Fortunately we didn’t suffer the same fate as the Titanic….but… we did have to contend with Tropical Depression—now Tropical Storm--Ian – and he was bad enough! The first 2 sea days went by peacefully enough – there was lots to do – interesting lecturers, afternoon movies with popcorn, then tapas at 5, dinner and a show later. So we filled our days. The captain kept warning us there was weather. He gave us detailed updates every day, which was nice. He took a southern route so that we wouldn’t go through the worst of the storm, but would still have a bit of a rough time of it on sea day 3 and 4. And he was true to his word.
Day 3 was rocky – small boat, big waves. The decks were all closed because the wind was so strong, they literally chained the doors shut. Of course my daring husband didn’t care
– what did he do, but go out and sit on the balcony (which of course was on the side of the strongest wind) and then take videos. Sigh. I kept waiting for security to knock on the door and take him away. He survived, without the brig, and managed not to fall overboard taking the video below (trust me when I tell you it doesn’t look half as bad as it felt).
If we thought the daytime was back, the night was the worse. At about 4AM, that ship was taking a beating. Woke us up, the sound, the motion. It was pretty intense. Day 4 didn’t really improve all that much until afternoon. There were still some awfully deep swells we were battling through once we turned northward. Ed of course wasn’t bothered by it, and I fared pretty well – of course I had a little (well a lot) of Dramamine help! It didn’t hold a candle to the “Holy mother of God” night in the Antarctic, but we still decided it ranked in our top 5 rough sea stories. That should tell you something!
All the weather behind us, we all (crew included) looked forward to putting our feet on firm ground in St John’s Newfoundland on Sunday!
So – now that the storm is out of the way – I’ll give you a little cruise review. Being our first Azamara cruise, we weren’t sure what to expect. They call their cruises “Azamara Club Cruises” and it was a little “clubby” so to speak. A whole bunch of the passengers knew each other – and everyone seemed to know the crew and senior staff. We found out later that we set a record on this cruise for the most number of repeat cruisers. At the loyalty club party (which we qualified for because of our Celebrity points), there were cruisers there who had sailed 81 times with Azamara. And, to celebrate them, the staff created a video with tons of crew and senior staff congratulating them by name, and Tea Cake created a song to the tune of It’s Raining Men (It’s Scott and Craig, thanks for sailing). The staff also gave them this big huge picnic basket from Fortnum and Mason. Talk about impressive. So, the clubby-ness could have just been that we had a ton of loyal Azamara cruisers on the crossing – but it was still interesting to watch everyone.
Senior staff is incredibly visible. I mean, they are everywhere and always happy and talkative. Our Cruise Director Russ was everywhere too. And he knew everyone as well – calling out passenger names to say hello, calling to a couple to come and sit with another couple in the theater – “they are looking for you.” It apparently is such a close clan, that at one show, Russ even came over to us and said “I don’t recognize you, is this your first Azamara cruise?” How’s that for knowing your customers? Well, now he knows us too!
Entertainment was fabulous. Of course a very small staff – 4 singers and 2 dancers – and Russ, who started out his entertainment career with Up with People, as well as a 7 year run with Mamma Mia. The lead singer, Tea Cake (her real name – seriously), was seriously good. She just knocked our socks off.
Food was excellent as well. Main dining room selections and preparations were wonderful. But our favorites were when we were in port and Phillip, the hotel director, would, in the captain's words “open his purse strings” and let the chef go shopping (with the captain’s help on a couple of occasions). When we left France, we had French delicacies in the buffet – cheese and charcuterie (cheese selection like you have never seen before!), mussels, escargot and fresh oysters for oysters Rockefeller. Then, (jumping ahead) they also had a Senior staff buffet at lunch, where senior staff served you. Talk about food – huge shrimp (cold and cooked), stone crab claws, snow crab legs, beef wellington (best I’ve had in a long time), and tons and tons of other assorted food – too much to even remember. Yet another night they had a Canadian seafood buffet with more cheese (truffle stuffed brie – I could have been brie stuffed Cathy with that wheel of cheese!), Halibut mixed with salmon, fresh cod, more crab claws, oysters and crab legs. It was incredible – and I’ve not even talked about White Night – which is a deck party with enough tables (all with white linen) for everyone, a barbeque with lobster tails, lamb chops, and more – then more fresh cod, tempura shrimp and a whole salt encrusted Halibut that we could not get enough of – there were also the crab claws and cheese and veggies (why bother with veggies when you have all this protein?) and desserts – and then the whole deck party. Really nicely done – all of it.
All the crew were friendly and happy and took excellent care of everyone. There were staff members I don’t even think I knew who called me by my name. They were so accommodating you didn’t really want to ask for anything because they would go over the top to get it for you. Overall, an excellent experience.
So – that’s the little cruise review – we’d definitely sail Azamara again – if we could find the right “value” on a good itinerary.
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