Azamara Journey, Azamara Cruises

Had a lovely cruise to Cuba and the Caribbean and up to New York in March. The cabin a inside was fine a the food was great ,we liked that the ship docked close to the centre of the town and mostly didnt leave until 10.00pm so plenty of time to go out a about. We found this ship small a friendly and met a lot of nice people to talk to , We were on board with our youngest son a fiance and they enjoyed the cruise as well . We would definitely book another cruise with Azamra and would recomend them ,We will be looking to book again next year .

The cruise and the initial 3 days in Rome were excellent. A significant contributor to this was the lesser number of passengers on the ship. The captain was actively involved around the ship, particularly focusing on safety regarding boarding and alighting from the tenders. Access to most of the ports was by tenders and there were some heavy seas that had to be dealt with. There were a couple of issues. Firstly, the specialty restaurants. We arranged a deal to eat in the specialty restaurants - 3 meals covering the 2 restaurants for $70 per head. We visited the Italian restaurant first of all but found the menu rather bland and there was some pressure in the restaurant to add a caviar starter to the cost as well as a bottle of champagne. Both were costly. A friend who came with us found the seafood starter to be off - it smelled bad. The maitre d' apologised and said that he would inform the chef. However, we talked to Guest Relations and said that we would like to cancel our second meal at the Italian restaurant and left her to determine the necessary adjustment to the cost of the 3 meal deal. We did retain our booking at the American restaurant. I have to say that this restaurant was the exact opposite of the Italian. The menu was varied and the food that we and our guests chose were all exceptional. The experience was helped significantly by the outstanding waiter who served us. In the end, the ship cancelled the cost of the 3 meals for all 4 of us and our guests - which was a good and acceptable resolution to the problem. The second issue relates to tickets we purchased from IGLU for access to the Monaco Grand Prix. They cost Euros 100 per person. We got to the circuit early and found the specified entrance to the circuit. Unfortunately it didn't provide access to the circuit, solely to a road that ran up a steep hill that was close to the circuit. It had already been accessed by hundreds of fans who obviously knew of the viewing restrictions - the crowd was 10 deep. We could hear cars and had the occasional sight of a car, but not sufficient to see the race. In frustration, because we had not been advised of the serious viewing restrictions, we decided to return to the ship and watch the race on the television.