Quick Review of Odyssey of the Seas March 30-April 7

[bsbcgirl]

This was my 8th Royal Caribbean cruise, (first time on Quantum class)  first after Covid, and 10th cruise overall. (Emerald status on Royal).

Previous Royal cruising on: Enchantement, Navigator(twice), Adventurer, Freedom, Explorer, and Allure.

Cruised with husband, daughter, and son-in-law. We picked Odyssey because we had never done a Quantum class ship.

Had great weather the whole cruise (some clouds in Aruba and Curacao, but very warm)

Overall the ship is beautiful, immaculate, and we had a great time.

However, I would hesitate to choose this class of ship again, as we all agreed it was our least favorite. We did not care for the design of the two level contemporary style dining room and really missed the Royal Promenade. Two 70 is beautiful, but felt it was under used space. Took me longer than usual to find my way around.

 

Some good things:

 

Cabin (balcony deck 10-us and virtual interior-daughter): Perfect-plenty of storage. Our cabin attendant was great. Didn't mind once a day cleaning.

Checkin: Easiest ever.  Love the new muster setup.

Windjammer: One of the best- only crowded issues were embarkation lunch (as usual) and Cococay breakfast.

Cococay (since updated): I wish we had more than one day here. It is well organized and beautiful.

Sea day activities: Great and plentiful as usual.

Staff: Very friendly and hard working.

Giovanni's Kitchen: Splurge on this. You won't be disappointed. So good, that we booked a second dinner.

Some not so good things:

 

Entertainment: We personally felt that this was the worst entertainment we have seen (referring to main theater and Two 70) on any Royal ship. We always enjoyed the entertainment each night on all our previous cruises. I would blame my age (72) except my daughter (late 30's) and her husband felt the same.

Chair hog enforcement: Not great. Feeble attempts.

Elevators: Slower than normal

Bionic Bar: Causes a real traffic flow issue with lots of people just watching. Needs to be relocated in my opinion.

Chops: Food good, but service and length of time waiting for dinner unacceptable. They kept apologizing, but with a 7:15 reservation, we finally got our entrees shortly after 9:00 pm. (They comped 2 cocktails, but would have rather had better service)

MTD: This was a real issue. We had a reservation (booked online 8 months in advance) for either 7:15 or 7:30 each night there.

When we arrived at at the dining room- on time- there was (in the made reservation line) a long line of people that extended well into the casino.

All of the staff in charge of seating people seemed stressed and disorganized. The waiters serving us also seemed stressed and a bit disorganized. The head waiters were fine.  All tried their best to be friendly. Perhaps, like in many situations since Covid, Royal is under staffed. We had done MTD once before (on Explorer ) and had no issues. We all agreed that from now on we would choose traditional dining (second seating).

 

Special note: I must eat GF (Celiac) and would be happy to answer any questions regarding this separately.

 

We all came home happy, tired, and heavier. Again, remember that we had a great time and would cruise Royal again.

 

Happy cruising!