Azamara is giving small-ship cruise fans a fresh reason to look at the southern Caribbean. The line has announced a new Caribbean season for Azamara Quest, built around two seven-night itineraries running between Miami and Barbados in December 2028 — with a route that includes some islands bigger ships rarely bother with.
The first sailing leaves Miami on December 4, 2028. After two days at sea, the ship calls at Charlotte Amalie in St. Thomas, then Philipsburg in St. Maarten, Castries in St. Lucia and St. George's in Grenada, docking in Bridgetown, Barbados on December 11. That means four island stops on back-to-back days to close out the week — and Barbados makes an easy place to tack on a few nights on land if you'd rather extend the trip.
The return leg reverses the route with a different island list entirely. Leaving Bridgetown on December 11, Quest stops first at Port Elizabeth on Bequia, the laid-back Grenadine island that's a rare cruise port, then moves on to Roseau in Dominica, Basseterre in St. Kitts and San Juan in Puerto Rico before reaching Miami on December 18. For anyone who has Bequia on their list, this is the sailing to book.
The smart play here may be to combine them. Booked back to back, the two cruises make a two-week voyage that starts and ends in Miami, with a turnaround day in Barbados in the middle and a completely different set of islands each week. Quest then stays in holiday mode: on December 18 it departs Miami on a Christmas-and-New-Year voyage calling at Cartagena on Colombia's Caribbean coast, transiting the Panama Canal and finishing in San Diego. That canal sailing is the last in the Caribbean programme before the ship joins Azamara's 2029 World Cruise.
Azamara is also sweetening the deal with a 30 percent early booking bonus that applies across all stateroom categories, though Grand Voyages are excluded. Worth knowing if you like the boutique end of cruising: Quest is lined up as the first ship in the fleet to get Azamara's refresh, which adds a new penthouse deck with 12 suites.
Who's this for? Travellers who want fewer crowds and longer port days than the mega-ships offer, and anyone keen on the Windward and Grenadine islands that sit off the standard Eastern Caribbean circuit. The December dates also make it a realistic option for combining a cruise with a warm-weather holiday week ashore in Barbados or Miami. Bookings this far out reward early movers — the 30 percent bonus is the incentive to lock in a cabin now rather than later.
