This was our 3rd Azamara cruise and we eagerly anticipated the opportunity to celebrate Christmas & New Year on board Azamara Journey. Embarkation in Hongkong was one of the easiest we have ever experienced. Our hotel (Marco Polo) was linked by a new shopping centre walkway to the new cruise terminal but as the immigration hall was not in operation Azamara arranged on board processing. We arrived at midday. Within half an hour we were enjoying a welcome drink and buffet lunch in Windows. Our ocean view stateroom on deck 4 was ready at 1.30pm and our luggage arrived almost immediately. We were welcomed by our steward Danny and his assistant Agostino who gave us excellent service throughout the cruise.
We were only a small group (26 people) for The Cruise Critic Meet & Mingle cocktail party
but the Captain & senior staff still took the time to attend - we were impressed.
We enjoyed a club suite on our last Azamara cruise but as the majority of time on this cruise was spent in port we booked our favourite ocean view mid ships on deck 4. These staterooms are a reasonable size and feature a lovely large window and window seat.
They are also far more comfortable in rough weather.
The shore excursion staff on Azamara inadvertently retained our shore excursion tickets - this caused a problem when boarding our coach to the marina and I had to sign a statement to say I had “lost” them! We literally had to “walk the plank” to board a rather dilapidated boat for our 3 hour cruise. We sat on the boat for half an hour waiting for the Captain ( our guide said there was a hold up with the paperwork) when we got to the island to visit the caves we only had time to visit the first cave (which was very good) because of the delays. Our guide assured us it wasn’t worth the effort to get to the second cave -we were told by other passengers it was very good. We then seemed to be in a race with one of the other boats who completely blocked our view of the fishing village as we passed between two islands.
Victoria Harbour is a wonderful place to dock the view of the Symphony of lights is magnificent. Hongkong is a great port of call with colourful markets, the tramway to the Peak and a trip on the Ngong Ping cable car to the Big Buddha are not to be missed.
Great dock right in the city.e Excellent market. Cu Chi tunnels.