RCCL Fan

The balcony may have actually been my favorite in my hundreds of nights of cruising.... or maybe I just loved the kids not being there. hahaha. You'll enjoy it .

We actually were still on the ground in Helsinki driving out to the runway when i got the email that one of our bags hadn't made the flight. We were going home, so I was like whatever.... I checked my airtags and yep it was there in Helsinki they must have just failed to put it on the plane. What annoyed me tremendously was we were flying home on a Sunday morning and they said they would send it on Wednesday. I was like, why?? There was a flight leaving Helsinki to Chicago and to New York later that day, and again Monday. Wednesday was the next direct flight to Dallas, but why not put it on the flight to NYC or Chicago and then change planes to Dallas. It's the second largest airport in the US, planes are coming there all day. I had nothing to do for 12 hours on the plane so i was emailing and chatting everyone trying to get them to put it on the Chicago flight.... but they refused. Said "American might lose it" I'm like YOU LOST IT! hahaha As luck would have it, it was my wife's carry on bag that she decided to check at the last minute, nothing really important in there EXCEPT.... the kids' gifts. whoops! The bag didn't make it until Thursday or Friday for some bizarre reason, but it made it, gifts were all still there and in good shape, including the glass items we bought in Murano.

I think we were done by the time we got there. We took a very low key approach to Venice. I definitely loved the outer islands. Murano was a good choice for us. There's a Hilton in Stucky I heard good things about.... but I have Hyatt and Marriott status not Hilton. 🙂

Thanks so much. My wife kept saying "i have no idea where we're going or what we're doing, I'm just along for the ride." It was all me. but I did have the whole pandemic to research and tweak and change my mind. I redid flights like 6 times. hahaha

The funny thing about our pricey dessert stop was we were right by the Eiffel Tower and purposely walked away from it into a neighborhood, but clearly not far enough. Oh well. We drank, we ate, we laughed. Water under the bridge. As for RCI I have sailed on every class ship now. I think the voyager, freedom, and oasis classes typically have similar programming and vibes and feel. It's energy lots of what I like to call "hard product" to keep you busy: promenade, ice rink, flowrider. The vision and radiance classes specialize in the "soft product" not a lot on the boat to do physically but they make up for it with tons of trivia and games and activities at every turn, there's always a family feud type game or the egg drop in the centrum, or who wants to be a Royal Caribbeanaire... always some cheesy little something to stumble upon a share laughs. Odyssey seemed to be somewhere between these two Royal's i know.

It was a freaking long one, thanks so much

Giovanni's charcuterie was fabulous! Although our dining room experience was quite good.

it was a first for us, and yes, it's very impressive for sure. I still stand by the decision to stay in Murano but I did love it there.

Venice Bound We drove into Florence that morning and dropped off our Rental car at Hertz's garage which was a good 6-7 blocks for the train station. The plan was to take the train from Florence to Venice. It was a bit of a hike with bags, but we made it. I had heard so many nice things about Florence, I really wanted to stay, but there was only so much time in this crazy trip of ours. We booked with Italo for the route to Venice, I checked out the cabins of both trains and liked the executive class a bit more on Italo. The train was an adventure. There's a lot of uncertainty.... standing around waiting to find out which track you get, going to the track and not knowing if car 1 would be the first car or the last. Everyone rushing really fast to get to the car, because the train waits for no one. Ugh. Then as we got on board it hit me. I'm still in Europe, the land of little A/C this train is going to be hot. Of all the things I had prepared for, I hadn't prepared for that. It's a warm, small compartment with passengers hopping off at every station to smoke, so there was a lingering cigarette smell, and little circulating air. Masks were also required on board. I was like I'm going to die on this train. Luckily I remembered in my backpack I had bought a small portable fan for the plane. I heard non-US airlines often had warm cabins so I bought this. The flights were all normal, so the fan was just packed away and I brought it out and flipped it on and it made a huge difference. My wife who doesn't share my claustrophobia turned to me shortly after we left and said, "may i use that?" she was stuffy and sweaty. The fan helped her a ton as well. So keep in mind, yes they have a/c onboard but it's likely set to 80 degrees. Ride was smooth and comfy, you couldn't tell you were going nearly 200mph. Italo had TV's in each seat but all the content was in italian so that was kinda pointless for me, so I entertained myself with my phone until we arrived in Venice. As the train rolled in we sailed right by the new Norwegian Prima ships. When I first saw them, I was like that can't be, they're not out yet... and Venice has banned big cruise ships. Then I remembered there's a ship builder her and i grabbed my camera but it was too late. Out of the train station there we were in the middle of venice, waterways instead of streets, and out of no where I hear someone yelling my name. I had arranged a private boat to take us to our hotel. This dude has never seen me but I must have screamed high maintenance lazy tourist because he picked me out of the crowd and waved me over to our boat. Venice was my wife's bucket list. Some place she always wanted to go, always dreamed of, and she loved climbing into our boat/taxi and making our way to the hotel. The taxi made a turn away from Venice and out to the sea and I saw the smile drop from her face, she finally said, "It seems like we're leaving venice" "We are" I told her. Our hotel was on the neighboring island of Murano. I told her Murano looks very similar to Venice but with less crowds and was a bit more relaxing. She didn't seem convinced. We got to the Hyatt where I cashed in points for their canal view suite. We had a elevator that led directly up to our room the elevator door opened in our living room. She was ok with the hotel then. We dropped our bags and walked over to a local glass blowing shop, I had arranged a lesson for us. They wanted to start with a history of glass and Murano, I stopped her right there. Explained we were history full and could we just dive in. We did, both taking turns learning how to make items and have some sun with the tools. We both made pendants for our daughters. This was arranged through the Hyatt and was a wonderful activity, I was so happy we did it. We headed to a pizza restaurant near the hotel for dinner, and it was insane how big the portions were. The food just wasn't very tasty and a bit greasy. I only ate like 10%. Rather than ask me if I disliked it they boxed it up for me to take home. This was one thing I noticed in Europe in terms of restaurants. Your servers take your order, bring the plates, and take the payment. They don't check on you to see if you need anything, you have to flag them down, they get very uncomfortable if you ask for their suggestions. Just a difference. We headed back to the hotel, now you should know if you're thinking of the Hyatt that their hotel has some type of radiant cooling system. Basically there's no cool air blowing from vents, but something that slowly brings down the temp. There were many reviews that said the hotel was very hot in the summer, so I called and spoke to them ahead of time. One of the reasons I picked the suite was because it had a/c that blows cool air. It was one of two rooms that did. Well, the master bedroom in the suite was HOT, living room COLD, it was clearly something wrong. I had to make the clerk come upstairs to see the issue. The staff couldn't have been more helpful and apologetic, they worked on it and made it right for us. I was so appreciative.. The next morning my wife explored Murano for an early morning run. she came back and was loving murano and the course she took for the run. We went to Venice and hit up all the spots, got photos, the crowds were in full force and we understood what the Venetians meant by the city being packed with tourists, although it really wasn't worse than any other city we visited. The heat wound up being too much so we went back midday for a shower and nap before venturing back out for dinner. We really finally were feeling tired from our trip and ready to head home Neither of us really enjoyed our dinner tonight, it lacked seasoning and flavor.. but our next activity was wonderful. Sure we had to ride a gondola. Our guide was fantastic and the trip was everything my darling wife had dreamed of. We decided to walk back to the water taxi and head back to Murano. We stopped at the outdoor hotel bar and talked, laughed, and enjoyed the calm that was Murano. We decided this was definitely the place to be compared to Venice. The next morning we did some souvenir shopping and a last walk around the island before we hopped on the hotel's free speedboat to the airport. It was a great finale to the trip. We were really pleased with the Hyatt and their staff. We flew home on Finnair through Helsinki. I was so happy to see the words Dallas on the montior and head home! You may have heard about their new Business Class seat which doesn't recline at all but is more like a mini love seat. This time the computer moved us to the middle seats on it's own, and gave away our window seats. I was a little disappointed, as i really wanted to see helsinki from the air, but was just happy to be on this fancy new plane. It had wireless qi charging for our phones, huge TV's and cameras around the plane which gave us views outside. Had the braised beef cheek for my main lunch, it was tasty. I loved this plane, there were no overhead bins in the center section and so the ceiling was super high and it felt spacious. We did have issues with the wifi not working properly, and the service wasn't strong. They didn't have many of the drinks, and didn't come check on me. My meal came covered with red onions which I'm allergic to and I waited 35 minutes from them to come back around for me to ask if I could just have more bread. Flight attendants kept saying it was a new plane and menu and it was their first time on it, I was like ok......... The new seat was fine, it didn't bother me that it didn't recline, I did feel the cushion was super thin, and it was hard and uncomfortable. 11hours, and several episodes of stranger things later the wheels were down and we landed back in Dallas.... without one of our bags but we were home, and it was an amazing trip!

I've asked him.... he didn't really answer. I know he shared with me earlier, that he was disappointed by the crowds on the pool deck and the tendering process. He was like it's 2022, the fact that they make everyone get up at 9am and stand in a line to get a tender ticket is insane. they have an app, why can't we reserve a time on there, everyone knows their time ahead of time and it's done. but he felt the food and service was great, wants to try it again on one of the Oasis ships with his grandkids.

Day 8 -- Rome in a day After we got off the ship, we were picked up by a tour guide. One of those packages for cruise passengers. We used Stefano Roma They pick you up from the port, drive you into Rome, and take you to everything before dropping you off at your hotel or the airport. I had mentioned that two of us get a little claustrophobic and having some cold bottled water would help. Our guide showed up with a cooler of bottled water frozen to stay super cold through the day. He drove us into Rome and let us all relax during the drive, answered our questions about how much houses in the country cost etc. You've likely learned by now, I'm not a big ruins buff, and so I was not really looking forward to Rome, other than wanting to go to the Vatican, I was indifferent to being here all together. Infact our original plan was to skip it and go straight to Tuscany but my wife asked to add it in about 3 weeks before we left, so I made some changes. Anyway this guide was the way to go. Quite simply we had a van, with all our crap in it, that was super cool with a lot of bottled water. Our guide drove us directly up to the entrance to everything. We could hop out, take photos, go inside, whatever we wanted, then hop back in the van to the next stop. We did the Coliseum, some church with a million steps, the Trevi fountain, this guy was driving down tiny alleyways and streets cutting through huge crowds of people just to get us literally to the front of everything. He got us to the Vatican just in time to see the pope come out and give his address,it was so moving. He stopped at a spot for lunch, great food, low prices, and then on to the Parthenon, the forum. It was a busy full day and we got to see much much in one day. It was the most useful tour i think we took. I felt like we accomplished so much. He dropped us off at our hotels. We did the Mascagni Luxury Suites and the Hotel Quirnale. Both had their ups and downs. Mascagni rooms were tiny, but modern, nice cold a/c. Quirnale had huge rooms, were kinda warm, and more dated. Just depends on your preference. We wandered a bit on our own had dinner and called in a night. The next day we did the Vatican museum tour, and got inside the Basilica. Holy mother!!! The museum tour was not for me.... our tour guide was long winded and it was just all these random art that didn't capture my interest. It was also super crowded, I felt badly though, I think the guide could tell I was a bit bored, so i kept wandering off so as to not thrown him. There was some amazing art here, and the Sistine Chapel was so beautiful but nothing compared us for St. Peter's Basillica. It's massive, and so freaking gorgeous, you just kinda stand in owe over and over again looking at everything and kinda expect one of the saints to tap you on your shoulder and say hi. I was like this is heaven, where's my grandmother? This place just feels so holy. Catholics you can get your confession heard here. I was so excited by this, you have to have a mask FYI but if you do, you can have your confession heard, and be absolved from your sins right there inside. I did it and loved it. That night we said goodbye to our friends. They were headed back to Paris to spend a couple days touring the Louvre . My wife and I were renting a car, and driving out of Rome and into Tuscany. We picked up the rental car at termini rail station which was just about 4 blocks from our hotel. We still got a cab. lol It was tough getting to the rental car counter, finding where they keep the cars, and then finding my wife who was waiting with the luggage at one of the train station doors but we made it. Hopped in a toyota rav 4 automatic, which I paid a small fortune for to have an automatic large car at the train station for a one way trip. Everyone freaked me out about driving through Italy, but it really wasn't that bad for me at all. We got out of the city and onto the highway and I'm ready for a good 3 hours, of fast driving and my wife says "It's lunch time" Our eating habits are so different, I'll eat one big meal a day if you let me and be good. My wife eats about 11 small meals a day, and it had been 2 hours since her last one... so..... here we are in the middle of no where and I'm pulling over on the side of the road to try to find a non chain place to eat. We found this tiny little restaurant in the middle of no where, it was beautiful. Large, open, clean, friendly staff, and we had quite possibly the best food of the trip. I was in heaven. Of course I was checking out to leave i saw an animal leg lying on a counter where they just kinda shaved the meat off of it and I thought I was going to lose it. lol We stopped then at Mc D's just to get something cold to drink for the drive, you know with ice, american style. Well, it was Mc D's but not american style. There was a coffee bar with macaroons and cheesecake, all these nutella dishes and my "peach tea" yeah came with 2 cubes of ice despite me asking for plenty of ice. Anyway we drove on through Tuscany which was beautiful until we got to Il Miraggio Tuscan Farm in San Quirico d'Orcia. Super romantic honeymoon kinda spot. Hills, beautifully luxury restored inn, total postcard place, it was a 4-5 star inn, nice service, brand new a modern despite being in an old inn. I loved that when I couldn't figure out the netflix on the TV the owner came in our room to fix it and stayed 15 minutes talking to us about the wallpaper and the restoration work. We had a horseback riding trip planned but it was more than 100 degrees and they cancelled it for the safety of the horses understandably so. Dinner here was very special, this is tiramisu! Everything came out and looked very photo worthy and tasted pretty good too. The next day we explored on our own, went to the market, drove through the hills, hit up several wineries. My wife was disappointed everything was so dry due to the drought, But I thought even with brown hills they were beautiful. We ventured to De'Ricci, one of the oldest wine cellars in was several storied underground, we came wanting wine, but we had to get a tour first. It was a very very long winded tour, and if you think it's my usual complaining on these, my wife who has been into the tours said, "I'm two seconds from screaming let me out of here!" Eventually we got out, had a great tasting and on the way found my wife some more green hills, she was happy. The wine helped. We got back to the inn for another dinner. This time we decided to take them up on a tasting menu. You just tell them what you don't eat, and they will make stuff for you, 7 courses each one a surprise. My wife and I both are super picky with food. We were like this is a bad idea. There's so much we don't eat. Lets be adventurous we said. The first item was marinated olives stuffed with chicken livers. We both exchanged glances and were like we're screwed. I hate one bite, she refused. hahaha after this our server ran each next dish by us first and we did better moving forward. Check out the "cheese cake" again awesome creations for dinner here. We up the next morning, hopped in the Rav 4 and made our way north, toward Florence. I'll pick that up tomorrow.

Don't worry about that room. It will be fine. The corner cabin next to us had a group of 5-10 year old boys I think 2 actually in the cabin and others in the same family. They would just hang out in the hall, right outside the door and so I heard them. The cabin steward was wonderful in trying to entertain them, and so I heard them. The chances of you having a group of kids hanging out outside your door is rare. As for 270, yes it's loud, at times, but the show is over by 10pm it's not worth leaving that room. The space, view, balcony are all great. Relax, go and have a wonderful time

The activities manager had energy, i really liked him. He was in the elevator and very talkative, and had lots of energy whenever he was hosting.

We took a phase in approach. It started with when we were at dinner and she had to go to the bathroom, we would allow her to walk to it and come back alone. I think this was like around 10 years old. We were uber mindful of time, and making sure we would go to check if we felt something was taking too long. Small morsels of freedom. Ok you can leave here and go directly back to the room, or you can leave go get pizza and come back here. We would slowly increase responsibility. My daughter is of course 13 going on 35 in terms of maturity and safety. we have started inviting friends for her more, and given them more freedom since they are in pairs, but have lectured a lot about the dangers and how quickly things could go awry.

Oh I agree totally. Not called that, no name, no reference to it, but it was there to us who knew. and again when the ship was built in 2009 I believe it was still called the viking crown. the name disappeared later.

This exactly. It's the look. It's the signature. I've got to accept that it *was* the signature. While the names and shapes may have changed the structure was there on every class ship except Quantum. I've sailed Oasis many times, and Allure is probably my most traveled ship, I consider them all with a Viking Crown.... I'm not sure how you can say it doesn't have the Viking Crown structure. I big space on the top of the ship near the funnel stack with a wall of windows all around. Call it Coastal Kitchen or Seven Hearts or Suite Lounge, but it was a Viking Crown to me. I actually remember when Oasis came out they talked about the "reimagined viking crown" so it was built with it in intention. When I was on Allure a few months back with some friends and I kept saying all week, I'll meet you in the viking crown and they'd be like huh. hahahaha suite lounge same difference in my head. lol I was hopeful Quantum was going to be the offshoot and it would come back, even if just a suite lounge, looks like I'm out of luck.

Yes, I let my southern out in that headline. If this cutout presented to Mario at his party is an accurate depiction of the shape of icon, it means she will not have a viking crown lounge. I was holding out hope she wasn't gone.

Day 7 - See ya We got up this morning, went to windjammer for breakfast and then headed for the gangway. Amazingly we went from seated at breakfast to seated in our minivan in less than an hour. Simple exit off the ship and the easiest exit from the terminal ever. No customs, just back and off. It was pretty awesome. We had a driver pick us up for a day trip to Rome.... It was highly recommended. I'll discuss it in the next post, but figure I'll wrap up the cruise part now with a summary of things What I expected: I was excited for Odyssey, it had been so long since I had been on an entirely new ship design and I wanted to embrace something new. I thought I'd LOVE 270 and visions of it being this hub of activity through the day and the coolest place to sit and people watch, and have a drink, and then get lucky enough to hold a seat for the show at night. I kinda pictured an R Bar/Centrum feel like on the vision and radiance class ships. I thought i'd be in the ifly, and the bumper cars, and I expected to have a healthy mix of schooner bar type trivia and games and fun on the ship. What I got: I never did any of those things. 270 was almost not used everyday, it's just cut off from the rest of the ship, few people wandered back there. This is a bigger unused space than the viking crown. I think people are so used to the promenades being a hub of activity and the end of the promenade being the end of the ship, you just forgot to go further back. As a result there was no people watching. The esplanade just didn't compare to a promenade, it didn't have enough stuff to keep a solid energy and vibe. bumper cars were just too crowded, and you know my thoughts on the pool deck. My conclusion: The Quantum class ships just don't work for me. I think they need to be on port extensive trips, like this one was... where the ship really is your place to sleep and eat and not where you go to the ship as the main attraction of the vacation. I'd like to say they're a replacement for the radiance class, but not really. One of the best things about Radiance class is the glass everywhere, the connection to the sea, the views. On Odyssey views are blocked by the lifeboats so you don't have that amazing connection to the sea you feel on Radiance class ships. I think because it's stretched, it's also harder for you to have that small ship close to the crew feel. It wasn't a bad cruise, not in the least, food was great, drinks were good, service was solid. It was a very good cruise, It just wasn't a great cruise and 95% of my RCI cruises are great. I think I was also brought down because I wanted my friends to see the greatness, and it was lacking on this voyage. My wife may also have a solid point that my expectations may be askew after sailing so many times on ships that had reduced capacity, but i felt the crowds on Odyssey, i felt more part of the pack and jockeying for space. Would I book her again? it definitely wouldn't be my first choice, but if the route was right and that aft facing junior suite was involved oh you've got my attention. Icon is coming and right on time, she will likely wow me. Wonder was amazing, I still have navigator later this year. We've done 4 cruises in less than 12 months. We usually do 1 a year, sometimes 2. Not 4, with a 5th on the way. Absence makes the heart grow fonder they say.... so maybe i need a bit more break in between, or maybe just maybe Odyssey just isn't my ship. If you're going on her, it was a wonderful trip, you're likely going for the islands more anyway and Greece and Turkey were amazing, I'd go there again in a heartbeat on odyssey, grandeur, or anything else. Now.... if you want to know more about our tour of Rome, stick around for that post, and then maybe one more of our visits to Tuscany and Venice.

Naples --- I waved the white flag. Not to let you down, but today I quit. I decided we were a week plus of tours, go go go and tomorrow we were getting off the ship and doing a week in Italy where we would go go go. I needed a break. We had tickets for an RCI excursion to Pompei and the Amalfi Coast. I asked my wife, how she felt about skipping. She was like NOPE! I'm going. She's like, but we are traveling with friends I'm fine. I'll go with them and you stay and chill. Didn't have to tell me twice. I went to Shore excursions (yesterday) and they agreed to refund me my ticket cost. I woke up, ran to breakfast and laid in bed and turned on the news, did a little social media and just did nothing.... in the a/c! It was nice, and much needed. I wandered the ship a bit and went up for some pool time. The pool deck was empty and look at this.... the hot tub water was blue and clear, not milky white. I'm no pool expert, but my unscientific conclusion was the cloudy water of the sea days was just due to too many people being in there. It was nice to stroll the empty ship. I know many people talked about these new touch free buttons and like most, i think well intentioned, but the ability to "bump" into them and stop on all floors was high, but it didn't happen as often as i thought after hearing some of complaints on it. I did another pass of El Loco Fresh, again, big fan of this place. I wandered by the spa and thought.... I have $150 credit now from canceling my shore excursion. hmmmm So I asked them if they had any port day specials. They said "75 min massage with hot stones for $150" well that's a sign. SOLD! Oddly enough the woman behind the counter agreed to take me back. I was like oh ok. lets go. Remember the first massage was fine, not good not bad, just fine. THIS ONE WAS FANTASTIC. If you're going on Odyssey and want a massage ask for Sara. She even said without prompting from me, "sometimes you give someone a massage and they just give off good energy and you get in a zone together, I think that's what we did!" No disagreement here! I tipped her very well, so I spent more than my tour but..... Look at that smile! I was a new man, it was worth it. My crew came back worn out their tour was from 7:15 to 5pm They said "you would have been miserable" hahaha they said it was hot, they were in the sun a lot, and there was probably too much packed into the day so they were just like go go go, and didn't have enough time to soak it in. They said the Amalfi Coast wasn't as picture perfect as they expected, but they found Pompei to be amazing and said it was a very cool stop. We sailed away, past the volcano and headed north toward Rome. My wife enjoyed some down time on the balcony soaking up the last little bit of it. We are usually early dinner, and then find ourselves rushing to pack when we get back, but with late dinner we had time to get packed up, and and make our way to the dining room four our last dinner. We usually have a last night mad dash of handing out tip envelopes and buying photos etc. but we really didn't have much to do this trip. We didn't have a ton of tips to hand out, but a few and photos were easy without the kids. So we had a final post dinner drink and called it a night.

Both levels --- up and down --- packed!

I am trying to reserve one for my upcoming cruise and it's not an option on my cruise planner. Are these still just first come, first serve?

SEA DAY -- Part Deux So lets try this again! We woke up this morning still feeling a little blah from our day before drinking in the sun and the massive meal we had the night before. My wife was going hard in the gym that morning for sure. Today I vowed I was going to enjoy the pool deck no matter what. Before I went upstairs I decided to walk the ship a bit.... and as I expected it was kinda a ghost town. Nothing really happening in the venues, not much in the bars, and the hallways were light with people. So yeah I knew what that meant. So I went upstairs and sure enough PACKED without an empty chair to be found anywhere. The pool deck was again where I think 70% percent of the ship was this morning. Rather than be frustrated and disgusted like I was on the first sea day, I plopped myself down on a railing and just scanned the crowd waiting, searching for a chair to become available. It took a good 40 minutes and my friend found one, and then I sat next to him on the floor before another nearby opened up. We took claim to our two chairs for hours, and drank and enjoyed our feet in the water, eventually we got a third and one person took turns walking and swimming. We made do. I had a lot of the same observations as the first sea day --- people soup in that see-through hot tub... I just dunno why the water was so milky but I didn't want in. There was a movie or tv show going again by the pool, but the roar of the crowds on deck drowned out the loud speakers. drinks again were spectacular, great job by the food and beverage manager on the ship. I ventured into windjammer for lunch for the first time today and was impressed with the offering in there. Windjammer was made significantly larger on Odyssey and Wonder, the new ships, and i think it's helped a ton. Sure it's hectic like always but on these ships I felt the crowds flowed much better for sure. We spent pretty much all day pool side once we got those chairs, I will say I have never been a proponent of the casitas and paying for them, but my goodness I would not go back on this ship without paying for one. It's needed if you want a home base by the pool on a sea day. But today was a better pool day for sure. Since we're righting wrongs today we also went back to the theater --- this time the rear theater in 270 for THE BOOK. I was super excited to see this show and man it did not disappoint. It was a little slow to get started but was was an amazing combo of tech and dance and story line. It's the theater performance we're used to from the amazing Royal Caribbean Singers and Dancers. Everyone loved it for sure. Remember earlier this week I was hearing "Eye of the Tiger" in my room and the walls were vibrating. It was coming from 270! The song is part of the show. I was shocked I could hear it so clearly in my room, considering we have the 2 story crown left suites right below us, but once in here for the show I understood why. IT WAS LOUD!!! Like ok I'm in my 40's now, but i don't consider myself a stick in the mud, I can handle loud, but this was WAY TOO LOUD. I don't know why they felt the need to blast it. People were talking about it as we walked out. One guy said he overheard a suite guest flailing her arms and screaming about having a $10,000 room and music blaring every night and the floors shaking. Now I get it. We returned to the main dining room tonight, and so wonderful in here again. Fantastic service and food. We sailed back past Sicily tonight and we enjoyed the view while we ate dinner. We loved our server and found her to be purely delightful. It was lobster night and she kept them coming for sure. I did a little surf and turf and it was heavenly but the winner for me was the apple tart it was just perfect. We enjoyed some time in boleros tonight, it was hopping with music and had great bar service. I think i put my finger on it tonight.... cruise director. I ran into her in the elevator, several of us with her and she just kinda stood there. The activity director got on and spoke to all the passengers, asked about their vacation, encouraged them to come upstairs to the white party going on. You know... the party host. I didn't really feel that from the cruise director . It was like every bar was open, and had music in it at night. And you had your scheduled shows, but that's it. There was a lack of energy and vibe on the ship. I was critical of this on Allure last year with their new cruise director. I never thought i'd say this but I was missing Ken Rush running around the ice skating rink in his boxer shorts. Ships need that energetic party host in my opinion. Tomorrow --- Naples or is it?

I feel very uncultured saying it, but ruins aren't my thing. Fortunately my wife agreed, and we kinda wrote them off... except for Naples.... kinda. You'll see soon.

Mykonos! Today is a kinda quick and easy post! We woke up this morning docked in Mykonos. How exciting. My wife ran down to 270 for breakfast, while I slept in. She loved it down there and had made friends with the crew as it was not a busy area of the ship at all, no one was every really down there. It was so funny she would see the 270 staff around the ship and they'd call her by name. We gathered our goods for the day and made our way off the ship for our excursion, this was our beach day. We channeled my love for Below Deck Med and had chartered our own catamaran which I was so excited about. It was no super yacht but hey. We went do the dock where we sat waiting to meet our ride to take us to another marina to board our catamaran. We sat and waited a while before realizing our ride was already there, we go to get in the van and there's another family inside also going to the yacht. I was like ***** I thought I booked a private charter. We got in and here's some photos my wife took during the drive, but I was buried in my phone. I emailed the guy I did the booking with and he's like no it's shared. I'm like what? So I'm going back through my emails, and i clear as day told him I wanted a price for a private charter and he wrote me back a very very long email with all the details and pricing and buried in there once was the word "semi-private". I was annoyed with myself, there were a lot of semi private tours and this one was far more expensive, i thought it was because it was private. I kinda drove over in silence. Nice job! Anyway we got to the marina and it really did look like an episode of Below Deck, there were a yachts everywhere. It was kinda cool to see this side of the island. Before long the deck hands came over on a small tinder to pick us up, ALL OF US. Yep there wasn't just the one other family onboard, there were about 6-7 others. *****. Some were vacationing in Mykonos, others were onboard Brilliance (i believe) which was also docked with us We got onboard the catamaran, took off our shoes and made ourselves at home. The captain, stew, and deckhand couldn't have been nicer. We found a spot up top and enjoyed the ride out. We sailed past several spots on the island, the captain giving us little history lessons, and telling us a bit about what we were seeing. Turns out the family in the van with us, was AMAZING. Quite possibly the nicest folks you could meet, and two really smart and funny kids. We were so happy to connect with them. I did feel a little bit of relief when they shared that they too taught they booked a private charter and were surprised by the crowd. I was like OK it wasn't just me! lol We had lunch onboard, stopped for some snorkeling, and while I was still beating myself up for my fail, the others were having a very good time. The ride back was insanely windy, like the boat was all over the place, it was so bad the captain made the call to cancel their evening charter. Everyone felt lucky that we had been able to go. We headed back and the drive through town was great we got to see a bit more of Mykonos. We talked about going into town instead of back to the ship, but majority rules were to head back to Odyssey. I may have been a grumpy tourist for my faux pas, (yes my shirt and trunks clashed like crazy and I hadn't realized until I rounded the corner and my wife burst into tears laughing, snapped this photo, and then put it on social media so all my friends could laugh too.... But grumpy tourist and all I was so relieved to see everyone had a great time... My wife was smiling ear to ear and snuggled up with me on the couch and kept saying what an amazing afternoon it was. The lunch onboard the catamaran had things I was allergic to, and I had skipped breakfast so I hadn't eaten yet. I made my first trip to Sorrentos this cruise. I got there in time to witness a lovely exchange between a young man and one of the workers. There was a very long line for pizza, and she had about a pizza and a half left. The guy in front of me ordered 4 whole pies. The clerk was like I have pizza's in the oven but if I give them to you all of these people will have to wait for me to start over. He said , "not my problem" She said well I'm not really supposed to take orders by the whole pizza, but by the slice. He says, well, I'll order 16 slices. It's up to you, either make me my own pizza's or give me 16 slices. Meanwhile as this all played out, the other worker had already slid 5 more pizzas in the over seeing him and the line growing. The clerk finally gave up and gave him all her remaining slices and the next 2 pizzas to come out the oven. I had to wait all of 45 seconds for the next, it was fine. I hated to see that exchange though. Headed back up to the balcony for sail away, because essentially this felt like the end of the cruise, we have a sea day back, then naples, which is .like "rome south" After sailaway we got ready for dinner. Giovanni's. Now we went back and forth over this choice a while. Our friends had picked Izumi first, and I talked them out of it, saying it's just like going to the japanese steakhouse at home, same egg in the hat etc. Mark's a big steak guy and I love the filet at Giovanni's. My wife was annoyed she wanted to see the Izumi onboard, said it looked bigger and like less of the afterthought that it is on the oasis class ships. We had just tried the revamped Giovanni's on Wonder too which is why I understood her point, I tried to change it back 5 times but they said no, lets stick with the plan. Everything on this new menu is just so good. Every single starter sounded great, so we said, "bring them all, except the house and cesar salads" Yeah really healthy of us. It was all sooo good. The wine bar kept amazing wines coming and we were are full before the mains came. I can tell you the lasagna was fantastic, as was the filet... yeah I sampled both. And the tiramisu.... i should have gone back for that every night. Everyone loved their food and we were so stuffed afterwards.. Between the drinking, the sun and heavy italian meal we couldn't keep our eyes open, everyone wanted to go straight to bed before tomorrow and our second sea day!

Sorry for the delays... This always happens, post vacation but when you were gone as long as we were the work at the office has piled up. Between trying to get caught up, getting the kids ready for back to school, and some issues uploading photos to cruise critic that don't come out upside down.... it's been harder to get the posts out. Bare with me, I'm truly aiming for 1 post a day until we make it to the end.