Azamara Pursuit to Jingle all the Way to Sydney & Melbourne

Azamara Pursuit sailed between the heads into Fremantle just after midday today, amidst a sky made smoky from a 2 day old bushfire at Port Kennedy, a little south of Freo, and buffeted by a 28 knot south westerly gusting to 37 knots. A little different from the conditions when she departed Benoa, Bali, we suspect!

Azamara Pusuit, Fremantle, 18 December 2024. Credit Jean Hudson

She has just completed a 12-night Asia and Asia Pacific Cruise from Singapore to Fremantle. Her last port of call was Benoa. She will now be tied up in Freo for the next couple days before departing on a 15-Night Australian Christmas and New Year Cruise for Sydney and Melbourne on Friday evening.

We have featured Azamara Pursuit’s two sister ships, Azamara Quest and Azamara Journey, here on the Shipping News when they visited Fremantle at different times in 2022 and 2023.

Like her sister ships, Azamara Pursuit, who sails under the flag of Malta, is a mid-sized luxury cruise ship and a favourite ship for regular cruisers – described as ‘your boutique hotel at sea’.

She is an R-class cruise ship, built in 2001 for Renaissance by Chantiers de l’Atlantique, who entered service for Azamara Cruises in 2007. Before then, she sailed under four different names: R Eight, Minerva II, Royal Princess and Adonia.

Azamara Pursuit is approximately 180m long with off beam of 25m and a gross tonnage of 30,277. She has the capacity of 1,000 passengers and crew, and can motor along at 25kph.

Here’s a gallery of more pics of Azamara Pursuit’s arrival in Fremantle today.

Azamara Pusuit, Fremantle, 18 December 2024. Credit Jean Hudson

In Fremantle, the ship will be provisioned and made ready for the lucky passengers heading off on the 15-night cruise. She will first visit Busselton, Albany and Esperance. Guests will have Christmas lunch in the middle of the Australian Bight. Then, it’s on to Adelaide, Kangaroo Island and, bypassing Melbourne for the time being, Eden. She arrives in Sydney in time to ring in the New Year and watch the fireworks show in Sydney Harbour, before arriving in Melbourne on 4 January 2025.

Here’s the itinerary and journey.

The majority of passengers will not disembark until tomorrow, enjoying a last night on the ship and the opportunity to explore Fremantle. Some passengers will be leaving the ship and new passengers will join the ship on Friday for the 15-day cruise.

So, head on down to the port on Friday to watch Azamara Pursuit sail into the sunset around 6 pm.

Wishing all aboard Azamara Pursuit a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year – and safe travels!

* Story and photographs of Azamara Pursuit by Jean Hudson @jeansodyssey. Jean is our Shipping Correspondent and also a regular feature writer and photographer here on the Shipping News. You may also like to follow up her informative Places I Love stories, as well as other feature stories and Freo Today photographs, right here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* If you’d like to COMMENT on this or any of our stories, don’t hesitate to email our Editor.

** WHILE YOU’RE HERE –