Azamara Journey Review

4.5 / 5.0
831 reviews

Shabby ship, shoddy food, shameful service

Review for Greece Cruise on Azamara Journey
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carlabeth
10+ Cruises • Age 2020s

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Sail Date: Apr 2013
Traveled with children

My husband, twins sons and I took a cruise from India, through the Souez Canal and on to Greece. India has long been a bucket list destination for me and when I saw this itinerary I told my husband "I am going on this. You can come too if you want" haha. I had also been very much wanting to try out Azamara -- their casual luxury, personal service schtick was extremely appealing for me. We usually cruise on Celebrity, Princess, or RC but I had long been petitioning to upgrade the budget to a smaller, more intimate environment with less crowding. It was a dreadful experience, one that I will never, ever repeat, and I have spent since then telling everyone what a disappointing, dismal experience Azamara is. Hopefully I can save others from the same terrible experience.

I won't detail all the disappointments -- just a few that still stick in my mind, 22 months later. First, embarkation was dreadful -- basically a metal shed (hey, at least not in the sun) and extremely disorganized. After the chaotic checkin we were shuttled by rickety bus to the ship side. I don't mind that the ship is older -- I much enjoy Grand Dame hotels, actually -- but this ship is extremely shabby. The furnishings, the bath fixtures, the dining room, the carpets, the tableware --- everything is faded, chipped, well worn (worn out) and the carpeting smells dirty throughout the ship. The entire ship smells dirty, actually. The public bathrooms smell particularly bad, although this may have just been our trip. Hopefully they aren't usually so "sewer-y" smelling and prone to overflowing.

The cabin was very depressing. Our beds were metal cots, literally; they had no bedskirts so it looked like we were sleeping on Army cots. The seating was stained and icky -- I lay towels on top of any surface before sitting on it. When we checked into our suite we found a cache of cigarette butts and ashes next to the bed, which made me wonder if the room had even been at all vacuumed between the lasts guests and us.

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