Northeast Asia Trip- The Azamara Quest Overview

This was our first time sailing Azamara and I must say we were very pleased. We had previously been on 7 voyages with Royal Caribbean. RCCL owns 3 lines: Royal Caribbean (family-oriented ships, affordable pricing, wide variety of itineraries), Celebrity Cruises (beautiful ships with more adult focused menus and venues, mid-range pricing, fewer ships so smaller variety of itineraries, and Azamara (ships and amenities geared toward middle/older ages, high pricing but base fare includes most everything, 2 small ships but both with specialized and unique itineraries). So did we like Azamara more than the lower cost Royal Caribbean, nope. We like them equal. There are things with both that we loved and things with both with don't care for, but this review is about Azamara so I will try to stick there.
By far, the crew on board the Azamara Quest was SUPERIOR to any other ship I've ever been. And rightly so. For every 2 passengers on board the Quest, there is 1 crew member. But not just the ratio was excellent, the people themselves were genuinely nice and went way out of their way to make sure you had a wonderful experience. I cannot say enough good things about the crew.
The food onboard was just okay to me. I LOVED LOVED LOVED the food at the pool grill. I could go out there, order a turkey burger and baked potato, and they would cook it up fresh right then and there. Yummy! The buffet was small...and I guess that's due to the fact that the ship is super small. The options on the buffet were probably very nice foods, but I like plainer, more comfortable food. I felt the buffet food was pretty stuffy. (so we usually ended up at the pool grill every single day). There was one station in the buffet that I couldn't live without. The ice cream stand...

Here's D enjoying a delicious waffle cone with homemade (or should I say shipmade) Blueberry icecream.

This is the excursion desk. It's in the main lobby area towards the middle of the ship. The guest relations desk is also in this same area and looks very similar to this desk.

Me in the main lobby area. The excursion desk in the picture above this one is just to the right of these stairs. The Guest Relations desk is practically in front of this stairwell. 

Even the stairwells are nicely appointed. The picture above this one is the ceiling of the stairwell.

The picture above is of the library. The picture above this one is the library ceiling.

 The main dining room.

This is in one of the specialty restaurants.

This is the buffet. Seriously, isn't this just about the nicest buffet area you've ever seen? See the man in the background of the picture. Thats the area where the ice cream station is that I had in my first picture of this post.

Here's D at one of my favorite eateries on the ship. I think I visited this Pool Grill everyday almost. Pretty much anything you can grill, they will cook it for you right then and there when you order it. LOVE the turkey burgers and fries from the Pool Grill!

Here's D on one of the outdoor public decks of the Quest. They have SUCH nice lounge chairs and cushions.

6048 was our stateroom. We picked it because it was midship and had a balcony.

Our room.  I was very pleased with the size of the room and balcony. One thing I love about Azamara is the water pitcher (and fresh fruit and canapes) they leave in your room. I've been on other lines where you have to go to the buffet to grab a glass of water. I will say our room was very "creaky" while we were at sea. I also wasn't pleased with the bed. I stacked up 3 egg crates on top of the mattress and it still killed my back.

And here's the balcony. I thought it was very nicely sized. It even had 2 chairs and a modest little table so we could eat, snack, and lounge out there. After all the rough weather we had, our balcony floor started to buckle. I'm pretty sure that wood was gonna have to be changed out after our trip.

And that wraps up my Asia trip! Whew! That was a lot of them. Did you miss the rest of my Asia tour? If so CLICK HERE to see the rest of my pictures.

Coming up next...September 2010 Alaska!