Well time has come for a new evaluation in cruising! Culinary cruising as in independent passenger not on a tour or with a group; is this possible? Yes with the
Azamara Cruise line experience by Celebrity. I recently returned from a wonderful 12 night cruise on-board the
Azamara Journey and find myself pleasantly pleased to discover a new way to enjoy cruising.
In my blog on
http://www.cetctravel.com/ you will find a review of the ship, its components and the overall wonderful experience of the cruise, this blog is dedicated only to the culinary surprises and wonderful staff that assisted in making my cruise one to remember for ever.
On-board they tell you that
Azamara is a name created from two words "
aza" and "mar" meaning blue sea, also there is a story of a different meaning from the word
acamara meaning shinning star in the deep blue sea. If I was to use an old saying that "its all in the name" then I will have to confess this is never more true then with the name
Azamara Journey. A bright shining star on the blue seas, what a wonderful pleasing cruise line product!
Dining Venues:Never ending is a good description for this chapter, room service, buffet, two specialty dining rooms, main dining room, coffee lounge - a perfect selection for a ship of 700 passengers.
1). Discovery - the main dining room is pleasing in all aspects, not crowded, soft and cozy, conversation friendly, clean, organized and well spaced. With the open dining policy on-board you can make a dinner reservation or come on down and wait for your table while having one of the best Martinis on the high seas in the Martini Bar. Later in this blog I will explain why "open dining" is the right way to cruise and it will demonstrate how to create traditional dining from this by simply meeting and gathering your new friends. One special note is the number of people at the larger tables, not 8 or 10 as on most ships, but 6 and 8 on the corner tables with a wonderful bench, there is a couple of larger tables that can be reserved for bigger gatherings.
2). Prime "C" - the premier steak house specialty restaurant on-board is classic steak house styled with wonderful floor to ceiling windows, acoustics not as good as the main dining room but the overall atmosphere is classy and sexy for sure. Reservations are a must and you may be disappointed if you don't book in advance they do approx. 80 covers a night and with the desserts made to order and coursed meals your dinner is expected to take 2.5 hours. Seating isn't crowded and the staff is over the top in style, service and friendliness - no snobs allowed. Wine selection is somewhat limited but overall a nice variety and cocktails from their own bar will again rock your world.
3).
Aqualina - the premier seafood specialty restaurant on-board is simple in design, classy set ups, almost too plain lounge area and dining area - emphasizing on the floor to ceiling windows and of course the ocean views. Presentation again outstanding, wonderful bar selection and wines same as other venues. One note about
Aqualina is they offer a formal tea several afternoons which is a nice change from the Tea Cart or your daily tea service offered in your cabin. (Yes complimentary tea and snacks in your cabin as well!)
4).
Cova Cafe - a wonderful coffee shop open from 7:00 a.m. with tasty and savory treats from 10 to 10 daily, a great way to hold you over between meals (if you needed this), my favorite place to have a cup of tea or afternoon soda with all the complimentary snacks and treats I can eat. Most any type of wine, cocktail or coffee is available as well, often this is the stage for afternoon trivia games, entertainers at night in addition to the main show room, in my opinion the better of the two choices. I just love this little multi use venue for many reasons, you are over the reception area in an open lounge area with other guests walking
by shopping at the shops or just socializing.
5). Pool side grill - a nice surprise, normal grill that is on most cruise lines, open from 11 a.m. and closes depending on activities. Soft serve
ice cream, juices, teas, coffee and espresso always available. What is important to note about this grill is the additional items above the normal hamburger and
hot dog grill, they offer salmon and other seafood sandwiches, tacos, skewers along with grilled veggies, salad bar and a nice assortment of chips, salsa, dips and sour cream. One night of our cruise they opened the grill as a main feature "Seafood" under the stars fresh cut seafood in the
portion size you want, cooked to order accompanied by a full buffet bar of starches, veggies, fruits, breads and desserts. I had a nice 6 oz cut of fresh salmon grilled to a warm temp with a salty wet and cool interior - yummy!
6). Windows Cafe - named mainly for the floor to ceiling wrap around windows, if you not careful you may think you out to sea! Some features of the unique dining experience are exclusive to this ship. One is the spectacular fruit smoothie bar, so rocks! Then the cook to order eggs for breakfast, the themed lunch wok meals, carving stations both lunch and dinner and most of all the fresh sushi and
sashimi bar every night. I can only say where can you have a better meal then "Sushi @ Sea" - my favorite little saying. When I wasn't dining (sometimes on the same nights), I would pick up my fresh dish of
sashimi, head out to the sunset bar order a nice glass of wine and treat myself to the most wonderful experience ever - sunset and the last port of call dropping off to a darkening sea all while be
serenaded by a wonderful singer. It's like having your own ultra large veranda with staff all around you filling your every wish. I loved sitting at my table most evenings watching the sunset and sharing great stories with new friends and my traveling partners. Great service from the staff and bartenders makes this my "Special Place" on-board the
Azamara Journey!
7). Room service - being one not to get ready very early in the morning while on vacation find room service almost essential for me. Not booking a veranda can be risky when you like to eat in your cabin, but with the nice sofa, table area in my cabin, room service was calling my name. I was surprised to see the menu that is available 24 hours a day, and the fact I could order from the regular menus at my wish made for an awesome selection. Cocktails, wine and specialty drinks all delivered to your cabin as well. My breakfast was far superior then even on Celebrity the parent company, fresh eggs -not egg beaters - fresh veggies - omelets and eggs cooked as requested, hot and tasty. Breads arrived hot, coffee hot, set up nice and clean. They upcoming changes in the room service menus and dishes will make dining in your stateroom somewhat desirable if not for the food but maybe for the romance of sharing a meal at sea with someone special in your cabin. It gets another yummy from me!
Service and call backs awesome too!
Overview of the Culinary Experience, Dining Anytime & Cruising for Cuisine:Food, isn't this why your reading this blog? Well it's only part of the culinary experience but is a very important part of the cruise. The cooking demos, wine tasting, wine pairing and optional wine dinner pairing each night (for a fee) was good, but what about the food as a whole?
I can only say starting the writing about the food that it's hard to impress me and surprise me, on the first night (the busiest in main dining rooms), I sat with some new friends I met at the social hour, ordered of course the
Filet Mignon - medium; how was it on this crazy busy first night - as if I was the only person the chef was preparing a steak for! Need I say more? I like to try the steaks first then later during my trip the salmon, these are two markers that tell me the quality and skills of the galley. This galley knows their stuff to say the least, my amuse each night (never ordered, offered nightly), my soups, salads fresh tasty and never seemed
pre-fixed, the three onion soup makes me want to return just for it and nothing else. Okay, what about the salmon, was it or was it not over cooked or under cooked - guess what, neither! What can I say, not bias in anyway, just like my steak and salmon just right. When you can cut your
filet with a fork and taste the freshness of the salmon, as not to be cooked on too high of heat or over cooked period makes me happy. Other dishes, some I must say didn't light my fire;
ie:
chicken dishes draped with bacon, not the best choice, Sea Bass (for personal reasons),
Ozo Bucco -
because this was a modified creation by the chef and served as a shredded
platter and not a bone in plate. Other steaks appeared well
proportioned, prepared as each person ordered. Some of my other favorites included the different variety of white fish, some frozen some fresh, all good - starch was in good portion size, often served on the side as to allow you to take what you wanted. The breads couldn't of been better. Desserts - in the
speciality dining area were made to order, in the main dining room,
pre-made, all good especially if you add the ship made ice cream Celebrity is so famous for! Two
thumbs up from me on this one!
The place I found fun and challenging to be my own
creator was the buffet, due to the options to have fresh sliced
proteins, themed dinners such as Thai, Indian, Italian, Seafood and others including Japanese made this a virtual
buffet of the world. Classy options, great soups, sushi and one thing that never seemed to loose interest with the other passengers is the fresh made pizzas - hidden to the side of the main buffet, when making a good culinary discovery you often have to stray from the central view of things.
Another treat or offering at each meal, breakfast, lunch and dinner was regional cheese and often smelly, tasty,
delectable offerings that force you to create a course with wine for your self or as the Europeans often say, the actual dessert of the meal. I thought I was in cheese heaven, this is one item I never get enough of - along side the made to order salad bar with everything you could imagine opens the venue up to the healthier eaters on the cruise - I noticed that with the healthy options, yogurts, massive amounts of fresh fruit (even
refreshed in your cabin daily),
fruit smoothies and fruit skewers served on deck how can you not satisfy your dietary needs.
Steaks in Prime C are what you would expect again from a steak house, as was the seafood at
Aqualina - the only food items I would like to see added would be a
metabolism boaster to digest and burn off the extra
calories so that I can enjoy more of the offerings.
To the folks who don't like the new concepts and changes to "Traditional Dining" look within this paragraph and see how you can create a traditional dining experience on your own. Opening dining is a great option, like going to dinner at a local restaurant, where you can pick with whom you dine with and with how many guests you want at your table.
Singles and couples, this is the only way to go if your looking for private, relaxing and enjoyable dining experience - keeping the romance of the sea alive for the couple looking to enhance their relationships and the single traveler looking to enjoy spectacular food and feel the intimidation of large group tables and having to explain to everyone why your travel alone. Not to mention the inevitable conversation to seems to go to health and death at the traditional dining events.
Couples and new friends, now that's part of cruising and is a nice treat when it happens or when you meet others with like interests in the bar, lounge, casino or on a shore excursion. You invite them to dinner, build your own group and share interesting topics with people you have something in
common. Another nice option is to ask the
host/ess or he / she may suggest joining a table to start a new friendship - so see "traditional dining" isn't dead is just
upgraded! With open dining you get the best of both worlds in my opinion.
Groups, this is more challenging if you want to dine together - most groups don't - getting away from each other at dinner is sometimes a nice break when your traveling with others in the same group, but again there are options - Prime C or
Aqualina seats 80 guests each, book out the dining room for your groups at a later seating or if there are 12 people (largest table) that want to eat together or rotate the dining routine during the cruise so you can dine at least one night with someone else - possibilities are endless when you have the option of open dining! Try it!
In closing about the
Azamara experience as a single cruiser, they staff and crew never made a reference to solo traveling, the ship activities department offered special dining options at Prime C in the lounge for single travelers to meet, dine and chat. At no point did I feel uncomfortable being a single cruiser, seating in the main dining room was classy for smaller tables - they don't parade to the back of the dining room for all to see (unless you want a back window table) - with plenty of small tables along the entrance walls, window and in other
discrete areas makes you feel very comfortable as a couple or single that is looking for the intimacy of a great meal, great service and celebrating in your own special way.
Bar - Lounges - Public Areas:The bars are great, simple small and service is without attitude - allot of first name recognition and sir name for those wanting the old world style - service is available on this ship everywhere you can imagine - exception only noted that the
promenade deck and deck 11 (sun deck) - otherwise someone was at your beck and call 24/7 --- I did notice the wonderful fruit skewers and misting going on at the pool during the heat of the day - I'm not a sunbather, but if I was this would rock my world, yes I did still get a fruit skewer while sitting in the shaded chaise lounge area. Overall this area gets my personal - "Grand Job", so many wonderful bartenders I don't want to mention names, but the Martini Bar team so rocked and had people coming just to see these two guys interact together, the casino bar (soon to be upgraded) had a very experienced and kind bartender the night club and theater bars great service and super friendly! Pool bar was sexy and the staff as sexy - so see this cruise line being what it is, has the ability to please even the most demanding cruiser, me.
Overall concept of "Country Club Casual":Rocks - Rocks - Rocks - Rocks! Less
luggage, no formal nights, bring a sport coat for dinner in specialty dining rooms if you desire (not required) where the nice new comfy shoes you just bought for the trip and remember, country club casual doesn't mean shorts and tees in the dining room or bars and lounges, it means dressing like real people and no stuffy,
pompous stuff at dinner or in the dining room. It
creates a more real atmosphere both comfortable and relaxing with emphasis on service, culinary greatness and overall guest
satisfaction. You don't get lost in the over dressing events yet you still participate in the glamour and romance of the high seas.
Thank you Azamara and Crew for making my visit to the Caribbean all I dreamt of and all I every wanted. Cheers!
