We decided 2 years ago to sail the British Isles for our daughter's high school graduation gift before she went off to college. i'm glad she wanted to see Ireland! One of the nice things about Azamara is they have their itinerary's published 2 years in advance and that is one of the main reasons we chose it, even though it was touted as a golf cruise (and prices seemed higher than their other sail dates!)

Our cruise departed from Southampton, England which we did not explore because we spent 3 days seeing London and the countryside before our cruise. The night before our sailing we stayed in Winchester, which was charming and well worth the visit, especially if one is a fan of "Last Kingdom" or Jane Austen.

The boarding process was fairly smooth. We were in a suite and the ship only has about 680 guests anyway. Compared to NCL's large ships and Carnival's process it was easy. They took security very seriously which we appreciated very much. We have sailed Oceania before so we knew in advance that we looked small ships. The Journey is a nice size ship. She has lovely color schemes meant to relax. The art on board is not garish which I appreciated. The dining options are plentiful and we never had to wait for a table or suffer from long service wait times. Read more