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Quantum Ultra 2 steel cutting ceremony this morning! welcome Odyssey Of The Seas


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48 minutes ago, Matt said:

Just shared photos and a video, with the most important info....she will sail from USA!

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2019/02/01/odyssey-of-the-seas-will-be-royal-caribbeans-second-quantum-ultra-class-ship-and-sail

Let the speculation on home port begin!

I'm guessing that Odyssey will be the replacement for Anthem in NJ, while Anthem takes a more permanent position in Europe, which would give Royal some additional winter-season sailing options in that region. Purely basing this on how Anthem replaced Quantum, which was originally ported in NJ as well, plus the fact that all Q-class ships are designed for colder weather sailings.

Apart from NJ and Seattle, which would be problematic for Anthem to get to since she's too big for Panamax, what cold-weather ports could Odyssey call home? Honest question, since she can't fit under the bridge to go to Baltimore and I'm not sure if it would be worthwhile to Royal to home port her in Boston while keeping another Q-class vessel in NJ.

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I personally believe that it is more likely that she will replace either the Independence on the 4/5 day Caribbean or Adventure on the 6/8 day Caribbean out of Fort Lauderdale. I leaning more towards Indy in light of Royal aiming to attract millennials with the shorter cruises. Placing Odssey would give them the upper hand on the competition. Of course it is not like Indy isn’t already doing a great job on the itinerary especially with the new enhancements. 

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3 hours ago, cameron7763 said:

I personally believe that it is more likely that she will replace either the Independence on the 4/5 day Caribbean or Adventure on the 6/8 day Caribbean out of Fort Lauderdale. I leaning more towards Indy in light of Royal aiming to attract millennials with the shorter cruises. Placing Odssey would give them the upper hand on the competition. Of course it is not like Indy isn’t already doing a great job on the itinerary especially with the new enhancements. 

I have to disagree, and not purely because I want a new Q-class in my home port. ? The signature feature of Q-class is that they are designed from the ground up for cold weather -- the massive indoor solarium , the SeaPlex with all of its indoor activities, iFly (which you have to enter from outside but really an indoor activity, the multitude of indoor entertainment and recreational spaces (think Two70, Music Hall, etc; not just the usual Schooner Bar, pub, and Boleros)... and very minimal outdoor stuff. Apart from the pool with its associated bars, and the NorthStar, there's really nothing to do outside. And I felt like the pool on Anthem was kind of small compared to the ones on Freedom. I walked past there during the belly flop competition and it was jam-packed; no way you could get a lot of people using the pool at once.

If they put that ship in an all-warm-weather location all year long, it would be a waste of her design and might well result in a lot of people complaining about how they're spending all their time indoors. Cape Liberty, Boston, or Seattle are where I'd see Odyssey spending most of her time in the US.

And one other possibility I hadn't considered before now -- California.

Royal hasn't sailed out of there for ages, and this could be a way to have a ship on the west coast year-round -- up in Seattle for the Alaskan itineraries, and then down in California to make runs up the west coast to Canada or down to Mexico in the fall and winter months. The Pacific, despite its name, gets really rough from what I remember reading about it; and one of the Q-class' other design features is to handle rough waters better than the other ships.

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On 2/1/2019 at 2:14 PM, SpeedNoodles said:

I suppose hoping for a home port of Duluth (Lake Superior) would be asking too much.  Probably too big to get under the lift bridge, anyway.  ?

With Mackinac Island and Chicago as ports of call?! I can imagine the sight of her docked at Navy Pier!

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