivot so
> it is not viewable from all angles. However I don't watch much in
> cabin TV so that was not much of an issue for me. I have heard they are
> replacing the refrigerators and putting a swivel in for the TV. The
> bedding was nice and the bed comfortable
>
> You are provided with a bathrobe, slippers, nice shampoo and
> conditioner, fresh flowers, a pair of binoculars to use, two hair
> dryers to use, a free liter bottle of Evian water and fresh fruit. You
> could have afternoon tea in the cabin with goodies. The room service
> menu looked extensive. You can order just about any breakfast items you
> could think of. The butler, well, she introduced herself as my butler
> who cleaned the cabin. She and her assistant did a very good job of
> that, although because of open seating, did miscue a couple of times
> when I would be gone on the timing of her evening turndown. Also
> something I had not seen for a while, they used the little piece of
> paper falling out of the door method in the morning to know I left the
> cabin in the morning. I think the butler thing is a miscall for outside
> or balcony cabin. In my opinion they could just have the butlers in
> suites. I really could not think of much to have a butler for in my
> small outside cabin.
>
> The welcome aboard buffet was pretty good and the buffets for both
> breakfast and lunch continued to be the best of any of my previous
> cruises which were all on mass market lines like Celebrity, Princess,
> Royal Caribbean, NCl and Carnival. The selection is narrower because it
> is a smaller ship but what they had was very good and they had a made
> to order egg and omelet station and also fresh waffles, pancakes and
> french toast at breakfast and ice cream at lunch although limited
> flavors. Dinner in the main dining room was open seating. The food was
> high quality there, again better than those other lines I mentioned
> above but the service has a few problems which are caused by the open
> seating. People are coming and going all the time from the ding room
> and the waiters are serving people in various stages. Also no wine
> stewards which is something I dislike. This is the second cruise where
> I have had open seating, the first was on NCl. I still dislike open
> seating. Dress was all over the place with the majority wearing resort
> casual. A few wore jackets some nights. A few wore shorts. The
> specialty restaurants both Aqualina and Prime C were excellent, both in
> the food and service. For regular cabins one of those meals is
> complementary. In suites they both are. Gratuities are automatically
> deducted.
>
> As for the public areas because of the smaller ship there are fewer of
> them but they are very nice. Strangely enough I did not very much
> drink very much onboard, possibly because of fewer venues, less
> aggressive bar waiters, and it being a Bermuda cruise. On the sea days
> I don't recall ever being asked by a bar waiter if i wanted a drink on
> the pool deck. It was pretty much a wine at dinner cruise plus a
> couple of free drinks at the senior officers party and at the Captains
> Club party. The martini bar was elegant and the Cova cafe was very
> nice but somehow I never ordered a drink at either. The Library has a
> very small collection of books and doubles as Michael's Club. At four
> o'clock they serve tea with the harpist playing. She also plays at the
> Cova Cafe. She is an excellent musician in my opinion. They also had
> piano player and guitarist, some musicians who played at the pool and
> parts of the cabaret orchestra playing jazzy music at different times
> in the lounges. A DJ spun music at night in the Looking Glass lounge
> which Is like a Viking Crown lounge on Royal Caribbean.
>
> On the pool deck is a small pool with two whirlpools by the pool and
> nice heavily padded teak loungers,, and other comfortable furniture is
> located on the main pool area. Also larger Thallosotherepy type
> whirlpool is located forward of the spa and gym somewhat unknown. No
> children's areas so it would not be a very good ship for families with
> young children. No sports court, there are ping pong tables, a dart
> board, shuffleboard and a small putting green. There was a golf pro
> and golfing program onboard. Smoking is limited to two areas, a section
> of the Looking Glass lounge and an area on the pool deck. It is not
> allowed in cabins or on balconies. The only negatives on the public
> areas I have is some worn stuff inherited from Pullmantur has yet to be
> replaced and for some reason the public restroom floors are not getting
> enough attention. They need to be mopped more often.
>
> Entertainment it being small ship no big production show. They had
> small cabaret style shows and a magician/comedian. Activities in
> general are more limited because it is a smaller vessel but I thought
> there was enough to do on seas besides relax. There were many trivia
> and quiz sessions, and a guest lecturer who did three talks. Also a
> casino which may donated to, bingo, art auctions, drink mixing and
> culinary demos, and a large screen TV set up for those who wanted to
> watch broadcast sports.
>
> There is a computer room where you can get internet packages and also
> Wi-Fi access can be purchased for use with your own laptop. The signal
> can be picked up throughout the ship including in the cabins.
>
> Passenger demographics were on the older side on this sailing although
> not the walker using crowd. Certainly older than on the September
> Zenith sailing's although many had inherited their bookings from
> originally having booked Zenith. About one teenager onboard and a
> couple of infants.
>
> Bermuda, been there a few times and really like it. This trip I went to
> John Smith's Bay and Horseshoe Bay, both of which are gorgeous south
> shore beaches. John Smith has rudimentary facilities but is not as
> crowded as Horseshoe Bay. Weather was pretty good on monday, Tuesday
> and Thursday. Drizzled all day Wednesday. harbor Nights was cancelled.
> The ship had Bermuda Gombay dancers perform in the looking Glass on
> Wednesday night. That performance was very good.
>
> In conclusion, Azamara is somewhat a work in progress, which is a
> phrase mean in a positive way, not a negative way. They are
> relatively new in what I will call a boutique category of smaller ships
> that are better than mass market, but not luxury, and are still working
> on some details. Some who sailed on the cruise line that Azamara
> appears to be emulating, Oceania were disappointed. Since I never
> sailed on Oceania, and paid what I consider to have been a reasonable
> price, I did not have those expectations, and was more than satisfied
> with my first Azamara cruise experience. The food was great, the crew
> was great, and many other aspects were better than what I have
> personally experienced on my previous 26 cruises which were all on
> mainstream mass market cruise lines. I would book Azamara again in the
> future.
>
Sounds quite nice!
Jeff
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