Ngaire,
You should visit an Azamara ship. Even though they are old Renaissance ships, they’re outfitted much differently than Oceania. O’s deck 5 has the cruise consultant taking up space where A has a coffee bar (Mezzanine Lounge) that’s better than Mariner’s coffee bar. They have a selection of small pastries & sandwiches much like a French Patisserie. We 3 couples discussed your opinion of low ceilings and aren’t sure what you mean. I can reach up to touch the cabin ceilings in both Mariner & Quest and I doubt if there’s more than 2” difference. The dining room ceiling may be a bit lower, but it’s not noisy when full and you don’t have to shout to be heard. We didn’t feel closed in at all. Both the main dining room & buffet restaurant have rear and side windows so you can see outside when dining. A’s version of La Veranda, Windows Café, has a full bar on the rear outside deck along with dining tables. They also have a different nationality themed buffet every night. You can special order meals in the restaurants. They have 2 specialty restaurants, Aqualina which concentrates in seafood and Prime C, similar to Prime 7. Both offer both seafood & meat.
Azamara does a dry dock every 2 ½ years and they completely replace carpeting & upholstery so everything looks neat & clean. The cabins aren’t small – just smaller than Regent, however we still had empty hangers, drawers & shelves. The hotel rooms we use in Europe are smaller than our Azamara cabin. The bathroom & shower are small. For trivia freaks, there are trivia games about 4 or .5 times per day. The ships have traditional propellers & rudders, but the captain can spin it in place and move sideways like Mariner & Voyager (the captain says that Azipods are for those that can’t drive ships.) The differences between Regent & Azamara aren’t worth the double per diem on Regent ($174.00 pp per day for the crossing and $316.00 pp per day for 12 days Costa Rica thru Panama Canal to Miami in 2015.) A new ship would really add to their itineraries.
