Just boarded 8/14 Odyssey out of Rome with 3 unvaxed kids. Ask me anything!

[exm]

Some notes:

- Unvaxed kids under 12 need to be tested 1 day prior to sailing, vaxed adults 2 days

- I used e-med for all of us. Boxes were damaged in my luggage but the proctors didn’t care as long as the test wasn’t expired

- No further testing at the terminal for my unvaxed kids

- In the past the check-in crew took photos of COVID cards, they just glanced at them this time

- I had a screenshot of the e-med lab report for our party of 6. Again, the staff glanced at them. Didn’t feel like they paid overly attention to anything

- Boarding took 15 minutes at most. We have 3 cabins, so 6 bottles of wine in our carry-ons. The Italian security had a blast with this but never asked us for our room numbers or even confirmations

- Beautiful ship, very international crowd (not complaining!) but super-crowded!

- As someone who has been multiple times on Anthem before, this ship looks like a colorful version of it, with a few minor changes: looks like the robotic bar works much better here. Skynet has improved.

[long4acruise]

Thanks for the update and enjoy your cruise and family time with the kids!

[SE fla]

How is the food and service on your cruise 🚢?

[karebare22]

Thanks for the post, appreciate having any tips etc as we board Odyssey on Aug 30. Have a wonderful cruise! 

[rrraydon]

Where are your stops? I'm guessing none of them required vax?

[relaxatsea]

Is there still a shuttle bus at the port to take you to the ship?  Enjoy your cruise!

[Jkaczanowski]

What time was your “arrival time” and what time did you arrive?  Do you know what earliest time was?  

[exm]

Some answers to questions above:

- Food is good, service so-so. Staff works hard but ship is at full capacity and probably understaffed. They had to turn people away from breakfast at Windjammer this morning!

- Tips: nothing unusual but if the ship is full consider the MDR for breakfast and later dining seating is packed

- We are stopping in Greece, Turkey and Italy. It doesn’t look like they require an additional test for folks without a booster (like my wife). Haven’t seen/heard/read anything.

- We took a private car service for the 6 of us from our Rome Airbnb to the terminal. e140 and totally worth it. Don’t know about shuttle buses, sorry!

- My arrival time was 12:00 and we arrived 15 minutes early. Doesn’t seemed like anyone cared/asked/checked. Check-in was a breeze.

Photo of sunset from yesterday. Beautiful!

[exm]

One more thing: at sea days and late arrivals they do “brunch” at the MDR where you can have breakfast between 9am-1pm. Highly recommended!

[seapad]

Thanks @exm! 

(1) We will be cruising this ship in October. Wondering if we can take the e-med test at midnight (Rome time) on the 2nd day prior to boarding day? I've heard that e-med may based from UTS time, but someone says that it doesn't matter because the e-med report will show the local time instead. 

(2) In the e-med Q&A where it asks you your residence, do you pick Rome (so that the time will reflect the local time)? 

Thanks so much in advance. This will really help us out 🙂 
 

[PhoenixCruiser]

Good luck 

[bmblob]

5 hours ago, exm said:

- We are stopping in Greece, Turkey and Italy. It doesn’t look like they require an additional test for folks without a booster (like my wife).

@exm  Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the Odyssey sailing.  Would be interested when you get to Greek ports if additional testing is needed for the vaxxed but unboosted.  Have a great time.  Sailing on Odyssey in two months and looking forward to it.

[CruiseDad-NYC]

1 hour ago, PhoenixCruiser said:

Good luck 

+1

 

My teenage son (vaxxed and boosted) got Covid on the Adventure of the Seas and was sick for 10 days. He started up with a fever the day after we got back last month from a 9 day trip sailing to the Caribbean. My wife and other teenage son (vaxxed and boosted) did not get it. I started showing symptoms 6 days after we got back and presume my son exposed me to it because I hadn't left my home. I felt sick for 4 days (fever for 24 hours; achey, sore threat, headache) but never tested positive over a week of daily testing, so I assume I had an immune response and may or may not have had it (e.g., it could have been some other random cruise ship bug).

 

Just be careful and try to have your kids avoid crowded indoor spaces without masks if you can, because Covid is on board all of the ships. Have a great trip and enjoy the ship and the wonderful itinerary - you are going to great ports!

[exm]

Back again:

- We are now in Santorini. No additional tests for non-boosted.

- I will let you know if masks are still required anywhere in Greece

- emed tests: 2 days prior at any time. We sailed on Sunday and took our tests Friday afternoon Italy time. We selected travel as the reason for the test, location outside the US, Italy and Rome as the city 

- About COVID: you have now idea how packed this ship is. If COVID is around us, there’s no escaping. Personally I am so over COVID (we all had it in January), but I figured to share. Only noticed a handful of people masked out of a capacity over 5,000 in case you are wondering.

 

So excited to go onshore!

[dltaeg]

6 hours ago, CruiseDad-NYC said:

+1

 

My teenage son (vaxxed and boosted) got Covid on the Adventure of the Seas and was sick for 10 days. He started up with a fever the day after we got back last month from a 9 day trip sailing to the Caribbean. My wife and other teenage son (vaxxed and boosted) did not get it. I started showing symptoms 6 days after we got back and presume my son exposed me to it because I hadn't left my home. I felt sick for 4 days (fever for 24 hours; achey, sore threat, headache) but never tested positive over a week of daily testing, so I assume I had an immune response and may or may not have had it (e.g., it could have been some other random cruise ship bug).

 

Just be careful and try to have your kids avoid crowded indoor spaces without masks if you can, because Covid is on board all of the ships. Have a great trip and enjoy the ship and the wonderful itinerary - you are going to great ports!

We've just got off Odyssey on Sunday and my daughter has been the same. We are all vaxed and my daughter has been really ill since Saturday. Headache, aches, sore throat and very high temp (over 100f) but is testing negative. Virus's seem to be rife on ships regardless of "WASHY WASHY". 

[ramja96]

On 8/14/2022 at 5:55 PM, exm said:

Ask me anything.

 

What is the meaning of life?

[drjohn4]

15 hours ago, seapad said:

Thanks @exm! 

(1) We will be cruising this ship in October. Wondering if we can take the e-med test at midnight (Rome time) on the 2nd day prior to boarding day? I've heard that e-med may based from UTS time, but someone says that it doesn't matter because the e-med report will show the local time instead. 

(2) In the e-med Q&A where it asks you your residence, do you pick Rome (so that the time will reflect the local time)? 

Thanks so much in advance. This will really help us out 🙂 
 

When we did our eMed tests in June the lab report had the time in UTC.  I think they use your place of residence to know where to report a positive test when required by health departments.  We used our home as place of residence and I think they also might have asked for our location when testing.  The lab report definitely only had the date and time of the test in UTC.

[chloe kitty]

What is the main show onboard the Odyssey?  Were you able to make reservations for the shows prior to boarding?  Were you able to make reservations for Ifly and North Star prior to boarding?

Thank you!

[exm]

17 hours ago, ramja96 said:

 

What is the meaning of life?

cruise as much as you can

[exm]

2 hours ago, chloe kitty said:

What is the main show onboard the Odyssey?  Were you able to make reservations for the shows prior to boarding?  Were you able to make reservations for Ifly and North Star prior to boarding?

Thank you!

Tue we saw Showgirls, Thu The Effectors. Not sure if one of them is the main show. Good question.

We were only able to make reservations when we were connected to the ship WiFi, and they sold out quickly.

 

Some observations:

- The 4d experience sold out so quickly, I don’t know who got tickets.

- The Skypad was fun for the kids, VR wasn’t working

Santorini on your own was an absolute disaster. 90 Minutes wait for the cable car so we had to take the donkeys (didn’t want to, but had a private tour waiting). We only had USD so the e60 (e10 X 6) because $100. What a ripoff. Then those poor donkeys, plus the treacherous ride up. Next time, make sure to get off the ship by tender asap. We got tender ticket 47 and we got this 25 minutes after the tender window opened. We had 2 wait on-board for an hour for or number to be called.

 

 

[exm]

And about Greece: no masks anywhere, no testing required for non-boosted passengers. 
 

Make sure to get Euros.

[ramja96]

4 hours ago, exm said:

cruise as much as you can

You peeked at my signature below, didn't you? 😉 

[Johnkut]

We will be on the Odyssey Oct. 7 out of Rome. Please let me know what time the ship docks at the end, and what time they let the passengers off. I heard it docks at 5:30 Am and passengers get off at 6:30 AM. Are you going right to the airport when the ship docks? If so, let me know how long to the airport, and how long to get to the gate. Thanks

 

[drjohn4]

1 hour ago, Johnkut said:

We will be on the Odyssey Oct. 7 out of Rome. Please let me know what time the ship docks at the end, and what time they let the passengers off. I heard it docks at 5:30 Am and passengers get off at 6:30 AM. Are you going right to the airport when the ship docks? If so, let me know how long to the airport, and how long to get to the gate. Thanks

 

For our sailing that ended July 4 self assist was allowed off at 6:30. We left the port area with a private transfer a little after 7 and made our 11:30 flight with plenty of time.  But the line for our airline for check-in was pretty short.  Other airlines were extremely long.  You also have to go through lines for security and passport control.  Ours went pretty smoothly, but lines can be pretty variable. 

[MelKaps]

18 hours ago, exm said:

We were only able to make reservations when we were connected to the ship WiFi, and they sold out quickly.

 

Some observations:

- The 4d experience sold out so quickly, I don’t know who got tickets.

- The Skypad was fun for the kids, VR wasn’t working

What is the 4D experience? And what time did you get on the ship/what was your boarding time?

 

Also, how much was iFly and NorthStar? Are these no longer included?