Cruise Vacation Ideas

Azamara Adds Some New Ports

Azamara, the little luxury line that boasts smaller ships that don’t need the deep-water ports required for the “bigs,” has announced some of its 2009 schedule. The new line is actually part of Celebrity Cruises, but branded as a specialty type ship catering to discriminating travelers.

In Europe, Azamara has five homeports: Athens, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Rome, and Venice. It will call on 91 ports in 36 countries and is introducing a 10 p.m. “late night” depatures in 10 ports of call, designed to let passengers soak up as much European ambience as possible before setting sail.

 The smaller ships are making some interesting voyages possible (for instance, when was the last time you saw an offering to cruise “up the Thames”?) The Azamara ships will be able to dock in Zadar (Croatia), Rouen (France), Volos (Greece) and Dartmouth (England).

Also offered are Icelandic and Norwegian cruises, a Holy Land cruise, and an Ancient Empires cruise which includes calling on five different Turksih ports as well as ports in Egypt, Greece, and Cyprus.