The line, which is part of Royal Caribbean Cruises, has unveiled the World Cup cruises as part of the deployment plans for its two ships during 2018.
Azamara is also to operate its first world cruise in 2018 on Azamara Journey which will start in Sydney and then sail for more than 100 nights before finishing at Tower Bridge in London.
Richard Twynam, Azamara’s UK managing director, said passengers on the two cruises to Russia could purchase tickets for a World Cup game in St Petersburg through the cruise line.
“We’re really excited because we don’t know of any cruise company that has combined an itinerary with World Cup matches – we’re sure they will sell out quickly,” said Twynam.
The itineraries are part of a focus on more specialty cruises in 2018, which will also include both Azamara ships visiting the Monaco Grand Prix Formula 1 race. Azamara Journey will be combining its trip to Monaco with the Cannes Film Festival in May 2018.
“We are going to be pairing Cannes Film Festival with the grand prix and we can get tickets for both,” added Twynam. “It will be a staggeringly good Med itinerary.”
Azamara also plans to include more golf-themed trips in 2018 including an itinerary around New Zealand with the chance to play at two of the country’s courses.
“We’re committed to New Zealand up to 2018 and we will have an itinerary calling at 18 ports in the destination,” said Twynam.
Both of Azamara’s ships will be going into dry dock in early 2016 to undergo refurbishment of their cabins and public areas, which the company has branded as a “reimagining” of the ships.
But despite this investment in refreshing its onboard experience, Twynam said that Azamara would continue with its strategy of destination “immersion”.
“We only talk about the destination and we stay singularly focused on the destination,” he added.
But he added that the refurbished ships would be “massively transformational” and would give Azamara the “newest interiors on the ocean in 2016”.
Twynam said that 2015 would be Azamara’s second year of profitability despite the difficulties of having a high proportion of cruises sailing around the eastern Mediterranean this year.
He described bookings for 2016 as being “in a strong position”, driven primarily by a 25% rise in UK sales.
