Travel Weekly cruise editor Johanna Jainchill just got off a seven-day segment of a 12-day Caribbean sailing on the Seabourn Odyssey. Her final dispatch follows.
Several passengers wondered aloud if a 450-passenger ship can still be considered a yacht, which is what Seabourn calls its vessels.
And some people on the Odyssey will not be back. They consider themselves "small-ship people," and prefer Seabourn’s 208-pasenger vessels.
But many expected to not like the Odyssey as much as the smaller ships, and wanted to try it because it’s new, but have actually been surprised at how intimate the public spaces on this ship feel. They immediately found their favorite places to steal away and find a quiet place to read or sunbathe.
One is a signature Seabourn spot, the single whirpool placed at the tip of the ship’s bow on Deck 6. At night, this area doubles as the darkest outdoor deck on the Odyssey and offers amazing stargazing.
Then there’s the ship’s second pool area on the aft of Deck 5, where a small pool and two whirlpools occupy a small sunbathing area that was never crowded.
No area of the Odyssey ever seemed crowded. The only place where I saw people scrambling to find seats was lunchtime at the Colonnade’s outer deck sitting area.
The Seabourn Square is another space that the passengers love – for being both cozy and social.
The Square is clearly the one place everyone seems to congregate at at some point during the day. Whether in the morning for cappuccinos, midday to browse the Internet on one of eight computers or anytime for reading a book.
The Square also is the place to take care of any needs in the purser's area, which is cleverly hidden behind a square of bookshelves in the room’s center.
But beyond intimacy, many passengers said that whether the vessel is big or small, it is the crew they come back for time and again. And much of crew on the Odyssey have come over from the line’s other ships.
"It’s the staff that keeps bringing us back," said Dave Gordon of Toronto. "On Seabourn, the service is above and beyond."