P&O cruise ship Azura, ship tour all passenger areas

The Cruise Ship from P&O Azura has a 3100 passenger capacity but doesn't feel like a big ship which is why it has its fans and such a high returning customer base to its 14/19 passenger decks.

With some bigger ships having over 6800 passengers and the P&O flagship Britannia having approx 3640 passengers, maybe, the Azura will soon no longer be referred to as large. It no longer makes the top 30 biggest cruise ships. However, it is three sets of corridors long as opposed to the Arcadia's or the even slightly smaller but spacious Aurora's two sets, so it is larger. It is the sister ship to the Ruby Princess and the Ventura.

It is said to be the ship that the raunchy romantic novel Her Virgin Voyage was written on during a Canary Islands cruise, but not the ship in the second book which predicted P&O's venture into the first same sex marriages at sea in the second book The Perfect Storm. The Azura is an easy ship to navigate, it offers a lot in the way of fine dining options and entertainment with three large venues as well as quiet areas and a library, so it has the best of both worlds. It also has a pub and casino on the lower decks if you wish to avoid dressing on formal nights. Take a look at our film of all passenger areas first. Please subscribe to us on You Tube and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Check out some of the great Cruise Routes, our concise films of what a ship offers when it takes a specific route. These are typical routes but we do have films to help cruisers on every popular cruise destination in the world.                                                          

 Baltic Route - Canary Islands Cruise - New England Cruise - Caribbean Cruise (from Barbados) - Norwegian Fjords - Mediterranean Routes

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SEE THE CRUISE BEFORE YOU CRUISE THE SEA. Worldwide destination films for cruisers; New York to Barbados, Rome to Stavanger, Bora Bora to Tallinn, Tenerife to Cork.

Port Talk blog on Barbados with video clips+tips - look before you book

Many of you will now be thinking 'Caribbean'.

Barbados

Right, it is a fun fantastic place, and no matter where you are going, or cruising it is likely you will go in and maybe out of Barbados, if not stay there like the stars. Cilla had a place there, Cliff still does as many others.
If you are just using it for transit maybe we can encourage you to see a little more of the island than just the capital, which is not why you go to Barbados. Barbados, the bearded one, with its rugged east coast that contrast so much with the sandy beaches of the west.

North of the capital you find the more traditional trendy spots and designer shops, the south is far more fun and Ousting is where you go to the Friday night fish night party. I suggest you talk to you operator if on a cruise and ask to extend your stay.... staff call it shore leave .... to stay before the cruise or after the cruise.

Even if you can't, and you have a day there, let these films show you where you can get to on public bus. Lunch at Mullins in the North East, easy from the bus terminal next to the cruise port. Or walk through the town and take a bus south and discover Worthing and Hastings (or fish night) or from that other south bus station, get a bus to the West Coast and see the Botanical Gardens and rough seas hit the beach.

Follow us on www.DorisVisits.com, and on Facebook and twitter our next cruise is on the Arcadia, world, from Hawaii Links to the films https://youtu.be/nHvYGqwfr54

https://youtu.be/fuhjekVbbzQ

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4ftexc http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4ek6i8

Time to think of winter sun - and the Caribbean

It is starting to get a little cold....

Sadly the year is ending, and we are switching attention from the Mediterranean to the Canaries. We leave to film the stops there next week so they will be ready for next years choices. But you might like to click here and flip to our web site www.DorisVists.com and see the many Caribbean stops.

My guess is you are going to fly into Barbados, so remeber it is an easy place to get round and you do not have to stay in the town. Even on the regular local buses for $2 you could go north and have lunch at Mullens, go south and see Oistins, or travel west to the rougher Atlantic coast and Botanical gardens.

We are web bloggers, so let the film show you Oistins and Mullens. Take a few minutes.

Then there is the other side of Barbados. So beautiful for completely different reasons and again, just a bus ride away.

You then have a wide choice of islands to choose and that and the ship make the cruise so different. It is not just the islands from Cuba to Tortola, but the main land. A Caribbean Cruise is often a hard choice because there is so much to choose from. Again, I suggest you go to our main web site to see more stops than in this blog, but if you go to St Maarten, the local bus is also good. We show you how to get from the Dutch side to the French side and back.

Choosing a Caribbean Cruise

If you have been on a cruise before you might not need this help, but if you are cruising for the first time we suggest there are two main parameters to consider. They both are about you and what you want.

There are two things that make up a cruise, the ship and where it docks. Both need some thought.

Where you visit, what you want

If you are looking to see great places of interest on a trip then the Caribbean islands need choosing with care. It is not the Baltics where you could cruise over and over again and discover more each time. If you want a beach then add Antigua, if you want a great island trip Antigua might be way, way down the list as there is very little to see. If you want a complete summer mix then Key West is hard to beat, if you want theme parks Canaveral might be on the list though Canaveral also offers Jetty Park and Cocoa Beach. Cuba is fantastic with much to see, Barbados we never tire of. Tortola and the Azures have fewer options.

You might also consider some places are a beach treat, some places that you will look around. What you don't want to do is look around the ones with nothing to see, and sit on the beach when you should have perhaps been on a coach. Planning and choosing makes for great fun. That is where Doris Visits can help. Doris Visits can save you looking round Antigua when you should be on a beach, and will encourage you to find islands like St Vincent, Bequia and Sint Maarten for stops where there are choices you might like to make.

Here is Doris Visits top ten cruise stops from the 2015 / 2016 Caribbean season. Each of these has at least one long form film that can be found on this site.

You can also choose where you fly into, and with some negotiation you might be able to extend the stay at that transit stop for an additional week. Well, why not. The most common transit from the UK is Barbados and we have two films for the bearded one.

More cruises are using Key West to start and stop from, some use Miami, but that maybe few of the British operators. They might however use Canaveral and we advise you to take a look at that place which has so much to offer and such extremes.

Which Cruise Ship do I choose?

The secret is to choose a ship that is suited to you, and given the variety there will be one. It is like choosing which town to live in and they are small towns or villages. If you want to live in a small exclusive area then choose a ship like that, or a huge ship with lots of entertainment and many fine dining restaurants with exclusive areas.

If you are unhappy on a ship it is probably because you might have been able to choose a ship more suited to your needs and desires. It is important to get two things right.

1. The ship has the areas you require.
2. That the cost of everything you want has been calculated as the cost of your trip.

As an example, if you are of the opinion that once you have paid for your trip you do not wish to pay extra for fine dining, then we agree, the food in the free dining is fantastic and therefore you do not need a ship with fine dining options.

If you wish to have a quiet area and be waited on, never have to look for a sun bed but be shown to one, then you will require an exclusive adult area and private pool which comes at a premium. The bigger ships have these, and fine dining as well as all the free dining and free entertainment areas. Some ships like the Britannia has a wine and dining caber ate night club which has a premium. Add these all to the cost of your cruise.

So, if you like options, don't choose the smallest ship. If you don't need the options and are in bed early a small ship may be ideal. These are just extremes to help you focus on the incredible number of facilities a ship might have to offer.

So if you are new to cruising, there is a pub and karaoke downstairs and a self service upstairs and you never have to dress for dinner. Or, there are black tie and dress code nights for restaurants and bars and entertainment areas. And there are fine dining options and exclusive areas in the mid size and large ships.

Take a look at the Azura, or some of the other ships and dining areas Doris walks you round.