Odyssey of the Seas (Greece & Italy trip)
Odyssey of the Seas Cruise Review
Contributor Level:
Second Mate
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 5
Helpful Votes: 59
12 Night Holy Land (Rome Roundtrip)
Sail date: May 05, 2024
Ship: Odyssey of the Seas
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 10182
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 5 months ago
Review summary
Safe to say, if you love cruising, book your next on Odyssey of the Seas, but if you love adventure, history and food, book a Mediterranean cruise on Odyssey to live out the tales of Homer.Embarkation
Super easy embarkation, the shuttle is pretty easy to find and once we arrived at the terminal we were on the ship in no more than 30 minutes. Staff was good at the terminal.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
The food and drinks may have been the best I’ve had on a Royal ship. Multiple times I thought the cocktails were way better than some of the Caribbean cruises I’ve done before. The food was amazing especially the main dinning room with multiple delicious types steaks and other meals I’ve not seen.
Onboard Activities
Like most Royal ships the activities were awesome, tons of pools, rock-walls, gym, spa and much more. I one thing was the evening activities were a little empty, I think since the amount of amazing ports, everyone was tired by the night. (Clubs and shows like The Quest) were pretty empty compared to other Royal ships.
Entertainment
The show ‘The Book’ was amazing, but the show sing in the main theatre besides ‘Showgirls’ were average. Very talented people, but no comedians which was a bit of a letdown. My wife and I actually skipped a few nights at the theatre cause some didn’t sound that interesting and we were also super tired from the ports.
Service and Staff
The Staff like usual on a Royal ship were amazing. Our room steward was great, super friendly and super helpful! Whenever we needed anything he was there. Also the wait staff were super, from the main dinning room, specialty dinning and buffet. The other big thing was the EFFY jewelry staff, they were super informative and give us amazing deals on a few pieces for my wife. Also they had tons of raffles and free champagne:)
Ship Quality
The Ship was amazing, I said on multiple occasions to multiple people this May be my favourite layout of a cruise ship yet. It was designed like one of the big ships but had a small ship feel(in a way) we were never cramped or in crowds. I also loved how each venue or club was tucked in better than the oasis class, it felt more atmospheric. Either way this class has shot up my list of favourite ships.
Cabin / Stateroom
Once again I loved everything about this ship and that includes the cabin! Very spacious, super comfortable and extremely clean! And the views from the balcony were incredible!
Ship tip
If your an adult without kids, make your way early on those see days to the Solarium!
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Ports of call
I loved Rhodes, probably my favourite underrated stop and probably #4 for me. We took a shore excursion to Lindos which I would recommend 100%. The old city dates back older than the Roman Colosseum and the food once again was amazing. Also if you don’t go to Lindos the medieval port town of Rhodes is definitely a really cool place as well.
Cyprus, now we didn’t see much because we chose to make it a beach day. I would recommend probably doing an excursion because Royal charges you $30USD per person to get to the town. And if u try walking you’re gonna spend a good 90 mins per way walking through the sketchy part of town. Now once we got to the town it was a beautiful build up beach and harbour town. The water was super warm and the food from the beach restaurants was fabulous! If you like Greek food this is the spot!!
So this was my #2. Mostly because of the Amalfi Coast. So we did a full day excursion in Naples. We actually spent only like 30 mins in the city of Naples before going to Pompeii. Pompeii was probably the best intact city we saw the whole trip and would 100% recommend. We then had an amazing lunch and headed to the Coast. We boarded a boat and sailed along the Amalfi coast taking in the amazing sights. Then we stopped in the town of Amalfi for free time. I wish we coulda stayed longer. This needs to be added to your bucket list along with Santorini and Turkey!
Civitavecchia/Rome. So we stayed one night before the cruise in Civitavecchia and 3 nights after the cruise in Rome. Rome is amazing and I’m sure you can find tons of info everywhere on how that city is incredible. Now Civitavecchia most people think it’s just a place to board the ship, well yes it’s a port town but our night that we spent there was great. Awesome night life in the middle of the city, tons of great seafood restaurants (il sugherino). Then if you went down to the beach at night it was like a huge party for young Italians. Definitely would recommend if you enjoy nightlife.
The port of Athens was not the great so we took an excursion to the Acropolis. The ancient city was beautiful but very crowded and our tour guide wasn’t that great which made the day a little lacklustre. Tough to say how to avoid this on your trip, maybe a private tour?
Get to the town before the masses. We got to the town when it was pretty empty but within an hour or two it was packed! Loved the town tho, the white buildings were beautiful. And if you love cats they are everywhere!
Very underrated port, we took an excursion from the ship, walking tour of the port then hopped on a boat and sailed to an island and snorkelled with 100’s of fish! Beautiful port town, honestly wish we had more time!
So this was #1 for me! Hands down my favourite place to visit and I’d love to go back here in a heartbeat! We started our day riding the donkeys up the cliffs, took a taxi to Oia and had lunch. Then we rode ATVs(quads) all over going to wineries and beaches. Then we took the famous cliff road from Frita to Oia with beautiful views and saw the sun set.
So Turkey was my 3rd favourite port but my wife’s #1. The amazing ancient city of Ephesus and the nearby small Turkish towns of the hillside made this day one to remember! You need to add Turkey to your bucket list!
Disembarkation
Disembarkation was amazingly easy off within 10-15 minutes which was great. The reason why I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars was because the shuttle/taxi service was kinda a mess. We were sent to one shuttle only to wait 20 mins and had to get off that shuttle to a different one, then that shuttle wasn’t going to the train station so we had to then find a taxi. But that wasn’t the cruises fault.
Traveler Photos
