If you are ever on the Azamara Quest, and love a good martini (and who doesn’t?), you should go straight-away to the Casino Luxe Bar on deck 5 and see Tanja from Macedonia. Besides being a true martini master, her friendly, accommodating service creates a relaxing, glad-you-are-here experience. One of the specialties there is the “Martini Flight” — a sampler of five different martinis for $15. Of course we had to try it. It added to the …
ABOARD AZAMARA QUEST, DAY TWELVE – And so it comes to the last full day of our “Virgins Islands and Frenchmen Voyage.” By tomorrow morning we will be back at the Port of Miami, where some of us will say goodbye and others will continue to new adventures as Quest makes sail to Europe. As “newbies” to Azamara Club Cruises (and there were a decent number of first-timers joining us), time for some overall thoughts about our …
ABOARD AZAMARA QUEST, DAY ELEVEN – It is our next to last day at sea, and the captain has plotted us a new course. As he explained it, storm swells have caused havoc up and down the Atlantic, and affected a number of cruise ships in the region, including Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas, which was buffeted by both high winds and waves. To skirt those issues, we will be returning to Miami via the Old …
By Gerry Barker ABOARD AZAMARA QUEST, DAY TEN – While we still feel the disappointment of missing Virgin Gorda, it is a glorious (and calm) day dockside in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas. High swells forced a change in our final port of call, and we had evidence of those on the way over last night with some major rocking (not coming from the disco dance floor, either). If we needed further evidence of the unruly seas, while …
By Gerry Barker ABOARD AZAMARA QUEST, DAY EIGHT – You don’t have to be rich and famous to come to St. Barts (or St. Barths, or Saint Barthelemy – you’ll see all variations of the name), but definitely being the former will help. This way station for the jet set features the highest of high end shopping (in the market for a Louis Vuitton hammock?) set amid its charming Swedish and French roots. We were originally scheduled …
By Gerry Barker ABOARD AZAMARA QUEST, DAY SEVEN – It’s early Friday morning and we are anchored off the small island of Nevis (pronounced KNEE-vis). Nearby is its larger counterpart, St. Kitts. The waters here are very still and quiet, and of course, deeply blue. The forecast is hot and sunny; with more hot and sunny into the foreseeable future. One note from yesterday: As we departed Dominica, one of those beautiful Caribbean sunsets was in the …
By Gerry Barker ABOARD AZAMARA QUEST, DAY SIX – We awakened this morning dockside at Roseau on the island of Dominica, “the nature island of the Caribbean.” Sandwiched between Guadeloupe and Martinique, this former British colony, independent since 1978, is almost 300 square miles in size, much of it dense rainforest. We are here just for the day, so we opted for a three-hour tour to take a look at the place where just over 70,000 people …
By Gerry Barker ABOARD AZAMARA QUEST, DAY FIVE – Yesterday we were drenched with rain; today, drenched with sunshine! Yes, at long last the sun has made its appearance, just in time for our stop at Iles des Saintes in Guadeloupe. A grouping of eight tiny islands, with the emphasis on “tiny,” many travel guides call them the Caribbean’s hidden gem. We will anchor off the largest of them, Terre-de-Haut. Another great example of places the Azamara …
By Gerry Barker ABOARD AZAMARA QUEST, DAY FOUR – Day four in our quest for sunshine, and still hardly a ray in sight. In fact, anchored just outside Cruz Bay on the picturesque island of St. John, we awoke to rain showers, which have continued on and off throughout the day. Still, it is the tropics, and rain is a daily occurrence most of the year. Plus, a little rain wasn’t going to keep us from revisiting …
By Gerry Barker ABOARD AZAMARA QUEST, DAY THREE – We are now 700 miles from Miami. As we continue on toward St. John, we can’t seem to escape the clouds. A gray overcast with temps in the 60s has been the order of the day so far. Hopefully we’ll encounter sunnier conditions once we arrive in the islands. On board, the disposition of the ship’s crew seems to always be sunny. Everyone we’ve encountered greets you with …
Heidi, Editor-In-Chief
