REVIEW: Planes, Trains, Automobiles & A New Cruise Ship: Our European "Odyssey" Without Our Kids

[RCCL Fan]

 

 

This is the cruise that seemed like it would never be.  Started planning for it in 2018.  My best friend was finally getting married.  Ceremony planned  in Italy in 2020.   

 

Of course I said well, we'll be over there, let's look at a Med. cruise. 

 

We found an insanely inexpensive deal on Rhapsody out of Venice.  It was kind of a no-brainer so we planned a week on board and a week in Italy toasting the new nuptials.

 

2020 finally came and so did COVID and it didn't happen...   by the time 2022 rolls around and we return to normal the wedding was off, Rhapsody wasn't sailing that route anymore....  but my wife had her heart set on this trip.

 

So with my friend's blessing.....  we went anyway!

 

 

We're parents of two girls.  My wife stays home with them and we haven't taken a single vacation without our kids since our honeymoon.  So this was going to be big.   Her mom agreed to keep the kids for us... as we dart out on this long awaited adventure. 

 

Here's the plan

 

 

Fly from our home in Dallas to Paris for a few days.     I'd never been and really wanted to go ever since French classes in middle school.

 

 

Head to Civitavecchia and board the brand new Odyssey of the Seas to Santorini, Mykonos, Kusadasi, and Naples.

 

 

Then swing through Rome, Tuscany, and my wife's bucket list location Venice.

 

Before heading back to Texas.

 

It takes us two and a half weeks and everything I read said, don't do so much.

 

But I don't listen well.  ha!

 

We did it. 

 

 

Infact all my planning intrigued my "work spouse"  my partner at the office has heard a zillion cruise stories, and his wife has been begging him to go to Europe So he asked if they could going my wife and I.

 

My wife and I know each other enough to know having friends along would help keep us from driving each other crazy, so we said, YES!!!!  Please come!!!

 

 

So you'll see our adventures to Europe....   75% of the review will focus on Odyssey, but votes from a recent poll I did overwhelming showed an interest in some of our pre-and post cruise stops so I'll include those as well.

 

Setting the table if you will.

 

 

If you don't know, my reviews are usually photo heavy,  and "as if they're live"  I post day by day with some breaks between so it feels life, but the trip is over and I am back home and readjusting my body clock to the Central Time zone.

 

Hope you'll follow along!

 

We'll get things started here shortly. 

[Mrs.Dukes]

Always like reading about your trips. Looking forward to following along.

[Happy Cruiser Girl]

Well, this sounds fun! I love all the pictures and your itinerary sounds fabulous!

[Roybthered]

Looking forward to this (virtual for me) trip as we sail on Odyssey at the end of September this year. Post them pictures!!!!😁

[Tee & Chilli]

Yippee another great review. Thank you in advance. Be safe and have a blast.

[Missusdubbya]

Looking forward to this!

[sgmn]

Sounds fun, looking forward to reading about your European adventure 😀 

[kernow]

Can't wait to hear all about it.

[soremekun]

Amazing pic of you and your wife with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

[RCCL Fan]

 

Pre Cruise

 

 

Call us spoiled....  but we knew we wanted to fly business class across the pond,  but at  those prices 10K per ticket, we knew the only way we were going to get there were miles. 

 

We didn't quite have enough miles to a single airline for 2 round trip business class tickets, but did have enough for one-ways for each of us on two different airlines.

 

So we would fly one airline to Europe and another on the way back.

 

Air France recently started a nonstop to Paris from Dallas Fort Worth.   it's odd because Air France partners with Delta and DFW is an American Airlines city not a Delta one.    But who am I to question?  

 

We found the foreign carriers had better mileage availability than the US carriers.   Delta wanted 325K miles per ticket to get us to Paris.   Air France wanted 90K.  You can use Delta miles on Air France, so it was a no brainer for us. 

 

We booked two business class one way seats on Air France to get us to Paris.  

 

There's a downside to using a foreign carrier in an airport where they don't have a regular presence.   The check in process.

 

 

The line for Air France check in was insanely long, and I quickly found out why. The agents working check in seemed like it was their first day.  There were two supervisors going from agent to agent literally teaching them how to use the software.    It was brutal.

 

At the gate it wasn't any better.   They tried to drag signs out of a closet so everyone could board by zones.   But they didn't follow it at all.   Zone 3 got on first because they were lined up closest to the door. We were business class zone 1 and got on after about 150 other passengers.    The agent has trouble finding the barcode to scan, it was just a mess.  

 

Once we were finally onboard  we settled into our seats and things improved.

 

 

We both wanted window seats.   My wife had visions in her head of flying over Paris from the sky, and I get claustrophobic sometimes and looking out... even looking at nothing can be helpful.

 

We joked that all the couples wanted the two seats together in the middle of the plane but we were like whatever,  I'll be fine alone.  We have weeks to talk to each other on the trip.

 

 

But of course as soon as I sat down and started to get settled my wife started popping her head over the seat in front of me to "say hi"   "ask questions"  " cheers me"  It was so funny.  She was happy to finally be onboard and headed out of there,  and she was a talkative little one.

 

Anyway, we had a quick taxi out to the runway, and before you knew it were up in the air. We were flying the Boeing 787 dreamliner, great plane,  huge windows,  quiet. 

 

 

Air France service in the pointy end of the plane was good.   Friendly, good food.  We ate, and went to bed shortly thereafter.  I switched into pajamas and everything but still struggled to sleep.   I use a CPAP machine and Air France requires you bring a battery to use it onboard.   I forgot the cable for it and couldn't use it.  The flight attendant said, "just plug it in, it's fine on this plane"  so I did...  I want to say I got maybe 3-4 hours of on/off sleep.

 

 

My wife on the other hand slept great, flight attendant woke her up for breakfast and she was like didn't I just go to bed?  She got in a good solid 5 hours.   

 

Our friends in weren't so lucky, they had kids and loud teens around them and didn't sleep a wink.   We got off the plane ready to tackle they day and they were NOT.   They seriously regretted not upgrading.

 

Passport control in Paris was SCARY.  Huge long line. like wrapped around the building long.  It was hot and musty and we thought we were going to lose it.  Fortunately,  Sky Priority passengers got to skip the line and we got out of there in no time.

 

Got to baggage claim and luck of the business class ran out.  No bags for us, our friends got theirs as did most of the flight, but us and a handful others had nothing.

 

 

We went to Air France Sky Priority and started filling out the forms.

 

We then started to realize, with the others who didn't have their bags,  it was all business class.   Everyone in business class didn't have their bags.

 

The belt had finished moving all bags collected but the business class passengers were all still standing around. 

 

About 45 minutes later the airtag I keep in my bag sprung to life and told me my page was at the airport.  Apparently business class bags were loaded in the wrong spot (remember what i said about the ground crew in dallas)  and the paris folks finally found them.

 

We got our bags, flagged down our poor driver who had been waiting for hours for us and headed into Paris.

 

 

Picking a hotel in Paris was not easy at all.   Cash in Hyatt Points? get a small boutique spot?  air bnb?   what neighborhood?

 

We had decided on a place we found in our company travel department's website.    Hotel Splendide Etoile.  It was cheap, really cheap compared to everything else we looked at, and had great reviews.

 

I wasn't convinced, I tend to be a name brand kinda guy, but when I saw how close it was to the Arc de Triumph and the Champs Elysee, I said lets try it.

 

OMG   it was the right call.

 

We arrived and they welcomed us warmly, took our bags, and gave us seats in the lobby.  They brought out fresh hot croissants, coffee, and water and told us our rooms weren't quite ready but they would work on them quickly.

 

They weren't kidding.  We were barely done eating and were welcomed to our rooms.

 

 

They were good sized for Paris, beautifully decorated, great a/c  and the balcony had an amazing view of the Arc.   I could have stayed here all week. 

 

 

While in Paris we did the Big Bus Paris which you pay a fee and it drives you all around town and you can see all the sights and hop on and off as you wish. 

 

 

We loved this as a first day activity, we could sit and see.  We also did one of the boat trips on the Seine it was nice, not too crowded.   We used Vedettes de Paris and did their sunset sail.  It was very nice.  

 

 

There was also a skip the line tour at the arc... and let me tell you those spiral staircases are no joke. There were a few times I was like am i going to get dizzy and crash!   but the views up there were fantastic and it was really cool to see Paris from a different viewpoint.  I love this.

 

 

We did a lot of sidewalk cafes for lunch, dinner, dessert.   We had mostly good experiences.  I would suggest avoiding the ones right near the tower, and going further into the neighborhoods.   We stopped for a quick drink one night and $228 later we were like wow we got taken.   

 

 

 

We had to get our precruise covid test in Paris to be ready to board the ship.   They were easy to find.  All over Europe there are pharmacies with green crosses out front.    We walked in and got a rapid test done.  Just to warn you these go way up the nose, the "tickle your brain" test. but we were so relieved to have this done and over with and past us.

 

We booked a flight with Air France to Rome the night before our sailing. We

had a slight delay down  but no real issues.

 

 

We waited in the new Air France Lounge in terminal F,  great food,drinks, and a nice spot to nap.

 

Uneventful flight to Rome, our hotel had a shuttle but it left from a different terminal so we decided to uber....  bad call.There were no ubers anywhere near  the airport none. We found a taxi and got an easy fare over there.

 

We stayed at the Hotel Tiber near the airport.

 

 

We dropped off our bags and raced down the block to a local pizza joint I read about.   We asked for a slice of everything they had made and it was heavenly.

 

Afterwards we headed in and climbed into bed before everything opened up.  There was a carnival outside and lots of noise with that.  Then, a birthday party on the top floor of the hotel with a DJ,  We could hear the party bumping and the DJ getting everyone pumped up. 

 

My wife was not happy, and if it couldn't get better then, a fireworks show!  We started laughing at this point.It was like the loudest hotel room ever.

 

It's ok --- time to sleep, tomorrow is cruise day!

 

[Husky1987]

12 minutes ago, RCCL Fan said:

We did a lot of sidewalk cafes for lunch, dinner, dessert.   We had mostly good experiences.  I would suggest avoiding the ones right near the tower, and going further into the neighborhoods.   We stopped for a quick drink one night and $228 later we were like wow we got taken.

I hear ya...we were just there in June and let's just say I had the most expensive gin and tonics in my life a couple blocks from the Eiffel Tower.

 

Nice start to your review!

[Roybthered]

At least your there and all good to go on the cruise.

[Sea Dog]

On 7/28/2022 at 4:47 PM, RCCL Fan said:

 

Hope you'll follow along!

 

 

You know I will. Excited to hear everything about your adventure.

 

 

21 hours ago, RCCL Fan said:

No bags for us

 

Doesn't something always go wrong? Great that you used the airtags. That's why we got them too.

 

 

21 hours ago, RCCL Fan said:

and the balcony had an amazing view of the Arc

 

Great hotel spot!

 

 

21 hours ago, RCCL Fan said:

and let me tell you those spiral staircases are no joke. There were a few times I was like am i going to get dizzy and crash!   but the views up there were fantastic

 

I took the time to climb all those stairs too. Glad I did. Amazing view.

 

[irishgal432]

21 hours ago, RCCL Fan said:

 

 

We found the foreign carriers had better mileage availability than the US carriers.   Delta wanted 325K miles per ticket to get us to Paris.   Air France wanted 90K.  You can use Delta miles on Air France, so it was a no brainer for us. 

 

How can you book delta miles on air france?  Do you have to use your Delta skymiles number?  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[niksmom630]

Looking forward to this review! We did a Celebrity 7 night Greek Isles cruise with 4 nights in Rome after. Thankfully they don’t require COVID  testing to return to the US anymore! That was a huge stressor  😩 ….it was a bucket list trip for me also and probably the most amazing trip of my life! Enjoy 🤗

[zebra]

Looking forward to your review, we are on the Odyssey in a couple of months time also out of Civitavecchia to Greece and Israel and then staying on for a B2B Transatlantic back home to the States..

 

[perfect match]

I love your reviews, so I will be very happily following along! 🛳

[RCCL Fan]

Boarding Day

 

 

We woke up at Tiber Hotel this morning, and laughed about our crazy night the night before.

 

The hotel was clean and fine for a night's sleep but be advised there's not much to do around the hotel, it was loud, and lacked some basic things like coffee in the room, and the pillows and mattresses were thin and uncomfortable. Breakfast also was not pleasing and the staff was curt in service.  

 

 

All that being said there were mixed reviews about basically every single hotel near FCO airport.  If we were going back tomorrow I still don't know where we would stay.  

 

 

We hired TIber Limo to take us to the ship.  Irene handles their bookings, she was very prompt and easy to get along with in the bookings.  However, on pickup our driver was in a big rush.  We had a 10am pickup  we got a call at 9:43am that she was there and ready.   A second call at 9:53am urging us to hurry.  I understand she had another pickup but I really wished we weren't rushed out of the hotel.  

 

Nonetheless, the van was comfortable, cool, new, and the driving was professional.

 

 

We arrived at the port and wow talk about a difference from the US,   all the ships were spread apart, there was little to no traffic, and when we pulled up at the terminal building there was no line, no crowd, nothing.

 

We walked right in, through security, to one person who reviewed all our documents and pointed us to the gangway.

 

I doubt we were in the builing 15 minutes, it was super fast and easy. 

 

 

So many things could have gone wrong this cruise....  flight cancellations,  covid positives, lost luggage,  we were all so happy to actually be walking on the ship.

 

Upon entry, i got that new ship smell, I was excited for this.  It would be my first entirely new ship design in a while.  I've sailed on every class ship Royal has every sailed, from the Nordic Prince & the Viking Serenade to Wonder and Freedom.   I had not made it on a Quantum class ship yet so I was excited to try something new. 

 

 

My first impressions:   this ship is small.   Everything looked more miniature than the photos and video.  The ship's decor was nice wood tones and felt upscale like Symphony  rather than more fun and stylized like Wonder.   I like the upscale vibe,  but the ship itself had me squinting my eyes a bit going.... huh? I didn't expect that.

 

You guys who read my reviews normally know I usually am pretty good about pointing out the positives and the negatives. Unfortunately this time, I really didn't like the layout and design of this ship.

 

 

The Royal Esplanade, I envisioned as a smaller version of the Promenade, but in actuality seemed more like a stretched version of the "Centrum" on the other ships.  Everything was just compact.  Now I will admit, I like the bigger ships than smaller ones typically.  But the vision and radiance class ships are what they are.  They're not Voyager class.   I felt like Odyssey was trying to be a voyager/freedom class ship but failing in design.

 

We walked along a hallway where the shops were and immediately it hit me.  I've been here before.   If you sailed the Celebrity Reflection (and I assume the other solstice class ships)  this ship is very similar in layout.   I did not like the layout of Celebrity Reflection at all and it's one of the big reasons they were one and done for us.  We keep saying we want to try the edge class.  But this Odyssey ship felt just like a reworked redesigned version of Reflection.

 

 

It kinda set the tone for me for the week, I knew I wouldn't like the way the ship was laid out.    Now, keep in mind I was having this whole conversation to myself in my head as we walked around, I didn't verbalize anything yet.   My coworker, on his first ever cruise, said, "they used some trick photography, i thought his space was going to be a lot bigger"  All I could muscle was a "yeah"  Because I wanted him to love it.

 

 

While touring I stopped at Giovanni's to rearrange our speciality restaurant times.  The staff member there was amazing and helped me process changes for all the restaurants all week, and processed my refunds and everything in 5 minutes.

 

I got on the app and was able to book all our shows for the week.  The running around that usually take me an hour on a Oasis class ship getting everything "in order" was done and complete in 15 minutes on Odyssey to which my darling wife proclaimed, "I LOVE THE SMALLER SHIPS"  

 

It's true she would sail on vision and radiance every chance she gets while I'd be on an Oasis class every time.  We've concluded that Voyager class ships are the perfect middle ground for us, but none the less she was loving her first glimpses of Odyssey.

 

 

We ventured up to the pool deck, and immediately without question our group made a mad dash to the North Star. They were all excited to check it out.  Now, me being an absolute LOVER of the Viking Crown Lounge, I always cursed that London Eye thing as an unacceptable replacement.   Now, I admit and know that no one used the Viking Crown, it was always empty, and this thing had a draw of people so it made more sense, but meh, I wanted my Viking Crown back.

 

 

I still went up in it and it was very nice, great views of the other ships in port, and the operator was super informative.  There's a toilet in that thing, in case you get stuck up there a while.  He talked us into booking a sunset trip on a sea day.  It was a nice little trip.  but I looked over where the Viking Crown should be and thought.... you could still put one there!   Oh well.

 

 

Upon landing we went to check out the pool bar.   Great drinks, my favorite frozen mojito was great.  The cruise line has been between different mixes and ways of making it lately and some have been god awful, but this was good!  I was pleased.  Good drinks and good weather  I'll just stay up here at the pool bar all week, that was my plan.  

 

 

Just after 1pm  we got notice the rooms were ready  and headed down to check them out.  OMG, I loved our room, just LOVED it.  I'm thinking even more than the two bedroom suite we had on Allure, and Owners suite on Enchantment. 

 

The space was fantastic, the decor was beautiful, and then lets address the bathrooms.... yes that's plural. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txySvm6cZ1A

 

 

Here's a link to a youtube video I made reviewing the room.  Check it out.   Best Junior Suite I've ever been in. 

 

 

 

 

We went back to touring the ship and wound up in the sports zone.  Let our friends check out the flowrider, and the ifly.   While I've never seen ifly on a ship, we have them here in Dallas, so I'm familiar with them. 

 

 

We ventured into the Music Hall, another new venture for us.   I know they had one on Wonder, but we never checked it out.   

 

 

 

We watched videos playing from the Captain and Cruise director, and facetimed the kids to check in.  After another stroll through the Esplanade we felt we had really seen everything.   So we went back up to the pool deck for more drinks.   

 

 

By now the ship was filling up, like swelling and swelling with people. Finding a spot for sailaway was tough.  Another Odyssey thing I didn't like.... there was plate glass everywhere on the top deck so it was hard to find an open air location to be at sailaway.   I don't know why the glass was added but I wasn't a fan. 

 

 

We headed back to the room after sailaway to unpack.  We always do early seating because we have kids and 8:30 is usually past their normal bedtime let alone dinner time. But since we were kidless this trip, we went with late dining.

 

 

We had reservations at Chops for dinner tonight.  I only took a photo of dessert.  My experience was ok.   first courses were fantastic, as was our server,  but my "medium" steak was bloody  like really bloody.  I ated the edges but that's it I couldn't do it. We had plenty of sides and first courses and what not that I was fine.

 

Sitting in Chops I got another flashback of Celebrity Reflection.  There were no views out of the ship, because of the lifeboats.   The lifeboats are huge and block all the line of sights.   I HATED this on reflection and it was back on Odyssey.   I don't know why this is not a problem on Radiance class ships but man it sucks on these.   Why have windows at all I'm going to see is a lifeboat.

 

 

Oh well...Eating later meant we had little energy for after dinner stuff, and we swung through the Music Halff for a bit but ultimately  called it a night early.

 

Tomorrow --- our big first sea day

Edited July 31, 2022 by RCCL Fan

[Sea Dog]

Interesting about the size I would of thought it would seem larger too.

 

Do me a favor please. I would be really interested in knowing two things. One, do you see any food shortages or smaller portions being served due to supply issues. Also two how are the bars stocked? What are their bourbon and whiskey selections like? A lot of the other ships seem to have a lot of shortages. I'm curious is a ship out of Europe having have the same problems of ships cruising out of the states.

 

Thanks for your detailed review.

[Jkaczanowski]

Great review so far!  If you don’t mind me asking, what was your arrival time?  Also, Was there a suite check in line at Civi and did you have access to it being in a JS?  Also, sounds like you would have gotten to the port around 10:45.  Had boarding just started?   I’m trying to figure out transfer times from our hotel in Rome for our cruise.

 

Thank you very much!

 

Jenn

[RCCL Fan]

On 7/29/2022 at 6:45 PM, Husky1987 said:

I hear ya...we were just there in June and let's just say I had the most expensive gin and tonics in my life a couple blocks from the Eiffel Tower.

 

Nice start to your review!

 

We had eaten a really late and big  lunch... ran about 70 Euros for the 4 of us which was so cheap .

 

We did our Seine tour,  then walked a bit and decided to stop for drinks and dessert.

 

The server sat us down and brought us 4 waters without us asking for them.  They were 9 euros a piece.

 

The ladies each ordered a glass of house cab.  They were huge pours  but they were 30 euros a piece.

 

Mix in 3 cokes at's 12 euros a piece  an order of fries and a couple of crepes.....    and yep  over 200 euros for our "late night bite while walking"

[RCCL Fan]

On 7/30/2022 at 4:02 PM, irishgal432 said:

 

 

Delta and Air France are both part of the Skyteam Alliance, meaning you can use miles and buy tickets on each other's airlines

 

You go to Delta's website, and look to redeem miles and you'll often seen flights from Virgin, Air France or KLM and often as much lower miles than flying on a Delta plane.

 

Us living in Dallas which is not a Delta city, would have meant a plane change in ATL, DTW or JFK to fly on a Delta plane...  but the Air France flight was direct and 1/3rd the cost.

 

We used to live in a Delta city so I have a ton of Delta miles and don't really use them anymore since any flight from here involves a connection unless so their hubs.   So I was thrilled to be able to use my miles on the Air France ride. 

[Sea Dog]

6 minutes ago, RCCL Fan said:

and yep  over 200 euros for our "late night bite while walking"

 

Those prices just seem outrageous. Over $12 for a coke? Give me a break.

[RCCL Fan]

1 hour ago, Sea Dog said:

Interesting about the size I would of thought it would seem larger too.

 

Do me a favor please. I would be really interested in knowing two things. One, do you see any food shortages or smaller portions being served due to supply issues. Also two how are the bars stocked? What are their bourbon and whiskey selections like? A lot of the other ships seem to have a lot of shortages. I'm curious is a ship out of Europe having have the same problems of ships cruising out of the states.

 

Thanks for your detailed review.

 

They only think I remember there being a shortage on was some of the frozen drink mixes.   No strawberry at one bar, only mango.   Another no pina colada, only strawberry.   They had stuff on the ship but seemed to run out and replinishing took  longer than it should.

 

I'll get to food and drinks soon, but we had wonderful experiences with food and beverages.  Nothing missing, nothing not great,  really was impressed.  Food quality and portions were wonderful.

 

  My friend Mark is a scotch and whiskey drinker and he never had any issues.

 

My wife did order Malbec a few times and they didn't have it, but she found it later at the wine bar.  I have a favorite Muscato I always get on Royal and they were out of it.  They had another, and it was just as good, so no real complaints there.

[RCCL Fan]

5 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

 

Those prices just seem outrageous. Over $12 for a coke? Give me a break.

 

They were routinely 4 - 6 euros.    Which I thought was nuts, but just accepted.

 

12 euros was "lets screw with the tourists"