Azamara Club Cruises are expanding their Dubai cruise program significantly in 2020, with three cruise ships due to cruise from the city between March and November on five separate itineraries, two of which will be Dubai roundtrip voyages.
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Azamara Quest, Journey, and the cruise line’s new ship Azamara Pursuit will all cruise from Dubai in 2020. Azamara Pursuit previously sailed as P&O Cruises Adonia, but was sold last year to Azamara Club Cruises and has since been thoroughly refurbished.
Azamara Quest will cruise from Dubai first, on March 17th, 2020. This 11-night roundtrip itinerary visits Muscat in Oman, Mina Sulman in Bahrain, Doha in Qatar and Sir Bani Yas and Abu Dhabi in the UAE, with an overnight stay in Muscat and Dubai (on the final night of the cruise).
Azamara Quest’s second cruise from Dubai (to Athens) on March 28th is far leaner in terms of port calls.
The 17-night voyage will visit Salalah in Oman, Safaga in Egypt, Eilat in Israel and Aqaba in Jordan before transiting the Suez Canal to enter the Mediterranean. After a port call in Alexandria, Egypt, Azamara Quest will spend two nights at sea bound for Piraeus, the gateway port for Athens.
On April 26th, 2020, Azamara Journey will depart Dubai on almost the exact same itinerary, except this 16-night cruise from Dubai to Athens doesn’t include a port call in Eliat, Israel, and the port call in Alexandria, Egypt is swapped out for a port call in Iraklion instead.
Azamara Pursuit, the cruise line’s new cruise ship, will cruise roundtrip from Dubai on November 1st, 2020. This 10-night cruise will visit Muscat, Bahrain, Qatar, Sir Bani Yas Island, and Abu Dhabi, with an overnight stay in port in Muscat and Dubai.
On November 12th, Azamara Pursuit will then cruise from the Arabian Gulf on the ever-popular Dubai to Singapore run, via India, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.
This 19-night cruise is longer than most Dubai to Singapore cruises because of the destination-intensive nature of Azamara Club Cruises. She’ll stay overnight in port in two of the destinations, and three full days in one of them.
After departing Dubai, Azamara Pursuit will cruise to Mumbai in India, where she’ll spend a day in port, and then cruise during the night and following day to Cochin in India, where she’ll stay overnight in port.
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After another night at sea, she’ll arrive the following day in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where the ship will stay overnight again, giving passengers time to take shore excursions into far-flung parts of the island nation, such as the elephant sanctuaries in Candi.
Azamara Pursuit will then spend three days at sea crossing the Indian Ocean bound for Yangon, Myanmar, a communist nation formerly as off-limits to foreigners as North Korea. Yangon is the final port call before Singapore where Pursuit will once more (you guessed it!) spend a night in port.
Founded in 2007 and then re-launched as Azamara Club Cruises in 2010, Azamara is a boutique upmarket cruise line operating just three 690 passenger ships.
The company serves an up-market segment of international cruisers, primarily empty nesters with an explorer mindset that are motivated by enriching their life experiences. To do this, Azamara stays longer in port with more overnights on itineraries than most lines, and offering night touring to guests.
“This is about catering to those who want to see the destination,” says Larry Pimentel CEO of the cruise line.
Categories: Middle East Cruise News
