WHERE: Venice to Athens
DURATION: 7 days
LAUNCHED: 2009
DECKS: 11
PASSENGERS: 450
CREW: 333
LENGTH: 198 metres
Our first cruise was on Seabourn's "Odyssey". Not knowing whether we were ready for a cruise yet, we picked a 7 day Venice to Athens cruise. My only criteria was to do it with friends as I wasn’t comfortable going on a cruise ship and meeting new people for dinner every night. The criteria was met with four friends joining us.
The odyssey is a small ship with just 400 passengers and around 400 crew. It’s luxury style. Unlike other cruise lines, all of your food AND alcohol are taken care of for the entire trip. Prior to even boarding you are encouraged to register online and you can requests what spirits you would like in your cabin…and as you arrive, it’s already there and chilled, along with a bottle of champagne and glasses ready to crack.
Within 24 hours we were hooked on ship life and can’t wait to do it again. Just the luxury of only unpacking once and waking up every day in a different port just has to be experienced to truly be appreciated. We slept every night with the curtains open so that from dawn as your sleepy eyes slowly focus you can see a brand new day and a brand new scene. This really was quite spectacular.
You unpack once and wake up in a different place each day;
The food + there are high end restaurants you can go to for just a little extra
The staff are great and get to know you
Drinks are included
The food is magnificent and Odyssey has an intimate degustation restaurant as well as the usual restaurant. Dressing for dinner can be casual, however there is one formal night each week and as much of a hassle it was to being a jacket, it ended up being quite fun getting dressed for dinner a few times.
Some of the entertainment felt a bit out of date and could have been modernised, however most of the passengers seemed to enjoy it. To us it also seemed like the restaurants could have stayed open a bit later for people who wished to dine late, but it was hardly an inconvenience.
Service was pretty exceptional with you getting to know the crew wait staff quite well over a week. There want a lot to do at some of the ports (Argostoli, Pylos), so we spent a short time on land and then headed back to the boat.
But the best thing about this cruise line is that everything is paid for up front so you’re not dipping into your pocket for drinks etc. along the way. It’s a bit more expensive up front, but I believe you get your money’s worth. The only extra payments are for spa treatments if you have any and Internet service which was a bit clumsy to use, but they sorted that out for us as soon as we queried charges.
Overall, a fantastic experience.
TIP #1: Tell them you’re having an anniversary while on board and something special might happen in your cabin one night while you’re at dinner.
2016 - Istanbul - Athens
Our second cruise on Seabourn Odyssey in 2016 was from Istanbul to Athens and it was equally as good, although the crew weren't quite as on top of it as they were on our first. They have also sorted out the internet issues considerably (and I guess we were a bit wiser).
p: (within Australia) 13 24 02