7 nights on a SUPER YACHT. Our Full Experience Review

Well hello and welcome to the Caribbean, the sunny and hot Caribbean. I thought we'd give you a flavour of what we've been doing this week and welcome to our Emerald Azura experience review. Welcome! So we've been on the ship about a week now, this is our last full day. We joined in Bridgetown and we've basically been sailing around all the little Grenadian islands. So at the moment we're in Caracal but we've been to Union Island, we've been to Meru, we've been to Bequia and lots of the little islands haven't we? We haven't really travelled far in between destinations at all. Well the actual itinerary is called the Grenadines and Grenada Adventure. We've basically kept in a very very small compact area of well the Grenadines and we've been just island hopping. Very very short little stints between islands but we've had a really deep dive into the Grenadines and what we're going to do now is just show you a small sort of montage of what we've got up to this week. Okay so when you're on board most of the excursions are included within your fare. There are a couple of extra cost excursions but they're not generally too expensive. So yesterday we went on one to a tiny little sandbank island in the middle of the Caribbean called Mopian Island and that was $79 each for us. That was an extra cost fare but most of them have been included and you know we've had a mix of wetlandings, tenders and we had one stay where we were docked up didn't we and during that stay we could have, we didn't because the weather wasn't great it kept raining, but we could have taken the bikes out. They have electric bikes on board don't they? Yep they have a limited number of electric bikes on board but they are really really good. They've got these kind of like chunky tyres on and they look really good fun. Unfortunately we couldn't get out on one on this trip as you said but definitely next time we're going to go for that because we love all that sort of yeah I mean if you were somewhere where you were alongside a lot you'd be able to take them out whenever you wanted I think but we only had one alongside otherwise we've been tendering haven't we? But as you can see from our little montage we've just shown you the places are so small and they're so Caribbean aren't they? I mean it's really really lovely to get into these tiny little places you can only reach these sort of things with this sort of size of ship but actually mentioning the ship why don't we just talk a little bit about the ship itself size bit and stuff like that yeah the ship itself well it would describe itself as a luxury yacht there's a capacity for about 100 guests on board and I think it's 79 crew or something isn't it we've been sailing with about 80 guests on board so it is really an intimate experience and everybody's getting to know each other captain is always around sailing with his daughter at the moment who's come out to sail with him so that's lovely they've been it's been very family orientated yeah captain Ian he's great I mean he's he's always about you see him all over the place this is one of the benefits of being on such a small ship with 100 guests they're just there for you and they chat with you and they remember your name and it's just such all the crew do yep they remember your name they remember your suite number so if you want to order anything like a drink or anything like that you don't hand your card over it just feels so relaxed and so sort of smooth I suppose and you obviously get to know other passengers as well so that's great they you know it all becomes very sort of has a very family feel about it really doesn't it after a couple of days now as you can see from the aerial footage we're just showing you now the ship is absolutely gorgeous I mean it's one of the prettiest ships I think we've ever been on the design of it is just like a super yacht you just look at it and it's just like wow you know you wouldn't think it was a cruise ship if you like if you've ever been on emerald river ship though there is a lot of the dna from emerald river ships on this ship so the design the style of it yeah the everything is you know all the interior decor and everything is very very similar isn't it with regard to the style of the ship we've only been on one emerald radiance in the douro and I think what emerald have tried to do is take the style and the sort of decor of the river ships and translate them to small ocean ships it says white marble everywhere there's lots of reflected surfaces some people would say that it's it's contemporary but quite it's not soft enough for them if you're used to something like uni world you might there might be a bit of a stark contrast there's not much color there's always kind of very light beiges light grays and white mirrored surfaces white marble reflective but if you're used to the river ships you'll be right at home I actually personally like I think it's got a certain style about it and it's definitely translated to the ships really really well as is I would say the dining is very similar as well isn't it there's only really one main dining room the kitchena dining room and that's where you have breakfast lunch and dinner breakfast and lunch or buffet and then in the evening it's a la carte menu but very very similar to a river ship so there's usually a couple of starters a couple of soups three main courses to choose from and then three desserts aren't there so it's it's quite a limited menu but obviously it's quite a small ship yeah I mean you've got to remember that there's only 100 guests on board so you're not going to get the the breadth of sort of dining options that you would on even something like a silver sea ship or a seaborne ship where you've got between four and seven hundred guests I mean it's a hundred guests I mean it's tiny yeah and I think the food they offer for a hundred guests is really good if you're used to the larger ships you'll find the menu quite limited apart from the daily choices there's not always available menu with like you know steaks and salmon and things like that on it's because bolognese isn't there and you can have that in your suite as well yeah and I have to say you know we've been traveling with a few people that have got some dietary requirements we've also been traveling with a little four-year-old and they have been absolutely supportive and not made a big deal about it you know there's it's just been very quietly accommodated it's been amazing and the chef again chef paul is always around chef paul the head chef he is amazing it's just like the captain he's always there yeah and they've tailored what they give people that have got intolerances really well yeah really really well so big thumbs up for that and if you're vegan or vegetarian because we spoke to chef paul about this they will make it for you so um they're very aware of people's dietary requirements which I think is great the other dining option is up by the aqua pool up the back of deck six and that's a very much more informal style dining so at breakfast time they just have some pastries and continental breakfast laid out at lunchtime they have flatbeds and burgers or hot dogs so the flatbed flatbread menu is uh really it's really lovely there's loads of different options on that and then the burgers we've had a burger up there it's really nice and for a ship this small to have that kind of thing is absolutely great you can have a burger yeah it's not open in the evening but the main restaurant does have a lovely outdoor terrace so if you'd like to eat alfresco there is still the option to eat outside so that's the dining that is big thumbs up for that and one of the biggest public spaces is the amici lounge which is on deck three i believe is that day three yes behind then there's the reception then there's the amici lounge and the amici lounge is because there's no theater on board it's such a small ship so everything happens in the amici lounge and it's great because it's a great meeting point if the top decks were a little bit windy there's a lot of things going on in there there's quizzes there's uh entertainment there's well i'll let helen explain yeah there's um katie um who's the sort of resident pianist so she's often in there pre-dinner and sometimes after dinner she also plays the guitar in fact she plays the guitar more than she plays the piano i'm sorry katie katie does well she's excellent guitarist she might play the piano i don't know we haven't seen her play the piano because i don't there's a piano on board but i don't think there is a piano so random fact from helen and then we have dean who's our entertainment host guy he runs all the quizzes and there's been some trivia during the day and also after dinner and we've had game show night last night and he also is a brilliant singer so he did one night where he did some singing and last night he actually came around the dining room oh we did crooning crooning it was fabulous it was lovely yeah and then we also have brent who's our lifestyle coach so he's the guy that arranges if you wanted to go out on the bikes or if you wanted to take some of the stuff off the marina like the paddle boards and he's always on the beach if we've got paddleboards of the kayaks out isn't he and he's also um a really good wealth of information really helpful really friendly they get to know you and again this is another benefit of small ship cruising you know if you don't like the crowds and you want a little bit more of a personal experience everyone just gets to know you and it's great thank you hello thank you very much thank you very much sorry about that some lovely guys just bought in a fruit plate which was what we get in our suite every day every day fabulous isn't it especially when you come back from excursion anyway what would you say back to the lounge there's a lovely bar in there a big bar there is a drinks package available but there is always wine and beer and soft drinks available at lunch and dinner time and we've been buying the odd cocktail and they're not massively expensive great for solos as well we've got a lot of solo travelers on board i've met more solo travelers on here than i think i've met on any size ship so uh but it's great they all eat together and go out on excursions together and i think it's really nice because it's so small it is really nice such a nice sociable place if you're a solo traveler and you want to get out and experience something on a smaller ship then this is definitely definitely yeah very good for solo traveling so if you go just down one deck to deck two there's a small area down there it's not small it's quite significant where the spa is and the gym now obviously for the size of the ship you wouldn't expect much from the gym but actually it's a really good little gym really well thought out they've got a couple of massage rooms in there and they've also got a really clever infrared sauna which doesn't heat the air it heats your body apparently we had a go didn't we yeah we did it was quite fun it's mostly focused on your back so if you've got any sort of back or shoulder issues it's really nice really really good and that's also where you access the tenders as well that's right through there not an awful lot else on deck two there's a little salon in there as well and there the residence spa and wellness guy he also does complimentary yoga lessons every morning for about an hour on the open decks at seven o'clock every morning actually let's talk about that open deck out the front because it's near the observation lounge which is on deck four so it's a very small observation lounge there's only four seats in there there's four seats and then there's like a puzzle table which has got another four that's right there's yeah it's a lovely little place actually there's there's lots of books there's a tea and coffee machine and a place where you can fill your water bottle up there they've got these lovely little filtered britter water fountains dotted around and gives you really nice water so you can fill your water bottle that you get in your room and just in front of that is another area actually we forgot to say that's part of the entertainment part of the entertainment because at the front of that you've got this lovely little seating area out the front of the observation lounge but in front of that is a quite large the size of the ship it's like a large open deck area they bring guests on board to do like cultural enrichment entertainment and stuff like that so we've had there's only been two this week there was one that was like very caribbean vibe wasn't there and then another one which was singing and dancing yeah sort of dancing a bit grenadian grenadian sort of word it was yeah it was quite cultural when they bring the entertainers on board the drinks are yeah they bring around a rum punch or i suppose what depending on what yeah that's always a bonus isn't it also on deck four very usefully is a very good laundrette there's only one on deck four but there's four excellent washers and dryers in there they're all pre-loaded so you don't have to worry about bringing any laundry powder or anything like that literally just go in turn them on dry the dryers are amazing there's a lining board and iron in there we've used that can i give you a fact yeah there is more laundry space on here than there is on the entire hold america please uh just moving up to the top there's a beautiful infinity pool out the back and actually that's just triggered what i'm going to say next about the lounging areas yeah the external seating yeah oh my goodness i've never seen for such a size of ship such an array no considering we sailed on ponant last year which is at least twice this size with regards to the number of passengers on there there was if there was 20 lounges you were lucky whereas here there's so many day beds sun lounges plenty of them in the shade then let's you just go up some stairs at the side it sort of takes you to the front of the ship which isn't very there's not much distance between that because by the time you get to the top it's not very wide and that takes you to the front and at the front is a lovely long hot tub oh it's massive a glass view so you can sit at the front of the ship and look generally the outdoor deck spaces are lovely and really well appointed and more than adequate for the number of people that are absolutely absolutely no putting your towels out well we're at 80 capacity which is not insignificant there's hardly ever seen anyone around there's so much space yeah so much deck space to uh spread out and also the beautiful balconies you've got in your suites as well it's amazing just feels like a it does feel like your own super and although the pool the pool is not massive but you know it's enough really for you to cool down isn't it i mean i would say one thing we were on a similar size and we have to sort of make comparisons with what we've you know this is a review we've got to make comparisons with what we've been in before and this time last year we were on les deux monts de ville which if you look on our channel you'll see all the the lovely videos from that they had a swim trainer they had a similar size pool if emerald had put like one of those swim trainers in there it made a little bit of a difference the problem with the pool on here is it's not very deep it's really only about sort of waist height right they might not get a swim trainer in there so it is more really of a splash pool really it's nice though you know that's almost it in terms of public areas but there are a couple more public-ish areas and one is the open bridge so the bridge is where obviously the captain drives the ship and his officers and it's an open bridge policy here and again it's another positive for small ship cruising because you'll often find open bridges on smaller ships because obviously there's less guests and the deck crew are obviously more informal they don't even tend to close it during maneuvering though do you know which is unusual because often you know smaller ships they'll close it when they're coming in and out of port but here they're like no there's a sofa come on fantastic there is it's like a there's like a sofa bench there and you just chill on that and just watch them do their stuff it's amazing it's a really really modern bridge i mean we've been on lots and lots of bridges and this one is like something out of the space station it's amazing yeah there's a deck in front of the bridge for viewing and stuff and everyone's just really really friendly yeah you just stroll up there and have a look around yeah you went up there yesterday while we were underway didn't you or as we moved from one place to another absolutely great and the other one is the marina deck at the back which is something on similar size ships you'll often find and that's brilliant because they'll bring out their water toys kayaks paddleboards they've got a trampoline you can obviously just swim off the back there if you want to it's also where you access the zodiac so if they're doing a zodiac landing then you'll access the zodiacs from there i suppose we have to mention the slight elephant in the room which is the tender it's the most unusual tender it is the tender tends to be accessed off the side of the ship off the spar as we said it accommodates about 30 people so and it just there's only one can i just say the tender just for clarification is not normally the tenders are the lifeboats but the lifeboats are the lifeboats and the tender is a specific vehicle that that lives in a garage that they bring out at the side of the ship and they use that as a tender it's a proper traditional tender rather than a lifeboat which is actually quite fun it's quite unusual in that you access it from the front of the ship when you're getting off of the ship front of the tender you mean not the front of the ship yes the front of the tent what did the captain call that are that they is it the cow pain in the backside i think he called it i can't remember what he called it did he call it the cow shed or something it's very unusual in that the tender has to sort of line up with this contraption that's attached to the ship and then aim at it and then it locks it locks into place but obviously when you've got a bit or a tie it can be a bit it can take a few attempts let's just say literally hit and miss and when it does land sometimes it can be a bit jolty we all now just go brace brace brace brace brace brace preserve the dental records but in all seriousness if you're the sort of person that finds tenders difficult to get on and off anyway the design was probably for it to be easier it actually is not so i think it's easy to get on and off it's just getting it docked yeah it's like a docking process isn't it rather than just a couple of the boats throwing the ropes up and securing it which actually the old ways are probably the better ways we've been on it numerous times and we we don't mind it but it's just a word of warning if you're a bit anxious about tenders i've got to say the tender's great though it's like a jet boat it's really good it's not like your traditional life boat very much either very very good but you know if they've got it on sakara as well obviously works well we can hopefully we can show you some footage and then you can make your own mind up oh hell and i just have so when you come on board where are you going to live for the week well there's 50 suites which gives us our 100 capacity and you would think that they would all be balcony suites but they're not there's actually six ocean view suites right at the front on deck three behind the bar aren't they yep so if you're on a budget actually it's a good place to start because the the rooms are still superb and then you've got the standard i say standard they're not really standard it's still luxury aren't they they're very lovely yeah they're the majority of them yes most of them and they're on decks four and five they all have lovely balconies they're quite narrow but they're quite wide their furniture on them is lovely there's like two very comfortable chairs and a table there are a few larger suites of course this is being a luxury yacht there's a couple of owner's suites which is right on the top i've got a few clips of that because we got on early luckily they let us on early so we had a quick poke around and behind that there's a couple of other suites there's like four they're right at the front at the top of the ship with large branders aren't they yes and then you've got four lovely suites at the back we're in one i mean emerald thank you to emerald for um giving us one of the yacht suites which is there are only two on the ship what we're going to do now is just give you a quick look at that because it's fabulous and i have to say this has been the most lovely balcony we've ever had on any ship we've been on it's beautiful off balcony loads of lovely furniture and different types of ventures a couple of lounges table and chairs an outdoor fridge the lighting out here is lovely so at night there's lots of different lighting if you want to come and sit out here it's just been beautiful yeah i mean top top marks for the patio furniture the veranda furniture here because it's absolutely fabulous and it's just such an amazing space like you said and there's another two of these suites up on deck five which have a very similar balcony but the actual rooms are smaller because the the back of the ship is quite raked so yeah there's some great suites to be had they're not cheap because emerald azure is not cheap but it's been fabulous hasn't it yeah like rich says it's not the cheapest option but you are paying the price for being on an exclusive ship not many people are small cruising is always going to be more expensive yeah but it's actually preference you don't like crowds if you don't like all the noise it's the way it goes yes i mean that's one of the things that we were saying summing up isn't it it's just very intimate lovely experience are we going to do the summary now yes so the reason i mentioned the patio doors and their ability to lock is obviously this is quite a small ship which does mean that it moves you know it moves a lot more than some of the larger ships we've been quite lucky really like we say we've only been island hopping so we haven't had to go far and the seas have been quite good but if you don't like movement this is not going to be a ship well any small ship i mean it's got all the latest stabilization technology and it's a fabulous ship but you know if you've got a hundred meter ship it's not gonna be as stable as a 500 meter ship simple as that if you don't mind the movement that's fine but what you'll find these itineraries like the one we're on now you're going like 10 miles between each and it literally takes about an hour to sail from one destination to the next if you get on a good itinerary you're never going to feel it anyway because it's just like this no we've been docked in some beautiful bays overnight which have been really sheltered and we've been staying there overnight and then the captain will lift the anchor sort of early in the morning about seven o'clock and we'll just pootle on for a couple of hours onto the next destination and then we'll stay there until the next morning so the movement hasn't bothered us at all um we had a bit of movement on the first night coming over from Barbados but it was nothing that we haven't experienced no and i think the captain in an interview because i asked him the question he basically said because of the size of the ship they've got flexibility on when they can leave an area and join an area and in terms of that you know if the wind's picked up somewhere he'll just say well we're going to stay here then yeah and then we'll we'll move in the morning so it's very very flexible yeah i think he has a look doesn't he and he decides shall we stay here overnight or shall we move to the next destination and stay there and sometimes we'll move to destination early and it might take a couple of hours and then we just lay down our anchor a lovely little sheltered bay and there you go so a negative under positive i suppose yeah yeah absolutely so there's a flexibility of it but the negative you know aspect is is what it is but overall how would you describe your experience oh overwhelmingly positive it's been such a really really good small ship experience i think that the ship is absolutely gorgeous when you're sitting on a beach because we have a lot of beach days on this sort of itinerary venue and it's anchored very very close to the shore because it's got a very shallow draft well i can't remember what you said now four meters or something like that so they can anchor in 10 meter water a larger ship with an eight meter draft is not going to go anywhere near that so they're able to get much closer to the destination you are so you're tender off and you've still got this beautiful view of this lovely ship from where you are and it's just so nice i can't explain it you have to kind of feel that thing for yourself so yeah a massive thumbs up the staterooms and the suites and the pool areas and the pool areas they're luxury yeah no doubt about that the suites of luxury you know you've got the amenities of a luxury suite i mean it's not the cheapest way to sail the caribbean but if you want a good solid small ship experience took us a couple of days to settle in but now we don't want to get off it's been a week and i think there's some spare rooms next week so we could have stayed on but we can't and with that uh thank you for watching i hope you enjoyed our review and you find it helpful if you've got any questions about our emerald experience then please don't hesitate to drop them in the comments below and we'll do our best to answer them for you and a big shout out to emerald for hosting this trip and for letting us have such a beautiful room yes and a big shout out to panache cruises as well which have been with us hand in hand along the way so if you're interested in emerald please give panache a call on the numbers that i think you saw before if not they're here and we hope to see you very very soon and with that we've got an announcement on the tannoy does it say it's lunchtime helen anyway until then goodbye see you later bye