Adriana

I do have a whole bunch of odds and ends but I may update those when we are at the airport.
Okay so day 3 on Odyssey....
So two-thirds of the vintages really went all out for formal night.....makeup, falsh lashes,  wigs and other razzmatazz. BFF put his tuxedo on and he looked like he was going to a classy strip club. My brother is a mechanical engineer so he always dresses business casual. My mother looked like a Wakanda reject. I wore my floral bellbottoms I bring for 70s night. My brother and I were the only one's comfortable.  They took some pre-show photos.  Then we went to see The Book. 
So Odyssey was like we have the technology let's build a bionic.....naw let's do some tv robots.  What do we want them to do?????.........just assist with a hodgepodge of thrown together tomfoolery.  That's exactly what The Book is.......a hodgepodge of straight up tomfoolery. I got each vignette but they didn't go together whatsoever.  Don't get me wrong the vocals and choreography was giving all the life. But it was just..........
My mother is one of those people who doesn't care about depth. So all the shows have been the best. People were flying on contraptions and twisting in air so she thought nothing compares and I was happy for her. Everyone else was like " umm.......what did I just watch?" We all thought there was cool parts but Odyssey vibe apparently is confusion. 
After the show we took the very long walk to dinner,  so long we were late. J/k. Giovanni's is steps from 270. They did have our table ready and it was for 7 people. The host recognized me right away and had a really good disposition. Our server was wonderful and friendly. I tried their signature strawberry peach Spitzer.  We ordered all the apps for the table plus 2 pizzas and an entree each. It was so much food. The cheese and meat platter overall taste better than Jamie's but Jamie's has better breads. The meatball Gigante was crazy, I wasn't a fan but everyone loved it. Nobody liked the spicy sausage Stromboli. My brother and I were the only one's that tried and liked the calamari and polenta. 
We got the meat lovers and mushrooms pizza for the table. The pizza was horrible, about on par with Sorrento's.  I expected it to be more airy and better tasting. They ate most of it because it tasted like Sorrento's. Between the 7 if us we got everything but the puttanesca and the steak muffuletta. The lasagna and chicken parm were rated the highest after the steak. I got a small portion of the carbonara to go with my chicken parm. The carbonara was horrible. I like my pasta al dente but that one was barely cooked.  It was dry and flavorless.  The pomodoro pasta that came with the parm was soft and wet. The pomodoro sauce was very sweet. So basically most of us enjoyed everything but the pasta. Dessert was a limoncello and all the desserts. The Panna cotta was the best. 
My mother's not a drinker, neither is my BFFs mom. They both ended up drunk after the two shots of limoncello my brother insisted we have. We took more photos and wrangled to two tipsy ladies back to their room. My mother fell asleep on the balcony and BFF mom's got stuck in her Spanx. It was wonderful times, laughs had all around. 
Day 4 is Falmouth Jamaica 
We got up and some went to breakfast. Some of us had work meetings.  We got off and did some in port shopping.  They were pushy but not aggressive.  However as we are "black folks," they kept trying to use the brother/sister line on us. That is " help a brother/sister out, come on we family brother/sister, and since you are my brother/sister I will give you a discount. " We split a pattie and coconut water plus had some of the different red stripe beer. We did buy some rum and engraved wood pieces but BFF mom is great at haggling, so we paid good prices. 
We got back on the ship around 1pm and headed to WJ.  They had 4 special burgers/sandwiches named things like the Odyssey,  the Royal, etc. Also they had sweet potato fries which were the bomb dot com. Desserts were again a very horrible selection.  Things like hard chocolate bar cake and carrot poundcake. My brother and me had a little work, so we are currently in our rooms doing that while the rest are on deck. I'm on teams multitasking.  We have our 2nd dinner, probably last, in the MDR tonight.  Everyone is sad we only have 2 days left. Oh we stood in line for a bit but no luck on bumper cars.

god i wish we had a go pro on the vintages flirting with the captain...

Good luck with the RUB of the best cabin for you! I hope you have a wonderful time!!

Its nice that the concierge was able to tell you about RUB and you could get something you want.

Oh, here is the second RUB. At first I didn't bid but then I saw 2 bathrooms so....I wasn't in love with the balcony and the locations were deck 7, 8 and 9 I think. So I  wasn't feeling it initially and then I pounced, clearly I have RUB issues! LOL!!
 

Oh, I forgot to mention. I asked the the concierge about the cabins I bid on for RUB's I bid two that are still saying submitted. He was great! He told me the cabins were purchased (royal suite and 2 bedroom owners suite) so they were not available. I was happy he helped there. 
I did use the monies I had allocated in the event of a "win the ability to pay more" situation and purchased the Beach Club on Coco cay, yay Thanksgiving day on Coco Cay Beach Club. 

3 days to go. I am happy to report I was contacted by the concierge for this sailing. He confirmed Terminal 6 so I purchased my parking. He was so sweet, I asked for a private table for the 3 of us in a corner of the restaurant just to try to mitigate the noise. He was like done! Anything else? No thank you. Are you sure? He was so sweet. 
Hubby and I are packed, just doing small roller board luggage and back packs. Daughter didn't even start, of course! Purchased internet to do some work on board and she can work on a bit of homework. 
Thanksgiving on Coco Cay with the Anthem, boy I wish they would offer a show on the ships while parked there, I would pay for an excursion to see the We will rock you show! That's all for now.
 

If you have The Key, you can drop off your carry on when you board and that should get to your cabin pretty soon. Even if it is still there after lunch and cabins are ready, you can then grab it and take it to the cabin. 

I'm literally in a food coma from Giovanni's so I will update the escapades tomorrow. 
@AdrianaI wasn't interested in the captain,  the vintages are. I don't know how to say cuteness. I guess he looks like an in-between Russell Crowe......like when he played Gladiator but also let himself go a little by having a few too many beers and some ribs. He is from Norway and has a pretty good sense of humor.

brand new,,, the single captain,,, hot mess express
as always, i'm dying laughing 🤣 thank you for this!! glad the day turned around a bit despite the staffing issues.

I went to the top tier event because everyone had various ideas of how they wanted to spend their morning. The vintages order room service for breakfast and my brother and BFF went to the gym......ahem fitness center, let's keep it classy. I met the captain and a few officers; it is important to know that the captain is single. The CD mentioned and several other staff members were asking for single ladies, I let the vintages know so we could get his sailing perks. 
I saw the expensive screens in action. There were four new pinnacles, none are single, and pair that was reaching their 2800-night milestone on this cruise. The capacity for this sailing was a little over 4300, which capacity at the double occupancy range, staffing is only 1720. I can feel the lack of staff and I feel bad for them. I had an appointment for Next Cruise to book out sailing out of Galveston. I scheduled an appointment for 2:30 and they skipped right to 3pm for some reason. I think the staff is too overworked. We found out only Oct 15th, 2023, worked for everyone but all the suites were sold out. We were able to get 2 rooms in a row and then another 2 in a row like 4 rooms down on deck 12 aft. I am happy with that as we might just do the Key, DX, and UDP. .
Appointment took a while so most of my family ended up scattered. I went to the casino and had a good run. So I have won back $175 of the malfunction money back. I think I could possibly make up half to two-thirds of it back. I believe I am owed some casino Karma.
Tonight, is dinner at Giovanni's and my family is a hot mess express. Giovanni is Italian and we all knew first day what we reserved. Now people are brand new. They ate at Sorrento's like four times yesterday, I kept saying I am saving my pizza for the Italian food we will eat tomorrow. Well around 4pm as we left the casino they asked about dinner and started complaining that we were eating pasta and pizza. I offered to see if I can change the reservation to Izumi's, but they said Giovanni's was fine. I feel like it will be something. It is also formal night.......wish me luck!

OK let's try this again.  
My brother started feeling like his self around 8:30 so we made our way to the WJ. Tonight was Tex Mex and that's not my jam, but everyone else found plenty to nibble on. My brother had 3 huge plates to satisfy his 6'2" bone skinny physique. I think the reason the food quality seems nich better is that they are still using European ingredients.  Lots of the butter, water, soda, etc. Is the European brands. They have pepperoni pizza but the pepperoni is actual summer sausage.  Lots of confused children and teenagers.....also adults.  Summer sausage is a totally different taste than pepperoni.
By the time they finished eating it was time to head to the theater for Effectors. First I will say the theater on Odyssey is the smallest I have ever been in. Several family members commented about how there must be 2 theaters because this one looks to barely hold 500 people.  Any way in regards to the Effectors.......I........Don't........know!!!!
So I liked it but I didn't love it. We are big superhero people so we were extra spicy excited.  It didn't jibe well. So I LOVED all the technology and mixed media elements but songs, timing and cohesiveness wasn't there.
First Pixel had like fifty-eleven songs and she wasn't the business. Every one of the other Pixels outshines her. She had the lowest energy when doing the choreography and the song choices made no sense to what and who her character was. But the elements were cool.
With Reverb I was confused, he was a "Dj" but none of his sings popped.  Also was he an alien? I  felt like Captain Vis songs all should have been Reverbs. 
We all loved Lume's elements but were really perturbed that her 3 songs were all about lights, like she swimming upside down in the air and doing the most but y'all didn't give her no bops???? Like everyone else songs didn't go with them but they had bops. Poor Lume!!
Lastly Captain Vis was really basic for his superpower was actually......stunningness. Also how the villain having better bops and charisma than the heroes? However his elements was popping! He had dancers with light suits that lit up with beats.  Techno music and bops, where he wasn't really doing much. 
Also Crash was giving. He was giving vocals, hair, camp and drones. There was little exposition so I didn't understand what was really going on. So I am unsure, I might watch it again. I will say it was the most advanced and original of of all Royals shows.
After the show we walked around. The esplanade was a bottleneck and I  can see why people like the promenade way better. People have been leaving their dirty dishes in the elevator.  We did lots of people watching at Boleros, my BFF did some dancing but the rest of us just watched.
I am missing stuff but the vintages have me a little off. I will get everything. 

you are like the unofficial cruise director for your group and the worst part is that you aren't even getting PAID for this.
you're going to need a cruise to decompress from it all. 💚

Omg I just spent an hour writing a post and it got deleted some how. I will update it again. 

Today for the most part was a very good day not including the casino.
I am mad about the casino, so I need to vent that right away. One of the machines malfunctioned and everyone knows that in that case everything is void. I lost $400. If I lost that playing oh well, that's me, but to not even HAVE played was beyond anger and disappointment. I was almost on the verge of tears.
Back to the program.
We had breakfast around 8:45 in the WJ, it was congested but we were able to find a table for the 5 of us who decided to eat. My brother decided he would get in a workout instead and then meet us at the NorthStar for our 10am reservation.  My mother said she was saving her appetite for PDCC snack shack offerings. I don't understand why people can't eat breakfast and also eat at PDCC. My brother said a lady was berating her bf at the gym because he was more muscled than my brother but only doing 50lb weights, while my brother was doing 100lbs. This was even more embarrassing because they were part of the 10am NorthStar group. Sadly, 2 littles girls were left behind in the WJ, I found a crew member to take them to look for their parents because they were crying pretty hard. I understand not every adult feels comfortable assisting children: but how do you walk by after seeing 2 crying children in the middle of place, with no adults around?
We did NorthStar and it was like a sauna. Every one of us was dripping sweat......but when I came out my skin was glowing. The NorthStar was pretty cool, but I think it could be shorter, like maybe what it is, is that the novelty wears off fast and then you are like meh. We then went to change into out bathing suits and hit PDCC. I will admit this was the first time in like 20 years I have actually worn a bathing suit. I did feel self-conscious, but I am on vacation, and it was one that covered a lot. Water was warm because it was very warm, so we did a few laps around the island and got a chicken sandwich. 
To be continued.

Thanks to everyone wishing good vibes, so far it has been.
It is hard to completely live blog when the vintages need so much direction.

I absolutely love two70! They make great sandwiches, salads, have fruits, desserts, etc.  The main dining room may also be opened (possibly, seen a couple of posts about it). You could go to Sorrentos but I def vote for two70. 

PDCC. 
We are here with Oasis and it's HOT!!!!
That's all I'm going to say for now because the walk to the islands begins. 

I've been known to book a cruise to try to get some tail but I've never canceled a cruise for lack of succeeding.  

We are going with family to Alaska (Ovation) in June 2024 and we decided to book Jr Suites (4) for all 8 of us.  My Son-n-Law thinks vacation needs to be at the beach so it took some talking to convince him that he will love Alaska.  After showing the family pictures and videos  from our Radiance cruise in 2018 they all are excited now!!! 

@fireclan, thank you! No point in wallowing in the challenges. Not always easy, but best to make the best of it and be grateful for the positive. God bless you as well!

Here's what I will say, first impressions of the people on this cruise are great.  There are lots of families. Everyone is excited to be here and have mostly been respectful......not necessarily to their bodies but to others. I don't know why every cruise someone's something falls out of their barely there clothes. 
We walked around looking at things and collecting drinks. Somehow we ended up at WJ.....well we wanted to use their bar. The placed looked beautiful and bountiful, so I snapped a couple of photos. Then I saw bbq brisket and sticky ribs. Since I didn't get my wings I was like I could have a taste. Then I saw freshly made donut bites......like munchkins. With various dipping sauces. All of it was really good. I am sure Royal uses the same food quality across ships but the chefs preparation is what changes things. They had a charcuterie station that my brother picked through.....good bountiful cheeses and spreads. We felt guilty because we really only went to get actual bar service but ended up snacking. 
Then there was a huge kerfuffle. My mom was gossiping and left her phone in the bathroom.  She made it to her room before she realized that mistake. Mom's BFF called me. She was confused about the bathroom and spent 30min going up and down into bathrooms. I asked what was she doing before the bathroom and she was on deck 15 watching sail away.  I took her to that bathroom and it was there. She nearly had a heart attack. 
We didn't leave until close to 6 and around 7 the casino opened up. Weirdly no one was smoking on the smoking side and everyone was on the non-smoking. I played for a while and am up $23. My BFF brother and mother were there with me, he turned his $20 into $50 and cashed out. She lost $20. They both were fascinated by this lady and her casino ritual.  It was hilarious. When she hit the bonus feature she stood in chair and danced. Then she started it but she would hit the machine with the palm of her hand and say something in polish. Her friends were egging her on. She got up and danced a lot, also her hands should be dead with the force she used to hit the screen. She tripled her money but she had started with $18.
We had dinner at 8 which was right across the hall. Service was a little bad and majorly slow. The waiter actually forgot to take my order, this is why a little bad. However the assistant waiter was on it and we took care of him. I got a Moscato with dinner and it was very flat....but I am spoiled by Jamie's Moscato. So maybe that was the taste of that brand. Dinner tasted good but most of the food came out incorrect. My mother was supposed to get the southern fried chicken no gravy. Her BFF order the same with rice instead of mash and two corns. BFF mom got salmon and double mash. It was rice on my mother's plate. Two mash on her BFF plate, double corn on a random third fried chicken dinner. It was funny how mixed up everything was. Also we sat down at 8:10 and it was almost 9:40 before we got entrees. Way after 10pm before we left. We took a bunch of photos against the moving wall and retired to our rooms for the evening. 
Oh.... the escargot was greenish.
Up next is PDCC and Northstar. 



 
 

They have the canned mineral water. At close to 4pm almost 600 people still hadn't completed eMuster. I found out there are several large family groups traveling on this cruise.  One of a group of 150. Lots of people wearing matching shirts.........my family likes the idea until the shirts come. There was also a family of like 49 folks all in white, they were brave.
The vintages are a full mess. They text each other and add Odyssey to everything. Like "meet me at the Odyssey MDR, the Odyssey sports deck, etc." Also their font is definitely set to 42 or 60. So everyone with decent eyesight can see what they are texting. Every few minutes they ask what we are doing and whens dinner. I tell them to go eat but then they say they just checking. We did a walk through of the casino and the game selection is very limited. I hope to find a good machine later.
Drinks have been good, says my BFF and brother. The obstruction is not too bad but also not good. I think we will stick to suites when traveling with family,  it makes things easier. There are only 2 shows on Odyssey and the rest are comedian or headliners. Bumper cars are first come, first serve. I have never been on a newer ship so I can't get over how new everything looks. So far we all have had 2 very "vintage " gentlemen hit on us. The first was " which one of you beautiful ladies want to take a chance on an old lonely man?" The other I couldn't hear over the music at first but BFF mom said he tried it. Lots of people keep sitting their babies at bars, I don't know why that's weird to me but it is. I have to say services at bars are slow,  no rhyme or reason to how they serve people.  In Playmakers we stood for 15min and never got acknowledged. Sat at the table longer and they never came over. We left. I was looking forward to so wings. I know it's the first day flustercuck.

This is not a drill, we are on the ship.
They started boarding around 12:30 and we made it aboard 15min later. Odyssey is beautiful,  its definitely still new. We made our dining reservations,  headed to eMuster and made so show reservations.  I was able to book Northstar for 10am on PDCC morning for free. The esplanade is a bottleneck but man is everything real purty....... 
Staff are so friendly, we headed to El Loco Fresh and enjoy them delicious tacos.......several people had seconds. I have the most important announcement....... the have strawberry softserve,  you can get a strawberry twist or swirl as I call them. I had a mango daiquiri and it was so good. I signed my receipt for the diamond vouchers but it didn't say how many drinks. I am currently on my way to the stateroom. 
So far the people have been way more respectful. 

Before we left the hotel Mr "vintage" made sure to give my BFF mom an arm squeeze and a goodbye. I called Royal to figure at what terminal Odyssey would be at and they had no idea. I guessed terminal 18 and I was right. We left at 11am and made it to the terminal about 20min later. They had just started boarding 11am and we made it through in like 5 min. That's when things came to a grinding halt. It is 12:20 and even star class Is sitting waiting to board. We are pretty high up but the terminal is almost full with guest waiting. Lots of people are shocked to still see so many of us waiting. I hope boarding starts soon.