Cruiser Formerly Known As Cheapo Dad's Trip Report on Odyssey of the Seas Sailing to A Minus B Plus C Plus H Islands

[zaylyn2590]

18 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

My son's lunch.  Don't ask me why he would get a RCI burger as they aren't typically very good. 

 

 

Now Guy's Burger on a Carnival (the TV personality Guy Fieri) would be a burger I would get.  Haven't had one in 11 years.  Looking forward to getting one in December

That's funny about the burgers! I think royal burgers are way better than guy's Burgers... Personal preference and all lol

[harryfat1]

18 hours ago, perfect match said:

We sailed on Odyssey in April, 2020. On our sailing the price for the paid version of iFly was $29/pp and for North Star was $19/pp. What a difference a year makes!

Yeah, even at these high prices, the extended time slots were mostly booked for our sailing as people want the experience regardless of the price.

[harryfat1]

18 hours ago, luvtoride said:

Our Cabin attendant saw me the first day and asked me what time we would like our cabin cleaned.  He said all of his morning slots (til 1pm ) were filled, so he could do it after 4.  I chose 4pm which worked out fine for us throughout the cruise.
What does the family do at 3pm in the cabin…naps?  

I’m fine with the attendant explaining why they can’t fit you into their morning slots because they are full.  Ours didn’t tell us a thing.  Like I said, probably ranked amongst the bottom 3 cabin attendants I have had.

 

Will explain soon what the rest of the family did after they left 270 while I watched the rehearsal.

 

[harryfat1]

7 hours ago, hucifer said:

Remember the days when it was about the passenger and what was convenient for them? Now it's about whatever is convenient for the room stewart, no apologies given. 

 

Personally, I don't mind the once-a-day cleanings, but time options would be nice.

 

Agree on Carnival's burgers. Nothing at sea beats them.

I understand if someone had to clean 10 cabins and all 10 of them want morning cleanup, then the cabin steward may not get to all of them and therefore need to put 3 of them for the evening cleaning. We can’t ask the impossible tasks but at least explain it to the guests like Brian’s attendant did for him so the expectation can be met.

 

Will have more attendant stories shortly.

 

Look like you and I both like Guy’s Burger but the next poster disagrees.  We all like what we like.

 

[harryfat1]

4 hours ago, zaylyn2590 said:

That's funny about the burgers! I think royal burgers are way better than guy's Burgers... Personal preference and all lol

Food is subjective.  Glad you like the RCI burgers.  They made a lot of them daily at Windjammer so there must be a big group of people that eat them.

 

I ate a  burger at Labadee’s BBQ lunch as it was that or the hot dog. 

[harryfat1]

Onward with more trip report info

 

+++++++++++++++

 

After the rehearsal, I went back to our cabin – the one that was cleaned.  The attendant went on her break before cleaning the boys' cabin.  OK.  I guess their cabin is on the “night” cleaning schedule.

 

So where did the family go?  They saw on the phone app there was going to be a Santa sighting in the bumper cars area so they wanted to ride the bumper cars again.

 

 

But they got there too early so they were done with the Bumper Car before Santa showed up

 

We have a Santa sighting

 

 

 

Oh, yeah, there's a Football game going on as well...

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Maybe this is the modern version of Santa’s sleigh.  You know Santa has to get the red one, right?

 

 

 

I wonder if any naughty kid tried to rear end Santa’ car and gave him a big jolt/whiplash? 

 

If so, no presents for you for the next 5 years as you are on Santa’s bad list.

[harryfat1]

While I was waiting at the cabin for the rest of the family to return from Bumper cars, I went outside to see the weather.

 

The sun came out and we saw more blue skies as we headed further south in the Caribbean.

 

 

Another picture of the moon from the balcony as the moon is near the full moon phase

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

I took pictures of the room service breakfast menu as I waited in the room with nothing else to take pictures of.

 

Back home months ago at the planning stage, I was planning to have room service for breakfast on Christmas morning as that would be special in utilizing the balcony on Christmas morning in the Caribbean.  Well, then reality set in with the strong wind, eating outside is not going to be feasible.

 

Not to mention the breakfast menu is pretty blah.  You only get the “free” version if it’s very basic.  Anything “hot” results in an extra charge.  Forget that. CFKACD not paying extra for breakfast delivery.

 

Free Portion

 

 

Paid Version

 

[harryfat1]

After the family got back, it was almost time to shower and get dressed for the formal night.

 

One major problem of not having the boys’ cabin cleaned was they had no clean bath towels.

The cabin attendants haven’t cleaned their cabin since we boarded on day 1.  After realizing the cabin steward was not going to come over anytime soon, I had to make a phone call from the desk phone to Housekeeping and requested 2 sets of fresh towels. 

 

Waited 20 minutes.  Nothing. 

 

OK. This isn’t going so well.  I went outside the hallway and waited awhile to find one worker walking by and asked him for some towels and he opened the utility door down the hall and got us 2 sets. 

 

I thought about going down to Guest Services to request towels but they probably just told me to call guest services.

 

After the boys started taking their showers, housekeeping finally dropped off the 2 sets of towels I requested. 

 

Never thought I had to work so hard on a cruise ship to get fresh towels.  In the old days of 2 cabin cleanings daily, you had fresh towels everywhere you looked. Now you have to flag someone down in the hallway to get some…

[harryfat1]

6:45 ship position reporting

 

 

Time to go to the night's first big event - Christmas Caroling with the ship's staff.

 

The last time we cruised during Christmas was on the Independence of the Seas and they had to sing at the Royal Promenade with everyone standing around. 

 

Here was Independence back in 2017.  I assume they still have this at the Royal Promenade?

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the Odyssey, it was a much more pleasant experience with everyone sitting and it was more like a show.

 

See the difference?

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

As you walked into the 270 theater, they were passing out the song sheet on which Christmas songs they were going to sing for the night.  People can follow and sing along if they want.

 

They sang all the songs in the order as it was presented on the sheet

 

 

 

[karebare22]

On 1/29/2024 at 9:56 PM, harryfat1 said:

Speaking of free booze, here's a question for you veteran RCI cruisers, when did they stop the free booze on day 2's formal night when the captain used to welcome guests at the bridge of Royal Promenade and they were giving out free booze to anyone and everyone?

 

Since I was back at the Allure folder for the previous posts, I saw the free booze for the first formal night.  This was back in 2014

I didn't see any alcohol in my 2016 Freedom of the Seas folder so it must be between those 2 years that they stopped the practice of captain's welcome party on day 2?

 

This had me thinking back. I miss the Captain’s champagne reception that was always held on the first formal night. I feel this ended with the Covid shutdown. From my cruise compass (I save them all!) I see that Oasis did have the reception in summer 2019, and I’m pretty sure it took place on Anthem in Feb 2020. Then after the restart with the social distancing, then cutbacks and trying to increase revenue, it just never came back.

[GimmeOcean]

33 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

6:45 ship position reporting

 

 

Time to go to the night's first big event - Christmas Caroling with the ship's staff.

 

The last time we cruised during Christmas was on the Independence of the Seas and they had to sing at the Royal Promenade with everyone standing around. 

 

Here was Independence back in 2017.  I assume they still have this at the Royal Promenade?

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the Odyssey, it was a much more pleasant experience with everyone sitting and it was more like a show.

 

See the difference?

 

 

 

Interesting the difference in Q class ships, in Dec. the Anthem crew did caroling standing on the Esplanade stairway, not in Two70.

 

[harryfat1]

1 hour ago, karebare22 said:

This had me thinking back. I miss the Captain’s champagne reception that was always held on the first formal night. I feel this ended with the Covid shutdown. From my cruise compass (I save them all!) I see that Oasis did have the reception in summer 2019, and I’m pretty sure it took place on Anthem in Feb 2020. Then after the restart with the social distancing, then cutbacks and trying to increase revenue, it just never came back.

Interesting.

 

I don't recall attending the Captain's welcome party in either 2016 or 2017.  Oh, well. It doesn't matter as the important thing is they no longer have it now.

[harryfat1]

1 hour ago, GimmeOcean said:

Interesting the difference in Q class ships, in Dec. the Anthem crew did caroling standing on the Esplanade stairway, not in Two70.

 

Thanks for sharing this. I guess it's up to each ship as to how they want to do this event.

 

Being lazy, I like sitting down at 270 for the entire event.

[harryfat1]

They had the kids sitting in the front in the middle while the captain read "The Night Before Christmas" to them.

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Then they had a pre-recorded message from various ship staff wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

After that, there were the singers from the show “The Book” up on the stage.  I recognized some of them from the earlier rehearsal.  Also on the right-hand side of 270 were the ship’s senior officers and the captain as they all sang together.

 

 

 

 

Jingle Bell

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

 

Later on, they brought out Santa to sit in the center.

 

 

Edited February 1 by harryfat1

[harryfat1]

The dude making “snow” (aka bubbles) on deck 6 to people on deck 5.  Yeah. High-tech stuff…

 

 

Also, note the dancer in the black dress in the middle.  She was all into the songs while some others were paying lip service, literally...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Last song and then we are done

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Since the upper part of the 270 is literally just down the hall from our cabins (yeah, I know y’all are dying to see more deck plan drawings), we dropped off the song sheets for me to bring home and scan for you fine folks and used the restroom in our cabins before heading out to dinner at 8 PM.

 

By then, the boys' cabin was finally cleaned.  The note reminded people to set their clock FORWARD for 1 hour so we lose an hour of sleep tonight.

 

[harryfat1]

The dress code for tonight was “formal” or whatever people interpret that to be.  Since it was Christmas Eve dinner and formal night, it fit well for whoever wanted to dress up.

 

Chops had the special $99.99/pp Holiday dinner for Christmas Eve and Christmas night. Even if you are on a special dining plan, you still have to pay $99.99/pp to eat there for the 2 nights as the special nights are not covered on any dining package.  

 

Haha, thanks, RCI, but no thanks.  I will pass…

 

 

Special looking menu for Christmas Eve instead of the typical hard-covered menu.

 

 

Had to take a picture of the special menu.

 

[harryfat1]

Here’s our waiter.  Tall dude from Ukraine.

 

 

View of the MDR directly behind me