Kidoctr's Progress Notes: Day 3 - Azamara Quest - London to Southampton

We had an early morning today because we had tickets for the 10 am visit to Stonehenge and it would take us about 2 hours to get there so Adrian would be by to collect us at around 8 am. We went next door to the Pret au Manger again but this time they had just opened and their sandwiches weren't quite all ready. I had a cup of coffee and when we were getting ready to leave, their sandwiches still weren't done so I asked the cashier for 2 cheese sandwiches which he was nice enough to go downstairs to get us a couple. This was the same sandwich I had the day before and loved it because of the red onion marmalade on the bread. We weren't scheduled to have a lunch break so we got a couple of sandwiches to take with us.

Adrian was prompt and although I have to admit that I was a little worried about getting all of our luggage into his taxi, he was able to juggle and maneuver all 8 suitcases and carry-ons into the back and front seat of his taxi – it was awesome. We made our way out of London and found out that people who commute by car into London during certain hours are subject to a 12 pound fee each time. That's pretty steep and makes our tollways seem like nothing.

In about 2 hours, we reached Stonehenge. It hadn't been raining yet this day but the clouds looked ominous so we took a quick bathroom break while Adrian got our tickets (we had pre-paid and Adrian was nice enough to take my invoice and exchange them for tickets and maps). We then headed straight for the bus out to Stonehenge. The visitor center at Stonehenge does has free wifi and encourages you to download the Stonehenge app which includes all of its narrated history that you can listen to on your phone. It was pretty slick but we didn't have a lot of time to spend in Stonehenge because of the dark clouds coming through.

You walked a path from the bus stop to Stonehenge and could walk a complete circle around it getting, at one point, pretty close to the stones. There were so many other parts of Stonehenge that I didn't know about – the henge (trenches), the heel stone, woodhenge, etc. The experience is pretty neat but frustrating that after all this time – knowing how the stones got dragged over 100 miles to this location and what the structure even looked like originally – we still have no clue what Stonehenge was built for.

Stonehenge iPhone App

We walked through the gift shop and headed towards the other exhibit but it was at that moment that the sky opened up and it started pouring rain so we made our way back to the gift shop where Seth bought a hat, a t shirt, and we got 2 magnets for our collection.

We went across the hall to another indoor exhibit and got to see artifacts and other clues about Stonehenge and who built it. The exhibit was interesting but starting to get crowded and we didn't have a lot of time as we were anxious to get to our cruise ship. One more potty stop before re-boarding our taxi and we munched on our sandwiches on the way down to Southampton which was less than an hour away. Wade was thoughtful enough to also bring along some potato chips and dessert to share with us.

Some 50 minutes later, we arrived into Southampton. It's always so much fun and exciting to see the ship that we'll be living on for the next 2 weeks. Our cabin was a Club Ocean Suite at the front of the ship just under the ship's bridge – we could actually see our suite's veranda as we got closer to our drop off. It was raining pretty steadily and Adrian pulled up to an area where we off-loaded our luggage but then we got back into his taxi to be taken to another area to actually check in. We tipped the porter 10 pounds for our bags and said good bye to Adrian who gave each of us a branded pen and encouraged us to leave a comment on Trip Advisor which I totally intend on doing as we all enjoyed his tour so much.

Our suite just under the bridge on the left side of the ship

Now, this is our first Azamara cruise. We have been cruising a lot – mostly on Celebrity. We have been cruising with our friends, Charlie and Wade for 7 years, and have attained a pretty high level in Celebrity's Captain's Club. We have been escalating each year on our cabin choices moving from a veranda all the way up to the penthouse suite when we took the kids with us on a trip a few Thanksgivings ago. That penthouse suite for all 4 of us for a 7-night cruise in 2013 was a total of about $13K. In comparison, this suite on the Quest for a 14-night cruise was about $28K – more than twice what we paid for our most expensive cruise in the past so expectations were pretty high.

At this point writing this entry – with still another week left on this cruise as I “catch up” on my blog, I'm still a little torn between Azamara and our “home” line, Celebrity. Right off the bat upon checking in for our 2 week vacation-of-a-lifetime, we were disappointed. Unfortunately, it was our first impression. We came into the cruise terminal and were greeted and each given a yellow sticker as we got in line. What the yellow sticker was for was a little unclear. We got in the security line with everyone else when someone else noticed we had yellow stickers and so she took us out of line and put us in a different line that joined up with the same line we were just in. We were directed to “cut” into the security line which was a little awkward and messy. When we cleared security, we got into a queue for suite guests but we waited for the same agent who was attending to other guests. Now as snotty as it sounds, you don't pay the extra $$$ for a trip like this just to be checked in with the rest of the masses. The check-in desk was so small and crowded we couldn't even stand next to each other as we completed our typical “I swear I'm not sick” paperwork and got our keycards.

As we were waiting for Wade and Charlie to finish checking in, I approached the man by the desk that was making reservations for the Chef's Table dinners. We had already planned on attending all 3 of the dinners so I purchased them and tried to figure out when they were and how we were going to plan the rest of our dinners. Disappointment #2 for this cruise….we had NO dinner reservations prior to boarding. It just wasn't even offered which is tough for planners like me. I like to examine the itinerary and really put some thought into which nights would be best to have certain meals taking into account our excursion schedule, special dinners, etc. We were directed to board and then to simply find a sommelier to make our reservations with. It seemed fairly disorganized.

As with Celebrity, we noticed that our key cards did not have any notation about our ultimate liquor package so our next stop was as soon as we got on board and saw the bartenders peddling their packages at a table. We inquired about our liquor package and thank goodness this time we were actually on a list (previous Celebrity cruises had us wait in line at guest services to handle this problem) and so we got our special UL sticker for our key card. At least that was easier to do than on Celebrity.

While our cabins were being prepared, we stopped by the lounge near the dining room and sat for a bit so I pulled out an index card and starting listing the nights that we would need to make dinner reservations. Quite by luck, we were sitting right by the desk where people could make dinner reservations in the specialty restaurants and she could also book our other Chef's table reservations. As I sat at the desk trying to figure out the reservations, I noticed a small sign about the Chef's Caviar Dinner – another special dinner that we didn't know anything about. The sommelier came over to help this lady who could make the reservations for us on the computer but didn't know the exact dates of the special dinners without having to scroll through each day.

It took FOREVER for us to get all of our reservations made and I felt sorry for the other 2 couples who were waiting in line to make their reservations too. As Wade and I made reservations, Seth and Charlie went on ahead to our suites. Our plan was to have all of our dinners anywhere except the main dining room. Our last experience in a main dining room was 2 years ago on Thanksgiving (because everyone recommended it) and we hated it. Yes, we've gotten too snobby to even eat in the main dining room. Besides, the perk of this suite we were in was to have free access to the 2 specialty restaurants on board.

So after quite a bit of juggling, here's what we came up with:

25 August – boarding day. Dinner in Prime C at 6:30 pm
26 August – our “sea day” and Seth's birthday. First Chef's Table dinner – Italian. 7 pm

27 August – a real sea day. Second Chef's Table dinner – California. 7 pm

28 August – Bordeaux. Dinner in Prime C at 6:30 pm

29 August – Bordeaux. Dinner in Aqualina at 6:30 pm

30 August – St Jean de Luz. Pintxo tour.

31 August – St Jean de Luz and my birthday. 3^Rd Chef's Table dinner – French. 7 pm.

1 September – Bilbao and Wade's birthday. Our reservation at Azurmendi wasn't until after 1 pm and the experience was supposed to take up to 4 hours so we decided to skip dinner.

2 September – Sea day. Assuming we would be invited to the “Best of the Best” dinner only for top suite guests. 7 pm

3 September – Porto. Chef's Caviar Dinner. 7 pm

4 September – Lisbon. Dinner in Aqualina. 6 pm.

5 September – Gibraltar. We had a late tour scheduled followed by the Azamazing Evening which was supposed to include food and drink so we didn't make any reservations.

6 September – Last sea day. Dinner in Aqualina. 6:30 pm

7 September – Last evening on board. Dinner in Prime C. 6:30 pm.

Finally, we completed all of our reservations and I was pretty satisfied that we got everything that we wanted (or thought we wanted at the time). Apparently, both Prime C and Aqualina changed to a different menu for the 2^nd half of the cruise.

I headed to our suite and noticed our luggage stacked up nearby so hopefully we would have our suitcases soon. The ship is the smallest one we've ever been on (only 600 or so passengers) but it was still pretty long and our suite was at the very very front of the ship.

I really liked the layout of our suite. First plus for Azamara. The Club Ocean suite has 2 bathrooms – which was VERY nice at times. The sitting area was nice and the bedroom – even though it was just separated by a curtain, was more spacious than the one we had on Celebrity and the bathroom was much bigger. We had plenty of storage space but I was a little surprised that we left our luggage stacked up next to the wardrobe and it stayed there through the whole cruise. There really wasn't anywhere else to put our empty suitcases and our butler, Ravin, never did anything with them. I guess we could have asked but they were out of the way so we never did.

After we had gotten done unpacking and were just settling in, Ravin came by to introduce himself. Even though cruise ship suites with butlers always advertise the “unpacking service”, we've not been on a cruise yet where the butler was around to DO any unpacking when our suitcases arrive so we just do it ourselves which I think I actually prefer anyways.

Wade and I went out to explore the ship so we started at the top and made our way down. We stopped by the Lookout bar and tried out our ultimate liquor package on a couple of frozen mojitos. We went back to our cabins and got ready for our dinner in Prime C at 6:30 pm.

I was looking forward to eating in the steakhouse. It's a nice restaurant that we came to know very very well because all of the Chef's Table dinners were also in Prime C at the front of the restaurant. This was the first time of many that we met with one of only 2 sommeliers on the entire cruise – Darko from Serbia. He had a very heavy accent but was knowledgeable and liked to explain things to us.

It was a this point that we encountered another negative for Azamara – the “Ultimate Liquor Package”. I don't know why I assumed that this would be like the liquor package on Celebrity which included wine up to a certain amount. We were told that Azamara's package did not include any wine – not even by the glass. What a waste on me as I don't really drink a lot of liquor or cocktails. We entertained the idea of buying a wine package but they didn't seem like a really good deal because there was a limit on the price of the bottles you could select. What it boiled down to was a 10 bottle package that would essentially save you, at the most, about $15 per bottle and you could only choose bottles that were under $75 in price so we opted to pass on it and just order wine here and there as needed. This turned out to be the right choice for us because of the number of special dinners we had planned (Chef's tables, Best of the Best, and the caviar dinner) narrowed down the nights that we would need to order wine.

The menu in Prime C was of a classic steakhouse. I had the tuna tartar and popcorn shrimp which was pretty good. I really liked the “soy sauce gelatin” - it really tasted like soy sauce but was such a different texture and not as salty. The beet and arugula salad was really good – something I never make at home because nobody but me likes beets or arugula. The dressing was my favorite and I ended up having this salad more than once during the cruise. Seth's lobster salad was good as well. My bone-in ribeye was pretty good but half of the steak was medium rare and the other half was more medium well. I guess something happened with my mini donut dessert that delayed it so while I waited, they brought me the flourless cake which was really good - I love foods that are crispy on the outside and soft/warm in the middle. When I did finally get my donuts – I was really stuffed but the guys helped me finish it off. The donuts were also really good and my favorite was the caramel and vanilla sauces. I had this dessert again during the cruise as well.