On odyssey now. Some observations

[Scotico]

We are on now and we were not very impressed with the cruise. One thing I can say is that the cruise staff are very friendly but I think management is pressuring them to get feedback from customers. A few times while dining in windjammer, a staff member came to our table to rate the staff, food, overall experience. This is not something I thing you should answer face to face. I felt bad for staff members asking this. They looked very uncomfortable. 
 

The food in the MDR is awful. We only ate there one night (Italian). The service was very slow for us. Other tables were on dessert and we were just receiving our main. They blamed it on my sons burger that was not made correctly. Everything is so salty or over seasoned. The only good that we are able to tolerate is the solarium bistro or two70. Windjammer is hit or miss. The load is a few areas with Indian-food and Asian. We ate a lot of salads there. The spealty coffee shops and very understaffed. In two70, only one person is staffed there to handle scanning cards and making the drinks.
 

With the room, the cabin steward was excellent. I would suggest you bring your own shampoo/soap/conditioner. The soap they supply is not good and it burns kids eyes. Also there are many people around us smoking from their balconies. 2 down from us every morning they light up and are out there for  at least an hour eating and smoking. The smell always enters into our cabin. We complained to the front desk but nothing has changed. We also mentioned to the cabin steward who said he will report it to his supervisor. 
 

the show are pretty good. We were impressed with the book. Make sure you get reservations and get there early too. 
 

not sure we will be cruising with RCCL again. We also ran into a few rude passengers who did not like us speaking Spanish. One told us this is an American cruise and we should be speaking English. We just smiled and kept speaking Spanish. Thankfully there was another passenger there who told the old man to shut his mouth. My kids were there and I did not want to act out in front of them. 

[smokeybandit]

"The food in the MDR is awful. We only ate there one night (Italian)."

 

 

[Starry Eyes]

5 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

"The food in the MDR is awful. We only ate there one night (Italian)."

 

 

“Everything is so salty or over seasoned”

[bajathree]

Not any kind of excuse but unfortunately this seems to be going on across all the cruise lines right now....declined food quality....poor service....understaffed. Hearing it over and over again with different lines and ships.

[mramella]

52 minutes ago, bajathree said:

Not any kind of excuse but unfortunately this seems to be going on across all the cruise lines right now....declined food quality....poor service....understaffed. Hearing it over and over again with different lines and ships.

 

Yep! Tons of pressure to constantly figure out ways to cut costs, especially to make up from lost ground due to covid, and all the debt these guys had to take on...

 

I remember going on cruises (Sitmar & Princess) back in the late 80s and early 90s when they served beluga caviar with topnotch food and excellent service. Those days are gone for good, unfortunately.

 

I remember when they eliminated individual shampoo bottles and bars of soap for a dispenser of "all-in-one" shampoo/conditioner/body soap. And then they went with lower grade toilet paper that now feels like sandpaper. LOL.  

 

Can't wait for my next cruise! Yep, I'm still cruising 🙂. Just have to roll with it, or not cruise.

 

[BecciBoo]

12 hours ago, Scotico said:

one night

WOW!  Maybe you should have given it a valid test????

[BecciBoo]

As I've said our December cruise on Odyssey was fantastic, I had no complaints whatsoever...but then.....

 

[flamingos]

12 hours ago, Scotico said:

Everything is so salty or over seasoned.

 

And others complain that they are too bland.  It's a fine line they have to walk here.

[not-enough-cruising]

2 hours ago, mramella said:

 

Yep! Tons of pressure to constantly figure out ways to cut costs, especially to make up from lost ground due to covid, and all the debt these guys had to take on...

 

I remember going on cruises (Sitmar & Princess) back in the late 80s and early 90s when they served beluga caviar with topnotch food and excellent service. Those days are gone for good, unfortunately.

 

I remember when they eliminated individual shampoo bottles and bars of soap for a dispenser of "all-in-one" shampoo/conditioner/body soap. And then they went with lower grade toilet paper that now feels like sandpaper. LOL.  

 

Can't wait for my next cruise! Yep, I'm still cruising 🙂. Just have to roll with it, or not cruise.

 

We bring our own TP from home; game changer

[taglovestocruise]

We were on Ovation last week of Sep.  Food was well above average in MDR, Two70 and Windjammer. First time ever that the Dog House dogs were much better than those on any other ship. Chop's and Jamie's were fantastic. One week later we were on Quantum, all food venues were serving the worst food we have ever had on any cruise, with the exception of Specialties. Wife actually lost two pounds over the 10 nights on Quantum.  Wish I had a picture of the carved Turkey being served in the Windjammer, the server was pulling it apart by hand, absolutely gross.  However the bar tenders in Vintages were some of the happiest crew on the ship, I had several Negronis every night and my wife fell in love with the Cucumber Elderflower Martinis. 

[PhillyFan33579]

9 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

We were on Ovation last week of Sep.  Food was well above average in MDR, Two70 and Windjammer. First time ever that the Dog House dogs were much better than those on any other ship. Chop's and Jamie's were fantastic. One week later we were on Quantum, all food venues were serving the worst food we have ever had on any cruise, with the exception of Specialties. Wife actually lost two pounds over the 10 nights on Quantum.  Wish I had a picture of the carved Turkey being served in the Windjammer, the server was pulling it apart by hand, absolutely gross.  However the bar tenders in Vintages were some of the happiest crew on the ship, I had several Negronis every night and my wife fell in love with the Cucumber Elderflower Martinis. 

Not sure what Ovation has to do with Odyssey. 

[PhillyFan33579]

We were on Odyssey last month and had a great time. We ate in the MDR every night and the food was good to very good every night. The only negative in my book is Odyssey doesn’t have any water slides, but that is far from being a big deal. 

[paulco]

Spent 4 weeks on Royal last year (Explorer and Enchantment).  The food was fine although one dinner I should have sent back my overcooked tuna steak.

[Kbonner]

21 hours ago, mramella said:

. And then they went with lower grade toilet paper that now feels like sandpaper. LOL.  

 

 

Cost saving toilet paper. Right. Backfires to RCI, I have to take now a 4-fold single paper. So actually quadrubles the toilet paper price for RCI🤣

[nelblu]

4 hours ago, paulco said:

Spent 4 weeks on Royal last year (Explorer and Enchantment).  The food was fine although one dinner I should have sent back my overcooked tuna steak.

Tuna steak?  Is it on the new menu.

 

2 hours ago, Kbonner said:

Cost saving toilet paper. Right. Backfires to RCI, I have to take now a 4-fold single paper. So actually quadrubles the toilet paper price for RCI🤣

I remember many many years ago, when my Mom & Dad took transatlantic trips to the old country (Italy) to visit relatives, they would load lots & lots of toilet paper in their trunks(luggage) because of the lack of and tough toilet paper.😆🙏

 

On the return trips, they loaded parmigiana/romano cheeses and olive oil.😁

Edited March 5, 2023 by nelblu

[Merion_Mom]

On 3/3/2023 at 9:33 PM, Scotico said:

We also ran into a few rude passengers who did not like us speaking Spanish. One told us this is an American cruise and we should be speaking English. We just smiled and kept speaking Spanish. Thankfully there was another passenger there who told the old man to shut his mouth. My kids were there and I did not want to act out in front of them. 

 

This makes my blood boil.  You are bilingual, possibly trilingual, and those morons are monolingual.  

 

But a more important question, @Scotico - who is the Cruise Director?  🙂

[Scotico]

2 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

This makes my blood boil.  You are bilingual, possibly trilingual, and those morons are monolingual.  

 

But a more important question, @Scotico - who is the Cruise Director?  🙂

Sorry for the delay in posting on feedback. Just returned home and lost 4 lbs somehow. The cruise director was someone named Ana I believe. 
 

I should have been more clear about the food. Overall it was very salty and over seasoned (ie. the jerk pork chop was so over seasoned that it was not edible and this was from many cruisers around us. It was extremely spicy). 
 

one thing I can say is that their service is excellent. We ran into the same servers in the wind jammer every night since we always sat at the same table and they always brought out extras fir the kids like chocolate milk and desserts not on the buffet. I still believe they are a bit overwhelmed with always trying to get feedback from customers and dealing with some really obnoxious cruisers making ridiculous requests (this AM someone sitting next to us requested that the server going around with the juice and coffee cart fill her 64oz yeti thermos with coffee. 
 

Also someone mentioned that the toilet paper was prison grade. We brought a few rolls of our own. We also brought our own liquid hand soap. 
 

We also had an issue with our AC. When you lock the door going out to the balcony, the AC took about 30 min to go from unoccupied to occupied in the room. They worked on it a few days but could not fix it. Not a deal breaker but annoying at night if you are out on the balcony before going to bed. They ended up giving us $250 in shipboard credit. 

[Anton]

On 3/3/2023 at 8:33 PM, Scotico said:

A few times while dining in windjammer, a staff member came to our table to rate the staff, food, overall experience. This is not something I thing you should answer face to face. I felt bad for staff members asking this. They looked very uncomfortable. 
 

 

Just left Odyssey this morning and I observed this survey activity in the Windjammer on Saturday.  It was a headwaiter and in this instance he was clearly guiding people to rate the food, service, everything as "a 10" and then recording their cabin number.  He slowed down and looked at me but didn't stop.   Not sure why although I was alone and he seemed to head for couples and families.  Everyone in earshot gave rave reviews whether they believed it or not.  As you said, doing it face-to-face leads many people to not want to hurt anyone's feelings so they tell the staffer what they want to hear.  I'm not afraid to be critical so maybe he sensed it.  Anyway, I found it to be off-putting.  At dinner on the final night our headwaiter asked us (a table of three pinnacles) if we were going to "help" our waiter and assistant by giving them a 10.  We told him "they were fine, but you'll find out a score when we submit our cruise surveys". 

[Starry Eyes]

What happened with the medical exception for Internet for the defibrillator mentioned in another thread?

 

 

[resetjet]

Bumpee cars baby!!!!  The heck with the food and service.  Let

me Go smash some

kids and my wife!!!!

[Scotico]

10 hours ago, Starry Eyes said:

What happened with the medical exception for Internet for the defibrillator mentioned in another thread?

 

 

So I never needed a defibrillator so all was good

[Scotico]

11 hours ago, Anton said:

Just left Odyssey this morning and I observed this survey activity in the Windjammer on Saturday.  It was a headwaiter and in this instance he was clearly guiding people to rate the food, service, everything as "a 10" and then recording their cabin number.  He slowed down and looked at me but didn't stop.   Not sure why although I was alone and he seemed to head for couples and families.  Everyone in earshot gave rave reviews whether they believed it or not.  As you said, doing it face-to-face leads many people to not want to hurt anyone's feelings so they tell the staffer what they want to hear.  I'm not afraid to be critical so maybe he sensed it.  Anyway, I found it to be off-putting.  At dinner on the final night our headwaiter asked us (a table of three pinnacles) if we were going to "help" our waiter and assistant by giving them a 10.  We told him "they were fine, but you'll find out a score when we submit our cruise surveys". 

So did you see the elderly person taken away by security on Saturday at the main pool. My daughter and a few other girls were swimming and one girl splashed her. Keep in mind they are all 8-9 years old. Well the lady hit one girl who was splashing. The father called security and they removed her. If these people don’t want to deal with kids then they should just use the solarium. 

Edited March 6, 2023 by Scotico

[OSUZorba]

On 3/5/2023 at 12:25 AM, PhillyFan33579 said:

We were on Odyssey last month and had a great time. We ate in the MDR every night and the food was good to very good every night. The only negative in my book is Odyssey doesn’t have any water slides, but that is far from being a big deal. 

Not true, there are 2 three foot slides in the splash pad ;). In October of 21 I went down them at least a few hundred times.

[Pandamonia]

On 3/4/2023 at 12:13 PM, bajathree said:

Not any kind of excuse but unfortunately this seems to be going on across all the cruise lines right now....declined food quality....poor service....understaffed. Hearing it over and over again with different lines and ships.

 

Just got back from the cheapest P&O cruise ive ever been on. 

 

Cheap drinks, good service. MDR was supposedly good but for around 20 USD per person we ate speciality every night. Food was very good and service was excellent mostly. 

 

Only problem was the price was so cheap it allowed a much different demographic on board but they weren't a problem. Upside was that the cost was so low that anything less than perfect really wasnt an issue. 

 

Then there is royal which royally rips you off and then has the cheek to not even get the basics right and then expect you pay their staffs wages in 18% tips for zero service. 

[lcpagejr]

On 3/4/2023 at 9:38 AM, BecciBoo said:

As I've said our December cruise on Odyssey was fantastic, I had no complaints whatsoever...but then.....

 

Becci... I had a similar experience on our Thanksgiving cruise. Best RCCL cruise out 4 previous ones. Really liked the ship...then a gain I am more of a traditionalist. The Oasis class does nothing for me