Musings fron our S2S2B (long read)

[Mikamarii]

Did i get that right? We're currently  docked in Jamaica leaving in abt an hour. 1 more sea day then home time. 

 

Our trip was all out of FLL and consisted of 4nights on liberty, 1night in FLL then back to back on Odyssey for a total of 18 nights on board. 4 of us. Myself wife and two children (9 and 11)

 

Not a full review just random musings. Im sure i'll touch on 'hot topics'...this is just our experience and opinion and not disparaging anyone elses. 

 

Getting in to FLL was easy. Airport pretty straight forward. We generally turn off our phones once we leave home. I dont care to pay the daily roaming package rate as we dont need our phones that much and can get by just fine with wifi. 

 

We stayed pre cruise at Tru by Hilton Dania Beach. Lovely hotel. Shady area. Not a whole lot of places to eat in walking diatance and felt on edge walking around. We had to walk about 10-15 min to find an ihop so kids could eat. Hotel itself was nice, clean, and had a surprisingly good free breakfast. It had a hotel shuttle but we needed to call on arrival. Figure a cab ride would be cheaper than turning on our phone so caught a cab. At hotel, i saw the meter was 12$ but he quickly turned it off.  Guy said i owed 20$ and cash only...asked to see the meter and refused to show me. I gave him 15$ and he got mad i wouldnt give him a tip even though never helped with bags and texted while i loaded and unloaded them then lied about the fare.  Had he told me the actual price i would have given him 20$ but dont like to be scammed. Tried using lyft app the following day but could only get a text confirmation to verify account and continue. Reluctantly turned on my phone. Lyft was awesome. I think 22$ total and driver was super friendly. 

 

Liberty 4 nights. Stopped at Nassau and coco cay.

Liberty was a nice ship. No complaints but cant really remember anything of it haha.

Didnt mind Nassau. We just walked around. Felt fairly safe. Wanted conch fritters. Decided to go to senior frogs as didnt trust side cart vendor. It was super busy. There was a 'surcharge' of about 5$ on the bill but never got an explination and barely saw the waitress. Ended up leaving $40 for a fritters and a beer. Wouldnt do that again. C'est la vie. Did coco cay waterpark. Had a lovely time. Paid 55$ cdn per person on black friday. Dont know if we'd do it again especially at reg price but did enjoy it and everyone had fun. 

 

Ship seemed quite busy. Windjammer was always packed. Age of cruisers felt quite young. Families and couples. 

 

Leaving port took a cab again to Embyssey suites by the port. I had used an app to determine cab rate. Apps showed 4$. Inside cab it said min 13$ from port so figured maybe 15$ tops. 10 min ride and when we got there guy said 30$, cash only, wouldnt show me the meter. Not a chance im paying that. After arguing Left him 20$. Again if given the honest price we always leave more. Just hate being lied to. 

Hotel itself was awesome. Clean room, good breakfast, friendly staff. Evening reception with small eats and 2 free drinks. Lots to do within walking distance. Walked to restaurants in the area for lunch and dinner. Easy peasy.  Would definitely stay again. Lyft app worked on wifi so took a lyft to port. 17$ total. Driver again was super friendly. 

 

1st Odyssey. 8 nights. Ports: curacao, aruba, coca cay

 

Loved curacao. Probably our favourite port of the trip. Walked around and later got some drinks by the waterfront.

 

Aruba. Went scuba diving. Awewome experience. 

 

Coca cay was swapped with Labadee because of the massive storm. Sad to miss it but greatful they secured an alternative. Some people were quite upset but im not sure what they expected. Cant control the weather and from what i heard weather was real bad. Had never been to Labadee and we really enjoyed it. We did the coaster then sat at the beach. Food is way better on coco cay though. 

 

Overall cruise didnt seem overly packed. Lots of families. 

 

2nd odyssey. 6 nights, Coco cay, grand caymen, jamaica

 

Coco cay. Beach day. Had a great time. South beach was lovely and love the food.

 

Grand Caymen. Went scuba diving. Some of the clearest water we've ever seen. Amazing

 

Jamaica - did the discovery bay excursion. Not thrilled with it. The aqua park was ok but it wasnt come and go as you please. They'd take groups at a time so our kids only got out there twice the whole time and each time i felt the 'guide' pressured for tips. Beach was ok and food was ok. It got pretty busy there. It wasnt horrible but dont think we'd do again. 2nd time to Jamaica and not our favourite port. 

 

Back in the port merchant area wanted to get some coffee for my parents. Went to the blue mountain coffee store. 32$ for an 8oz  bag. Hope its good! Im not a coffee drinker so dont know anything about buying coffee. Little peeved that we went next door after and the exact same bag was 5$ cheaper. Oh well haha. 

 

Great cruise. This one seemed very busy. Lots of college aged people and a mix of families with teens or really young kids. 

 

Food - overall we loved it. Thought the food was very good at both mdr and windjammer. No complaints on quality or taste. Over the 18 days we spent about 5 or so nights in mdr. We enjoyed the mdr but we really enjoy the pace of windjammer. I also tend to eat way less in windjammer and like being able to try different things. I did like the quicken paced of mdr though. I remember spending 2+ hrs a night there and hated it. These 3 cruises i dont think went over an hour each time. Thought lobster was good and decent size. He brought me out the lobster and steak at the same time. I actually originally only ordered the lobster and he insisted on bringing it out with the steak. Had some great meals in windjammer. 

 

Staterooms - we had 2 balcony rooms on odyssey and jr suite on liberty. We really preferred the once a day cleaning on Odyssey. We chose evening. We are in and out of our room so much during the day. Always hated the game of trying to time our daily activites with room cleaning. 

 

Disembarking on the b2b. Super easy.  I want to say less than an hour from the time they moved us out of two70 to back on the ship. There was a lengthy delay in docking due to the storm. I think we were delayed about 2 hrs but we were still back on the ship by 1130. 

 

We're taking the brightline to Orlando for a direct flight home. For us it saved about $1000 total and a shorter overall travel day then flying out of FLL.  Weather looks ok come saturday so hopefully no major delays. Flight leaves Orlando at 530pm. Hopeful for a smooth travel day. 

 

Next up for us is a b2b on jewel for the Arctic circle and transatlantic. Arctic circle is my bucket list cruise.  

 

Any questions let me know. 

 

[3yorkies]

All you need to do if you have wifi is set your phone for wifi calling.   Then you are using internet for the calls instead of your phone

[cruiselvr04]

Sorry the Ft Lauderdale taxis tried to scam you.  We had trouble recently in San Diego but usually Ft Lauderdale is pretty good. 
 

What a great trip you planned for your family!

[RFerrington]

We also prefer once a day room cleaning.  Even when we are in a suite we tell them just come once in the morning while we are on our morning walkabout and bring us a paper compass in the evening but otherwise, we're good.

[Mikamarii]

2 hours ago, 3yorkies said:

All you need to do if you have wifi is set your phone for wifi calling.   Then you are using internet for the calls instead of your phone

Interesting. Ive never used that option before so didnt even know it existed. We had always just used whats app to call family back home and never really needed to call anyone else.  I just tried turning it on amd didnt work. Maybe because we are at sea. Ill try when back in port!

Thanks!

[Mikamarii]

1 hour ago, cruiselvr04 said:

Sorry the Ft Lauderdale taxis tried to scam you.  We had trouble recently in San Diego but usually Ft Lauderdale is pretty good. 
 

What a great trip you planned for your family!

Thanks! I find when the kids are with us we experience more people trying to push fpr extra money vs just me or me and wife. Oh well. Such is life. 

It was a great trip. Travelling from western canada to Flordia I cant just do 1 week trips anymore haha. Flights are the same either way so whats one more cruise!

[Mikamarii]

43 minutes ago, RFerrington said:

We also prefer once a day room cleaning.  Even when we are in a suite we tell them just come once in the morning while we are on our morning walkabout and bring us a paper compass in the evening but otherwise, we're good.

We did the a trans pacific last year. Our stateroom attendant was very nice but it felt like it was an insult to him asking for only once a day.  Maybe it was just a language barrier. 

[3yorkies]

20 minutes ago, Mikamarii said:

Interesting. Ive never used that option before so didnt even know it existed. We had always just used whats app to call family back home and never really needed to call anyone else.  I just tried turning it on amd didnt work. Maybe because we are at sea. Ill try when back in port!

Thanks!

It is how I always call at sea when I have the wifi.   In settings just turn on wifi calling.  Works for texting and regular cell calls.

[Coralc]

9 minutes ago, 3yorkies said:

It is how I always call at sea when I have the wifi.   In settings just turn on wifi calling.  Works for texting and regular cell calls.

(If you have an internet package) It sounds like maybe they don't. Set it up and try it from home first. 

[3yorkies]

13 minutes ago, Coralc said:

(If you have an internet package) It sounds like maybe they don't. Set it up and try it from home first. 

OP says they don't use phone because "get along fine with wifi" so assumed they did. 

[Mikamarii]

Ya we do have a wifi package on board. I tried turning on the wifi calling and it says "if setting up for first time need to be in an area of with cell phone coverage" so ill have to set it up when we get home then hopefully can use it next time we are out of the country. 

Thanks for the tip!