• 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.

Like many industrial ports that cruise ships use Zeebrugge was… not particularly exciting to look at, although some naval vessels did provide a slight distraction from the typical cranes and containers you come to expect.

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.

It was grey at first but the sun did pop out for a bit as the day wore on. Ghent was architecturally stunning with much of it being medieval although the Dutch influence on the region was clear to see as well. St Bavo’s Cathedral was gorgeous inside; one of the most attractive cathedrals I’ve ever been in. Sadly, no photos were allowed and we abide by rules even if other visitors to the place ignored them completely. Gits.

After the cathedral we passed through Graffiti Street and made our way to Gravensteen Castle. After our climb to the top of that structure to look out over the rooftops of Ghent we felt in need of a beer so hit the one you can see pictured below. Pictures of the beer we had as well as the inside of the place can be found here.

As we met up with our guide and headed out of Ghent to find the coach that would take us back to Azura docked in Zeebrugge we passed a wedding photoshoot taking place making use of a drone. I couldn’t help but take a few shots of the happy couple too.

We’d arranged parking with CPS and this was pretty painless. Friendly staff, a half hour wait to move our car into position for someone to take the keys off us, then we walked into the terminal, were handed a fast track ticket as we were almost bang on our due slot, and were through the check in process and on board about ten minutes later.

Southampton’s not the most attractive place in the world and it doesn’t even have the benefit of any real impressive dock architecture so pictures are few and far between. We were in the Ocean Cruise Terminal (the first time for us) and with the ship facing inland and our state room (B327) on the starboard side (which is our preferred side for reasons of trying to stay consistent and not confusing my wife’s poor sense of direction) we had a view from our balcony to the east and southeast which included the only building of interest, the brutalist design of the grain terminal behind the Queen Elizabeth II cruise terminal.

We, and many others on the balconies, did spend quite a bit of time looking at some container stacking taking place on the dock beside the ship; it was actually quite fascinating but for some reason I didn’t take any photos.

With it being late in the year after we’d had our muster (held in the Glass House for us and which was thankfully not quite as excruciatingly long as on our previous cruise with P&O) and the ship had finally started to depart Southampton we were afforded views of a setting sun and I did remember to take some pictures this time.

I decided not to take many photos on board Azura for this trip as it had only been seven months since our last visit on her and very little had changed. For pictures of the public areas of the cruise ship taken on our first trip please click here: P&O Azura. For the pictures we took on this second trip please click here: On Azura.

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.

Usually.

There are two big problems with the promenade deck on board the P&O cruise ship Azura:

• It’s not a full promenade deck. Unlike promenade decks on Grand-class ships operated by Princess the front of the promenade walk is closed off for some reason. We weren’t the only people to step out, walk along, then suddenly stop dead and look puzzled at the white, metal barrier in our way.
• Smoking is permitted along the promenade deck. At least, it was along the starboard side; I’m not sure if it’s permitted all the way around. Regardless, what this does is transform what is a pleasant place to stroll and get fresh air on other ships into something truly awful. Not helped by the high, cold wind, I’m sure, the sight of thirty of so people in multiple layers, huddling close to doorways, puffing on their cigarettes resembled how I imagine the outside of dole centres looked in the 1970s and 1980s. If this is the classy image that P&O are going for then well done for a resounding success but personally it looks dreadful to me and ducking and coughing my way through the crowd of nicotine addicts was not particularly enjoyable at all.

But back to IJmuiden…

On the port side of the ship there was no sign of any smokers, thankfully, and we got to watch the pilot board Azura before getting a decent look at IJmuiden approaching and other vessels departing its canal locks.

As you can tell from the pictures there was quite a bit of swell to accompany the gusting wind making for some lovely, rocking conditions on the approach to the Dutch port. I was particularly keen to get some pictures of the waves breaking over the bow of a container vessel that passed by.

IJmuiden probably isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but for me the place had a fabulous look and feel to it; there were elements of Blade Runner or numerous other near-future, dystopic movies in its industrial beauty. The heavy grey skies worked well to add to the mood of the brutal, functional monsters on the coastline as we neared the Netherlands and I was struck by the contrast between the dirty-feeling, belching steam and fire from the main buildings in the background against the modern, clean wind turbines dotted here and there.

IJmuiden was a nice surprise for me from a photographic perspective and I hadn’t expected that I would see it again as we were due to make the return transit through the North Sea Canal in the early hours of the morning a few days later. Fate had other plans, though, and it turned out that I would get another chance to photograph this imposing view, to appear in a later update.

We’d been there quite some time without moving so I made use of the time to take a shower and missed us exiting the locks by a few minutes. I’m sure it wouldn’t have been that interesting, anyway. I nipped back out onto the stateroom balcony to grab a few photos as we passed from the North Sea into the canal system. I expect that many of the locals see ships passing up and down the canal all the time but the Azura still got a few stares and was clearly the subject of some photographs as she made her way slowly towards Amsterdam.

It was quite interesting in places to see the roads and traffic on it passing under the canal. I’ve been on ships before where you cruise under a bridge and can see vehicles passing overhead but to be on a cruise ship on the water cruising over trucks and cars was something quite weird to experience. A bit like being in a car and passing over one of those tunnels under the road that are supposed to let hedgehogs through in case you’re struggling to comprehend the feeling.

Without a doubt the most interesting building that we cruised past on the North Sea Canal was what I later discovered to be the Velsertunnel ventilation tower designed by Dirk Roosenburg in 1957. This was a lovely piece of brutalism and it had a matching structure on the north side of the canal that we would pass on the way back out a few days later; photos of that to come in a later post.

Heading back the way we’d come into port I was able to grab plenty of photos of the northern banks of the canal to go with those I’d taken of the southern side of the North Sea Canal on the way in a couple of days earlier.

It was great to see shadows of the cruise ship being cast on the Dutch landscape as we slowly made our way westwards towards IJmuiden.

As we neared the northern side’s Velsertunnel Ventilation Towers (still a stunningly lovely piece of brutalist architecture to see up close) the sky cleared and the now-low sun created some fabulous light to really emphasise the nearby metallic structures and help the camera grab some deeply vibrant blues.

At the end of the North Sea Canal were the locks at IJmuiden. As we approached IJmuiden for the second time I got to re-experience the pleasure of seeing the industrial beauty of the area; the great clouds of water vapour created some wonderful, natural, soft shapes against the decidely manufactered lines and hard materials of the towers, and the dusk sunlight illuminating, while not perfect, was helpful.

We sat for a while in the lock gates as we had on entering and, as before, I hit the shower and missed us moving through. Never mind.

Before Azura left the Netherlands the ship did provide some excitement for a Dutch family (I assume) who gathered to wave at anyone leaning out of their balcony. Of course I waved; it’s only polite.

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.