HOW WAS OUR 53-DAY SEABOURN ODYSSEY CRUISE?

So how was our Seabourn Odyssey 53-day cruise?  Depends on who you ask.  My companion loved the journey, and made a hold for a future trip with Seabourn.  I thought it was mostly fine, but a bit too long.  The fantasy baseball season began a month ago and my three teams started poorly.  However, two are now in first place and the third in second, so can't really complain.   The following are mostly my views.

A huge surprise is my weight.  

• After we returned to Honolulu, went shopping at Marukai to purchase some o-toro sashimi for the 15 Craigside-supplied Pork Tofu for dinner and other items to enhance in-house meals, I added a large bento of curry rice/garlic chicken, with a goodly amount of fat-inducing macaroni-mayonnaise salad.  
• I thought this would be my last splurge before re-going on a diet.  I weighed 152-155 pounds the week I left Honolulu for Sydney nearly two months ago. 
• After that lunch with beer, I weighed myself, and had to repeat it three times.  For all that I ate and drank on the cruise, and I truly overdid it, my weight was 150.6 pounds.
• Probably was the sleeping, and I did eat less the past week because of some belching.  I hardly had any breakfast, except for the first and final mornings.
• We don't talk about her weight.  But maybe she too was surprised.

Okay, for the more important matter about the cruise.  I'll start with some negatives.

• It was too long.
• The ship had a somewhat serious covid outbreak.  We thus needed to significantly reduce activities. 
• We hardly made any friends for fear of covid.
• We even stopped going on tours the past few weeks.  Mask-wearing made life not so comfortable.

• 
  I got tired of caviar, escargots, meat and fish of all kinds, salads, scotch, gin, vodka, champagne.........name it.
• The Japanese food was not Japanese food.  Interesting that the staff from India said the India food did not remotely resemble what they eat back home.

• 
  Thomas Keller's The Grill was a disappointment.  Plus, the outbreak ruined the environment.
• All the Pacific islands look about the same, but smaller than Hawaii.
• Our in-room films were plentiful, and not exactly the best.  Watched too many bad ones.  The TV was too small.
• Why didn't we go out and party, you say?  Well, the outbreak, for one.  It is also dangerous to dance on a moving ship.
• 
  The shower was too small and I kept hitting my elbow on something.  The bathtub was hard to enter and leave.  The toilet flush wakes up anyone trying to sleep in the room.  Looks like most cruise lines are now using this type.  They need to find a way to to make it ten times quieter.
• I spent too much time on this blog.
• There was almost no way to exercise.  The moving ship, the danger of using the wellness center, any excuse I could find.  I did walk and dance in place in our cabin to music to pad my pedometer number.  But this was not real exercise.
• We slept too much.

The positives far overwhelmed the above.

• We could sleep a lot.
• We did not catch covid.
• We were generally healthy.  I did not feel any symptom of sea sickness.
• The service was mostly terrific.  Better than the Regent Seven Seas Explorer.  There are a dozen Seabourn staffers we know well, including their names.  I don't recall one on the Explorer.

• 
  The food was excellent.  Yes, I tired of everything, but, certainly better than compared to 15 Craigside, where I live.  We did miss the local and oriental food.
• The drink as much as you want for free atmosphere was nice, but dangerous, and after a while, I became more sensible.  I wouldn't be surprised if we reached 20 drinks/day in the early period, which dropped to maybe 6/day the final weeks (at least for me).  Still a lot more than the one/day recommended by health authorities for seniors. 
• 
  We left as two people and returned as one.  Because of the outbreak, we were together just about 24 hours/day, and got along fine.
• WiFi was free and almost universal.  The technology has significantly increased since my last major cruise.  Save for only one day around the equator, almost everything was accessible.  For an extra $700 we could use up to 4 devices/person, but also access to links like You Tube, Netflix, etc.  Those are not worth that amount of money.

• 
  The top three activities:
• Airplane tour of the Great Barrier Reef.
• Whales and Rainbows at sunset from our veranda moored off Lahaina.
• There are probably ten other #3s.
• Our front port cabin was perfect.  We got most of the best views (relative to the starboard side), and no vibration (compared to aft rooms).
• We very much enjoyed.

• 
  High tea at 4PM, scones with clotted cream and about ten other types of edibles.  Also added a glass of cognac or scotch on rocks.  Well, perhaps not good for added weight and ruining dinner.

• 
  Sailaways when we departed a port.  Veranda caviar with vodka and other goodies added to the enjoyment.  They also have several The Patio around the pool parties with great entertainment.  We found a pod to enjoy all this.  It was always available because no one else chose to use the two available.  Why I can't imagine.
• 
  Brought two pipes and several cigars.  However, the ship allowed you only to smoke them at one corner of an outside spot away from people.  There was a conspiracy to prevent me from smoking, I finally did, but only once.
• We did like those several delivered dinners in our cabin and watched a film.  A few were excellent.
• The weather was absolutely perfect.  Rare rains, decent seas and no threatening cyclones.

• 
  While not the Seabourn Odyssey, I should add Sydney as a big plus.  Our Marriott near the harbor was perfect for walking around the city.  We also found a Sparkling Shiraz that met what I have long wanted.  A heavy-bodied red with bubbles.  Adelaide was also a surprisingly livable city.
• I took around 2000 photos, and will show the best 100 at our next 15 Craigside travel presentation.  Here are a few of them in chronological order, starting with a shot of Sydney as our Qantas flight was about to land.  The sun was just about to set and I was positioned just perfectly for this shot showing the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

This photo was crucial, as we had to have a positive covid test within 48 hours of boarding using Zoom so Seabourn's representative could see what we were doing.  We had to do this from our hotel room in Sydney.  Two potential problems.  I'm terrible at linking with Zoom.  Two, if we tested positive.  We'd have to come home, and pay again to do this.

Sydney Opera House from the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Departing Sydney on the Seabourn Odyssey at sunset.

Celebrated a birthday.

First formal night.

A koala.

Caviar, vodka and Sparkling Shiraz on our veranda, with salmon.

Great Barrier Reef.

An interesting weather pattern in Townsville.

Goonies.

A typical lunch. 

I should show you one photo of the Seabourn Odyssey.  Here in Papeete.

We finally got a sashimi plate served towards the end of our cruise.

Not much of a photo, but this was a whale from our veranda in Lahaina.

Then a short while later a double rainbow.

Many cruise lines serve at their final dinner Baked Alaska, and do a parade with this dessert.  On the Seabourn Odyssey was just a large one which was served to you.

So that ended our 53-day Seabourn Odyssey cruise.  I'm home, happy and will look forward to our next cruise, which will probably be on the Diamond Princess in the Fall around Japan to complement two weeks on Japan Rail Pass to watch the change in colors.  We sort of did this in 2019.  While we especially like this ship because it is built for Japan (the Japanese food is good, and there is a karaoke bar, etc.), a month after we left the ship in Yokohama a passenger from Hong Kong kick-started the COVID-19 pandemic by boarding the Diamond Princess.  Four years later, surely must be safe by now.

Yesterday for dinner at home I had a 15 Craigside Pork Tofu, enhance by first frying some wagyu fat, and topping with an egg, plus O-toro sashimi, with cold beer and hot sake.

This morning when I woke up Honolulu was again sparkling.  The cruise terminal is located just to the right of this photo.  Of course the Odyssey had left....for Vancouver.

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