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

[harryfat1]

Very wet pool deck area from the rain with the NorthStar up and running

 

 

Not a single person was in the pool.  No need to hog chairs today. 

 

 

Pick a chair.  Any chair – preferably one not in the rain…

 

So if you pre-order a cabena at the deck above, does RCI refund you the money if it’s a rainy day? For the people who will be sailing on the Odyssey this year – what’s the going price for a cabana rental on the upper deck? I’d hate to pluck down hard cash on iffy weather unless I am pretty sure it will be a warm day out

 

[harryfat1]

Anyway, since it’s rainy, no photos from outside on the top deck.  Time to go back to the Esplanade/Promenade

 

 

The Bionic Bar area is pretty quiet. 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

In case you ever wondered how thick is 100 photos, here it is as we went to pick up our photo package.  They shrink-wrap it for you to take home.

 

 

My wife also bought the Odyssey photo albums from the ship so she can store them after coming home.

 

[harryfat1]

Back to the cabin. As I mentioned previously, we hardly ever see anyone walking on the Promenade deck.  I sometimes see mechanics walking by.  The area is very quiet

 

 

We had already discussed this topic previously but here is when I took the pictures of the USB hub and different types of cables

 

 

This picture of the pool deck at 5 PM pretty much tells all about what the weather is like outside

 

[harryfat1]

I like these connecting cabins.  I know the obstructed view sucks but if you get the connecting cabin and have a view facing forward as well to the side and having a wider balcony is a good trade-off

 

 

[luvtoride]

1 hour ago, harryfat1 said:

I was looking for Brian @luvtoride from our roll call as I was looking for a guy with a bandage on his head (insider joke) but never saw him as he was probably here earlier during the day in selecting his 50 pictures from his package.

.

@harryfat1darn, I’m sorry we missed meeting each other at the photo gallery.   That might be me with the flowered shirt in the picture 🤷🏻‍♂️🤣

We were arguing with the photo dept manager to get ALL of our family pictures including all of those with our grand kids in the pics, as per the package “inclusion” rules.   They finally got tired of arguing and put all pictures of  all 3 of our family cabins in our account so we could pick our 50 pic package. 
 

we opted for all digital and got most of them digitally on the spot vs waiting for the email dump after disembarking (which we received also).

 

Although the prints would have been a good deal, they would not be as useful for our family as the easily shared digital versions.  
 

[perfect match]

I’m sorry to see your review drawing to a close, Harry. I’ve been enjoying following along with you.

 

I may be absent tomorrow, actually later today because we’ll be at the Cirque du Soleil show, Bazzar, in Tampa tomorrow. I believe we discussed our shared enjoyment of Cirque in your previous  Navigator review so I wanted to follow up and let you know that yes, we’re actually going at last. Don’t worry though. I’ll be back to finish up reading here! 😀

[Mom*3]

Harry, still loving your review and pics. Almost time for my Odyssey cruise! I did think of a question while packing. Did you notice if closed toe shoes are required for the bumper cars? We usually have sandals or flip flops on. 
Thanks!

 

 

[harryfat1]

1 hour ago, Mom*3 said:

Harry, still loving your review and pics. Almost time for my Odyssey cruise! I did think of a question while packing. Did you notice if closed toe shoes are required for the bumper cars? We usually have sandals or flip flops on. 
Thanks!

 

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for continuing to read along.

 

No shoes restrictions on bumper cars. You will need socks for rock climbing. 

 

Probably need shoes for iFly as I assume they wouldn't want your sandals to be flying around inside the tube.

 

Have a great cruise if we don't talk again before you leave.

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

23 hours ago, luvtoride said:

@harryfat1darn, I’m sorry we missed meeting each other at the photo gallery.   That might be me with the flowered shirt in the picture 🤷🏻‍♂️🤣

We were arguing with the photo dept manager to get ALL of our family pictures including all of those with our grand kids in the pics, as per the package “inclusion” rules.   They finally got tired of arguing and put all pictures of  all 3 of our family cabins in our account so we could pick our 50 pic package. 
 

we opted for all digital and got most of them digitally on the spot vs waiting for the email dump after disembarking (which we received also).

 

Although the prints would have been a good deal, they would not be as useful for our family as the easily shared digital versions.  
 

It's a good thing you could sort out the photo package.  It gets complicated with younger relatives in other cabins in adding them to your package.

 

Yeah, we got the printed package as it was just our family but if it were a bigger group, then the digital version would work better to share amongst everyone to print on their own.

[harryfat1]

20 hours ago, perfect match said:

I’m sorry to see your review drawing to a close, Harry. I’ve been enjoying following along with you.

 

I may be absent tomorrow, actually later today because we’ll be at the Cirque du Soleil show, Bazzar, in Tampa tomorrow. I believe we discussed our shared enjoyment of Cirque in your previous  Navigator review so I wanted to follow up and let you know that yes, we’re actually going at last. Don’t worry though. I’ll be back to finish up reading here! 😀

Thanks for reading along and providing positive feedback on the Navigator and this trip report.

 

Oh, very nice to see a Cirque show.  I think I have seen 7 of their shows including the old one at Disneyworld before they changed out and 3 shows in Vegas and various traveling shows including Corteo last August in San Francisco. Still need to see the big "O" in Bellagio next time we are in Vegas.

 

Enjoy the show and let me know what you think of it after you come back.  

 

 

[harryfat1]

As there’s not much to do, we saw there was a bumper car session starting in 15 minutes at 6 PM, we made our way to Seaplex at 5:45 to stand in line to wait for them to open.  

 

 

There's already a long line of people waiting at 5:45 for the 6 PM opening

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Done with bumper cars.  Back to the cabin and shower.

 

How many people actually have an electric razor that still uses this plug?  The modern-day electric razors use USB cables for recharging.

 

[harryfat1]

Dinner at MDR is Mediterranean food. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I missed the lamb from the short 4-night cruise.  Only get this on the longer 7+ night cruise

 

 

[harryfat1]

Goodbye from the MDR staff

 

 

Singing waiter

 

 

Grandma recording on her iPad

 

[harryfat1]

We said goodbye to our waiters.  They were good. Not spectacular but not bad either.  Pretty standard for cruise ship wai staff. 

 

Before leaving, we had to listen to their spiel on their requesting the highest rating on the post-cruise survey.  Seems like that’s the standard spiel for all wait staff everywhere. 

 

We heard the same speech on Princess Cruise as well so it’s not just an RCI phenomenon. I assume their promotion/continued employment is partly based on the customer satisfaction of their job, which is why all wait staff on various cruise lines are pushing hard for a good number.

[harryfat1]

After dinner, back to the cabin to put last-minute stuff in the suitcases, and then it was time to haul them outside. 

 

 

On paper, everyone was supposed to have all the suitcases outside by 10 PM but when we came back after the show at 11, they were still out there and they didn’t get picked up until close to midnight as I heard the workers outside at the hallways taking them away before I went to sleep.

 

What’s the latest time people have left luggage outside and still be picked up?

 

Speaking of suitcases, is there a more important travel gear than your suitcases but yet we take them for granted.  We never miss our suitcases until they are gone.

 

When not on vacation, we shove our suitcases in the garage/back of the closet at home and when we go on vacation, we throw all the dirty clothes/socks inside the suitcase coming home. Not to mention the cruise lines/airports stack the suitcases about 7 deep so that if you are at the bottom of the pile, you are being crushed. 

 

How often do you show appreciation for your suitcase unless it’s gone missing?  (Hint: we will soon find out…)

[harryfat1]

 

 

OK, done with suitcases, time for the final entertainment act of this sailing.  The typical “adults only” comedian act at 10 PM.  It’s the same comedian from earlier in the cruise.  He had a few decent jokes but nothing really great.

 

[harryfat1]

The show’s over and back to the cabin. The last picture of the night was at 11:48 PM as it had stopped raining. and the corner cabin from the top no longer has holiday lights as the people packed them for home

 

 

 

 

This concludes day 8 of the trip report.  But we are not done as we haven’t gotten off the ship yet.

 

In the past, when I read other trip reports, on the day of disembarkation, many writers just have a quick summary “We got up in the morning and got off the ship and came home”.

 

Wait. What? Anal Inquiring minds want to know the hows and whats of disembarkation.

 

As I said in the beginning, my trip reports are typically from airport to airport.  Meaning I start in SFO and end in SFO (with a twist this time).  So there will still be more photos and unwanted editorals from me on day 9 for those interested in tuning in.

 

Let's close out the night and the cruise with the Kansas song as with what seems to be a blink of the eye, it's coming to an end

 

 

+++++

Almost done, folks.  The Fat Lady is up on the stage belting out her song…

++++++

 

 

[Coralc]

43 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

The show’s over and back to the cabin. The last picture of the night was at 11:48 PM as it had stopped raining. and the corner cabin from the top no longer has holiday lights as the people packed them for home

 

 

 

We were on (I think) Grandeur. On the first day, as I was unpacking, there was a loud bang and a scream from the cabin next door. I ran out in the hall, and their stateroom door was still open. Wife was sitting on the end of the bed rubbing her head and the husband was leaning the closet door back up against the closet. 

 

Apparently, the lady was unpacking with the balcony door open, and the man came into the stateroom. The closet door blew off of its hinges and smacked her down. She was okay, but that wind shear can be fierce. ☺️

[rncruiser]

10 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

 

 

Speaking of suitcases, is there a more important travel gear than your suitcases but yet we take them for granted.  We never miss our suitcases until they are gone.

 

When not on vacation, we shove our suitcases in the garage/back of the closet at home and when we go on vacation, we throw all the dirty clothes/socks inside the suitcase coming home. Not to mention the cruise lines/airports stack the suitcases about 7 deep so that if you are at the bottom of the pile, you are being crushed. 

 

How often do you show appreciation for your suitcase unless it’s gone missing?  (Hint: we will soon find out…)

On my very first cruise many years ago  my suitcase had not shown up by sail away. Back then you were supposed to put your cruise luggage tags on before checking your bag and the cruise line took the suitcase from your destination to the ship. In other words, you did not see your suitcase until it showed up in your cabin. Well, our direct flight from JFK got canceled and we ended up on a connecting flight to Orlando. Needless to say, we were worried about our suitcases making it to the ship. Would the cruise line workers be looking for luggage coming from Orlando? Who flies from Orlando to Miami for a cruise? 
When I finally saw my suitcase in a crowd of suitcases I ran over and gave it a hug. My suitcase got love from me that evening. 

[harryfat1]

18 hours ago, Coralc said:

 

We were on (I think) Grandeur. On the first day, as I was unpacking, there was a loud bang and a scream from the cabin next door. I ran out in the hall, and their stateroom door was still open. Wife was sitting on the end of the bed rubbing her head and the husband was leaning the closet door back up against the closet. 

 

Apparently, the lady was unpacking with the balcony door open, and the man came into the stateroom. The closet door blew off of its hinges and smacked her down. She was okay, but that wind shear can be fierce. ☺️

Yeah, we had the front door slammed on us a couple of times on day 1 when we opened the front door with the balcony open.  After that, we always checked if the balcony door was closed before opening the front door. 

 

[harryfat1]

8 hours ago, rncruiser said:

On my very first cruise many years ago  my suitcase had not shown up by sail away. Back then you were supposed to put your cruise luggage tags on before checking your bag and the cruise line took the suitcase from your destination to the ship. In other words, you did not see your suitcase until it showed up in your cabin. Well, our direct flight from JFK got canceled and we ended up on a connecting flight to Orlando. Needless to say, we were worried about our suitcases making it to the ship. Would the cruise line workers be looking for luggage coming from Orlando? Who flies from Orlando to Miami for a cruise? 
When I finally saw my suitcase in a crowd of suitcases I ran over and gave it a hug. My suitcase got love from me that evening. 

Yeah, suitcases are the least appreciated piece of equipment when it comes to traveling but it's very important in that it holds all your clothes and if coming home, many of your souvenirs/memories from the trip.

 

Especially if it's the beginning of the vacation, trying to replace 1 plus week of clothes and travel accessories is a major work that nobody wants to undertake.

[harryfat1]

Day 9 – Homeward Bound

 

I was up earlier today as it’s disembarkation day and everything opens earlier and closes earlier for breakfast. Here is the schedule again in case anyone needs to have an idea of when to disembark for your future Odyssey sailings:

 

 

 

Café 270 opens at 6:30 AM so no need to wait for it to open as I took this picture at 6:41 of the hallway.  The workers have the bags ready to put away the sheets and towels.  Does anyone know what color bag holds what?

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

The earliest “regular” departure tag you can get is #6.  Per the list, unless you have a tour or transfer or are in suites/special status, the earliest departure tag you can get is #6.  But we are not early people so I never thought about getting an earlier tag.

 

 

 

On the Florida departure board on CC, every week someone will ask “What is the earliest time I can get off the ship?” That’s because many early departing flights from FLL are not full because cruisers are still on the ship so the airline lowers their fares to entice people to fly on them instead of say the more popular time at 12 noon.

 

I’m waiting for someone to post – can I make an 8 AM flight out of FLL?  Yeah, if you can jump off the ship and swim ashore at 5 AM…🤪