8 Things to Know About Azamara Cruises

Azamara Cruises debuted in 2007 as a distinct brand within the Royal Caribbean corporate umbrella. For years it struggled to find an identity – at one point rebranding as Azamara Club Cruises to try and evoke a country club feel, before dropping the “Club Cruises” piece in 2019. From its inception, the line focused on destination-first cruising with a goal of providing a more immersive experience than other cruises lines offered at the time.

Not quite 20 years later, untethered from Royal Caribbean, and with well-known cruise industry veteran Dondra Ritzenthaler at the helm, Azamara is ready for a larger share of the upper-premium cruise pie.

For travel advisors who still don’t know much about Azamara, here are eight things to know when considering which of your clients to pitch Azamara to.

1. AzAmazing Evenings

It’s a little bit of a tongue twister, but Azamara’s signature AzAmazing Evening event, which celebrated 10 years in 2023, is its biggest differentiator.

For those unfamiliar with the concept, AzAmazing Evenings are the cruise line’s way of immersing guests into the culture of a specific country on the itinerary through music and dance, and sometimes food. They are offered on all cruises — except transatlantic sailings and cruises less than seven-nights — and are complimentary to all guests.

Prior to the pandemic, most AzAmazing Evenings happened onshore, and it can be quite an undertaking to get everyone there. On a sailing we did in 2016, guests were driven into Mexico’s Sierra Madre hills in mini-vans with men on horseback holding flashlights to lead the way.

COVID-19 brought an end to off-ship evenings, but the line is phasing them back in. Our fall 2024 AzAmazing Evening in Cartagena, Colombia was ashore at the Teatro Heredia.

Disembarkation is by deck, with the upper decks – ie suite guests – going first. It’s a suite perk that shouldn’t be underestimated with clients, as the later you go, the worse you’re seating may be.

2. Inclusive Pricing

Azamara sees itself as competing in the upper premium market with the likes of lines like Oceania Cruises and Viking. As a result, Azamara’s pricing needs to be somewhat inclusive.

Cruisers will find a wide variety of beverages – alcoholic and non-alcoholic – included in the price of an Azamara cruise, as are all gratuities (other than for spa services). Self-service laundry is also included, as is the line’s aforementioned AzAmazing Evening.  

What’s not included that is included on some upper premium and luxury lines are Wi-Fi, shore excursions, and bottled water. (All guests get a refillable water bottle and there are water dispensers on every deck.)

3. Food Is a Highlight

Azamara does not market itself as a gourmet cruise line, but the food on board is excellent. We enjoyed almost every meal we had regardless of whether we were eating in the main Discoveries Restaurant or the Windows Café buffet. (Every night at Windows Café is themed with options like Mediterranean, Italian, Asian, Indian, and others.)

Meals in the two specialty restaurants – especially the Prime C steakhouse – were well worth the extra money. (Clients with vegetarian or vegan clients, it’s worth noting Price C has an entirely separate vegetarian menu available upon request. So too does Aqualina, the specialty Italian restaurant.)

Our sailing had two brunches, one on a late-arrival port day, the other on our last sea day. The brunches are a highlight, with a wide variety of breakfast and lunch options that will keep you full until dinner.

Another highlight is the White Night buffet, which, like the sea day brunch, was expansive with enough options to fill up even the pickiest eater.

A few notables to tell your clients about: gelato in the Windows Café (combine with the toppings bar near the self-service ice cream machines in The Patio); Indian night at the buffet, which got rave reviews from people we spoke to; and the best mud pie we’ve ever tasted – served at the first buffet and one night in the Windows Café.

In between meals, there are a few options for snacking, starting with the pastries at Mosaic Café. Then from 2:30-5, there’s always a “tea” (think finger sandwiches and scones and cream) in the Living Room. From 5 to 8, also in the Living Room, guests can avail themselves of tapas-style snacks (olives, cheese, etc.)

Finally, the bar in the Living Room has peanuts upon request, while The Den’s bar has popcorn.

4. Small Bathrooms

Azamara’s ships are more than 20 years old, and while they look great, there are certain aspects of an “old” ship that can’t be changed – like the size of the bathrooms in standard cabins. Marketers would call them cozy, but that’s simply a euphemism for small. There’s barely enough room for two people to stand side-by-side (and even then, they’ll be jostling each other), and the three tiny shelves over the toilet offer the bare minimum for storing toiletries, hair products, and makeup.

If you’re larger than, say a size 10, expect to get to know the sides of the shower, which has a curtain rather than a glass door. As of Sept. 2024, the curtains were upgraded to a bamboo-based waffle cotton. It used to have a clingy plastic curtain.

“It is a small bathroom, and I do give folks a head’s up if,” said Mary Anne Kauffman, co-owner of the Kauffmann Travel Team, a Virginia-based Dream Vacations franchise. “If that’s a problem then we need them move up into a suite.”

The suites – of some 340-350 staterooms (depending on ship), about 45 to 65 are suites – provide bigger bathrooms, including larger showers. (The entry-level suite TMR got to see onboard Azamara Journey still had the shower curtain, but it also was a shower/tub combo.)

5. USBs

Show off your knowledge by letting your first-time Azamara cruise clients know about the hidden bedside USB plugs.

They’re underneath the bedside reading lights. Even knowing they were there it took us a second to find them, and other cruisers were still discovering their existence several days into the cruise.

(In a small number of staterooms and suites across the fleet, the USB charging ports are located within the alarm clock.)

6. Ship Update

As we mentioned above, the four Azamara ships are old. They’ve been well taken care of, however, and we saw no obvious signs of age inside Azamara Journey. All four ships regularly swap out soft goods like carpets and curtains, so nothing ever looks worn.

Most recently, all of the ships received the new bamboo-based shower curtains.

Onboard Azamara Journey, the suites were most recently refurbished (Sept. 2024) with new soft goods and lighter colored furnishings that reflect the more modern look the cruise industry has embraced over the past five years or so. Though it has yet to be confirmed, we assume the rest of the cabins – and other ships – will eventually get a similar makeover.

7. No Casino

Pre-pandemic, Azamara made the decision to remove the casinos from its ships and replace them with a Central lounge called The Den.

While the lack of a casino does keep some cruisers away (we heard from one woman at a Q&A with executives whose husband won’t sail Azamara for that reason), the line’s new CEO said it didn’t make sense to keep them.

“We are in port later, we overnight, which means that we can’t open the casino. It was an incredible amount of real estate just not being used,” Dondra Ritzenthaler, Azamara’s CEO said.

The popularity of the Den as a place for cruisers to relax, read, listen to live piano music, or generally mix and mingle, shows just how right the decision was.

8. The Destination Immersion Promise

Ritzenthaler said several times during her time onboard that Azamara “owns” destination immersion within the cruise space. With longer stays in port than many other lines, once-per-cruise onboard destination experience evenings (usually featuring destination-themed cuisine and local entertainment and only offered on sailings that are nine nights or longer), and the signature AzAmazing Evening, Azamara has been doing “destination immersion” for a long time.

However, those three things aside, what Azamara does in destination is nothing more immersive than what other lines do, and clients should be aware. On our sailing, there was not a single shore excursion option you couldn’t get with any other cruise line visiting the same ports.

Nor is the onboard education destination focused. With one exception (a brief history of the building of the Panama Canal), our ABC Islands and Panama Canal sailing featured two speakers lecturing on topics completely unrelated to our itinerary.

This is not to say that clients won’t enjoy the destination experience. Because the ship is smaller, the shore excursion groups are smaller. Plus, being smaller ships, Azamara’s fleet can, in some destinations, reach ports that bigger ships can’t.

But clients who are expecting true destination immersion might be disappointed. For instance, during a best of Curacao-style excursion, we visited a former slave plantation that has been turned into an art gallery. What could have been a fascinating look at the island’s past and how it’s inspired its current artists, was nothing more than a quick stop to look at art for sale with no one to explain anything.

Travel advisors should be careful how they portray Azamara’s “immersive” qualities and set the appropriate expectations. This might change over the next year or so. Ritzenthaler told TMR to expect “destination immersion 2.0” in 2025 as she’s acutely aware that other cruise lines are catching up, particularly in terms of longer stays in port and more overnights