Azamara Quest

Azamara Quest is an R-class cruise ship that entered service for Azamara Cruises on October 24, 2007. She was built in 2000 for Renaissance Cruises as R Seven. Following the collapse of Renaissance Cruises in 2001 she was laid up for two years, until chartered to the Germany-based Delphin Seereisen as Delphin Renaissance.

In 2006 she was sold to the Spain-based Pullmantur Cruises and renamed Blue Moon. She sailed for Pullmantur until 2007 when she was transferred to Azamara Cruises.

The Azamara Quest carries about 710 passengers (double occupancy) plus 410 crew members (1:2 staff to guest ratio). Her first season will be in the Caribbean. Due to her small size, she will be able to call at some of the lesser-visited ports such as St. Barts and Guadeloupe. She will then offer some Panama Canal sailings.

Sisterships: Azamara Journey, MS Insignia, MS Regatta, Ocean Princess, Pacific Princess, MV Adonia, MS Nautica.

Mechanical specifications

Azamara Club Cruises

Azamara Club Cruises is a cruise company that operates two ships, the Azamara Journey and the Azamara Quest. The company is a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Cruises. It was founded in 2007 as Azamara Cruises and was rebranded in 2009. Both ships were refurbished in the winter of 2012–2013.

Fleet history

Azamara Club Cruises currently operates two vessels that were originally part of the eight R-Class cruise ships built between 1998-2001 for Renaissance Cruises. The Azamara Journey and Azamara Quest were both built in 2000 and were originally called R Six and R Seven. Both ships are 30,447 GT.

Leadership

Since 2009, Larry Pimentel has been president and CEO of Azamara Club Cruises. He was formerly president and CEO of the SeaDream Yacht Club, Cunard Line and Seaboard Cruise Line, as well as president and CEO of the Classic Hawaii tour company.

Ships and cruises

Azamara Club Cruises offers 60 to 70 voyages around the world.

The vessels

Each of the vessels carries up to 686 guests.

Club Cruise

Club Cruise was a Netherlands-based cruise ship company, that chartered vessels to other operators, including Transocean Tours and Phoenix Reisen. The company had also operated ships under its own brands, first in 1999 on short cruises from the Netherlands and during 2008 in the United Kingdom cruise market under the banner of Van Gogh Cruises.

Club Cruise was reportedly seeking to list itself in the London Stock Exchange.

History

Club Cruise was founded in 1999 to operate short cruises out of Rotterdam with one ship, MS Club 1. The service was not a success, and the company ceased operations after the 1999 northern hemisphere summer season. Subsequently the Club 1 was renamed MS Van Gogh and chartered to the France-based Nouvelles Frontieres. In 2002 the ship was chartered to the United Kingdom -based Travelscope. Two additional ships were acquired in 2006. MS Albatros was purchased from a Bahamas-based company and continued under charter to her previous operator, the Germany-based Phoenix Reisen. MS Walrus was purchased from SeaContainers. She was renamed MS Jules Verne and chartered to the Spain-based Vision Cruises. In 2008 she was renamed MS Alexander von Humboldt II and also chartered to Phoenix Reisen.

Quest

In mythology and literature, a quest, a journey towards a goal, serves as a plot device and (frequently) as a symbol. Quests appear in the folklore of every nation and also figure prominently in non-national cultures. In literature, the objects of quests require great exertion on the part of the hero, and the overcoming of many obstacles, typically including much travel. The aspect of travel also allows the storyteller to showcase exotic locations and cultures (an objective of the narrator, not of the character).

Quest objects

The hero normally aims to obtain something or someone by the quest, and with this object to return home. The object can be something new, that fulfills a lack in his life, or something that was stolen away from him or someone with authority to dispatch him.

Sometimes the hero has no desire to return; Sir Galahad's quest for the Holy Grail is to find it, not return with it. A return may, indeed, be impossible: Aeneas quests for a homeland, having lost Troy at the beginning of Virgil's Aeneid, and he does not return to Troy to re-found it but settles in Italy (to become an ancestor of the Romans).

Cruise ship

A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are a part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way. Transportation is not the prime purpose, as cruise ships operate mostly on routes that return passengers to their originating port, so the ports of call are usually in a specified region of a continent. There are even "cruises to nowhere" or "nowhere voyages" where the ship makes 2–3 night round trips without any ports of call.

By contrast, dedicated transport oriented ocean liners do "line voyages" and typically transport passengers from one point to another, rather than on round trips. Traditionally, an ocean liner for the transoceanic trade will be built to a higher standard than a typical cruise ship, including high freeboard and stronger plating to withstand rough seas and adverse conditions encountered in the open ocean, such as the North Atlantic. Ocean liners also usually have larger capacities for fuel, victuals, and other stores for consumption on long voyages, compared to dedicated cruise ships.