Robocat

Hi Parapara

We also were on the January 2015 Colombo to Singapore portion of your cruise and also were disappointed for many of the same reasons you noted in your review.

However, like you, we decided to give them a second chance based on an itinerary we liked and completed an Aqaba, Jordan to Athens cruise with them earlier this month. Our impression was that things have improved - discoloured water on only a few occasions and much better organized shore excursions. We also enjoyed the entertainment this time around (an excellent operatic trio and a new, very talented singer/pianist Cruise Director), but I guess this will depend who they have onboard for your trip.

The free laundry is only for one bag -specially marked as an "Odyssey Club" bag. But we managed to also fill the regular bag (we spent 10 days in Egypt and Jordan on our own before the cruise!) and they did not charge us. They also provided free Wifi which, surprisingly, worked reasonably well.

There was some grumbling about the fact that a "Mr. Bridge" group of about 120 had exclusive access to the "Observation Lounge" throughout the trip. They also took over part of the dining room every night so they could eat together and be back up to the Lounge for bridge by 8:15. But for us their presence was no big deal.

All in all, we enjoyed this cruise very much and a bit better than our first cruise with them last year. We are seriously thinking about another, longer trip in summer 2017. I have no hesitation in recommending them, provided one remembers that it is an older ship and that "small ship cruising" does not necessarily mean "premium cruising", as some of their advertising implies.

Great to see the recent activity on this thread, which is really helpful. Hope I can join in with a question.

We are looking at the Jan 2015 Asia cruise to Singapore and have a question about the cabins.

Some past reviews have complained about noise/vibration on the lower decks and as long as there is lots of natural light in the cablin, the view does not really matter to us. So we are looking at one of the "obstructed view" outside cabins on the Bridge Deck.

Is anyone familar with these cabins? Any thoughts about possible noise from the open Lido deck and pool above? Other things we should think aobut in selecting a cabin?

Thanks for your help.

We always specify setup as queen but they're always set as twin when we arrive.

So far when we've arrived to our cabin we've met the stewards at the same time. We mention that we want them set as queen. Shortly after we normally do a tour of the ship and the beds have been changed by the time we return.