Overview
With the Quest being a smaller ship with a smaller, more intimate theatre, there just aren’t the huge production shows that one finds on larger ships. However, we certainly didn’t find this a negative at all, especially, since we attend very few shows. What we really enjoyed were the classical pianist and the Australian duo, String Fever, who played the cello and violin. Our cruise in the Med and Black Sea was port intensive, so we often weren’t even up for attending a show. We enjoyed the guitarist who had a request book; we did not care at all for the lounge-style singer whose voice we found annoying.
The Staff
Who would have thought that the staff would be the providers of interesting entertainment? The staff frequently got involved with the guests in a variety of activities, including the Greek dancing below.
Stelios, one of the engineers we think, and whose name I recall because I kept wondering if he was the EasyCruise guy, specialized in the Greek dancing, of course. Other crew joined in the fun as seen in this short clip.
Participation in events like this by the crew greatly adds to the overall Azamara experience. Passengers feel like family and the constant presence of crew promotes good will and the feeling that the crew really does take an interest in each and every passenger. One of the crew on every ship who is expected to constantly intermingle with passengers is the cruise director, a duty willingly embraced with flair by Sue Denning. A multi-talented individual, Sue rates high with us on the Cruise Director list, which says much considering our ambivalent feelings toward most cruise directors. Sue performed a one-woman show at the end of the cruise, which highlighted her talents both as a singer and comedian.
Lectures
We have the idea that as long as an applicant mentions a position at a university, that this easily impresses the agency that hires lecturers. On a previous cruise no one took notice of the economics professor, claiming to be a Mesoamerican expert, whose lecture was fraught with misinformation and conjecture. In this case (not on Azamara), I had to get up and leave before I heard more inaccuracies and fabricated “facts”. On the Azamara, one of the lecturers was also an academic this with degrees in history, who had traveled a lot and also had a way with Power Point presentations. Gosh, these are so passé and boring. The monotony created by simply reading everything on the slides caused me to drift into dreams of getting out of there ASAP, which I did. I had intentionally chosen a seat far in the back of the lounge so that I could make an easy escape. That was my one and only time to attend the lectures, but my husband went religiously, hoping that he would learn something. You can guess who the optimist is in this family and who the realist is. We did meet another lecturer and his wife at dinner and engaged in some fascinating conversations. He was an avid collector of antique maps and gave lectures about them and related topics. His lectures were always scheduled during times that conflicted with other activities or time in port, which did annoy him and us a bit, especially since we had to miss them. All of the lectures given on board are videotaped and broadcast later on TV, but good luck finding the times that they will be shown again. It would be nice to have a notice of when events would show on the TV. It would also be nice to have a live feed.
Other events
There were plenty of other daily activities; please check the Dailies tab above to see a few samples of Pursuits, the Azamara daily sheet and the offerings available.
Sail Away
