Marina on Odyssey

Having only previously sailed on the little ships we are due to board the Odyssey in three weeks. Is the marina day exactly the same or have the larger ships got more small craft, activities? The swimming "cage" was very small on the little ships. Is it any bigger on the Odyssey etc?

Having only previously sailed on the little ships we are due to board the Odyssey in three weeks. Is the marina day exactly the same or have the larger ships got more small craft, activities? The swimming "cage" was very small on the little ships. Is it any bigger on the Odyssey etc?

I can't say how the current marina day differs from the one on the little ships, as we had our first ever on the Odyssey a couple of weeks ago. However I can report that there is no swimming cage at all, you cannot swim off the platform.

The activities I remember were kayaks, paddle boards (I think), pedalloes, sail boat, banana and what looked like an inflatable couch pulled behind a speedboat.

There wasn't enough wind for the sailboat to do anything at all, and I wondered when anyone gets to use it, because if there's enough wind for sailing, there's probably too much wind/chop for them to run marina day at all.

I think the inflatable couch was the most popular, we tried the banana and it was pretty tiring, the couch looked a little more laid back (literally).

The whole thing was very popular but everyone who showed up got a turn and I'm pretty sure anyone who wanted a second turn got one quite easily and possibly a third. You finished your first activity and then re-joined the line so it was scrupulously fair. We were going to try the couch out for a second activity but champagne beckoned so we left it to others and enjoyed watching the activities.

Hopefully you'll get a marina day, I believe ours was in Nydri and it was lots of fun.

We have had several Marina Days on the Odyssey and most of them are as described above but unfortunately neither SUPs nor water skiing were offered. Staff thought having a few SUPs available would be a good idea, as for water skiing were told it is a liability issue, yet you have to sign a waiver to participate in anything so??? On the Sojourn in July we had a Marina day and I didn't even bother to care - we got back onboard as it was ending and found that they had water skiing;( so I don't know why different ships have different offerings. Years ago on the Sojourn they did have a swimming cage out in the Amazon. I have never seen that on the Odyssey so maybe it was an added feature since the Sojourn is newer.

I have to say that we were a bit disappointed with this on our first trip last week, it was a marina "2 hours", not a day so the scrum was quite off putting, especially given the general lack of scrums on the ship (colonnade breakfast excepting!).

Is it normal to open the marina for just 2 hours per week?

In our 100 days on board we have only had the marina in use once:D

Was on Sojourn 3 weeks ago, they told me the swimming cage is only on smaller ship.

Water couch was really fun!

I have never seen it scheduled on the big ships for more than a few hours.It always says weather permitting and in my three big ship cruises with multiple legs and "scheduled" Marina days the weather "never permitted" and it was always scrapped. Though I have to admit on one of those cruises in the Caribbean they went to great effort to make up for it by off loading the "toys" to a beach in St Lucia for the day. So while a couple hours may not have send like much to you at least you got a marina experience.

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Great fun in the Med 2014 on the Odyssey. Since a lot on board choose to pass we had fun doing multiple rides. They even got Sophie out on the ride.

No swimming at all? What a big disappointment! I thought that the cage used for the Little Sisters was bad enough. Seabourn really need to rethink this and find a way to allow swimming. On Windstar you can dive straight off the Marina into the sea - their Marina days are wonderful and definitely last More than a few hours.

Thanks everyone. We have enjoyed quite a few marina days previously but only once were we allowed to swim in open sea. Once all the craft had been put away they allowed us to swim around the ship. We will wait and see what happens this time.

Last time I was on Odyssey they had a cage, not very large but given the current it was very welcome. That's the time they tried to drown me on a banana boat. All is forgiven.

The explanation was that the ship no-longer anchors but stays in-place with thrusters and they could pull people under if they were swimming, so no more swimming. It is true that I didn't see an anchor chain the whole cruise.

Yes I also understand that a cage is a cage and it's hard to get sucked out of it, but for whatever it's worth, the cage has gone.

You can get a pedalo, paddle out 100 feet, jump off and swim if you like, but there is no more swim cage.

I too was sad to see the cage go . Compare deck plan page 153 in 2015-16 catalog [ yes cage ] to page 161 in the 2016-17 catalog [ no cage ]. I was told by GRM that they were removed as they caused damage to ship . Nothing was said about thrusters which story does not add up as prior post clearly points out . I admit to being "irritated ' by fact the promo [ neat photos in various publication ] long after removal . :mad:

I too was sad to see the cage go . Compare deck plan page 153 in 2015-16 catalog [ yes cage ] to page 161 in the 2016-17 catalog [ no cage ]. I was told by GRM that they were removed as they caused damage to ship . Nothing was said about thrusters which story does not add up as prior post clearly points out . I admit to being "irritated ' by fact the promo [ neat photos in various publication ] long after removal . :mad:

on reflection, and i am not a naval archi., the "sway " on stern might be stronger / more pronounced / more stressfull while on trusters than while on fore anchor chain alone thus putting more ' stress ' on connection of marina-cage to hull ...thus explaining the two stories [ A- it was the thrusters B-it was "damage ' to the ship " ]...in anycase .....not good as i liked the cage esp on "little sisters "

further to thrusters, Capt Mark Dexter [ now in Italy building Encore ] posting on his blog ...Odyssey class does not have stern thrusters but Encore will have 2