Live! Odyssey 5/5/24 - The Holy Lands Cruise that was not meant to be (Greece, Italy, and Turkey instead)

[ashlynn1021]

8 hours ago, GimmeOcean said:

We had Kevin as our Teppanyaki chef for our 2nd visit to that restaurant on the TA. He was great! 

He was fantastic! We have done Teppanyaki a couple times and we really enjoyed him! He also was great with the kids at our table.

 

- Ashley

[ashlynn1021]

Hi All!

 

Back again, now to recap Day 10 in Athen (Piraeus), Greece!

 

So this was the day I went alone on a very long tour in Athens. The tour I ended up on after lots of back and forth was "Acropolis Sightseeing, New Acropolis Museum with Plaka Free Time". It had literally the earliest meeting time of all the tours in that port of 7am in the theater on deck 4. Cafe 270 opens at 6:30am so I was literally the first person in there that morning grabbing a bagel and filling my water bottle (of course using glasses of water to do it). I then headed to the theater to get my number and wait for the announcement that we were cleared to go ashore. Literally as Captain Per was announcing the ships clearance, they came over to my tour's section and told us to head down ashore.

 

From there, we got on the bus and got one of my least favorite things on tours: radios. They just hurt your ears, especially after a 7+ hour tour. Anyways here is what those joys look like, I would later find out they were 70 euros if we lost them, I didn't lose mine but you will find out later why I know this:

 

Then we drove away from Piraeus as we headed to Athens. I snapped a few photos as we were driving through there and our guide, Eva, started commentating:

 

It was a cloudy day but thankfully had no rain in the forecast and the clouds kept the temperatures down in a comfortable range.

 

Our first stop was the Acropolis. Here was our first view of the Parthenon as we reached the site:

 

Our tour guide, Eva, led us through the site with her red umbrella, commentating a lot, so much so that it was fairly empty when we got there but fairly full when we finally made it up to the Parthenon. The only good thing about that is it allowed for lots of breaks from the steps. Here she was:

 

And here are some photos I took of the ruins during the walk up:

 

When we made it up, she stopped just beyond the Parthenon to walk us through even more of the history including many pictures, here is a sample of just one:

 

After our extremely thorough history lesson, we finally got a little time to explore on our own. I snapped a selfie to prove I made it to the top and then headed back down with the guide as I was alone and didn't want to get lost:

 

The steps themselves weren't bad, there were only a couple really high ones, the worst part was that many of them were marble and it had rained the day before so on top of marble being slippery by itself, it was extra slippery with the little dampness that was still there.

 

Anyways, from the Acropolis, we had about a 10 minute walk to the new Acropolis museum:

 

Outside the museum was a spot where you could see the exposed ruins that they found under the site:

 

Once inside, we had a bit of a wait (probably close to 40 minutes, although many of us spent some of that time waiting in the line for the toilets) while our guide bought our tickets and then we proceeded through the museum. We had the choice to go through it alone or with the guide, if you went alone, she told us to meet outside the entrance at noon. I opted to stay with her as she explained everything since once again, I was alone and I didn't want to get lost. You will notice that theme in my day.

 

Our guide commentated for us throughout the whole museum. Those of us who stayed with her got an extremely thorough history lesson that we didn't know we needed 🙃. I said my dad would have loved this tour so it was extremely ironic I ended up on it alone, although he didn't want to see the Acropolis since he saw it 28 years ago when I was just shy of 3 on the Pacific Princess. After doing it, I can't help but agree that once is enough, 

 

Anyways, here are some photos I snapped in the museum, a lot of the artifacts are replicas since the British have many of the originals but there were still many original pieces:

(Some samples of what the tools used to make everything at the acropolis probably looked like, although we don't know since no tools were found in the ruins)

 

We finally made it through the museum with the guide at close to 12:30. Remember how she said to meet at noon? Anyways, from there we walked back to our bus and had a city tour from the comfort of our bus. We saw the modern olympic stadium and other sites and took photos from the bus. I got very lucky that I was sitting on the right side as pretty much everything she pointed out was on the right side. Here are some photos I snapped during this portion:

 

From there, we headed to a square where we got the included snack on our tour. The tour description said souvlaki but we actually got gyros and a bottle of water. We ate these at a square, we weren't allowed to sit at the tables at the restaurant. I forgot to snap a photo of the gyro but I didn't eat much of it.

 

After that, we headed to the Plaka. At this time, we were already at the time our tour was supposed to be back on the ship so we ended up having less free time, only 30 minutes. Note the wait we had for tickets in the museum as well as how long we took going through the museum. Our guide blamed the traffic but I can't help but think it wasn't just the traffic.

 

We stopped on a square with the Metropolitan Church of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary and there was a large souvenir shop on the same square. Here is a photo of the church, you will notice women with roses in it, we were strongly told not to take their "free" roses (just a note: this was the only port where I felt slightly uncomfortable about the possibility of pickpocket's, I was happily carrying my locking travelon that day, and our guide consistently reminded us to watch our bags):

 

From there I headed to the souvenir shop to get my magnets (I have a magnet board in my laundry room so I get magnets from each port to put on there). Our guide was very much so "hyping" this store but I will acknowledge these were the cheapest magnets I got in Greece, they were less than 2 euros each, so while every tour went to this store and the tour operators clearly got a kick back, I didn't necessarily mind. We also got free samples of baklava there which were a great treat.

 

Finally, now approaching an hour late, we met up to join our bus to drive back to Piraeus and join the ship. Thankfully all aboard wasn't for a few hours so that wasn't a concern, just how long the tour was running. Our guide then started to count us and continually came up 2 short. We waited 15 minutes in the square and then headed back to the bus, she counted again, and we were still 2 short. After everyone accounted for their neighbors, we figured out who was missing and they had apparently already tipped our guide, they just didn't give back their radios or tell her they were leaving. This is when I found out how much those radios cost 🤦‍♀️. I think that couple probably got fed up with the history lessons but they should have at least said they were leaving because we waited another 30 minutes on the bus before leaving. Our crew member escort even walked around with the paddle trying to find them. We finally gave up and headed back to the ship more than an hour behind schedule. The combination of this and the delays in the museum, and the supposed traffic, all led to us getting back to the ship close to 4, we were supposed to be back originally at 2:15.

 

As sail away approached, no names were called so I am going to assume those 2 made it back on the ship. Anyways, I dropped off my stuff in the cabin and saw my towel animal:

 

And since it was close to 4, and I hadn't eaten much all day (I had excited myself for the souvlaki and really didn't eat the gyro when that is what we got instead), I ate at playmaker's when they opened at 4. I didn't get a menu and just ordered right away when I sat down since I know that menu nearly by heart. Here are my standard chicken tenders order:

 

Then I napped basically until our 8pm dinner in Giovanni's. I was exhausted and it was a really long day.

 

Dinner photos:

(we didn't order these ^, our waiter didn't think we order enough 😂 but we definitely did, we were completely stuffed after this meal)

 

And then it was time for the pub, even though I was tired from 2 early days in a row and the extremely long day in Athens, we were gaining back the hour we lost earlier in the cruise that night and the next day (today) was a sea day, which meant I could sleep in.

 

The stowaway crashed the pub and it was a hoot:

 

Ok now for my overall assessment of the tour and my day in Athens: I am very glad I did it once (I was 3 last time so I didn't do it obviously) but I don't need to do it ever again. Unlike Mykonos and Santorini that I would gladly see again, this did not join the list. I can see why my dad bailed on me and obviously my mom could not do this tour. Speaking of this tour, it was listed as strenuous and that was definitely correct. It had significant walking plus all the steps and climbing at the Acropolis (on slippery marble). And our tour guide, Eva, she was definitely interesting. She has been doing this for 40 years. She spoke great English but probably spoke way too much although I know a few people on the tour very much so enjoyed it, but many did not. I felt bad for our crew escort as she continuously called her the wrong name the whole day. I do know the other groups that left the ship after us on this same tour made it back earlier so take with that what you will.

 

Overall, this is probably a doable port with a private excursion but not sure you will get far completely on your own since Piraeus is a bit of distance from Athens. I also enjoyed having a guide in the Acropolis and the museum so that would also justify at least a private tour, although of course the assurance of the ship waiting for you in the event of traffic or something was worth it for me especially being alone that day.

 

Today we were at sea, we also started packing as tomorrow, our last day, day 12, is a port day in Naples. We have a shore excursion called "Sorrento with Pizza and Gelato" tomorrow and I am sure that promises to be a good time but I will definitely report back. I am now a day behind again so some of this might get caught up on when I get home but I will see how I do the next couple days. I will try to post about our sea day that we had today tomorrow sometime but this next day will be busy.

 

Thanks again and TTYL!
- Ashley

[DelMom18a]

Ashley, I was on a NCL cruise to Athens about 14 years ago and we hired a private guide.  Your photos brought so much of that excursion back to me - and I had the same concerns about the stones climbing to the Acropolis back then.  I have some of the exact same photos from the Museum as you do.  Funny to see them in your trip report.  

 

Thank you for sharing your cruise with us!

[ashlynn1021]

Hi All!

 

Sadly (because it means the cruise is over) made it off the ship and we are waiting for a hotel room in the lobby of our post cruise hotel. Yesterday got very busy between the long tour in Sorrento and packing so I never got to posting about the sea day, day 11. So finally going to catch up on that now.

 

We started our day once again in Coastal Kitchen for breakfast:

 

Then we ended up in the Suite Lounge while we waited for our rooms to be done so here is what breakfast looked like in there:

 

Then we made it back into our rooms where this sad sight was on the beds:

 

It is always so weird when the last day of a cruise is a port day so they have to start all of this early.

 

Then we headed to Captain's Corner:

 

I also made a point to walk around the pool deck after Captain's corner since someone asked how busy it was on a sea day. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great that day, it was a bit drizzly that day and quite cloudy so the main pool was fairly empty but the covered areas outside the Solarium as well as the solarium were completely packed. I think this is a pretty good indicator that the pool deck would be full on sea days if we had better weather that day. I took pictures of the crowd that day that I might share when I share some pictures I took around the ship later on.

 

Then we had Izumi for lunch:

 

Then we headed back to the rooms again to pack some things since we knew the last day we had a long tour. I re-organized my towel animals in a little zoo on the dresser: 

 

Then we had dinner in Chops Grille:

 

They had dancing with the stripes that night in 270 as well so we watched a bit of that before heading to bed for our early tour to Sorrento from Naples the last day.

 

Ok now back to sitting in the hotel lobby waiting for a room. Don't be shocked if you see another post about Naples/Sorrento while I am still waiting here 🤣.

 

Thanks and TTYL!
- Ashley

 

[ashlynn1021]

Hi All!

 

Shortly after I posted that yesterday, we got lucky and we got hotel rooms! Anyways, back to posting about day 12, the last day of the cruise, we were docked in Naples and had a shore excursion called "Sorrento with Pizza and Gelato".

 

We started our day in Coastal Kitchen for breakfast, no pictures this time since you get the point 🙃. Then we headed to the theater to meet for our tour. Shortly after getting on our tour bus we passed Mt Vesuvius:

 

Also our tour guide, Rita, introduced herself:

 

We had a long drive to Sorrento, close to 2 hours in the morning traffic, so Rita narrated talking about the history of the area and things as we passed, and we also went around the bus and everyone shared where they were from. Rita was probably the highlight of the tour, she was a great guide!

 

Once we got to Sorrento, we went to an inlaid wood store, this definitely felt like another place giving kickbacks to the tour company but everything was very pretty. They gave us a demonstration of how it was made:

 

I knew immediately the lady doing the demonstration was not from Italy, no Italian accent, definitely a New York accent, so I asked her after, she was from Brooklyn not far from where my mom was born! Small world!

 

Anyways, then we had about an hour free time to shop. I bought some magnets as per usual. And then we met up again for lunch:

(A very sad salad)

(Included white wine for everyone)

(Pizza! Although I don't think I need to caption that haha)

(migliaccio, a dessert made with Ricotta and Lemon, it was very good)

(The restaurant the meal was at)

 

Then we walked a bit to the Gelato shop and had Gelato:

 

And then it was back to the bus for a drive to the limoncello factory. This was not listed in our tour description (like the inlaid wood store), and definitely gave kick backs to the tour company. It felt like the tequila factories you always end up at on excursions in Mexico, some of the many reasons we normally don't do excursions on Caribbean cruises. Anyways, here are some pictures from the factory:

 

Beautiful view of the Sorrento coastline from the terrace of the factory:

 

Then we boarded the bus one last time to head back to Naples, it took about an hour without traffic.

 

Our final towel animals:

(Not really an animal but a flower!)

 

Then we finished packing and headed to dinner in Coastal Kitchen for one last time:

(Same menu as Day 5 so I didn't take any food pictures)

 

Then we said our good byes to the host Jose:

 

And put our luggage out in the hallway:

Once again, don't judge the amount of luggage 🤣. Always a sad sight seeing the hallway the last day.

Anyways, now I am caught up through the end of the cruise!

I will probably post about our post cruise hotel stay when I get home, unless I get really bored during our layover in Heathrow later. And then of course I still have cabin photos/reviews and ship photos that I will post when I get home.

 

Thanks again and TTYL!
- Ashley

[AUgirl]

Hi Ashley, thanks so much for taking the time to post your beautiful pictures and for sharing your experiences on the cruise!! Question for you please - I love the picture of Oia from the ship as it's lighting up for the night. Did you get a picture of the sunset from the ship, or did you get to see it from the ship? We're debating on going back to the ship for dinner and the sunset instead of battling the crowds - thoughts?

[ashlynn1021]

12 hours ago, AUgirl said:

Hi Ashley, thanks so much for taking the time to post your beautiful pictures and for sharing your experiences on the cruise!! Question for you please - I love the picture of Oia from the ship as it's lighting up for the night. Did you get a picture of the sunset from the ship, or did you get to see it from the ship? We're debating on going back to the ship for dinner and the sunset instead of battling the crowds - thoughts?

That was actually a picture of Fira and my dad got it from Coastal Kitchen that night, he did better than me with that one, mine all had contrast issues 🙃, it was beautiful dining in there during sunset. You would have the same view from the Windjammer as well. As we were sailing away, we pulled up closer as they were bringing the last tenders and supplies on board during sunset and that is when we got that amazing view, sunset is quite late there, it didn't really get dark until after 8pm (remember I live in AZ with no DST since we don't want the sun this time of year so this was very jarring for us), so not sure you would be able to be in Santorini for sunset anyways.

 

Long story short, yeah I would try to go back mid afternoon probably, we were advised to definitely get in line before 6pm but we heard the line started growing shortly after 1pm.

[Jaynay]

Thank you so much for your review and looking forward to your final thoughts as well. Loved the pictures and particularly all the info from the excursions, loved your detail as I'm sure many will find your info very helpful in planning our future trips!!

[ashlynn1021]

Hi All!

 

Made it back home last night and obviously pretty jet lagged, but overall the travel day was pretty smooth, went basically the same as the day going just in reverse, I will post all the details of that later so now going to post about disembarkation day.

 

At about 7:15am we ate breakfast in Coastal Kitchen for one last time. No pictures because I am pretty sure you are bored of Coastal Kitchen at this point 🙃. We then walked across the pool deck and headed down to deck 5 to meet in Chops Grille for the 8am escorted disembarkation by the suite concierge. It was super easy, we met there, she gave us a sticker and a few minutes later at 8am she led us off and through scanning off the ship and escorted us through the terminal to the red tags section. Our cases were there waiting for us and we were on the curb with our luggage waiting for our transportation by 8:05am (unfortunately I set that at 9am but my parents were just ready to get off at that point and didn't want to wait until the 8:30am time to be escorted). Once on the curb, we sat with our luggage and waited, talking to everyone else who got off too early and also had transportation for 9am.

 

It is probably good to point out that our cruise was essentially a closed loop for the EU, the only non-EU port was Turkey and there is some agreement there so there was no immigration so it was literally walk off, collect luggage, exit. There was no passport checks, facial recognition, etc. 

At about 8:45am our driver showed up with a sign with our name and we went up to him and helped us with our luggage walking to his van parked down the street (All the private drivers park in the same place at the port, and they all line up in the same row with their signs so it is pretty easy to find them). This was once again booked through Stefano's Rome Cabs.

 

About an hour later we were dropped off at our hotel, the Hilton Rome Eur La Lama. This is a very new hotel, it just opened in 2023 and was even a brand new modern glass building. It is located near the convention center with some shops and restaurants but it is definitely not a tourist area, more on that later, but we chose to stay there because it was a shorter drive to the airport for the next morning. We tried to check in when we got there but unfortunately we were way to early for check in, as anyone who as ever had a post cruise hotel stay has experienced, so they stowed our bags for us so we could have taken the train into the more central part of Rome to see the sights but we were all tired after the exhausting 12 day cruise and felt like we got a good amount of central Rome in our 4 night pre cruise stay so we ended up just sitting in the hotel bar while we waited for rooms. They told us to check at the front desk at noon.

 

At noon, we checked and they were able to assign us rooms, they were being cleaned so they would drop off the keys where we were sitting once they were done so we didn't have to wait in line again, 2 conferences were checking in at our hotel causing long lines at check in. Not even 5 minutes later, we got the keys.

 

Here are some pictures of my room, my parents was identical a few doors down, just a mirror image:

 

They were very new, modern, although still distinctly Italian (bidet, small, etc). The only issue we experienced was for some reason my parent's keys never worked. They tried like 4 times printing them new ones but there were some "IT issues" going on so my parents had to be let in their room all the time, thankfully it was only one night and also they were not the only people affected we found out later, seemed about 50/50 whether the keys worked, the front desk really couldn't answer why mine worked even. Other than that it was clean and convenient for the one night stay.

 

Once we got our rooms, we asked the front desk for a restaurant nearby, unsurprisingly they did not recommend their own restaurant (our pre-cruise hotel was the same way), and recommended a restaurant in the art museum about a half mile away. The person at the front desk said it was super close, maybe 300 meters, but we have learned to take Italian distances with a grain of salt as they always underestimate. Anyways we went to a place called Tata:

 

 

Not a lot of English was spoken there and it was the first restaurant we ate at in Rome that didn't have English menus so google translate to the rescue:

 

 

We did have one mishap, they sent us the wrong pizza (the one underneath the one we ordered on the menu, leading to me accidentally eating anchovies in Rome, I guess I have a story to tell now 😂), but the waitress even had the right one on her notes so not sure how it happened, when we asked if it was correct, she right away acknowledged it was wrong and took it away and replaced it with the correct one, honestly no clue how it happened. Anyways here were the pizzas:

 

(The wrong pizza, Naples, with anchovies, I didn't know if the pepperoni was under the cheese, it wasn't 🤣)

 

(The second pizza we ordered that was never messed up, the Cappricciosa)

 

(The replacement correct pizza, the Diavola aka Devil aka Pepperoni, with slices taken because we took before I could get a picture, thankfully the tour guide the day before in Sorrento told us that Pepperoni is bell pepper in Italy so if you want a pepperoni pizza, order a Diavola, although somehow we still managed to screw it up)

 

Then we went and got gelato for one last time in Italy:

 

 

The place we went to down the street from the hotel, La Romana, is a chain in Europe but it was amazing, the best gelato we had the entire trip, and only 4 euros for a large cone with up to 4 flavors, they also filled the cone with chocolate (White or Milk) and would top it with whipped cream if you wanted. I got mine filled with white chocolate, it was so good 😋. Thankfully someone here spoke English because all the signage was in Italian and we would have never figured it out otherwise, I was frantically using google translate until she came by and saved us.

 

Also, just a general note on food prices, everything we had in Italy was very reasonable. Maybe it is just the places we normally eat at in Scottsdale are expensive but nothing was crazy expensive in Italy, my dad was drinking 6-7 euro a glass house wines and loving them (at home, he is a $20+ a glass guy, he never normally does house wines but in Italy they are much higher quality without all the preservatives), and for example, those pizzas were 11 euros and 12.50 euros a pizza, we have a neapolitan pizza place in Scottsdale that it over $20 a pizza of the same size and quality. And it was about the same everywhere we ate in Rome.

 

Anyways, after the gelato, we headed back to the hotel for an early night since we were getting picked up at 4am the next day to go to the airport.

 

I will post about the travel day at a later time, and also wrap up cabin reviews, overall ship pictures and reviews, etc. I am actually flying to Miami on Friday for a wedding next weekend so this week promises to be hectic, on top of going back to work.

 

Thanks again and TTYL!
- Ashley

[ashlynn1021]

Hi All!

 

Sorry for the delayed post about our travel day home, which was actually a week ago now. Work quite literally hit me like a ton of bricks this week, a lot more came up than I was expecting. I am actually posting this from my hotel room in Pompano Beach. I flew into Miami late last night and headed here for a wedding tomorrow, which definitely further complicated this week as I unpacked on Sunday to repack again a couple days later.

 

Anyways, back to last Saturday, the final day I have to write about 🙌.

We were picked up bright and early at 4am from our hotel by Stefano's Rome Cabs, the same company we used for all our transportation in Rome and I would definitely recommend them. They responded every time I messaged them, and we changed this post cruise hotel a lot as you guys know, and were on time for every pickup, if not early.

 

We got to FCO with plenty of time to spare for our 8am flight and dealt with our VAT tax refunds customs stamps, we still don't have the money back for those so not sure how successful they were yet but we luckily didn't have to take any of the purchases out of our bags (they were all in our checked bags, hence why we did this before check in, they were accessible if we needed to but we were glad we didn't). Then we waited about a half hour until the check in for our flight opened shortly after 5am. A line started forming right around then so we got in line and stood there for that half hour, we were second in line for Club Europe. Once checked in, we proceeded through security (one note here: FCO has the new scanners so therefore very relaxed liquid rules, I believe we could have brought bottled water on the flight even, also nothing had to come out of our carry ons), and then through passport control to leave the EU which was fully automated with facial recognition, and finally to the BA lounge where we waited a couple hours for our flight and I ate breakfast number one that day, a donut. Similar to LHR, FCO does not announce gates until shortly before boarding. Once the gate was announced, we headed straight to the gate.

 

After we headed to the gate, we had a bit of a wait and then waited even more on the jet bridge for them to open the plane, and then finally boarded. Our flight attendants handed us a club world menu shortly after boarding. I was surprised because I don't think we got one on this same flight in the opposite direction. They came around shortly after take off to take our order, I got the omelette:

 

 

And after a rather uneventful 3 hour flight, we landed in Heathrow where we did the same thing we did going in reverse, this time transferring from terminal 5 to terminal 3. Maybe we just got lucky but terminal 3 had the new security scanners so they were barely enforcing liquid rules, they asked to see our liquids bag before we got in the security line but barely looked and then it went back in our bags and nothing had to come out of our bags, the complete opposite situation we had in terminal 5 nearly 3 weeks before where everything had to come out (laptops, tablets, liquids bags). Hopefully all terminals will be able to be consistently relaxed in LHR in the next few months as they are able to roll out the new scanners and rules. I know at that time their liquid rules will be similar to FCO but I heard it is delayed, although it is a good year until I am flying into LHR again (for next year's group cruise).

 

Once we made it through security, we went to the Centurion Lounge where we spent many hours as we once again had an over 5 hour layover. We could spend so long in this lounge because we were on a connection, otherwise they have a 3 hour rule. I ate breakfast number 3 when we got here, a breakfast pastry this time. Here are some photos of the Amex branding in the lounge which is important to me for no particular reason 😂:

 

 

Once again, once our gate was announced, we headed to the gate right away where we once again waited until we boarded. Once boarding, we got the long haul Club World Menu for our flight:

 

 

And I got settled into my seat:

 

 

Then shortly after take off they did the first meal service. I had the buffalo mozzarella and the mezzaluna followed by the lemon meringue:

 

 

Then it was time to try to nap a bit, thankfully I didn't need to try to get a full night sleep like you do on this flight in reverse as we landed in PHX in the evening. Here is a picture of the club world suite door closed, the door was just a novelty so I had to get a picture:

 

 

And then here is a picture of my meal before landing, after watching 3.5 movies and trying to nap a bit, it is the salad:

 

 

After an 11 hour flight we landed in PHX where we went through US immigrations (we have global entry so this was super quick, just facial recognition, I didn't even have to take my passport out), collected our bags and then went through customs, all very simple in PHX. We have a large international terminal and not that many international flights.

The next day I unpacked and added my new magnets to my magnet boards:

 

 

Thanks again for reading! Hopefully it won't be another week before I do cabin and ship reviews, but no guarantees 🤣. I promise I will do them though.

 

Thanks and TTYL!
- Ashley

[ashlynn1021]

Hey Everyone,

 

Just catching up here and will finally get the cabin photos and ship photos posted hopefully this weekend but while you wait, here was the compasses from this cruise:

Odyssey-5-5-24-cruisecompass.pdf

Thanks!
Ashley

[LooneyCruzer]

Ashley, what did you use to hold all your magnets?

[ashlynn1021]

57 minutes ago, LooneyCruzer said:

Ashley, what did you use to hold all your magnets?

 

I got some magnetic boards from Amazon when I moved last year. They came with a screw kit to hang them but I ended up just using the heavy duty command strips. I am sure you could DIY it from a hardware store for a lot cheaper (the boards were very pricey), although mine came pre-painted white.

 

These were the ones I bought, I have 3 of them, the one to the left not pictured has our Christmas cards on it (Although I am sure the magnet collection will expand to it some day): 
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09Y75FM2R/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

Not sure I would endorse the exact ones I got because, like I said, not cheap, also they didn't come flat and I feel like I could have DIYed it but had a lot going on when I was moving so ended up keeping them and not returning.

Thanks!
Ashley

[ashlynn1021]

Hi All!

 

Back to (finally) do a review/comparison of my Junior suite that I had in May vs in December.

In May, I was in a J4, 7234 and back in December I was in a J3, 9224. I know the JS categories on QN class are confusing so that I why I am doing this. I normally would never go this in depth on cabins but I have seen other people ask about these in different groups so I would like to provide a resource I can link to others.

 

We have also stayed in the family connecting J1s on Anthem before and while I don't have photos, I am just going to start by saying avoid those if you can (terrible bathroom layouts and weird overall room layout), I know they are not on Odyssey for good reason.

 

Overall, both cabins are very nice, really honestly no complaints (although I do love the walk in closets that the older ships have in the JS category and wish Royal would go back to that and ditch some of the pretty, less functional design), but I definitely do have a slight preference that I will go over below.

 

Just some caveats before I start:

- In December, I apparently took the photos on boarding day before I unpacked, in May I forgot when I did it in December and did it after I unpacked (wrongly) assuming that was what I did in December (whoops).

- In December, I had a lot of luggage that you will see in the photos, although you will probably also say I had a lot in May, but I was definitely worse in December thanks to the fact that Odyssey was part of a 23 day total experience (I did 9 days on Independence of the Seas and then Side to Sided to the Odyssey for 14 days total, I was in a regular balcony on Independence, no comment what all that luggage looked like in that room).

 

Ok, now to start this, not sure the best way to go about this if I want to start with the same area of one room and then do the other of go through one room completely and do the other so a judgement call is about to be made...

 

J3 - 9224

 

Decision made, just going to go over each cabin separately and at the end I will write a blurb comparing/contrasting them.

 

So this cabin is definitely the larger of the 2 JS categories. It features a larger room with a seating area that includes a sofa, coffee table, and 2 chairs. It also had a full bathroom with a tub shower combo and a second bathroom with a second toilet and sink for a total of 2 toilets and 2 sinks. Additionally, it has extra closet space when compared to the J4. When QN class was originally launched, I believe they were marketed as family Junior Suites because of the bathroom layouts, storage, etc.

 

Photos:

(Sitting area)

(Desk which is identical to the one in the J4)

(This is the closet that did not exist in the J4, this one just has a long hanging bar at the top, I stored a suitcase in it when I unpacked since I didn't need the extra hanging space)

(This closet does exist in the J4, it has a short hanging bar, a couple shelves, and the safe with 2 small drawers on the bottom)

(Sink in the half bath)

(Toilet in the half bath)

(Toilet in the full bath)

(Sink in the full bath)

(Tub/Shower Combo)

(Big closet, is in both rooms)

(Dresser/TV area, 6 large drawers, also has the mini bar with a shelf over the cooler in it, I stored my electronics on that shelf, same in both rooms)

 

Overall, as you can see, this room has a good amount of storage, the seating area is nice as it gives you somewhere to sit other than the bed and the sofa provided lots of packing space at the end of the cruise, important things I guess. The tub/shower combo has the obvious drawbacks (the curtain, also how high they are up, I am 5'2" and I feel like I am almost touching the ceiling when I get in them, I know I am not I am just not used to being that close to a ceiling). Additionally, the second toilet area was a waste for me and I ended up storing, you guessed it, luggage in there:

 

(Only photo I have after unpacking in December 😂)

 

J4 - 7234

 

This cabin is, you guessed it, the smaller of the 2 JS categories, although not by much and it really didn't bother me. The biggest differences were the seating area which just had the sofa and a C table, no chairs or coffee table. Also, the bathroom layout was different, it had a stand alone tub and a regular stand up shower in the main bathroom with the same toilet and sink in the second bathroom for a total of just 1 toilet this time. Also, it has one less closet next to the bed. Overall, for just me, or just a couple, this layout is perfect to be honest. These were originally marketed as Spa Junior Suites when QN class launched, because of the shower it seems.

 

Photos:

(Half bath, the only toilet this time)

(Sink in the half bath)

(Full Bath, no toilet here this time)

(Standalone tub, a waste of space for me personally but I am sure some people use it)

(Stand up shower, includes a frosted glass window to the room, I couldn't see anything through it when I was in the shower but I was alone so couldn't test how visible it is outside, I am sure it is fine though, also it had a little seat that I had my crap on, ie my bar shampoo and conditioner as well as bar soap, my razor, and some skin care, I know thrilling stuff)

(Big closet again, this time with my crap in it 🤣 )

(Only closet next to the bed this time)

(Same TV/Dresser thing, same 6 drawers, mini bar with shelf, you get the idea)

(Same desk, on a personal note, I can't stand the coffee makers in the room, they take up so much space, although I might like them less because I don't drink coffee but even my parents who drink coffee don't use it because none of us are sure how clean they are)

(Smaller sofa with no additional seating this time. Also, the C table was in kinda sad shape, I think it had been pulled onto the balcony by previous guests a few times as it had rusted on the bottom)

 

Final Thoughts

 

Anyways, overall, I preferred the smaller J4. The shower did it for me (feeling like Jay from ParoDeeJay here as I give a shower review 🙃), it was probably the best shower I have had on a cruise ever. I previously had the Edge Class Sky Suite tubs as number 1 so it was a high bar (those are the only tubs where I didn't feel the height issue, also no shower curtain and they are not narrow so they beat out all the normal JS tubs, and are roomier than the normal tube showers). Anyways, this was the best of all worlds, not super tight, although I am a relatively small person so maybe someone else will think otherwise, good options between the handheld and the rainwater head, good spot to put things on the seat, etc.

 

While the sofa is considerable smaller and I missed the chairs I didn't need the chairs. And obviously, the second toilet was a waste since that ended up as my luggage room, same with the additional closet. Overall, I have this same category booked on Quantum of the Seas next year so clearly I was happy with it.

 

Anyways, that concludes my JS review and comparison. Hope it was helpful and let me know if you have additional questions!

 

I am going to put of the GS review and hopefully the ship review in the next couple days, I kinda have to now as I am actually going on Navigator of the Seas on Friday, 6/7 and would like this closed out before then.

 

Not sure if I am going to live blog that cruise but if I do it will be much less in depth, I might have to take a note from other's playbooks and do shorter, more frequent posts instead of these long winded wrap ups(like this one haha) if I do it. It is a 3 day cruise to Ensenada on my favorite ship, I have 0 intentions of getting off in the port, and I am just going with my mom so my dad can spend the weekend golfing, it might be our early father's day gift to him 😆.

 

Anyways, Thanks again and TTYL!

 

- Ashley

 

 

[ashlynn1021]

Hi All,

 

I know, back again so quickly! I am just trying to knock this out.

 

Now I am going to go over my parent's Grand Suite (GS from here on out). They were in 7226 in May and 9226 in December and the 2 cabins were virtually identical. After December, they hated the cabin and were determined to change but you know the backstory their from one of my earlier posts. They ended up staying in the GS again and after being more prepared for it decided it wasn't too bad this time. Anyways, I will try to highlight some of the faults in this post but also some of the positives. Similar to the JS, the GSs on older ships are nicer, they were best without dividing walls, with the open room with the peninsula storage/mini bar area on Voyager and Freedom class. Now I can get off my pedestal and talk about the current situation and not what is on older ships.

 

(Sitting Room, with TV 1)

(Closet in the Sitting area, presumably for whoever is sleeping on the pullout sofa but my mom actually used this, I didn't take open photos of most of these because it was my parent's stuff in them and didn't want to violate their privacy, just my own haha)

(mini bar area, I still like that old peninsula better but I will shut up about it, I promise, also some drawers my mom used)

(Bathroom door from sitting area)

(Small desk in sitting area)

(TV with storage under it, even in that cabinet, also used by my mom)

(Bathroom, 2 sinks, toilet, tub/shower combo, my room won here but I don't want to rub that in 🙃)

(Door to bedroom in the bathroom)

(Vanity area on the bedroom side of that second bathroom door, taken over by my mom)

(Closet in bedroom, used by my dad)

(Only open photo I took to highlight that for some reason, the hanging rack on this side of this closet is not deep enough for hangers, you will notice everything is at an angle, it is weird, they should have just done shelves all the way up but I digress)

(Bed in the bedroom, also some open shelves next to the bed used by my dad)

(Other view of the bed, showing the second TV in the room, and the weird half wall)

(Luggage being stored next to the bed in an area where more storage could have been put)

(luggage being stored next to the sitting area in an area where you guessed it, more storage could have been put, lots of wasted space in this cabin)

(This was my dad's first cruise traveling with a medication that needed to be refrigerated so here is the medical fridges they provide if you contact special needs, this is more of an FYI)

 

Overall, this cabin had lots of wasted space and if 3 or 4 people were in it, I don't think there would be enough storage, especially for a 12 day cruise. It had only 3 drawers in the mini bar area as opposed to 6 in my JS and overall the closet space was lacking. The bathroom was fine, the 2 doors made it convenient, and the tub/shower combo is pretty par for the course in a GS but if they were so focused on making it pretty, they maybe should have re-thought this as well. It is probably a great, even amazing, suite for the average cruiser, but how much we cruise, we have definitely become pickier.

 

Next year on Quantum, they booked an OS when I am in a J4 (In December of 2025) and in May we are sharing a two bedroom grand suite so they don't have this category booked on Quantum class again... that is probably all you need to know. They do have a GS booked on both Wonder and Utopia in August and I understand those are even smaller yet but I am not going on those cruises so they can report back on that if they want to 🤣 (I am on the Icon Group Cruise later this month now instead).

 

Anyways, thanks again and TTYL!
- Ashley

[ashlynn1021]

Hi All! 

 

Back again for what should be my final post for this cruise... I have been home for 2 weeks now (Although I did leave 4 days in the middle for a wedding 🙃) so it is finally time to wrap this thing up.

Overall Review and Recap:

 

Itinerary:

 

This was an amazing itinerary. While this is not what we originally booked, we definitely made the best of it and I believe we figured out that we only had 3 repeat ports on here (Naples, Kusadasi, and Piraeus (Athens)), and of course Civitavecchia (Rome) was not new to us either. We all agreed that if we were to do this again, most of the ports were completely doable on our own or with just ship shuttles to get into town. We really didn't need ship tours in most of the ports but this was our first time to a lot of them. The ship excursions were very hit and miss as you saw in my earlier recaps (ie I could have lived without ever experiencing Eva in Athens, or whoever our tour guide was in Limasol). Additionally, Mykonos has entered our list of places we would like to just spend time in not on a cruise in the future. Rome has stayed on that list as there is a lot of Italy that can be accessed from there that we would love to stay at and see more of (for example, Sorrento, Florence which we have done before but not this time, and Venice which we have also done before but not this time). Santorini was a highlight of this cruise and a bucket list destination but not somewhere we need to go back to, especially with the difficult logistics of it, if we did Greek isles in the future, especially with my mom physically, we would skip getting off there more than likely, or maybe chance getting off on the tenders independently and getting lunch. The other ports were nice ports of call that we wouldn't mind seeing again on a cruise but definitely don't reach the level Mykonos did for us.

 

Pre-cruise:

 

Additionally, I would 100% recommend every tour we did pre-cruise in Rome as well as our pre-cruise hotel (Doubletree by Hilton Rome Monti). Everything about that pre-cruise stay was absolutely perfect and this was my second year with good luck picking things on Viator between the reviews on there and the reviews on TripAdvisor. I also have my list of what we did in Amsterdam last year before our British Isles cruise on Celebrity Apex that I can share if someone wants it, same story there, we were very pleased with all the tour operators (and we booked all of that except for 3 things on Viator as well). Overall, the entire pre-cruise stay adventure was amazing and we even got very lucky with the British Airways flights, just so happy it all worked out.

 

Post Cruise:

 

This is always a less exciting part of the vacation for us hence why we stacked most of the stuff pre-cruise. I liked this hotel I just would probably have stayed in the same hotel we stayed in pre-cruise if I did it again. By the time we figured out we weren't staying in the airport hotel (ie my mom heard bad reviews from her friends), it was extremely overpriced to book the Doubletree and only 1 regular room and 1 suite were left at a very expensive rate. Also, it was probably fine that we did what we did considering we left for the airport at 4am the next day. Last year in Amsterdam, it worked out to be something like $2000 cheaper to fly home 2 days later rather than 1 day later so we did that and actually toured more then. Also, that cruise ended on a Thursday instead of Friday which made that feasible for me with work and flying home and jet lag. Anyways, all that to say, maybe something to consider would be still planning something more post cruise as it did cap off the trip well when we did it last year.

 

Ship:

 

The Odyssey of the Seas is a great ship, although it does help that we do like the Quantum class. I know this class if very controversial to a lot of people but for us, we love the larger Coastal Kitchen, the Esplanade area with the pub, and the Schooner bar layout. Yes, it is a trek to the suite lounge at the aft of the ship but we don't spend that much time there anyways. We have Quantum of the Seas booked for 3 cruises in 2025 so clearly we like this class of ships and are sailing them again. My mom says they are her favorite (although my dad likes Oasis more and I have a soft spot for Navigator (Voyager class but specifically Navigator) but I do see the appeal of this class).

 

Ship Photos:

 

Way back when, I promised someone ship photos so here are a bunch of photos I took on a port day when things were fairly empty:

 

 

Thanks again and this time, no more TTYL 🙃!

 

Still deciding if I am going to live blog my 3 day on Navigator that leaves on Friday so maybe look out for that!

 

- Ashley

[perfect match]

Thank you, Ashley for taking the time to write and share this very detailed and informative review with us. I got a bit behind for a while but I seem to have picked the right time to come back and get caught up - just as you were finishing up! I had a great time following along with you, your mom and your dad. Kudos to your mom for all the walking she did! My own mobility impairments seem to be different than hers but I know all too well how difficult all of those cobblestones and stairs must have been for her and I admire her perseverance in doing as much as she did but also the wisdom she showed in knowing when it was time for her to rest.

 

Thank you again for doing this review. I had fun following along! 

[tamom]

Thank you for this review!  We are thinking of a similar cruise on Odyssey next year and all your pre cruise tips and tour descriptions will come in very handy. 

[ecslady]

Thanks for your review.  Great comparison of the two JS cabins!