I have just returned from a 5 day cruise on the Astor with 3 generations of my family as a group of 9. These are my observations.
The Astor
Pros
We had a midship cabin which was only a short walk to the front and rear stairs. The Dining room was one floor up at the rear, the buffet was above the dining room and the Astor lounge was one floor up forward. I only used the lift once, when we were escorted to our room by one of the staff as we embarked. There were two lifts forward and one lift aft. The lifts looked fullish with three adults in them and did not accommodate wheelchairs.
Premium Suite Oceanview
The Astor has only one cabin with a balcony so we chose the above room which had two full-length windows. It was the biggest room we have ever had on a ship, even bigger than a Princess Grill room on the Queen Elizabeth. I was great to lie in bed or sit on the couch and watch the waves go past. It was originally two rooms with the dividing wall removed. The price for the 5-night cruise was $3000. A bit pricey, but it was the minimum arrangement with which we would be happy. It has more storage space than I could imagine anyone would ever need.
Single Inner
There are only four of these cabins, located midships. The price for the cruise was $875. Quite a competitive price for a single traveller.
Bathroom
Both the Premium Suite Oceanview and the Single Inner has a reasonably sized bathroom with a glass walled shower, no bath. This is my preferred arrangement.
Superior Inner Suite
Same layout as the Premium Suite Oceanview.
These were well done with limited resources. There were 5 singers including the cruise director and 6 dancers. The music was all enjoyable with themes of Broadway Musicals, Peter Allen, Abba and Around the World. There were no sets but good costumes and very energetic dancing.
Before the shows there was 30 minutes of dancing music.
Cons
As the ship is very small, there are a restricted number of areas in which to congregate. They are the Astor Lounge which is closed at times, the Captains Club which is a darker internal area with a corridor on either side, the Games room and the Library, with 6 tables in each. Both the games room and the library have good selections. There is very short promenade deck for walking under some cover and a short walking track on the top deck of the boat.
This was an inadequate area with little equipment. Unfortunately, the smoking area has been placed right outside the door to the gym with unpleasant consequences.
Waldorf Restaurant
The largest table size was 6. This did not suit our group of 9 but the maître d’ placed us at the back of the dining room at a table for 4 next to a table for 6 and we mixed and matched at each meal. The dining room was full a number of times and people had to queue up to wait for other diners to leave. The food was satisfactory but not brilliant. Better than Celebrity but not as good as Azamara, Cunard, Princess or Royal Caribbean.
Buffet
This served the same food as the Waldorf Restaurant with slightly extended hours. The opening hours were quite restricted.
I was amazed at the lack of passengers in wheelchairs, scooters or walkers. Maybe half a dozen passengers. There are restrictions on where wheelchairs can be stored. One passenger who could walk a few steps had to get out of his wheelchair, his wife would collapse it and then expanded it at the next level. This was because the lifts were too small to accommodate his collapsible wheelchair. On some cruises, I have estimated 25% of passengers requiring mobility aids.
Comments
The boat is marketed to adults and is not set up to entertain children. This means that even though our cruise was in the middle of the summer school holidays, there were far fewer children than I expected. (Two were in our party; a 5yo and a 3yo.) However, there were no specific activities for children or teenagers.
This cruise had the lowest average passenger age of any I have experienced. I would estimate the difference to be 20 years. My husband cruelly jokes that on some cruises, the average age is dead. There were also a higher proportion of men than I have usually noticed.
The number of activities on sea days was very limited.
Conclusion
My daughter-in-law enjoyed the cruise as she loved the provided meals, the itinerary being in and out of Fremantle and serviced cabins. It allowed her and my son to have plenty of fun with the children. She wants to go again in the 2019 and 2020 summer school holidays.
My daughter wouldn’t go on the Astor again. The ship was too small for her with inadequate pools and no hot tub. She wasn’t thrilled with the food.
My husband found the size of the ship limited the opportunities to stretch his legs.
My husband and I would only go on the Astor again on a short cruise as part of a group which included our grandchildren. We didn’t fuss about the ports due to the close proximity to Perth. Otherwise, we prefer to stick with Princess, Cunard and the Bravo (Classical music and Opera) cruise.
