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On board the Odyssey


Sunprince
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We embarked the Odyssey yesterday and I wanted to provide a quick update:

 

- Overall the ship is in excellent condition.

- New carpet everywhere, in suite, and all public areas. In fact, they loaded new carpet in Athens and were continuing to replace the carpet on some of the aft stairwells last night.

- The blue leather is gone in the Observation lounge benches and replaced with a dark fabric. I think it looks more modern.

- Service is excellent all over the ship. There is a mix of tenured crew and new. But to be honest, you can't tell the difference!

- All of the crew are wonderful that we have met.

- Food is very good to excellent, I had a lovely rack of lamb last night and a very tender filet of grouper for lunch today.

 

Other observations and minor annoyances:

- what happened to the top sheet on the bed? We have a fitted bottom sheet but no top sheet, only the duvet. I might be asking our stewardess this question?

- The windows and glass balcony were filthy when we embarked yesterday. They were cleaned today but not to a great degree so we will monitor this and ask our stewardess if it needs extra attention.

- There are a lot of children on board, mostly well behaved but more than I have ever seen. Despite their numbers, they are still better than the 2 screaming Mexican kids (with accompanied nanny) that we had 2 years ago on Sojourn.

- There are a large number of large family groups on board. By this I mean grandpa and grandma paid for the owners suite and brought 15 of their closest family members with them. I don't mean to seem unkind, but they do not look particularly well travelled.

- No one seems to understand the concept that if you need to move your balcony furniture that you should pick it up to move it, rather than drag it across the balcony. Very noisy!

 

Overall we are enjoying the Odyssey!

 

 

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We embarked the Odyssey yesterday and I wanted to provide a quick update:

 

- Overall the ship is in excellent condition.

- New carpet everywhere, in suite, and all public areas. In fact, they loaded new carpet in Athens and were continuing to replace the carpet on some of the aft stairwells last night.

- The blue leather is gone in the Observation lounge benches and replaced with a dark fabric. I think it looks more modern.

- Service is excellent all over the ship. There is a mix of tenured crew and new. But to be honest, you can't tell the difference!

- All of the crew are wonderful that we have met.

- Food is very good to excellent, I had a lovely rack of lamb last night and a very tender filet of grouper for lunch today.

 

Other observations and minor annoyances:

- what happened to the top sheet on the bed? We have a fitted bottom sheet but no top sheet, only the duvet. I might be asking our stewardess this question?

- The windows and glass balcony were filthy when we embarked yesterday. They were cleaned today but not to a great degree so we will monitor this and ask our stewardess if it needs extra attention.

- There are a lot of children on board, mostly well behaved but more than I have ever seen. Despite their numbers, they are still better than the 2 screaming Mexican kids (with accompanied nanny) that we had 2 years ago on Sojourn.

- There are a large number of large family groups on board. By this I mean grandpa and grandma paid for the owners suite and brought 15 of their closest family members with them. I don't mean to seem unkind, but they do not look particularly well travelled.

- No one seems to understand the concept that if you need to move your balcony furniture that you should pick it up to move it, rather than drag it across the balcony. Very noisy!

 

Overall we are enjoying the Odyssey!

 

 

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We have had the sheet issue on the Soujoin and the Encore.We asked the stewardess to remove the duvet and replace with a top sheet.No problem.Also on the Encore in June we noticed the same about people dragging furniture and slamming doors.We happened to mention it to our room attendant and she said they now have premade signs that they will hang on doors that say something like "noisy neighbor"We declined and were not sure if she was kidding us.

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We got off in Athens as you got on. Have to agree that, on the whole, the staff are excellent and the ship is looking great. I found the bed very comfortable but I wish we had had a fitted sheet on the bottom as ours kept rucking up! Our stewardess was not quite as intuitive as we are used to - nothing major but I think we were well spoilt last time :D.

 

We had some pretty rough weather for a couple of days with high winds so that might account for the dirty glass.

 

It was a very international mix of passengers and definitely on the younger side with quite a lot in their thirties/forties/fifties. There was one baby onboard (Asian/Canadian) - absolutely gorgeous and so well behaved and the other children we had were also great.

 

We had a great time and now trying to get the washing dry inbetween the showers ;) enjoy the rest of your cruise.

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On all our (many) Seabourn cruises I don't think we have ever had a top sheet under the duvet! I have found in most British hotels you do not get a top sheet either, so was not surprised. We do have one at home, and I agree it is preferable. Will ask in future.

 

Certainly the sheet and duvet cover are laundered very frequently - it seems like every 3 or 4 days.

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I also don't remember ever having one on our bed in all of our Seabourn cruises. So it has become part of my of requests to our stewardess when we meet her on the first day -- 1) please add a top sheet, 2) please give me one of the wicker baskets laundry is returned in (useful to neatly hold the myriad of papers that seem to stack up during the cruise), 3) no need to fill ice bucket daily, 4) please don't turn on the TV when doing turndown service and 5) please leave a banana and a few strawberries on the fruit plate each day. We had a wonderful stewardess, Biamca, on this recent Alaska cruse and ran into Cary, our stewardess from our Dec/Jan Antarctica cruise. These young ladies work so hard. I don't think I have ever had a bad one.

 

 

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Glad to know we are not the only ones who want a top sheet, duvet or not. We find the duvet too warm many times for the room's temperature.

 

First time I remember seeing a duvet only was in Europe and Asia years ago. The duet was neatly folded at the foot of a sheet covered bed. The duvet and bottom sheet seem to have become the hotel/cruise ship standard even here in the US.

 

We always ask for a top sheet if we find our bed only has a bottom sheet. On occasion I have even removed the duvet and just used the cover because it was just too warm. However, I definitely like the idea of the duvet cover being washed regularly and especially between guest. I have a feeling that didn't always happen with the bedspread and blanket set up.

 

Chairsin, I like your list of first requests, though we are ice users and instead ask for two buckets a day. I will have to remember to add the little basket when we board the Sojourn in Sept. Thanks.

 

Carolyn

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Thanks for the update, Sunprince. Large family groups? Oh no! Large groups of any kind onboard are not my favourite thing. We also had a fair bit of door banging while on Encore earlier this year. Glad Odyssey is looking good anyway and that you enjoy Greece.

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Very good idea to ask that the TV be off when you return to the suite each night to sleep. Who needs to mess with those controls late at night?

 

Another idea: If you find that the duvet is too heavy then ask for a top sheet and light blanket for your side of the bed. You can also specify a cotton blanket.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

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Presently on the Encore and from day 1 we turned the aircon up and the aircon fan down. The duvet is ok for us, I seem to unwittingly just push it aside and have a perfect sleep. I have no complaints about the quality of the bedding, very comfortable.

 

I don't know how she does it but our stewardess Ivonne does a brilliant job of making the bed look pristine both on returning in the morning and when we return after the night shows.

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Glad to know we are not the only ones who want a top sheet, duvet or not. We find the duvet too warm many times for the room's temperature.

 

First time I remember seeing a duvet only was in Europe and Asia years ago. The duet was neatly folded at the foot of a sheet covered bed. The duvet and bottom sheet seem to have become the hotel/cruise ship standard even here in the US.

 

We always ask for a top sheet if we find our bed only has a bottom sheet. On occasion I have even removed the duvet and just used the cover because it was just too warm. However, I definitely like the idea of the duvet cover being washed regularly and especially between guest. I have a feeling that didn't always happen with the bedspread and blanket set up.

 

Chairsin, I like your list of first requests, though we are ice users and instead ask for two buckets a day. I will have to remember to add the little basket when we board the Sojourn in Sept. Thanks.

 

Carolyn

We always ask for the duvet to be replaced by top sheet and blanket--duvet too heavy for us

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Someone on another thread mentioned a bad smell in certain areas of the Odyssey. We were on the cruise that docked in Athens on Saturday. There was ocasionally a faint sewage type smell in the shower cubicle. More of an issue was the turning off one morning of the toilet flushes on an area of our deck. I gather this was in order to deal with a blockage somewhere. Shortly after that a card was issued, reminding people not to put down items other than toilet paper.

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Very good idea to ask that the TV be off when you return to the suite each night to sleep. Who needs to mess with those controls late at night?

 

Another idea: If you find that the duvet is too heavy then ask for a top sheet and light blanket for your side of the bed. You can also specify a cotton blanket.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

 

 

 

I woke up the other night at 4am and the tv was on (I had turned it off). Then I could not get the screen to turn off. So after 10 tries I just pushed the tv back and closed the cabinet door.

 

 

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Ok, so I stopped by the Square today to ask if it was possible that our onboard friends joins us at Keller tomorrow (we made a reservation for 2 prior to the cruise). I was met with an "official" attitude that the restaurant has been booked since day 2 of the cruise and she made me seem silly for even asking the question of adding our two new friends to our reservation. I asked if there would be cancellations and again apparently that would be a stupid question. No offer for a waiting list. So then I asked if we could join our friends who are also on for 14 days and made a reservation for next week ( they could not get one this week). I was told reservations are only available online and I would need to reserve early on day 1 of week 2...otherwise I would be out of luck. Not a great attitude of the Square staff member! Is Keller that good? Our other on board friends ate their last night and were not overly complimentary. Will report back tomorrow!

 

 

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Speak to the hostess at the entrance to the Colonnade at breakfast or lunch and they can look on the computer for any vacancies or put you on the waiting list, or to Ivan, the Assistant Maitre d' - when we did the above he came to find us with a table for the time we wanted - sadly, the weather was rather rough that night so I had to cancel so never made it to the grill after all!

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Or talk to the manager of the Grill and ask him/her to sort it out. As to adding people to an existing reservation it is not necessarily as simple as with the Restaurant where they are not constrained by set seating configurations. Also in the Grill they have limited staff and quantities of certain ingredients so again that might make it harder to adjust a reservation there. But don't give up. As to whether it is worth it -- in my opinion most definitely.

 

 

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Sunprince ... as was clearly explained to us from a very reliable maitre'd on Odyssey "it's not what you know, it's who you know". Don't deal with the Square people, talk to the person running the grill at the front end.

Or any of the dining venues for that matter.

 

 

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Thanks for all the updates Sunprince, I'm sorry to hear about the TK saga. The space is a lot smaller than they have on Encore, but thats no excuse for the attitude you encountered - in my experience very unusual for Seabourn. We are booked in there on day 2 of our cruise next week and are just resigned to dining elsewhere with our friends during the week. I seem to remember that a lot of the tables in that restaurant on the O ships are just for two, I enjoyed the TK on Encore, so wanted to try it on Odyssey. Like many others however, I wish they would keep TK strictly in the TK restaurant rather than inflicting it on us all in the Colonnade. Off now to pack - looking forward to it!

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I doubt that any staff are being difficult when they explain that the TK restaurant is likely full and so cannot simply add numbers to existing reservations. If the reservations system shows the tables are booked (and this would likely be with online precruise reservations that already limit each cabin to one per cruise) then there just won't be availability, right? This TK restaurant will certainly be in high demand and Seabourn needs to treat everyone fairly who wants to try it.

 

If I were to take exception to anything it's the notion that "... it's whom you know" since that phrase suggests that so far you don't know a miracle worker who can conjure up more space- as if there were one and space can be stretched into more seating somehow. On the other hand, it's certainly worth asking the maitre 'd to contact you if cancellations make space available.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

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I have rethought my last post since I may have supplied the impression that what's done is done. Not necessarily so!

 

I want to believe that Seabourn's precruise booking system for TK tables does not contain the full inventory. So on your night you may well be able to add friends to a different table- after you speak to the md'.

 

Best of luck! I have found with very few exceptions - and when they occurred I probably moaned about them here - that Seabourn senior ship board staff will make it right.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

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We have been onboard for 5 full days now so I thought I'd provide a few updates.

 

- Our stop is Naxos the other day was cancelled as we could not tender. So the captain sailed over to nearby Paros which we have been to before. The seas were better but the tender ride back to the ship was very rough...we were sideways most of the trip!

- our stewardesses are very efficient. We have two who are working together. I am not sure if that is normal or whether one of them is in training. Either way the suite is being well serviced. One of the girls said to me today that we are "one of the tidiest guests she has even seen".

- Service on deck 9 of the pool has been spotty, sometimes very frequent service and other time no one is to be found. We either wait or just get up and go to the sky bar

- We have heard quite a few comments about the number of children on board and the large family groups that I mentioned before. Let's hope some get off in Malta! One woman thought it was ok to have her kids splashing around during the caviar pool event today. The crew had to swim around them.

- Our Keller reservation is tonight. Well, it almost wasn't! I had booked online in advance for 8:30 pm but the reminder card came today for 6:30pm. Way too early for us. I called the Square, who informed me TK was fully booked. I did speak to the maitre'd And his response was " I don't get involved with those things". Odd but I was not in the mood to argue. But then I spoke to the hostess who sorted it out. I will report back whether it was worth the effort!

 

 

 

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