Live Odyssey 12/26/2021 New Years Cruise. (Well, errr, a, maybe????)Pics included

[whitshel]

Yes we hope to be on the Odyssey of the Seas in just a couple of days.  Lots going on right now with her as most of you know.  We're going to stick it out and hope she sails on Sunday.   My wife and I just finished a short cruise on the Carnival Radiance, 3 day Long Beach to Ensenada(our 1st Carnival).  After dealing with that ship, we are ready to come back yo Royal!

 

This will be our 1st time on a Quantum class, our last cruise with Royal was in Jan of 2019 on Oasis and our last cruise pre-covid was Jan of 2020 on the Celebrity Reflection.  

 

This will be more of an informative review, not a day by day rundown of what we did.  More opinions of the ship, food, activities and how covid is going.  Feel free to ask any questions and I'll try and get them answered.  So please guys don't give your opinions about why we shouldn't go, or how it may be a cruise to nowhere or what the rumors are.  If you have facts, by all means please post them, I keep checking my email for a cancellation notice or delayed boarding etc. 

 

This is us, boarding the Radiance.

 

We have a balcony cabin on deck 13, the 1st cabin forward after in the indent of the ship.  I really didn't want deck 13 due to the pool deck above but it was the only deck with 2 cabins near each other in different categories.  After looking at the deck plans I think it will be ok because its right inside the Solarium.  The in-laws are down the hall about 10 cabins down.  I did do a couple Royal Up's but no luck so far 😞 

 

 

We also bought the Ultimate Dinning Package for the 1st time.  Can't wait to try all the different restaurants.  We don't plan on going in the dinning room at all.   I have to tell you tho it is going to be hard to beat the experience and food at Fahrenheit 55 (Steakhouse) on Carnival, definitely one of the bright spots  of our lil cruise.  And yes I've been to Chops many times on different ships. 

 

Our Itinerary

I guess we'll see what the real itinerary is.  I saw a post on the new Bahamas requirement of 3 days prior for a test.  I think that will work for most of us on the ship since we have to be tested 2 days prior to the cruise starting (Today)

[seapad]

Thanks for doing this, following...... 🙂

[Coralc]

It looks like it was kind of chilly in Long Beach.  I am looking forward to your Odyssey report. Merry Christmas!  At least it should be warm in Florida and the Caribbean. 

[Maitaivegas]

I hope you have a great cruise.

[whitshel]

Now for the stressful part.  Testing for covid.  We bought the home test quite a while ago since we knew it would be Christmas Eve and a lot of places would be closed or appts would be tough to come by.  I have read that there have been issues with the home test with AWS being down, droppers with no solution in them etc so we scoped out last night for a testing site just in case we needed it.  

 

We have 4 of us that needed the test so I started about 8am Pacific time and started the whole Emed/Navica thing.  I tried my phone first and as its doing the camera, mic, network check it kept coming up with mic "needs permission" I went into my settings and made sure that the Navica site and chrome both had permissions but still didn't work but it let go to the next page to start the test.  I hit ok and it kept coming up with an error.  I figured it was the permission thing so I went and grabbed my laptop and did the whole process over, had all permissions ok'd and started the test and same thing, error, error.  I'm like panicking now so I just keep hitting try again and it finally worked, said I was in the que but it was at least 40 mins.  Waited the 40 mins plus about 10 more mins, and it came up "you're next"  The tele dr came on, checked my id and said your id has your middle name but your log in info on Navica does not.  I'm like but it didn't ask for a middle name, he said you have to edit it and put a space after your first name and put your middle name in the same space.  He apologized and said I have to start over. 

 

Ughhh back in the que for another 45 mins.  In the mean time I had my FIL and MIL start with theirs.  All of us had que times of at least 45 mins, same errors kept coming up but just kept hitting "try again" and they would finally go through.  Mine came back up as "next up" after about an hour, did the test and came back Negative!!  The other 2 were done with their minute countdown but were still waiting in the que.  After about 2 hours of waiting were starting to get worried, we decided to scheduled the same day test for a couple hours later because they still had availability.  We had to pay upfront $129 to schedule the appt but we figured we might as well and just get these done.  

 

We drove over and after an hour in the car got all 3 other tests done.  Results in an hour.  Results came back for my DW and FIL as negative but my MIL did not.  She finally got the text saying she was negative and an email would follow, it never did.  We called, emailed the testing place but never answered.  So guess what, back to emed.  This time it was 5pm Pacific and it went right through, did the test, came back negative and were good to go!  But what a freaking stressful day!!

[whitshel]

34 minutes ago, Coralc said:

It looks like it was kind of chilly in Long Beach.  I am looking forward to your Odyssey report. Merry Christmas!  At least it should be warm in Florida and the Caribbean. 

Yes it was, the whole cruise was very chilly.  Can't wait to get to the Caribbean!!

[vacationlover_mn]

Following!  Can’t wait to see your thoughts on the food 🙂. We hope to be onboard Feb 6, and will also have the UDP package (as well as the drunky package).  If our cruise ends up only having one stop (Cococay), at least we’ll get our moneys worth out of the packages, while enjoying beautiful views 🙂

 

Which type of cabin will you be in?

[bschmitt]

Good luck on your cruise.  As of yesterday,  69 crew and 6 passengers have tested positive.  We did not get an updated today.  Main dining room has been jammed with people so it might be good that you have the dining package.

[whitshel]

Well so far we're just delayed. Only about 30 mins. Our plane is in the air coming from JFK. 

[whitshel]

Good morning FLL!  We have arrived.  No issues with the flight last night.  Arrived about 20 mins late, no big deal until we got to our hotel, The Staybridge Suites west FLL.  I was able to check in the day before we arrived per their email. We reserved a 2 bedroom suite.  I noticed i received a notification from my cc that they had charged the room yesterday before we even got there.  Kinda weird but i figured thats cool.  Get there about 1030 last night and the girl at the desk said she just cancelled our reservation.  Ughhhh, paid for and all and she cancelled it.  Plus when I checked in it asked what time we would be there and I chose 10pm,  Of course now there are no 2 bedroom suites left.  After some back and forth we got 2 queen suites which was fine but now I see my cc has been charged again.  I'll have to go fight with them about that now.

 

 

Well there she is.  Our check in time is 1130, the hotel has a free shuttle so we plan on leaving here about 11am.  So far I haven't received any emails about delayed boarding or itinerary changes.  I have done 4 or 5 Royal Upgrade offers but nada so far 😞 Anyone do a pier upgrade with the pier coordinator lately?  🙂 

[jimbri]

Have a great cruise

[Biker19]

11 minutes ago, whitshel said:

Anyone do a pier upgrade with the pier coordinator lately? 

We had a report of at least one self-upgrade on board.

[whitshel]

5 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

We had a report of at least one self-upgrade on board.

Nice, they just commandeered a different cabin? 😄I don't have much hope but if it happens, awesome!

[Biker19]

3 minutes ago, whitshel said:

Nice, they just commandeered a different cabin?

No, paid upgrade, kinda like last minute Royal Up.

[Crazy planning mom]

Have a wonderful trip.  I think you were wise to book a balcony and the ultimate dining package during a busy holiday pandemic cruise.

[whitshel]

5 minutes ago, Crazy planning mom said:

Have a wonderful trip.  I think you were wise to book a balcony and the ultimate dining package during a busy holiday pandemic cruise.

I know most of you are going to hate me for this but we actually booked this cruise as a lift n shift which I booked during the pandemic last year for Allure of the Seas over Christmas for 2020.  When booking the Allure, it was dirt cheap, like $900 per person for a balcony over Christmas.  Knowing the Allure cruise would probably not go I booked it thinking a may be able to lift n shift it.  Viola,  when the Allure cancelled the Odyssey 2021 New Years came up and switched to that in a heart beat.  Seeing what the prices have been, like $2500 per person for a balcony, I feel very fortunate.  Thats why we booked the UDP, I figured I saved a lot of money on the cruise. 

[h20skibum]

Hope your cruise is wonderful, and you make all your port stops.  Just drove past the port and saw her docked.  
 

We still have a week to enjoy here before we drive to Miami for 2 weeks on Oasis. 

[toad455]

Have a great time, I hope you sail on time and no ports are skipped.

[zebra36]

On 12/24/2021 at 9:30 PM, whitshel said:

Now for the stressful part.  Testing for covid.  We bought the home test quite a while ago since we knew it would be Christmas Eve and a lot of places would be closed or appts would be tough to come by.  I have read that there have been issues with the home test with AWS being down, droppers with no solution in them etc so we scoped out last night for a testing site just in case we needed it.  

 

We have 4 of us that needed the test so I started about 8am Pacific time and started the whole Emed/Navica thing.  I tried my phone first and as its doing the camera, mic, network check it kept coming up with mic "needs permission" I went into my settings and made sure that the Navica site and chrome both had permissions but still didn't work but it let go to the next page to start the test.  I hit ok and it kept coming up with an error.  I figured it was the permission thing so I went and grabbed my laptop and did the whole process over, had all permissions ok'd and started the test and same thing, error, error.  I'm like panicking now so I just keep hitting try again and it finally worked, said I was in the que but it was at least 40 mins.  Waited the 40 mins plus about 10 more mins, and it came up "you're next"  The tele dr came on, checked my id and said your id has your middle name but your log in info on Navica does not.  I'm like but it didn't ask for a middle name, he said you have to edit it and put a space after your first name and put your middle name in the same space.  He apologized and said I have to start over. 

 

Ughhh back in the que for another 45 mins.  In the mean time I had my FIL and MIL start with theirs.  All of us had que times of at least 45 mins, same errors kept coming up but just kept hitting "try again" and they would finally go through.  Mine came back up as "next up" after about an hour, did the test and came back Negative!!  The other 2 were done with their minute countdown but were still waiting in the que.  After about 2 hours of waiting were starting to get worried, we decided to scheduled the same day test for a couple hours later because they still had availability.  We had to pay upfront $129 to schedule the appt but we figured we might as well and just get these done.  

 

We drove over and after an hour in the car got all 3 other tests done.  Results in an hour.  Results came back for my DW and FIL as negative but my MIL did not.  She finally got the text saying she was negative and an email would follow, it never did.  We called, emailed the testing place but never answered.  So guess what, back to emed.  This time it was 5pm Pacific and it went right through, did the test, came back negative and were good to go!  But what a freaking stressful day!!

I can sympathize with your frustration. Bought the home kits and kept getting dropped due to poor(?) internet connection, my phone was only 4-5 feet from my router. I finally gave up and went to a local clinic and not much more costly than the useless emed kits.

[whitshel]

So far it's been about an hour and 15 mins and still not quite on board. Lines were pretty crazy. 

 

 

 

1.9% of the ships population last cruise was positive. Seems pretty high

 

[whitshel]

We're on board!!

 

Cabins are so nice!!

 

 

Digital key works 👍

 

And a lil something from Crown n Anchor 🔱

 

You would never know this ship just had a COVID outbreak. Feels just like a normal cruise. Spirits are high, people are smiling, crew seems happy. 

 

 

[seapad]

How was the embarkation process? Can you walk us through, and how long did it all take to get on the ship? Thx

[toad455]

Are you still scheduled to sail on time?

[whitshel]

1 minute ago, seapad said:

How was the embarkation process? Can you walk us through, and how long did it all take to get on the ship? Thx

It was actually way longer than I thought it was going to take. At least an hour to an hour and 15 mins. 1st we waited outside, that's what those 2 pics were from. Then they slowly let a group of maybe 20 or so in the building at a time. Then you wait again in another line to have your test and vaccine record looked at. Once that's done, then you go into the security line. Then you finally go to the check in lines. All done by ipad. Then you go in another line upstairs to actually walk in board. But that line was like 15 mins too. It felt like a full cruise at that point. 

 

 

[whitshel]

3 minutes ago, toad455 said:

Are you still scheduled to sail on time?

Have not heard any different. So we're expecting too.