Jump to content

Quick Reflections for 10 Day Western Med on the Odyssey


Spree75
 Share

Recommended Posts

Just back from a 10 day cruise from Rome to Barcelona on the Odyssey (and 5 extra nights in Barcelona) and thought I'd give some quick observations from our trip. This is our fourth time on Seabourn after 1 time on the Odyssey and 2 times on the Pride.

 

Overall everything is fantastic and I could still get used to living on the ship for months at a time but there were a few things that caught our attention. None of these are major but kind of make it feel like the beginnings of some slippage...

1) No more towel animals. I think we had a rose one night and a paper boat another night and that was it.

2) No more shoe shine service.

3) No shoe horn in the suite. We thought this was weird. The Pride always had one with a really long handle that my partner loved. Guest services didn't know what a show horn was...

4) A really odd odor in part of the Observation Lounge which they said was being worked on but I don't think they ever fixed it.

5) A lack of the general staff knowing your name. I believe only 5-6 people addressed me directly and I'm not sure if several of those weren't because we sat at the same table in the MDR every night.

6) Portion size in the MDR seems to have gotten smaller. It's not really an issue since you can always order more but it was noticeable on some of the appetizers where the portion was more of a one bite amuse bouche.

7) Internet is still not good but that's nothing new.

Our friends that were travelling with us had a major problem with their cabin. They ended up having to talk to management and have the entire suite steam cleaned to remove a persistent odor and have their stewardess reassigned. However, they were satisfied with how the management handled things so that's always a good thing!

 

What we loved:

1) The food overall excellent. Meat was cooked to what we expected and things that were supposed to be hot were hot and things that were supposed be cold were cold.

2) The included wines were all drinkable

3) The Grill was delicious. Nothing fancy but a table prepared Caesar salad and a NY Strip with perigourdine sauce was wonderful. We actually loved the idea of R2 but the Grill is a great replacement.

4) TK meals appeared in the MDR every other day and I thought they were on the whole innovative (using non-standard preparations and ingredients) and quite tasty. Kudos to Chef Tom on great meals.

5) Plenty of caviar to be had.

6) Liked the new cocktail menu at the observation lounge/Grill. Nothing really new and innovative on the menu but some solid drinks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just back from a 10 day cruise from Rome to Barcelona on the Odyssey (and 5 extra nights in Barcelona) and thought I'd give some quick observations from our trip. This is our fourth time on Seabourn after 1 time on the Odyssey and 2 times on the Pride.

 

Overall everything is fantastic and I could still get used to living on the ship for months at a time but there were a few things that caught our attention. None of these are major but kind of make it feel like the beginnings of some slippage...

1) No more towel animals. I think we had a rose one night and a paper boat another night and that was it.

2) No more shoe shine service.

3) No shoe horn in the suite. We thought this was weird. The Pride always had one with a really long handle that my partner loved. Guest services didn't know what a show horn was...

4) A really odd odor in part of the Observation Lounge which they said was being worked on but I don't think they ever fixed it.

5) A lack of the general staff knowing your name. I believe only 5-6 people addressed me directly and I'm not sure if several of those weren't because we sat at the same table in the MDR every night.

6) Portion size in the MDR seems to have gotten smaller. It's not really an issue since you can always order more but it was noticeable on some of the appetizers where the portion was more of a one bite amuse bouche.

7) Internet is still not good but that's nothing new.

Our friends that were travelling with us had a major problem with their cabin. They ended up having to talk to management and have the entire suite steam cleaned to remove a persistent odor and have their stewardess reassigned. However, they were satisfied with how the management handled things so that's always a good thing!

 

What we loved:

1) The food overall excellent. Meat was cooked to what we expected and things that were supposed to be hot were hot and things that were supposed be cold were cold.

2) The included wines were all drinkable

3) The Grill was delicious. Nothing fancy but a table prepared Caesar salad and a NY Strip with perigourdine sauce was wonderful. We actually loved the idea of R2 but the Grill is a great replacement.

4) TK meals appeared in the MDR every other day and I thought they were on the whole innovative (using non-standard preparations and ingredients) and quite tasty. Kudos to Chef Tom on great meals.

5) Plenty of caviar to be had.

6) Liked the new cocktail menu at the observation lounge/Grill. Nothing really new and innovative on the menu but some solid drinks.

 

Thanks Spree75 for your informative post. We too sailed on the Odyssey, April this year, for 14 days in the Caribbean. We also thought that overall the cruise was fantastic (it was our second Seabourn cruise). We still had R2 but we look forward to the TK Grill on future sailings.

I just wanted to comment on part of your post regarding your friends who experienced the odour in their suite. Whilst onboard the Odyssey we met another Aussie couple and they were having enormous problems with the smell in their suite. It was so strong it was making the woman quite ill at times. They believed the smell was coming specifically from their shower recess, so upon entering their bathroom they were knocked out by the smell. Seabourn attended their suite on numerous occasions trying to rectify the problem, pulling apart the drain etc etc. But they were not able to completely eradicate the smell. Their suite was on level 6 - just wondering if there is an odour problem in some parts of the ship.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good to get a new report on Odyssey - not too many on the Odyssey size recently. I don't like the news about a horrid smell in the bathroom; have never heard this before. The towel animals seemed to disappear a year or two ago; not missed by me at any rate. We have had a shoehorn in the clothes closet on all our recent cruises over the past few years, so I think there was just an oversight there.

 

However, it sounds as if generally the 'old girl' (all of 9) is in pretty good shape, and the food and service are good also. All of the three smaller ships have lost experienced staff over the past year to Encore, and I think that although by now the new ones are performing well, it does take some time for them to have the ability to learn people's names and other niceties.

 

Has anyone else got anything to report on the noxious smells? And where they were situated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We sailed on the Quest in May of this year, deck 8. When we first got there, the bathroom had a slight sewer odor. So I ran water in the tub for a minute, and that solved it. My guess is that no one had used the tub recently and that the water in the P trap had evaporated, thereby loosing its seal. I failed to ask the Stewardess if she had been told to do this routinely, as she should have done. It's a common problem with plumbing fixtures which don't get used regularly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Spree75 for your informative post. We too sailed on the Odyssey, April this year, for 14 days in the Caribbean. We also thought that overall the cruise was fantastic (it was our second Seabourn cruise). We still had R2 but we look forward to the TK Grill on future sailings.

I just wanted to comment on part of your post regarding your friends who experienced the odour in their suite. Whilst onboard the Odyssey we met another Aussie couple and they were having enormous problems with the smell in their suite. It was so strong it was making the woman quite ill at times. They believed the smell was coming specifically from their shower recess, so upon entering their bathroom they were knocked out by the smell. Seabourn attended their suite on numerous occasions trying to rectify the problem, pulling apart the drain etc etc. But they were not able to completely eradicate the smell. Their suite was on level 6 - just wondering if there is an odour problem in some parts of the ship.

 

They were also on deck 6. They're main problem was in the closet and seemed to be fixed with a complete steam cleaning of the carpets which to me means that someone had done something in the closet and it was allowed to "ferment" for at least a cruise. Not good... There were other assorted housekeeping issues that shouldn't happen when you arrive for a cruise (1 piece of toilet paper left on the roll) but nothing as drastic as the odor issue.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just back from a 10 day cruise from Rome to Barcelona on the Odyssey (and 5 extra nights in Barcelona) and thought I'd give some quick observations from our trip. This is our fourth time on Seabourn after 1 time on the Odyssey and 2 times on the Pride.

 

Overall everything is fantastic and I could still get used to living on the ship for months at a time but there were a few things that caught our attention.

 

Thanks very much for the insights. I am travelling on the Odyssey for the first time in September. I wondered, has the recent dry dock refresh made a big difference? I see you had sailed on Odyssey before.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks very much for the insights. I am travelling on the Odyssey for the first time in September. I wondered, has the recent dry dock refresh made a big difference? I see you had sailed on Odyssey before.

 

I didn't really notice anything that looked that different from 2011. I wasn't really looking for wear and tear either but there wasn't any peeling wallpaper/paint or broken deck chairs so I'd guess the dry dock was a success. The only thing that was different was the various odors that I mentioned before. Not sure if that has anything to do with the aging ship...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't really notice anything that looked that different from 2011. I wasn't really looking for wear and tear either but there wasn't any peeling wallpaper/paint or broken deck chairs so I'd guess the dry dock was a success. The only thing that was different was the various odors that I mentioned before. Not sure if that has anything to do with the aging ship...

 

Thanks for your comments. :). Looking forward to seeing what it's like: we haven't cruised for 20 years after two disastrous trips on Canberra and Oriana, so hoping for good things from Seabourn.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for your comments. :). Looking forward to seeing what it's like: we haven't cruised for 20 years after two disastrous trips on Canberra and Oriana, so hoping for good things from Seabourn.

Be sure to check out the "sticky" at the top of this board, as first time Seabourners you qualify for a $400 referral credit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the updates on the current condition of the Odyssey. Sure hope we are not in one of the "stinky" cabins [emoji31]

 

Also, I believe that Techno will be joining the Odyssey on Sunday, so not sure if they will be posting from the ship or not?

 

I will embark Odyssey in two weeks and will report back on some of the key areas...service, food, dry dock updates, overall condition of the ship etc.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the updates on the current condition of the Odyssey. Sure hope we are not in one of the "stinky" cabins [emoji31]

 

Also, I believe that Techno will be joining the Odyssey on Sunday, so not sure if they will be posting from the ship or not?

 

I will embark Odyssey in two weeks and will report back on some of the key areas...service, food, dry dock updates, overall condition of the ship etc.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

We were on board for 21 days prior to the dry dock and while there were many places which could have used some paint and some deck boards that needed some "love" overall the Odyssey was in good shape and we had no problems with smell but I know individual suites can have isolated issues. We have had issues with pipe noise in the past so understand the complaints with smell.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1) No more towel animals. I think we had a rose one night and a paper boat another night and that was it.

I regard this as a plus. After many cruises, the towel animals are no longer unique and just clutter the cabin.

Thanks for you review and looking forward to sailing the Odyssey in September.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I regard this as a plus. After many cruises, the towel animals are no longer unique and just clutter the cabin...

 

+1 I've always felt bad for the room stews to have to waste their precious time making those silly towel animals.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As per my favorite stewardess it is a corporate change to eliminate both the towel animals and personal notes. I miss the notes as they gave us unique insights about the lovely ladies who take such great care of us. I get that by being owned by Carnival the management did away with towel animals but notes, especially if a birthday or anniversary the rationale behind that decision eludes me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the updates on the current condition of the Odyssey. Sure hope we are not in one of the "stinky" cabins [emoji31]

 

Also, I believe that Techno will be joining the Odyssey on Sunday, so not sure if they will be posting from the ship or not?

 

I will embark Odyssey in two weeks and will report back on some of the key areas...service, food, dry dock updates, overall condition of the ship etc.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Hope you enjoy your cruise as much as we enjoyed ours. The Odyssey has been chartered a lot this early summer. There were 3 back to back 7 day charters before my cruise and there was another 10 day charter right after my cruise which should have ended on Sunday.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hope you enjoy your cruise as much as we enjoyed ours. The Odyssey has been chartered a lot this early summer. There were 3 back to back 7 day charters before my cruise and there was another 10 day charter right after my cruise which should have ended on Sunday.

 

Interesting. I noticed all remaining V Suites suddenly got booked up one day for the cruise we're going on (2 Sep) so I imagine there's a partial charter on ours. About 50% were unbooked when we booked up in March. Don't quite know what to think about that :confused:. Any thoughts? Will report back!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We are/were thinking of Odyssey in Sept/Oct. The availability of some of these cruises is currently rather peculiar, I agree. Do you plan to ask SB if there are large groups on board - and I wonder if they are obliged to tell you. They can make a huge difference to the atmosphere on board, not usually for the better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wasn't planning on asking Seabourn otherwise I'll only stress about it. :(. We're all paid up anyway now! I'm sure there is a group booking of sorts but will try to make the best of it and report back afterwards! Shame as it's our first cruise in 20 years but fingers crossed...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As per my favorite stewardess it is a corporate change to eliminate both the towel animals and personal notes. I miss the notes as they gave us unique insights about the lovely ladies who take such great care of us. I get that by being owned by Carnival the management did away with towel animals but notes, especially if a birthday or anniversary the rationale behind that decision eludes me.

 

We came back to our room on the Encore last night after the show to find a large red rose there, much nicer and more practical than an oddly wrapped towel IMO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I noticed all remaining V Suites suddenly got booked up one day for the cruise we're going on (2 Sep) so I imagine there's a partial charter on ours. About 50% were unbooked when we booked up in March. Don't quite know what to think about that :confused:. Any thoughts? Will report back!

 

I have no specific knowledge but if there was an OB offered on your cruise, I think that all the Suites that are not sold as assigned at the time of booking are shown as open in case they are sold as specifically assigned. The OB bookings are then assigned on a specific day close to sailing. I would think that if a charter was booked it would be a block of rooms that were sectioned off. But...as I said, I really don't know, just supposing!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

+1 I've always felt bad for the room stews to have to waste their precious time making those silly towel animals.

 

 

I agree - this is a positive for us as well.. Ditto the notes. There is something a bit weird about getting personal notes from someone you hardly know, however charming.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for your comments. :). Looking forward to seeing what it's like: we haven't cruised for 20 years after two disastrous trips on Canberra and Oriana, so hoping for good things from Seabourn.

 

i was in the same position in 1987 -my cruise on Canberra was a BIG disaster and i did not want to cruise anymore

2 years later an offer on the "1984" Royal Princess and i was "launched" - also by the great days on the Vistafjord .

Despite the changes on Seabourn you simply cannot compare former Canberra and SB .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Vistaman. That's reassuring! Canberra was a creaking, oil-dripping wreck when we were on it and had an outbreak of Norovirus affecting over 1,000 passengers: I was bedbound for five days :fever:! Hoping the Odyssey gets us back into cruising. A trip on the Europa 2 next year is already booked in anticipation...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Vistaman. That's reassuring! Canberra was a creaking, oil-dripping wreck when we were on it and had an outbreak of Norovirus affecting over 1,000 passengers: I was bedbound for five days :fever:! Hoping the Odyssey gets us back into cruising. A trip on the Europa 2 next year is already booked in anticipation...

I save you all the details about Canberra :eek: despite she was well loved - it seemed. Enjoy the champagne and the caviar on SB - just ask for it - even in your cabin before dinner or after an excursion .

Great to hear you did book the ms Europa 2 - despite the drinks are not free ( very good prices especially for the wines ) All the parties are with real French bubbels and if you do not like it a gin tonic or a whisky is not a problem at all .

I am posting rather often on ms Europa 2 in "special interest cruises " then go to luxury cruising. - as Hapag Lloyd stiil does not have a separate thread on CC

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the tips Vistaman and your helpful postings on the Europa 2 (agree it's strange HL doesn't get its own board heading!). Looking forward to that Seabourn caviar :-) It will be interesting to compare Odyssey and Europa 2; we've got a €200 pp drinks credit on the latter over 12 nights which should help a little! I keep seeing so many posts about the standard of included Seabourn wines being mediocre, so the proof of the pudding will be in the eating, as they say!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...