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Turkey Time We sailed into Kusadasi this morning, a resort town in Turkey. This was our "wing it" day. We passed on the ruins tours, and the long bus trip to see a house that may or may not have been Mary's. lol We said we'd walk around, take in the shopping area, grab a bite to eat, maybe rent some scooters and tool around. We walked into the shopping area and OMG every single shop owner was on us.... like think about the shopping area in Ocho Rios you'd go through after the falls and multiply it by three. We quickly got out of there and walked by a taxi stand where again we were approached and highly encouraged to hire a taxi for the day. We said no thank you and kept walking.... until this one guy followed us down the sidewalk. He introduced himself as "Mr. Special Deal" and he worked us hard.... We finally caved and agreed for a half day tour as we have spa appointments that afternoon on board. We asked for a place for great photos, and we got it. A hilltop near the port afforded some amazing views. We knew little to nothing about this city and it surprised us. "Mr. Special Deal" educated us on life here, cost of living, the culture as he drove us around town. He also told us that he won a bet my getting us in his cab. Apparently his boss said, "they're not going to book" and get him a "fish dinner" if he could get us in the cab. He succeeded. I told him "FANTASTIC, I don't need to tip you now!" hahahaha. We loved this hill where all the apartments were painted in similar colors in rows, it looked like a rainbow on a hill. Mr. Special Deal brought us a bit outside of town to an rug making company. We got a lesson on how they make rugs, and the work that goes into them. It was a very impressive process. We were invited to stay for lunch on them and have some wine and suddenly I had visions of a rug time share sale pitch coming. We thanked and tipped them and said we had to get back for our spa appointment. On the drive back we went through town and had Mr. Special man drop us off in an area with some restaurants were we could have a good lunch and then be within an easy walk back to the ship. We had Turkish coffee, and some amazing dishes our restaurant manager recommended.... We had drinks, entrees, coffees and the price of everything was like $30 for the 4 of us. We did a walk back along the beach and through the market. We decided to do a bit of shopping. Brought back some Turkish tea sets, and bags for our daughters. We got back on the ship and hit up the bar. FYI --- on Odyssey they were doing something else different... movies by the pool both day and night.... with the sound up loud. It was tough to talk and enjoy the pool area because the movies were just so loud. The ladies went up for nail salon time and Mark and I decided to hit up the hot tubs in the solarium instead which was heavenly. Met some fellow cruisers and had some great conversations up there and enjoying the less crowded solarium while the ship was in port. Of course it was also a great time to have some fun with the lifelike lady statue that hangs out in the pool there. Before long it was time for my spa appointment. I have a massage prebooked. I was a bit annoyed because I wanted to add on some hot stones to my massage and that was allegedly a perk with my diamond plus status, but I was denied because I purchased the massage at home. Apparently buying it ahead of time is a discounted price (even though it doesn't say it is) and so you can't use your diamond perks with a discounted price. Oh what hogwash. Anyway my massage was standard, wasn't lacking, wasn't great, but it did the job as intended I took my oil covered self back to the room and slipped into some fresh clothes and went to Wonderland to meet the group for dinner. The Molecular meals of Wonderland are a treat for sure. We tried it on Wonder for the first time a few months ago, and were happy to bring our friends for a photo fun dining experience. Many of you know I'm a journalist, and Mark my coworker is as well. He's a photojournalist, one of the most award winning in the country. He's amazing at what he does and loves photos and so I knew he would enjoy the show to come at Wonderland. It went off without a hitch the loved the meal, the show, and were huge fans of the short rib. Mark and my wife were raving so much, and I wasn't as thrilled with my main so I switched, wise choice. It was wonderful. We had a reservation on the NorthStar tonight, for a sunset showing. Wonderful views, it was windy but absolutely lovely and some great photo sessions up there as well. We popped into the Bionic Bar and I didn't like the set up. They had two ipads on one side of the bar and a line forming and you had to stand in line, put in your order, while the operator supervised. and then go sit down and wait for your drink. The line was long, and it just wasn't something I wanted to do. A few weeks earlier on Wonder everyone just sat and the ipads were passed around table to table. The operator helped but most everyone just used them and handed them off. No long lines or anything you could relax and order without the pressure of people waiting behind you. We opted out and went to the Schooner bar instead. Had wonderful drinks there, Schooner is just a great comfortable spot for us. We headed back to the room where for the second time in a row I was hearing music pumping.... "the eye of the tiger" It would vibrate the walls a little. We had cabins above us and below, we just assumed someone was really rocking out. We wrapped up the night on the balcony, taking in that amazing Aegean Sea moonlit view as we make our way back North to Mykonos.

I really wish cruise critic had a DM feature. I am unable to publicly "recommend" any service/company due to employment. There were some ups and downs to our tour but overall I would definitely repeat. If we can figure out a way to chat privately I can answer more questions. But do some searching, especially for tours by locals and you'll find lots of options there.

It was even better to order from our bank before we left. There was no service charge and just the banks going exchange rate which was 0.98 to $1 at the time. ATM's charged an exchange rate of 0.81 to the $1 even though at the time it was all over the news that the $1 was actually surpassing the Euro. Plus every ATM we tried had a 10% fee on top of the exchange rate. We definitely did better ordering money before leaving home.

We ordered Euros from our bank before we left home. It was great, told them how much we wanted and they took it out of our account and sent it to us FedEx at home before we left. It lasted us most of the trip as I paid for EVERYTHING I could ahead of time or with a credit card. I avoided using cash as much as possible. but I had to get some more out of the ATM right before we came home. With the dollar and the euro being worth the same thing (which happened while we were there) people were very willing to take dollars too. We prepaid tips, and did dollars for our extra envelopes (guest services said ship operated in dollars mostly) Girls saw the Euros before we left.

I actually know! Our tour guide said there was always a mix of donkeys and mules that were on the island and used for various different tasks including transportation. Historically it was always donkeys and then mules were mixed in as they're stronger thanks to the horse breeding. But the caretakers and what not were always known as donkey caretakers and even though more mules are used today they're all still called donkeys as per tradition/history.

Yes one person can get tender tickets. Funny side story that was supposed to be me. But...... for the first time ever on a cruise the ship didn't stay on ship time. We changed time zones when we got to Greece. So I was late. Luckily my work spouse knows when I didn't answer his texts I was likely asleep and he went and stood in line and got ours for the group. I was surprised I couldn't get any in the diamond lounge... but i guess they don't consider it a perk. As for effectors.... we're a theater family. My oldest is always working on one production or another between school, and a church theater group, and she did dance when she was younger, so it's not like I have a low tolerance. I hated it. we all did. It was just bad. and no, no idea of the band in Music Hall. We never really wound up in there much.

I posted about Chops on Day 1, we tried Giovannis and Wonderland as well, they're coming up as the week goes on.

Santorini... Get Ready For Too Many Pics One thing I truly loved about this cruise was waking up somewhere new each day... if your cruising addiction is like mine often book for a new ship, or a great price, or your kids spring break week. The result... you go to the same places over and over again. I've been to Costa Maya so many times I actually guessed with pretty precision accuracy where we were one morning, just looking by the shore. St. Thomas, Maarten, Labadee, Coco Cay, Nassau, Falmouth, Ocho Rios, Cozumel, Roatan, San Juan. I've done each at least three times, Take Coco Cay and Roatan out of the mix and I've done them all at least six times. Today though was different... Santorini. No clue what to expect and that in and of itself was just exciting. We arrived midday to find other ships already anchored and tendering passengers and we looked up to see the city on a hill as it seems from the ship. We tendered over at our assigned time, which I have to admit was a bit of a mess. RCI doesn't tender much anymore but they do need to find an electronic means to the process. Everyone had to line up in the music hall to get a ticket and the line was sooo long. People were furious and complaining about their times. It was a mess. I do think loyalty should have given me a better tender time, it's an easy perk and one I was surprised we didn't get. Nonetheless there were some very angry people about their assigned tender times. Once we got off the ship and headed to shore though is where the real fun began. If you don't know the geography of Santorini, it's crazy. My accuracy may not but strong but this is my understanding. ***again i'm sure i'm wrong about something, and my apologies off the bat*** The ship sails into a big circular bay, which in reality is the sea filled crater in the center of a volcano. You're kinda down in the crater on the ship and the city is up at the top of the mountain that's in a circle around you. So you sail into the crater of the volcano (open on one side) and then have to get up to the top of it to get to "santorini" There's three options.... walk or ride a donkey up some steps, take a cable car, or hop on a boat to the other side of the island where it's lower to walk ashore. This was the line for the cable car. If you thought the tender line was bad, Ha. We're talking 100 degrees and an hour plus wait in direct sun. It wasn't pretty. Some of those who opted for the donkey were coming back down saying a mix of things from animal cruelty for the donkeys, so the steep incline, to the tons of donkey poop on the stairs. The boat wasn't an option for us as we hired a local tour guide who was meeting us up top. While I think Royal can better handle the tenders, there's nothing they could do about the cable car, and it's just kinda part of the charm of visiting such a unique place. Once we got up top the views were amazing and you're like, yep.... all those lines and drama were worth it. Our guide picked us up, and immediately took us for a bite to eat at a gyro place. It was a place near his apartment that he loves. Not touristy, just local everyday lunch spot. We had greek beer and tons of food and listened to stories about the island and each other! We met the shop's owner and his son and learned their history. Our bellies were full so what better thing to do next than... drink. lol Yes we went to a winery and learned all about how they grow grapes and make wine on this volcanic rock known as Santorini. We did a tasting, chatted with people at the next table drinking after their donkey ride up the cliff... and swearing they wouldn't do it again. After we've eaten and drank, then the tour part has to go well... We rode around the island, learning a bit about the culture and life there and then to Oia where we could see those iconic white buildings, blue domes, and Santorini sunsets. We drove back to the town to be dropped off after that, and stopped for dinner. We picked a restaurant based on who had seating with the best views and oh it paid off. They were fantastic. Even if it was an Italian restaurant! whoops! Just after we seated we remembered we had moved an hour ahead in time and likely didn't have time to eat, since there was a huge line to get back down the cliff on the cable car. So we had a drink, apologized to the wait staff, and gave them a tip about 8 times our bill, and got in line to go back down to the ship. The line down was rough though, people were cutting in line huge huge crowds of people were cutting and there was really no one to stop them. One family of about 30 people walked past everyone saying "we already bought our tickets we don't have to wait in line" and the rest of us were like, what?? There was a couple who just nosed their way between our group, not realizing we were together, telling us they had been "in front of this couple the whole time" People can be so frustrating. I tried to not let it spoil nature at work. Royal did have two staff members at the cable car monitoring lines and sending photos to the bridge so they could keep track of timing. There was no way we were leaving on time, the line was just way too long for everyone to get on the ship in time. Once back on board everyone bee lined to windjammer for food. It was packed. I would expect this to be normal with a 1pm to 11pm port call but it took the staff off guard. I heard one of the windjammer head waiters say, "call the main dining room, they have to send us help" Dinner was hot and great and plentiful and I do think they kept windjammer open past it's normal hours so everyone could eat. It was a nice move. With full bellies we went back to the balcony and watched santorini slip away. Tomorrow we go to Turkey.... but I had the beef!

More than what I shared in the last two posts? Tell me specifically what else you'd like to know.

didn't need a reservation for bumper cars, it just was open limited times of they day and every time they opened it there was a line, a very long line. The line moved but it moved because there rides were like less than a minute. I didn't want to stand in a line that long to ride bumper cars for 45 seconds. It was just kinda like Thanks but no thanks.

We left Texas on Wednesday and had three days in Paris before flying to Rome and boarding Odyssey on Sunday. So it didn't impact our cruise at all we were well adjusted by the time the cruise came around. For some perspective.... the key is sleeping on the plane. Our flight left Dallas at 3pm and was set to arrive in Paris at 9am All four of us had very different experiences. My wife: Ate dinner on the plane, stretched her lie flat bed out and knocked out. When the flight attendants started serving breakfast the next morning, she woke up and kinda forgot she was on a plane. She had slept 6 hours straight and didn't wake up once. When we got to Paris she was fine, not the tiniest bit tired. totally adjusted. Me: put on pajamas, slippers had the air going, stretched out but tossed and turned in my little cube, woke up for turbulence over the Atlantic I maybe got 4 hours sleep. I was mostly OK the next morning I got tired mid afternoon but took a 1 hour nap and was fine. My friends: did not sleep at all. had loud teens sitting with them and crying babies nearby, when the plane landed they were exhausted and grouchy and had a harder time adjusting took them a day or so. All 4 of us on the same plane, all with different experiences.

No loungers... however the two chairs that were out there were recliners. You could adjust them and they would fold out and back kinda like a Lazy Boy. They're not as comfy as the loungers but they weren't bad. There was a small cocktail table as well. You will love the cabin, it was amazing, my favorite part of the ship.

Day 2 At Sea I woke up this morning to my wife saying, "Get up, this is so beautiful, we're sailing by stuff." I headed to the balcony and yep we were sailing right off shore or a city, land on both sides. I got on the apple maps on my phone and I got super excited. It was Sicily. All I could think of was Sophia Petrilo.... Picture it Sicily 1922. Man I was loving this balcony. Every aft cabin I've had where there's no superstructure on the back of the ship is just a massive treat. I always grab one when I can. My usual day 2 activity needed to get underway... send everything in my suitcase to the laundry to get steamed. I do this every cruise, every day 2. I'm diamond plus, so I have some decent experience with this. I know it's not the rules, but it has worked for me every single time. I usually take a big old pile of clothed out of my bag, dump on the bed, put my name and cabin number on it and write press only on it. Every cabin steward I've ever had has gladly taken it this way. Not today. He insisted I fill out the form listing ever single piece of clothing, and place them in the bag, which kept tearing. I needed multiple, multiple bags. Let me say, I get this is the way it goes, I get that it's for our protection so nothing is lost, and it's the rules. But man after 25 years of not doing it that way, I was surprised. But I did as my cabin steward asked. I headed up to the pool deck.... HOLY HOLY HOLY MOLY. It felt like the entire ship was on the pool deck. Sea Days are always busy up there but this was worse than I ever remember, including my spring break 2013 cruise where half of independence of the seas was sold by a travel agent to college kids as a spring break luxury cruise. It was packed. Usually you can't find a seat because of the empty towels in the chair, this time you couldn't find one because there were people in the chairs bottom deck and top. Both were packed. We had no kids this trip so I said lets to the solarium surely we'll have better luck there. Nope. I remembered then Odyssey is a stretched ship, much like Enchantment and the Freedom class I find when they stretch ships it adds more staterooms but not much more space for those people to go. Odyssey was full to the brim. We did find two stools at the lime and coconut and the girls sat there and we stood behind them and just kept drinking, and watched the belly flop. It's always fun, activities director did a good job with it. Although he kinda screwed up the hold. tabulating the score thing...... he'd go around and say 2,3,2,2,2,2,2,1,4,not your middle finger sir.... but then not do the tally of 3.238934 until the end. anyway who cares it was fun. While sitting there, i couldn't help but notice how cloudy the hot tubs were, I wanted in butthese see through tubs kept me wondering why the water was soooo milky. No thanks. lol Ate at the new mexican place by the pool... El Loco Fresh. I tried this out on Wonder for the first time. Man, I love this place. It's so simple and tasty and feels like hot weather outdoor food. I choose it over windjammer hands down. I LOVE this new concept. We had fun up there and met lots of people which was great, we had a running joke because there was this one guy on the cruise with his fiance who kept running into. He was a little infatuated with me... a little touchy feely. At first I thought it was just me but everyone else was noticing how he was very in my personal space and handsy. (watch he's going to be on here) lol But we kept joking about it, and they really were a nice couple. It was good laughs. After I couldn't take the crowds and standing at the bar much longer, I went down into the ship looking for something else to do. I was really excited to try the bumper cars. How cool to have that on the ship. Well, the line was wrapped around the seaplex and down the hall... to combat it, each ride was lasting like 60 seconds and that's it. It wasn't worth it. We got out of line and I went to explore the rest of the ship for something to do. I didn't find much luck. The ship was EMPTY everyone truly was on the pool deck. I really think the entertainment/activity staff needed to step up the offerings indoors on the sea day to draw people inside the ship and away from the pool. Everywhere I went was being unused, unless you counted the singers/dancers rehearsing in the theaters. I said, I'd walk the Esplanade and do some shopping, but there wasn't much to do. Super high end stores were on the shopping hall. fancy watches and jewelry, I mean I never seen anyone in any of these stores, but there always onboard. The RCI logo shop didn't have many of the things I wanted due to supply chain issues, same thing on Wonder a few months ago. Just generic stuff, few Odyssey specific, Inaugural season merchandise, and no ship models. I wanted a baseball cap, but they were only being sold in a bundle with a t-shirt (not in big boy sizes) and were very pricey (I wanted to say $50+) which was too much when I just wanted the cap. Something else I noticed... where's the toiletries shop? You know where you buy lotion and toothpaste and random stuff you forgot. It wasn't there. The logo shop and the alcohol/cigarette shop were kinda the only options other than the high end stuff. (There was one shelf of a few things in the alcohol shop) I later found toiletries had been moved to a vending machine down the hall. Didn't like this change, but my wife said Wonder had done the same thing I hadn't noticed. Now you're probably getting the sense by now, I really didn't like this ship. I kept complaining it had too many people and not enough stuff going on. My wife said I was crazy. She LOVED it, she thought it was beautiful. She pointed out that my idea of how many people should be on a ship has been skewed by the pandemic. We did 3 cruises this year, including Adventure's sailing from Nassau with just 800 people onboard. She's like "It's back to normal, this is how it normally is" She may be right, maybe I don't remember what a full ship is like? Maybe I've been spoiled by sailing on half empty ships, and now I hate full ones. I sure hope that's not the case, because man I don't want to dislike cruising. I will say this.... when we sailed on Wonder in April, we couldn't do much on the pool deck either because there were so many people. Wonder was packed too. BUT.... it didn't bother me as much. I think there were so many activities, so much to do, so many options of stuff happening that it wasn't a big deal. This ship was "activity light" "places to go light" and it just didn't work with the full crowds, not for me at least. Only one thing to do.... Head back to the cabin. It truly was my Oasis on this ship. I could sit in there all day. I loved the views, the space. I stretched out on the balcony and watched the sun start to set, this was heaven, this is way you cruise. We popped open some wine and cheese delivered to our room and I was so happy to be here. Again this time since we didn't have our kids, we did late dining. This was formal night and our first night in the dining room since we had done chops the night before. We were on the second floor. near the window. My wife was sad, as we're often in the center section on the first floor and she loves the views, but that's where early seating is. We had a great table by the window and quite possibly the sweetest server ever. She was on the ball and so kind and caring. Our friends loved the dining room food and service, I had an amazing fish that was cooked perfectly. I have to say Food and Beverage was really a star on this ship. I know supply chain issues are a challenge for everyone, I didn't feel it on this ship. Great portions, good food, and everything was very tasty! We did notice meats on board were cooked to a different temperature than we're used to. I always order steaks medium as does my wife, but these were more medium rare everywhere. From chops to the dining room to giovanni's. I had to order medium well, so get them to my liking. After dinner we tried the effectors, the new show we heard so much about. My friend Mark told me from jump he wasn't a show person, I told him to come, check it out, he would be surprised. I usually love the shows. I couldn't do this one. It was very odd, it felt aimed to kids, and just wasn't for me. I was gritting my teeth through it and I know Mark had to be, when my wife who is like the world's kindest person and supports everything good or bad, tapped me on the shoulder and said. "If Mark wants to leave, I will do, this is awful" We all exchanged glances and left. lol I really hope that Royal brings back the Broadway shows, this just didn't work for me. One thing we noticed tonight --- the wifi would disappear... like not even show up as an option. Happened a few times, during the week. When it was there it worked great, just wasn't always there. We decided to have a drink and call it a night. After all -- tomorrow we're going to be in Greece!!!!

They were routinely 4 - 6 euros. Which I thought was nuts, but just accepted. 12 euros was "lets screw with the tourists"

They only think I remember there being a shortage on was some of the frozen drink mixes. No strawberry at one bar, only mango. Another no pina colada, only strawberry. They had stuff on the ship but seemed to run out and replinishing took longer than it should. I'll get to food and drinks soon, but we had wonderful experiences with food and beverages. Nothing missing, nothing not great, really was impressed. Food quality and portions were wonderful. My friend Mark is a scotch and whiskey drinker and he never had any issues. My wife did order Malbec a few times and they didn't have it, but she found it later at the wine bar. I have a favorite Muscato I always get on Royal and they were out of it. They had another, and it was just as good, so no real complaints there.

Delta and Air France are both part of the Skyteam Alliance, meaning you can use miles and buy tickets on each other's airlines You go to Delta's website, and look to redeem miles and you'll often seen flights from Virgin, Air France or KLM and often as much lower miles than flying on a Delta plane. Us living in Dallas which is not a Delta city, would have meant a plane change in ATL, DTW or JFK to fly on a Delta plane... but the Air France flight was direct and 1/3rd the cost. We used to live in a Delta city so I have a ton of Delta miles and don't really use them anymore since any flight from here involves a connection unless so their hubs. So I was thrilled to be able to use my miles on the Air France ride.

We had eaten a really late and big lunch... ran about 70 Euros for the 4 of us which was so cheap . We did our Seine tour, then walked a bit and decided to stop for drinks and dessert. The server sat us down and brought us 4 waters without us asking for them. They were 9 euros a piece. The ladies each ordered a glass of house cab. They were huge pours but they were 30 euros a piece. Mix in 3 cokes at's 12 euros a piece an order of fries and a couple of crepes..... and yep over 200 euros for our "late night bite while walking"

Boarding Day We woke up at Tiber Hotel this morning, and laughed about our crazy night the night before. The hotel was clean and fine for a night's sleep but be advised there's not much to do around the hotel, it was loud, and lacked some basic things like coffee in the room, and the pillows and mattresses were thin and uncomfortable. Breakfast also was not pleasing and the staff was curt in service. All that being said there were mixed reviews about basically every single hotel near FCO airport. If we were going back tomorrow I still don't know where we would stay. We hired TIber Limo to take us to the ship. Irene handles their bookings, she was very prompt and easy to get along with in the bookings. However, on pickup our driver was in a big rush. We had a 10am pickup we got a call at 9:43am that she was there and ready. A second call at 9:53am urging us to hurry. I understand she had another pickup but I really wished we weren't rushed out of the hotel. Nonetheless, the van was comfortable, cool, new, and the driving was professional. We arrived at the port and wow talk about a difference from the US, all the ships were spread apart, there was little to no traffic, and when we pulled up at the terminal building there was no line, no crowd, nothing. We walked right in, through security, to one person who reviewed all our documents and pointed us to the gangway. I doubt we were in the builing 15 minutes, it was super fast and easy. So many things could have gone wrong this cruise.... flight cancellations, covid positives, lost luggage, we were all so happy to actually be walking on the ship. Upon entry, i got that new ship smell, I was excited for this. It would be my first entirely new ship design in a while. I've sailed on every class ship Royal has every sailed, from the Nordic Prince & the Viking Serenade to Wonder and Freedom. I had not made it on a Quantum class ship yet so I was excited to try something new. My first impressions: this ship is small. Everything looked more miniature than the photos and video. The ship's decor was nice wood tones and felt upscale like Symphony rather than more fun and stylized like Wonder. I like the upscale vibe, but the ship itself had me squinting my eyes a bit going.... huh? I didn't expect that. You guys who read my reviews normally know I usually am pretty good about pointing out the positives and the negatives. Unfortunately this time, I really didn't like the layout and design of this ship. The Royal Esplanade, I envisioned as a smaller version of the Promenade, but in actuality seemed more like a stretched version of the "Centrum" on the other ships. Everything was just compact. Now I will admit, I like the bigger ships than smaller ones typically. But the vision and radiance class ships are what they are. They're not Voyager class. I felt like Odyssey was trying to be a voyager/freedom class ship but failing in design. We walked along a hallway where the shops were and immediately it hit me. I've been here before. If you sailed the Celebrity Reflection (and I assume the other solstice class ships) this ship is very similar in layout. I did not like the layout of Celebrity Reflection at all and it's one of the big reasons they were one and done for us. We keep saying we want to try the edge class. But this Odyssey ship felt just like a reworked redesigned version of Reflection. It kinda set the tone for me for the week, I knew I wouldn't like the way the ship was laid out. Now, keep in mind I was having this whole conversation to myself in my head as we walked around, I didn't verbalize anything yet. My coworker, on his first ever cruise, said, "they used some trick photography, i thought his space was going to be a lot bigger" All I could muscle was a "yeah" Because I wanted him to love it. While touring I stopped at Giovanni's to rearrange our speciality restaurant times. The staff member there was amazing and helped me process changes for all the restaurants all week, and processed my refunds and everything in 5 minutes. I got on the app and was able to book all our shows for the week. The running around that usually take me an hour on a Oasis class ship getting everything "in order" was done and complete in 15 minutes on Odyssey to which my darling wife proclaimed, "I LOVE THE SMALLER SHIPS" It's true she would sail on vision and radiance every chance she gets while I'd be on an Oasis class every time. We've concluded that Voyager class ships are the perfect middle ground for us, but none the less she was loving her first glimpses of Odyssey. We ventured up to the pool deck, and immediately without question our group made a mad dash to the North Star. They were all excited to check it out. Now, me being an absolute LOVER of the Viking Crown Lounge, I always cursed that London Eye thing as an unacceptable replacement. Now, I admit and know that no one used the Viking Crown, it was always empty, and this thing had a draw of people so it made more sense, but meh, I wanted my Viking Crown back. I still went up in it and it was very nice, great views of the other ships in port, and the operator was super informative. There's a toilet in that thing, in case you get stuck up there a while. He talked us into booking a sunset trip on a sea day. It was a nice little trip. but I looked over where the Viking Crown should be and thought.... you could still put one there! Oh well. Upon landing we went to check out the pool bar. Great drinks, my favorite frozen mojito was great. The cruise line has been between different mixes and ways of making it lately and some have been god awful, but this was good! I was pleased. Good drinks and good weather I'll just stay up here at the pool bar all week, that was my plan. Just after 1pm we got notice the rooms were ready and headed down to check them out. OMG, I loved our room, just LOVED it. I'm thinking even more than the two bedroom suite we had on Allure, and Owners suite on Enchantment. The space was fantastic, the decor was beautiful, and then lets address the bathrooms.... yes that's plural. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txySvm6cZ1A Here's a link to a youtube video I made reviewing the room. Check it out. Best Junior Suite I've ever been in. We went back to touring the ship and wound up in the sports zone. Let our friends check out the flowrider, and the ifly. While I've never seen ifly on a ship, we have them here in Dallas, so I'm familiar with them. We ventured into the Music Hall, another new venture for us. I know they had one on Wonder, but we never checked it out. We watched videos playing from the Captain and Cruise director, and facetimed the kids to check in. After another stroll through the Esplanade we felt we had really seen everything. So we went back up to the pool deck for more drinks. By now the ship was filling up, like swelling and swelling with people. Finding a spot for sailaway was tough. Another Odyssey thing I didn't like.... there was plate glass everywhere on the top deck so it was hard to find an open air location to be at sailaway. I don't know why the glass was added but I wasn't a fan. We headed back to the room after sailaway to unpack. We always do early seating because we have kids and 8:30 is usually past their normal bedtime let alone dinner time. But since we were kidless this trip, we went with late dining. We had reservations at Chops for dinner tonight. I only took a photo of dessert. My experience was ok. first courses were fantastic, as was our server, but my "medium" steak was bloody like really bloody. I ated the edges but that's it I couldn't do it. We had plenty of sides and first courses and what not that I was fine. Sitting in Chops I got another flashback of Celebrity Reflection. There were no views out of the ship, because of the lifeboats. The lifeboats are huge and block all the line of sights. I HATED this on reflection and it was back on Odyssey. I don't know why this is not a problem on Radiance class ships but man it sucks on these. Why have windows at all I'm going to see is a lifeboat. Oh well...Eating later meant we had little energy for after dinner stuff, and we swung through the Music Halff for a bit but ultimately called it a night early. Tomorrow --- our big first sea day

Pre Cruise Call us spoiled.... but we knew we wanted to fly business class across the pond, but at those prices 10K per ticket, we knew the only way we were going to get there were miles. We didn't quite have enough miles to a single airline for 2 round trip business class tickets, but did have enough for one-ways for each of us on two different airlines. So we would fly one airline to Europe and another on the way back. Air France recently started a nonstop to Paris from Dallas Fort Worth. it's odd because Air France partners with Delta and DFW is an American Airlines city not a Delta one. But who am I to question? We found the foreign carriers had better mileage availability than the US carriers. Delta wanted 325K miles per ticket to get us to Paris. Air France wanted 90K. You can use Delta miles on Air France, so it was a no brainer for us. We booked two business class one way seats on Air France to get us to Paris. There's a downside to using a foreign carrier in an airport where they don't have a regular presence. The check in process. The line for Air France check in was insanely long, and I quickly found out why. The agents working check in seemed like it was their first day. There were two supervisors going from agent to agent literally teaching them how to use the software. It was brutal. At the gate it wasn't any better. They tried to drag signs out of a closet so everyone could board by zones. But they didn't follow it at all. Zone 3 got on first because they were lined up closest to the door. We were business class zone 1 and got on after about 150 other passengers. The agent has trouble finding the barcode to scan, it was just a mess. Once we were finally onboard we settled into our seats and things improved. We both wanted window seats. My wife had visions in her head of flying over Paris from the sky, and I get claustrophobic sometimes and looking out... even looking at nothing can be helpful. We joked that all the couples wanted the two seats together in the middle of the plane but we were like whatever, I'll be fine alone. We have weeks to talk to each other on the trip. But of course as soon as I sat down and started to get settled my wife started popping her head over the seat in front of me to "say hi" "ask questions" " cheers me" It was so funny. She was happy to finally be onboard and headed out of there, and she was a talkative little one. Anyway, we had a quick taxi out to the runway, and before you knew it were up in the air. We were flying the Boeing 787 dreamliner, great plane, huge windows, quiet. Air France service in the pointy end of the plane was good. Friendly, good food. We ate, and went to bed shortly thereafter. I switched into pajamas and everything but still struggled to sleep. I use a CPAP machine and Air France requires you bring a battery to use it onboard. I forgot the cable for it and couldn't use it. The flight attendant said, "just plug it in, it's fine on this plane" so I did... I want to say I got maybe 3-4 hours of on/off sleep. My wife on the other hand slept great, flight attendant woke her up for breakfast and she was like didn't I just go to bed? She got in a good solid 5 hours. Our friends in weren't so lucky, they had kids and loud teens around them and didn't sleep a wink. We got off the plane ready to tackle they day and they were NOT. They seriously regretted not upgrading. Passport control in Paris was SCARY. Huge long line. like wrapped around the building long. It was hot and musty and we thought we were going to lose it. Fortunately, Sky Priority passengers got to skip the line and we got out of there in no time. Got to baggage claim and luck of the business class ran out. No bags for us, our friends got theirs as did most of the flight, but us and a handful others had nothing. We went to Air France Sky Priority and started filling out the forms. We then started to realize, with the others who didn't have their bags, it was all business class. Everyone in business class didn't have their bags. The belt had finished moving all bags collected but the business class passengers were all still standing around. About 45 minutes later the airtag I keep in my bag sprung to life and told me my page was at the airport. Apparently business class bags were loaded in the wrong spot (remember what i said about the ground crew in dallas) and the paris folks finally found them. We got our bags, flagged down our poor driver who had been waiting for hours for us and headed into Paris. Picking a hotel in Paris was not easy at all. Cash in Hyatt Points? get a small boutique spot? air bnb? what neighborhood? We had decided on a place we found in our company travel department's website. Hotel Splendide Etoile. It was cheap, really cheap compared to everything else we looked at, and had great reviews. I wasn't convinced, I tend to be a name brand kinda guy, but when I saw how close it was to the Arc de Triumph and the Champs Elysee, I said lets try it. OMG it was the right call. We arrived and they welcomed us warmly, took our bags, and gave us seats in the lobby. They brought out fresh hot croissants, coffee, and water and told us our rooms weren't quite ready but they would work on them quickly. They weren't kidding. We were barely done eating and were welcomed to our rooms. They were good sized for Paris, beautifully decorated, great a/c and the balcony had an amazing view of the Arc. I could have stayed here all week. While in Paris we did the Big Bus Paris which you pay a fee and it drives you all around town and you can see all the sights and hop on and off as you wish. We loved this as a first day activity, we could sit and see. We also did one of the boat trips on the Seine it was nice, not too crowded. We used Vedettes de Paris and did their sunset sail. It was very nice. There was also a skip the line tour at the arc... and let me tell you those spiral staircases are no joke. There were a few times I was like am i going to get dizzy and crash! but the views up there were fantastic and it was really cool to see Paris from a different viewpoint. I love this. We did a lot of sidewalk cafes for lunch, dinner, dessert. We had mostly good experiences. I would suggest avoiding the ones right near the tower, and going further into the neighborhoods. We stopped for a quick drink one night and $228 later we were like wow we got taken. We had to get our precruise covid test in Paris to be ready to board the ship. They were easy to find. All over Europe there are pharmacies with green crosses out front. We walked in and got a rapid test done. Just to warn you these go way up the nose, the "tickle your brain" test. but we were so relieved to have this done and over with and past us. We booked a flight with Air France to Rome the night before our sailing. We had a slight delay down but no real issues. We waited in the new Air France Lounge in terminal F, great food,drinks, and a nice spot to nap. Uneventful flight to Rome, our hotel had a shuttle but it left from a different terminal so we decided to uber.... bad call.There were no ubers anywhere near the airport none. We found a taxi and got an easy fare over there. We stayed at the Hotel Tiber near the airport. We dropped off our bags and raced down the block to a local pizza joint I read about. We asked for a slice of everything they had made and it was heavenly. Afterwards we headed in and climbed into bed before everything opened up. There was a carnival outside and lots of noise with that. Then, a birthday party on the top floor of the hotel with a DJ, We could hear the party bumping and the DJ getting everyone pumped up. My wife was not happy, and if it couldn't get better then, a fireworks show! We started laughing at this point.It was like the loudest hotel room ever. It's ok --- time to sleep, tomorrow is cruise day!

This is the cruise that seemed like it would never be. Started planning for it in 2018. My best friend was finally getting married. Ceremony planned in Italy in 2020. Of course I said well, we'll be over there, let's look at a Med. cruise. We found an insanely inexpensive deal on Rhapsody out of Venice. It was kind of a no-brainer so we planned a week on board and a week in Italy toasting the new nuptials. 2020 finally came and so did COVID and it didn't happen... by the time 2022 rolls around and we return to normal the wedding was off, Rhapsody wasn't sailing that route anymore.... but my wife had her heart set on this trip. So with my friend's blessing..... we went anyway! We're parents of two girls. My wife stays home with them and we haven't taken a single vacation without our kids since our honeymoon. So this was going to be big. Her mom agreed to keep the kids for us... as we dart out on this long awaited adventure. Here's the plan Fly from our home in Dallas to Paris for a few days. I'd never been and really wanted to go ever since French classes in middle school. Head to Civitavecchia and board the brand new Odyssey of the Seas to Santorini, Mykonos, Kusadasi, and Naples. Then swing through Rome, Tuscany, and my wife's bucket list location Venice. Before heading back to Texas. It takes us two and a half weeks and everything I read said, don't do so much. But I don't listen well. ha! We did it. Infact all my planning intrigued my "work spouse" my partner at the office has heard a zillion cruise stories, and his wife has been begging him to go to Europe So he asked if they could going my wife and I. My wife and I know each other enough to know having friends along would help keep us from driving each other crazy, so we said, YES!!!! Please come!!! So you'll see our adventures to Europe.... 75% of the review will focus on Odyssey, but votes from a recent poll I did overwhelming showed an interest in some of our pre-and post cruise stops so I'll include those as well. Setting the table if you will. If you don't know, my reviews are usually photo heavy, and "as if they're live" I post day by day with some breaks between so it feels life, but the trip is over and I am back home and readjusting my body clock to the Central Time zone. Hope you'll follow along! We'll get things started here shortly.

That's what I was thinking... 1 longer pre cruise post and 1 longer post cruise post. people can skip if they aren't interested, but it will help those planning pre and post cruise stops like we did.

We wrapped up our cruise on Odyssey this Sunday. I usually write a day by day review after I get home, but this trip, we're still in Italy for another week. We spent a week in Paris before the cruise too. Should I just start reviewing the week onboard now, or wait until I get home and do everything?

SO...... i should expect to ride in the cable car with others? I'm claustropobic. we're a group of 4 and I'm worried about being in there with just them, let alone others. I might have to brave the donkeys

It honestly depends on the sailing/ship. When we sailed Wonder on it's limited window here before the crossing to Europe the ship was filled with lots of repeat cruisers. Every restaurant was selling out. Even paying full price pre-cruise it was hard to find a slot. So or the first time I double booked. Booked and paid the times I could get at home and then cancelled and rebooked onboard. It was my first time ever having to do that though. So just look at your sailing and how many spots are left. If they start dwindling then you can do the work around.

We'll roll with the punches, I'll be eager to hear from others who have done it... how rocky their sailboat was.