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Rating (out of 5):     Ship    Food    Service    Itinerary

Marjorie booked this cruise to take advantage of T/A pricing on a cruiseline we had not tried before - Azamara. Their two ships are refurbed Renaissance ships, so we were very familiar with them. Azamara and Oceania are generally placed together as equals in the "luxury" hierarchy, so we were anxious to see how we felt they compared. While the Journey was a lovely ship, we were constantly being reminded of what we missed from Oceania. Azamara includes complimentary beer, wine and spirits (limited menu), but with us not being much of drinkers, this wasn't really a bonus. I really missed my "surf & turf" burger and milkshake for lunch, while Marjorie missed the good orange juice and fresh fruit selection we were used to on Oceania. We found the waiter service to be lax and ordering drinks with meals (except wine) was hit and miss whether they would appear or not (and timely!). Another major difference in lines is that with Oceania you have the option of sailing on their newer and larger ships which we do prefer to the tiny R_boats. One final annoyance was that the Journey was due for major renovations in dry dock in one month's time, but they decided to start some renos early. As a result, the promenade decks were closed for a couple of days for resurfacing, ladders and workmen blocked the hallways as they strung new computer cables, and there were occasional sounds of drilling, sawing, etc.

The ship has a double occupancy capacity of 684, and there were 644 pax aboard. They must have had some trouble filling the ship, as there were 99 travel agents (and 33 spouses) that had booked. As a result there were a couple of special events for the T/A's during the cruise. We were constantly running into other T/A's around the ship. As usual we formed a trivia team early on in the cruise and Marcel and Cheryl, and Leah became avid members of our team while a few others drifted in and out to fill out the team (max 6 people). We won a few times and had lots of second place finishes. Most of all we had a lot of fun! We were each given "signature forms" for the cruise where the trivia host would sign affirming our participation at each trivia event. These sheets could be traded in for prizes at the end of the cruise.

Dec 13 - We were up at 7:00 to a sunny sea day. We had breakfast in the MDR followed by 9:30 trivia. By this time we had a solid trivia team for the rest of the cruise. Then Marjorie was off to a destination lecture while I went to the gym. At 11:00 there was a lecture on code breaking. Again it was really interesting. We had lunch in the buffet and then lazed around for most of the afternoon. There was trivia at 4:00 and again at 5:00. For dinner I had New York strip sirloin. And that was it for our two days at sea.

We tendered back to the ship for lunch in the buffet, and then tendered back to wander some more and take some photographs. We were back on board in time for 4:00 trivia followed by 5:00 trivia. Both afternoon trivias were in the same location (all cruise long), so we generally just sat and talked during the half hour break between trivias. For dinner I had surf (fillet) and turf (lobster). Yummy!

You learn something new every day: As we stood at the tender dock today waiting for a ride, I noticed that our ship (out at anchor) was listing a bit. I had noticed this on previous cruises with various ships and had always thought (ie. guessed) that it was the wind causing the list. Just to confirm this, I asked a nearby crew member if this was the case. He explained that the ship was purposely listed in order to adjust the height of the ship's tender dock to match the doorway in the tender boats. Of course the height would vary slightly due to how loaded the ship was, so this was a vernier adjustment.

Dec 22: Today was essentially a repeat of yesterday, but with no laundry, no gingerbread decorating, no BBQ, and no special dinner. The lecture was on Wild Bill Donavan of CIA fame. At 4:30, after the 4:00 trivia, there was a prize redemption where we turned in our "signature sheets". We had enough signatures (80) to get two nice Azamara t-shirts (30 apiece). We finished our afternoon with a session of packing our bags. For dinner I had crab ravioli. After dinner we completed our packing and put our bags out in the hallway. We read for a bit and then to bed.