This Ain't Homer's Odyssey - A Live B2B2B on Odyssey of the Seas (8/22/2021-9/11/2021)

JessyCruises · September 2, 2021

1 hour ago, relaxatsea said:

Thank you so much! Is it all of port side or only in the aft section? Sorry, I should have included that with my first question. Our portside cabin is right above the Bionic Bar, midships.

It is more aft - right outside the door by the elevator bank splitting the Esplanade and The Via (heading toward Giovannis and Two70). It is right about where my finger is pointing on the deck plan. I will check tomorrow to see if there is another one further down.

relaxatsea · September 2, 2021

Thanks so much for that detailed information, and with pictures too! I really appreciate your taking the time to investigate! I've been following along with you since Day 1, and I am really enjoying your posts and pictures.

vacationlover_mn · September 2, 2021

Thanks so much for the food pics! I know have NO regrets about getting the UDP for our trip on odyssey 🙂. I have a few questions- at Giovanni’s, with UDP, can you get 2 apps? Was playmakers included in UDP? Was the firecracker shrimp at Izumi’s spicy, or is it just the sauce that is spicy?

relaxatsea · September 2, 2021

Thanks, so much, Jessy! Today, I changed our cabin to the Starboard side, yay!

Enjoy your cruise!

Barbara

crewsweeper · September 2, 2021

16 hours ago, JessyCruises said:

We did Playmakers on day 2 for lunch and both had the chicken sandwich. Very good!!!

We went to Wonderland for dinner night 2. We had never been before. I am kind of a picky eater but was able to find some things I liked. The experience was great but not sure I would visit again unless I was travelling with others that is wanted to.

Smoke Ring Cocktail

White Rabbit-Rita

wonton soup

Reconstructed Caprese

Mad Hatters Potted Shrimp

The birds Nest

IMG_3869.MOV 68.7 MB · 0 downloads

Liquid lobster

The Rib “I” Luscious Short Rib

The World

Looks similar to the Symphony's Wonderland. We ate there twice. Smokey bourbon cocktail was very strong, had 2 each time, LOL. But it's more on the presentation and the "antics", if any, of the Mad Hatter that made the evening.

JessyCruises · September 2, 2021

7 hours ago, vacationlover_mn said:

Thanks so much for the food pics! I know have NO regrets about getting the UDP for our trip on odyssey 🙂. I have a few questions- at Giovanni’s, with UDP, can you get 2 apps? Was playmakers included in UDP? Was the firecracker shrimp at Izumi’s spicy, or is it just the sauce that is spicy?

We have not tried to get 2 apps each at Giovanni's but I am sure you would be able to because you can at Chops. If I had 2 apps at Gio's I think they would need a wheelchair to get me out of there.

Playmakers is included. In the T&Cs when you order the package, it says it is for a max of $20 pp but the restaurant onboard is telling us there really is no limit. I am sure if you were abusing it (ie buying extra food for people not on the package etc) they would enforce the limit.

I do not eat shrimp so did not try it, but Paul says the Firecracker Shrimp was "Medium Spicy".

I will say I find a dining package for 8 days on this class is a little much. I think it would be better suited to a 6 day sailing because of the number of restaurants. We have found we are doing alot of chops and Gios and it seems like a little too much for us. I would try it on a longer sailing on Oasis class for sure.

JessyCruises · September 2, 2021

They have vending machines available for just about any necessities you might need. They have bandaids and anti nausea meds available to guest services for no charge.

JessyCruises · September 2, 2021

Day 2 lunch we did Sushi again.

We got the same appetizers. For rolls we got:

Crispy Philly Roll

Izumi Futomaki Roll - this one was huge and very good

I think our favourite is still the Baked Snow Crab & Dynamite Roll which we had again

Once again no room for dessert!!

JessyCruises · September 2, 2021

Night 2 for dinner we had Chops

We both started off with Grilled Black Pepper Bacon.

I had the mushroom soup - yummy!!

Paul had the shrimp cocktail - they were huge

I had the 6oz medium well, which was butterflied. I do not like my beef to still be mooing…

Paul got the 16oz Prime Bone-In Ribeye

Sides were Creamed spinach, tater tots, mushrooms asparagus and Mac and cheese.

and we actually had desert!

Edited September 2, 2021 by JessyCruises

ilovetotravel1977 · September 2, 2021

mmmmm, mushroom soup

sandebeach · September 2, 2021

Red velvet cake!!!!!

Coralc · September 2, 2021

That looks like spinach in cream, as opposed to creamed spinach? It all looks good though!!

Edited September 2, 2021 by Coralc

boxedlunch · September 3, 2021

On 8/31/2021 at 7:10 PM, JessyCruises said:

I find for me surf is usually sufficient as I do not do much video or phone calls. It allows me to connect to my VPN without issues and I can access all of my work programs without noticeable lag. Paul does a lot of video and phone calls and he definitely needs surf and stream. He said there have been a few times where he has had a bit of lag but normally is is fine. I had our weekly call with my team last week (audio over Teams) and none of them could tell the difference between the call and what I normally sound like.

This has been a fantastic thread & thank you for all of the effort you're sharing with the community.

I know you've already spoken to the wifi situation on-board...could I trouble you to share some latency/download/upload speeds from a speedtest site (like speedtest.net) as well as whether you're using Surf or Stream? Mostly interested in surf speeds...but if you're using stream that'll do.

*Above and beyond would be multiple tests throughout the day & some info where the tests were accomplished (location on the ship and lat/long).

SilkySal · September 3, 2021

Ahhhh, the peppered bacon appetizer is our fave!! However, our filets would be a pink medium rare! Tom would order the cheesecake and I would prefer the red velvet cake! I love cake!! Yum!! You made me very hungry!! Enjoy!!

vacationlover_mn · September 3, 2021

17 hours ago, JessyCruises said:

I will say I find a dining package for 8 days on this class is a little much. I think it would be better suited to a 6 day sailing because of the number of restaurants. We have found we are doing alot of chops and Gios and it seems like a little too much for us. I would try it on a longer sailing on Oasis class for sure.

Thanks for all of the info! We are on a 6 night, so I don’t think we’ll get sick of it. Loved it on Symphony- I honestly could have done Hooked every day 🙂

perfect match · September 4, 2021

Thanks, Jessy, for taking the time out of your cruise to share so much information with us. I’m really enjoying following along with you.

JessyCruises · September 13, 2021

So I guess this was more like Homer’s The Odyssey than I intended as, like Odysseus, I too was blow off course 🙂

We had a great trip and met some truly amazing people who will be friends for life.

I will be going through my photos and posting and following up on what I missed. I think I brought home all of the cruise compasses so I will make sure all of those are posted. I hope I did not forget any.

If anyone has any questions that have not already been asked, please let me know 🙂

OACAggie · September 13, 2021

Thanks Jessy. I enjoyed following along.

Can you comment please on the PCR testing by Royal on board for your return back to Canada? You are home, so assumed it went smoothly.

Thanks.

JessyCruises · September 13, 2021

32 minutes ago, OACAggie said:

Thanks Jessy. I enjoyed following along.

Can you comment please on the PCR testing by Royal on board for your return back to Canada? You are home, so assumed it went smoothly.

Thanks.

It was incredibly easy process!. On day 2 or 3, we received a call from the Diamond Concierge and she set up the appt for us. Our flights were scheduled for Saturday 9/11/21 but we requested to have the test on Thursday 9/9/21 in case we had any flight issues so we would not have to get retested at the airport or somewhere in Florida if we had to fly on Sunday.

They asked us to come down to medical at 4PM on Thursday. The nurse told us the results should be back in 35 minutes but asked us to come pick them up at 6PM in case there was a delay or she could send them to the room. We told her we would come back at 6 to pick up the results and she was just about to stick the tester up my nose when an ALPHA ALHPHA ALPHA for deck 3 alarm came overheard and she had to take off, apologizing profusely. She told us she would call us in our room when we could come back to get tested. We totally understood - whatever the emergency was is the 1st priority.

About 25 minutes later we got the call to come back down. We were in and out in less than 5 minutes. We went back at 6PM and got he results, both of which were negative. They gave us a print out of the results which we then uploaded into the ArriveCAN app. Easy breezy!!

BTW I had never been down in medical before besides to get some nausea medicine for someone and was really impressed with the facilities. We were led to an examination/treatment room, but I passed by a surgery room and several other treatment rooms. I did swipe a few pics of the room we

were in while we were in there the 1st Time.

Edited September 13, 2021 by JessyCruises

JessyCruises · September 14, 2021

On 8/22/2021 at 9:08 PM, JessyCruises said:

MDR menu Night 1 of 6

I noticed I forgot to post the pics of some of the food.

Paul got the crab cake and said it had changed & was mushier than normal

Wild Mushroom Soup - yum!

(sorry about the sideways photo - I seem to be having the same issues I was having onboard which is a large part of why I stopped posting live. Any ideas what my issue is? I took pics with iPhone and was posting on an iPhone onboard most of the time and occasionally on a PC. I loaded all my pics tonight onto my MacBook hoping it would solve my issue, but no such luck.)

Not sure why I did not get pics of other items!

Edited September 14, 2021 by JessyCruises

JessyCruises · September 14, 2021

On 8/23/2021 at 9:01 PM, JessyCruises said:

MDR Menu Day 2

Escargot - I tried to post this question onboard but I do not think it went through. When did they get the special fork? I have been getting escargot since 2014 and do not remember seeing it before...

French Onion Soup

Pumpkin Soup

Roasted Beef Tenderloin

JessyCruises · September 14, 2021

On 8/23/2021 at 10:43 PM, JessyCruises said:

We have it booked for Day 4. Looking forward to it!!

We did to get to The Book or Showgirls. We are sailing on the Odyssey again in January with our son and my sister so decided to save the main shows for then! I heard both were great though!