Stewardess: Felicidad
Butler: Xavier
Room: Club Continent Suite
Boarded American eagle at 6:15 for a 6:45 departure. The American deicing machine was not working and American had to wait over an hour for Southwest to deice us. Arrived at DFW at 8:30 but did not get to the gate until 8:55 and had to change terminals for a 9:05 flight to Miami. They had given our 1st class seats to another couple and had to call them back. Bet they were not happy! Arrived in Miami late and had 15 minutes to go 24 gates. Barely made that flight but our luggage did not make it to San Juan. American said they would deliver the luggage to our hotel but when we checked into the hotel and said our luggage would be arriving later that evening, they said often it's not delivered until the next day. So, we grabbed a taxi and went back to the airport for the 9:30 flight and all 4 bags arrived. Costly, in that we had double taxi fares but worth the money not worrying about when and if our luggage would arrive. Our hotel was Doubletree in the Condado area where we had stayed several times, but it was not up to the standards this time that we had experienced prior. Safe did not work, no washcloths, food left in the refrigerator from previous guests, we had to twice ring for a bellman when leaving and they are now charging a resort fee even though they aren't on the beach and don't have a casino.
Saturday Embarkation
Slept in and had a late breakfast at hotel. Check out was noon but closer to 12:45 by the time the bellman arrived. Straight on the ship with no waiting. Azamara knows how to do embarkation!
Sunday St John
Breakfast on balcony. Met Lynn, Jay, Ed, Jacque at 8:30 in Mosaics. As we walked to the marina to get on the boat, we bought drinks at the convenience store and met our guide Nate from St Thomas Boat Rental at 10:00. Our boat was Louly II. We circumnavigated St John, stopping at Maho for snorkeling
and Skinny Legs for lunch. Snorkeled the mangrove at Hurricane Hole and back to Cruz Bay for sunset but rains messed up the sunset. It was a good excursion but the snorkeling wasn't as good as we had hoped. Back on board by 6:15.
Dinner tonight was in the MDR. I had veal chop (very good) and Greg had blue cheese pasta. We both had bananas foster for dessert. Called it an evening after dinner.
Monday St Maarten/Anguilla
Breakfast at 7:00 on balcony. Met Lynn, Jay, Jacque, Ed, Nikki and Richard at 7:45 to meet Fab for our trip to Anguilla. This was the excursion that I was most excited about. I had read about the beautiful beaches on Anguilla and wanted to see them in person!. I did not set up this excursion so I don't have the contact information for the tour, but I would not recommend them, so no problem.
First stop was Roundevous Beach. Gorgeous beach. We had to swim into shore so couldn't take anything in with us. We walked in both directions and it was a long nice beach.
After walking the beach, we didn't have anywhere to sit. Probably stayed longer than needed since we were just standing around. They did move the boat closer so we could walk back to boat. Next stop was Sandy Ground for lunch at Johnno's.
Then they took us to Sandy Island. Very windy and again you had to swim to the island and it was a strong current. Only Ed and Greg went ashore but didn't stay long.
The ride to and from Anguilla was very rough and wet. I was disappointed with the trip. I had wanted to stop at a couple of beaches without a lot of boat time, and especially wanted to stop at Shoal Bay but the three hour lunch nixed that stop. Luckily, I would have another opportunity in a couple of years. We returned around 6:00 pm. Beautiful rainbow from our balcony.
Tuesday St Barts/St Martin (New Year's Eve)
Breakfast 8:00 on the balcony. We both had Eggs Benedict. Captain announced that tenders would not be running for a while due to high seas. The number of yachts in the harbor kept us from going deeper into the harbor.
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| This is as close as we would get to St Barts. |
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| Jay and Greg hanging in the shade |
Fireworks at midnight from the Phillipsburg beach. We went to our room because we had the perfect view from our balcony.
Disappointed that we missed St Barts, as it would have been a new port for us. The New Year's Eve party was excellent and the fireworks over the beach a nice ending to the evening. But, the cruise was tauted as New Year's Eve in St Barts and they did not deliver. Surely, they should have known how many yachts would be in the harbor.
Wednesday Nevis (New Year's Day)
We don't arrive until 1:00 pm so a late breakfast at 9:30 with Bloody Mary's as we watched Nevis come into view.
Thursday Virgin Gorda
This port was a new port and a great surprise!
Breakfast on the balcony. Met Ed, Jacque, and Lynn at 8:30 and tendered into port. Lynn had a car rental with Mohagony but was willing to switch to a driver. Shorn (Shawn) agreed to drive us for $25 per person. We went first to Spring Bay which is similar to The Baths without the difficult entry and crowds. There was good snorkeling off to the left. Beach was beautiful and the large boulders very interesting.
Shorn picked us at 11:15 and took us next to the old copper mines and then to
Hog Heaven with several scenic stops along the way. Hog Heaven is a restaurant at the highest point in Virgin Gorda. The views are unbelievable. We also saw Morgan Freeman at the restaurant. We ordered pork sandwiches and they were excellent.
Next view was Savannah Beach
which looked amazing with a reef right off the shore.
Friday. Sea Day
Breakfast on the balcony this morning. I went to the pool and found a lounger. One of the many advantages of sailing on Azamara, loungers are always available. When it got hot, Greg and I looked for a lounger on promenade deck but no luck. We went up to the spa pool and found 2 loungers in the shade. Nice spot that we should have been using since we have access with our suite room. Lunch at the grill and back to the room. Sat on the balcony until it became too hot, so we ended up napping. We had a drink in Looking Glass where Max was playing. We had dinner in the MDR, both ordering lobster, shrimp, and scallops. After dinner, went to the Waves where the crew is introduced, followed by the production "Street of Dreams" which ends with CD Russ in drag doing a Mama Mia rendition. Same show we saw last time but well done and enjoyed it again.
Saturday Sea Day
Woke up to the ship moving quite a bit. Breakfast on the balcony with Bloody Mary's. Went upstairs to the spa but it was closed due to water splashing from the hot tub. Found loungers by the pool but it became cloudy, then raining so we came back to the room. We had lunch in the MDR and then purchased a couple of photos. The sun was beginning to shine so I read on our balcony for awhile and then packed. We were in the room for the first time for afternoon savories. They were good, better than most that are served on cruise ships. Dinner tonight was in the MDR and we both had veal schnitzel. Then off to hear Max who was supposed to be playing between 8 and 10 but the place was deserted, so off to our cabin. I think it was because a football game was on the TV but no one was watching. Some of the criticism of Max moving to Club Luxe is that he has to play over the TV.
Sunday disembarkation
Non residents go through immigration in cabaret theater. Called reminders several times, then called by stateroom, then by name. This process took a while. We had breakfast in the MDR. Disembarkation was easy and off to the Miami airport.
Overall impressions:
Stateroom- good but balcony too narrow and no lounger. Butler seemed unsure of himself at times and was no help to us in getting dinner reservations. Stateroom attendant always cleaned the room as soon as we left and no complaints at all.
Le Club Voyage. Internet minutes very generous and took advantage of 1 bag of free laundry.
We attended 1 reception and it was nice but nothing special.
Food
Room service for breakfast was always on time and very good. MDR- always seated as soon as we entered and food was very good to excellent. Service was prompt and professional. Both dinners in Prime C and Aqualina were excellent, service a little slower and inconsistent in Aqualina on the 1st night with an 8:30 reservation. Prime C did not have our reservation even though butler said he made it but they seated us anyway. We could not make another reservation due too the specialty restaurants being full. We were very disappointed that the specialty restaurants were booked for the entire cruise. This was not the case on our previous cruise on Azamara.
Drinks
Greg upgraded to Premium package so he could add Jameson and beer. We spent no extra money on drinks. White wines were not as good this time with Chardonnay being offered 3 times. The Reisling was very dry. Complimentary drinks were fine for me. Service around the pool was very slow. I was asked only once if I wanted a drink by a waiter, otherwise I went to the pool bar and got the drink myself. Bar service in Casino Luxe was slow as was in Looking Glass. I don't think there were as many waiters this time as there were in 2012 or maybe it was just more people on the boat.
Entertainment
Max again was a delight- no problems with the Club Luxe location and enjoyed him by the pool and in Looking Glass. Guitarist was not an attraction for us. We enjoyed the production shows very much. Did not go see the pianist/musician so no comment. Did miss not having a small combo group or some other entertainment available. CD Russ was very personable and a great showman.
Demographics
Large multigenerational families on board but youngest appeared to be pre teens, however most were college age and above. Many 25-35 year olds with parents and grandparents. There were many large families from foreign countries. There was also a group of 100 that were part of a company group. They were the top employees for this company and had earned this cruise. This gave somewhat of a convention feel at times. We didn't observe drunk and obnoxious behavior, but a lot of bragging about how much alcohol they had consumed and how bad they felt. Last night onboard we did see a very drunk lady being escorted to her room. Larry Pimental and family was on board but did not see them except at the Azamazing Evening and at the New Year's Eve party. Our thought is that Azamara is better suited for destinations like Europe and not the Caribbean. Staying late in port is wasted when everything closes up at 6 pm.
Saw our butler (Eyop) from 2012 but he did not remember us. So much for the Azamara claim that previous cruisers are always remembered and called by name, not that we expected to be remembered, but that is a comment that is made by many.
Itinerary
St. John - tendered
St Martaan - docked
St Barts- could not tender so went back to St Martin
Nevis- tender. Not many things to do since it was New Year's Day and most stores and attractions were closed.
Virgin Gorda - tender. A delightful island and definitely want to return. The nice surprise on this cruise.
