Odyssey of the Seas 17th July Review

[newxmascruiser]

Thought I’d share a quick run down of our latest cruise on the Odyssey

We cruised on the 17th July 6 night sailing.

 

Embarked in Civitavecchia and called at Santorini, Mykonos and Crete, with a sea day at the front and back end.

 

We had the beverage package and the ultimate dining package and made good use of both

 

Pre cruise
We flew in just 1 day prior and since we’ve done Rome a couple times we decided to stay in Civitavecchia.

 

My expectations of the town were low but we were really pleasantly surprised. There was lots going on and loads of lovely cafes bars and restaurants.

 

We stayed at Casa Sul Mare which I could not recommend highly enough.  

We had pre booked a taxi service via them from airport and also back to the airport post cruise. We paid 130 euros each way, which actually turned out to be a great shout, most people we spoke to who had hopped in a car at the airport paid 200+

 

Cruise Day
We headed out around 10.30 took the 5 minute walk to the port shuttle bus. Within 10 minutes we were on the free shuttle and 5 minutes later we were at bag drop.

Check in was a breeze and we were on the ship just after 11. 
 
Cabin
We usually sail in full suites but since this was intended as a ‘cheap’ getaway we originally booked a balcony but got Royal Upped to a JS for $200 total about 3 weeks out.

 

We ended up aft, middle of the ship, and really enjoyed that view.
Plenty of room, very comfortable, loungers and foot stalls on the balcony.

 

Drinks
We were on our first cruise as diamond so we considered passing on the beverage package this time but then went with it anyway.

 

Everything we asked for was available all the time. Water was in cans (weird!)
And most time when ordering soft drinks the can was never opened so was good for taking back to cabin.

 

Food
We ate in all speciality restaurants bar chefs table. All were great. Service was always fantastic.

We ate in both Giovannis and Chops at lunch time also.

We made all reservations for dinner as soon as we boarded and had no problem with all our requests.

 

The only up charge was for Teppinyaki which was $10 each extra

We didn’t use windjammer or main dining room at all so can’t comment on those. 

We also didn’t even try (being in a JS) to get any coastal kitchen reservations as usually we dine there every night so wanted to try all of the others.

 

For breakfast our go to was two70. Speciality coffees and fresh OJ were available there also and it was never crowded.

 

Pizza in Sorrentos was actually great.

 

 

 

This is already way longer than I intended so I’ll come back later with entertainment, shows, the ship in general, and anything else that comes to mind.

 

I didn’t save the cruise compass (yes they still delivered paper copies to cabin) so can’t post those I’m afraid.

 

Any questions fire away 

 

[CRUIS4ME]

Thanks for the review.  We are sailing the end of August.   Did you get an antigen test in Civit?   If so, any feedback on that?   Thx

[newxmascruiser]

We didn’t, we used Lloyds Pharmacy observed lateral flow on the Friday (flew Saturday, cruised Sunday) since we are fully vacc’d 48 hours before was acceptable. 

[newxmascruiser]

Entertainment
Considering we had 3 port days (2 which were long)
I was pleasantly surprised by how many activities were packed in to the schedule each night.

There was always something going on.
The pub had a fantastic singer (guitar) every night, who took requests and really packed the place out each night.

Music Hall for late night was a great atmosphere for partying.

There was a 70s night, and a white night with party on the pool deck.

North Star was good fun, there are slots with no charge which are just up and down and then there is were slots for $19 (I think) which went out to the side also. Up and down was enough for us. 
We did it on Crete day whilst still in port so got some great views.

There was the usual trivia in Schooner and also a pub quiz every night.

Boleros had a Latin band and pool deck was a mixture of a Greek band, Calypso and DJ.

Bumper Cars were never that busy.

Playmakers had shuffleboard, fusball, darts and pool tables all available.

 

 

Shows
We went to Gold Art Duo who are headliners but resident.  Really great show

The Book in Two70 was disappointing for me, I just didn’t get it

The Effectors is the new main theatre show and it was awesome

The Book and the effectors were the only shows needing reservations and both were pretty much full

Plenty of drinks waiters at every show. 

 

Ports of Call

Santorini - 1st stop. Required tenders

They were a bit of a nightmare. Without a tour booked we were told they would start giving out tender tickets from 9.30am. I got there dead on, the line was already gone and we ended up with ticket number 34.

 

The wait was over 2 hours after we had docked for us to get off.

Once across, the line for the cable car was enormous. We decided to try and walk it. Unfortunately the only way we could find was the same road which the donkeys used. It was chaos, smelly, steep and donkeys everywhere. So we backtracked and got in line for the cable car. 

We were the only ship in port and the wait was an hour, so I dread to think when there are more ships.
We headed up took a walk around and grabbed some drinks.
I was quite underwhelmed 

 

Mykonos
No tender needed (yippee!) we headed off and jumped on the sea bus (water taxi) 2 euros each way per person

Mykonos was beautiful we really enjoyed looking around

 

Crete
Also no tender. We docked at the new port. There was an RC shuttle. $6 per person. The ride took about 15 mins and dropped us in to town. 

It was around a 15 min walk down to the harbour. Again beautiful area. There were people at the bus stop when we arrived selling tours but we were all aboard at 2pm so didn’t have enough time to take one.

 

The town is a real maze. There were 2 families 45 minutes late back, I’m assuming they got lost, they were lucky the captain waited for them. 

 

 

Other general observations

Loads and I mean loads of kids and it was the week before the schools even broke up

 

Brits and Europeans in full sunbed claiming mode.
By 7am there was not a chair to be had on the pool deck on sea days. Even the loungers in the pool had towels reserving them.
And even on port days it was hard to find anywhere in a sunny spot.

On the last sea day the crew came around at 8am folded and replaced towels on chairs which were not being used. They came back at 8.30 and any which hadn’t moved were removed. 

This caused a hilarious next few hours of people coming back, other people in ‘their’ chairs and the ensuing arguments.
Honestly I don’t know the answer, that was the only time we saw towels removed, but genuinely there aren’t enough chairs for people on this ship.

 

Hot tubs were gross, full of kids and by around 11am you couldn’t see anything in the water it was that murky.

 

Activities team seemed super stretched but gave it their everything with super amounts of energy. 
 

We changed ship time an hour forward and then an hour back, which seemed strange to bother just for an hour. But no dramas just make sure your phone isn’t set to automatic time!

 

Overall I really really had a blast. 

I wouldn’t hesitate to cruise this class again. 

I’ll continue to get the beverage package each time I cruise. And any time again I’m not in a full suite I’ll grab the UDP also. 

 

Think that’s everything which may be of interest. 
Again any questions, happy to try and help!

 

 

[txd]

2 hours ago, newxmascruiser said:

 

Cruise Day
We headed out around 10.30 took the 5 minute walk to the port shuttle bus. Within 10 minutes we were on the free shuttle and 5 minutes later we were at bag drop.Check in was a breeze and we were on the ship just after 11. 
 —————————————-

Is there a need to schedule port arrival time at Civitavecchia port?

Thanks.

 

[newxmascruiser]

19 minutes ago, txd said:

 

Same as other ports you are assigned a time slot when you check in for the cruise.

We had 11.30 but no one asked or checked when we arrived, we walked straight through. It was very quiet at that time though so YMMV

[kittywitty001]

Re: the water taxi in Mykonos...

 

Was it a bumpy ride or smooth? Where does it go?

 

TIA!

 

 

[newxmascruiser]

22 minutes ago, kittywitty001 said:

Re: the water taxi in Mykonos...

 

Was it a bumpy ride or smooth? Where does it go?

 

TIA!

 

 

Well.. It was SUPER windy the day we were there, like things flying around windy. So the crossing was pretty rough. It’s a short trip though. 
It takes you over to the old port which is right in town. They run constantly there and back all day.

 

Details are here. The booth to buy tickets is right outside the ship

https://www.mykonos-seabus.gr/

 

[shorehaven]

We were on the sailing before you, it was full of children too, I’m sure it was said that they were expecting over 1000 on your sailing !

 

 Glad you enjoyed Chops as we felt the food and service was not up to the usual standard.  We have eaten in Chops at least 30 times previously and always enjoyed it.  I asked for thousand island dressing on my king prawns in place of the horseradish sauce on the menu.  The prawns appeared with the horseradish then about 10 minutes later he thousand island dressing appeared.  The waiter apologised for the delay and said they had had to send someone to another kitchen to get it as they didn’t have any.    We didn’t complain but during conversation with our waiter in Giovanni’s  the next night told him this.  He spoke to his manager who obviously contacted the head waiter from Chops as before we had finished our meal he appeared at our table, never asked what our concerns were but immediately offered us to come back for complimentary lunch on the sea day which we did.  The service was much improved, no doubt because we had been flagged up but the food was still mediocre and we actually changed our last nights reservation to Wonderland.

[newxmascruiser]

Oh that’s a shame about Chops. We ate there for dinner and lunch and both were awesome. We ate there the last night and it was completely full but the service was still fantastic. Good to hear they made it right for you though! 

[CRUIS4ME]

Thanks again for the continued review.  We are going on the 11 day cruise….we do go to Santorini and Crete.  I may have to reconsider a tour in santorini as we are renting a car now.  But there are six shops in port!   Ouch.   And we didn’t book anything for Crete so I think with a short day, we also will stick to the do it yourself day.   Your review of the ships activities and entertainment is great insight as I haven’t heard or read anything regarding that on the Odyssey.   

[newxmascruiser]

1 hour ago, CRUIS4ME said:

Thanks again for the continued review.  We are going on the 11 day cruise….we do go to Santorini and Crete.  I may have to reconsider a tour in santorini as we are renting a car now.  But there are six shops in port!   Ouch.   And we didn’t book anything for Crete so I think with a short day, we also will stick to the do it yourself day.   Your review of the ships activities and entertainment is great insight as I haven’t heard or read anything regarding that on the Odyssey.   

No problem.

Crete for sure do it yourself is simple. You can book the shuttle on the app and don’t need to collect a ticket you can just show on your phone. The line for people who have done that is much shorter than those who haven’t pre paid.

when you get to town there is a hop on hop off bus kiosk right there. It runs every 45 minutes. I didn’t check the price but could be a quick option to get a bit of a round trip and a feel for the sights.

I heard the line for tender tickets started around 8am (when it was advertised as opening at 9.30) of course may be different on your sailing but may be an indicator of the wait time in line you’ll need to get an early off. 
I think there was an option for town on your own tour which included tender and cable car ride. Although an added expense it may be your cheapest option to get off quickly if you want to do your own thing after. We came back down pretty early so not much of a line but one of the bar tenders we spoke to said the line to come back down can sometimes be up to 2 hours!!

Bot trying to scare you of course everyone’s experience will be different but that was ours. Hope that helps 

 

ETA any other questions on the shows or entertainment happy to try and help 

Edited July 24, 2022 by newxmascruiser

[newxmascruiser]

Just to add actually

 

For anyone travelling with kids (or otherwise) who doesn’t want to get the refreshment package. El Loco Fresh is literally on the pool deck and has the usual windjammer dispensers with lemonade, strawberry kiwi and whatever else so it’s right there without having to head away from the pool.

 

Also just remembered you get 1 complimentary go on iFly, book as soon as you can it got full really quick

 

Final thing for now. No wifi code any longer if you’ve pre booked a voom package. Soon as you are in terminal or on ship connect to guest wifi, if it doesn’t prompt you with the login screen go to login.com in your browser and follow the prompts to set yourself up using the pre paid option in the menu 

 

 

[CRUIS4ME]

So helpful!   Good to know about Crete HoHo and shuttle.   Ugh regarding Santorini…m hoping it’s not the nightmare I expect…I also need to check about D+ Obtaining priority tender tickets.  This will be first cruise since obtaining new level and we haven’t tendered for a long time.   Do we need to make reservations for the entertainment once on board.  I am use to the oasis class reservations that we can get online but that doesn’t look like an option for Odyssey .

[MCazer]

I have THE KEY booked for my August 7th cruise especially for the advantage it gives my family for tendering in Santorini, as we are doing a private excursion and need to be off the ship quickly.

[karebare22]

Thanks for the review. We are on the 11 day sailing at the end of August. I’m also worried about Santorini as there are many ships in port, your tips are helpful to plan our day (hike on our own from Fira to Oia) there and in Chania.

 

How was your meal and experience in Wonderland?

 

@CRUIS4ME - When we were on Oasis in December, entertainment couldn’t be booked until we were inboard, a change since the re-start. I like to do a lot of planning ahead of time, I wish they would bring back the advance booking for the main shows. That’s the first thing I’m doing as soon as we are onboard!

[newxmascruiser]

18 hours ago, karebare22 said:

Thanks for the review. We are on the 11 day sailing at the end of August. I’m also worried about Santorini as there are many ships in port, your tips are helpful to plan our day (hike on our own from Fira to Oia) there and in Chania.

 

How was your meal and experience in Wonderland?

 

@CRUIS4ME - When we were on Oasis in December, entertainment couldn’t be booked until we were inboard, a change since the re-start. I like to do a lot of planning ahead of time, I wish they would bring back the advance booking for the main shows. That’s the first thing I’m doing as soon as we are onboard!

Wonderland was great.

We left the choice of apps to them, all were delicious small/one bites.

The mains were large. We had the pork and the short rib. Both were good.

I didn’t care for either of their special cocktails though.

Service was fabulous but I definitely felt the menu was a one and done 

[newxmascruiser]

23 hours ago, CRUIS4ME said:

So helpful!   Good to know about Crete HoHo and shuttle.   Ugh regarding Santorini…m hoping it’s not the nightmare I expect…I also need to check about D+ Obtaining priority tender tickets.  This will be first cruise since obtaining new level and we haven’t tendered for a long time.   Do we need to make reservations for the entertainment once on board.  I am use to the oasis class reservations that we can get online but that doesn’t look like an option for Odyssey .

Yes correct reservations are once on board or in the terminal if you’re waiting and have pre paid internet package.

There we’re also a couple of podiums dotted about when we boarded who could handle it for you.

Honestly no hassle booking everything we wanted. 

Im pretty sure the book and the effectors were the only 2 requiring reservations.

[Roybthered]

Thanks for all the tips, we are on Odyssey at the end of September for a nine night and are really looking forward to it. Looking at the bit about Santorini I quickly went onto the app and checked, we have an excursion booked with RC ( village and winery tour), so am assuming that they will arrange the timings for us to get the off with the rest of the group going. 

First thing the DW looks at is when the kids holidays/half terms are! lol. 

[lovesthebeach2]

Pre cruise
We flew in just 1 day prior and since we’ve done Rome a couple times we decided to stay in Civitavecchia.

 

My expectations of the town were low but we were really pleasantly surprised. There was lots going on and loads of lovely cafes bars and restaurants.

 

We stayed at Casa Sul Mare which I could not recommend highly enough.  

We had pre booked a taxi service via them from airport and also back to the airport post cruise. We paid 130 euros each way, which actually turned out to be a great shout, most people we spoke to who had hopped in a car at the airport paid 200+

 

Cruise Day
We headed out around 10.30 took the 5 minute walk to the port shuttle bus. Within 10 minutes we were on the free shuttle and 5 minutes later we were at bag drop.

Check in was a breeze and we were on the ship just after 11. 

 

Thanks for the info on Civitavecchia and Casa Sul Mare. We took the Odyssey TA this year to Rome and loved it so we booked a B2B next year first doing the Holy Land and then the TA back to Florida. We’ve been to Rome enough times we decided we didn’t want to stay again, so we book the Casa Sul Mare and also plan to book the taxi service they recommended. We were worried there was nothing there to do for the couple of days we’ll be there. Is there any places you recommend we should see while there?

 

You mentioned it was only a 5 minute walk to the bus that brings us to the ship? 
This trip we took the bus from the ship to the train station, as we spent some time in Lucca before going back to Rome.

[dltaeg]

We sail on Odyssey next week. Please tell me cats is still on at the theatre? 

As a party of 6 I've been trying to book the shows on the app but its not let me and there's not even been mention of what the shows are this time. 

[lovesthebeach2]

22 minutes ago, dltaeg said:

We sail on Odyssey next week. Please tell me cats is still on at the theatre? 

As a party of 6 I've been trying to book the shows on the app but its not let me and there's not even been mention of what the shows are this time. 

Cats in on Oasis. the Effectors is in Odyssey in the theatre.

[sellwingri]

31 minutes ago, dltaeg said:

We sail on Odyssey next week. Please tell me cats is still on at the theatre? 

As a party of 6 I've been trying to book the shows on the app but its not let me and there's not even been mention of what the shows are this time. 

You can’t book the shows until you board.  Then they’ll be available on the app.

 

 

[newxmascruiser]

1 hour ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

Pre cruise
We flew in just 1 day prior and since we’ve done Rome a couple times we decided to stay in Civitavecchia.

 

My expectations of the town were low but we were really pleasantly surprised. There was lots going on and loads of lovely cafes bars and restaurants.

 

We stayed at Casa Sul Mare which I could not recommend highly enough.  

We had pre booked a taxi service via them from airport and also back to the airport post cruise. We paid 130 euros each way, which actually turned out to be a great shout, most people we spoke to who had hopped in a car at the airport paid 200+

 

Cruise Day
We headed out around 10.30 took the 5 minute walk to the port shuttle bus. Within 10 minutes we were on the free shuttle and 5 minutes later we were at bag drop.

Check in was a breeze and we were on the ship just after 11. 

 

Thanks for the info on Civitavecchia and Casa Sul Mare. We took the Odyssey TA this year to Rome and loved it so we booked a B2B next year first doing the Holy Land and then the TA back to Florida. We’ve been to Rome enough times we decided we didn’t want to stay again, so we book the Casa Sul Mare and also plan to book the taxi service they recommended. We were worried there was nothing there to do for the couple of days we’ll be there. Is there any places you recommend we should see while there?

 

You mentioned it was only a 5 minute walk to the bus that brings us to the ship? 
This trip we took the bus from the ship to the train station, as we spent some time in Lucca before going back to Rome.

Great choice with Casa Sul Mare they were fantastic hosts. 
There is an old fort down by the port which you can walk around.

There was also a little street market right across from the property. We mainly just wandered around and enjoyed the bars and cafes in the sunshine.

Yes when you leave the apartment you cross the street and walk down to the port entrance, the shuttle picks you up there.

Loris even offered to walk our bags over with us. 

[newxmascruiser]

1 hour ago, Roybthered said:

Thanks for all the tips, we are on Odyssey at the end of September for a nine night and are really looking forward to it. Looking at the bit about Santorini I quickly went onto the app and checked, we have an excursion booked with RC ( village and winery tour), so am assuming that they will arrange the timings for us to get the off with the rest of the group going. 

First thing the DW looks at is when the kids holidays/half terms are! lol. 

Yes the tender numbers were not relevant to anyone with a tour. You’ll get the details with your tour tickets of where and when to meet on the ship.

Have a great time!!