Why late departures change everything

A normal cruise gives you eight hours in a port, four of which you spend on an excursion and two of which you spend queueing. You see the sights and you never see the place.

Azamara keeps you there past dinner. Which means the shops reopen after siesta, the locals come out, the square fills up, the light goes gold, and you are still there for it. That is the difference between visiting somewhere and being somewhere.

For families this matters in a specific way. Small children fade in the middle of the day. If the ship leaves at five you have lost them. If the ship leaves at eleven you can go back on board for a nap and come out again in the evening, which turns a wasted port day into the best day of the week.

The ships

Small, carrying several hundred guests. Comfortable rather than glamorous, with a country club feel and a lot of outdoor space for a ship this size.

Being small they get into ports the big ships cannot, and they dock centrally rather than at industrial terminals. You walk off into the town. Nobody is putting your family on a shuttle bus.

The trade-off is the usual one. Fewer facilities, no waterpark, modest entertainment. If your children need a ship full of things to do, this is the wrong choice and I would say so.

What is included

Gratuities, standard drinks including wine and beer with meals, bottled water, soft drinks, self-service laundry, and a shuttle into town where the port needs one. That last one is a small thing that quietly saves families a lot of money and hassle.

Speciality restaurants carry a small charge and are worth it. Excursions are extra.

On most voyages they run an AzAmazing Evening, an included event ashore, usually something cultural in a venue you could not otherwise get into. These are genuinely special and are one of my favourite things in mainstream-adjacent cruising.

Children on board

There is no kids club and there is no youth programme. I need to be blunt about that because the destination-led pitch attracts families who then discover this on day one.

What Azamara suits is a family whose children travel like small adults. Kids who want to walk around a Croatian old town at nine at night eating ice cream are having the holiday of their lives here. Kids who want a slide are not.

Ages ten and up, in my experience, and even then it depends entirely on the child rather than the age.

Where they go

This is a line for the Mediterranean, the Adriatic, Northern Europe, and increasingly for more unusual regions. The itineraries are dense with ports and light on sea days.

Because the ships are small they build routes around places that are genuinely worth an evening. Small Greek islands, Croatian harbours, Norwegian towns. It is a much more interesting port list than the fleet size would suggest.

If you want relaxing sea days and a lot of time on board, look elsewhere. This is a line for people who want to be off the ship.

What I would watch out for

The ships are older. They have been refurbished and they are well maintained, but they are not new and you should not expect new.

It is port-intensive to the point of being tiring. With children, plan to skip things deliberately rather than trying to do everything.

And cabins are on the smaller side, particularly the standard ones. For a family of four or five, look carefully at the configuration before booking.

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