LIVE from Odyssey of the Seas Transatlantic April 21, 2024 thru May 5, 2024

[jeb1990]

Thanks for the quick responses and insight Joe and LooneyCruzer.  Look forward to seeing your next adventures!

[Joe33472]

Cruise Compass Day 10

 

Cruise Compasy Day 10.pdf

[Joe33472]

We're going to try breakfast in our room again tomorrow morning and filled out the door hanger.   We had American Breakfast this morning, and that went much better than our last attempt when we used the door hanger because I called in the order.   Tomorrow we want to keep it light so we're just doing continental breakfast items, but trying the door hanger again. 

 

[Joe33472]

We went for our last dinner at Chops Grille for this sailing tonight.  To be totally honest, we both were kind of dreading going.  I tried to not voice my dread too much lest it be contagious.   We didn't have a great lunch there and our first dinner was just okay.   Tonight was a total redemption.  Our waiter was great and made the dinning experience wonderful.   We were in and out in 1 hour and 10 minutes, which we really appreciated. 

 

We both basically had the same  meal.   Started with Lavender Martinis, Filet and Baked for our entrees, and red velvet cake for our desserts.   We also had truffle fries.  Everything was hot or very warm, which we really appreciated.  

 

The waiter totally redeemed the experience and I would definitely go there again.  

 

 

[Joe33472]

We attended the event today where Captain Marek decorated a cake with the help of the Cruise Director and culinary staff.   What a fun event and the cake was good too. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Joe33472]

Attended the Fine Jewelry auction this morning and we didn't leave with anything, but was invited to visit the store tonight at 9:00 p.m. to purchase items at the reserve price.   Didn't bid on items, so I'm not sure why we'd want the pieces at the reserve price.   I would say that the jewelry store staff (and I would say the concession staff in general) has been super nice and friendly.  

 

Overall, the entire staff on board has been delightful.   Reflecting upon our experience so far is that the crew is so hard working.   The guy who makes our coffee drinks in Cafe 270 is constantly busy.   He told me that I can get specialty coffee at Windjammer, but I prefer the way he makes coffee.   But we drink a lot of specialty coffee, so we actually use both locations.  

 

Prior to the cruise I found this cafe menu, which I thought was for Odyssey, but onboard I don't see the spirited coffees.  Would have like to try a couple of those, but the regular coffees are great too.  Odyssey-Cafe-Two70-menus.pdf

 

 

 

 

[Joe33472]

Went to Cafe 270 today and took a picture of the menu.   Not sure what happened with the spirited drinks.    Today we had caramel frappucino and and an ice mocha latte.  Both were great. 

Ended up going back to the jewelry shop and I won't be leaving with a zero balance on my onboard account.   🤣😀

 

 

 

Edited April 30 by Joe33472

[FionaMG]

You lucky peeps are shortly going to be practically sailing past my front door although, sadly, I won't be able to see you, or you me, because you'll be too far over the horizon. Boo. ☹️

 

I'm just about 10 miles inland from where you see Faro on the map. Give me a long-distance 👋 as you go past! 😁

 

[LooneyCruzer]

We go thru about 1am so not much to see of the Gibraltar rocks. 

[LooneyCruzer]

Another wonderful sea day. Search for a chair, eat, drink, watch people search for chairs, drink, eat, get ready for dinner, eat, drink, search for chairs in the royal theater or 270, drink, watch performers, crash for the night.  

[GenSteve]

Quick question: Are you able to use a Starbuck's gift card for payment at Cafe 270 or other Starbucks locations onboard?

 

[LooneyCruzer]

Yes you can use Starbucks gift cards but only at the main location on deck 4

[Joe33472]

We LOVED Malaga.   What a great city.   So, clean and beautiful and so much to do right in town.

 

Rather than do an organized tour, we decided to do things on our own.   We used the cruise port shuttle to get to the edge of old town.   The shuttle was €5 each and that was the ten best euros that I think I've ever spent.  Drops you off in a perfect location for exploring the city.  We started by taking a cab up to Castle Gibralfaro.  The cost was €8 from near where the shuttle left us off.   Since I was delinquent in doing my research, I thought the Castle and Alcazaba were one and the same.   Thank goodness I asked the cab to drive us up to the Castle because the entrance to Alcazaba is relatively easy to reach from the drop off point.  The castle on the other hand is up a HUGE hill.    You can buy a ticket for entrance to both, but we opted for just the castle.   The views are amazing from up there, actually breathtaking.  

 

 

Even though it was drizzling and a little windy, we totally enjoyed ourselves up there.  A little treacherous with the wet stairs, but nonetheless, a totally enjoyable experience.  When it came time to leave we couldn't find a cab so we decided to walk down the hill.   There were tons of people walking up the hill and all I can say is that my hat's off to them.  That's a major hill.   The Hop-on Hop-off stops up at castle, so that might be an option for some.  We really didn't want to sit on a bus, so I'm glad we just did it on our own.    The walk down was tough on our knees and took about 20 minutes, but we could have waited that long for a cab.  

Had some sangria and tapas for lunch and then explored old town.

 

 

We got the most amazing pastries in old town.   We forgot to take pictures and we didn't eat the pastries until back on the ship and wish we had bought more.  It was SO good and amazingly inexpensive.  One was like 1.8 euros and the other 1.4 euros.   Did some more shopping in town and then visited the Cathedral of Malaga which was very beautiful.  Entrance was 10 Euros per person and comes with audio tour.  We skipped the audio and just looked around. 

 

We went to see the Book again and now we're wired, but exhausted at the same time.   Overall, a great day. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Joe33472]

I forgot to mention in the last post on the way back to the ship that we saw a really nice and modern area closer to the port that was accessible from the port without taking the shuttle.  We were too exhausted to look over there, but there looked like shops and restaurants.  

 

Can't believe that tomorrow is day 12.   Below is the cruise compass. 

 

Cruise Compass Day 12.pdf
 

[Darkingnj]

Thanks for taking us along for the voyage.  Enjoying our live report.  We're on the Odyssey TA in November from Civi to Bayonne...looking forward to it.

 

[Sunshine3601]

On 4/28/2024 at 3:14 PM, LooneyCruzer said:

Beautiful photos!  Thank you for sharing.

[LooneyCruzer]

 

Malaga is such a lush and beautiful place.  Our trip to the cooking class was about 45 minutes up the mountains, past Colmenar, a quaint town nestled in the valleys, with very friendly people. And Toro, the local mascot. 

A bit more up the mountains, which are all classified as Preserve areas, meaning you must be a farmer or producer to live there. They get most everything from locals except staples from the grocery store.
Lush olive tree fields, cactus (grown just for the fruit), wine vineyards, almond trees, goats roaming free, just amazing.

La Rosilla is in Solano, where we were met and driven out to the house and were greeted warmly with conversation about us and daily life for them, wine, and incredible snacks, which tasted like a refined fig newton. We toured the area where they grew almond and olive trees on the hillsides and left with olive oil they produce themselves. Just an amazing fresh taste and feel, nothing like any store bought oils I have ever had.

Into the kitchen for cooking… starting with almonds toasted in olive oil and fresh rosemary, OMG, so simple but you couldn’t stop eating them. They grow all their own herbs and vegetables on the patio, with lemon and orange trees to grab fresh picked fruit. 

Next was prep for the Paella, onions, beans, asparagus from the backyard, peppers, lemons and 2 kinds of fresh mushrooms, with chicken and locally made chorizo. Then out to the patio to the burners and paella pans, learning cool techniques and tips for the best results. Layering the ingredients with such a heavenly smell, sigh.

While that cooked, we had fresh out of oven olive loaf bread with tapas of local pork loin, sausage, with quince jelly and cheeses.

Then onto the main course, the paella, which traditionally is only eaten in the noon meal, too heavy for the later evening meal. Such a rich flavor, nothing like I ever got when I tried to make it. 
We ended with an almond/orange slice of pie with lemon gelato, it was eaten so fast we forgot to get a picture. We were just stuffed and returned to the ship very satisfied. I would highly recommend this fun adventure for anyone wanting something different. 
http://www.larosilla.com/

 

Edited May 2 by LooneyCruzer

[Joe33472]

We went into Cartagena today and walked around for a bit, had some tapas, some gelato, and now we're back on the ship around 2:00 p.m.    The port is a short walk from the old town area (about 5 minutes), so no need for a shuttle or other transportation.   We noticed a bunch of folks leaving for early excursions, so that might be a good idea for this port.   Since, although old town is nice enough, I'm not sure there is enough to do for a day, unless you've planned something. 

 

Our highlight was this gelato.   As good as the gelato in Italy and about the same size.  This was four euros.  Overall, a nice stop, but much more looking forward to the Cinque Terre and some nice Italian food. 

 

[LooneyCruzer]

Cartegena was a wonderful stop. Very clean and lots to see. We did our own self guided tour just looking on the internet. 
The suggested lunch was excellent. Restaurante Techos Bajos. It was seafood but wow it was good, and we eat alot of seafood!
Seafood croquettes and garlic shrimp was very yummy. Fresh french bread to sop it all up. Just perfect for a quick lunch. While we were eating they delivered all the days fresh seafood, fish, octopus, all on ice right off the local boats. 
We saw all these sights and ended up walking down Calle Mayer to the city square where an armed forces military event was taking place. Dress review, unit bands and music and singing with 4 real cannons being fired off. Quite impressive, and loud cannon shots!!!

Too many pictures to post. 
We hit 12,000 steps, alot of those steps were literally stairs 🙂

 

• Museo Del Teatro Romano (Roman Theater Museum of Cartagena)
• Roman Theatre
• Columnata Romana (Roman Colonnade)
• Museo Foro Romano Molinete (Roman Forum Molinete Museum)
• Augusteum
• Casa de la Fortuna (House of Fortune)
• Punic wall of Cartagena
• City Hall
• Catedral de Santa Maria La Mayor (Cathedral of Saint Mary the Great)
• Castillo de la Concepción (Castle of the Conception)
• National Museum of Subaquatic Archaeology

Edited May 2 by LooneyCruzer

[Joe33472]

Cruise Compass Day 13.pdf

[California Traveler]

On 4/24/2024 at 9:54 AM, Joe33472 said:

 

@3CatsInMA Thank you so much!  This is awesome.  I had no idea that you could check out that many towels.  We have some laundry hanging up now, but our next load we'll definitely get some towels.   Thanks again!

 

 

I used the blow dryer for the underwire and some light shirts. Also wrapped in towels first. 

[Joe33472]

56 minutes ago, California Traveler said:

I used the blow dryer for the underwire and some light shirts. Also wrapped in towels first. 

 

We ended up just doing some laundry by hand, wringing dry by hand, and used a portable clothesline on the deck (which I'm sure is against the rules), but we did it discretely and respectfully.  I'm sure that the towel idea saves a lot of time.   We kept hand wringing the bottom of our garments, as the water seemed to collect there.  Overall, it freshened up our clothes a bit, but can't wait to do a proper wash in Rome.

 

Security came to our room (long boring story) and didn't say anything about the clothesline.   But we didn't have a ton of items on the line when security was here, but it was out there.

 

[Joe33472]

Up early this morning (5 a.m.).... time changes really mess me up in unpredictable ways.

 

The quiet time had me thinking about the last 12 days of our first cruise in decades and our overall experience on Royal Caribbean, as we're rapidly approaching the end of our time aboard the Odyssey.

 

I truly think that the staff onboard are wonderful and overall that the service is excellent.  Yes, there were some hiccups here and there, but certainly nothing big and nothing for me to complain about.  I realize that the staff is required to be nice to the passengers, but we had many occasions of true helpfulness, where the staff members were under no requirement to assist us or be nice to us.   And overall, I think that the niceness of the staff helps to promote a positive attitude onboard between passengers.   Lots of small talk between passengers, which is really nice.  Only a few really grumpy folks and some bad elevator etiquette, but that happens on land too. 

 

At sea today on our way to La Spezia.  We're hoping to get ourselves organized today as tomorrow will be busy and Sunday we disembark.

 

 

 

Edited May 3 by Joe33472

[Joe33472]

Just crossed paths with the Norwegian Escape.  I think the mountains in the background is the island of Mallorca.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GimmeOcean]

Moon over Majorca this morning.