Crown Odyssey Cruise Review

Age: 41 to 50
Occupation: Lecturer
Number of Cruises: 3 to 5 Cruises
Ship: Crown Odyssey
Sailing Date: August 20th, 2000
Itinerary: Barcelona - Istanbul

We are two (nearly) middle aged Australians from Perth. Our cruising experience prior to this was twice on the Star Cruises SuperStar Gemini out of Singapore (interestingly a family member to Orient) and Rhapsody of the Seas to Alaska, also this year in June.

We had heard extremely good reports about the Marco Polo and we waited until Orient's brochure for 2000 was produced before making plans for our 3-1/2 month world trip. When it was produced we were initially somewhat dismayed to see that the MP no longer did the itinerary we wanted; it was the CO instead.

After perusing the brochure and prices (amazingly good value) we selected the 20 August sailing from Barcelona. We had previously been to Barcelona and loved it so we made our own way to Spain from Edinburgh where we had been lucky enough to stay for a few days and see the Military Tattoo. We spent two nights in Barcelona before transferring to the CO Hotel which in our case was the Barcelona Plaza. This was one of the very few criticisms we have. We had asked our TA to check out the price of this hotel to see if we wanted to stay there for our previous two nights but it was horrendously expensive so we chose instead the Hotel Continental on La Ramblas - a brilliant choice. They have a web site for anyone interested. This was one quarter the price of the Barcelona Plaza and included breakfast.

The Barcelona Plaza is not in a good location for first time visitors to Barcelona - you would wonder where the heck the action was - there are no restaurants directly near it and I don't think Orient should use this hotel. We had to have the buffet breakfast, which was not cheap, as there was no other restaurant open. All we wanted was coffee (and toast!!) maybe a piece of fruit. A lot of the people joining the cruise from the US arrived late and did not have Spanish pesetas and found they could not use their US dollars, except in the tourist areas. Rethink this one Orient Lines.

We got picked up by Orient and given the half day tour of Barcelona which was fine although we had seen it before, always more than happy to see and learn more about any place in the world. And on to the ship mid-afternoon Sunday 20 August. What a buzz.

We had booked the second lowest inside grade of cabin and specified which cabin we wanted (non smoking) - but guess what - WE WERE UPGRADED!! We had learn this from our TA while in Dallas Texas at the beginning of August so we were really excited. We had been upgraded to an OUTSIDE - also on Deck 4 - cabin 4060. The only downer to this was the beds did not go together - but oh well, you get that!

We loved the cabin - the bathroom with the bath tub, huge amounts of storage space. We were travelling for a long time so we had quite a bit of luggage and we had empty drawers all over the place - I can't imagine anyone filling all the drawers. All our stuff fitted perfectly and it is so nice to unpack everything and store your cases under the bed out of the way. The toiletries were nice; interestingly enough for the second part of the cruise, they brought in small baskets for the bathrooms with "upgraded" toiletries - shoe cleaners etc. On the last morning these were removed!!!

The staff were fabulous - top marks - can't say enough about them. Our cabin boy, Junior was excellent, unobtrusive and efficient.

The restaurants were fabulous - top marks - can't say enough about them!! We had asked for late seating but got main which they apparently weren't able to change. We didn't push the issue at all - we are laid back Aussies and happy with our lot. We met some great people (majority from the US) on this cruise including Flo and Larry from Denver and Betty and Audrey from California - wonderful people. Our waitperson - Boyet from the Phillipines was fantastic; hs offsider - what do you Americans call them - busboy? - weird name - Ricky - great fun. Back to the food. We thought it was excellent; we dined at all the outlets and also had room service one afternoon when we got back after lunch from a tour and were hungry. Loved the ice cream at the al fresco dining option. We were changed to the late sitting for dinner for the second part of the cruise from Athens to Istanbul and we did like that better because it meant we didn't have to rush back from day trips for dinner. The maitre 'd checked with us prior to Athens if we wanted to change so they had remembered and were obviously doing their best to keep all their passengers happy. Once on board we had not mentioned the late sitting again, so top marks to them for changing it even though we had not complained or pushed the issue.

We loved the movie theatre - and generally manged to catch a movie every second day or so and we also enjoyed the entertainment in the lounge. It is not as ritzy as on, say Rhapsody of the Seas, but it is a much smaller ship, with a different clientele and we thought the entertainment was more than adequate. Can I say here how terrific we thought the Entertainment Director, Adam Derrick (from Great Britain) was. He and his wife Nikki were an absolute asset.

We loved the gym, but unfortunately some of the exercise bikes weren't working properly and as there were a lot of people who wanted to use them I think Orient Lines should address this problem. Apparently they hadn't been working on the previous trip either. The indoor pool and the spas on this level were also fabulous. We used the pool on Level 2 more than the outdoor one.

The destinations: what can we say? This was the stuff dreams are made of. Monte Carlo (we had been there before and loved it), a day trip to Rome, Sorrento, Malta, Santorini, Mykonos, Athens, Rhodes (wonderful place) Kusadasi and Istanbul. These would have to be the best destinations in the world and we could only implore people to try to visit them yourself from the comfort of a ship. I never thought I would be so lucky.

The weather was perfect - Orient Lines can't really take credit for that but we will allow them to because it just made the perfect trip.

The only other small criticism was that in Istanbul we only required one night of accommodation (Marmara Hotel - great location and standard considering we had booked the second lowest grade of cabin with you would think equivalent hotel grade) as part of our cruise because we were joining up with a Globus tour of Turkey. We were told from Perth that we had to pay for the second night, because it was an all-inclusive thing. Paying AU$400 odd is a bit annoying when you don't have to and it is not used, but when we found out other people had not used (or paid for) any of the hotels, we were a bit annoyed, but considering our upgrade - oh well, too bad, so sad!!

In conclusion: fabulous cruise, destinations perfect, great ship we loved the size, the food was really good (not as good as Rhapsody of the Seas in some ways) but still would rate as an 8/10. We don't drink much so that was not an issue and with the conversion of our Australian dollar to US Dollars it was quite expensive for us. Entertainment: could probably only be classified as adequate - I don't think the entertainment budget is large but the CO Singers and Dancers and the Derricks did a great job. We went to the casino just twice, hardly "loose slots" as they say in Las Vegas so once we had lost our money on the second visit that was it.

Unfortunately my partner had to use the services of the ship's doctor, and we can rate him as well -10/10. Just a slight case of the Barcelona Belly - nothing to do with the ship.

Thanks Orient Lines and CO for the holiday of a lifetime - 20 August - 2 September 2000 we will never forget.