Cruiser Formerly Known As Cheapo Dad's Trip Report on Odyssey of the Seas Sailing to A Minus B Plus C Plus H Islands

[harryfat1]

5 hours ago, GimmeOcean said:

He might be on day 2 by then…. (I kid)

 

Sailing on Odyssey next ourselves, so looking forward to reading this. 

Haha, actually I might still be on day 1 by next weekend as I have 2 days pre-cruise pictures, and day 1 on any cruise is my favorite day so I have lots of pictures to upload for that day.  Sea days are my "blah" days so those will go fast.

[harryfat1]

4 hours ago, edspec said:

I've been looking forward to this.  We're on Quantum in April  so interested in hearing your opinion on this class of ship.

Yes indeed, you're on a slippery slope 🙂

We like the Quantum class ship.  Although we still prefer the Oasis class for its width and wider diversity on entertainment venues.

 

The 270 area is a big hit for us.  Maybe because our cabin is near the Aft on deck 6 so it was a quick walk to 270 via the "secret entrance" (more on that once I get there).

[harryfat1]

4 hours ago, EllieinNJ said:

Looking forward to your report.  We will be on her when she is in NJ next February.  We were on her sister ship Anthem once and enjoyed her very much.  Not having to fly to a cruise port is a major + and like you entertainment and experience comes first before relaxing.

Oh, yeah, not having to fly is a big plus.  Being on a different ship will mean a new entertainment venues to experience.  We liked "The Book" and Effectors show but I can see how some people are not as happy with The Book.

 

Although I think the Anthem might be better suited for winter sailing as it has a covered pool. It rained on us on day 8 of the cruise and there was no place for people to swim in as the Odyssey's pool is not covered but seeing a new ship and a different MDR design is always a good experience.

[harryfat1]

3 hours ago, sanchoucsb said:

Love your reports! I hope you find time to delve into RCL’s 10-K again! 

Thanks.  Ahhh, yes, the financial reports.

 

Yeah, back on the Navigator trip report someone asked me to do some calculations on the food costs so I looked into the RCCL's 10-Q (The Q's are quarterly SEC filings and K's are annual filings). Back then the 2023 MDR menu was only 6 months in the works.  Once the 10-K comes out, it will have 12 months of numbers and it will be interesting to see what the results are.

 

RCCL filed their 2022 Form 10-K on February 23, 2023.  So they will likely file it by the end of February 2024 for the 2023 Form 10-K.  Even if I'm done with this trip report by then, I'll come back to show the calculation for 2023 food costs. 

[harryfat1]

3 hours ago, MamaToMany said:

Oh, hooray! You are one of my fave trip report writers. I should probably call myself CheapoMom when it comes to booking our family cruises, so I appreciate your approach to the very serious business of (frugal) family fun and togetherness. Coming out of the lurker closet to say hello, and thanks in advance for a great report!

 

3 hours ago, Mom*3 said:

I love your trip reports! And, Odyssey is up next for us!

Thanks for the kind words.  I hope this trip report is worth every penny of your annual membership to CC...

 

I may be biased but every time we cruise, there are tons of families out there as when my kids are off from school, so are 99% of other kids off from school as well so I think family cruise trip reports are underrepresented here on CC.

 

For our sailing, they said we had over 1,000 kids under the age of 18 as it was during the extremely popular (expensive) Holiday season sailing. So lots of families/big group gatherings.  It was common to see "family uniforms" of groups of 10+ people at various venues.

[harryfat1]

So why this cruise?  I’m sure NOBODY cares about why we selected this sailing but the reason for this sailing is that it fits one of the criteria of what we wanted on a vacation – a new ship and new ports.  This is our first Quantum-class ship experience and we have never been to the southern Caribbean so this sailing checked off a couple of boxes.

 

The final deal sealer was both Ken and I saw this on sale way back 16 months before sailing as being a “bargain” (you cringe when you try to say RCI and Holidays and bargain in the same sentence).  For a short period, this 8-night Holiday cruise was cheaper than a 7-night cruise on many other RCI sailings for late December. 

 

We paid around $1,400/pp in the cabin for 8 nights on a Holiday cruise.  Which is a bargain when compared to some of the 2024 Holiday sailing prices I’m seeing out there.

 

So both Ken @Ourusualbeach and I jumped on the deal back in August of 2022 but later on, he had to change his sailing to the next cruise.  This is too bad as I was hoping to take pictures of him doing the belly flop contest to post here on CC…🤪

 

Being OCD, it bothers me that we are only seeing the A and C of the ABC islands during the 8-night itinerary.  I have seen Carnival ships making the ABC island trio tour but RCI decided to either do Perfect Day or Labadee in place of Bonaire for the 8-night sailings.

 

The reason for that could either be: 1) The cruisers want a private port experience more than Bonaire 2) RCI makes a lot more money on private port stops as they rake in all the revenue.  You be the judge on which of the two reasons influenced RCI more…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Speaking OCD, so how anal are you on the anal scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest?

 

In my previous trip report, I self-proclaimed to be a 9.2 and more or less have evidence to back it up. In true to tradition, I kept up the high anal number in whipping out my old Allure of the Seas schedule and updated for the Odyssey to give myself and the family a quick overview of what to expect from the vacation.

 

 

Being true to the anal scale, different categories are shaded together like airline flights are in blue and dinner are in orange, and so on. This is what a 9.2 anal scale person does.  Rumor has it others on CC are higher on the anal scale and may have colored-coded their schedule to match their underwear/socks colors for the day.

 

Maybe that’s the next higher level on the anal scale I need to strive for…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ourusualbeach]

14 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

So why this cruise?  I’m sure NOBODY cares about why we selected this sailing but the reason for this sailing is that it fits one of the criteria of what we wanted on a vacation – a new ship and new ports.  This is our first Quantum-class ship experience and we have never been to the southern Caribbean so this sailing checked off a couple of boxes.

 

The final deal sealer was both Ken and I saw this on sale way back 16 months before sailing as being a “bargain” (you cringe when you try to say RCI and Holidays and bargain in the same sentence).  For a short period, this 8-night Holiday cruise was cheaper than a 7-night cruise on many other RCI sailings for late December. 

 

We paid around $1,400/pp in the cabin for 8 nights on a Holiday cruise.  Which is a bargain when compared to some of the 2024 Holiday sailing prices I’m seeing out there.

 

So both Ken @Ourusualbeach and I jumped on the deal back in August of 2022 but later on, he had to change his sailing to the next cruise.  This is too bad as I was hoping to take pictures of him doing the belly flop contest to post here on CC…🤪

 

Being OCD, it bothers me that we are only seeing the A and C of the ABC islands during the 8-night itinerary.  I have seen Carnival ships making the ABC island trio tour but RCI decided to either do Perfect Day or Labadee in place of Bonaire for the 8-night sailings.

 

The reason for that could either be: 1) The cruisers want a private port experience more than Bonaire 2) RCI makes a lot more money on private port stops as they rake in all the revenue.  You be the judge on which of the two reasons influenced RCI more…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were all set to check off that southern box as well.  Too bad my daughter's school messed that plan up.  I'm just glad that even though we didn't find out until September I was able to switch to the NYE sailing at great rates even of we did have to take gtys.  Ended up after a couple of moves about 10 cabins apart and DW wasn't entirely happy but to pick your cabin was over 3 times the cost of the group guarantees.  Still had a great time.  

[LuCruise]

59 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

Thanks.  Yeah, as we were disembarking on 12/31, I was thinking you and Ken and others on your sailing were out there somewhere getting ready to come onboard.

 

Did you guys have good weather on your sailing?  FLL was unseasonably cold when we disembarked at 48 degrees on New Year's Eve.

 

We really like the Odyssey as we enjoy the 270 area.  That was our favorite place to hang out and relax in the wide open space.

Lol...funny you thought the same. 🙂

Most days were cool but sunny...with one day rained off and on (Haiti) and one day hot (Dominican Republic).  Can't complain though as still much better than back home for us.

 

Glad you enjoyed Odyssey.  I agree...the 270 is beautiful with the floor to ceiling windows...and then loved how it also turned into screens with cool technology. 

 

Looking forward to hearing about your cruise.

[harryfat1]

8 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

We were all set to check off that southern box as well.  Too bad my daughter's school messed that plan up.  I'm just glad that even though we didn't find out until September I was able to switch to the NYE sailing at great rates even of we did have to take gtys.  Ended up after a couple of moves about 10 cabins apart and DW wasn't entirely happy but to pick your cabin was over 3 times the cost of the group guarantees.  Still had a great time.  

I think you did great in being just 10 cabins apart on a guaranteed cabin.  You guys could have been 5 decks and 800 feet apart on Aft/Forward cabins.  I guess you would utilize the desk phone they provided in the cabins to contact the other cabin. That's the only time we use the desk phone to call the in-laws in the other cabins if they cruise with us.

 

Well, one day we will be on the same sailing as you typically sail during the Holidays given your family's schedule is tied to the school schedule as well as ours.

 

Side note to others - Ken and I were scheduled to be on the Freedom of the Seas back in December 2016 but he had to reschedule that one as well due to a schedule conflict. Maybe the third time will be the charm.

 

[harryfat1]

As this was a Holiday sailing, it came as no surprise that the ship was jammed packed way above 100% double occupancy. The reported passenger total for our sailing was 5,269 people.  Per Wiki, double occupancy for the Odyssey is 4,198 and theoretical max is 5,510 passengers. 

 

So at 5,269 passengers, we were at 125% of normal occupancy.  Even for a Holiday sailing, that’s a lot of people as historically RCCL fleetwide average was around 110% during the Holidays.  It would be interesting to see how well RCCL as a company did for 2023 Holiday sailings as one would imagine the numbers would be high given many of the sailings have been very full in 2023.

 

Speaking of numbers, these were the return cruiser numbers for our sailing.  Quick addition (you can't present a whole bunch of numbers to a Finance guy and not expect him to try and add it) will show only 2,451.  This is less than half of the 5,269 so that meant over 50% of the cruisers on our sailings were first-timers...

 

 

This will be the last set of random pictures to finish off the introduction part and then we'll see the pictures in the natural order as they occur during the cruise

 

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[Mama2CruiseBaby]

Excited for this trip report! Your photography and writing style is great! Our family of 4 are sailing on the Odyssey next month and we’ll also have an aft obstructed view cabin on an 8 night sailing. 1st time in Cococay and the Southern Caribbean, 1st quantum class ship. We also favor the Oasis class, but felt like it was time to change it up. Also, the prices were good and so was the itinerary.

[zaylyn2590]

18 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Ahh, yes, food pictures.  Typically at this point of the introductory phase of the trip report, I go on the “cheapo spiel” saying I try to save money by only eating in the complimentary venues.  However, for this cruise, I splurge with a couple of specialty dining (albeit lunch only) and a balcony cabin (albeit VERY obstructed) view.

 

Thus the explanation for the long title of this report as I can’t call myself “cheapo dad” in this report as I had surrendered to the “dark side” and spent money above the minimal fare. So for the remainder of this report, I’ll be known as Cruiser Formerly Known As Cheapo Dad (“CFKACD”)…

 

Although in my self-defense in the Cheapo Inquisition Hearing scheduled for later in the year, I spent the extra money because:

 

·       It was our 25^th anniversary so I thought maybe spending a little extra would be warranted.  To quote Homer Simpson “Give me your second least expensive champagne…”

 

·       It was a Christmas sailing so I thought the family would enjoy the new experience

 

·       The specialty meals were all lunches and with Black Friday prices, they weren’t as outrageous as the Christmas Chops dinner at “only $99.99”.  Haha, No Thank You, RCI…

 

·       Nearly impossible to find a double/double inside connection window view cabin on the Odyssey. We were lucky to find this set of cabins as is

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Omg please tell me that loco fresh has corn on the cob all the time! 

[harryfat1]

3 hours ago, Mama2CruiseBaby said:

Excited for this trip report! Your photography and writing style is great! Our family of 4 are sailing on the Odyssey next month and we’ll also have an aft obstructed view cabin on an 8 night sailing. 1st time in Cococay and the Southern Caribbean, 1st quantum class ship. We also favor the Oasis class, but felt like it was time to change it up. Also, the prices were good and so was the itinerary.

I think we are very similar.   

 

This was our first Quantum-class ship as well as having an obstructed balcony on deck 6 in the Aft.  It would be funny if your cabin was near the ones we had.  Depending on your luck, every 4th or 5th cabin has a very obstructed view. We got the short straw on our balcony with a bad view but the boys got a better one with a larger balcony space as it was at the end of the section. 

 

I will show you the "secret entrance" to 270 from the Aft deck 6 cabins when we get there on the report.  Saves you time and walking.

[harryfat1]

3 hours ago, zaylyn2590 said:

Omg please tell me that loco fresh has corn on the cob all the time! 

Haha, sorry.  That corn picture is not from a lunch on El Loco Fresh but from a land-based restaurant on Hollywood Beach.

[harryfat1]

Pre Cruise-Planning:

 

After you have made your final payment at the 3 months pre-cruise, the next important date is to select a cruise check-in time.  RCI opens the cruise check-in 45 days before the sailing date at midnight EST.  Coming from California, that meant 9 PM so I didn’t have to stay up late to try to get done at the onset but being 9.2 on the anal scale, I did set a calendar reminder date on my phone and a reminder 1 hour before being at the computer to check-in.

 

I think you can do it both on the phone App and online.  Being old, I prefer logging in online with a bigger screen and I can type faster on the physical keyboard.  If my kids were doing it, they would do it on the phone app instead - different generation.

 

I had forgotten you need to have passport info on hand to get a time slot.  I thought you just signed in for the time slot and went back to do the passport later.  So be sure to have the passport in hand when you do this.

 

Finished the check-in for the 4 of us by 9:20 PM (PST)/12:20 AM (EST) and was somewhat surprised/disappointed the best sign-in time available was 11:30. (And yeah, my real name is Harry and not John or something but calling myself Harry online...)

 

 

 

For the Navigator, I didn’t sign in until later on day 1 and I got the 11 AM booking (earliest was 10:30).  Maybe Odyssey/Florida has different time slots than California.

 

(For those who are ready to jump on a new post and say, BUT for our cruise, our boarding time was this...  No need to make that post. Just follow the storyline here. Don’t come in with any spoiler ending.  Don’t be THAT GUY at the theater eating popcorn and telling his friend, I bet you $5 this dude get killed by Freddy Krueger in the next scene..)

 

 

12 hours later, the best available time is now at 12:30 as the 11:30 and 12 noon slots are gone

 

12 hours after that, only 1 PM slot is the earliest slot available.

 

So the take-home lesson is that within 24 hours after the check-in window is opened, the 11:30/12/12:30 slots were all taken.  There are other cruisers out there also that track the check-in time and they jumped on the slots ASAP.

[harryfat1]

Pre Cruise-Planning:

 

I showed in a previous post the Excel schedule I modified for this cruise from the previous Allure cruise but unlike the Oasis class ships, there’s not that much to reserve ahead of time for the Odyssey unless you are doing specialty dining.  There is only one show, The Book, that you need to reserve a space for pre-cruise. 

 

In theory, you can do it while on the ship, but I don’t know how much space they reserve for onboard booking versus doing it from home.

 

Depending on your budget, you can either reserve the “paid” version of iFly and NorthStar at home (think it was around $40/pp) or wait until boarding the ship to reserve the complimentary sessions. The paid sessions give you more and you can book it months ahead of time for a sea day.  The complementary sessions are only available on port days.

 

Even though I’m only CFKACD, I still won’t pay the extra fees to RCI so we opted for the no extra cost sessions.  To get those, once you are onboard, be sure to reserve the complementary IFly and Northstar sessions ASAP on day 1.  Those time slots are only available AFTER you get on the ship and connect to the ship’s wi-fi.

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

If you are interested in any of the packages or specialty dining, reserve them ahead of time online.  They typically don’t get any cheaper once on board.

 

Especially if you booked your cruise months/year(s) out, check online (I’m not an App person to check on the phone) frequently for discounts.  If in doubt, book it now and you can cancel up to 3 days before sailing and get a full refund if you see the same package on sale at a later date.

 

For our cruise, the best prices I found were the Black Friday sales.  So if you have a cruise booked for next year, but sure to start checking for discounts in mid-November, 

 

I was able to get the photo package at 50% off and Specialty lunches at $13 (Giovanni’s) and $18 (Chops) at 40% off during the Black Friday deals.  So that makes it more reasonable to upgrade to these dining.

 

 

But if you have your heart set on that bargain $99.99/pp Chops Christmas dinner, you won’t see any discounts for that anywhere and RCI explicitly excludes the Holiday dinners from the all meal plans.

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Itinerary:

 

This was our 8-day itinerary in going to the A and C islands plus Labadee (Haiti).  We were disappointed that we weren’t going to CocoCay instead as we had already been to Labadee twice previously and we had never been to CocoCay.

 

 

In looking at the Odyssey schedule for the rest of 2024, they typically sail to CocoCay as part of the 8-day run but somehow just for our one cruise, they didn’t go there.  Perhaps CocoCay is already full with other ships that day.

 

 

As stated previously, I’m not a sea day guy.  That probably put me in a minority as many folks here on CC are sea day people.  I cruise/vacation through my camera (phone) lens and if I have nothing to photograph/experience, I get antsy.  Like I said, I vacation to see/experience new places.  The ocean is a constant for me and you can only take so many pictures of the same ocean…

 

A couple of months ago, RCI asked me to participate in one of their surveys and they asked how many sea days I would prefer on a 7-night cruise and I answered “1”.  I doubt I will ever be on a transatlantic/transpacific sailing.  Too many sea days…

 

Someday after my kids are done with school, we will go to the European cruises as those are better fit with our preferences in having numerous port days.  

 

 

 

 

 

[mets07]

6 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Being OCD

You will forgive me that I hate this expression. You don't have OCD. You might have an obsessive personality or planning proclivity, but anyone that knows anyone that truly suffers from OCD knows there is nothing in what you have that is really like the anxiety disorder.

 

Enjoy your cruise! 

[jacobtsf]

1 hour ago, harryfat1 said:

A couple of months ago, RCI asked me to participate in one of their surveys and they asked how many sea days I would prefer on a 7-night cruise and I answered “1”.  I doubt I will ever be on a transatlantic/transpacific sailing.  Too many sea days…

 

Someday after my kids are done with school, we will go to the European cruises as those are better fit with our preferences in having numerous port days.  

Last February/March we did a 7 day Island Hop on Rhapsody. Left out of Barbados, and visited 7 different islands in 7 days. It was exhausting (especially since we had our then 3 year old with us) but so so awesome!

[Mama2CruiseBaby]

2 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

I think we are very similar.   

 

This was our first Quantum-class ship as well as having an obstructed balcony on deck 6 in the Aft.  It would be funny if your cabin was near the ones we had.  Depending on your luck, every 4th or 5th cabin has a very obstructed view. We got the short straw on our balcony with a bad view but the boys got a better one with a larger balcony space as it was at the end of the section. 

 

I will show you the "secret entrance" to 270 from the Aft deck 6 cabins when we get there on the report.  Saves you time and walking.

I tried to look at the deck plan and compare it to other views I googled, but we shall see. Thanks for the tip! My guess is that the entrance is adjacent to the “library”? I’m looking forward to a shortcut to my early morning coffees from Cafe 270 that I can drink while watching the ocean from my obstructed view, lol.

[harryfat1]

2 hours ago, jacobtsf said:

Last February/March we did a 7 day Island Hop on Rhapsody. Left out of Barbados, and visited 7 different islands in 7 days. It was exhausting (especially since we had our then 3 year old with us) but so so awesome!

That sounds like a lot of fun.  I would imagine it's tiring to go see so many ports in a row.  Especially in the hot humid weather of the Caribbean can be tiring but I'm sure you have some great pictures and memories from your trip.

I do want one sea day on the last day so I can pack and get ready for the flight home.  Last August we were on the Navigator and the last day was a port day and it was tiring to come back from the tour in the afternoon to shower and pack and get ready for dinner and have luggage outside by 10 PM.

 

[harryfat1]

2 hours ago, Mama2CruiseBaby said:

I tried to look at the deck plan and compare it to other views I googled, but we shall see. Thanks for the tip! My guess is that the entrance is adjacent to the “library”? I’m looking forward to a shortcut to my early morning coffees from Cafe 270 that I can drink while watching the ocean from my obstructed view, lol.

If you look at the deck plan for deck 6, the red circle was our inside connecting cabins.  You walk out toward the back of the ship and you will see that "tiny opening" on the deck plan.  That's how you can connect to the back of deck 6 of 270 from the cabins.

 

When I was studying the plans pre-cruise, I thought it was an opening that anyone could walk through.  I was totally surprised when I walked around and couldn't see the opening.  I thought they sealed it off.  It wasn't until day 2 morning when we found the secret door that connects the area. I will show the pictures when I get to the cabins.

 

Deck 6:

 

 

Walk down the stairs to deck 5 and you are right at the 270 cafe to get quick breakfast or any drinks and then sit in the comforts of 270 enjoying the view:

 

 

[harryfat1]

Day Minus 2 : 

 

As this was an 8-day cruise departing on Saturday, my preference is to fly out on Thursday night or Friday morning from California to Florida ahead of the sailing. However, as many have noticed, the price of airfare has been ridiculously high for 2023. 

 

I waited and waited for the prices to come down and finally had to book the airfare at a higher price than I would have expected. In order to save money, we had to fly out on a Wednesday instead of Thursday or Friday as flying out just one day earlier is a savings of $150/pp. 

 

Multiply that by 4 people, it’s a savings of $600.  Being a CFKACD, I rather fly out earlier as I’m still better off paying the extra night of hotel and having lunch/dinner in Florida and still come out ahead. Another way to look at it is I get a free day of vacation for the same amount of money paid.

 

So the decision was made to fly out on Wednesday night so I could save one extra vacation day at work and arrive in Florida on a red eye.

 

This makes it a total of a 10-night vacation.  One question I raised in my Alaska trip report was how many people are over/under packers? 

Meaning if it’s a 10-night vacation, do you pack exactly 10 pairs of underwear/socks/shirts or do you overpack with a “just in case I spill something” attitude (a +1 packer).  Or are you a minimalist with a small carry-on and only pack 7 pairs (-3 packer) with the thinking no one should be close enough to sniff your underwear so no need to change daily?

 

Back then many of the ladies ratted out their partners by saying many men are negative packers (but no mentioning of themselves). So I'm just curious if anyone here is a big + or – packer?  Being anal, it should surprise no one that I’m a +1 packer.  Always have the “what if” paranoia that I might need an extra shirt/underwear/socks somewhere along the way.

   

Would love to hear if anyone volunteers to share their packing preference?