An entirely new line and a new ship for us, indeed at 30,277grt a much smaller ship, with only 690 passengers. And having booked one of the best suites, there was much to look forward to.
Unfortunately, the ink was barely dry on our first booking with
Azamara when we were told that the voyage was cancelled; not because of
'Covid-19' but because the ship had been chartered.
Not an auspicious start! However, the original itinerary had not been our favourite choice and the chartering of the ship resulted in the creation of an alternative itinerary
that was much more to our liking.
see Original Itinerary >>
But there was more to come. In January 2021 it was announced that
Royal Caribbean International had agreed to sell
Azamara to New York private equity firm
Sycamore Partners for $201 million,
itself slightly disturbing news were it not for the announcement a few days later that Sycamore was also buying
Pacific Princess from
Princess Cruises. Originally built in 1999 as
"R3" for
Rennaissance Cruises,
Pacific Princess, being identical in design, would be the perfect match and would immediately boost Azamara's fleet by 33% to a total of 4 identical ships.
However, the final
'coup-de-grace' came in February 2021, 10 days after we had paid the balance due for our hoped-for cruise. With the worldwide cruise industry on 'Hold' since March 2020 because of
'Covid-19',
everyone was hopeful of a cautious return to sailings from May 2021. But it was not to be, as Azamara announced an extension of the suspension in sailings until at least July 2021 and our cruise was cancelled. Our next task was to select an alternative,
in order to utilise our 125% enhanced cruise credit......
Fly to Venice, Italy
