Odyssey Inaugural....3 years later....8 night Southern Caribbean Nov 25 - Dec 3 2023

[LandstromCruise]

Made it to midway!  As of now flight on time. No issues. Traffic pretty light and lines at airport almost non existent 

[jbrinkm]

7 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Plumpy on the left or plumpy on the right ?  Plumpy on the right won't even look at whoever is taking the picture.  At least plumpy on the left is looking at the photographer !

7 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

Plumpy on the left, I noticed plump on the right was too mad for anything. 

Pup on the right looks like a pitty or pit mix, so maybe just SOLID rather than plump... they tend to be units!

[LandstromCruise]

Made it to FLL!!  The Aunt and Crazy Uncle were on flight with us!  Other Crazy Aunt and Uncle on way to airport to pick them up. In-Laws should be landing in about 20 minutes. All parties accounted for!! 

[LandstromCruise]

4 minutes ago, jbrinkm said:

Pup on the right looks like a pitty or pit mix, so maybe just SOLID rather than plump... they tend to be units!

Yeah the one on the right is a pit. She’s a sweetheart but definitely not happy about us leaving. She’s getting older and loves her daddy. She won’t know what to do without sleeping on my feet

[LandstromCruise]

Just got the emails stating my Royal up bids were unsuccessful. No big deal, wasn’t expecting to win them. 

[Lovetocruise2002]

43 minutes ago, LandstromCruise said:

Made it to FLL!!  The Aunt and Crazy Uncle were on flight with us!  Other Crazy Aunt and Uncle on way to airport to pick them up. In-Laws should be landing in about 20 minutes. All parties accounted for!! 

Phew! Now the vacation can begin!!

[Lovetocruise2002]

5 hours ago, SweetPea said:

Hehe, sorry, still on our own cruise where Batman told me he packed 11 pairs but in reality brought 7 and is now running out because he sent out laundry on Day 2 ... who does that when driving from home??

Does Batman never learn????? 

[LandstromCruise]

IT’S CRUISE DAY!!!! 

[asquared17]

IT’S CRUISE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!

[WannaCruise]

Following along as we'll be on Odyssey end of December.  Great that you are finally getting on her, and how nice to be going with family members.

Question...at what point were you able to book iFly and North Star?  I don't see it in our cruise planner yet and thought we had to wait until we board....but sounds like you've booked them beforehand.

It's cruise day for you!  Have an amazing time!

[LandstromCruise]

26 minutes ago, WannaCruise said:

Following along as we'll be on Odyssey end of December.  Great that you are finally getting on her, and how nice to be going with family members.

Question...at what point were you able to book iFly and North Star?  I don't see it in our cruise planner yet and thought we had to wait until we board....but sounds like you've booked them beforehand.

It's cruise day for you!  Have an amazing time!

You can book the paid versions ahead of time in your cruise planner. I was able to that quite awhile ago. Maybe it sold out if it isn’t showing on yours. The free ones have to be on ship. 

[LandstromCruise]

The Airbnb was pretty bad. It worked for the 1 night and only costing us $125/couple, but they didn’t have enough towels, no shampoo, etc. It was definitely one of the worst I have stayed at. 

[LandstromCruise]

We got up and walked to DD so some of the people could get some coffee. I wasn’t expecting to get exercise before we started .  My sister and brother in law that live in Deerfield Beach came to help give some of us a ride to the port as we couldn’t all fit in the crazy aunts vehicle. We got to the port a little after 10.  Traffic was pretty bad as they had mentioned. Dropped luggage at the porters and then went and parked the car. Found a spot in lot c right across from the terminal but there weren’t too many spots open. Got through security and checked in within about 5 minutes. Now just sitting and waiting for boarding to start. 

[LandstromCruise]

A couple pictures of the ship as we pulled up. 

[LandstromCruise]

Boarding has started! 

[WannaCruise]

43 minutes ago, LandstromCruise said:

You can book the paid versions ahead of time in your cruise planner. I was able to that quite awhile ago. Maybe it sold out if it isn’t showing on yours. The free ones have to be on ship. 

Thanks.  I do check regularly but maybe I still missed it.

Have an awesome time.

[LandstromCruise]

Got on ship about 11:15. Got reservations for the 3 night dining made right away. Doing Hibachi tonight at 7pm. Giovanni’s tomorrow at 5:15 and Chops day 6 at 5. Night 3 and 7 are formal night so will do MDR those nights. Will decide later what to do the other nights. After that came straight to solarium bistro for lunch.  I’m usually not very adventurous with food but tried some lamb and loved it.  Selection seems a little smaller at this solarium than on Symphony, but food taste pretty good. 

[OCSC Mike]

Paella! That was my embarkation day go-to lunch in WJ but it wasn't there on either Wonder in June or Allure last month. You've given me hope although that's an awfully small serving container. WJ used to have multiple big wok-shaped pans of it.

[LandstromCruise]

Rooms ready right at 1pm. Balcony room for us on deck 10, port side, aft. 7 ships in port today!  Celebrity Apex being one of them. Think we had a couple famous people from this sight getting off there today. 

[LandstromCruise]

Adventurous start. Crazy Uncle and the in laws were both missing luggage. Had to go down to the naughty room. They were flagged for alcohol, but neither had alcohol in them. 1 was apple cider vinegar . Anyways, now everyone has all their luggage, we have sailed away, and getting ready for Teppanyaki for dinner!  

[LandstromCruise]

First Alpha Alpha Alpha call of the cruise. 

[LandstromCruise]

Dinner tonight was Teppanyaki. It was amazing!  Sorry I did a bad job with the food porn pictures, I will try to get better as the cruise goes along. But my wife did get a few. Had a table facing the ocean, but unfortunately it was dark so that didn’t do us any good. Chef said the food was made with love! 

[Sweety]

Have an awesome cruise!

[LandstromCruise]

After dinner last night we went to see The Book. Got there a few minutes late because dinner ran over. But it was pretty cool. The talent of the dancers is just amazing. 
 

 

[LandstromCruise]

After the book we went to Music Hall and listened to some music and then watched the game show Higher or Lower. Then we head to the silent dance party. I was first thinking I would just go watch, but got out of my comfort zone and put a headset on. It was actually a ton of fun!!  270 I think was a great venue for this. Ended the night watching the virtual fireworks in 270 which was ok, but not that exiting. The balloons drops in the promenade are more interesting I would say. 

[LandstromCruise]

Since I was up past midnight which is way past my bedtime, we slept in a little this morning. Got up, enjoyed the view on the balcony for awhile and watched us pass Explorer of the Seas, and the headed to windjammer around 8:45. Planning to head to the top tier event since I have never been to one. I recently obtained platinum so figured I would check it out. 

[LandstromCruise]

A few pictures of the silent dance party and fireworks forgot to post earlier. 

[LandstromCruise]

My favorite view

[Lovetocruise2002]

1 minute ago, LandstromCruise said:

My favorite view

Mine too! Love those views from the aft! So peaceful and mesmerizing.

Quick question...what time were those virtual fireworks on last night? We have sailed Anthem 3 times and have been able to catch them for whatever reason. I really want to try this time on Odyssey.

[LandstromCruise]

18 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Mine too! Love those views from the aft! So peaceful and mesmerizing.

Quick question...what time were those virtual fireworks on last night? We have sailed Anthem 3 times and have been able to catch them for whatever reason. I really want to try this time on Odyssey.

Midnight. Like 3 hours past my bedtime

[LandstromCruise]

Top tier number. First time going to one of these events. The orchestra that played was great. Captain was pretty funny. Had 1 person reach pinnacle this cruise. He was a younger guy. Probably early 20’s. 

[LandstromCruise]

Pretty chill day so far. After the event went and watched some flow rider. My uncle decide to give it a shot!  I will do some boggie boarding at some point and then on our last day have a flow rider lesson. 
 

After that we hung at the pool for a little bit. Being a sea day it was pretty busy as you would expect. Seas have been pretty calm even with it being a little windy so hasn’t been a ton of motion so far. 
 

After the pool it was time to test out the casino. Luckily it wasn’t very busy being that it was in the afternoon, but the casino seems a little small to me. Not very many table games. But played for about an hour and walked about almost tripling my money, so I was happy. 
 

Now off to Giovanni’s for dinner. I will try to remember pictures for you food porn lovers like @OCSC Mike

[OCSC Mike]

15 minutes ago, LandstromCruise said:

Now off to Giovanni’s for dinner. I will try to remember pictures for you food porn lovers like @OCSC Mike

But you didn't ask what I wanted you to order!

We haven't tried Kitchen yet. Probably will over the summer once we have our BOGO's. Looking forward to the pics.

[LandstromCruise]

21 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

But you didn't ask what I wanted you to order!

We haven't tried Kitchen yet. Probably will over the summer once we have our BOGO's. Looking forward to the pics.

We have 8 people so should be a good mix. 

[LandstromCruise]

Since we had a large group the server said he would just bring out all the appetizers. The rest of the people in my party didn’t quite understand what was happening. It was quite funny watching the confused look on their faces. Here’s the appetizer picks. 

[LandstromCruise]

So small gripe. The picture guy came and took our pictures at the table before food came which was great.  However, then he comes back trying to sell the pictures while we have only gotten our appetizers. I asked if the pictures were available at the photo desk and part of the photo package as I bought a 100 package, and he said those photos weren’t part of the package. Seems dumb that they wouldn’t be. However, the pictures were really good and we had all dressed up for white night so we wanted the pictures. It was $35 for to get both the couple picture and then the group picture. So now we are sitting with photos while having to finish our meal. Seems like that part should have been done at the end.

[Lovetocruise2002]

That charcuterie board looks yummy! 

[Ampurp85]

Odyssey was where we had Giovanni's Kitchen for the first time. We had a group of 7 and they brought out all the apps and desserts.  I loved the garlic knots and that calamari and polenta app. 

[LandstromCruise]

Service and food was great!  I think I got pictures of everything we had. Sorry @OCSC Mike, I thought with 8 people we would have more variety. Ended up 4 people ordered the lasagna

[LandstromCruise]

After dinner went to karaoke. Boy was that a mistake. I by know means even begin to claim that I can sing, but somehow on this cruise we got all the people who flunked 5th grade music class up here singing