Stealthdog

Day 2 had an Escape Room in The Club called "Lost Treasures: Escape Room Experience." It was a decent escape room activity for a cruise ship. We have done a number of escape rooms in Washington DC and Orlando FL. Because of space limitations, you won't move from room to room as you unlock clues to move on. Instead, you will solve clues that will allow you to open items up to get more clues. Teams are limited to 10 players with a 45 minute time limit to complete the last puzzle. Periodically, the activities team will provide additional clues to help the teams along with solving the various puzzles. And I am proud to announce that the Winner (team to first complete) of the December 11-18 Celebrity Beyond Lost Treasures Escape Room was...................Team Cruise Critic!!!!!! The big prize, of course, was decks of Celebrity Cruise playing cards and a nice sticker.

Day 2 Daily

Day 1 we went to the Celebrity Showtime: Jeff Stevenson. He is a comedian from the UK. We went to the 9:30PM showing (he gave an early show at 7:30PM) because in our experience, the later showings tend to have few people in the theater. We arrived about 15 minutes early and had no problems getting great seats. Jeff is a really funny comedian, and he didn't shy away from making fun of politicians and ethnic groups (British, German, etc). The crowd was really engaged and everyone had a great time. IMHO he is worth going to, and we will go back to a 2nd show Jeff is doing later in the cruise (he said his 2nd show will be more adult focused). Don't arrive late after the show starts or leave early unless you want to become part of the show. 😂

Some sail away shots of Fort Lauderdale - the Beyond got very close to the coastline. We have a port side, aft balcony, so perfect location for views of the Fort Lauderdale port and coastline. I don't have an opinion yet on the infinity balconies with the automated windows (I'll wait until the end of the cruise). But, from the 10th deck, there are great views from the cabin.

There are holiday decorations spread across the ship, mostly smaller trees and garland. They don't have the huge trees that you may see on some other ships. I have not seen any Hanukkah decorations yet. Here are some pics of the Christmas decorations.

So far after 2 days, it seems like a slight majority of the passengers are 65+ years old. But, I am seeing a lot more 30 and 40 year olds than I have seen on other Celebrity sailings. I have seen 1 infant and 0 children so far. There are a handful of late teen, early 20 year olds that look to be with families. I'll give a better estimate at the end of the sailing, as well as thoughts on overall evening activities.

Getting on the ship seemed a little delayed compared to other recent boardings. This Celebrity Beyond sailing used Pier 25. We saw the Celebrity Apex at Pier 25 on our first leg, so Celebrity Edge Class likely uses Pier 25 for all or most embarkations. Upon arriving, there were signs established asking people to form lines based on posted boarding times. A worker checked our boarding information (we used app, some had printouts) to make sure we were getting on the right ship, but I think he was also looking at boarding time. We went through the screening really quickly and were seated in a waiting area first come, first serve. I think we ended up getting on the ship around 1115. Once you are in the terminal, you can access the Ships Guest Wifi. This is important because you can do part 1 and part 2 of the safety brief, make reservations at the restaurants with good seating times, and start to add activities to your daily planner on the app. So, even if you have a little bit of a wait, you can get things done so you don't have to do them on board. We also made our reservations for the Waterfall excursion for Puerto Plata while we were waiting. You will enter the ship on Deck 5. A few of the restaurants were open for lunch, including the Mast Grill and Oceanview Cafe. We don't normally eat at the buffets, but the food options at the Oceanview was impressive, and it wasn't crowded yet because of an early boarding time.

We have also made it a habit to bring 4 bottles of wine on board with us. This is no different. We put two bottles in one backpack and two in another backpack and went through security with no issues. We also were gifted a bottle from our TA (it was supposed to be Caymus, but it is Heitz Cellar and I have never heard of them). This may be our most impressive stockpile of wine on a cruise ship. Not sure how we are going to drink all 5, but we will figure it out. 🙂

Had a little free time before the Spa Raffle, so I thought I'd get the door decorations done early this time. Changed it up a little from the previous cruise. Hope the staff enjoys it!

Day 1 Daily

We did not get much of an explanation when they first changed it a few weeks ago. The message from Celebrity was Puerto Plata was "port congestion" that day and our port was being changed to Turks and Caicos. We were notified 3-4 days ago that the port was being changed back to Puerto Plata again. We were excited about the change from Puerto Plata to Turks and Caicos because we have been to Puerto Plata a few times (both land resort and cruise stop) and have never been to Turks and Caicos. But, we are doing the excursion at Puerto Plata (some waterfall activity) that I was most looking forward to between the two cruises, so I'm ok with it back on. For your question 2nd question - you should receive an email from Celebrity if there are any changes to your itinerary. If you booked through a TA, he or she will also receive notification of any change.

It turned out being a little mess, but we got to the ship. 🙂 After getting the luggage and leaving the pier, we asked an employee for the port transfers, and they directed us to where all the shuttle buses are located. The company RCCL contracts manages all the tranfers and buses. They were really friendly, but it did not seem as if there was a standard vehicle used. They have the passenger manifests for the airport transfers and a list of all the piers in port and where each ship is located. After a couple of minutes of the staff debating, they put our luggage on an airport transfer bus and dropped us off at Pier 25 (Beyond's location) before leaving for the airport. We were worried they would drive straight to airport and then bring us back after, but they took care of us. It was fairly quick - maybe 10-15 minutes, but the distance between Pier 18 and Pier 25 is some distance and we were appreciative we didn't have to roll 4 suitcases on foot across the port. While sitting in the waiting area to board the Beyond, another couple from a B2B on the Odyssey said they were put in a small van and transported over that way.

OMG - first reaction is this ship is gorgeous!

Yes. There is a shuttle service. Once we get our luggage, rccl will put us on a shuttle to get to the next pier. Ill descibe that process once we are finished.

Watching our home for the next week pull into port! We have had a fantastic time on the Odyssey. Great entertainment, good food, awesome staff, and fun passengers. Had a blast meeting people from the Roll Call and others on board not associated with Cruise Critic. I'll continue to post some summary thoughts on here about the Odyssey and a few topics and pictures I have may forgotten (ie iFlight). I hope this review was useful for future Odyssey cruisers, or fun for people stuck in the cold and just following along. Its almost time for us to leave our Fun Cruise and begin our Relaxing Cruise! 🙂 Here is a link to the Celebrity Beyond review for anyone who wants to continue along:

She is almost docked. Its time to grab breakfast, then disembark Odyssey and head over to Beyond for boarding. See everyone on the ship soon!

Here is a better pic of the Beyond arriving. It looks like we will be boarding her next to Holland American Neuw Amsterdam, also shown.

Will let you know. We are already in port on the Odyssey and watching the Beyond arrive now!

Map of Labadee - I don't think I have posted this yet. I didn't see these on the ship, but you can get it when you get off the ship.

Also wanted to show the wonderful views out the windows of the 5th Deck Specialty Restaurants. 🤣 These are the views from Chops and Giovanis.

Whatever issue that had the Robotic Bar out of order appears to be fixed. We saw people using it two nights ago, so it should be available for future cruises (assuming no other issues arise).

I've been putting off the Voom review and want to finish that before we head to dinner. The surf and stream on the Odyssey is outstanding. I've been on several cruise ships (in the last few years), where it takes minutes to upload a website because the speed is so poor. Whatever Odyssey has done, they have resolved any internet at sea issues I have seen in the past. I mentioned earlier you can use your TV in your cabin to access your phone apps for Netflix. I assume you could also link access streaming services equally as well. The instructions on how to do it is simple on the TV. We downloaded a couple of movies and TV shows, and the downloads were complete in less than 20-30 seconds. I posted a pic below on where to find streaming services on your stateroom cabin. The other aspect of the Surf and Stream that amazed me was with online gaming. I was able to connect to a server on a popular multiplayer game through my Steam account and tested that connection for several minutes with no disruption. The internet speed on the ship appears to be as good as what I have at home. If you have kids or grandkids (or you are) that are avid gamers, whether it is first person shooters, strategy games, or MMORPGs, they will have access on the Odyssey through the Surf and Stream. The only limitation we are finding with Voom is the # of devices - we have a 1 device package and share that with 3 devices (2 smart phones and a laptop). With this experience, I think Voom may be one of the best value purchases now.

This may be an unpopular opinion based on comments I've heard on ship about The Book and Showgirl, but Showgirl is hands down the best show on the ship. Everything about it was outstanding. In terms of Cruise Ship productions, IMHO it was better than Hairspray on the Symphony but not at the level of the Lion King on the Disney Dream. It is traditional production style with 5 singers and a little more than a dozen dancers. 3 of the singers were phenomenal, one of the female vocalists is probably the best cruise ship production vocalist I have heard. The costumes and dancers were all fun and good at what they do, with a little bit if aerial dancing at the end. The only critique (and its not about the performance) I have is there were about 15-20 staff members sitting in the audience, and they were hooting and yelling almost every scene, which was a little annoying. I get they were supporting their friends, so it really didn't interfere with my enjoyment, but I could see how people may be bothered, especially if they were sitting right next to them. Overall, Royal should be very proud of themselves with Showgirl and I would recommend everyone go see it. Get there early to get your seats.

We did the Spa tour and attended the Spa Raffle on Day 1. Royal does a better job with a number of things compared to other cruise lines, but one where they are lacking is with the Spa space. The Odyssey does have a relaxation lounge for people waiting for their spa appointments, and 1 sauna and 1 steam room that are both co-ed. They do offer day passes for use of the sauna/steam room. We find the Thermal Suites on Celebrity and NCL to be worth the cost and skipped the Spa on the Odyssey. The gym looked really good on the first day and my first thought was it was big enough for this size ship. But, going to the gym on Day 2 and Day 4, I quickly found it gets packed especially in the morning. It didn't help that many of the stationary cardio machines were out of order. It still offers a decent variety of cardio machines (bikes, ellipticals, rowers), some free weights and some machine weights. If you want to get a regular workout in the gym, you may want to consider going in the afternoon than the morning to avoid the congestion.

The Seaplex is awesome. If I was a teenager, I would probably spend my whole day there. There are two levels to the Seaplex, with Playmakers on the second level. The venue is used for many different activities - shows, bumper cars, volleyball, pickleball, basketball, soccer, badminton, and a few others that I probably didn't notice. Most nights they have a couple hours of bumper cars free time. Last night they had a game show The Quest, which was interesting. Throughout the day, the staff rearranged the sports area to set up nets, goals, and bring down basketball rims. Outside the sports space (but still inside the venue), are ping pong tables, pool tables, arcade games. There is just alot going on. For Playmakers, last Sunday was ridicuously packed. Between NFL games and World Cup games, there were never any seats/tables. I'd guess there were probably 5 different NFL games being showed. Not sure how they pick which games go on which TVs - it may be by customer request. Below are some pics of the Seaplex areas.