Cruise line pursues upscale, bespoke-style on its boutique ships
BY DAVID G. MOLYNEAUX
On the new Azamara Pursuit, docked for the day at Cherbourg, France, an engaging breakfast waiter brought me coffee, placing a cup and saucer at the table. After sipping, I set the cup directly onto the table. Later, when I asked for a refill, the waiter lifted my cup, filled it, and placed it back onto the saucer.
“Yes,” she said, laughing, when I asked whether most Americans set their cups on the table, while most European passengers would take a more formal approach, using the saucer.
She said that I was free to do whatever I wanted with the cup, but that the ship’s policy for her was always to use the saucer.
“More sophisticated?” I asked. She nodded agreement.
That simple moment of style fits the atmosphere of Azamara Club Cruises, one of the world’s smaller cruise lines that nonetheless sails to hundreds of ports around the world. Azamara’s fleet of two — 690-passenger sister ships Azamara Journey and Azamara Quest — grew in August to three with the addition of the 702-passenger Azamara Pursuit.
