You may suppose our Atlantic Coast voyage on the Azamara Quest was all brie, tapas and good wine. During the voyage I used to be additionally capable of sit down with Captain Jonas Lyddby, the Master of the Azamara Quest. I’ve by no means sat down with a Captain earlier than! There had been loads of questions I wished to ask. When the chance introduced itself, I put aside the brie, tapas and good wine and picked up my pad and pen.
How is the ship’s firm organized? There are a number of departments together with these involved with the operation of the vessel just like the Deck and Engine departments. There are mandatory ones we don’t see, like Security. The major ones we passengers work together with match inside the Hotel Department, which additionally consists of Food & Beverage. The Captain sits on high of the organizational construction, bearing total duty.
Stability at sea. There are professionals and cons to every part. Our 10 day cruise included just one sea day, we had been in ports on the opposite days. That is a professional for stability. When we weren’t in port we had been within the Bay of Biscay, not identified for its calm seas. That’s a con for my part. The Azamara Quest is a 30,000 ton vessel. It has stabilizers that may be deployed in tough seas, functioning like a horizontal rudder. I requested Captain Lyddby in regards to the stability of the bigger megaships carrying 6,000 passengers, about ten instances the Quest’s present passenger praise. He defined, from firsthand expertise the bigger ships might be fairly steady as a result of they’re wider. He defined the dimensions of the vessel will not be the determinant of stability at sea. Stability is decided by the design of the ship, the engineering and naval structure concerned. (I felt the movement at instances, however our ahead, dealing with cabin was situated beneath the command bridge.)
Where are the passengers from? The majority of passengers on this cruise are from the US and the UK. Spain and different international locations are additionally represented. (FYI: The passenger dealing with crew are primarily from Indonesia, the Philippines and India, which I discovered from the Food & Beverage Manager throughout his interview. Fluency in English is a major qualification.)
What differentiates Azamara from the competitors? The voyages are port intensive. The goal is to ship immersion into the tradition. You spend extra time in port, have a big selection of excursions aligned with what makes the port particular, onboard native leisure introduced from ashore, eating that includes the choice of native delicacies and onboard port lectures. Passengers can select the diploma of immersion that’s proper for them.
Sailing smaller ships permits Azamara to get into ports bigger ships can’t. This means shorter driving distances to get to sights and extra docking and fewer tendering. Smaller ships contain a tradeoff regarding facilities, however that isn’t a giant concern. The grownup viewers selecting to journey on Azamara isn’t on the lookout for a go cart observe onboard.
Do Azamara ships actually sail all over the world? It feels just like the ship is at all times going someplace new. Unlike Caribbean voyages repeating the identical out and again itineraries, Azamara organizes its voyages in segments. Our voyage left Southampton, crusing to Lisbon. After we disembarked, the ship sailed from Lisbon to Barcelona over eight nights. From Barcelona, it headed to Athens. You get the concept. Captain Lyddby talked about there is likely to be a world cruise in 2023 or 2024.
After my interview, I discovered extra in regards to the Captain and officers from informal conversations with passengers. Captains have followings! Repeat clients will generally select their Azamara ship and segments primarily based on who’s Captain on their voyage. (Captains get trip time too.) The officers and crew are held in excessive regard, typically serving alongside crew members at reside cooking stations within the eating room, for instance. As I discussed earlier, once we disembarked in Lisbon a day early, we carried our personal baggage, as per the rules for early departure. I used to be amazed a crew member and the officer accountable for housekeeping insisted on taking our baggage from us and carrying it to the taxi stand, discovering us a taxi and loading our baggage into the trunk.
Captain Jonas Lyddby and his crew gave me an excellent understanding of what units Azamara aside.
Cover picture courtesy Azamara
Many because of Azamara and its very succesful workforce in working with me on arranging and serving to us with our fantastic Azamara Quest cruise. Thanks to the All Things Cruise workforce as properly for introducing me to Azamara!
See sailings right here: Azamara Quest (cruisecompete.com), Azamara all ships
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Also see Overall Review: Our Azamara Quest Atlantic Coast Cruise – All Things Cruise