Review of Azura A713 W. Med. May 2017

[towny44]

A little late but here are my impressions of our recent Western Mediterranean Cruise on Azura.
Overall it was a very enjoyable cruise, helped by some excellent weather and some interesting new ports.
Azura appears to be in good condition, not much in the way of rust streaks and the crew are keeping up well with the daily maintenance, the rails are regularly varnished as I can attest to due to the brown stain on the front of one of my new polo shirts, not from wet varnish though so perhaps P&O have reduced the quality.
I dislike the P&O embarkation process however to be on board in about an hour of arrival at Mayflower terminal, and with our cases in the room, was a major plus. We had a 3:30pm boarding time but arrived about 2:15 and the longest delay was the CPS parking queue, we had to wait about 20 minutes until we reached the unloading area and this then took a further 10 minutes until complete.
Our steward was a Filipino girl called Natalie, very friendly and willing who brought us extra hangers and a bathroom chair for my wife to use at the washbasin in our accessible cabin, and kept the room neat and tidy and fitted in the daily cleaning well with our meal times.
The cabin itself was in good condition, with fairly new curtains and soft furnishings and a reasonably stain free carpet. The TV is still the relatively tiny 22” flat screen, but at least it is a widescreen version rather than the old square ones on Ventura. These C deck accessible cabins are some of the best we encounter; there is adequate wardrobe space and lots of shelf and drawer space, and they are very roomy. They do lack shelf and cupboard space in the bathroom and would benefit from automatic doors, other than that and the tiny TV’s they are very good, and of course they have huge balconies.
Food quality seems to be a major talking point on the cruise forums at the moment; we found the quality in general to be very good, the new MDR menus can be a bit fish heavy, so the meat eating carnivores among us might struggle, starters and desserts can be variable so it’s best to check with the waiters, who in general are quite helpful. The service standard in the MDR was better than our last few cruises, the head waiters were more in evidence, especially after the meals, and a lot more chatty than usual and the wine waiters were prompt and efficient.
However the service in the buffet at breakfast was still fairly poor, Azura has had half of the coffee stations converted to waiter pantries where they are supposed to obtain the passengers drinks. We rarely have breakfast before 9:30 and found that this coffee and soft drink provision was patchy at best, I raised this with one of the head waiters who stated that we only had to request drinks from any waiter and it would be provided, quite often this was not the case, so I had to serve myself, which with half the stations gone could be a more lengthy process. The clearing of tables is also quite slow, too many waiters loiter around the pantry areas instead of constantly patrolling the restaurant, I put this down to way they are managed where we hardly ever see head waiters getting stuck in, their style being do as I say, rather than leading by example. Which is what we find happens on Celebrity (my apologies to Merv for once more pointing this out).
We also experienced poor quality customer service at Passenger Services which I have already commented on in the forum. After finding that the water in our cabin and the public toilets was discoloured I asked reception when it would be cleared, and if in the interim it was still safe to drink, only to be told it was never safe to drink the tap water and we should buy bottled water. When I asked if the iced water in the MDR was also from bottles, and where on the ship did they store all these bottles, he became confused. I also gave this same agent our request for a disembarkation time of 8:45 which he advised was the earliest time available if we were not carrying our own luggage. When the information was delivered to our cabin later we had a 9:45 slot, so I needed to go back and get it changed. It might have been OK if the guy had been as friendly as the fellow on the Royal and Regal Princess documentaries, but he was as miserable as sin instead.
The evening entertainment was patchy, we only went to one headliners show, we used to enjoy them but the standard seems to have slipped in recent years. Of the guest artists we saw Paul Eastwood a reasonable comedian, Josh Adams a capable singer, The Brit Tones, a pop quartet, Daniel Boys, another reasonable singer, Roy Locke an Australian popular and opera singer and Jimmy James (without his Vagabonds) ex pop star and probably the pick of the crop, However the highlight of the evening entertainment was Huddersfield Town beating Sheffield Wednesday on penalties to reach the Championship playoff final. But we could only listen to the periodic updates on Sky Sports News because P&O do not allow streaming from Sky Go on any of their packages, whether this will change if they ever get a faster broadband service only time will tell.

New Ports of call

Monte Carlo – This was the highlight port of the cruise; Azura was able to berth alongside the new jetty which meant that wheelchair users would be able to go ashore. Once away from the seafront area the roads rise steeply up the hillsides, but there are various lifts that enable the less mobile to explore some of the upper areas. The tourist info office as you exit the terminal building provides local maps and gives you directions on how to find these lifts. We chose the nearest route to take us up into the area around the old town and the palace. The first lift is around the corner as you exit the terminal which takes you up onto the roof of the terminal buildings, these lead onto a pathway around the rock to the second set of lifts from a multi-storey car park up to the oceanographic museum area and a third lift for wheelchairs, or escalator for the able bodied, up to the old town shopping area. This entire route is fairly level and easily accessible for a wheelchair. The pathway up to cathedral is a little steep but not too arduous, and then it is fairly level through the narrow streets into Palace square. We arrived just before noon and the ceremonial changing of the palace guard, which attracts fairly large crowds. We had intended to go back the same way via what looked like a pleasant botanical garden near the museum. However we ended up going down the ave de la porte neuve, which is a little steep but took us eventually down to the harbour through a pleasant market square. The F1 grand prix was the following week and preparations for it were in full swing, so for a couple of armchair enthusiasts it offered a very enjoyable route back to the ship, with the final part through what would become the F1 teams hospitality area.
The harbour is much smaller than we imagined but does have its fair share of super yachts, one of which was Lionheart, Phil Green’s lavish toy paid for at the expense of BHS pensioners, which initially was moored very close to where Azura was berthed, but then moved out into the roads, to some catcalls from the rowdier passengers.

Cagliari – This is very much a working port, we berthed next to where the mainland ferries dock and there is a port run free shuttle bus which drops you off on the main street opposite the main port buildings. Across the multi lane main road there are shops and cafes under a reasonably wide portico which extends for about the length of the main harbour, most of the other streets running inland are uphill so for a wheelchair pusher these were a no go area. However after consulting our tourist map we made our way back across the multiple lane roads to the promenade side and made our way round to the boardwalk promenade called lungomare. We walked along this and the next promenade for about a mile or so, there is nothing special to see, except for a few anglers, and as there was no café in sight we wandered back the same way, with a stop at one of the many benches to relax. Overall not a lot to see for those not wanting to venture inland, and the infrequent number of cruise ship stops means there are few tourist shops or cafes.

Cartegena – An easy walk off the ship into the town, the main shopping street is pedestrianised and full of café tables, as well as lots of varied stores. This area is full of holiday resorts so the main towns are also geared up for tourists, but beyond the seafront and the main shopping street the roads get steeper and not easy for wheelchair users.

The other ports were Cadiz, Barcelona, Civitavecchia for Rome and Gibraltar, we do wish P&O would offer more Med cruises that avoid Rome and Florence, for those of us who have been there and bought the T shirts.

Finally another little lift story. After the muster we decided to have a drink in the glass house while the crowds waiting for lifts eased, but despite the bar staff being there they would not serve drinks until the waiters returned from their muster duties, “give us about 10 minutes” was the comment. As there were no window seats we tried the blue bar, with the same result. So we joined the queues at the midship lifts and waited by the port side glass lift. This was being bossed by a fairly small but noisy fellow whilst his wife, a timid little person, was waiting by the port side main lift. Despite her repeated requests that they ought to try the stairs as lifts arrived full and departed without addition, he refused her requests saying you stay there and we will get the first one that arrives. Several more lifts came and went and these conversations were repeated more heatedly, at least on his part, until at last our lift arrived empty and he proudly shouted to his wife to join him, only to see her being pushed into her lift as it also arrived empty. Whether they ever met up again I have no idea, but I imagine she quite enjoyed her brief moment of freedom.

[Ranchi]

We were on Azura late April/ early May and while we found the MDR food generally good we did think the desserts were a bit patchy. Sometimes you expected something delicate and small and you got a great bruiser of a pudding! I know you should ask the waiters if you are unsure but we do miss the displays of dessert that you used to get as you entered the MDR.

[Manoverboard]

Thanks for doing an unbiased ' P&O ' Cruise Report ... but not for reminding me that it was my ex mate Fernando who missed the pen that resulted in your lot getting into the Prem.

ps .... did you happen to bump into Gianfranco Zola in Cagliari ?