italyforme

TV is Samsung.  You can connect a Bluetooth speaker if you like.  Nice music and movie selections.

Hi Bob,

We’re in Rome now looking forward to our Sunday embarkation.  We have sailed on Odyssey three times but, like you, this is our first on Ovation (my retirement cruise!).  Safe travels and we’ll see you on board!

Bill

13 hours ago, sunshineocean13 said:

I think JP is doing a great job as CD,

JP was cruise director on our Odyssey cruise in March and we really enjoyed his personable style.

12 hours ago, curmudgeon98 said:

 

We got a request for mid-cruise feedback delivered to the cabin, and I really would have a hard time making any criticism.  Breakfast on the balcony just arrived, so more later. 

Glad to hear you think it’s going so well.  Looks like the weather will continue nice next week.  We leave for the airport in the morning and arrive Athens around noon on Friday, joining the cruise on Saturday.  Hope to meet you on board!  (We might be the noisy group of six just in case you want to avoid us!) 🍾🍸🙃

Thank you for the posts Noggins and curmudgeon98!  

We board on the 28th in Athens.  It’s great to get some advance intel.  Selfishly hoping the passenger numbers stay low…🙃

Either of you doing B2B?

Thanks from me, too!  Just registered for our May 28th Onward cruise.  Only 10 people registered so far and a very quiet roll call.  Hope there are some other passengers on board with us…🙃

We’ve booked rooms at the Athenian Foss pre cruise for Onward on May 28th.  Haven’t stayed there before but based on research it is a small newer hotel with excellent service and great location/price. ( We also like that there is a Greek restaurant on the first floor. 🙃)

Boarded Odyssey yesterday.  We are 253 guests.  We must have been on the same cruise with you rgaudet; in October there were only 99 of us one week.  That was great but she doesn’t seem crowded at all now either.  

Boarding Odyssey on Saturday…will let you know at least for that sailing.

Our March 19th departure on Odyssey only shows excursions at Soper’s Hole.  Nothing else is available yet.  Anyone on earlier sailings having the same issue?  I don’t mind staying in the bubble like we did in October but I’m not very comfortable going into a cruise completely blind.  Thoughts??

Just received notification that our March 19 sailing from Philipsburg has several changes due to “operational considerations”.

No St Barth’s or Mayreau anymore.  Also Roseau instead of Cabrits and Carambola Beach instead of Basseterre.  Added a sea day and a stop in Grenada.

Just received notification that Seabourn will not be calling at St Barths, Rodney Bay, or Mayreau on our March 19th cruise.Instead adding a sea day and Grenada as a new port.  Phooey!
 

Also would be interest as we’re on the same itinerary in March.  I’ve just assumed that if no SB shore excursions are available on the website there may still be uncertainty about making port there?

On Odyssey In October we weren’t allowed outside of the SB bubble so no independent tours or walkabouts were possible; maybe that’s changed and I just missed it.

2 hours ago, styles27 said:

 

I’m not looking forward to embarkation in Miami next month for our Seashore cruise. It sounds like they’re very disorganized. 

We got on Divina yesterday in Miami and it was very smooth.  Probably helped that there’s only 900 on board and our boarding time was between 10 and 10:30, the earliest I’ve ever been asked to report.  We were on board by 11:00 as we had to wait for the all clear after check in.  There are only 32 in yacht club so it’s really great service!

We used the eMed proctored home test but did a drive through rapid antigen test, too, just to cover all bases.  They seemed to be satisfied with either.

On 12/4/2021 at 9:19 AM, styles27 said:

That’s good to know thank you!

Did you need an appointment?

Not where we went…just drive through.  It was very quick.

8 hours ago, styles27 said:

Yes with the 3 months mine now expire Jan 5th (original Oct 5th) and I need to test on the 6th ugh

Not sure if you’ll have a car when you’re in Miami, but there are quite a few free testing sites in south Florida.  We did a drive through at the Delray civic center yesterday and had our results in about half an hour.

Thanks for your posts Motegi.  We’ve really been enjoying following along on your cruise!  We’ll be in YC on Divina on December 5th.  Since you’re posting pictures of the menus we can even plan our meals ahead!!  🙃

Do you know how full Yacht Club is?  It looks like several cabins are still available for our cruise.  Thanks again!

Bill

46 minutes ago, sfvoyage said:

A friend on board reported that one passenger tested positive yesterday and left today with their close contacts.

 

This was bound to happen.  Seabourn should have had a mask mandate from Day One, even a surgical mask may have mitigated the risk enough. Now they have had to pivot from no mask to N95 mask.

We are wearing regular two layer masks when indoors or where we can’t socially distance, N95 masks are not required.  Yesterday was the normal testing day for disembarkation; can’t verify that there was a positive test result but some people have said they think there was one.

58 minutes ago, PAULINELESLEY said:

Can someone please confirm that we can only get off the ship on organised trips, we like to get off and walk for a while!

We are not able to go off the ship unless we are on a Seabourne excursion.  The only exceptions seem to be ports where Seabourne has arranged a private beach experience such as at Carambola beach.  We could walk a couple of blocks on Dominica but the area was all cordoned off for our visit.

And, just an indication of how fluid things are we’ve just been informed that there will be additional testing on this coming Tuesday.  Also the ship has instituted a mask requirement for passengers when indoors.  Last week no passengers were required to wear masks although the crew members always wear one.  Best to stay flexible!

14 hours ago, cruisr said:

How often are passengers tested onboard?  Does each destination that the Odyssey visits require a negative test.

 

 

We were tested yesterday for the first time on the cruise and this was to prepare for disembarkations in Barbados.  Everyone is tested even if continuing on.  It was very easy and quick.  Everyone reported to the theater between 10 and 11 am. There have been no other tests required for ports on this week’s itinerary, not sure if that will be any different next week.

We just boarded yesterday and were told there are 99 guests on board.  Really amazing to see mostly crew wherever you go.  
One thing I wanted to pass along:

we were told on the American flight that we didn’t need to fill out the paper version of the Barbados health questionnaire they were passing out if we had completed the one online.  This turned out not to be true as we were asked for the paper copy as well.  All told it took about 21/2 hours for us from landing to arriving at the ship.

Today was a national holiday in St Lucia and the government declared a 24 hour curfew.  Cudo's to Seabourne for whatever arrangements they have with St Lucia because our small group was able to zip line and we were the only people there.  It was eerie passing through the empty streets and seeing all the shops closed.

BVI is still making it very difficult for cruise lines to call there and we have been told that our stop at Jost is replaced with a sea day; it sounds like this will continue at least for the next four weeks.

The ship is beautiful and the crew can truly not do enough.  It really is going to spoil us all with these crew to passenger ratios!!

We're sailing on Millennium January 4 out of Hong Kong.  There is an overnight in Hong Kong and we leave port on the 5th.  Our flights won't get us into Hong Kong until 9:00 pm so we will have a very late arrival at the port.  Celebrity tells us that it's basically a floating hotel and we can come and go whenever but that we won't have any services (ie, luggage handling) to help us.  Does anyone have experience with how Celebrity will handle us on arrival?

We are coming off of the Celebrity Infinity and have the day free until our flight later that night. I was wondering if anyone has a name of a private tour guide (for 4) that might be good for us for the day and then transport to the airport. I would appreciate so much any help!

Fun to see you posting again!! We'll be on the Infinity in January and are starting to look for our tours. Let me know if you find something good for Buenos Aires and maybe we'll "break them in" for you! :)

Bill & Mark & Nancy & Desi

MIL reports she received an email that the cost of the classic package was going up by $6pp/day in the next couple of days and I can't verify that. Anyone out there know what's going on? It makes the difference between booking it now or when we get onboard for an additional $200+...