Azamara

Most cruise ships leave port before dinner. Azamara tends to stay. The line has built its identity around longer days ashore, late departures and overnight calls, so that guests can see a city after dark, eat in a local restaurant and walk back to the ship.

Its ships are small by ocean standards, sister vessels carrying several hundred guests rather than several thousand, and their size lets them berth in smaller harbours and sail up rivers that larger ships cannot enter. The atmosphere on board is often compared to a country club: informal, sociable, and easy to settle into, with a crew that tends to remember names. Itineraries range widely, with a strong presence in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe and longer voyages in Asia, South America and the South Pacific.