Introduction: I was offered an opportunity to experience the new Azamara brand from Celebrity Cruises. The cruise sailed from Santos, Brazil on December 11 with an overnight stay in Rio de Janeiro, port of call in Parati, overnight stay in Itaijai, and stops in Porto Belo, Montevideo, Punta del Este, and ending with another overnight stay in Buenos Aires, flying home on December 23. Sharon was able to clear her schedule and I could clear mine as well so we started making plans.

Getting there: We flew Delta from South Bend to Atlanta to Sao Paulo with about 5 hours in Atlanta. We arrived at Sao Paulo Guarulhos Airport about 8:00 am but immigration was slow and we did not leave on our bus from the airport until about 10:30 for the two-hour trip to Santos. Alas, we later heard that there had been an accident that had shut down the main road to Sao Paulo and we spent 90 minutes stuck in traffic before the drive got off the highway onto local city streets trying to get to another road. After almost another hour of that, we got moving and arrived at the ship by about 2:00 pm. We had registered online and check-in was quick. Vacation has started.

Onboard: The Azamara Journey is a former Renaissance "R" ship, sister to the Azamara Quest and the Oceana Cruises ships. With about 700 passengers, it is large enough to offer good amenities while offering a higher level of service than Celebrity's large ships. Our stateroom is a standard outside. There are a limited number of inside staterooms and many staterooms with balconies. Out stateroom is compact. The bathroom could use another six inches in the shower. The bed is large and there is adequate closet space, but still the stateroom is compact. Each stateroom has a butler who serves both as a steward but who also can do more, everything from making reservations to unpacking, bringing daily snacks, polishing shoes, etc.

Food: As on most ships, most people dine in the buffet restaurant. Without a doubt, the Azamara Journey offers the best variety I have experienced in a buffet, with omelets and pancakes made to order plus a huge variety of baked good, fruits, and many hot foods beyond the standards. Of course there is the sit-down Discoveries Restaurant with full service as well as included room service.

Again most people eat lunch in the buffet. On a regular port day, the main restaurant is open from noon to 1:30 pm and the buffet until 2:30 pm but kept open depending on demand. There is always Pizza available and the grill offers salad as well as hot dogs, burgers, fries, etc from noon until 6:00 pm.

For dinner, there are the specialty restaurants, Aqualina and Prime C, from 6:00 pm to 9:30 pm. Reservations are required, though we found exceptions based on busyness. Both are run by the same chef, a young fellow, Kyle, who learned his skills in Las Vegas. Aqualina is "contemporary with a Mediterranean flair" while Prime C is primarily a steakhouse with a wide range of steaks of available with a la carte sides or plated selections. Presentation is an important part of the experience.

Since Azamara is related to Celebrity, the ship offers the Cova Café. There is variety of additional bars with some of the best next to the restaurants. A glass of wine is not inexpensive but wine by the bottle seemed reasonable. Our usual was a Chilean Sauvignon Blanc for $27 plus the 18% gratuity ($31.86 total). All the restaurants were great about keeping wine from one meal to another.

In general, we found the food to be a highlight of the trip.

This was our first experience at open seating dining other than with NCL's Free Style. If we stated that we would enjoy dining with others, we were seated with others who also were open to meeting others. Some experiences were good, others less memorable. Otherwise we were seated as a couple or with another couple we dined with, usually Peg and John Haskins of Viking Travel in Chicago.

Menu selections in the primary Discoveries Restaurant always offered such standards as shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad, chicken, steak, etc. plus the daily offerings. Again presentation was an important part of the experience.

The only times we encountered crowds were late morning (9:30 to 10:00 am) on a day at sea in the buffet restaurant and sometimes at lunch when table space was scarce. This could be in part, also, that many tables for four only had two people and we did not ask others we did not know if we could join them.

The sailing was for 12 days, sailing from Santos, Brazil's largest port, to Rio de Janeiro (overnight in Rio), Parati, Itajaí (again with an overnight), Porto Belo, Montevideo, Punta del Este, and Buenos Aires (again with an overnight). We also had two full days at sea plus some partial days. Mid-December offered long days, especially as we got further south. We did not see when the sun rose but sunset was after 9:30 pm in Uruguay.

Rio de Janeiro: This was a mixed experience. We had visited Rio in February and had already done Sugar Loaf, Corcovado, Copacabana, the city tour, etc. so we went to a Rotary Club meeting in Tijuca on our first day. That was fun and we were treated as honored guests, sitting at the head table. After that, we explored that area of Rio as well as some back street markets in central Rio. We also explored the Candalaria Church in central Rio, visited an internet café to catch up on e-mail, etc. Later that afternoon it rained quite a bit and we stayed on board. That evening, we planned to visit another Rotary Club, this one at the Yacht Club. We planned to leave around 7:45 for the 8:30 pm meeting since it appeared to be about 15 minutes away. With the heavy rain, taxis wanted quite a bit as they said that rates were higher when it rains and traffic was worse. We finally settled on 30 reís (about $18) and headed out. The traffic was terrible and at 8:40 pm we finally got to the Yacht Club. Alas, no one quite knew where they met and it getting close to 8:45 pm and we noticed that the correct meeting time was 8:00 pm, not 8:30 (!) so we headed back. We caught a taxi for 20 reís and got back to the ship at 9:20 pm. The main restaurants were closed but according to the schedule, Aqualina was open until (9:30 pm so we headed there. The maitre d' graciously seated us and we enjoyed a later dinner but were not the last to leave.

The second day in Rio was rain, relax, and read as we did not leave the ship. The day was a "bust" for those who had planned city tours or a day at the beach for that day.

Paratí was the next day and was interesting for its history. It was a primary port during the 17th and 18th centuries when gold came down to there from Minas Geraís for export. It also served as a slave importing port for southern Brazil during the sugar cane era. It still exists as a primary source for the local sugar cane liquor. The town was quaint and interesting for its 18th century architecture in the old section which is well preserved. The town is not visited by many cruise ships as even our smaller ship had to tender from 3 miles out and still had only 3 meters of clearance. Most tourists come from São Paulo and Rio.

Itajaí is Brazil's second largest port and the intent by Azamara was for guests to use these two days for an Iguaçu Falls visit. The excursion as offered before we left was for more than $1300 per person including a chartered flight, hotel stay, folkloric show, sightseeing, etc. The great majority of guests chose not to do this and instead of two excursions offered only one did and the majority of guests instead stayed around Itajaí where one day would have been enough.

For us, the two days meant an opportunity to visit the home of a friend, Silvia Penner Gerber, who had worked with Sharon for a year and who lives in Curitiba, about 2 ½ hours north of Itajaí. By doing this, experienced a insider's view of Brazil including a churrasqueria, an evening Christmas performance (ask more about this), and a visit to the German Mennonite colony at Witmarsum.

Silvia's home is interesting as she speaks to her children in German, her husband speaks to them in English, and everyone outside the family speaks to them in Portuguese.

Porto Belo was a bust. First, it drizzled most of the day. Second was that the Brazilian authorities required that we add an additional port of call at Imbituba for clearing immigration and paying taxes, so instead of a full day at Porto Belo, we had only a half day. That meant that those with full-day excursions to Florianopolis or who wanted to go to the beaches were out of luck. Perhaps it was good that it was not good beach weather. We sailed that afternoon, the captain found sunshine; we had an extra half day at sea.

We had an excellent tour of Montevideo when we were here in February so we used half the day to explore the downtown area on our own and did some shopping in the pedestrian streets where there are numerous street vendors.

Punta del Este was pretty warm. We stayed on board until afternoon and then walked into town along the beach. Sharon got hot and headed back to the ship and I headed out for a longer walk, but not anticipating how long it would be! I followed the signs for the Museum Ralli (closed!) and then headed back via a different route, I had not realized how much the road had curved so I ended up going away from the ship instead of toward the ship. Anyhow, I got back to the ship about 4:30 pm and figured I had walked at least 8 miles, mostly through beautiful residential areas and beach.

Buenos Aires was great for our full day and we took John and Peg Haskins with us on a tour of the Japanese Gardens, Palermo, and Recoleta including the cemetery and lunch, and then walked back Centro where we got a cab back to the ship. For the night we went to a tango show at the Esquina Carlos Gardel, getting home after midnight.

Our final day in Buenos Aires was a bit cloudy but we left the ship at 8:45 am and were transferred to the Emperador Hotel where we could park for the day. We then walked up to the antique market at San Telmo, taking the pedestrian streets where possible, then to Puerto Madero for a fine lunch, then walked back to the hotel where we took the 5:00 pm bus to the airport. Long lines but everything went well and the flight went fast for a ten-hour flight.

All in all, we had a great trip, met some fun folks including spending time with Peg and John Haskins, did not spend much money overall and enjoyed one of our favorite parts of the world. Sharon made the comment about Buenos Aires: "I could live here."