Photos of the Odyssey (finally a good old-fashioned feel good thread with no COVID comments)

[Sunshine3601]

Thank you for your wonderful informative review of the ship.   You did a great job!     Love all the photos, looks like a great ship that we will be excited to sail on someday soon 🤩

[The sea calls my name]

I also want to add my thanks for the wonderful pictures and all of the "inside" information. We returned Sunday from a week on the Allure and I immediately booked us a 6 night Odyssey cruise for Oct 31st sailing.  I am so excited to sail on her.  Are there any electrical plugs by the side of the bed ( or as on Oasis class) tucked behind the mattress?  In your opinion, if you were looking for a nice quite spot in the evening to have a glass of wine  what would you recommend?  Our go-to-place has always been the Trellis Bar in Central Park.  Is the Solarium Bar open till late at night? 

Thanks again for answering all of our questions.

[twangster]

28 minutes ago, The sea calls my name said:

Are there any electrical plugs by the side of the bed ( or as on Oasis class) tucked behind the mattress?

 

All Quantum class ships have a single North American style outlet on the right side of the bed, on the wall, below the light. 

 

As far as a quiet evening place for a glass of wine... it depends.  Giovanni's Wine Bar comes to mind as a potential for no blaring music or show sounds.  Outdoors there is the North Star Bar.  Depending when in the evening the Solarium Bar if it is open (before 9pm) tends to be quiet. 

 

There are many bars around the ship but they can be in areas where something is going on such as the Boleros, Playmakers, Schooner Bar, the Pub, Two70° Bar, Lime & Coconut Bars, Music Hall, Windjammer, etc.  These can be quiet at times but then trivia or a show starts and it's no so quiet. 

[Big_G]

Nice jobs with the photos and thank you.

[ROYAL CARIBBEAN DUDE]

I'm glad you had a good time onboard!

[coldflame]

Pictures are astounding, thanks for posting. Beautiful ship, but there's a ghost town feeling to it that's somewhat unsettling.

[sellwingri]

I was on the same cruise and totally agree with all but one of your comments.  I’m  not a Windjammer fan but I absolutely hated it on this cruise. My 3 attempts to find something I liked were unsuccessful.  I’m not a fan of Mexican food but that’s all I saw.    

Every staff member we encountered was wonderful.  Our stateroom attendant was one of the best we’ve ever had in 40 cruises.  Never had any problems that weren’t immediately addressed.

[Russ Lomas]

13 hours ago, utopiahereicome said:

Thank you for posting!  Will be sailing on her 10/9 and have been devouring all info I can find!

 

12 hours ago, kimlet said:

we are actually going the 6th to 12th, so I will be just getting off. My sons are older now and its just my husband and I.

Too bad we will just miss you.  Add the 8-day and make it a B2B and we can say hello personally.  If not, be sure not to break her before we board.  Have a great cruise.

 

7 hours ago, thjeepster said:

Thank you for the pics!!

We will be sailing on her on Oct. 17th and getting married on the ship during a sea day!!!  We are looking for the best spots to do wedding photos!!

Congratulations.  Nothing like Central Park on the Oasis class ships pop out as a great background for photos on the Odyssey for a classy photo.  Lots of great fun locations for some candid shots (playing the giant chess game, bouncing on SkyPad, in a bumber car, etc.)  Maybe the massive LED wall art piece when you enter the MDR.  The glass chandelier that hangs from deck 5 down to the dining room below would be neat but I think the railing behind you would get in the way of the perfect photo.

 

6 hours ago, The sea calls my name said:

I also want to add my thanks for the wonderful pictures and all of the "inside" information. We returned Sunday from a week on the Allure and I immediately booked us a 6 night Odyssey cruise for Oct 31st sailing.  I am so excited to sail on her.  Are there any electrical plugs by the side of the bed ( or as on Oasis class) tucked behind the mattress?  In your opinion, if you were looking for a nice quite spot in the evening to have a glass of wine  what would you recommend?  Our go-to-place has always been the Trellis Bar in Central Park.  Is the Solarium Bar open till late at night? 

Thanks again for answering all of our questions.

If nothing is going on in Two70 lounge in the way of shows, that would be a nice place in the evening for a quiet drink.  The Solarium is an amazing quiet place in the evening, but the bar there closes at 9 pm, so it is BYOB.  Giovanni's Wine Bar would be nice too, but I never saw a single person in there our entire cruise.

 

3 hours ago, coldflame said:

Pictures are astounding, thanks for posting. Beautiful ship, but there's a ghost town feeling to it that's somewhat unsettling.

Many of these photos were taken in the middle of the day.  Normally to get photos like this, I need to get up at 6 am to get them without people in them.  I like showing the business of the cruise areas in my photos with lots of people as well, but there were so few people on the ship our cruise (970), the photos would have looked even stranger with only a few people in them.

[Russ Lomas]

4 hours ago, ROYAL CARIBBEAN DUDE said:

I'm glad you had a good time onboard!

We had an absolutely amazing time on the cruise.  It sometimes feels strange reading from people in CruiseCritic or on Vlogs and then meeting them in person.  Kind of like this chap I met on the cruise in the photo below.  Best wishes on your continued Vlogging.

[Sunshine3601]

11 minutes ago, Russ Lomas said:

We had an absolutely amazing time on the cruise.  It sometimes feels strange reading from people in CruiseCritic or on Vlogs and then meeting them in person.  Kind of like this chap I met on the cruise in the photo below.  Best wishes on your continued Vlogging.

How is the casino?  Sorry if you already mentioned and I missed it.  

[Russ Lomas]

5 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

How is the casino?  Sorry if you already mentioned and I missed it.  

I am not the one to ask.  The only thing I can guarantee you about me and a casino is that I never come out ahead, so I have learned to stay out and leave gambling to those who are more skilled or luckier than I am.  My only foray into the casino this entire trip was for one purpose, to say "Hi" to Chris and get the photo snapped to send back to a friend back home that asked me to take a photo with him.  I am a non-smoker and the one time I went through the casino to reach the Music Hall, I vowed the smoke bothered me enough that I would not step foot in the Casino again.

[Tall-Cruiser]

@Russ Lomas Great  detailed review and photos. Thanks for sharing. Now I really want to sail this class after following all of the builds since Quantum. Maybe will bump into you March next year. 😀

[Russ Lomas]

4 minutes ago, Tall-Cruiser said:

@Russ Lomas Great  detailed review and photos. Thanks for sharing. Now I really want to sail this class after following all of the builds since Quantum. Maybe will bump into you March next year. 😀

Thanks.  I loved how different the ship felt to all the other RCCL ships that I have been accustomed to.  I am looking forward to sailing on the Odyssey again in March to see how it "feels" with more passengers on board.  I have a big group of family and friends going March 12, 2022 (I lost count when we got over 60).  Come join us.

[Tall-Cruiser]

29 minutes ago, Russ Lomas said:

Thanks.  I loved how different the ship felt to all the other RCCL ships that I have been accustomed to.  I am looking forward to sailing on the Odyssey again in March to see how it "feels" with more passengers on board.  I have a big group of family and friends going March 12, 2022 (I lost count when we got over 60).  Come join us.

 

Wow over 60! Sounds like it will will be a fun group. We are only 6 thus far and will also be on the March 12 sailing. 

[Vera/Lee]

1 hour ago, Russ Lomas said:

Thanks.  I loved how different the ship felt to all the other RCCL ships that I have been accustomed to.  I am looking forward to sailing on the Odyssey again in March to see how it "feels" with more passengers on board.  I have a big group of family and friends going March 12, 2022 (I lost count when we got over 60).  Come join us.

Great pictures Russ! I enjoyed meeting you briefly. Thanks for speaking! We looked for you and your family around the flowrider. I'm glad you all had a good time. It should be a lot of fun with 60 friends. We used to cruise with a group and it's always special.

[zanydoc]

On 8/30/2021 at 11:10 PM, Russ Lomas said:

Now to where you find me much of my cruise...the Flowrider.  The activities staff were all outstanding.  Special callout to Sai and Mark for making the week so great.  Being a brand new wave, I expected it to be the best of any on any of their ships.  NOT!!  In fact, in my opinion it is by far the worst wave I have rode.  It is one of the new inflatable waves that they say are much safer.  The problem lies in the fact that there are three large seams on the TOP of the wave surface (one in the middle and one just outside of each side of the crown and anchor emblem).  For bodyboarding, these do not affect the ride much at all, but for stand up surfing they are horrible.

 

Currently, only advanced riders can do stand up surfing due to crew not being permitted to hold your hand to teach you.  Even advanced surfers will have trouble getting knocked off balance every time they cross one of these seams.  It really makes stand up surfing much less enjoyable and much more dangerous.  Once RCCL opens up stand up surfing to beginner riders again, these ridges are going knock people down so quickly that they will become very frustrated with it.  As the week progressed, I got more used to methods to traverse the middle ridge, but it was still far less enjoyable than other wave surfaces.

Oh no! My husband and son are going to hate hearing this news! We are planning on Odyssey for spring break next year and Flowriding is their main activity as well. Do you have any advice for tackling these seems? And BTW, fabulous review...Great job and thank you!

[zanydoc]

Our spring break cruise is the March 12th, too...It looks like my husband and son (Mike and Zak) will see you at the Flowrider!  We are very excited to try this new ship. It looks incredible! 

[Missusdubbya]

Thanks for the review and great images @Russ Lomas!

[Babes03]

Thank you so much for sharing your pictures, can't wait to be on her in June 2022 🙂

 

Cheers from a fellow Canadian 🙂

[bajathree]

Thanks for the review with pix!!! Will be on her in less than 2 weeks 🙂 

[Russ Lomas]

3 hours ago, bajathree said:

Thanks for the review with pix!!! Will be on her in less than 2 weeks 🙂 

You will have an awesome time.  The number of passengers on board will be far below capacity (probably about 1/3).  If you are on the 8-day sailing, you will have even less passengers than on the 6-day one.

 

20 hours ago, zanydoc said:

Our spring break cruise is the March 12th, too...It looks like my husband and son (Mike and Zak) will see you at the Flowrider!  We are very excited to try this new ship. It looks incredible! 

I will see them at the Flowrider then.  If you are doing standup surfing, you have to stand tall and unweight the board and not carve hard over the seams or the board will catch terribly.  The other thing I found to work was to try to have the board more perpendicular to the seam.  If you have it close to parallel to the seam, more of your board will catch at the same time and you are more likely to be knocked off balance.  I am sure I will see them both in March.

 

On 8/31/2021 at 10:16 PM, Tall-Cruiser said:

Wow over 60! Sounds like it will will be a fun group. We are only 6 thus far and will also be on the March 12 sailing. 

See you on the 12th.  We loved having just 6 of us on the Odyssey two weeks ago, but having a large group is great too so you are always running into people you know around the ship.  I have learned though to not try to keep a large group together.  Each individual small group should do their own things and if they align with others in the party, that is great, but to wait for 30 people to disembark the ship at once, or do an activity, will just cause frustration waiting because waiting for a large group like that will always have some late or some who forget things.

[gfkcruiser]

Thanks for the review and photos.  We will be  B2B on the April TA and the 9 day Greek Islands on the Odyssey.  First time on a mega ship but have cruised on Royal a few times.  Like you, we avoid the casino due to smoke.  When we sailed the Brilliance in 2019 the smoke permeated the areas outside the casino.  This was a European cruise so maybe more smokers and a smaller vessel. Was that the case here or was it confined to the casino?

Also, we like eating outside the Windjammer.  Is there any outside dining on the Odyssey?

 

 

 

 

 

[bajathree]

1 minute ago, Russ Lomas said:

You will have an awesome time.  The number of passengers on board will be far below capacity (probably about 1/3).  If you are on the 8-day sailing, you will have even less passengers than on the 6-day one.

 

 

I am on the 8 night....can't wait..ship is looking awesome!!! Yes...I read the current 8 night has only 500 passengers. Seems like the 6 night sailings have been more like 1500 then dropping way down for the 8 night sailings.

[Russ Lomas]

Just now, bajathree said:

I am on the 8 night....can't wait..ship is looking awesome!!! Yes...I read the current 8 night has only 500 passengers. Seems like the 6 night sailings have been more like 1500 then dropping way down for the 8 night sailings.

That has been the pattern for the past 4-5 sailings.  Please let us know how many passengers were on your sailing when you know and that will confirm that this pattern appears to be continuing.  Enjoy the ghost ship.  It feels very odd at first, but you get used to it after a couple of days.

[bluecruisin]

Russ, I read where you are a non smoker, good for you. Sadly i have not quit yet

. But, did you happen to notice what areas of the ship are smoking> Thanks to anyone who can assist with info.