P&O Azura Cruise Blog – Day 2
Read all about my second day aboard the Azura as she sailed in the North Sea.
I awoke around half past seven got ready and then decided to go for a walk around the ship. It was a very misty morning, with a cool breeze and it was not surprising to find hardly anyone out on the deck. I walked around the open decks before going downstairs to wonder around Deck 7. I found the Manhattan, Malabar and Brodies venues onboard the ship to be very dark and gloomy – so I didn’t bother going to those places much in the daytime in the fear that I would end up falling asleep!
After spending fifteen minutes or so looking for a table, I had breakfast in the Venezia buffet which was okay, however they were starting to close off one side for cleaning, so I settled for some Rice Crispies, a slice of toast and a portion of Melon, which was nice for a change. My only complaint about breakfast was the lack of mugs and glasses at the drinks stations. They always seemed to go so quickly and I witnessed several people have to wait almost ten minutes just to get a mug!
After breakfast I headed on down to the Java Coffee Bar, which is located just off the atrium on deck number 5. Although the coffee bar is small, it is certainly very popular. It seems as though a lot of Brits can’t get enough of Costa Coffee, even if we are sailing in the middle of the North Sea! I ordered some water (£1.45 for a small bottle) and sat there for a while whilst typing some things up on my laptop. Like most modern cruise ships, the Azura is fully wi-fi enabled; so if you want to check up on your e-mails or get some work done then it is ideal. The internet pricing is not cheap, but it is fairly reasonable bearing in mind the nearest satellite could be thousands of miles away. I actually found the speed to be pretty good for most of the cruise, a simple webpage like google only took a fraction of a second longer to load at sea that it does at my home!
As the time was moving on, I thought it was a nice time to head up on to the open decks and see if I can find a chair in the sunshine. Thanks to some astounding luck, I found a chair in a nice spot just by one of the pools and spent the majority of the afternoon up there. I ate lunch in the Venezia buffet, and it was okay; well what could go wrong with a Ham roll, some chips and a side salad? If I had to have one rant, it would be that there were no carrots with the salad, that’s all. Unlike it’s sister ship Ventura, the Azura does not have a pool with a retractable roof; instead it has SeaScreen – a large open-air poolside screen that was showing a couple of movies thoughout the day. The concept was good, however I did not feel the screen was utilized for movies etc enough, like it is on some other cruise lines. But that’s just my opinion. I watched a little bit of The Croods, it was okay – a good animation, but I didn’t stay for too long, I went back to my stateroom for a rest.
The evening was the Captain’s Welcome Aboard Party and suitably so a formal night. Once I was ready I headed up to The Planet Bar on Deck 18 at the very back of the ship. The Planet Bar is one of the most popular venues on board as it offers a spectacular vantage point and features a twenty-foot video wall which showcases various destinations each evening. Following a pre-dinner mocktail, I headed down to Azura’s three-storey atrium for the Captain’s speech and cocktail reception. I also then managed to meet the captain and have my photograph taken, however I was not allowed to use my own camera – which was a shame.
The evening’s dinner menu had a little bit more variety than previous, however the food was still just okay, not brilliant. P&O do offer Grilled Chicken Breast or Grilled Salmon as an alternative to the main courses, but these are not advertised. So my advice is that if you do not like something, ask your waiter for an alternative option or there is always the buffet.
After dinner I was feeling pretty tired. However I decided to visit The Glass House, which is Olly Smith’s (a British Wine Expert) restaurant and wine bar. It was a fairly large venue, with hundreds upon hundreds of wine on showcase. After a small drink it was nearing 23:00 and time to call it a day since we would be arriving into Bergen early the next morning.
