First-Class Boarding: Unveiling the Azamara Pursuit Boarding Experience

I had the good fortune of embarking on a 9 night cruise sailing from Lisbon to Barcelona on Azamara and I thought I would review the Azamara Pursuit boarding experience in Lisbon. This voyage, named “Intensive Spain and Portugal,” called at:

• Lisbon (Embarkation)
• Seville overnight
• Gibraltar
• Malaga
• Cartagena
• Alicante
• Valencia
• Barcelona (Disembarkation)

Arriving at the Cruise Terminal at Lisbon

I left the Corinthia Lisbon hotel at around 1.15pm and took a taxi to the port. This took about 25 minutes due to traffic. They are doing a lot of building work at the port so the taxi driver had trouble finding the port entrance. However, I walked over to the terminal with our bags after getting there. I joined a queue for about 10 minutes whilst staff checked passenger tickets and tagged the bags. These were then whisked away and I made my way to immigration.

Immigration: The Bottleneck

I waited in the immigration queue for about 25 minutes while the border control wrote down our passport numbers manually, which took some time. This was the only weak point of the Azamara Pursuit boarding experience. It would have been good to have an Azamara representative there to provide information and support. It did mean people had to stand for some time to complete these formalities despite providing the passport information online beforehand. I don’t know whether this is unique to Lisbon so other people may have different experiences.

Anyway, once through border control I went through security which was very quick on onwards to Check In.

Checking In for the Azamara Pursuit

Check in for the Azamara Pursuit after the queues at border control was a very easy part of the Azamara Pursuit boarding experience. I handed over my credit card to register for any incidental expenses. Then I had my photo taken and received my cruise card. Straight after that I was on my way to the ship to board.

Boarding and Muster Drill 2.0 on the Azamara Pursuit

I was directed to the Cabaret Lounge and seated after checking in This is where I underwent the video safety demonstration and muster drill. The Cruise Director on the Azamara Pursuit said it was a new process called Muster Drill 2.0 where you are directed straight after boarding in groups to the lounge to watch the video then ushered to the muster station. This made it very efficient and meant that I had got the muster drill out of the way meaning I could do what I wanted for the rest of the day.

After finishing the drill, I went straight to my cabin, as it was past 2pm.