SEABOURN ODYSSEY: Two Weeks into a 53-day Cruise

Today represents two weeks on the Seabourn Odyssey.  

• The itinerary was, well, kind of junk.  For those 13 days, a Sydney to Hobart to Perth to Adelaide to Melbourne to Sydney trip would have been far better.

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  The management seems somewhat disorganized.  Maybe it's the "just out of pandemic process" matter that is causing most of this.  Whatever, let me tell you one incident that should have been better managed.
• Yesterday morning we got this sudden letter indicating that all passengers needed to bring their passport and guest pass to meet with immigration officials off the ship.
• I called and was told to go now, which was around 10AM.  We had not yet had breakfast, but went as told.
• There is this transition zone between the ship and customs.  Left the ship, but at the entrance to Australia, a guard said that we also needed a transit card.  Went back to the ship, and they had a pile of cards in no particular order.  Somehow they found our cards, which meant they had to go through this process for every person on the ship.
• Armed now with the Passport, Guest Pass and and Transit Card, we left the ship.  When we got to the other side, we were told that the Immigration Officials would not be available for another hour and probably more.
• Okay, big deal, so we can then go back to the ship to eat something.  Nope.  Once off, you can't get back on until you officially go through the immigration process.
• So what?  I'm hungry and my blood pressure is going up.  Well we went for a walk into Sydney,  maybe to eat something, plus I wanted to get an item from the Apple Store, and sort of knew where that was located, and perhaps pick up a bottle of a heavy-bodied Sparkling Shiraz we heard so much about.
• We returned around 11:40AM and passed through the immigration process.
• Not yet lunch, and my pedometer read 7172, which, if you've been keeping up, is spectacular.  I've been averaging only around 3500 steps/day.
• Went to a fine lunch.
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  The best part of all, some head something or another called and said sorry for all this humbug, and for their mistake would delete our special $195/person wine dinner bill we had for our troubles.  Maybe it was the high blood pressure issue that caught their attention.

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  There was a second matter that bugged me.  
• Anyone who has boarded a cruise ship know that they need to go through a muster session for safety purposes,  Life jackets and all that, except they have simplified things and no mass gathering on deck on this ship.  Meaning nothing like the scene to the right.
• Well, we went through this minimal process two weeks ago, but had to do this again.
• So I grumbled, for we will need to again go through this effort when we get to Fiji, and anywhere else when a lot people leave and others board.
• The reason why is that people forget where they should go in an emergency, and the cruise just wanted to remind us of a few things.  Old people forget, something they did not say, but no doubt have in mind.

That aside, and those above issues are really picayune, the cruise has been spectacular.  The best we have been on in our life.  The Happiness 1 condition I'm in continues.  All those above incidents didn't dent my state of near euphoria.  The food is mostly excellent, the drinks copious...and they haven't yet run out of Glenmorangie or anything else.

I left you yesterday truly upset because we could not return to the ship through corporate mismanagement.  Thankfully, the ship was berthed at the Overseas Passenger Terminal, only a ten minute walk to our previous Marriott hotel.  So we walked into Sydney all the way to the Apple Store for me to purchase an earphone for my iPhone.  Then we also picked up a bottle of fabulous Sparkling Shiraz.

So here are just a few reason why this cruise is so great.  Lunch was a special pleasure because we were so hungry, not a normal condition on this cruise.  All that walking led to a pedometer reading of 7172  BEFORE lunch.

The roast pork had a special umaminess that was at a maximum.  A close second was the short ribs we had last night.

Then, the one best experience we both have ever had on a cruise.  We ordered room service for two double orders of caviar, plus some salmon, which we had with chilled Belvedere Vodka and that extraordinary Sparkling Shiraz we had just bought earlier in the day.  To begin, our view from our veranda of the Sydney Opera House to watch the departure of the Odyssey.

I've been searching for a heavy-bodied red champagne, and this is even better than the one Phil Bossert and I tasted in Germany for our wine-importing company.  He ran the effort and I was a minor sponsor.

You would have thought that we would be totally satiated and ended the day on our veranda.  Instead, we went to The Patio for dinner, and a final theater show.

What a day....what a cruise.  Furthermore, walked 8580 steps yesterday.  Next, Moreton Island.