My 2023 Asian Odyssey Score Card has been a long time in coming… I guess I need to get this out before my 2024 cruise starts.
First up though was is my arrival in Singapore.
Singapore Arrival
My 2023 Asian Odyssey was the first non-working cruise or one that went somewhere, that I arrived in Singapore onboard a sea going vessel.
We arrived at the Habourfront Cruise Terminal, which is definitely not as good a place to dock as the Marina Bay Cruise Centre. Nice view though.
The baggage handling is probably as bad as what a third rate airport, maybe even a fourth rate, would provide. Not a great way to finish a very good cruise.
Oz’s Score Card
Purely subjective and also influenced by a glass or two.
Cabin
| Item | Score out of 5 | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Cabin | 4 | Similar to a decent 4 star hotel room. |
| View | 7 | An uninterrupted view across the bow… WoW. |
| Bathroom | 2 | The shower was about the same width as the shower on an Oberon Submarine, so tiny. At least there is a lot more water than on a boat which is why I went with a 2 |
| Cabin Service | 5 | Excellent, could not ask for more |
Food / Restaurants
| Item | Score out of 5 | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Discoveries | 2.5 | Good service, ok food. Nothing special |
| Windows Cafe | 3 | Functional, decent food. The Sunset Bar is a great spot for breakfast. Looks out over the stern of the ship. |
| Pool Deck Grill | 3.5 | Good BBQ, and service. The place for lunch onboard. |
| Mosaic Cafe | 3 | Ok coffee, decent selection of snacks, good service |
| Aqualina | 4.5 | The specialty Italian restaurant on board. This was my favourite restaurant on the ship. Great food and service. |
| Prime C | 4 | Good food and service, just not as interesting as Aqualina |
| Asian Chef’s Table | 3.5 | With exception of the pork, the food was great and the wine pairing was fairly good. |
| Italian Chef’s Table | 4 | Great food and wine pairing, the best wine pairing of the three. |
| French Chef’s Table | 4.5 | Best of the three, excellent food and good wine pairing. |
Drinks / Bars
| Item | Score out of 5 | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Bar Service | 7 | Awesome through out the ship, went out of their way to help, even bringing us drinks on the pool deck when the pool bar was closed |
| Pool Bar | 8 | These guys looked after us. Great proactive service and poured a great drink They also helped me sort out my drink package status. |
| The Living Room | 4.5 | Great service, a good selection of cocktails to chose from. Awesome view over the bow. The place for the sail away or a pre-dinner cocktail. Also where the wine events happen. Not a bad Espresso Martini |
| The Den | 3.5 | Good cocktails, great service |
| Wine Education | 4.5 – presentation 2.5 – wine | Silas, the Head Sommelier onboard, and his team were great. They made sure that the education sessions were fun, imaginative and informative. The only down side was the quality of the wine, a little better quality and these would have been more enjoyable |
| Drinks Packages: | | |
| — Standard | 2 | Included in all tickets Very average |
| —Premium | 3 | Decent booze coverage |
| —Ultimate | 3.5 | Pretty good, a few extras wine wise would be good |
| Wine Packages | 1 | This is for both of the wine packages. Not worth it as the good wine, which were decently priced, were not included in the packages. |
| Wine Corkage | 5 | USD20 per bottle. Very easy to work with, especially if you have on board credit |
I know a couple of scores exceeded 5, will call it poetic license. Somethings exceeded my expectations, so called them out.
One thing I did not score was Azamara’s Digital Channels, their web-portal. It was very poor and has improved very slightly this year. Left it out as the crew onboard did everything that they could to sort things out, but there is not much they can do from the high-seas to fix the portal itself.
I have also left the ship arranged excursions out of the scoring as I have already written posts about them and they were also arranged by third parties. Please check out the posts below for more
2023 Asian Odyssey – Score Card
Azamara is definitely good value for money, especially when compared to the cost of a cruise on a luxury cruise line these days. A similar cruise, duration, itinerary and suite, on a luxury line can be up to 100% more. Hard to justify the extra when the gap in service and quality between Azamara and a luxury cruise lines is not that significant.
The service on board an Azamara is great. The only areas I would like to see improvements would be the main dining room and a bigger shower in the standard sized suites. Would also like a better selection of wines by the glass.
Out of 5 I would rate my 2023 Asian Odyssey on Azamara Quest a 4.
What’s Next?
Looking forward to my next cruise, which is soon… more on that shortly
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