Hi I'm Gary Bembridge and this is another of my tips for travellers. I'm currently
onboard Azamara pursuit and I'm going to talk about seven things that you need to
know about Azamara club cruises before you cruise with them. So Azamara is part
of the Royal Caribbean group of cruise lines. Royal Caribbean operate obviously
the Royal Caribbean line, Celebrity, they have Azamara and also a major stake in
Silversea the ultra luxury cruise an expedition line. Azamara operates in the
upmarket mid to small ship cruise category, so they compete with lines
like Oceania, Viking cruise line and lines like Windstar. All of their ships
are what is known as R-class ships and they are originally built for Renaissance
cruise lines. They have three ships all holding around about 700 passengers.
They have the Azamara Journey, the Azamara Quest and in 2018 they added
Azamara Pursuit. What does Azamara do that's different or
unique to other cruise lines? Azamara would argue that their real focus
is around destinations. There's a couple of things that Azamara do around
destinations that I think are unique and different. First of all what they call
"stay longer experience more", so they call in smaller ports because they have
smaller ships and they tend to have much longer stays. For example the cruise I'm
on which is a 10-night cruise around Greece and the Greek islands, in many of
the ports we were staying until 10 o'clock at night and in other ports
we're staying until 8 o'clock at night, which enables you to get out and see
much more both during the day and also into the evening. The second thing they
do is lots of country intensive cruises. You'll find a lot of their cruises are
called intensive, so it'll be Greece intensive or Spain intensive. So they're
tend to structure their cruises around a particular part of the world and call
on lots of places and again, because they have smaller ships, they can call it lots
of different ports. The third thing they talk about is this real sense of
immersion once you're there. So they talk about
"cruise global connect local", so the idea is they have lots of excursions which
ready try and get you to connect with the people, cultures, the food and they
group these into a number of different types of excursions. So for example Taste
Local, Bike local, Meet local and Night local. So the Bike Local obviously are bike
tours. They have bikes on board the ship which are around about 16 bikes so
the tour runs with about 16 people. Taste Local is where you would get out
and have markets or local restaurant visits, Meet Local is cultural exchanges
with the families and residents and of course Night Local will be where you can
get out and experience the nightlife. The tour sizes are quite small. The normal
tours will be around about 25 people if it's a walking tour or it's cycling tour
they're often focused just on having 16 people. I noticed a lot when we were
traveling around at different sites on different tours that we had a small
group or between 16 and 20 people and other cruise lines were having 30 to 40
people on their tours. They use only local tour guides, which of course many
cruise lines do, but local experts and the other thing which they have on board
is they normally have some speaker on board who will talk about the region and
the places that you're visiting. They also provide port guides in every port.
Personally I felt the port guides were okay. I don't think they were amazing and
particularly considering that Azamara is really focused on destinations I thought
that perhaps their destination guides will be very different to other cruise
lines, but I felt they were quite similar. What they do do though, which is great, is
in every single port of call they will bring on board local tourist reps who
will be there for a couple of hours in the morning when you arrive so they can
obviously give you much more specific information, maps and advice. The other thing
that they do is if the local town or the nearest town is not within easy walking
distance they always provide a complimentary transfer to get into town.
So that whole destination area is something that they do really well. Now
the other thing that they do, which is unique, they have a number of signature
events. Azamara have probably four of them that I think are worth talking
about. First of all they have what is known as their as AzAmazing evenings. So
normally on a cruise they'll have one evening where take the whole ship onto
land somewhere and they'll have some big event. So for example when were in Corfu
the whole ship was taken to a beautiful park in the center of the town
and a concert was laid on of local Corfu music and dancing. So every cruise will
normally have some kind of AzAmazing evening where they try and take you out
to experience again the local culture or something that's unique. The other big
signature event is the White Night Party. One of these is held on every cruise and
if it's great weather or in a warm climate it's held on the pool deck and
there's the most amazing spread of food and the other great twist is that
normally the officers are the ones serving the food, then there's dancing
and singing. The other big highlight is they have a crew parade where a big
chunk of the crew will march on to the the deck.
Another big signature event is the chocolate buffet which is held on Deck
five once during the cruise in the evening. A great spread of chocolate treats.
The other big feature is it's normally on a sea day is they have a brunch which
is held in the main dining room, the Discovery's restaurant. So there's some
of the great signature events that I think a little bit unique and different.
Who is as Azamara best suited and best targeted for? Well most of the passengers
onboard are the baby boomer generation, so you're going to find mostly
people in their 50s, 60s and 70s and people who are very interested in
destinations and really want to have the chance to get to know a region and spend
time exploring it- and are pretty active in the way that they like to explore
things. I would say it's not really, although it's not excluded, but it's not
really a family kids kind of experience. It's very American focused, so most of the
travellers on board would be American. There will be a good amount of people
from the UK and from Australia but it is a very English speaking experience and
again it's with a sort of an American twist. So the entertainment, the quizzes
tend to have a slight American bias. On Azamara the fares are largely
all-inclusive. So what does that mean? Well the accommodation is obviously
covered, all gratuities are covered (with the exception of the spa), all of your
food in your main dining room, the Discoveries restaurant, is included, in
the buffet restaurant which known as the Windows Cafe, there's also snacks
which are available during the day in places like the living room and also at
the Mosaic cafe. Room service all through the day is also included within your
fare. There are two speciality dining restaurants, which unless you're in a
suite, you pay to go to. You have Aquilina which is a beautiful Italian
restaurant and you have Prime C which is the steak restaurant. They cost thirty
dollars per person to eat there. When it comes to drinks these are again
largely included. You have a selection of wines at meals that you can choose
from, you also have a wide range of spirits, bottled water is available and
sodas are all included and specialty teas and coffees are also
included. Now what's very important is there is a list of specialty drinks and
cocktails and beers that are included. Also you have a minibar in your
room which will have some sodas and water that is included. If you're in a
suite you do actually get spirits included within your minibar.
Of course going to things like the white party and AzAmazing evenings
are all included and the drinks there are included. They do have a self-service
laundry which is free to use. So what's not covered? I've already mentioned
specialty dining, excursions are not covered. The excursions because of
the smaller groups they are perhaps a little bit higher than on some of the
bigger mass-market lines where they have many more people, so obviously they can
can amortize the cost of things like the guides and the bus across more people, so
the cost of excursions is a little bit higher and excursions are not included.
Wi-Fi is not included, unless you're in a suite where there are some minutes
included depending on the grade of suite that you've got. What are the range of
facilities and the kind of entertainment you can expect on board?
In terms of dining you've got the main restaurant the Discoveries restaurant,
the windows cafe, the two speciality restaurants Aqualina and Prime C, you
also have the patio which is on the pool deck. In terms of bars and lounges you
have the Den area which includes the Spirit bar now this on the Pursuit is
also partly where the casino used to be. The line's other ships still have the
casino and although I believe they are going to be removed and the Den is going
to be introduced much more across the rest of the fleet. You have the living
room which is known as the Crows nest on many lines, also the
drawing-room which is where the library is, there's a bar outside at the pool and
fact all of the restaurants have their own bars. The Cabaret lounge is the
main entertainment area and in here is where they'll have the guest
entertainers and they'll also have the four onboard singers who perform a
series of singing and dancing shows. In terms of other entertainment there is
music across the ship, so they have a trio that plays up in the living
room and they have a pianist down in the spirits bar and then they have a daily
program packed full of activities. These activities tend to be fairly
traditional, so there'll be lots of quizzes and competitions and they'll be
various meet and greets solo travelers meets and greets LGBTQ meet and greets.
On Azamara club cruises it's pretty casual, it's pretty relaxed and a couple
of things really illustrate that. First of all the dress code. There's not
a strict dress code at all, so they do talk about smart casual resort dress
code but it's fairly informal. So in the restaurant in the evening for example
you could wear jeans if you want, you can wear polo shirts. They ask you
just don't wear distressed jeans and you can't wear shorts in the evening. People
tend to dress up a little bit smart, so the gents might wear slacks or
something like that and long-sleeve shirts and a few people you will find with
jackets. Ladies will tend to dress in fairly smart clothes,
but it's not a very formal in the evening and there is no gala evenings. A lot of
people when they go to the speciality restaurants, because they might be doing
that for more special occasion, you'll find a few more gents in jackets and ladies
with perhaps more cocktail style dresses. Also in terms of dining it's all open
seated dining. You'll just, if you're going to the main dining room, you'll go
in and say if you want to share with people or if you want to table for two you can as
there's lots of tables for two. The service is good but it's not very
in-your-face and it's not very formal. If you do like much more formal
dressing up kind of cruise then Azamara cruise is probably not exactly right for
you. A great thing about Azamara is they have a huge range of accommodation.
So if you want to travel relatively inexpensively because it appeals to you, you
can as there are inside cabins, there are oceanview cabins, there are balcony
cabins and balcony are the main type of cabin on board. That's the one that I was
cruising in. You then move into Suites and of course they get
progressively bigger. So there's a wide range you can go
from inside right through to suites. Azamara club cruises is really focused on
immersing people into destinations. Their real focus is destination, they
have very country intensive cruises, they try to go to more unusual ports, they try
to stay in those ports as long as they possibly can and they try to give
excursions and tours which really let you connect with the people and the
culture and the history of the place that you travel to. So you'll find a lot
of the tours are actually around experiencing rather than just looking at.
So if you are interested in history and sights they have those too but they
have lots of tours which are around taste local, bike local and really get you out
and meeting people. They are sort of a luxurious cruise line in terms of the
style, the approach, the decor, the service but it's not stuffy. Azamara
club cruises has lots of loyal people on the cruises as kept meeting
people that have been five, six, seven times and they've already booked
more cruises with some people doing three a year! People are very passionate about
the destination concept, so if you're interested very much in destinations, in
a smaller ports, staying there longer, not too stuffy not too formal. It is a little
bit or more on the premium side than the mass-market lines so it is going to cost a
little bit more but obviously you then have those pros of doing it that way.
Hopefully you found that helpful and it's given you much more insight into
Azamara club cruises to help you decide if this is the cruise line for you. If
you enjoyed this video I'd love it if you watch many more all my Tips For Travellers
videos to help you make even more of your precious travel time and money