Azamara sells their itineraries and time in port, but we didn't see anything special along these lines on this itinerary. Everywhere we went there were other giant cruise ships i.e. no places that only Azamara goes. And, despite some of the ports being known for great dining and late-night experiences, there were no overnight stays. Also, the excursion options are limited, so that's another disappointment for a cruise line that highlights the in-port experience. Since on-board entertainment and activities are limited, this seems like the kind of cruise that caters to the retired set. We were hoping to get an intimate exposure to the Greek Isles, but most of the ports seem to be very touristy and commercial. Our best experiences were the third-party excursions we booked.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
Easy transfer from airport to ship and fast embarkation process
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
Food quality for the main dining rooms was just okay, but the breakfast buffet quality was poor. The Prime C specialty restaurant was great, and the Chef's Table dining experience was outstanding, but Aqualina was underwhelming. Having basic wine choices included was nice, but the selection of drinks at the Mosaic cafe (coffee bar) was poor.
Onboard Activities
2 out of 5
Azamara doesn't highlight their onboard activities, but for what they offer, it's pretty underwhelming. Most of the activities (trivia, bingo, etc.) seem to cater to the 70+ crowd. We did enjoy a wine tasting offered on the one sea day (at extra cost), but the sommelier was very inexperienced.
Entertainment
2 out of 5
There's only one show per night and the quality is just okay. The lounges themselves are nice, but the band that was contracted for our voyage (Marvelous Funk) was disappointing. The one guest performance we saw (Duo Violins) was just okay. Disappointing that aside from the lounge band and the pianist, there are no mid-day shows or other entertainment to speak of.
Children's Programs
We didn't travel with children, and this voyage clearly wasn't intended for children (and we only saw 3 under-18's on the ship).
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
The stateroom service and attendant was great. Waiters were mixed - what seemed to be head/lead waiters were good, but the average wait staff - and especially in the Windows cafe/buffet - seemed inexperienced/undertrained. In general I would say that the service on the ship was inconsistent.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
The biggest complaint was that this smaller design of ship has no single deck with a path that allows you to walk the exterior/extent. Their "jogging track" on deck 10 is a very short circular walk above the pool deck, and that's it. Our last cruise on a "small" Princess ship at least had one deck where there was a walking/jogging track that went the entire length of the ship.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
For an ocean-view cabin with no balcony, it was very nice. There were a couple of issues. One is that the shower has a clingy curtain instead of a door - it's less bad if you close the bathroom door, but then the bathroom steams up a lot. Also, Deck 4 where the nicer Ocean View rooms are has down-facing external lights that they have turned on in the evenings and don't turn off until they leave port. It's kind of like a neon sign outside of a hotel window, and even the dark curtains don't block it entirely. One night the bridge crew completely forgot to turn them off.
Ship tip
This seems to be a ship (and the Greece intensive itinerary in particular) oriented towards older passengers. Azamara highlights their ports of call and time in ports, but the excursion options are limited and mostly sedate. The guests who seemed to really enjoy the Azamara experience were older, liked the extra attention from the senior staff (especially for repeat customers), and the relaxed/sedate atmosphere on board and on most excursions.
Bologna (Ravenna) was the back-up port to Venice which was originally the planned embarkation point. Ravenna as a port seems pretty industrial. We only passed through on the way from the airport.
The excursion options for Corfu are limited. We found a 3rd-party excursion through Viator that included a site we wanted to see that Azamara excursions didn't cover. We did enjoy that site, but overall Corfu still seemed a bit over-hyped. Watch out for the west-coast excursions that highlight Paleokastritsa and Lakones - these stops don't have as much to offer as they seem. Corfu Town itself was very nice, though.
We did the excursion to Melissani Lake and Dogarati Caves. They were nice, but it's a very long bus ride and not sure the 4+ hours was well spent. At least the tour guide on the bus was nice and interesting.
Monemvasia itself is very tourist-oriented. It's nice walking through the winding cobblestone alleys, but it's basically a tourist trap. We did a very expensive cooking class excursion (we used on-board credit to pay for it) that was awesome, however. So, if you're okay with $250 per person for an excursion, it's a highlight for sure.
Our planned excursion was canceled and the other choices were all pretty sedate, so we just did things on our own. The Palace of Knossos was nice, but better if you like slow/guided tours - we don't, and so we just self-guided, and it was "okay". Heraklion itself is a nice town to walk around in, but like so many places, very touristy.
We did a sailing-the-caldera excursion, and it seemed like a very good way to see the fabled sights (including Oia and others), so this was good. We also made our way to a winery that we found (Venetsano Winery) and had reservations for a wine tasting on the cliffs overlooking the caldera, and that was awesome. Fira/Thera (the town by the port you tender at) itself is a massive tourist trap, but if you like shopping, they did seem to have a huge selection of real (not just garbage) merchandise.
We did a third-party excursion (through Viator) to sail to various bays around Rhodes, and it was very nice. Was very surprised to find the weather so accommodating for jumping into the ocean and swimming in late October. The walled town in Rhodes is also very nice to walk through. Like the other Greek islands, it's very touristy, but also full of seemingly-quality merchandise if you're into shopping.
We had a really great excursion planned that we were anticipating, but it was canceled. Since the options were limited for other excursions, we just walked around Kusadasi on our own, and there wasn't much there to speak of. It was the only place on this itinerary where we didn't feel particularly safe. This didn't seem like a good representation of Turkey for many reasons (it's known to be a resort town), so we'd like to see Istanbul and other locations in the future.
Our excursion here - a walking culinary tour - was underwhelming. The tour guide and information on the history of Mykonos was nice, but the food was just basic Greek fare. Everywhere you go in Greece there's the essentials that you can try - and they're great - but we expected a "culinary" tour to offer something different - and it didn't.
Our cruise ended at 8AM in Athens, so we made our way to a hotel, left our bags, and then self-toured all the big sites in Athens for a day before hopping on our plane the next morning. We were pleasantly surprised by the Acropolis and some of the sites, and it's a very walkable historic area. We used the metro and had no issues there (including to the airport). We stayed at a slightly funky hotel that was a highlight for us - the Ivis 4 Boutique Hotel. They had a really nice restaurant which was convenient, and gave us the "other than standard Greek fare" dining experience we were hoping for that night, but at a very reasonable price.
Nothing to note here, except that the port authority doesn't let you walk on the pier, so you have to take a shuttle bus from the ship to the terminal which is otherwise just a short walk away... so this was a slight delay.
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