If you’re at all interested in the sorts of things that will take place on a cruise ship on a sea day then the following scans of Horizon, P&O‘s daily programme delivered to the room each evening beforehand, may enlighten you. These sorts of activities are fairly standard not just on P&O but on most lines, and enough people obviously take part in enough of them for the cruise lines to vary them very little. We enjoy the quizzes but very little else, and that’s fine by us because a day at sea on our balcony, catching some sun if there’s any around, reading our books, listening to the sound of the ship breaking through the waves, sipping the odd drink or two, is the perfect counterpoint to those days ashore engaging in more cultural, social, or physically-demanding activities.

We decided to eat at The Glass House for this last night, a casual dining venue on P&O ships that does a small selection of usually very high quality food for not much money. I’ve written about this particular experience before (see: P&O Azura Fly-Cruise To Malta: The Good And The Bad) but I’ll go over it again because I know you well enough by now to know you’ve no intention of clicking that link.

We were seated fairly quickly in a little, tucked away section of the restaurant, and there were two other couples sat nearby. Nods, small smiles, that sort of thing. And we waited. And waited. Waiters rushing around everywhere but nobody in our little section. Twenty minutes passed before one member of one of the other couples got up to find a waiter and soon after someone came along to take a drinks order. Wine is good value on P&O ships so we ordered a bottle and started to drink while we waited for someone to take our food order. A starter arrived for one of the other couples but we’d almost finished the bottle of wine by the time anyone asked what food we wanted so we ordered a second bottle and decided we’d skip the starters and just go straight for a mains and dessert.

One hour and forty minutes after sitting down, and well into our second bottle of wine, food turned up for our three tables. My wife’s was lovely, mine had clearly been prepared too early and left out under a heat lamp but I ate the plate of disappointment anyway, and at least it wasn’t as bad as one of the other couples whose medium rare steak was burnt to a crisp. They summoned the head waiter and gave him a piece of their minds then left. The other couple also left after eating their mains and I jokingly asked why they weren’t staying for dessert; by this point they’d been there two hours.

We were pretty hammered, quite amused by the whole dining debacle on Azura, and decided we’d stick around for dessert just for the hell of it and that at least was very nice.

However, yeah, this Glass House experience was just hilariously awful.

We dropped off into Malabar to finish this final evening and got to listen to Andrew Browning performing as George Michael. He had the look and the voice and was nice enough to hang around and pose for photographs.

One final sight on the way back to our room was that of a fellow passenger who’d clearly been married or renewed vows on the ship. She was happy enough to pose for a photograph too.

And so to the following morning, back in Valletta where it all started a week before, and the only time on any cruise where we’re up around the same time as the sun. We’re very much night owls.

That brings this 2023 Adriatic cruise on Azura to an end. Food and service on the ship were not the best but unlike a lot of our fellow cruise bloggers we are experiences and destination-first cruisers so we can overlook this to some extent; these things can and do happen and you just have to be in the wrong venue at the wrong time on the wrong ship. So, for us, I’d have to say that this cruise that allowed us to visit Malta, Croatia, and Slovenia, all for the first time, was fabulous.

A look at the programme of activities for this sea day on Azura in April, 2023.

We had cruised on P&O Azura two times previously, but both shorter durations than this week. Not only that, but with Azura being a Grand-class ship we were familiar with the layout and general decor aboard already. As such we had no compelling urge to walk around the ship and take photos, but I still did anyway just to see what, if anything, had changed noticeably in the six years since we’d last cruised on her.

Leaving my wife to read after breakfast, I went for a wander and the photos from that walk around Azura are below. For more pictures of this cruise ship you can take a look at those taken on our first cruise on Azura.

I started off with a look at Sindhu, the Asian speciality restaurant on board P&O Cruises ships. These venues always look great but it’s not a cuisine that particularly suits us.

I treated myself to a promenade walk on Azura since I was on my feet anyway. Even though the ship is always nicely air-conditioned it’s lovely to get out into the fresh air, feel the wind, and listen to the waves rumbling past as the ship cuts through.

I met up with my wife in the Planet Bar where I enjoyed a first drink of the day in her company and with views of the ship’s wake from this location. We also spotted something that’s become popular for some unfathomable reason over the past few years: a small, yellow, rubber duck. People generally find them, take a photo to share on social media, and move the duck so someone else can discover one. Sometimes people take them home. Families with small children, or duck fetishists, I guess. Sometimes the duck comes with contact information attached. You’ll need to make your own judgement as to whether you want to share contact details with someone who takes rubber ducks on holiday with them.

That marked the end of my gentle exercise around Azura. The afternoon saw us back in our room for a period to enjoy the balcony space and sea views from there, then some lunch and a few more drinks.

Formal nights tend to occur on sea days on cruise ships and that was the case for this first full day cruising up the Adriatic. We decided that we’d try to eat in the Glass House rather than the main dining room on the basis that a lot of people seem to think the menu in the main dining room is a little more special on formal nights so it’s worth eating there. It rarely is, though. It did take us a long time to get a seat in the Glass House but the food was fine and our waiter for the evening was very entertaining.

We took part in an individual trivia game in the evening which my wife tied for first in but then lost on a tie-breaker. That happens more often than it doesn’t. For the remainder of this sea day on Azura we hopped around between lounges, enjoying some tunes from Charlotte Chalkey then a little late night disco.

In the next post in this cruise travelogue series we’ll make our first visit to the country of Croatia as we head off on a cruise excursion to look at the town of Trogir and visit its cathedral.

If you’ve read the previous post in this series then you’ll know that we’d had a walk along the shoreline of Valletta, appreciating the sixteenth century architecture of this largely designed city and its impressive defensive fortifications. We’d been able to do this because we’d been on an early flight to Malta that had allowed us to spend a little time in the morning on Azura before we could drop off luggage.

That early flight and time in the sun, plus the drinks before we’d had a short look around Valletta and the drink in Valletta itself, was all starting to take its toll on us so we decided to rest for a bit mostly in our room on the ship ahead of its departure from the port, where we’d be able to sort out our luggage that had now been delivered to the cabin and watch the world go by from our balcony.

These Grand-class ships used by P&O (UK and Australia) and Princess Cruises have great balcony cabins on deck 10 that are double the (already decent) depth of the decks above, and half-covered unlike the deck with larger cabins below. We always try to book for this deck on these ships just for that additional space. The point about cruising for us is that the travelling itself is relaxing and you’ve got access to the sea air and great views. More often these days cruise lines are reducing that personal outside space for their passengers to squeeze in more additional charge locations as the balance between providing an attractive service and giving profits to shareholders swings inevitably in favour of general enshittification.

One weird sight we saw from our balcony in Valletta harbour was a boat towing a circle. We didn’t know what it was at the time but this is apparently a tuna cage net. There are, it seems, tuna farming areas in this part of the world.

We knew we weren’t going to have a late first night on the ship so we headed for a pre-dinner drink then to the main dining room for dinner a lot earlier than we normally would when we cruise. You can also take a look at the drinks menu and dinner menu below.

We had time to take part in trivia on Azura so made our way to a packed Brodie’s and ended up finishing second. We stayed to listen to the busker for a while before calling it a night.

In the next post in this Azura cruise travelogue series we’ll have a day at sea heading north from Malta across the Mediterranean and up the Adriatic towards Croatia.

It was a little more confusing at the port where we had to loop around a street and into a room to check our documentation, then had a barcode printed out for us – because P&O still really haven’t embraced that whole phone thing yet and claimed they’d not be able to scan the image on our devices (sure, Jan) – and followed some more signs before we finally boarded the ship.

We were told that we were free to come and go as we pleased up until last boarding time, and we were told that the little slip of paper with the barcode would allow us to order drinks on board, but we were also told that the rooms weren’t ready yet so that left us in the position of either leaving our hand luggage somewhere on board – and we didn’t want to do that – or taking our hand luggage around the streets of Valletta – and we didn’t want to do that – or waiting on the ship until such time as we could drop our bags off in our room. So that’s what we decided to do.

We’d had a bit of a feel for Malta on the reasonably short bus ride from the airport to the cruise port. Narrow, twisting, busy roads with elevations up and down, often penned in either side by high, thick-walled buildings all in light-coloured sandstone blackened with age and pollution from the traffic. The walls got thicker and higher as we neared the Maltese capital and the fortifications of the port, and from Azura‘s top deck we had some fabulous views of these defences and some indication of events in Malta’s past.

We were familiar with Azura, having cruised on her twice before in 2017 to first Belgium and then the Netherlands, and she’s our favourite class of cruise ship – the Grand-class – which is used by older ships in the P&O and Princess fleets and was the first type of ship we ever cruised on, so exploration of the ship wasn’t necessary and we took the time instead to admire more of those views of Valletta with a circuit of the top deck. The fortifications along the harbour entrance looked particularly impressive in the Mediterranean sunshine.

Across the harbour in Valletta from us we could see a dry dock area. One of the docks had a curved roof apparatus that could be moved along to cover whatever was inside. In another the MSC Seaview was undergoing some maintenance. We’ve still not cruised with MSC and every time we get close to considering them we read something else from other cruise bloggers who’ve encountered some often appalling service aboard, bordering on abuse. They feel like a cruise line with some training and attitude issues to address and it just seems that booking an MSC cruise would come with an added gamble that your trip might be ruined in some way, which is a shame right now as many of their ships look lovely and they cruise some interesting itineraries.

One other thing you might spot in the photo of MSC Seaview in the dry dock is that one of the cranes is painted like a giraffe. There’s an argument that they all should be and that we should change the names of them from cranes accordingly.

We made our way past the main pool areas and headed towards the aft of the top deck where we planned to sit and wait with a drink until we heard that the rooms were ready for us.

We had a couple of drinks, first in the sunshine then in the shade when we realised that we were in danger of getting sunburnt before the ship had even left the port. Our sun cream was in our main luggage and that was somewhere on the ship but not with us.

The announcement was finally made that the rooms on Azura were ready for us so we made our way to cabin C235 which is a room number that we’ve had on a lot of these Grand-class ships. It’s become a bit of a running joke with us now that we always try to book it if we can (unless there’s a good reason to book elsewhere on the ship). Part of the reason is familiarity, but it’s also a great location with a couple of great features we both like: it’s close enough to the front to see and hear the waves splitting on the bow of the ship as it cruises; it’s got a double-sized balcony with half of it covered.

Our hold luggage still hadn’t made it to the room in the few hours we’d been aboard but that wasn’t a major issue. We dropped our hand luggage off, freshened up a little anyway, then disembarked Azura in order to have a walk along the harbour shoreline, have a look at the fortifications up close, and see if we could get a feel for whether we’d want to return to Malta at some point for more exploration.

In the next post in this series of cruise travelogues I’ll cover some of the sights as we take a walk along the shoreline of Valletta.

State Room

Nothing obvious to distinguish state rooms on Azura and Ventura other than the art in our room which felt more vibrant, youthful, fun in Ventura as you can just about tell from the comparison photos below. There was a more grown up feel in our Azura rooms. For reference we have stayed in cabins A610 and B237 on Azura and we’ve stayed in B215 on Ventura. Space and layout were identical.

The bed’s mattress on our Ventura cruise was on its last legs – very obviously suffering a dip but not enough to cause discomfort or give me reason to complain for the short trip we were taking – but there is a planned refit in 2018 that will hopefully refresh this.

Azura requires you to put a card in a slot to turn on lights in your room; Ventura does not. We prefer not having to do this and not just because we’ve almost walked out with our card left in the room on occasion. While the idea behind the card slot seems reasonable – reduces electricity usage for the lights in the room when you’re not in there – this is offset by finding all the TVs left on when you walk into cabins when you first arrive. I’m pretty sure they eat up far more power in that time than a handful of light bulbs for an entire cruise.

Swimming Pools

In terms of layout the pools on Ventura were the same as on Azura for all intents and purposes. To see pictures of the pools on Azura see here: P&O Azura or On Azura. The one big change was that one of the pools was covered on Ventura and that can be a big factor depending on the cruise ship’s itinerary.

Having a covered pool makes a lot of sense when taking a cruise in northern Europe late in the season and it’s certainly worth considering when weighing up Azura or Ventura for similar cruise ships depending on the time of year you’re cruising. As an added bonus the covered pool reduced the amount of space for smokers to light up on the starboard side of the top deck which made for a more pleasant walk to the buffet for breakfast in the mornings.

Late Night Lounge: Metropolis/Planet Bar

The late night lounge at the top of the ship, aft (and equivalent to Skywalkers Nightclub on Princess ships) is either the Planet Bar on Azura or Metropolis on Ventura. There’s nothing to choose between them in terms of their layout or functionality (either a pianist or the ship’s resident acoustic duo on alternate nights providing some gentle live music) but this is a location where Azura wins out over Ventura.

Metropolis, Ventura

Planet Bar, Azura

The Planet Bar has a sculpture related to the theme and large TV screens providing fabulous, relaxing views of the planet (naturally); Metropolis has some abstract piece of metal that could possibly be a deflated weather balloon and plain, black, glass panels. By way of comparison Ventura’s Metropolis feels colder, quieter, and duller than Azura’s venue and it was definitely less busy on our cruise.

Atrium

The big overall difference in the two ships to us is that Azura feels a little more modern than Ventura but Ventura typically feels warmer, cosier, and friendlier (Metropolis notwithstanding). This can be demonstrated immediately with a comparison of the atrium areas of both ships. While both are laid out identically and contain identical main features Ventura’s atrium has pleasing, relaxing, warm accent colours whereas Azura is more monochromatic and has a light sculpture that somehow feels a little oppressive in the space.

Ventura Atrium

Azura Atrium

Cocktail Bar: Red/Blue

At the top of the atrium on both ships is the piano/cocktail bar: Blue on Azura, Red on Ventura. On Ventura the colours are plain to see and, being red, there’s warmth in the decor. On Azura it’s less obvious where the blue influences are and the carpeting looks like something from the 1980s: bold, bright, really not right for the area. The warmer colours on Ventura should have made the area feel more enclosed but we actually found the opposite to be true with the Red Bar seeming to have more space in it.

Ventura, Red Bar

Azura, Blue Bar

Both bars suffered from slow bar service. We’re not sure why but on three trips with P&O on their cruise ships we’ve yet to get a drink quickly from the Red or Blue bars even when there’s been practically nobody else around. Maybe that’s their signature move.

The Glass House

This venue is the main location to get wine (P&O keep a great range of wine very well) and it serves some food for a modest fee. As an aside we’ve only eaten here on Ventura but can happily say that the food was absolutely fantastic for the price; some of the tastiest, most succulent fish I’ve ever eaten, and plenty of it; far superior to the main dining room food, hence the additional cost, but highly recommended.

In terms of decor fitting the name of the venue Azura wins with its clean, mostly white, glass-like look. But, again, Ventura feels cosier even if the Mediterranean theme present looks a bit dated and was obviously prepared for the venue’s previous name on the ship, Ramblas. You’ll have to take my word on how the place looks on Azura because I don’t have any decent photos that show it off.

Glass House, Ventura

Midship Lounge: Tamarind/Malabar

There’s not a lot to choose between these cabaret lounges on either ship when it comes to functionality or appearance. Both have a touch of the exotic to them and both had similar events taking place during the days and nights. Ventura’s Tamarind lounge, however, was the clear winner when it came to not smelling like it had sewage running down its wall, an affliction suffered by Azura’s Malabar on both occasions we’ve sailed on her seven months apart.

Ventura, Tamarind Lounge

Azura, Malabar Lounge

Nightclub: Havana/Manhattan

The largest lounges on the ships, situated aft, were both pretty similar again, differing only in very slight aesthetic changes. Hence there being only the one photo from our most recent cruise. Manhattan on Azura was always rammed in the evenings when we wandered past so we never stayed; by contrast Ventura’s Havana was busy but there was always room on our trip so we made sure to pop in when the music sounded like something we’d appreciate and we had an enjoyable time listening to the DJ and people-watching tipsy passengers dancing.

Ventura, Havana

Azura, Manhattan

Miscellaneous Differences

The pub on board Azura is called Brodie’s; the equivalent on Ventura is The Exchange. The layout, available space, and general decor for The Exchange was quite poor compared to Brodie’s. The theatre is the Arena on Ventura and the Playhouse on Azura; we never went in the latter so cannot compare them although I imagine they’re identical.

I can’t remember what the carpeting looks like on Azura along the photo gallery section between Malabar and Manhattan as it didn’t seem interesting enough for me to photograph but on Ventura the corridor that runs from Tamarind to Havana is certainly bold and interesting to walk on if you’re drunk or the seas are rough, I imagine.

Verdict

Azura is the newer ship with the most recent designs and it’s targeted at a general cruiser. Ventura is older, seems geared towards families a bit more, and has some (some might say) dated looks and feels in places. There are certainly areas where Ventura could improve – the pub/casino layout could do with a shift around, the Glass House might benefit from a few design tweaks more in line with its name, and Metropolis would be improved with something more in line with the big city feel of its name too – but given a choice between cruising on the two ships with identical itineraries we would pick Ventura over Azura as it feels friendlier. That said, there’s very little to choose overall as you’d expect from sister ships run by the same cruise company, and from a purely practical perspective the only thing you might really need to consider when selecting Azura or Ventura for a cruise with P&O would be whether a covered swimming pool would be beneficial.

Alcohol

Our first drink on board was in Azura’s “pub”, Brodie’s. If the drinks featured in the photographs below show beer (for me) and cider (for my wife) then they were bought there too. The cocktails were bought either in the Planet Bar, the Blue Bar, or Malabar. Planet Bar was our preferred location for drinking in the evening with the gentle accompaniment of the ship’s guest duo (High Tides) or the pianist and the relaxing TV screens showing off locations from around the world. Malabar was a one-off; we’d have loved to spend more time there but the smell of sewage that other people seemed to ignore was just too much for us.

Our formal night tradition was carried out on Azura for this cruise too with a pre-dinner Vodka Martini (shaken without asking me; I’d have preferred it stirred) and a few olives (to be discarded once half the drink was sipped) for me with a G&T for my wife.

We only drank in the Glass House once, I think, and this was a glass of Argentinian Malbec for my wife with a Uruguayan Tannat for me while we read our books. These drinks were selected for their memories of our 2016 cruise to South America and were excellent. Wine is one area where P&O absolutely excel and where, for some reason, Princess absolutely fail. The variety of wines along with the quality on the Azura on both of our cruises has far exceeded anything we’ve had with Princess cruises; thin, tasteless, not kept very well seems to be the order of the day there. We’ll keep testing and comparing for science, of course.

We’d tried beer flights on our first cruise on Azura (we noticed that there were far fewer offerings of the flights and of beers in general on this trip but we also noticed that we had no problem getting any beers too so that evens out) and this time we went for whiskey and rum flights. With hindsight I should have selected the premium, sipping rums rather than the household ones with a glass of flat Pepsi but you live and learn. The whiskeys were lovely.

No complaints about the drinks selection on board Azura this time around. As noted, it did seem that the menus had been scaled back on some choices but if this was to stop the disappointment of ordering things that were unavailable then it was a good move. I did try on two occasions to get one cocktail that proved tricky because it contained egg whites. The first time I was told it might take 15 minutes as it would need to be retrieved from the kitchen area so I chose something else instead; the second time I was told flat out that there were no egg whites. Right. Not too big a deal. I’d still prefer the larger drinks measures you get with Princess but overall a good drinking experience on P&O.

Epicurean Restaurant

My wife’s not a fan of Indian food and neither of us like spicy things but we’ve been tempted to try Sindhu at some point regardless. However, for this cruise we selected a night at the Epicurean to test out P&O’s more conventional specialty dining options. We’d tried to get this for the formal night but that was understandably booked solid so went for the final night after our unexpected sea day instead. There didn’t seem to be too many diners there.

Service was friendly and after an initial fairly extended wait to be asked what we wanted it was efficient. The food was good, but not great. Both my wife and I found our main courses slightly tougher than expected and my wife was a little disappointed with her dessert as the specialised preparation effectively rendered what she had anticipated eating into something else entirely. A case of style over substance here. We’re possibly spoiled a bit as we have a wonderful restaurant in our home city and we thought the food would be closer to that. It was still good, as I’ve said, and other people we talked to were immensely impressed. For the cover charge it was very reasonable and I’d recommend it at least once on any cruise of more than a few days.

We picked a Rioja to go with the meal. As with other wines on board Azura, it was absolutely lovely. A basket of a variety of warm bread rolls was also added to the table and they were wonderful too.

My wife had Wild Mushroom and Champagne Velouté with Crème Chantilly and Salted Caraway Cheese Straws for starters. I went for Smoked Apple Wood infused Duck Liver Parfait with Caramelised Black Figs, Gingerbread Toasts, and an Apple and Fig Jam.

My wife’s main course was Loin of Wild Boar with a Smoked Pork Cheek Croquette and Lancashire Black Pudding, Beetroot and Blackberry Cabbage, Vanilla Charred Pear, and Boulangère Potatoes. My main course was Herb Roasted Poulet de Bresse, Chicken Pastilla, Vegetable Dauphinoise, Baby Leeks, Morel Velouté, and Chorizo Foam. As stated before, we both thought the meat in our dishes could have been more tender.

A pre-dessert for us was presented in the form of lipstick for my wife and a fried egg for me. The thing that most amused us about these were that they were presented on the same slate coasters we use at home.

Dessert for my wife was Crème Brûlée and White Chocolate Sphere, Raspberry Pearls, Chocolate, Candy Floss, and Caramelised Popcorn. This was presented with a great show but the use of blowtorch was overdone and ended up not really resembling the Crème Brûlée she’d actually wanted. I chose the Glazed Banana with a Caribbean Demerara Rum Tot, Peanut Butter Parfait, and Aerated Dark Chocolate.

A small plate of after-dinner chocolates and sweets was also selected and proved to be very nice.

We had a couple of issues with the ship and this particular trip that two of those images have reminded me of. Firstly, on our first cruise on Azura to Belgium we noticed a smell of sewage near the Malabar lounge. At the time we just shrugged it off as one of those things that can’t be helped; cruise ships have complicated systems for getting rid of waste and things can occur. You can’t expect perfection. You can expect not to be assaulted by the same smell in the same location on the same ship seven months later, though. At first we wondered whether we were the only people who could detect the stench as other people seemed to sit in the area without concern but we did eventually get talking to another couple one evening who seemed overjoyed that they too weren’t losing their minds. Definitely a problem there somewhere. The second issue was with the pianist in the Blue Bar. He was good. I have no problem with his skill on the piano. It just would have been nice to be able to hear yourself speak to other people during some of the songs. Just needs turning that volume down a bit; it’s supposed to be a bar to relax and grab a cocktail, not flinch on every piano key strike.

The Planet Bar was our regular late evening place to grab some final drinks. A guitarist and singer duo called High Tides, I believe, played there on a few nights and were enjoyable company.

A few years back I started a tradition that for any formal occasion on ship or special meals when out I would have a Vodka Martini with three olives. I don’t like Vodka Martinis and I despise olives but it just feels right. You have to leave the olives in the glass until about halfway down it, then throw the olives as far away as possible. Those are the rules. I carried on my tradition aboard Azura although, as with all the other cocktails we were drinking, I instantly discovered that the difference between drinks measures on Princess as opposed to P&O was very, very noticeable. Now, you do pay more for drinks on Princess but you get more too. Quite a bit more as it turns out. My Vodka Martini looked quite petite next to my wife’s gin and tonic.

A surprising – pleasantly surprising! – discovery were the beer and wine flights offered on the ship in, respectively, Brodie’s Bar and The Glass House. Some of the beers are shown in menu photos further down the page. We were a little disappointed that not all the beer flight offers were available. Had we picked up the ship in the Caribbean we could have understood this but we embarked at Southampton and all the beers were British; there didn’t seem to be a decent excuse for a non-fully-stocked bar. For the wines we originally simply had the intention of reading our books with a single glass each but the lure of finding the flights available – three 125ml glasses of a particular theme (e.g. South American Reds) – was too hard to resist.

A few shots of some of the bar menu pages showing a sample of what was available and prices for the drinks on board because I’m now a seasoned travel blogger and know that this is the sort of information that makes people weak at the knees and giddy with excitement.

Since this short cruise on the Azura took us to Belgium and since we visited Ghent and since we happened to find ourselves in an alehouse in Ghent (as you do) it feels only right and proper to include a picture of that establishment’s interior and the beers we ended up getting after asking advice from the barman as to what suited our tastes too.

• pretty cheap as cruises go,
• we were familiar with the ship layout having cruised on Grand-class ships before so were intrigued to see what differences the decor would make,
• with an upcoming cruise on Princess in June and an arrangement where P&O cruises count towards Princess loyalty (but not vice versa) this would allow us to advance a level before that and gain a few perks.

We had a balcony room, A610. Identical layout to a Princess standard balcony room with slightly different colours used inside, as you’d expect. Differences included the UK plug sockets, a kettle to make your own tea and coffee, and a bowl of sweets. Fully intending to steal the sweets before disembarking we discovered the bowl was emptied before heading to bed on the second night. A couple of bottles of water were provided free while a larger bottle of water and a stocked mini-fridge would incur additional charges if used.

The view from the balcony was what we expected: we weren’t overlooked on our deck but could see down onto the deluxe balconies (mini-suites on Princess) below; the balcony was a good size allowing the chairs to be moved and positioned easily (as opposed to Royal-class ships operated by P&O or Princess).

Dropping our carry-on luggage in the room we then headed off to orient ourselves and see what the ship had to offer. One of the first things we discovered was that the ship’s deck was dotted with various pieces of art sculptures by Andrew Sinclair.

The rest of the top deck was very familiar to us – swimming pools where you’d expect them, for instance – and a band was performing live as part of the pre-sailaway party.

Inside the Azura things were less familiar on account of the names, functionality, but mostly decor of the various spaces. The atrium, for instance, felt very enclosed on account of its dark colours and bold, black columns. There was definitely the sense that you were in a flashy, modern hotel in some big city rather than a luxurious ship. Some seating at the bottom of the atrium did look appealing, though.

Malabar was Azura’s equivalent of Explorer’s on Princess. The decor here was pretty decent but we can’t comment on the venue itself as the trip was too short to experience any event in it.

Manhattan was the larger venue on the same deck, equivalent to Vista on Princess. There were plenty of New York-style and deco references in fitting with the name of the place and a cabinet with some interesting shoes on display which caught my wife’s eye. We very briefly wandered down to Manhattan on the first evening and very quickly left again as it was very noisy and fully-packed. The short cruise encouraged a bit of a party atmosphere on board and it felt like most of the ship was present. While it might have been fun and probably great for people-watching we suspected getting a drink would prove to be nearly impossible and we’re fond of the odd drink.

The Planet Bar would prove to be the place where we spent the ends of both evenings on board Azura. Equivalent to Skywalkers on Princess this was more of a quiet, live music venue than a disco with its strangely compelling feature being the wall-mounted screens showcasing various vistas from around the world.

A few more interior shots of the cruise ship Azura.