Why I Didn’t Want To Leave Azamara Quest!

Truly one of the best cruise lines I’ve had the pleasure of sailing with.

Yes, Azamara Quest impressed me so much during my recent 4 night Balearic Islands cruise, that I genuinely considered stowing away under a bed somewhere and staying aboard for another few days!

I’ve been booking happy customers aboard Azamara since they were created, so it was AZAmazing (sorry) to finally get the chance to experience the brand myself, and the Quest did not disappoint.

Small ship cruising over the years hasn’t really excited me. I’ve always opted for the larger ship, favouring a little more in the way of entertainment and facility, so I was apprehensive about the 30,000 tonne Quest.

However, this little beauty has put me well on the way to changing my mind entirely.

Why?

Well, firstly, to look at from the exterior, Quest has an unmistakable nautical style dark blue hull. Not a fan of the dark style hull, it usually makes me think of container ships and fishing trawlers, don’t ask me why, but Quest suits it very well, and she looks immaculate despite her age.

Moving inside, a rather subtle decor of greys, creams, golds & dark wood combos greet you, I’ve made that sound quite boring, which I initially did think. But after a lap or so of the ship, you realise it’s not boring, it’s classy, with a nice flow to it. The longer I was on the ship, the more I had a genuine appreciation for my surroundings. It’s cosy but airy, darkly furnished but light at the same time – a masterclass in design, seems to combine the feel of a grand English country home with a modern and well kept art deco hotel.

The cabins are a good size for a small ship, and feel nice and airy, we had an oceanview on deck four and it was spot on, close to stairs/lifts and just one up from the gangway for embark/disembark for excursions. My only bug bear was the shape of the shower alcove, I kept banging my elbows – but that’s not a snipe at Azamara, I have this problem on most cruise ship bathrooms as you can barely swing a cat in nearly anything not at suite level, so I’m splitting hairs really.

The stewards kept fairly out of sight, and the cabin was immaculate each day. Really high standards.

I’ll go into the ports of call on my next blog, but I will at this point report that they were easy to book, although typically expensive – we did our own thing, and what did strike me was there were little or no queues to leave the ship when it docked, you just come and go as you please and because it’s a smaller number of guests there is literally no hanging around, which I loved! This also reflected in the dining areas, which leads me onto my next topic…

Food!

Wow, what a brilliant standard of cuisine. Amazing diverse menu in the Discoveries Restaurant (which is the main dining room), two fantastic specialty venues, Prime C and Aqualina, the fore being arguably one of the best steak restaurants at sea, I recommend the T-Bone! Then the latter, an Italian style restaurant focusing mainly on fish dishes. Sadly we didnt eat here but the menu looked stunning and the comments I heard were excellent.

They also have unrivalled BBQs on deck which smoke up the air with the smells of fresh herb coated chicken, succulent sausage, and tasty burgers, with the addition of faves like mac ‘n’ cheese, and a large salad bar.

One nice concept was pre-dinner tapas, which was served daily from 5pm in the Living Room, one of the evening lounges. Lovely views and a generally nice ambiance, coupled with a jazz or swing vocalist. A really lovely experience, and a nice start to the evening. Great bit of tapas too, as you can see below, I helped myself to plenty!

Linking in with food of course, is drinks, a favourite topic of mine being a big fan of wine, whisky & gin.

The house wines which are included were on the hole, very good, particularly the white. More than once we were served with a ‘David Frost’ Sauvignon Blanc, from South Africa. This wine was excellent, dry, with citrus on the nose and gooseberry on taste with a nice sharp edge to the finish – pretentious or what???

Soft drinks, including the coffee at the Mosaic Cafe were also excellent, great Americano if you are a true coffee drinker and take it black as I do, none of that milky, foamy, steamy rubbish here I tell you! Although they’ll add it if you want it!!

My only issue was with the whisky. Jim Beam bourbon, and Cutty Sark scotch, in my opinion these belong with the Cillit Bang, not on the whisky shelf, in fact that’s offensive to Cillit Bang. But they did have rather a decent selection of other whiskies for a price. The Chivas Regal 18 was $10.95 a measure, which is steep if you own a bottle of it, but it’s affordable for a nice dram on the back of a cracking meal on a ship.

For a spirit, go for a G&T, Gordens and Beefeater are the standard onces, and although they won’t blow you away, it’s not bad way to dress up a tonic water.

Entertainment was a little wasted on me because I’m not a big fan of shows, but in fairness all of the singers were excellent and provided really good entertainment in the evenings, so if you like a bit of cabaret then you’ll really like this. The cabaret lounge is spacious and with waiters milling around all over the place you’re never waiting too long for a drink. All a bit of good fun!

They also have a disco in the evening if the mood takes you, which I’m sure it will…the sea air is a little devil for my twinkle toes anyway so it would seem! They also had a ‘White Night’ which was a glorious deck party with food, sangria, music, dancing & everyone coated in their finest tennis whites – this was a particular highlight, I really enjoyed it, as you can see:

Overall I’m rating the cruise and the ship among my all time favourites. The quality is everywhere on this ship, in staggering abundance. Think it’s pricey? Well maybe so, but you pay for this quality, so it’s completely worth it.

Larger ship lovers should give it a go, they might be pleasantly suprised – I certainly was.

Anyway I’ve given you a decent little run down on the cruise, along with my own opinions, next time out, i’ll go into the ports in a little more detail as I’m sure you’re all desperate to see what the Fred man got up to on his travels? If not, i’ll bore you with it anyway!

Thanks for reading and as always, until next time……………