Hi, I'm Gary Bembridge and this is another
of my Tips for Travellers. In this episode
I'm going to tell you 8 things that
I think you really need to know about
the newest ship to join the Azamara Club
cruises fleet- Azamara Pursuit, including
the facilities, the dining and very
importantly all of the accommodation
available to you as a passenger. So
Azamara Pursuit has a really interesting
history. It started its life in 2001 as
part of Renaissance cruises and it has
also been part of Swan Hellenic, Princess
Cruises and most recently under the name
Adonia in the P&O Cruises fleet and the
Fathom fleet. In 2018 it became part of
Azamara Club Cruises when they
did a major refit in Belfast and
launched it and named it in August 2018
as Azamara Pursuit. It is a totally
revitalized, revamped and refreshed ship.
Azamara Pursuit is a small cruise ship.
It holds 702 guests in double occupancy.
It has 8 passenger decks and the great
thing about the ship is it's able, because
it's small, to get into more
out-of-the-way ports. It's what's known
as an R class ship. Eight ships were
built and now Azamara Club Cruises has
three of them: Azamara Journey,
Azamara Quest and of course now the
Azamara Pursuit. The great thing about
being a small ship is not only can it
get into more out-of-the-way and unusual
ports (so it means that itineraries are
very interesting) but also as a passenger
it's very easy to find your way around.
The third thing I want to talk about
are the bars and lounges onboard the
ship. There are six key ones. One of the
big innovations onboard is The Den. The
Den is the newest feature onboard
Azamara club cruises and part of it is
where the casino used to be. So in the
Den you have the shore excursions, you
have future cruise sales, you have the
Photoshop but very importantly you have
Spirits bar. This is a very popular
place to hang out both in the day and in
the evening. Also on deck 5 you have the
Discoveries bar. This is the bar which
is just as you go into the main dining
room and so it becomes a very popular
place before and after dinner. A
really great and fantastic area on board,
and a really popular one with passengers,
is the Living Room.
On many ships this is known as the
Crow's Nest as it's right up on the
front of the ship and overlooks the bow
of the ship. A big part of the Living
Room is the card room area, so you have a
tables there with games and also
in the Living Room you have the
cybercafe area which is known as In
Touch. In the evenings you will have some
dancing up here with the DJ. Up on the
pool deck on deck 9 you have the bar
which is known as the pool bar (so not
particularly original name!) very popular
all throughout the day but also in the
evenings it's a great place to go and
have cocktails - particularly sailing
through very sunny climates. The
Drawing Room is a feature across all of
Azamara Club Cruises. This is the library
and it's a place where you can go if you
looking for some really quiet space to
just relax and chill out. Unfortunately
hours on my cruise it was actually
being used so I couldn't actually film.
So those are the main lounges and bars
on the ship, although all of the
restaurants have their own bar - so each
of the speciality restaurants have their
own bar. The next thing I'd like to talk
about is dining. There's a
surprisingly large range of choices on a
ship of this size.
The Discoveries restaurant is the
main dining room. This is open seated
dining and there's lots and lots of tables
for two - which is fantastic. It is waiter
service and open for breakfast, lunch and
dinner.
It has monstrous menus. The menus at
dinner are absolutely huge and the food
is magnificent. If you're looking for
more informal dining up on deck 9 is
the Windows Cafe and the Sunset Veranda
where you can eat outside. This is a
buffet restaurant and is open again for
breakfast, lunch and for dinner. Food
again magnificent. It's a really nice
venue actually and of course if you're
in warm climates sitting out on the
Sunset Veranda it is a great place to have
your breakfast, your lunch or your dinner.
Again if you're looking for something a
little bit more informal you've got the
pool grill out by the pool. During the
day this serves very informal food
(hamburgers, hot dogs) and in the evening
it becomes an alfresco dining venue. The
other thing which is great right next
door to that, they have their ice cream
feature which is called Swirl and Top. So
of course you can get your soft-serve
ice cream with lots of toppings. In
terms of specialty dining there are two
restaurants. If you're travelling in
a suite, eating in the specialty
restaurants is included within your fare.
If you're not in a suite you
at the time of recording anyway pay $30 per
person to eat there. The first of the
restaurants is called Aqualina
restaurant and this is the italian
restaurant serving magnificent Italian
food. It's a very beautiful restaurant. I
love the decor and look of this
restaurant and as I mentioned earlier it
has its own bar.
Next to that is is the Prime
C restaurant, this is the seafood and
steak restaurant. These are up next to
each other on Deck 10. so what about
entertainment onboard? Well, in terms of
entertainment as I've already mentioned
the casino has gone. The Cabaret lounge
which is on Deck five in the front of the
ship is the main venue for entertainment.
There will be production style shows
here. They have on board the Azamara
singers and they will perform song and
dance shows. There may be some local
entertainment brought on board based on
the destination or region that the
Azamara Pursuit is cruising through. The
White Night party is a feature of
Azamara Club Cruises and there is one on
Azamara Pursuit. At least once during
the cruise you will have a White Night
party. If it's good weather you'll be up
on the pool deck. It's a great feature.
There is huge amounts of food. There
is a spa on board. It's actually quite a big
spa considering the size of the ship.
It's called the Sanctum spa and terrace.
You have as you would expect
a fitness area, with a section where you
can have classes. Some classes are free and
some are paid for. A nice good spread of
machines and free weights then the
Sanctum Spa also has a terrace outside
where you can either before or after
your treatments relax and of course
enjoy the pool outside. The next thing I
want to talk about is accommodation. Now
the great news about the Azamara Pursuit
is there's a wide choice of
accommodation ranging from an inside
cabin right up to a big owner's suite. So
I'm going to show you through all of the
accommodation. All of the cabins have had
major upgrades to them. So let's start
with an inside cabin. As you'd expect
it's a relatively small cabin as inside
cabins are, but it's cozy and it has a
great bathroom very similar to some of
the other higher grades on board the ship.
This is an ocean view room. it's a
good-sized room. It has a nice big window
and again it has a bathroom which is
very consistent with the interiors and
the veranda cabins. The next grade is
veranda
cabin, and this is in terms of numbers
the main type of cabin you're going to
find on board Azamara Pursuit. This
particular one I'm showing you is
the one that I cruised in. It's a great
cabin and it's quite small it's quite
cozy but it's very nicely done. The
bedding I would say on all of the
Azamara Pursuit cabins is fantastic. The
next one I'm going to show you is the
cabin that I liked the most, and it's
actually the cabin type that is
completely new to Azamara Pursuit.
This grade and style cabin didn't
exist before, and this is what's known as
a Continental Suite. It's the entry level into Suites. You can choose to have
it with a bath or you can choose to have
it just with a shower. The great
thing about a Continental suite is it's
the entry level up for a suite. So it
gets all the suite benefits.You get butler
service, you get some free Wi-Fi,
you get free laundry and you get of course
the free specialty dining. If you're
looking for something a little bigger
than that, something a little bit more
even more luxurious than that then
the next three Suites could be of
interest to you. This is an Ocean
Suite. It's right towards the front of
the ship. You have a seating area and
you have a separate bedroom area and of
course you have a really large bathroom.
The Spa Suites are another big
innovation for Azamara and Azamara
Pursuit and there are only two of these.
These are beautiful Suites and they have
this magnificent bath area with this
big picture window so you can lie in the
bath and watch the sea or the landscape
go by. The ultimate suite on board is the
World Owner's Suite which has a whole seating
area, it has a bedroom area and as you'd
expect a massive big balcony. In terms of
other facilities of course you've got
your guest relations as you would expect,
you have a concierge, then you have some
shopping onboard. You have the Pursuit
Shop which sells branded merchandise and
other essential products / daily products.
Then you have Indulgences which is the
jewellery and watch shop. Up on deck 11 you
have a little hideaway spot which is a
quiet Terrace area, but also where you
can play deck games.
One very important facility that
everyone asks me about whenever I do a
ship tour or a ship review is... yes
there is a guest laundry! Azamara Pursuit does have a
guest laundry. There is only one guest
laundry and it's
on deck 7. Azamara Pursuit is an R
Class ship and these were built some time
ago. This particular one was built right back
in 2001 and it's had many owners, but it has
now been taken by Azamara Club Cruises and
they spent a lot of money on it. It's
been dramatically updated, refreshed,
modernized and new facilities added like
the whole Den area and new classes of
cabins. It feels a very comfortable ship.
It's very tastefully done. It's not very
in-your-face and the great thing
is, because of its size, it's able to get
into interesting ports and places.
So not only is it a beautiful small ship
with lots of facilities, beautiful food,
restaurants, beautiful cabins and
beautiful public spaces, but also you can
go on itineraries which get you
into slightly more unusual places and
places. I hope you found this review of
Azamara Pursuit helpful, if you did I'd
love it if you watch many more of my
Tips For Travellers videos because you'll
get much more inspiration, advice
and tips to help you hopefully make the
most of your very precious to travel
time and money.