codeyell0

17 minutes ago, pyrateslife4me84 said:

Odyssey is a bit funky. It’s Quantum class and largely built for the cold. But they removed the enclosed family pool. So it doesn’t really belong anywhere. It largely sails from Florida and the Med right now, where the outside family pools make sense but not really the multitude of indoor spaces and lack of large slides. Next, it will move to Cape Liberty, which also makes little sense. No enclosed family pool sailing from New York Metro in January?

 

I don’t know where exactly Odyssey belongs. I’d probably send it to Los Angeles. Not as hot as Florida (usually) and not as cold as New York. But, it’s a bit of a strange design. And it has one of those giant, largely-unused oranges off the back…

that orange ball was closed and used for yoga not bouncing. Also, the VR attraction was closed and being removed.

2 hours ago, ReneeFLL said:

Have you ever researched a ship to see exactly how the shower door opens, how far the seats are from the buffet, if there is car art or not, exactly where the arcade games are placed, how much room there is from the desk when the couch is pulled out? Who does this kind of research? He was simply stating his observations.

thank you. 
I think some people take offense when someone doesn't like something on their favorite ship.

 

23 minutes ago, Tlbecker1 said:

We also love the Odyssey, it is definitely our favorite in the Quantum class. We have been on Ovation, Quantum, Anthem & Odyssey and we enjoy all of them.

I see you are in Oregon.  I sail out of Florida those ships are not down here.  
 

4 minutes ago, Tlbecker1 said:

We realize you had a bad experience and the Odyssey wasn’t up to your expectations.  I hope you book the ships that you like and make sure that you don’t book any other Quantum Class ships.  If you didn’t like the Odyssey, you won’t like any ships in the Quantum Class.

I said I had a great time.  My point was this ship was so different in many ways from the oasis, freedom and Voyager class.  I figured it was a different builder.   

Someone mentioned quantum class was probably built for the north and I saw most of those ships are for Alaska or up north

2 hours ago, Another_Critic said:

 

Well, excuse me!

 

"Is this ship the red headed step child?" seems more of a complaint than observation.

 

They are in for a real SHOCK if they ever book Vision or Radiance class.

 

P.S.  I personally care nothing about the above.  Life happens, go with the flow.

 

P.P.S.  You don't research the bedding situation prior to booking a room?  The OP should not have been surprised that there were no pullmans.  You don't research activities/venues?

 

I never said I was surprised. I made a statement.
I made observations and then made a statement about them.  

I leave out of Florida. I did mention newer ships, vision and radiance are older ships.  
I did mention asking if these are a different builder.

Freedom class, voyager class, and oasis class, have the same feel.  this is a huge portion of the fleet. 
This is the reason for the post.  I didn't realize they switched to pull out couches in wonder 




 

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

No pullmans on any of the Quantum class ships and there are also no pullmans on the latest Oasis class ships.  The last ship where Royal had pullmans as a regular feature was Allure

then they should have looked at a better option.  MSC has bunk beds that fold down into a couch 
here you can see the chair is now locked in.  and no room to walk by
you kind of have to leave the bed down or maybe ours was broken since it did not go down easily

42 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

Everything you said is why we love Odyssey. It sounds like you’re more of an oasis class fan. I like Oasis ships too, but prefer Odyssey. We’ve done a few TAs on it and loved them.

Nice ship, but I do like oasis and freedom. class.  The things I didn't like didn't make sense, especially for families. like the rooms and the pull-out couch which blocks the way and makes the desk unusable you can't pull out the chair and sit so in the AM my wife can't sit and get ready without putting the pull-out away. IMO bad design. I saw this in one video but didn't know about the desk and we had to leave the pull-out down to easily slide away.  
I watched many videos and Royal has a theme that didn't seem to follow that theme that was my point.

3 hours ago, crazyank said:

good question,  sure doesn't sound like any research happened

I'm going to bit my tongue on this comment.

I do tons of research and look at all the videos I can find.  
pictures and videos are one thing experience is another.   

 

Sailed on her Nov. 23
So much is different compared to the common aspects of Royal ships.
Different shipbuilder? It seems like it was made to fit Royal's design.

This is just my observations

- No real promenade.  It's smaller and it feels more like carnival where it meanders.
- No car art like all the other ships, or at least the newer ships. I always take the kid's pics next to the car. 
- SportsPlex I liked the sports plex but it hides the back of the ship since you can't walk through it.
SportsPlex has a second floor and I think there was an elevator but it was hidden in the back. If you were in a wheelchair or couldn't climb stairs you probably would never go to Playmakers or the upstairs. If you're not looking for the Flowrider you won't find it. IMO  I was on the ship for 8 days and never went to the back of the ship. the only way back there was going to deck 16 and walking around the sports plex outside. since there are no water slides you don't really see a need to go there unless your trying to.

- The arcade was a disaster. It's like an afterthought, games are spread out.  some on the second floor some on the first then there were more games on the other side in the corner.  Then half the games were broken (I know this is not part of the layout just mentioning don't spend the money on prepaid arcade they had to refund me my money because nearly 40-50% of the games were broken) They should reorganize the arcade.  put all the ping pong tables and foosball together and all the arcade games together. 

- No waterslides.  Most likely because of the sports plex. No perfect storm. 

- The pub has food!!!  Though I was not a fan of the food I tried.  I had the fried pickles and they were spears, not chips. and the pretzels were more of a traditional NY soft pretzel.  Usually, I find bar pretzels are softer like bread. The food wasn't bad I was not a fan.  But hey they had food which most of the pubs should IMO.  who doesn't love bar food?

- 4 Person rooms,  Who designed these things?  no pullmans? only a couch which we had to put away ourselves since Royal now doesn't do that.
the couch is too close to the desk so you can't use the desk when it's pulled out. You have to be careful everyone kicked the couch at least once. the path around the couch is less than a foot. You have to walk past this to get to the balcony. That's why we had to put the bed away so we could use the balcony. Really bad design. its a nice room otherwise. For 2-3 people and no pull-out couch, it's a nice room. 

- The shower door swings out and doesn't slide together.  This is fine but when they slide we can have 2 people in the bathroom.  you can't really be in the bathroom if someone needs to get out of the shower.  No big deal just different.

- Windjammer, is great as always, always love the food.  The back of Windjammer was not used it had a station but it was never used.  and the seating was so far from the buffet. These are some of the best seats, but they come with the cost of being like 150 feet from the buffet. 

- They have wearables!!! I like the idea but...This system falls short.  I'm in IT so maybe I'm biased as I can make this system work great.
you still need your card. What is the point of the wristband if you still need your card?  I hate lanyards and using my retractable keychain.  The servers still need to take your card to get you a drink. this is a dumb process IMO.  let me use the app or have an iPad like Kids Club.  I don't need a card at the kids club the wristband has the info and they tap it.  I have to have the card to get off the ship.  They yelled at me for scanning my wristband which has the same info on it. they both scan the same on the tap.  I had my card in my wallet. 

Had a great time and looking for my next cruise but I'm not a fan of this ship with my family. If just me and the wife ok sure, but for families like ours in one room no thank you
 

On odyssey ots

No more steak only chicken. The steak was my favorite. 

10 hours ago, Mum2Mercury said:

Pick up a handful of movie theater box candy from your local Walgreens.  Considerably cheaper than buying onboard, and the kids'll appreciate it just as much. 

It's the experience.  They are not huge candy kids.  but they do like the options the candy store has.  things you don't just see anywhere.
I guess its a walmart or target run.

I was looking but could not find anything. My kids were good wanted to let them get something. 

OK so recently my wife had an accident she will have surgery, next week on her knee.
We still want to go on the cruise. That said, we are starting to look at our options.
I know we can have a scooter onboard. 
We are going to Aruba and Curacao.  We are renting a vehicle to drive around and see things. 
Do I bring a wheelchair to take off the ship? I don't think anyone has a scooter attachment for the rental.
I'm not too sure what is offered. 

You just leave the scooter in the hallway at night?
We thought the power chair was better the basket and handlebars are in the way. I'm not trying to move from chair to scooter to chair and more just stay in the chair.

7 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

 

You aunt may take her USB fan onboard. no problems. 

 

Policy: No fans except for small electrical or battery-operated fans. *Please note, these fans are subject to confiscation by the ship’s security team for inspection and approval.

Thank you

My aunt is taking her first cruise, and I was giving her some cruise items to buy.
One of these was a battery-powered USB fan. We have one and take it on every cruise.  My wife needs airflow.
I have never traveled on NCL. My aunt sent me a message saying it's on the prohibited list.  I was wondering if this was for bigger fans.
Or if anyone had any experience with this.

I was looking into room layouts and noticed the 4 person rooms showed a pull-out couch and no Pullman
With the couch pulled out it takes up much of the room.  My kids loved the upper bunk during the day it was their area out of the way. 
I assume they put away the pullout each day?
 

3 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

This is a corner aft we had on Liberty...  

 

That table would be great!!
I don't understand if the balcony is that big why it wouldn't come with extra furniture like the table and chairs.  

2 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

I've had two loungers and two chairs on other ships when I had aft balconies.  On Odyssey all we had was the same as what you have in your picture.  I've heard you can ask and your steward will arrange something extra like a lounger but I have never tried to ask.

 

This was our aft balcony on Odyssey.

My goal would be to have a table big enough to play something like dominos or rummyque. 

I do like the MDR, but usually, it will interfere with many shows or activities, or it takes a long time.
Can you order togo?  
Can you order kids food like chicken tenders, for the kids?  Some nights they were not in the buffet on my last cruise. 

Booked on Odyssey of the Seas in Nov.
This is my second extended balcony.  I was wondering what others have done with such a vast balcony. 
Have you been able to get a table? lounge chairs? I wonder what the Stewarts can accomplish

These Balconies need more, they can accommodate a table and 4 chairs plus 2 lounge chairs.
I have hung a hammock before and it was very relaxing at night. If the table were big enough, I would sit out here and have meals. play games with the family.

10 minutes ago, mz-s said:

The dining room isn't set up for to go. In fact I don't think they will let you take the food out of there. My understanding is JH has reported that on his facebook page. They probably just told you that to get you out of line.

 

Time to broaden your kids horizons from pizza, french fries, and chicken nuggets it sounds like...

I didn't eat in the buffet much.  The food choices were blah. 
I have children with food allergies, and we do not like seafood. the buffet was not kid friendly for dinner.
 

14 minutes ago, BasicSailor said:

Yes it did.

Everything? the fries, the dinner menu, the smoked beef?
it's like the quality went down.  Less like guys more like carnival's recipe?

While cruising recently on MG
Shaq's chicken is awesome BTW.  
On the last 2 nights of the cruise, my kids were tired of pizza and Shaq's was closed. (I wish they stayed open later)

The buffet has no kid's options.  

We ordered room service because they had items my kids would eat.
I asked guest services about this and they said Go to the main dining room and order to go.
I wish I had known this prior.   It's still annoying to have to go to another restaurant to get kids' food.  (just offer this on the buffet)

If you have some other tips please let me/us know.   

I truly wish there was something more, I don't know what's available you seem to have to ask for a lot. I always find out too late

So we recently sailed on MG. 2/11-2/18/23
I was very disappointed in Guy's.  

The burgers Joint.
no fresh-cut fries like the other ships I have been on. They were just regular fries, I love his fries but not on this ship. 
Did this change on all ships?

Brew House.
Maybe it was my sailing. I was so excited.
The BBQ sauces seemed watered down, none tasted really good.
I had the BBQ sauce at the burger joint and it was good. again on other ships.
Dinner
The potato salad, the sauce was good but the potatoes were so watery like they had let them sit in water for way too long. made them horrible.
Brisket was good, but no bbq sauce.  The rest of the items were ok. I think someone changed the recipe for the items for the day we went. we never went back
The cobbler was odd IMO. a small cast iron skillet, a few apple slices, a couple of crumbles of something (not sure exactly, these tasted fine) and then a lite sauce.
Lite as in small amount. It was not very good, didn't eat it
I did like the fried onions. and the Mac n Cheese was great!
Lunch
I decided to try lunch.  
They were low on many items when I got there.  
What happened to the brisket on the lunch buffet? I have watched many videos in the past and they had brisket now its smoked beef.
More like a pot roast smoked.
The chicken was ok. Beef ok but when you were expecting brisket. Mac was good too
The sausage was not the same as at dinner. But it was decent. 
Nothing really screamed AWESOME!!

I was watching a video about the brew house and they had different items each night of the cruise
they said go on the first night they have filet.  This was not the case, each night was the same menu

nothing changed.

When did all the changes happen?  Maybe some of these expectations are old.
I have been watching videos on this ship for a long while as we were booked on MG over a year ago, but changed cruises due to Carnival canceling kids club.

I love sandwiches.  So seeing they had sandwiches I was excited.  
Something other than pizza.  But maybe I'm tooo simple.  All the sandwich options were odd.  
Nothing normal like ham and cheese. turkey and cheese.  They had Bree and turkey, mushroom and tomato.  
always something maybe too fancy for my taste.  It doesn't seem like they made anything on demand. 
OR
I was ordering something close and taking it apart, sometimes they had salami on the side or some cheese.  then making my own version.  

Has anyone noticed this?  Have you gotten special requests?