Odyssey of the Seas Greek Isles Cruise

After successfully introducing our daughter to cruising (Disney Cruises UK Staycation) it was time to book her on her first “proper” cruise.

We chose Royal Caribbean as having travelled with them previously we know they provide a full itinerary catered towards children and there are plenty of European itineraries to choose from.

The cruise we planned looked a whole lot different to the cruise we ended up taking as between booking and taking the cruise I discovered I was pregnant, so that meant I wasn’t destined to be enjoying sunny sailaways from my sun lounger with cocktail in hand. Or trekking from Fira to Oia in Santorini. Upon discovering my marvellous news I quickly tallied up how far into my pregnancy I would be at the time of taking the cruise (you can’t cruise past 6 months pregnant) and found I only just made it. Hurrah!

Things to note if you are cruising while pregnant:

• You must be under 6 months pregnant by the last day of your cruise in order to board.
• Tendering ashore can be quite bumpy and there can be big steps up/down.
• The hot tub is off limits.

Itinerary

• Fly UK – Italy (Rome)
• Sea day
• Santorini, Greece
• Kusadasi, Turkey
• Mykonos, Greece
• Sea day
• Naples, Italy
• Fly Italy (Rome) – UK

Travel arrangements

We booked our package directly with Royal Caribbean, it included flights and transfers. The flights and transfers were on the morning of embarkation day which could have caused problems if the flight was delayed or cancelled but luckily for us everything ran smoothly on the day.

The benefit of booking directly through the Cruise Line is that they would be aware and can make arrangements in the event of any delays to delay sail away or meet you at the next port of call. If booking separately then it would be a good idea to fly in the day before and stay overnight to ensure that you have plenty of time to get to the cruise terminal before sail away.

The coach from the airport to the cruise terminal took over an hour and the aircon didn’t seem to be working (it was hot, hot, hot), that along with our early flight made for the perfect sleeping conditions for our 6 year old (and the other children onboard).

Check in at the port terminal was very quick, we had to show proof of COVID-vaccination status (cruise was taken in August 2022) and the usual check in documents/passports and we were onboard the ship in no time.

Dining

Breakfast

Breakfast was usually enjoyed in the Windjammer which offered lots of different options that appealed to each of us. It generally involved several different courses each so wasn’t really a quick option. On the days when we had to be up and off the ship early, we opted for room service breakfast on the balcony.

Lunch

There were a lot of different options onboard for lunch. A couple of lunches were enjoyed on the pool deck – nachos and burritos from El Loco Fresh, Burgers, Hot dogs and chips from the pool bar and of course the soft serve ice cream machine. We had pizza from Sorrento’s Pizzeria on the Royal Esplanade on a couple of occasions (conveniently located a couple of decks below our cabin and had one of the Coke Freestyle refill machines). Sandwiches from Cafe @ 270. Buffet from the Windjammer and even lunch in the Main Dining room.

Dinner

We ate most of our dinners in the Main Dining room. We had booked “any time dining” and made dinner reservations in advance on the app, as first siting i felt was too early for us and second sitting was too late.

If you go with any time/flexible dining then I recommend making dining reservations in advance as on the first and second night of the cruise there were extremely long queues for people who were waiting on tables that hadn’t booked in advance. It did get better after that as I presume people opted to dine elsewhere/ate earlier or later/switched to traditional dining.

The food in the main dining room was pretty good, as was the service and a few times we ended up in the same area of the dining room with the same servers. I do prefer the traditional style dining where you book first or second sitting and have the same table and staff every night in general as they get to know your tastes and can recommend dishes.

The layout of the dining room was horrible. Tables and chairs were too close to each other without obvious walk ways through the dining room. Not easy to get around at all, especially with a bump. Toilets were also a bit of a trek which when you have little ones is an annoyance as they always need to go at the most inopportune moments!

We ate one dinner in the speciality steak restaurant; Chops Grille, this has been a favourite of ours in the past. Still very nice food and great service but as expensive as a steak restaurant in the city now. They were very good with our little one, performing magic tricks for her and cutting up her steak into tiny little pieces meaning we could get on and eat our food which was much appreciated.

Our cabin

We had booked a restricted view balcony cabin on deck 6. The view from the balcony was partially obstructed by a lifeboat but I would happily book this cabin type again as we don’t spend much time on the balcony but a balcony is still nice to have for checking on the weather / drying swimwear / having somewhere outdoors to sit while others are getting ready.

Benefits of being on desk 6 was that we were closer to the main dining room and theatre for the evening shows. The disadvantage being that during the day it was a lot of stair climbing to get to the pool deck (and then a long way back to the cabin if you forgot the sun cream).

Activities onboard

The activity we spent the majority of our cruise doing was eating swimming. During the day the pools get extremely busy, so we started going early in the morning to make the most of having the pools to ourselves (or at least only sharing with a couple of other families). We’d still inevitably end up going there during the day time too and again in the evening when we weren’t at a show. We literally have to resort to bribes in order to get our little one out of the pool.

There are a whole host of other activities onboard as well – bumper cars, arcades, kids clubs, sports, flow rider, trampolines deck games, quiz shows, gameshows, films to name a few. We managed to drag her along to the bumper cars and trampolines but to be honest, she was happiest in the swimming pool.