On the Odyssey without a Tux

Captain's dinner on our second night I wore a white brocade silk shirt, with a jazzy modern tartan bow tie, a cream linen jacket and a pair of camel coloured chinos with brown shoes. About six gentlemen wore black tie, some wore suits, some even wore jackets with shirts but NO TIES. Nobody died. Everyone looked pretty elegant. It was too darned hot outside in the evening to wear a jacket, even with the sea breeze. Too darned hot to wear anything much at all, in fact, so we retired to our balcony where I wore nothing and caused two small fishing ketches to capsize (just kidding).

Flamin_June,

You said on another thread that your v2 cabin has a part metal balcony section.

From memory I know this rises 80 cm from the balcony deck up to the glass portion.

I don't guess that this much shields those poor fishermen from witnessing the consequences of your after dinner al fresco behaviors, does it?

No wonder they capsized... Or whatever really happened.

Happy sailing!

Day five, our second sea day.

it has taken about four days to settle in, and looking back at my earlier posts I now realises it is unrealistic to compare the little and big sisters. It's too much like apples and oranges. Both classes of ships are what they are. They are different experiences, but the one thing that is consistent across all the ships that runs like a motherload through everything is the Seabourn service. at the moment it is exceptional, the crew are simply great, indulgent, spoiling us all, hardworking and fun. there is a lot more crew too than on the lit' sisters so there is always someone on hand.

The Odyssey doesn't have some of the special small ship charms of a Legend or Spirit and it is harder to get to know people and crew. As I have said before I miss the old Sky Bar thing and we haven't found a perfect substitute, but we are sailing on a magnificent vessel with every conceivable luxury to hand.

It's the fellow passengers that make or break a cruise, and while there are many charming and eccentric companions, there are a fair few of the attention demanding, it's all about me, 'As Much As I Can Eat' brigade. But enough about them. Last night we fell in a a small group of elderly cigar smoking, vintage wine drinking multi millionaires with Monaco addresses, who have taken up evening residence on the deck at the back of Seabourn square. This morning we rose late with hangovers.

What I do like about the Odyssey is the way the designers have taken several the visual motifs from the little sisters and incorporated them into this ship, so there is always a reminder that this is Seabourn.

The MDR has been open every day for breakfast and lunch. My first experience of trivia has been fun, but our team of CC stalwarts, The Titanics, is sinking fast, in bottom position. John Howells is great CD.

Next post: a little less reflective musing, a little more descriptive day to day accounting.

Flaming June, you have to keep up the Titanics' reputation. I was on the team last cruise and we came from behind and won. No doubt the others still on the team will tell you. Good luck!

Flaming June, you have to keep up the Titanics' reputation. I was on the team last cruise and we came from behind and won. No doubt the others still on the team will tell you. Good luck!

Glad to see you are upholding your reputation in the trivia stakes Pat! Well done!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thank you, Jo. It was great fun. Athens to Mumbai was a great cruise and the added security brought in by Seabourn made everyone feel safer. Sorry, I'm hijacking this thread!

Relieved to hear that no one died, that can ruin a cruise. We were on a Crystal cruise once and the couple in the next balcony used it amorously very often, and very loudly. I'll guess the fisherman have seen worse (better). HA! Have a fun cruise.

I would very much appreciate your current assessment of The Restaurant, since I've read mixed reviews of late.

Flaming June. I hope you don't give up on this travelogue. I look forward to your posts. Sorry about others hijacking your thread.

For the foodies among you.

So far we have eaten in the restaurant most nights and the patio grill one night and ashore one night

We tend to dine a deux, but might share a table with people we have chummed up with on occasion. Hosted table dining is too prolonged for us, we like to get out on deck after dinner and take in the sea at night in the warm evening air. My wife is a light(ish) eater, so I am not often allowed sweets, as she does not like to sit around watching me eat. She's an all action type of gal - likes to get in and order early, be done by eight pm and then hit the bars.

Having said all that, the service in the dining room has been exemplary. The poured wines pretty good, though a touch on the fruity side for my taste. There has been absolutely no hesitation if we ask for an alternative pour. Last night we asked the Cote du Rhone and it was good.

The quality and presentation of the food is first class, but it's a bit too rich and fussy as far as our personal tastes are concerned. Our current chef is not as strong on the vegetarian selection, compared to previous cruises. The attempts at Asian cuisine are to be avoided at all costs.

The pizza at the patio grill is amongst the best we have had In a long time. As I said elsewhere the potato salad at lunch in the Colonnade is stupendously good.

The french fries are legendary.

Here is a a selection from the menu from Monday 27th

Starters

Grilled Figs w crisp filo pastry, prosciutto , Roquefort cheese

Plum tomatoes & buffalo mozzarella w lemon vinaigrette and basil sorbet

Mustard crusted veal sweetbreads almond-lentil salad, warm bacon dressing

Roasted eggplant soup w chick pea fritters, balsamic infusion

Mains

Smoked tea scented Salmon w celery root purée glazed brussel sprouts, port essence

Roasted quail with spiced Figs w caramelised fennel, salsifies ragout, pomegranate, poultry glacé.

Gnocchi Primavera w young vegetables, white truffle oil, Parmesan shavings

Faced with that lot and more we had the fillet mignon with fries and a simple green salad, all of which were superb.

We haven't made a lot of breakfasts yet. Lunch in the Colonnade has been very good, but we mainly go for the salads then. Some people have told us that the BEST lunch is to be found in the MDR, but we like to sit out at lunchtime, so If there is a rainy afternoon we may check it out.

Tonight we will try the Colonnade for dinner. I'll let you know.

Star staff: Ivan Sousa, Club Bar

Kevin, waiter, Colonnade

Mimi, Patio Bar

John Howells

There are others I will add to the roll of honour later

Thank you for your notes which make our upcoming cruise on Odyssey starting in Singapore more exciting. It will be terrific to see our friends among the officers and crew!

Happy continuation of your voyage!

Who is the current chef on board the cruise you are on now?

Dafne

Current chef is Kurt Timmermans, hotel director is Guenter Steinbrunner. Apparently Daniel Putzenheimer (sorry about the spelling) is taking over shortly ad HD. We know Daniel from previous cruises, and while there is no need for any improvements at present, if Daniel can find any tiny area for tweaking, he will.

On the subject of the dress code: many men are wearing jackets most evenings, some in suits, some with ties. One gentleman was wearing a tux on one of the non- formal nights. It seems to be "dress up if you want to" and most people seem to want to. The chef's tasting menu in the MDR last night, though casual, saw many men wearing suits/jackets and ties.

But there are also quite a few chaps dining in just a long sleeved shirt and slacks. Bearings in mind the heat waves we have been experiencing(and it continues to be hot, hot, hot), this seems just about acceptable. What is harder to take is the not uncommon sight of men wearing a crumpled short sleeved shirt outside their trousers sauntering their slovenly way into the MDR.

It's been hot. Temperatures in the mid to high 30s C. Tranquil seas - today the Bay of Bengal was like a mill pond. Cumulus clouds scattered across the wide blue yonder.

Mangalore: we woke early and watched the dawn break over land as we sailed into port. The port is small and not unpleasant as far as cargo ports go. Palm trees and lush green vegetation poke through the industrial sheds and loading cranes. A couple of packs of dock dogs patrolled, barked and scampered around the quay. There is not much to see in Mangalore and we stayed on board. We took the time to explore the ship from deck 11 all the way down to the restaurant (one of the two lifts towards the bow is still out of action)

Cochin: another gorgeous dawn sail into port, past the chinese nets, masses of water hyacinths making great clumps of floating bobbing green islands. We had a day room booked at the Taj Vivanta and we strolled along the quay, through the throng of tuk-tuk drivers. Even at 09.30 in the morning the heat seemed unrelenting, the Taj an oasis of coolness and comfort. They had upgraded us to a sea view room in the old colonial part of the hotel. We took the hotel speedboat across the water to Jew Town for shopping. DW bought some hand-embroidered cotton dresses for our granddaughter and we ducked in and out of the antique shops, half out of curiosity and half to get some shade. Also bought a hand embroidered raw-silk bedspread in a style, size, pattern and colour scheme she has been trying to find for the last 20 years. And some saffron. Back for a couple of hours at the hotel pool and spa and then on to dinner. They make the most magnificent fish curry here at the hotel - red snapper caught that day and brought into the hotel kitchen at five in the afternoon, on our plates by seven pm. Served with Malabar parathas and a vegetable curry. Then back to the Odyssey for cognacs on deck 7 aft. That's where we met the Monaco millionaires who kindly shared their 2005 vintage St. Emillion. And so to a late sail away, sipping a wine like honeyed nectar, with distant lightning flashing through the gathering clouds.

Thank you for the wonderful stories!

Thanks, Flamin_June, for your eloquent posts and updates. Am enjoying reading them very much.

Thank you for your wonderful reports. India looks very appealing through your eyes. I am glad your wife finally found her bedspread......it is nice when that happens. :)

I am also enjoying this post and your descriptions of all you see. We just did this cruise plus a little more last year, so it brings back fond memories. We were on the Pride.

Thank you for these posts. They are wonderful.

I did these ports twice on the little ships. We enjoyed it so much the first time, we went back a few years later for another go-round. I'm sailing along with you in the ether, reliving adventures and seeing new things through your eyes.

The very warm, humid and languid sea days tend to merge one into the other and it is difficult to itemise the highlights. The seas have been very calm and while showers have been predicted the Captain has been adept at sailing round them, with just a few short burst of rain on one or two occasions. Yesterday the Bay of Bengal semed to hardly have a ripple, save for the flash and splash of flying fish. Today, as we sailed past the Andaman Isles , dolphins appeared and we watched their graceful playful leaping from our balcony. The temperatures are consistently in the mid 30s C. Many of the pool deck crowd are turning a dark mahogany brown. The crew are working tirelessly and it’s difficult to find any fault with the level of service. Of course we have our favourites. More honourable mentions: Ieva at the Sky Bar, Jan Willem from the MDR evenings and Colonnade lunchtimes, Nane our Stewardess, who manages to procure anything we ask for.

There are some glorious eccentrics and characters among the passengers.

Sailing to Sri Lanka under cloud flecked blue skys was a tranquil experience. Again we managed to wake early enough to see the light studded coastline in the early dawn light, the few high-rise sructures of Colombo forming a bright cluster, giving way to palm tree backed beaches and smaller coastal villages and towns.

Sri Lanka is one of our favourite places, this our sixth visit in the last 14 years. I had always wanted to sail into Colombo Harbour and take the short stroll to the Grand Oriental Hotel, just as passengers had done from the 1850s to the 1930s. Free at last of the beauraucratic nit-picking of the Indian authorities, we walked down the gangway at 09.30 to run a further gauntlet of tour touts. It’s about a 15 minute walk around the newish dock access roads in fierce shadeless heat, amplified by the asphalt, paving and surrounding concrete, then up some rickety access stairs to emerge onto the shade of the Grand Oriental’s main entrance. The GOH is a faded relic of it’s former self, long since superceded by the Hiltons ,Tajs and other luxury hotel chains. But it is still the Grand, with Victorian façade and many dark and shady interiors unchanged, waiters dressed in sailor-boy uniforms. The First Lady of Sri Lanka was visiting later that morning, so were were greeted by a miltary escort. We made our way to the fourth floor to have tea, overlooking the harbour and the Odyssey at berth. We then arranged an air-conditioned private car with driver and English speaking guide to take us around Colombo at our whim for four hours at the Hotel’s Travel Desk. Total cost with tip: 6200 SR Rupees (around $45-$50). I think SB are charging around $500 for something similar (sorry, but if ever there was an excuse for feeling smug and self-satisfied, this is it).

Smug and self-satisfied but also smart and helpful to future cruisers.

That's a combination I could live with!

Have a great continuation of your cruise and thank you for those beautifully described images so far.

Happy sailing!

We departed Yangon (Thilawa Docks) at 09.15 this (Sunday) morning and sailed slowly out to sea down the muddy,brown Irawaddy River. Five hours out, the Andaman Sea is like a lake – there is barely a ripple to be seen. The sky is overcast with low cloud and sparsely scattered patches of blue, and the sea - a grey-blue sheet - merges at some imperceptible point in the distance with the grey-blue sky. It’s in the mid 30s C and humidity is around 80 – 85%. Languid barely scatches the surface as a description. I can imagine what it might have been like in the late 18th century to be becalmed in a large sailing vessel in these seas, as we surely would have been, water running low, the cramped conditions, the heat and humidity sapping ones strength.

Burma has been an adventure in many ways. In dock for two nights the ship was subject to an invasion – an onslaught in fact – of insects. Thilawa docks are surrounded by and quickly give way to sparsely populated tropical floodplain marshes and paddy fields. At night, Odyssey is the only object for miles to be lit up by the bright lights on her decks, superstructures, and visble through her windows. And every insect in Myanmar, it seemed was drawn to the light. Three or four different species of grasshoppers, locusts, millions of midges, some unkown things, like greenfly or aphids on steroids, giant moths, dragonflies and nymphs, mosquitoes, and a host of other flying things swarmed around the ship, on the balconys, palstering the windows with a crawling, fluttering mass. It was almost impossible to step outside, for fear of breathing in lungfuls of midges, every opened door drawing in hundreds of the critters. In fact Capt Bathgate announced that no one was to open their veranda doors and strongly advised everyone against venturing out on deck at all. And if you did step out it was as if you had walked into a sauna. Last night the low clouds had trapped the heat of the day, adding their own humidity to the already water sodden air, stilling even any movement among the local two-man fishing boats that normally ply their way up and down the river day or night. All this against the backdrop of the blackest night, stars and moon stolen by the clouds.

The muddy river waters also meant that the ship could not process its own water, as it does when at sea, so there were also announcements asking passengers to limit their use of and to try and conserve water; though having only one shower a day, instead of two, hardly constitutes a hardship.

Continued thanks, Flamin_June, for your extremely well written reports. Can you tell us what kind of tours you did in Yangon? Were they private, on your own, or through the ship?

Great travelogue Flamin June!