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

[luvtoride]

7 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Pre Cruise-Planning:

 

 

 

So the take-home lesson is that within 24 hours after the check-in window is opened, the 11:30/12/12:30 slots were all taken.  There are other cruisers out there also that track the check-in time and they jumped on the slots ASAP.

I know you haven’t gotten to your actual “check-in” experience yet, but I wanted to comment here on ours.  Our party of 10 in 3 cabins got a 12:30 check-in time.  We were staying close to the port and got picked up at 11:00 AM.  We were at the “buses drop off area” before 11:30.  We flew thru check-in, security, boarding photos taken in the terminal and were on the ship by 11:45!  I’m not sure what the “assigned” times are for and why it matters but RCI and the port staff were very efficient and organized to allow passengers to board when we got there.  We were impressed with the whole process! 
BEFORE cruise photo…no tans 🤣

[rncruiser]

2 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

 

Would love to hear if anyone volunteers to share their packing preference?

I am definitely an overpacker.  It paid off on a trip my husband and I took to Chicago this past summer. We were only supposed to be there for 3 nights. The weather in NY was so bad that all flights to both LaGuardia and JFK were cancelled for 2 days. We were happy to have overpacked. Yes, even for a 3 day trip I was a +2. For our 8 night cruise (we were on the same sailing as Harry) plus one night before in a hotel, for a total of 9 nights, I think I overpacked by about 5 days. On a cruise it’s not so much worrying about getting stuck for an extra night or 2 than about having alternatives for evening attire. And of course there is always the possibility that I may hit the gym, so gym clothes must be packed. I think I packed enough clothes on this trip for a 12 or 13 night sailing. As long as it all fits in one suitcase and one carryon without being overweight I am content. It does not take me more than a few minutes to pack or unpack. 

[h20skibum]

4 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

So I'm just curious if anyone here is a big + or – packer?  Being anal, it should surprise no one that I’m a +1 packer.  Always have the “what if” paranoia that I might need an extra shirt/underwear/socks somewhere along the way.

   

Would love to hear if anyone volunteers to share their packing preference?

I think I would put both of us in the net zero category, or that is what it was on our last trip.  That trip was different, because we would be gone for 30 days.  Packing consisted of three days pre-cruise travel by car, with things we needed in a carry on bag.  Next was the 8 day cruise, so those items were in larger suitcases.  So we needed to pack for 12 days, since we knew we would be doing laundry once we got in the beach house after the cruise.

 

We also had to factor in the post beach house cruise plus travel days home to come up with the longest stretch between seeing a washer and dryer.

 

Since we were driving 1,200+ miles, we didn’t have to be concerned with the weight of the suitcases, but they still came in at under 50 pounds each.  Yes, I am anal enough to have a list of the specific items that can go into our “formal” suitcase to have it weigh in at 49 pounds.  One thing we do is pack things on their hangers.  It makes it so much easier to put things away in the cabin.  
 

Next time I may have to ask Royal if I qualify for one of their “shortest time to unpack” awards.

[#1packerfan]

6 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Day Minus 2 : 

 

As this was an 8-day cruise departing on Saturday, my preference is to fly out on Thursday night or Friday morning from California to Florida ahead of the sailing. However, as many have noticed, the price of airfare has been ridiculously high for 2023. 

 

I waited and waited for the prices to come down and finally had to book the airfare at a higher price than I would have expected. In order to save money, we had to fly out on a Wednesday instead of Thursday or Friday as flying out just one day earlier is a savings of $150/pp. 

 

Multiply that by 4 people, it’s a savings of $600.  Being a CFKACD, I rather fly out earlier as I’m still better off paying the extra night of hotel and having lunch/dinner in Florida and still come out ahead. Another way to look at it is I get a free day of vacation for the same amount of money paid.

 

So the decision was made to fly out on Wednesday night so I could save one extra vacation day at work and arrive in Florida on a red eye.

 

This makes it a total of a 10-night vacation.  One question I raised in my Alaska trip report was how many people are over/under packers? 

Meaning if it’s a 10-night vacation, do you pack exactly 10 pairs of underwear/socks/shirts or do you overpack with a “just in case I spill something” attitude (a +1 packer).  Or are you a minimalist with a small carry-on and only pack 7 pairs (-3 packer) with the thinking no one should be close enough to sniff your underwear so no need to change daily?

 

Back then many of the ladies ratted out their partners by saying many men are negative packers (but no mentioning of themselves). So I'm just curious if anyone here is a big + or – packer?  Being anal, it should surprise no one that I’m a +1 packer.  Always have the “what if” paranoia that I might need an extra shirt/underwear/socks somewhere along the way.

   

Would love to hear if anyone volunteers to share their packing preference?

I am a definite overpacker. Usually take a couple extra of things, even swimsuits and dinner clothes. I like choices.

 

And I pack for my husband as he probably would forget half of what he should bring.

 

I am very anal when it comes to packing, and have a spreadsheet that I just change for each cruise as needed and check things off as they are getting put into the suitcase.

 

 

 

[EllieinNJ]

I know I mentioned previously that I don't like to fly to a port but we have a B2B cruise out of California in April so I'd been checking flights since last July.  According to Mr. Google the cheapest time to book would be at the end of December so from the middle to the last of December I checked prices every day and they stayed the same.  On January 1st I gave up and started to book the airfare when I got home from work around 4pm.  I wanted the 12:30 pm flight that would bring me to Cali around 2:30pm.  Just when I got to the end of adding all my details a notice came up that there was a change in price and now that time slot would be $60pp more.  I was dumbstruck and outraged and wanted to kick myself for not booking the day before.  Now the only time that didn't go up was the 6:30pm flight that arrived at 9:30pm so I booked it, thinking maybe the prices would readjust in 24 hours.  No way.  The next day  the 12:30 price increased another $30pp so I wound up staying with what I booked.  Lesson learned to book when you are comfortable with a price.

[PACrew]

Great reading! Thank you! Looking to book this ship for next year so this is really helpful! 

[mk907]

20 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Oh, very nice to have an upcoming cruise.  It looks like you are on the 6-night cruise on the Odyssey this weekend?  Our itineraries are different as we were on the 8-night cruise but it's the same ship so at least the onboard info will be helpful.

 

Not sure if it's super timely as others can tell me, I move along at a snail pace so I will still be on day 2 or 3 by the time you come back from your cruise.  Actually I think the snail is actually faster as at least it's going a single direction whereas my trip reports typically go sideway fast as we get distracted by whatever odd topic that pops up.

 

If you have any specific questions about the cruise, I can try to answer them now.  I probably don't know the answer but there are many vetran cruisers reading this reprot that will know it.

 

One suggestion is to show up at Port Everglades early.  Try to get in board ASAP to get the complimentary time slots for IFly and Northstar as you can only reserve them once board and connect to the ship's wif-fi. 

 

 

Thanks so much for the tip! We are going to be on the 8 Day, too, but get to do opposite end itineraries for the AC islands and CocoCay instead of Labadee. We have done the Labadee/Aruba/Curacao itinerary on the Allure in 2022 so the ports aren’t necessarily new. We booked this one to try out our first Odyssey and your photos capture some really great details. 😊

And I’m here for IT no matter how long it takes to follow along. I can tell it will be a worthwhile report and I’ll probably be reading along while on board next week! 

[edspec]

I'm a net zero packer.  I bring enough for each day and that's it.  If something happened and I had to send laundry out I'd rather do that then cart around just in case clothing.  By the time we pack for home all the dirty clothes are in laundry bags and the only clean clothes are the plane clothes in the closet or drawers.  Makes an easy unpack when we get home too...laundry bags to the laundry room, done!

[ZoeyVictoria]

I plan out what I need for each day, then add one daytime and one evening outfit.  It works really well if the extra evening outfit is casual enough to be worn as a nice daytime outfit. The only times I have needed the extra outfit is when a port was missed on a day when I had planned on wearing a bathing suit and coverup. 

[BillOh]

20 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

So why this cruise?  I’m sure NOBODY cares about why we selected this sailing but the reason for this sailing

 

I do, but I am very adept at getting what I want out of a review, so like you (Still reviewing as Blue Collar Diamond Diamond +)     I throw a lot out there and expect people to skip over what they don't want to see.   Back to reading

[Mama2CruiseBaby]

11 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

If you look at the deck plan for deck 6, the red circle was our inside connecting cabins.  You walk out toward the back of the ship and you will see that "tiny opening" on the deck plan.  That's how you can connect to the back of deck 6 of 270 from the cabins.

 

When I was studying the plans pre-cruise, I thought it was an opening that anyone could walk through.  I was totally surprised when I walked around and couldn't see the opening.  I thought they sealed it off.  It wasn't until day 2 morning when we found the secret door that connects the area. I will show the pictures when I get to the cabins.

 

Deck 6:

 

 

Walk down the stairs to deck 5 and you are right at the 270 cafe to get quick breakfast or any drinks and then sit in the comforts of 270 enjoying the view:

 

 

This is so great, thank you!!

[harryfat1]

11 hours ago, luvtoride said:

I know you haven’t gotten to your actual “check-in” experience yet, but I wanted to comment here on ours.  Our party of 10 in 3 cabins got a 12:30 check-in time.  We were staying close to the port and got picked up at 11:00 AM.  We were at the “buses drop off area” before 11:30.  We flew thru check-in, security, boarding photos taken in the terminal and were on the ship by 11:45!  I’m not sure what the “assigned” times are for and why it matters but RCI and the port staff were very efficient and organized to allow passengers to board when we got there.  We were impressed with the whole process! 
BEFORE cruise photo…no tans 🤣

Brian,

 

Very nice looking clan.  I was looking for you at the Photo Gallery on day 8 as I was looking for a guy with a gauze wrap on his head (insider joke) but couldn't find you guys.

 

As for boarding time, from what I read, various ports implement the boarding time policy differently.  I think the key for Port Everglades is that terminal 18 is HUGE as it was designed for an Oasis-class ship's passenger to sit and wait.  

 

They have more space inside to wait than outside so it makes more sense to process the people ASAP and then have them wait inside the terminal.  We arrived at terminal 18 at 10:30 and waited less than 30 minutes at the seats before boarding ship.

 

 

Whereas in San Pedro, their waiting area is less than 200 seats so they have to be strict in enforcing the boarding time.

 

See the seating capacity here for San Pedro for the Navigator of the Seas?  This is all they can accommodate inside so they have to be very strict on whom they allow inside the terminal.

 

 

They had signs saying you must be at these 2-time slots to be inside the tent line waiting.  If your time slot is not these 2 slots, they make you wait outside in another line

 

 

See the people behind the blue tent?  Those are the people who arrived at San Pedro at 10:30 when this picture was taken.  If they were not in the 10:30 or 11 AM boarding time slots, they had to stand outside and wait

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Side note to others - @luvtoride and @rncruiser (in the next post) were part of the roll call and we are all here re-living the cruise one last time as well as having them provide insights on the cruise I may not have experienced.  

 

This trip report is for all to comment on and please feel free to post whatever pictures you have from your cruise.  This is like a big virtual potluck party.  Everyone is invited to share.

 

I also don't believe in the "hijacking the thread" concept.  If anyone has a question or comment, please post them.  We all pay the same premium annual membership to be part of CC so feel free to jump in anytime to have a comment.  I like back-and-forth discussions in my trip reports.  Very boring if I just sit here and talked about the days of our lives for the 10 vacation days.

 

Waiting for @bobmacliberty to come in later on to talk donuts or whatever...

[harryfat1]

11 hours ago, rncruiser said:

I am definitely an overpacker.  It paid off on a trip my husband and I took to Chicago this past summer. We were only supposed to be there for 3 nights. The weather in NY was so bad that all flights to both LaGuardia and JFK were cancelled for 2 days. We were happy to have overpacked. Yes, even for a 3 day trip I was a +2. For our 8 night cruise (we were on the same sailing as Harry) plus one night before in a hotel, for a total of 9 nights, I think I overpacked by about 5 days. On a cruise it’s not so much worrying about getting stuck for an extra night or 2 than about having alternatives for evening attire. And of course there is always the possibility that I may hit the gym, so gym clothes must be packed. I think I packed enough clothes on this trip for a 12 or 13 night sailing. As long as it all fits in one suitcase and one carryon without being overweight I am content. It does not take me more than a few minutes to pack or unpack. 

So you are definitely a +3 or higher packer. 

 

We don't use carryons because we take so many pictures, we need to keep our hands free to whip out the phone any given second to snap a quick picture.  Hard to do when you have a carry-on in tow.

[harryfat1]

9 hours ago, h20skibum said:

I think I would put both of us in the net zero category, or that is what it was on our last trip.  That trip was different, because we would be gone for 30 days.  Packing consisted of three days pre-cruise travel by car, with things we needed in a carry on bag.  Next was the 8 day cruise, so those items were in larger suitcases.  So we needed to pack for 12 days, since we knew we would be doing laundry once we got in the beach house after the cruise.

 

We also had to factor in the post beach house cruise plus travel days home to come up with the longest stretch between seeing a washer and dryer.

 

Since we were driving 1,200+ miles, we didn’t have to be concerned with the weight of the suitcases, but they still came in at under 50 pounds each.  Yes, I am anal enough to have a list of the specific items that can go into our “formal” suitcase to have it weigh in at 49 pounds.  One thing we do is pack things on their hangers.  It makes it so much easier to put things away in the cabin.  
 

Next time I may have to ask Royal if I qualify for one of their “shortest time to unpack” awards.

You should do a YouTube video on the "Cruise Unpack Hacks" and show people how it's done.

 

What is the advantage of bringing your own hangers?  Just the speed of dropping them into the closet faster than hanging each shirt one by one?

 

One of our suitcases went over the 50-pound limit coming back as we just dumped all the overnight stuff from last night on the cruise into that suitcase at the airport.  It was 50.5 pounds and the Jetblue lady just ignored it and let us pass instead of forcing us to re-pack the extra 1 pound into another suitcase.

 

I have one of that portable luggage scale thing from many years ago.  Maybe the next cruise will bring it to make sure we are not over the limit.  

[harryfat1]

8 hours ago, #1packerfan said:

I am a definite overpacker. Usually take a couple extra of things, even swimsuits and dinner clothes. I like choices.

 

And I pack for my husband as he probably would forget half of what he should bring.

 

I am very anal when it comes to packing, and have a spreadsheet that I just change for each cruise as needed and check things off as they are getting put into the suitcase.

 

 

 

Ahhh, yes, packing list.

 

We have one also in Excel (bet no one is surprised by this revelation 🙂).  It's been revised many times as the kids gotten older. 

 

In the old days, it was to make sure they packed their favorite stuffed animals and blankets on the cruise to the modern day by bringing enough USB cables and charging bricks.

 

We also have a different packing list for the long road trips or a different one for the Alaska cruise as that's a totally different animal than packing for the Caribbean.

[harryfat1]

8 hours ago, EllieinNJ said:

I know I mentioned previously that I don't like to fly to a port but we have a B2B cruise out of California in April so I'd been checking flights since last July.  According to Mr. Google the cheapest time to book would be at the end of December so from the middle to the last of December I checked prices every day and they stayed the same.  On January 1st I gave up and started to book the airfare when I got home from work around 4pm.  I wanted the 12:30 pm flight that would bring me to Cali around 2:30pm.  Just when I got to the end of adding all my details a notice came up that there was a change in price and now that time slot would be $60pp more.  I was dumbstruck and outraged and wanted to kick myself for not booking the day before.  Now the only time that didn't go up was the 6:30pm flight that arrived at 9:30pm so I booked it, thinking maybe the prices would readjust in 24 hours.  No way.  The next day  the 12:30 price increased another $30pp so I wound up staying with what I booked.  Lesson learned to book when you are comfortable with a price.

Yeah, similar to buying stocks, it's not possible to always get everything at the lowest point.  Just set a budget and track the prices for a while and you should have a fair assessment of what is a good price to book it.

 

I, too, had many tracking emails from multiple sources telling me daily about the price changes going to Florida and back but after a while, it's just a distraction.  I found myself paying more attention to flights and prices than the cruise itself. It was a relief to finally book the airfare and move on to the "fun" part of travel planning like coming onto CC and arguing with strangers on the dining room dress code instead...

 

BTW: as Patti at @Coralc can tell you, the people here in California don't call the state "Cali". That is what outsiders call us.  When I was at Hollywood Beach renting the bike, I had to give them my ID and the guy saw it and say "Oh, CALI".  You know he's not from here...

[harryfat1]

6 hours ago, mk907 said:

Thanks so much for the tip! We are going to be on the 8 Day, too, but get to do opposite end itineraries for the AC islands and CocoCay instead of Labadee. We have done the Labadee/Aruba/Curacao itinerary on the Allure in 2022 so the ports aren’t necessarily new. We booked this one to try out our first Odyssey and your photos capture some really great details. 😊

And I’m here for IT no matter how long it takes to follow along. I can tell it will be a worthwhile report and I’ll probably be reading along while on board next week! 

Oh, I wouldn't be reading any trip report while on vacation.  Enjoy your time on the ship.  This trip report will still be here when you get back.

[harryfat1]

6 hours ago, edspec said:

I'm a net zero packer.  I bring enough for each day and that's it.  If something happened and I had to send laundry out I'd rather do that then cart around just in case clothing.  By the time we pack for home all the dirty clothes are in laundry bags and the only clean clothes are the plane clothes in the closet or drawers.  Makes an easy unpack when we get home too...laundry bags to the laundry room, done!

Very organized.  Better than me. 

 

Laundry after any vacation is a lot of work, especially for 4 people for 10 days.  I think our washer/dryer was on for most of the day after coming home.  This is the "glamorous" part of the vacation that nobody ever talks about.

[harryfat1]

5 hours ago, BillOh said:

 

I do, but I am very adept at getting what I want out of a review, so like you (Still reviewing as Blue Collar Diamond Diamond +)     I throw a lot out there and expect people to skip over what they don't want to see.   Back to reading

Yeah, my trip report is similar to the Windjammer (to use RCI food venue as an analogy).  No promises of quality but you will get quantity galore. Just a little of everything of a mega buffet and people pick and choose what they can get out of it.

 

Whereas other cruisers' reports are more like Chops and Wonderland that have higher quality material and presentation. 

 

 

[h20skibum]

24 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

What is the advantage of bringing your own hangers?  Just the speed of dropping them into the closet faster than hanging each shirt one by one?

Exactly that, plus I have perfected the “packing with hangers” method so that things come out wrinkle free.  As I go through my checklist, I move clothes from our closets to our cruise packing staging area (also known as a spare bedroom).  

 

Maybe I should make a YouTube video of it and monetize it to support my cruise habit.  Something to think about before my next cruise.

[harryfat1]

3 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

Exactly that, plus I have perfected the “packing with hangers” method so that things come out wrinkle free.  As I go through my checklist, I move clothes from our closets to our cruise packing staging area (also known as a spare bedroom).  

 

Maybe I should make a YouTube video of it and monetize it to support my cruise habit.  Something to think about before my next cruise.

Oh, yeah, do the video so we can all learn.

 

Just practice what all YouTubers say, "Please leave a thumbs up if you like this video.  If you are new to this channel, please consider subscribing.  It will help out the channel a lot as I can upload new content in the future videos..."

 

Yeah, I watched too many YouTube videos in my vacation prep...

[karebare22]

Happy to read another one of your trip reports! Even though I’ve been on Odyssey and to all of the ports, I always learn something new from your reports - they are helpful to seasoned cruisers as well, not just newbies. Your fabulous pictures help to bring back memories of my sailings, so thank you for taking the time and effort.

 

1 hour ago, harryfat1 said:

 

I have one of that portable luggage scale thing from many years ago.  Maybe the next cruise will bring it to make sure we are not over the limit.  

 

My portable luggage scale (non-digital, old style) is one of our must pack (in carryon) items since we nearly always need to fly to the home port. Many times we have checked in our 4 bags, each weighing 50.0 lbs on the dot! 👍

[harryfat1]

Many thanks to all the provided feedback on your packing preferences.  Looks like we have a fairly cautious group here with many people packing just in case.

 

Always appreciate the discussions throughout the trip report as I always learn something from each report via people's comments. More fun to have discussions than people just reading my diary/journal on what we did for 10 days in December...

 

Anyway, onward with the trip report

 

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

 

I typically start/end my trip reports from SFO airport as the first and last picture of the vacation.  This trip will have a slight twist on the backend but no need to get ahead of ourselves at this point.

 

The first picture of the cruise is SFO at 9 PM as we get ready to self-tag our luggage.

 

 

 

At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man – I miss the old days when they had airline workers who would tag and do all the stuff for you instead of you standing in front of the kiosk trying to type in the necessary info to get 4 luggage tags to print out.  Another sign of being old is now my kids are the ones handling the kiosk interaction instead of the old man getting frustrated with the screen. Another sign of getting old…

 

In one of my previous trip reports, fellow cruisers convinced me to get the TSA Precheck as a real convenience.  So I opted for a new credit card that gave me TSA Precheck expense as part of the perk and signed up for that.  The family gave me all their electronic stuff for me to carry so they don’t have to deal with it in the regular line.

 

 

After having done it on the return trip, I must say I like the TSA pre-check.  No need to have the hassle of taking off shoes and putting the hands up at the screening machine.

 

After coming back, I signed up my younger son for the TSA pre-check as he attends college in Southern California and flies back and forth to the Bay Area, and having a TSA pre-check will be easier on his flying experience.  Will also get the wife and my other son the TSA precheck ahead of our next cruise in December.

[harryfat1]

5 minutes ago, karebare22 said:

Happy to read another one of your trip reports! Even though I’ve been on Odyssey and to all of the ports, I always learn something new from your reports - they are helpful to seasoned cruisers as well, not just newbies. Your fabulous pictures help to bring back memories of my sailings, so thank you for taking the time and effort.

 

 

My portable luggage scale (non-digital, old style) is one of our must pack (in carryon) items since we nearly always need to fly to the home port. Many times we have checked in our 4 bags, each weighing 50.0 lbs on the dot! 👍

Thank you for your kind words.  Appreciate you reading along.

 

Yeah, a cruise vacation is like the ultimate buffet.  It's got so many things going on at the same time, that it's hard to absorb it all and it's always nice to see how other people spend their vacation time as everyone has their preferences.

 

Impressive in getting to the 50-pound mark consistently.  I need to strive for that perfection.

 

Most of the time we leave a little space in each suitcase pre cruise with the idea we will be buying whatever souvenirs from the vacation and still be under the 50-pound limit. Having a portable scale will certainly make things easier than just trying to lift it and estimate.