Some things in life shouldn’t be rushed, and we believe travel is one of them. Every Azamara voyage features longer and overnight stays in port, so you can experience your destinations at all hours of the day. More time on land offers the opportunity to take a train ride through the deep green mountains of New Zealand, capped off with a traditional meal cooked over a pit oven of hot rocks. With overnight stays, you can spend an evening and following morning at a quaint bed & breakfast in the hills of Tuscany. And nights docked in port let you attend an evening show or two on the other side of the world.
If there is a destination you’ve always wanted to experience, there is a good chance you can get there on one of our various immersive itineraries, taking you to both famous destinations and hidden gem locales. We seldom repeat ports, so you can Cruise Global, Connect Local in a variety of destinations, all on one voyage. Go farther, travel deeper, and bring your boutique hotel with you every step of the way.
Travel to Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Caribbean, Mediterranean, Europe, Panama Canal, South America or South Pacific on the cruise of your dreams.
Click here to view the amazing excursions that Azamara offers for all their incredible destinations! There are endless options for any kind of traveler- from the very adventurous, to the most relaxed traveler.
Dining on cruise ships can be very confusing, but Starship Travel would be glad to help explain! Click the video down below to get a quick summary.
Azamara Cruise June 2016
Our trip started with a wonderful flight on SAS Airlines to Stockholm. Upon our arrival, we went directly to check in on the Azamara, which was a breeze! Our room is small but very nice for our 12 nights as our home away from home.
As the ship is located up close to town we can walk off and start seeing the sights of Stockholm. We boarded a sightseeing boat to see the Archipelagos islands of Sweden. Stockholm- the capital and largest city, famous for its beauty and the amazing archipelago. In addition, Stockholm offers a unique nightlife scene and it is home to some of northern Europe’s best restaurants.
Estonia is a delightful old city with narrow street and cobblestone roads. We enjoyed a stroll to see the ‘Mushroom Church” as we like to refer to it. The church is a museum of Coat or Arms. We toured the city, stopped for Apple Cake and coffee, and then headed back to our ship for a wonderful dinner.
Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Lake Peipus and Russia. Across the Baltic Sea lies Sweden in the west and Finland in the north. The territory of Estonia consists of a mainland and 2,222 islands anur d islets in the Baltic Sea, covering 45,339 km² of land, and is influenced by a humid continental climate.
Our next stop was St Petersburg Russia, formerly Leningrad. Arriving in Russia is unique as we have not been able to enter on our own for many years. The port has a passport security building set up for our arrival with heavy security and passport control. We are not allowed in Russia without an escort or guide with you at all times, they have to bring us back to passport control.
As our ship was right in town it was within walking distance to the world famous Hermitage, a museum consisting of 5 buildings that hold 1000’s of artifacts from throughout history. It is said “if you view each item for 1 minute it would take 9 years to see each piece of work”.
We choose to see the “gold room” at an extra charge but “worth the weight in gold” to see the magnificent pieces. This is truly a museum to be enjoyed and not rushed through. This evening we had a special opportunity to attend the world class Russian Philharmonic Symphony. This was a private event for the Azamara Quest for the Azamazing Evening.
We started out with a cocktail party just for us, not knowing the entire evening was private.
Generally, the conductor will only do one encore but for our group, as he was having so much fun he did 3 encores for us. We felt so special and high class in this magnificent venue.
Our next day we drove to the Peterhof Palace one of the most beautiful private estates one could ever visit. The grounds made up of fountains made of gold are breathtaking to say the least. A show is presented every afternoon of the fountains set to music, the crowds of people wait anxious to see this spectacular show. Of course the interior exhibits are comparable to none other.
After our tour and show we took a boat tour of the area via Hydrofoil back to our bus to go to the ship for a wonderful dinner with our group. Each night we clamored about our days adventure while being served wonderful wine and food. The service on the Azamara Quest is warm and inviting. The ship has many venues for meals but we choose to go to the main dining room to share our daily experiences with our traveling companions, 9 of us in our own group making this very personal and intimate.
After St Petersburg, we went onto Lubeck, Germany a small quaint town in the northwestern part of the country, We took a bus ride through the territory to another small museum, a graduation celebration was taking place so we were able to mingle with the locals, so sweet.
Berlin was next stop on our very busy journey. The bus trip was 3 hours, each way, but well worth the time. We stopped along the way to visit an army museum sought with ‘a piece of the Berlin wall’ for us to see. The museum, 2 parts, was very interesting to be able to see maps and war uniforms and displays which truly explained a lot of missing pieces from my history memory banks. It was emotional to know our dad was in WWII fighting for our future. I could almost feel my dad’s presents here.
We continued to the city of Berlin, a blossoming town. It is hard to visualize the devastation that took this city was only 70 years ago. We went to “check point Charlie”, a replica was even so…we could experience the feeling of what the Germans felt during the War.
The portion of the wall that remains is protected by law, no one can damage this part of history. The art work is thought provoking and beautiful, for lack of a better word. The story of the wall going up is unbelievable. The original fence which is 106 miles around the city was constructed by 41 thousand soldiers in ONE night.
It is said a couple had a young infant, the parents decided to go out to dinner and left the baby with the grandparents. While out to the dinner the wall was built leaving the parents on one side of the wall, the child was on the other side of the wall. They did not see their child again for 28 years, until the wall came down. The wall came down 27 years ago, but the memory is still there.
The Holocaust Memorial is truly a beautiful memory but unfortunately people think it is an art piece, kids crawling all over it, couples taking pictures standing on it instead of realizing it is a memorial. The people don’t want to remember, so sad this really did happen- 6 million died in that war.
We had a must more restful day, we tour a short tour bus to see the Helsinki Cathedral in Finland with beautiful view of the city.
As our Azamazing cruise comes to an end we reflect on what a fabulous ship the Azamara Quest is for seeing our wonderful world, unpack once and visit many countries. The Quest was wonderful. I wonder where the Journey will take us next.
After the cruise, we spent our last day in Copenhagen, Denmark.
It was the last part of our trip but we certainly made the best of our one night and day. We traveled the on-off hop bus to see the entire city. She is known for the little mermaid sitting on her rock waiting for the sailors! We could see a combination of the old and new building, this is a very progressive city and the mix is very interesting.
Tivoli Gardens is one of the most famous parks in Europe and one of the oldest. Disney saw a vision and designed Disneyland from Tivoli Gardens, when you know this one can see the comparison to Epcot in Disneyworld.
