Friday, March 19, 2010

Azamara Cruise - Day 11 - At Sea

This is the next to the last day of our 12-day cruise on the Azamara Journey. The weather is a little cooler, but still in the low 80s, but with much lower humidity. Many of the passengers seemed to be hurrying to get the last minute addition to their tan base. As a result, all of the deck chairs were busy and reserved all day long—so late comers were kind of out of luck.
Once again, Azamara did something I have never seen before on a cruise ship. At lunch time they offered a pool deck barbecue with the senior officers doing the serving for the passengers (carefully supported by the regular deck and restaurant staff.) It was a nice touch for the passengers to be served barbecued chicken from the Staff Captain. This lunch was well received by the passengers.
In the early afternoon, Linda and I and the Reinagal’s from the Williamsburg, Virginia store, played a little pinochle in the Looking Glass lounge. They played by East Coast rules and we got them to also play by west coast rules. No time to go into the details, but a fun way to get to know someone better.
Our end of cruise surveys and luggage tags arrived in our stateroom. That’s always kind of a sad time because it means our time is running out on what has been a great cruise vacation.
The crew has done an excellent job and it’s obvious this is a happy ship. Azamara has invested a great deal in training and supervision. The best service is unobtrusive, but always on the spot.
Linda and I decided to have our dinner on the outside deck outside the buffet for the final time. The sushi chef is excellent and his special of the day was a soft shell crab sushi which was tasty. The stir fry is also always available on the evening buffet and Linda selected a nice plate of stir-fried fresh veggies and chicken.
After dinner Linda and I ventured to the Cova CafĂ© for a cappuccino and an Earl Grey tea. We were joined by some ship acquaintances and had a nice discussion about the world of cruising—they’re looking at doing a Europe river cruise.
We caught the show with Craig Dahn, the pianist who had worked with Liberace when he was 14 year old. He is a gifted performer and his show was excellent.
The evening was capped off by watching the end of the Washington/Marquette game on the high definition plasma screen in the Casino—a nice last second win!
Tomorrow -- our last day at sea as we head for Miami.

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