Cruiser Formerly Known As Cheapo Dad's Trip Report on Odyssey of the Seas Sailing to A Minus B Plus C Plus H Islands

[harryfat1]

15 hours ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

Maybe they thought the parents might want the bigger cabin since you've said one had more space so decided to wait and see if you switched up who was where since it's easier to separate the beds than put them together?

Huh.  I’m sorry if I gave the impression the interiors of our 2 cabins are different.  They are symmetrically identical as you can see from this picture.

 

 

What I meant to say was the boys had a slightly larger balcony area as there’s a slant to it.  But I wasn't going to switch out cabins just based on that since we opened the balconies and we just walked to each side of the balcony easily. 

 

Originally we booked 3 cabins all together – 6284/6286/6288 when the in-laws were going to sail with us but they had to cancel so we only had 2 cabins together or else we would had 3 balconies opened.  I knew from the deck plan that the boys would have a bigger outside balcony as you can see it starts to jet out but figured it didn’t matter who sleeps where.

 

 

 

As I type this, I realize I never sat outside on the balcony chairs even once during the 8-day cruise.  I went out and took many pictures of the area but I don’t think I think I ever sat there.  We are not balcony/Caribbean heat type as our cruise was either too windy in the beginning or too hot in the middle and too rainy at the end. 

 

Whereas we used the balcony much more in Alaska on the Princess cruise, especially during the 2 glacier days.

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

14 hours ago, edspec said:

@harryfat1 Thank-you for info on Ifly and Northstar, I wasn't aware of needing to book immediately once onboard.  It will most likely be just me and there won't be a lot of options due to our itinerary, two port days and eight sea days.

I'm another one that doesn't want to see a messy cabin.  Sometimes when I'm walking down the hall and see the state of some cabins I'm baffled.  How many bottles of hair product, lotion, etc... do even four people need for one week?  And clothes all over the place. Ick.

You are welcome.  The whole point of writing this trip report is to share my experience with future cruisers. Hopefully, you and others who will be sailing on the Odyssey or her sister ships will be on the lookout to book these time slots ASAP.

 

As you can see, I’m not the only person concerned with not being able to secure a slot.  The FOMO syndrome is strong with many as we all paid thousands of dollars for our cruises and we all want to reap the benefits as much as possible.

[harryfat1]

12 hours ago, luvtoride said:

Funny that Cheapo Dad would splurge on having 7 tablets to bring…isn’t one enough??😂. I’m pretty sure the cost of the Voom internet package for one device for the entire cruise was LESS than the cost of a tablet.  

I think my humor is too subtle as I thought that having an emoji with a tilted head and a tongue out would mean I wasn’t serious in my comment.

 

However, if I do need to round up multiple tablets, it wouldn’t be a hard task as my wife and boys have tablets with them on the cruise to use at the hotel pre cruise as well as for the 6.5-hour long flight back to CA after the cruise.  I didn’t bring my tablet.

 

We also have some old tablets back home collecting dust after we upgraded to the newer models. 

 

On top of that, I have a bunch of young nieces and nephews that I’m sure have older tablets sitting at home not being utilized.  I can borrow those with the promise that Uncle Harry won’t play with their Candy Crush or Purple Dragon Merging games for a week.🤪

 

(Note the tongue emoji in case anyone attacks me with a new post saying I'm a bad person in stealing little girls’ tablets just to save money...)

[rncruiser]

7 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

 

 

 

OkAs I type this, I realize I never sat outside on the balcony chairs even once during the 8-day cruise.  I went out and took many pictures of the area but I don’t think I think I ever sat there.  We are not balcony/Caribbean heat type as our cruise was either too windy in the beginning or too hot in the middle and too rainy at the end. 

 

Whereas we used the balcony much more in Alaska on the Princess cruise, especially during the 2 glacier days.

 

 

 

My favorite time to use the balcony is first thing in the morning. My husband and I order the free room service of coffee and fruit (we do tip of course) and start our day watching the sea as we sip our coffee. 
We have a balcony in our apartment at home, but without the water view it’s just not the same. 

[harryfat1]

1 hour ago, volk904 said:

We sail Feb 3.  Love you review.  I am disappointed in the 300 Lb limit on North Star. Yes I am a little over that but a thing like that is designed for total weight of all the people not 1 person so I don’t see what difference it makes.  Other than that the ship looks great. I will say I don’t understand why they went with 2 single pkugs and not a duplex. If I use my 3-1 adapter I will only be able to use 1 of them. 

Thanks for reading along.

 

Oh, very nice.  Your cruise is just around the corner.  Have you taken the luggage out yet or you are almost done packing?  This is the most exciting time as you get your luggage tag ready after watching Mark’s video on his paper-saving technique to get your luggage tag ready.

 

As for iFly, I assume the weight limit is just because they can’t safely blow enough air to lift someone if they are over the limit. It’s the corporate lawyers' CYA time in case there are lawsuits from injury.

 

My older son is like 40+ pounds bigger than my younger son and the older one couldn’t get nearly as much lift in the air as the younger one inside the tube.  They weigh each person's preflight so they know how much air to crank out to safely lift each person up in the air. The bigger you are, the more air is needed.

[harryfat1]

A quick note before I proceed with the nightly photo upload.  I know there have been some differences of opinion today.  I hope we all respect the different approaches utilized while cruising and do not have a need to point out the differences as that just creates unnecessary confrontation.

 

If there’s a mistake in facts like if I said My Time Dining starts at 5:30 but in fact, it starts at 6:30, then please by all means, point it out as we don’t want to confuse future cruisers reading this and plan things based on the wrong info.  But if it’s just a matter of matter of opinions and preferences, just let it be.

 

I’m writing this trip report as a guide to help newbie cruisers to the Odyssey/Quantum Class ships as I was new to it just a month ago so I try to cram as much info/pictures as possible to help the next group as a ”pay it forward” as I will be reading the Carnival reviews from other cruisers for my December cruise. 

 

I know outside of this thread, people here at CC are not always kind to each other if they don’t like what someone has posted.  Hopefully, we will be more friendly toward each other in the next month as almost 2 weeks into this and I’m still on day 1 so we will be with each other for a while hopefully we can have fun and learn from each other the rest of this trip report…

 

Queue up the Beatles Song:

 

 

[harryfat1]

So we were table 461 per our set sail pass so we knew it was on regular seating on deck 4.  Just had to look for it with all the numbers on the table.  And we found our table near the back….along with a whole bunch of other tables. 

 

Our table is the last 4 seats here along with all the others close by

 

 

When we cruised with the inlaws, we had a table for 6 on the Voyager/Freedom/Oasis class and those were always big round tables where we had space to stretch out. 

 

The Odyssey had a lot more of these smaller tables by cruisers sitting side by side with not much privacy/space in between.  Could this be due to a lack of space from a smaller dining space?

 

I didn’t think about this but after coming home and looking at the pictures, while the open floor concept for deck 4 looks cool, I wonder how many more tables could have fit in the open space?  Meaning if they just extended deck 4 MDR to fill the space similar to deck 3 below, that would have created at least a couple hundred more seats, and maybe the other tables wouldn’t be as cramped.

 

What would it be if they closed out the dining area where 2 dining rooms stack on top of each other?  We would utilize all the space in the middle.  It wouldn't look nice or dramatic but we would have more space.

 

So it was a tradeoff of looking "wow" versus space.  Guess which route RCI chose?

 

 

I’ll get on my soapbox and go on a long spiel on the advantages of set dining when we get there later on.  For now, mission accomplished as we found out where our table was.

 

 

 

Long tables for the big holiday gatherings

 

 

[harryfat1]

Lots of cruisers standing in line waiting to talk to the dining room staff as they have dining table/time issues.

 

 

20231223_145303.mp4

 

As the people need help with their dining situation, here's another Beatles song:

 

 

 

Oh, yeah, now is a good time to mention that RCI must have a memo out to ALL the dining room and sales workers to force all of them to wear Santa hats.  They wore them the entire cruise, even after Christmas so you will see lots of workers with Santa hats.

Edited January 25 by harryfat1

[harryfat1]

So we went back to the Royal Esplanade (Promenade) and checked out the Christmas tree as it’s a Holiday cruise after all. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Also checked out the Café Promenade. 

 

 

 

Some repeat of desserts and sandwiches from WIndjammer upstairs as well as Cafe 270

 

 

 

Now here’s a question that’s like “What is the meaning of life?”  in significance– if RCI renamed the main shopping area to be Royal Esplanade instead of Royal Promenade, shouldn’t the café be renamed to Café Esplanade instead of Café Promenade? 

 

That question kept me awake the entire 8 nights of the cruise as I tossed and turned in my bed pondering why didn’t they change the name.  Either that or it was the extra 2 desserts I ate at dinner that was causing my indigestion and prevented me from falling asleep…🤪

[harryfat1]

Anyway, I can go on another old man tirade of “Café Promenade/Esplanade used to have so much better food back 10 years ago when I was cruising” but nobody cares…

 

 

Short video clip to show the busy vibe of the Espeande./Promenade area

 

 

 

Edited January 25 by harryfat1

[harryfat1]

Royal Theater.

 

Pretty standard compared to other RCI ships. However I wonder as these RCI ships get bigger, are they building bigger theaters?  These look similar to the size of the Voyager class ships at first glance without counting each row and seat.

 

Does anyone have the theater capacity for each RCI-built ship?

 

 

 

 

 

[Biker19]

9 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

What would it be if they closed out the dining area where 2 dining rooms stack on top of each other?  We would utilize all the space in the middle.  It wouldn't look nice or dramatic but we would have more space.

The Q class ships before Odyssey/Spectrum are like that but they are just as cramped.

 

RCI MDR = cramped (regardless of ship).

Edited January 25 by Biker19

[EllieinNJ]

That's why we get MTD because if we don't like where we are seated we just say we will wait for another table.  Neither of us wants to sit looking at a wall 

[RobInMN]

13 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Mark,

 

I think you and I have the same brand of USB hub from Amazon. Here is my picture from the cruise.

 

 

I found the USB pictures I referenced the other day.  It was buried down on day 8 when I was ready to pack the cables to go home and I realized I forgot to take pictures of the hub and cables that I wanted to point out in the trip report.

 

For those unfamiliar with what we have been talking about:

 

Type A – the old-school USB cables.  I’m sure you have many of these at home but they are being phased out with the newer USB C types.  They are still very common and the plug stands on the Odyssey fit these

 

 

Type C – newer technology.  Charges the devices faster but won’t fit the RCI plugs and from Mark’s post, the newer ships like Princess are already moving onto this new technology.  Will see what Icon’s cabins have for USB plugs.

 

 

I’m sure there will be some upset people going onboard the newer ships and finding they can’t plug in directly with their older cables.  The safest thing to do is buy a USB hub like the one's Mark and I have (about $30 from Amazon) and you are covered with both technologies since the hub will take both types of cables and the cruise ships allows their use

 

 

I also changed my charging station (different model) to one that's 5 USB-C and 2 USB-A. My portable battery is also USB-C, and so I've converted most of my cables to USB-C to USB-C instead of USB-A to USB-C. But since planes, hotels, ships, etc. almost all are still USB-A, I carry some of these when I travel. Obviously charging is not as fast, but at least I can use a USB-A port if necessary:

 

 

 

[hucifer]

12 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Now here’s a question that’s like “What is the meaning of life?”  in significance– if RCI renamed the main shopping area to be Royal Esplanade instead of Royal Promenade, shouldn’t the café be renamed to Café Esplanade instead of Café Promenade? 

 

That question kept me awake the entire 8 nights of the cruise as I tossed and turned in my bed pondering why didn’t they change the name.

Great. Now I'LL have trouble falling asleep tonight.

 

Loving your review, Harry! Especially your OCD, bean counter sense of humor. 

[luvtoride]

16 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

 

Long tables for the big holiday gatherings

 

Our family party of 10 had one of these long tables with one side having "Booth seating".  We were in the MDR with My Time Dining on Deck 3.  After being moved around to different tables the first 3 nights, we were then given the same table for the final 5 nights of the cruise.  We had a great waiter, assistant waiter and Head Waiter (Jackie) who made our dinner times awesome, especially for the kids!  

[rncruiser]

I used this on our cruise. It is an adaptor for use in the UK, EU, and Australia, as well as the US. I had bought it for our recent trip to Europe. With 4 USB and 1 type C it was perfect. 

[harryfat1]

13 hours ago, Biker19 said:

The Q class ships before Odyssey/Spectrum are like that but they are just as cramped.

 

RCI MDR = cramped (regardless of ship).

Yeah, I hear you on the lack of space in the MDR.

 

In theory, they should gain some sort of benefit just by consolidating the 4 smaller dining rooms into one.  For example, instead of 4 separate entrances and foyers in each dining room, by combining them into one, there should be at least some space savings there as now there’s only a need for one.

 

Not sure what the square footage is for the area in the middle of deck 4 but if we assume say 10,000 square feet and divide that by 2,100 passengers (normal occupancy of Odyssey per Wiki is 4,200 and divided by 2 seatings), we might eke out 4.7 extra square feet of space per passenger if they filled the middle space.

 

Speaking of capacity, I was going to wait until day 2 to talk about this but they said we had 5,269 people on our cruise.  Which is 125% of double capacity (4,200 is 100%).  Much higher than the historical 110% capacity of historical Holiday sailings.  Part of the trend of more people cruising at a much higher price in 2023.

 

Having 125% capacity for our sailing, meant the ship was filled to the rafters with parents stuffing their kids in the third and fourth berths which meant very tight seating areas in the dining room.  They probably had to add extra seats in many areas just to accommodate everyone.

 

Perhaps someone who is sailing say this week might experience less cramped dining quarters if this week is just the typical 100% capacity without the holiday crowds.  If we do the simple math of 5,269 less 4,200 of double occupancy, that’s 1,000 extra people they need to find seats for (in reality it might only be 800 as some people go to specialty dining/windjammer). Nevertheless, these extra bodies take up space.

 

I tried to Google the MDR capacities of RCI ships but I don’t think they publish that or else I was going to do some analysis on average square footage allocated per passenger on different classes of ships to see which ships have more dining space.

 

My gut feeling is the older the ships are, the more MDR space they have as they don’t have as many specialty dining venues for people to venture to, and therefore the ship designers will have to dedicate more MDR seats for them instead of the new class of ships having many other non-MDR dining.

 

My fuzzy old man memory want to say back in my 2014 Allure of the Seas trip report, I did an analysis of Windjammer space on that ship as it was woefully inadequate in size.  I can’t get any data on the Odyssey to do the same for its MDR.

 

But this might be a good thing for most of the readers as they don’t care about me calculating how they can get an extra 3.76 square feet of dining space on different ships.  I will get more “likes” if I post pictures of the bar menu as the people just want to know how much the Bahama Mama costs…🤪

[harryfat1]

9 hours ago, RobInMN said:

I also changed my charging station (different model) to one that's 5 USB-C and 2 USB-A. My portable battery is also USB-C, and so I've converted most of my cables to USB-C to USB-C instead of USB-A to USB-C. But since planes, hotels, ships, etc. almost all are still USB-A, I carry some of these when I travel. Obviously charging is not as fast, but at least I can use a USB-A port if necessary:

 

 

 

 

4 hours ago, rncruiser said:

I used this on our cruise. It is an adaptor for use in the UK, EU, and Australia, as well as the US. I had bought it for our recent trip to Europe. With 4 USB and 1 type C it was perfect. 

 

Thank you both for sharing your charging options.  There are many choices to pick from nowadays.  As long as the newbie cruiser knows not to bring a surge protector onboard and has their charging equipment instead of just relying on the ship providing the wall plugs.

 

Oh, one more thought on this topic – the older ships (like Navigator) did not have USB plug sockets inside the cabins when we sailed on her a few months ago.  So do some research on your ship to know what is available.

[harryfat1]

10 hours ago, EllieinNJ said:

That's why we get MTD because if we don't like where we are seated we just say we will wait for another table.  Neither of us wants to sit looking at a wall 

So if you don’t like the seats, do you just tell the wait staff you will wait until the next table that fits your criteria and go back in front of the line and wait?  What is your average wait time?

 

I think this strategy will be easier to implement with a table for 2.  Once the party size gets to be 10+ like Brian's clan or other big groups, they may have a long wait if they keep on passing on the next table's availability. 

[harryfat1]

9 hours ago, hucifer said:

Great. Now I'LL have trouble falling asleep tonight.

 

Loving your review, Harry! Especially your OCD, bean counter sense of humor. 

Thanks for the compliment. Nice to be talking to you again after all these years.

 

I highly recommend you stop after the second dessert.  The third one will definitely keep you up at night along with the second prime rib from day one…

[harryfat1]

6 hours ago, luvtoride said:

Our family party of 10 had one of these long tables with one side having "Booth seating".  We were in the MDR with My Time Dining on Deck 3.  After being moved around to different tables the first 3 nights, we were then given the same table for the final 5 nights of the cruise.  We had a great waiter, assistant waiter and Head Waiter (Jackie) who made our dinner times awesome, especially for the kids!  

Were you going in at the same time nightly? 

 

Given the size of your party, I would think the dining folks will want to assign you guys to a fixed time/location as it’s hard to find a table for 10 nightly on short notice especially when we were sailing at 125% capacity.

[luvtoride]

8 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

Were you going in at the same time nightly? 

 

Given the size of your party, I would think the dining folks will want to assign you guys to a fixed time/location as it’s hard to find a table for 10 nightly on short notice especially when we were sailing at 125% capacity.

Yes 7:15 was our MTD nightly.  We always waited together NOT on the line but by either by the elevators or just inside the MDR for our table to be ready.  Usually within a few minutes of our time.  

[karebare22]

6 hours ago, luvtoride said:

Our family party of 10 had one of these long tables with one side having "Booth seating". 

We had this kind of seating arrangement for our party of 12 on our holiday cruise. With all the tables together, it was a real hassle if you were one of the ones sitting in the middle of the bench seat. Especially when dressed in a long formal dress, and having to visit the restroom during dinner after having a few pre-dinner cocktails 😬 It would have been nice to have a small separation of the tables in the middle. It was also awkward for our waiter & assistant to reach over with the plates and drinks. However, we did have a nice amount if space around us and didn’t feel crowded at all.