Live on Seabourn Odyssey to Alaska

[Pirouette]

All good things must eventually come to an end….We spent yesterday in The Misty Fjord. There were some zodiac excursions and a catamaran, but we elected to enjoy the serene beauty from the ship.
 

The weather was warm and mostly sunny. Many passengers enjoyed the pool and hot tubs. We have been so fortunate on this cruise- there has been little to no rain anywhere. The only time we wore waterproof jackets and warmer clothing was on the zodiac excursions.
 

Later in the day we left the sheltered waters of the fjord, en route back to the inside passage and ultimately home to Vancouver. There was more movement on the ship when we reached those open waters around dinner time… not unpleasant, but just enough to reinforce that we are on a ship.

 

We enjoyed high tea followed by shuffleboard. The court is not very good…we have had better on both Oceania and Regent. My spouse also worked on his golf swing…all additional activities to avoid the constant available food offerings!

Last night’s dinner was another chef’s tasting menu and it was excellent. It will be difficult to adjust to home where we are no longer being fed every 3-4 hours and with champagne and caviar on any whim. 

I have found a lovely sheltered area on the ship on Deck 9 above the Sky Bar. With a fleecy blanket on a double lounger, watching expansive sea views, it is very pleasant. It is also close enough to the pool deck area that the servers regularly stop by to see if I need anything. Seabourn also provides sunscreen for guests by the pool!
 

i returned to our cabin moments ago to find an extensive towel display…bigger than the one from a few days ago, with a card and small gift. It is our anniversary and we were even presented with heart shaped anniversary pancakes in the Colonade this morning. 
 

We have chosen to have our final dinner tonight in the Restaurant. We had a reservation at the Grill for tonight which we cancelled. We ate there a couple of days ago but we prefer the more extensive menu in the Restaurant. We also really enjoy our servers, who have been very kind and attentive throughout. They knew our names after the first day and learned our preferences very quickly. 
 

To answer a couple of questions, the shuttle for the Fortress of the Bear leaves from the main tourist center and does not have to be booked in advance. There is a woman selling tickets on site and there are departures every hour. It also stops at the Raptor Center. The shuttle has a return fare of $20 and guests are responsible for the admission charges at both attractions.

 

Our cabin was also booked as a guarantee- something we would not normally do because it can often result in one of the less desirable cabins. We are very far forward and on a lower deck but it has been absolutely fine- no complaints. We booked 17 days from departure and our cabin was assigned the week before we left. I don’t think there is a bad cabin on this ship…

 

We arrive in Vancouver first thing tomorrow morning. I will post again over the weekend with my final thoughts. For us this has been a delightful cruise. Leaving from our home port, we did not have to fly anywhere. We could not do a staycation at home or in any nearby 4-5* hotel with all our meals, alcohol, excursions and service for a price comparable to this cruise. It has been excellent value and very relaxing. 
 

Feel free to ask any questions and I will do my best to answer.

 

 

 

[mraven]

I was on this cruise as well and had a great time. 7th on Seabourn. 4th on Odyssey. In decent shape, but they are not fixing obvious issues. (5th deck exterior doors not closing, shower weatherstripping missing, so it flooded the bathroom 1st use until I laid a towel down). Weather was incredible. Sunshine in Ketchican!? 

 

Food was good, excepting rib night in Ad Hoc. Ribs were murdered.

 

Lectures were exceptional. Entertainment was mostly skipped. Did 2 of 1st 3 nights in Salon, but other nights I was in Obvs Bar with Charlie. He was great, as was Hugo the bartender who somehow made it into the lyrics of most songs.

 

Would not do Alaska without Ventures Team or similar. They were the best. Did 3 Zodiacs and 1 Kayak (Hubbard). I saw OP say Hubbard was limited, but that was only the 1st set where they got stuck in ice packs. I was on second and it was fine.

 

2 negatives. I had 2 OBC of 100 each. One for the SAIL promotion and one for shareholder credit. SAIL was on account but the other was not. I gave proof and then they wanted proof of the SAIL promotion, which I also provided. Their final ruling was the shareholder credit was applied to my payment when I booked the cruise. I was incredulous as that makes zero sense. I just gave up and will let my travel agent try to get a real explanation.

 

The other was about the crew fund. I met a 1st timer on the cruise and she told me she had tipped her room stewards. I told her about the crew fund and she came back a day later and said she talked to someone in the square who advised her to tip people directly as the crew fund doesn't go to crew directly. I was a bit surprised as this is different from official policy, but she asked another square rep and got the same response. I think we had about 1/2 new to Seabourn on this cruise and on the last 2 nights, I saw lots of cash passing hands. Felt really sad for the behind the scenes crew.

[Travlin grrl]

Great review Pirouette ! 

We were on this cruise also as newbies on Seabourn. Great weather throughout... I think our rainiest day was Vancouver the day before the cruise.

 

We loved our spacious room and bathroom. They even drew me a bubble bath one night. We didn't /couldn't make preferences for our mini bar before the cruise so we just told our room attendant what we wanted to swap out. Easy peasy. Our room attendants were wonderful.

 

Food was great! We just had to make ourselves aware of open and closing hours and we tried every venue on the ship. We are pescatarians so there was lots of choices.

This was our 3rd time to Alaska so some ports we had been to and some were new. Sitka was great because there were lots of signage with arrows telling you how far things were in distance and minutes.  We visited the Russian cemetary just a couple blocks off the main street. It was very old and interesting. Lots of cute shops on main street and then we took the ocean walk to the totem pole park. I noticed when we were coming towards the end there was a sign to go to the Raptor center, however we didnt want to cut ourselves short.

 

Icy strait was another small town. I wished I would have walked into town but couldnt figure out how to get there so just went to the cannery museum and stopped off for a beer with other fellow cruisers. 

 

Wrangler is a small town and Jan our CD who I loved made jokes about all the hardware stores there. It is a little like step back in time there. We hiked up Dewey Point for spectacular views. It's all wooden stairs and luckily no bear encounters. When we came back down we bought lemonade and snickerdoodles from a couple kids with a little table. Then we walked over to Petrotoglyph Beach. I think I did 16,000 steps that day. Lol. The kids sell garnet and rocks, I guess they are the only ones who can sell them due to laws/rules. 

 

I've been to Juneau a couple times and think my favorite excursion was whale watching excursion. I also did the bike and brew one time to Mendehall glacier, so this time I took the local bus over to the rainforest gardens. When I came back to town I tried the infamous Duck Fart at Red Dog saloon. And that was only after I watched someone else's reaction. 

 

I did the zodiac excursion in the Inian Islands to see the wildlife. However about 10 minutes into our excursion the tour leader stopped to explain the kelp and couldn't restart. After 10-15  minutes he called another guy to come and tow as back in. S we were being towed back in, that's when the motor restarted so he continued the tour.So we didn't get any extra time and probably missed about 30 minutes. When we got to the Stellar sea lions he did kind of a driveby and only the people on the left hand side got a good view for taking photos. I think he didn't turn his motor off because he was afraid it might not start up again.  Next time I think I will do the catamaran to the glaciers. Everyone had good reviews about that.

 

All in all we had a great cruise and I would joke,,,hey I could live on here.

 

[lincslady]

Most passengers know that the crew fund is just that, a fund spent on extras for all the crew, not given out individually.  (Obviously we have to believe that it is not for anything the line should be providing anyway), but for parties for them etc.  So some passengers do feel that they want to give something to a few specially helpful individuals.  The crew do know who has given to the fund, as if you do it in the middle of the cruise you will be thanked by the ones you meet.