dr martini

They actually do. I made it to D+ on comped cruises.

I respect everyone's opinions here. Most things in life are subjective.
I will say, however, the predominant nature of the responses 1) cite the fact that Quantum ships were developed for cold weather, and/or 2) appear to be written by people without young kids who are on cruises to have a mostly 'adult' experience. All of that is fine. It makes total sense for there to be cruise ships with more indoor options if they're going to be deployed outside of warmer climates. It also makes total sense for there to be cruises with more adult-driven experiences (although I'd argue the lack of Central Park and the Aqua Theater with no replacement is a bit underwhelming in that respect.)
However, for most of Odyssey's short history -- including this cruise I just went on -- it has been deployed in the Caribbean packed with families with young kids -- which is increasingly Royal's target demographic.
If I were taking a Celebrity Cruise in Alaska, Odyssey would be an amazing ship. But for a cruise full of kids needing things to do during two sea days, it underwhelmed. The SeaPlex continually kicking kids off the sport court to have adult sports competitions, giving the hundreds of kids no where to go on a ship built for cold weather, was particularly unideal. It was a Spring Break Caribbean cruise with no waterslides, no mini-golf, no sports court, no Boardwalk, no carousel, no Abyss, no ice rink, and no designated karaoke venue. It does, however, have a lot of specialty restaurants and a giant crane that you could pay to stand in and take pictures. To me, that wasn't an even trade.  
I also didn't mention the massive footprints of the Music Hall and Boleros. There are huge back areas of these venues far from the entrance, which serve no purpose other than to provide huge spaces for people to drink. Again -- great for a Celebrity or Virgin ship catering to adult experiences. Not ideal for one catering to families. 

Funny you mention Mariner as another you don't like- I see nothing but people LOVING that ship.  

Before I begin, let me say that Odyssey is a beautiful ship and -- more importantly -- the service and staff are excellent. Our cruise last week had the best service and easily the best food of any Royal ship I've been on. I can't stress this enough. After several cruises lamenting the quality of MDR service and food quality, and the freshness of food in the Windjammer, everything on this cruise was fantastic. 
That aside, I've never before been disappointed by a ship on Royal -- and our group (all of us veteran cruisers) was continually underwhelmed by Odyssey's design. You wonder what happened during development of the Quantum Ultra ships that they totally missed the mark after killing it with the Oasis Class. 
I've been on Wonder, Symphony, Freedom, and Mariner, and I felt even the Freedom & Mariner were superior in so many ways.
Quantum boats were developed after Oasis Class but they didn't include Central Park, Boardwalk (+ carousel & Abyss), Aqua Theater, or skating rink -- yet they basically added nothing to replace them. The elevators. OMG 🤣 The no-touch buttons are a disaster. Of the 50 elevator rides I took during the week, I think I can count on one hand the times I got in and there weren't at least 2 or 3 buttons hit with no one getting off. You couldn't get within 2 feet of the panel without accidentally hitting a button. It was a joke among every passenger on the ship. I get that it's a COVID thing, but Wonder doesn't have this issue. The SeaPlex is a cool room but the big mistake was removing the sports court and skating rink, etc., and thinking the SeaPlex could handle everything. The sports court on every ship I've ever been on is in constant use by kids playing soccer or basketball. But because of the lack of other venues, every time kids would go out to play, within 30 minutes they were kicking everyone off for bumper cars, laser tag, adult sports tournaments, pickleball lessons. It was crazy. You had a boat FULL of kids on spring break and every time they started having fun they'd shut the court down for an adult 3-on-3 basketball tournament and leave all the kids with nothing to do.  No waterslides. I realize not everyone cares about waterslides, but at this point they've been an expectation on all ships and cruise lines for 15 years. It's odd that they felt waterslides were unimportant enough to build Quantum class with none and then do a total 180 and decide they're so important that Icon needed SIX. They seem to have sacrificed them for the North Star, which is gimmicky, limited to a small % of passengers, and a clear effort to replace something free with something that drives $$$. The 270 Theater that essentially replaces the skating rink and Aqua Theater is terribly underutilized. We were on the boat for 6 days and never had a reason to go there.  In general, I had the overwhelming sense that the amazing job Royal has done with crowd control on other ship classes was totally missed here. I've never felt crowded on a ship, but Odyssey is full of overcrowded venues (SeaPlex and Esplanade, particularly) and they totally screwed up the Windjammer. Half the seating is way in the back far away from the buffets, and as a result the WJ always felt crowded. There are buffet stations in the back but they were never open, even during the busiest of breakfasts, etc.  Again, staff, service, food, cleanliness -- all excellent. But Royal totally missed the boat, so to speak, on ship design here. If not for the food I'd go on Mariner 10x again before I'd go Quantum class. 
Just my opinion 🤷‍♂️
 

tried the cc beach club last year in january only because we found an $89 rate, I don't think we'll be back.  it's a beautiful area and liked the quiet, but had the same experience with a very slow bar and nonexistent waiter service around the beach chairs, we have been to PDCC several other times and bounced between south beach (i really like the four sided pavilion bar at the entrance to the beach as well as the swim up which, yes, gets crowded) and the Oasis lagoon pool if you're into that vibe (we were).
here's the view looking out from the pavilion bar on SB (with back to the road and the ship looking out towards cabanas on the left, swim up bar from south beach to the right)

Number 27 on this map, apparently it's named "coconut willie's"

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/dam/royal/resources/pdf/perfect-day-at-cococay-wayfinding-maps.pdf
 
 

And shore to ship service brought us back. The cruise ships have to anchor about 5 miles out and it's a 15 minute tender ride. 

Yes, but *shouldn’t* it be?? 🤣

I got up super early this morning to make the 4 hour drive to Tampa from Tallahassee.  No need for a hotel the night before this way.

Not the best driving conditions..but the rain cleared up once I arrived.

There's also refunds and OBC being given... overall, I think they are offering a pretty good deal being it wasn't something they had any control over. 

Sorry to get off-topic for a second but I don't understand why they built a bar that looks so nice at night in the dark only to close it at 8pm. Nothing wrong with it in the daytime but that colorful canopy looks amazing at night.

Symphony is the only Oasis class ship I'm missing and I'm Wonder's biggest fan but I'd choose based on price, itinerary, ease of travel, etc. You'll likely love either one.
I could tell you to pick Wonder b/c I love Mason Jar brunch (and I do) or the redesigned WJ is nice (it is) or the ice show is my favorite (it is) but the above is still my answer.

More importantly Edge class goes through the Panama Canal.

A quick stop at Barefoot Beach before it was heavily populated with suite guests for the day.

Next over to Nellie's Beach.

And on to Columbus Cove.


A short stroll through the artisan's market.

Then over to Adrenaline Beach.


It's an absolutely fantastic day here at Labadee.

Sounds like the Radiance propulsion issue from last year. 
Anyone who has owned an older car knows stuff breaks out of the blue.
Time to sell them off.  

My money is still a variation of the Celebrity Edge class platform.  Instead of engineering a hull from scratch they'll take the Edge class hull and modify the interior space to Royal-ify it.  Probably flex fuel engines like Xcel as I don't think a new low emissions engine platform is ready today which is when it would needed for a building a ship that will debut in 2028.  
That should put it around 3,000 passengers or a bit more but it does make Tampa and Baltimore no-go ports which I suspect is inevitable.   

I understand that Royal is all in on the 10,000 passenger destination amusement park family ships and there is no doubt they dominate that market.  We are sailing Icon and I respect Royal’s dominance in this market.  The demand and profitability is through the roof so good for Royal.  As we have aged and entered the retired empty nesters group we constantly look for longer and more interesting destination cruises.  With Royal that means Vision and Radiance class ships and B2B sailings.  That means old ships and a lot of polished brass with limited ship features.
As the population ages huge numbers of Diamond + and Pinnacle people will be aging into this demographic.  The most flippant response seems to be “just cruise Celebrity or Siversea”.  There is no loyalty benefit to crossing to those brands.  Even though I have status on RCL and and cruise Royal 80% of the time I don’t find Celebrity compelling and are not interested in the Silversea / Regent price points.  I think eventually Royal will have to expand into the other adult segments or lose lifelong customer to other cruise lines.

It's not the bridge that is the only limiting factor in using the canal.  Royal has a tendency to place their lifeboats so they hang outside the hull in part.  Some ships have walkways that go around the hump hanging like a shelf off the side of the ship.  These protrusions from the side profile of the ship don't allow them to use the canal even if the Bridge of the Americas was replaced.  
If you look at all the ships from all lines that use the canal you will find smooth sides to the ship far enough from the waterline that they can slide down the concrete wall of a lock chamber and not do any damage to the ship or lock.  By placing the lifeboats far out or by having walkways hanging off the ship Royal gains inside space to make the ships have larger internal volume (gross tonnage) giving them more space for venues inside the ship but the trade off is having parts of the ship or the lifeboats hanging out of the side profile.   This also limits their ability to the use Panama Canal.  

Freedom is still a large ship in the grand scheme of things

Balcony hack (if you have one): it's big enough to make into your own private sun lounging area. 😎
 
 

Reviewing my casita on board, 8 Seabreeze Circle. It was located on the starboard side by the railing very close to the Lime & Coconut. 

I bought this months ago when I was trying to decide what to do in Nassau, and I really thought I was going to cancel it. I ended up keeping it because I didn't really want to be wandering through the city when it was hot and humid like it was in September. That was my mistake, the weather was perfect today and I should have wandered through the city. I digress. I paid $125 to have this exclusively mine from 9:00 a.m.- 6:00 p.m.
Check in time at 9:00 a.m. was on deck 12 of the Lime & Coconut. There were a couple people ahead of me and nobody at the bar. We were all wondering what was going on, and finally the guy came out at 9:10. I initially chose one of the casitas furthest away from the bar area (#1), but then I realized it was going to be in the sun all day and switched.
It comes with four water bottles in the cooler/ table, four towels, the bed to lay in (comfy), and two side tables in the corner. Oddly enough, the outlet in that casita was a standard plug. The first casita I checked out (#1) appeared to have USB ports in it. Don't quote me, but it was set up slightly differently. I thought that the listing said that there was a safe inside the casita for securing belongings, but there definitely wasn't one in mine. I had to take my stuff with me each time just to be safe.
The casita stayed pretty shaded most of the day, and by the time the sun would have been on me again in the afternoon, it had popped behind a few clouds so it wasn't too bad. Some people might want to be in the casitas that are facing the sun, but I like to stay shady.
I think I spent somewhere between 6-7 hours out there to maximize the money I spent on it with the time I was given. In the morning, I was really doubting why I had reserved the casita because it was absolutely empty. In fact, a couple of the loungers beside me were in better shade than my casita was! However, after my attempted nap in the afternoon, I realized why having the casita was very helpful when everybody was everywhere on that deck area. People in the loungers around me had started using the side tables in the corner to place their drinks. No big deal to me, it was just the person that decided to leave a half eaten plate of ELF food on my bed during one of my bathroom breaks that really annoyed me.
My options for the bathroom were the one directly below me in the solarium, or I could just run a couple decks down to my room because the casita was roughly above where I was located. As the day progressed, using my cabin versus the public restroom became much nicer. 🤢
I loved watching the pier runners and sail away from the casita. Having the towels was very helpful. When the sun went behind the clouds and the wind picked up. I never had any issues with the call button for the waiter, and he was super helpful with bringing drinks and a plate of fruit around lunch time. I was actually shocked to see that most people didn't use those casitas that they had reserved until the afternoon. Maybe I'm just a penny pincher but I wanted to make sure that I maximized my purchase!
Would I book this again on a port day like I did? Possibly. I have one reserved on Navigator later this year that cost $89, which seems much more reasonable for what you get. I know that the sea day rental tomorrow for this ship is $450 and it's sold out. 😱 I definitely wouldn't do it for that much. Honestly, I think it would be much more fun if I had someone there with me. It's nice to be able to stretch out on your own and do your own thing, but it would have been fun to have been hanging out with someone to talk about the various shenanigans that were happening around me.
TL;Dr - My casita was nice. I might do it again for the right price.

great updates so far, tough work but somebody has to do it!

I paid $20. To me, worth it. Anything more and I probably wouldn't.
He said the problem comes from all of the construction as well as traffic in the port area, so many of the drivers don't find it worth their time.

great updates so far, tough work but somebody has to do it!

great updates so far, tough work but somebody has to do it!