Tango, Salsa & Samba Voyage Cruise
on the Azamara Pursuit
12/8/19 to 12/21/19

 

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Page 1 – Pre-Cruise in Buenos Aires, Embarkation & Ship
Page 2 – Cabin, Dining, Activities, Entertainment Ports of Call:  Montevideo, Uruguay 
Page 3 - Ports of Call:  Sao Paulo (Santos), Brazil;  Parati, Brazil;  Buzios, Brazil

Page 4 - Ports of Call:  Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Page 5 - Ports of Call:
  Punta Del Este, Uruguay 

 

Ship (Continued)

Cabin

It has been a long time since I have been in an inside cabin; but now that I am a solo cruiser, it is much more appealing to me.  I am rarely in my cabin except to sleep, so I don’t use a balcony very much.  Carol loved having a balcony, because, unlike me, she stayed in the cabin much more.  Also, being by myself the smaller cabin size isn’t a big deal for just one person.  I was in cabin #7053, which is a mid-ship cabin on deck 7.  I couldn’t have been happier with the location.  It was convenient to everything and the few days we had rougher seas, there was much less movement than some of the other areas of the ship.  The room was arranged to provide the most open floor space, other than the large table in front of the loveseat.  As a result of it being there, I never sat on the loveseat. 

 

There was more than enough storage, even if I had been traveling with someone.  The two closets had four drawers and the desk had 4 more drawers for storage, along with various cubby holes.

   

I used the desk a lot, since I used my MacBook to work on the review narrative and go through photos.  In addition to the two US power sockets, they also had a European and British socket above the desk.  Since there isn't an electric socket near the bed, the cabin attendant needed to run an extension cord for my CPAP machine.

   

To the right of the desk was a cabinet with the safe and some more storage.  I did like that the safe was high enough to where it was easy to access.

The bathroom was small.

   

The shower was really small.  I am a pretty good-sized guy, but I was able to maneuver around the shower each day; but it was unbelievably small.  I was curious about the actual size of the shower, but I didn’t have a tape measure, so I put down two sheets of 11X17 inch paper on the floor.  I took a photo looking down at them.  So the shower is about 1.5 feet deep and 2.5 feet wide.

One thing I really liked about the Pursuit, was that when you exited the elevators, you were always facing the front of the ship.  This meant that I would always go to the right, since my cabin was on the starboard side of the ship.  That didn't mean I always turned the correct way when I got to the hallway.  But it was a shorter hallway than on most ships.

My Cabin Attendant was Paulo from India.  His assistant was Ibnu from Indonesia.  They were both great guys and always trying to help me in any way possible.

   
Paulo                                                        Ibnu

 

Dining (Link to Menus)

I have included copies of the menus from the various dining venues, along with photos of some of the food items at the Menus link just above and at the top of each page of the review.  Azamara has so many different ways to help you to gain weight while on one of their cruises.  There is never a shortage of places to find something to eat at almost any time.

Discoveries Restaurant – The main dining room food was very good.  They had a nice variety of food items that should please everyone.  The food is well prepared, tasty and decent portions.  The service was prompt for the most part.  I never ate there for breakfast or lunch and only had six dinners there, since I ate at the specialty restaurants five nights and special buffet events two nights.  I would have liked to try it for breakfast and lunch, but the schedule and timing just didn’t work out for me.

One day they did have a very nice brunch in the restaurant.  Since I had eaten breakfast earlier, I didn’t get to try the very tempting food items, but was able to take lots of photos.

   

   

   

Windows Café – I really enjoyed the buffet food for breakfast and lunch.  They had all the staples and other interesting items.  I never had to wait very long to get served, which is a plus.  If you order an omelet for breakfast, they give you a table stand with a number to put on your table.  This is a much more civil way than having to stand around waiting for the omelet to be prepared, like done on most lines. 

I would have liked to try the buffet for dinner, since each night there was a different type of food featured.  The menus looked really good; but being served in a dining room is just a more special and relaxed way to have dinner while on a cruise for me.

Prime C - This is the ship’s steak house.   It is a specialty restaurant and the charge is $30 per person.  As with all of the restaurants on the ship, the food is very good.  However, I expected that this restaurant would be even better than the normal main dining room food.  They did have some nicer appetizers, but the two steaks I had weren’t any better than what I had in the main dining room.  The meat tasted good, but it was tough.  I was disappointed with Prime C.

Chef’s Table – This is a table for ten in a section of the Prime C restaurant.  It is a very special wine pairing dinner that is served once each evening, costing $95 per person.  They have Italian, French and Stateside meals.  We had the Italian one.  Our friends Bob and Holly, in a very generous move, treated us all to this fine dining. 

And fine dining it was.  It was also a show by the sommelier, Gonzalo.  I am not that big into wine, but Gonzalo made the meal so much more interesting with his information and various tidbits of knowledge.  He has a big and pleasant personality.  Before each course he would tell us about the food and why he had selected the particular wine.  The main course was a wonderful beef tenderloin.  Now this was a very tasty and tender cut of meat.  I have the menu and photos of the food in the Menus section of the review.

   

Aqualina – With this being the ship’s Italian specialty restaurant, I was expecting the food to be much better than the main dining room.  The appetizers and sides were OK, but not any better than in the main dining room in my opinion.  It just wasn’t that special, and I almost cancelled my second booking that I had made for it.  The first night there, I ordered a veal chop.  It was the toughest driest veal chop I have ever had.  It was so disappointing, since I love veal chops and had high expectations. 

The Patio- This hamburger/hot dog grill was very popular during the cruise.  They had a nice selection of burgers, along with salmon, tuna, grouper, lamb and chicken.  There was also a self-serve salad and taco bar.  I did enjoy this venue and ate here several times when I didn’t feel like a large meal in the buffet.

Azamara’s Infamous Chocolate Buffet - This is a spread of various chocolate items.  It was set up on deck 5 around the Mosaic Café area.  It was very pretty and very popular, even with it being done at 9:00 PM on our last night on the ship.   Very strange timing with people packing to leave the next day and the production show was also at the same time.

   

   

 

Activities

Cruise Critic Meet and Greet (www.cruisecritic.com) - We always look forward to this gathering, where the people we have been communicating with for many months on our roll call get to meet each other.  We had the party in the Cabaret Lounge at 5:00 PM as we were sailing away from Buenos Aires.  Not a great time to have this, but since the first sea day would be on day three, it was probably the only time we could do it.  We had 58 people on the roll call and it appeared that most of them showed up.  Cruise Director Tony was the host and he introduced some members of his staff.  We had a friendly group and I think that a good time was had by all.

   

   

   

Enrichment Speakers

Dr. James Baer – James is a retired professor of history.  I did get to most of his presentations and enjoyed them all.  He talked about the countries we were visiting; as well as, history about them, and tips about what to see in some of the ports.  He also talked about famous people from the countries like Eva Peron.  He is an interesting speaker who keeps your attention.

Dr. Steven Friedman – He is a musical historian.  I didn’t get to all of his presentations, but the ones I got to were just outstanding.  He provided so many interesting facts about the shows and performers. 

David Knight (www.davidknighthypnotist.com) – He was one of the performers for the cruise.  He also did a seminar, Hypnosis and You.  It deals with self-hypnosis.  He provided some very interesting information about hypnosis and how to use it to help in your own life.  Many years ago, I had done a self-hypnosis thing with weight loss and I found it to be most helpful; but had pretty much forgotten about it.  I thought that this might be a good way to deal with the grief I have had since the loss of my dear wife, Carol.  I started to do some of what he said, and it really has helped me.  I did purchase a couple of the CDs’ he had, but have not had a chance to use them.  After I get this review completed, I will check them out.

 

Entertainment

Our Cruise Director was Tony Markey from England.  He is just a splendid fellow.  He has a great personality and always taking the time to talk to the passengers.  With it being a smaller ship with a small entertainment staff, he was involved in everything; but he did seem to really enjoy it. 

   

During the first show, Tony opened his jacket to display a Union Jack. I wasn't quick enough to get a photo of it, so after the show I asked for a replay.

In addition to the Pursuit Band that played in the shows and around the ship from time to time, there was another group called Riviera Sounds.  They would normally play in the Living Room before dinner and late night.  They were not good.  The singer was off key and one of the horns was just terrible.  We would laugh about how bad they were, which was the only benefit of hearing them.  The musician we enjoyed the most was a singer pianist named Maryfer.  She would play 3 times a night in the Den.  She was a pleasure to listen to.  Bob was kind enough to send me a photo he took of her, since the one I got didn’t come out very good.

Performers – Other than one performer, all the other shows were music based.  It would have been nice to have at least one comedian on the cruise.  With three performers doing two shows each, there just wasn’t enough variety for me.

David Knight – David is a comedy hypnotist.  He asks for volunteers from the audience who sit in chairs spread across the floor.  He does a couple of tests to see if the people are susceptible to hypnosis and then he puts them more under.  It is really hilarious to see the people thinking that they are dancing, riding in a horse race and other comedic situations.  Some of the people really got into it.  It was very funny.  They did the show on two different nights.  On the second night, I volunteered, but was kicked off the stage, since it wasn’t working for me.  I did enjoy the show; but I do think that once per cruise would have been enough.


   

Martin Kaye – Now this fellow is quite a showman.  He sings and plays the piano; and does he play it.  He plays it standing up and even standing on the bench.  He is a very high energy performer.  The audience loved him.  Definitely the best performer of the cruise.

       

   

He is from Manchester, England, which is very close to where my friends, Paul and Gail, are from.  They thought that he looked familiar, so they talked with him.  It turns out that he is friends of one of their nephews and was at a wedding they attended.  Small world!  They met up after Martin’s second show and I took a photo for them.

 

Sasha Kovalov – Sasha is the Pursuit’s band director and piano player.  He put on his own show for us.  He is a good pianist; but I think that the ship should have had more outside performers.  He did two shows.

   

Inseparable – Cruise Director Tony and his wife, Christine, put on a nice song and dance show for us.  It was upbeat and entertaining.

   

   

Mark William – This young man is a crooner.  His voice isn’t bad; but his show was just so boring.  He mostly stood in one place and didn’t change his expression that much.  If he is going to be successful in the entertainment business, he is going to have to spice up his performance and get some personality.  I’m really surprised that they had him on the cruise, since he doesn’t seem to have much experience entertaining a crowd.

   

 

Production Shows – With the Pursuit being a very small ship with a small stage, I wasn’t expecting much from their production shows; but I was pleasantly surprised.  Even with the limited cast, the shows were, for the most part, most entertaining.

Musically Yours – This was the first evening’s welcome aboard show.  Captain Antonio Toledo talked for a bit and introduced his staff heads.  He is a very friendly Captain and talked with people all around the ship.  I think this is a feature of Azamara, where officers are much more sociable than on most lines.

The production crew did a nice show with a variety of music and a small amount of dancing.  The ship only has two official dancers, since the stage is rather small.

 

   

       

   

On Broadway – This was a most enjoyable show with music from several Broadway shows and some other tunes.

   

       

       

   

Four on the Floor – This show appeared to be doing songs from groups with four people in them.  They sang songs from the Beatles, Abba, Bangles and Cold Play.  I enjoyed the songs they sang. I didn't take any photos, since this was the last night of the cruise and I had already packed my camera and backed up all my photos.  Plus, with these shows being on a smaller scale, the photos would be pretty much the same as the previous ones.

White Night Party – Although this is not a production show, the production cast sang and danced in this evening entertainment.  This is a staple of Azamara, where people are supposed to dress up in white for a special buffet dinner and entertainment on the pool deck.  We were fortunate that the weather cooperated.  We were also fortunate that the party took place on our second night in Rio, so that they were able to bring local entertainers in to perform.  The dancers were high energy and the crowd really got into it.  Some people wanted to take selfies with the dancers and did mess up some photo opps; but it was a lot of fun.  At one point many members of the crew came out carrying the flag of the country they are from.  It was a nice presentation showing the diversity of the crew.

   

   

   

   

At one point, Cruise Director Tony and his wife Christine performed on the stage.  It was just a very pleasant evening.

 

Ports of Call

Montevideo, Uruguay

With this being my third visit to Montevideo, I hadn’t planned on doing any touring other than what Bob and Holly desired to do.  Paul and Gail had a separate tour that they had booked.  With the town center being relatively close to the port, it is easy to just get off the ship and walk to Independence Square.  Just outside of the port gates is a small nautical park with a welcome sign.  Needless to say, it is a popular photo opp.

   

Walking into town is a pleasure, since you get to see the old colonial buildings along the way.

   

We got a kick out of the Santa figure that was hanging from one of the buildings.

We came to Zabala Square.  It was a very small park but had a gorgeous equestrian statue of Bruno Mauricio de Zabala in the center.  Zabala was the founder of Montevideo and the park is on the site of the original fort that he built there. 

   

   

They had beautiful reliefs on both sides of the monument.

   

While taking photos, Bob couldn’t resist playing ball with young boy who was kicking a small ball away from him.  They played for a while and both thoroughly enjoyed it.

   

 Further along we came to the Plaza de Constitution, which had a lot of trees and a small statue in the center.

   

On one side of the park was the Montevideo Cathedral.

   

I had previously visited the interior but went in to get a quick reminder of what it looked like.  There are plenty of photos of the pretty interior in my 2018 South America/Antarctica review.

   

A few blocks away, we approached Independence Plaza, the center of Montevideo.  We passed through the Gateway of the Original Citadel of Montevideo.  The original fort was built in the mid 1700’s and most of it was torn down in 1829.  This piece of it remains.

From the square we could see the Teatro Solis, where we would be returning to for the ship's Azamazing Evening show.  I was looking forward to seeing the interior, since it had been closed on my previous two visits.

The main eye catcher from the square is the tall landmark of the city, Salvo Palace.  The very recognizable tower rises above the rest of the building.  The building was originally going to be a hotel; but is now mainly offices and some private residences.

Around the plaza are several statues and monuments with the main one being the Artigas Mausoleum.  There is a statue of Jose Artigas mounted on a horse on top, with his remains located in a room underneath the monument.  Artigas is considered to be the father of Uruguay.

   

   

   

On one side of the square was Estévez Palace.  It was the working place for the Uruguayan President until 1985 when those offices were moved to a building next to the palace and the palace was converted to a museum.

Bob and Holly were looking for some markets, so we headed back toward the port area.  There were more pretty buildings along the pedestrian streets.

   

   

We saw a small fruit market, and then went inside a different market that turned out to be mainly a food court.

   

The quick tour didn’t take long and we were back on the ship for a relaxing afternoon.  From the ship, we could see what looked like a ship graveyard in the port area.  I’m not sure why they leave all of the rubble there to clog and pollute the port.  I saw an article where the Uruguayan government was going move 50 of the vessels in 2015.  I guess they didn’t.

   

On the starboard side from the top decks, we could see some Uruguayan naval vessels.

I could also see the tall building near the port that stands out from the crowd.

That evening for dinner, there were early buffets set up in the Discoveries dining room and Windows Café.  This allowed everyone to finish dinner before we headed on busses to the Solis theater.  Because the other two couples were in suites, I was able to go with them on the first bus.  When we arrived, we were given champagne and greeted by the performers.  It made for quite an entrance.  The ship’s Captain was posing with anyone that wanted to have a photo taken with him.

When we got into the theater, some of the performers let us pose with them.  I took a photo of Gail posing with one of the performers and she took one of me.

We were able to sit on the first row, which had more benefits than we had expected.   When Cruise Director Tony made his announcements at the beginning of the show, he singled out Holly to wish her a happy birthday.  Needless to say, she was embarrassed, but it was a very nice gesture.

The theater was quite pretty with a gorgeous chandelier in the center of the ceiling.

   

   

We were all most impressed with the high energy and high-quality show.  It was so much better than I had envisioned.  I have put a bunch of photos and a video in the review to show you what happened rather than trying to describe it, which I could not adequately do if I tried.  Nothing can show how enjoyable this performance was.  You had to be there.

 

      

 

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

       

   

   

When the show was over I was finally able to take a photo of the theater with the lights on.  It is a lovely theater.

When we left the theater, everyone was given a nice mask and the performers were lined along the steps and pathway cheering us.  It was particularly nice, since we could personally thank the amazing performers.

It had truly been an AzAmazing Evening!    

 

 

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