Today we are in Hvar, which is located on an island just south of Split where we will be tomorrow. This is again a very old town, so old that it has the most UNESCO heritage of any island in the world. (At least according to the Croatian propaganda, who I assume, forgot that the United Kingdom is also an island) They also claim it is the birthplace of organized Tourism in Europe starting in 1868. Easy to claim, but if you consider that P&O was already making cruises in 1851 then I assume we have to take that claim with a pinch of salt as well. Still it is an old place, and a touristy place, and nowadays a preferred place where the Ultra Rich hang out.  Jeff Bezos has been seen here with his yacht and also Abramovich. And today they can add Lesley and I to that list who arrived with their own cruise ship.

Hvar anchorage.. Looking at the town from our balcony. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that this is long distance by tender.

The Azamara Onward had to anchor (Zadrilca Bay)  off shore as there is not much of a port here and thus we had to use the ships tenders. It was a 4-tender distance, which means that in order to give a good service you need to run four of them. One alongside the tender platform, one on the way to the shore (10 minute ride), one in the port, and one on the way back (10 minutes). That way you can run a 15 minute tender service and when using that  5 minutes to get people in and out, there is no waiting time. So I was disappointed when I saw that when we went ashore at 11.00 there were only 3 tenders in operation (increasing the time to 20 – 25 minutes) and on our way back at 13.30, we were down to 2, increasing the time to 30 to 35 minutes.  Which let me believe that the claim of the Hotelmanager “we give the best service possible” has not reached the deck department yet, who run the tender service.

The main square looking towards the harbour.

When at anchor, one is constantly surrounded by little ferryboats and small cruising yachts (25 – 30 guests) who sail to the various small islands nearby and focus on on sea, snorkeling and swimming.  (sun, sea and sex for the younger clientle). They constantly arrive and leave from downtown Hvar. That is most likely the reason why we are anchored so far out as just  outside the harbour entrance, the depth of the sea is still 12 meters and the Azamara Onward only has a draft of 7 meters. But local regulations apply. So after breakfast on the balcony and waiting for the tender, we made it ashore by 11.00 hrs.

The other side of the square with the local main Church, St. Stephens Cathedral.

The harbour is surrounded by a boulevard type of dock and this is where the many small ferry’s, small cruise yachts and hotel shuttles dock. The more expensive hotels located on the various islands near the port run their own ferry boats to Hvar. The town itself is situated around the bay called Luka Hvar and has a myriad of small alleyways going up against the hills, where all the shops and restaurants are located. Focus point of it all is the Main Square which is the largest in the whole of the province of Dalmatia to which Hvar belongs. It was even bigger in the past but due to a building boom a few hundred years ago, a series of houses were built against the City Wall and on top of the North part of the square. Here a church was built in the 6th century, rebuilt in the 14th century but most of what can be seen today was remodeled in the 17th century and that includes the Bell Tower. All of Croatia, is full of these churches, as most Croatians are devout Roman Catholics, and they all charge an entry fee. With so much old stuff out there, starting with the Greeks and the Romans and ending with the Austrian Hungarian Empire, there is no way the Government can fund the repair and upkeep of all these churches; and thus the locals have to scramble to find money. Luckily tourism is a great help here and we saw tour group after tour group going in, and going out. Having looked at yet another 15th. century pulpit. (Although it is a very nice one)

The Sunset Verandah. Very popular on sea days and later in the evenings when all are back on board.

After so much culture and with the noon time temperature going up to 30oC / 86oF, we went back to the ship. Now with only 2 tenders running we had to wait 20 minutes inside the tender, before it returned to the ship, full to capacity.  As mentioned before, there is food all day, and thus we are trying to avoid temptation and are cutting down on intake. And as long as we avoid walking through the whole Lido Buffet area, that works quite well. To be away from the food, there is the option to sit on the Sunset Verandah outside and aft of the Lido with only a small lunch. When the ship is laying in a good position behind the anchor a cool breeze plays over the the deck and that makes it very pleasant. My problem is that I “yield to temptation” each time I walk by the soft ice machines. These you operate yourself and there is a whole bar of condiments. Inside the Lido there is then another ice cream stand and offers a choice of about 10 flavors  served by a cute Philippina with an ice cream sellers cap on. So life ain’t easy.

Our daily program. The loose part on the right has a rundown of events by the hour so you always know where and when something is happening. Then for each port you can pick up a local map, produced by Azamara, with local information on the back of it from the Front Desk.

Tonight we had dinner in one of the speciality Restaurants. There are 2 of them on deck 10. One is a steakhouse and the other one an Italian. Cost  $ 49,95 a head but we had it included in our package.  (When you are in the suites, if is free all the time) You just have to make sure you book on embarkation day. We had nice seat overlooking the stern of the ship while the sun set over the Croatian islands. The food was very good, the service very good, and the complimentary wines not bad either, all in all a very good experience. We had a reservation for 18.30 as the next time was 20.00 so the early dinner gave the option to make one of the shows.

The “Aqualina” Italian speciality Resturant. This is the back part, where we sat overlooking the stern of the vessel. The restaurant seats about 80 and curves around the funnel (and kitchen) on the portside, while the steakhouse does the same on the starboard side. But this location has by far the best view.

The main show tonight was the Assistant Cruise Director Jose Alpizar, who presented a singing show, which I would call a “crooning event”. We already knew he was very good but we opted for Madelaine in “The Den”.

The beautiful and talented Madelaine performing in “The Den”.

She is one of the singers in the cast and gave a solo performance. Beautiful voice but I think that this was the first time that she was doing it, as she was totally focused on the music on her tablet and forgot all about eye contact with the audience. Her boyfriend (The guitar player in the show band) was close by to provide the necessary mental support. So she has to work a bit on her show performance but she will get there as she has a very good presence on the stage during the regular shows. So we enjoyed that and then we decided to call it a day, as tomorrow we are in Split, also Croatia, and we are on tour. We are expected in the Cabaret Lounge at 08.30 for our tour sticker and dispatch to the bus.  As mentioned before, there are no announcements so you have to make sure you get there on time yourself.  Tomorrow will be another warm day, same as today. But there is talk of rain, when we get to Kotor in 2 days time.