Stealthdog

Thats terrible. I guess I have proof if things go missing because of my pictures. I bought everything at the dollar store, so for me its not sentimental. But, I feel for your daughter especially if the stolen items were important to her. 😞

Some Holiday decorations on the ship, on Deck 5. Deck 5 is the area where you embark onto the ship.

Dining Night 1 - Wonderland Compared to our experience with the Wonderland on the Symphony, the Odyssey Wonderland was fantastic. The room is one level, much smaller and more intimate. The decorations and decor are all well done, and it seems like they planned space rather than just throw things together. There is no Mad Hatter cast member walking around the restaurant (which we found a little annoying on the Symphony). Our server told us the smaller ships don't do the Mad Hatter. We even thought the food on the Odyssey's Wonderland was better. We definitely recommend Wonderland the on the Odyssey for the experience and ambiance. The food may not be to everyone's liking because it is really eclectic. If you do go to Wonderland on Odyssey, ask to be served in Shey's section - she was outstanding. Some pics of the food.

One show at 9pm but he does another performance on Day 4.

Lunch at Giovannis on embarkation day. It was empty - if you have the UDP, just walk in and enjoy. Good options and the food was quick. Caprese salad with truffles was really good, the meat/cheese board was standard. The pizzas looked really good - will have to go back and try then.

Want to show off our door decorations for this cruise. 2nd leg will be different. Hope guests and staff that walk by get enjoyment from it.

It was a pleasure meeting you and Bill yesterday too! We are going to brunch in the MDR soon. We will see you at the Top Tier Party and hopefully cheer you on if they announce you and Bill!!!

The ship itself is beautiful. The decorations and interior designs of the lounges and other spaces are very well done. The layout of the ship feels a little odd....but this may just be comparing it to an Oasis Class ship where the neighborhood concepts really divide and define the ship. There are stairs and elevators in the middle and forward of the ship, but nothing in the aft of the ship. So, if you are in the aft, you have to travel to the middle of the ship to go up or down. For this reason, if you have any physical handicaps or mobility issues, I highly recommend not getting a stateroom in the aft of the ship. Throughout the week, I'll post some pictures of the various areas of the ships to show what they look like.

We went to the Day 1 Headliner show, Finis Henderson. For us, it was a little bit of a disappointment and we decided to go to the Casino about halfway through his act. I'd describe his act as music comedy, and it just didn't work for us. We have seen better comedians on recent cruises and better singers on recent cruises, so the combination of the two was underwhelming. There were a lot of people in the theater that really seemed to enjoy it, so check it out for yourself.

As I mentioned yesterday, embarkation day was a snap. The facility was large enough to process a huge amount of people through at one time. Some recommendations: - You don't need your COVID Card. Keep that packed away where you keep it. When you check in, the greeters will ask if you are vaccinated and boostered, and mark you off based on your answer. - You will need your passport handy for the beginning of checkin, so make sure that is available. You will go through quicker if you don't have to search for it. - You will need your sail Pass (paper or digital) throughout checkin. We just kept the app opened on the phone so we could pull it up whenever we wanted. There are 3 different screening lines for security. We both carried 2 bottles of wine and water in our backpack and roll-on luggage. One of my water bottles was 1.5 liters. This time we even went in the same line together. The screeners did not ask any questions or look inside our carry-ons. I know the question of how much wine you can bring on is often a topic here. This is the second straight cruise we have brought on a total of 4 bottles (2 each). Once you get through security, you will go to the 2nd floor holding area and wait for your time to board. We got there as the Suite/Pinnacle guests were boarding. After them it was the Key guests, and then they board by rows, first arrive, first board. Throughout the process noone ever asked what time our boarding time was. If you want to push your luck and arrive early, you may be able to get on earlier than your time. We arrived on Deck 5 (I think). I'll verify today - it was nicely decorated with a bunch of balloons and you enter right next to a large Christmas tree and other holiday decorations.

Thanks! There were a total of 5 ships in port (that we were able to see). Odyssey of the Seas was the first to depart. 1st was Celebrity APEX, 2nd Holland American Neuw Statendam, 3rd (Sky?) Princess, 4th was us, and Emerald Princess was still in port when we left. I'm having some weird interference with using my iphone to "reply" to cruisecritic posts. So, we have to do a balancing act of 2 phones and 1 laptop sharing one Voom device internet. I'll post some photos of Wonderland dinner and Giovanni lunch from Day 1 a little later off my iphone. No issues with Voom though - we are streaming shows, videochatting on Meet, and surfing the net. The speed is great on board.

Thanks - We booked the NorthStar on Labadee day - figured we will be on and off the ship so its easier to manage times. We aren't going to try out the iFly. Both the NorthStar & iFly are available for bookings on all port days for free. Both are easy to book - you can do it off the app on your phone. If you have issues with booking on the app, there will be staff on deck 14 at the bottom of the stairs by the Lime and Coconut that will help you with your reservations.

Day 1 Daily

Entertainment schedule.

And we are onboard. Checkin time was 1130. We took an uber from NE Fort Lauderale - $15 for uber, $25 for uberxl. Little traffic at the port today even though there are several ships debarking. Odessey is port 18. We were through security by 1100 and on the ship by 1130. We both carried on 2 bottles of wine and water. First stop was dining reservations. Made all 8 dinner and 5 lunches with good times every day. There were long lines at some of the specialty restaurants to book dining. Look around until you find a small line. We booked at Wonderland - there were no line. The ony show to book on board is The Book. Everything else appears to be first come first serve. Having lunch at Giovannis. Its empty!

I'll see what I can do! 🙂

We are excited to board the Odyssey of the Seas this Saturday as part of a B2B (or side to side), with the second leg being the Celebrity Beyond Dec 11-18. This will be our 4th Royal sailing, and have also sailed Celebrity, Norwegian, and Disney. My last review of the Symphony of the Seas was mostly post-cruise. This one will be more live with daily reviews and updates. Some information in case people have specific questions about cabin, dining, status perks, etc: - We are staying in a Balcony on Deck 6 (we have some bid ups, but the ship looks almost 100% filled, so have very low hopes). - We have the UDP, so will be trying most (if not all) of the restaurants on board for dinner, all the specialty dining options for lunch, and the ala carte options. - We do not have an alcohol package and are bringing wine and water on board and will pay as we go for anything else. - We have platinum status (due to reciprocity with Celebrity). - We have Voom for one device. Itinerary for the sailing: Dec 3 - Fort Lauderdale Dec 4 - At Sea Dec 5 - Labadee Dec 6 - At Sea Dec 7 - Aruba Dec 8 - Curacao Dec 9 - At Sea Dec 10 - At Sea Dec 11 - Fort Lauderdale We have been to Aruba and Curacao multiple times each, but this is our first time to Labadee. We elected to do shore excursions for Aruba and Curacao with Royal Caribbean this sailing. Southern Caribbean sailings are our favorite Caribbean itineraries. We took the autotrain from Lorton, Virginia to Samford, Florida last week and spent Thanksgiving and this week in the Orlando area. We plan to take the autrotrain back up after the Beyond sailing, assuming there is no rail strike. If anyone has any questions on the autotrain, feel free to ask. We will drive to Fort Lauderdale Friday afternoon and spend the night with a friend, who will drop us off at the port Saturday morning enroute to a cruise he is taking out of Miami on Saturday. I'll plan to post menus, the daily, and the entertainment schedule. Ask any question and I'll try to get the answer, post the picture, or provide whatever you want. When this review is done, I'll leave a link for the review we will do for the Beyond for anyone who wants to follow along that one as well. I'd also like to give a shout out to the Roll Call members for this Odyssey sailing. This Roll Call is huge - nearing 600 posts and more than 20 pages in the thread. I expect this to be a very lively sailing!

The increase, and unreliability, of airfare has really changed our travel plans since the start of covid. We cant avoid flying on our Alaskan cruise next summer, but we the last 3 trips to florida we have driven the 14 hours or taken the autotrain. We save so much just driving down and back.

I think alot of other cruisers would jump ship too. I have zero loyalty to a cruise line. I sail with royal because of price. If rates go up enough then its no longer value and I will look at holland, msc, ncl, princess, and celebrity. If royal prices themselves at the same point as celebrity, why sail royal?

Im looking at some more and they seem hit or miss, and big variation between ships. Ive never paid attention to galveston prices because I sail from Florida. Symphony for 2023 looks several hundred over compared to this year. Oasis looks similar. The Texas rates for 2023 look really good.

I looked at a few oasis class sailings for early Dec 2023 and the prices do seem significantly higher than this December's prices.

I'm seeing it as $40 for my cruise. We are on a B2B Royal then Celebrity cruise starting next Saturday and were going to pack for 16 days. But, I'd rather pack for fewer days and just pay the $40 for a laundry bag. Does anyone know how early on the cruise we can do it if we pre-purchase? 1st day would be awesome, with return on 2nd day.

Ive had my card in my wallet for the last year and half. My wallet is like a constanza wallet - not even sure id be able to find where it is. 🤣

We are going to decorate the doors this time. When we fly to florida we dont, when we drive down we do (since we dont have to worry about luggage and weight). One time we decorated the door to look like a christmas gift. Another we just put up happy holiday things. I think we will get creative this time.

Hope your symtoms remain mild and you have a quick recovery! There is probably no way to pinpoint when you got it, only when you start exhibiting symptoms - last day of cruise in your case. Data this year suggests the average person doesnt show symptoms until 5-6 days after exposure, with most cases ranging from 2-14 days after exposure. These dates also fluxuate by variant.