Royal Olympic Cruises, Ltd.

MTS Odysseus

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Operator:Royal Olympic Cruises, Ltd.
Year Built / Last Refurbished: 1962 / 1996-97
Length / Tonnage: 484 / 12,000
Number of Cabins / Passengers: 200 / 400
Officers / Crew: Greek / Greek
Operating Area: Worldwide
Telephone / Fax: Tel 113 0652 / Fax 113 0252

She sails to a lot of places I like. Besides that...I like this ship a lot....so I plan to spend as much time in her as I can....

Good things come in small packages...the MTS (Motor Twin Screw ship) ODYSSEUS is a good little ship! Truth to tell I am very biased in her favor because she is one of those rare birds I so love...a 12,000 ton motorliner...First and foremost the ODYSSEUS is a ship, not a floating palace by any means, nor a grand hotel on the sea...but an honest, real ship...a ship with quite an interesting past and every suggestion for a successful future...Over the course of slightly more than a year, I spent a total of ten weeks in her, lecturing to passengers on a wide range of maritime topics...In the process, I sailed from Greece to Brasil once, Brasil to Portugal twice, and from Chile to Brasil once. For a look at her performance in the Aegean, I took a four night cruise from Piraeus in her last July. I know this ship very well...and I really don't have to tell you that I love her...it should be obvious from all the time I spent in her and where she took me that this special ship and I have a thing going!!!

Like I said, good things come in small packages and sometimes in twos! "TWO" is the number behind the origin of this ship, one of a pair of twins among two pairs of twin motor passenger liners built in two different European countries in 1962 to work either the Rio - Manaus - Rio service or the Rio - Lisbon - Rio line for the now defunct Brasilian steamship company Companhia Nacional de Navegação Costeira. Able to carry 200 First and 270 Tourist Class passengers, this ship was the 9,696 gross ton PRINCESA ISABEL. With her sister identical sister PRINCESA LEOPOLDINA she was a product of the Spanish shipbuilders Soc. Española de Construcción Naval Euskalduna. Slightly larger at 10,444 gross tons apiece were the other two ships, the ANNA NERY and ROSA da FONSECA which came out of the Brodogradiliste yards in Uljanik and Split, Jugoslavia. Like the smaller sisters, these two ships also carried passengers in two classes of accommodation and like the Spanish built twins were twin screw motorships, each with two swimming pools.

The four ships never made much money for their owners and in 1966 the Costeira company sold them to Lloyd Brasileiro, then Brasil's "national" steamship company...Soon enough three of them started cruising in waters pretty distant from the Brasilian coast... All but the PRINCESA ISABEL worked under charters to American cruise operators...the PRINCESA LEOPOLDINA, in fact, was the first ship to sail under the houseflag of a Miami outfit called Commodore Cruise Lines...The other two worked for Wall Street Tours offering "Carioca Cruises" from New York but that is another story...Suggesting how well designed and built these quiet, unassuming ships were..., all four of them are still in cruise service...After about a decade of service under the Brasilian flag, the latter years under the ownership of Lloyd Brasileiro, the PRINCESA LEOPOLDINA was sold to the Swire Group which altered her for cruising and put her to work from Hong Kong and Japan as the CORAL PRINCESS. Today she works in the Indonesian market along with the former ROSA da FONSECA which saw years of service sailing for Japan's Mitsui Osaka Shosen Kaisha Company as the NIPPON MARU. Eventually sold to Greece, the ANNA NERY became the CONSTELLATION of Kavounides' "K" Lines Hellenic Cruises, a firm which quietly backed into insolvency in the later mid 1980s.

The last of the quartet is our ship, the ODYSSEUS, which was sold to Australia's Dominion Far East Line in 1969 to become their cruise ship MARCO POLO. Altered to carry 377 passengers in a single class, the ship began her first cruise from Melbourne on June 30, 1970...the only ship then offering cruises from Australia to the Far East. She cruised for eight years before her withdrawal and sale to Arkley Navigation Company, a firm intimately linked to "K" Lines Hellenic Cruises. Sending her to Greece for modernization, her new owners had no thought of employing her in home waters, rather, with the Peoples' Republic of China newly opened to tourism from Western countries, they had bought this ship to operate cruises between Hong and Japan via Chinese ports. With her superstructure extended forward to allow a large main lounge, she was renamed AQUAMARINE and debuted on her exotic new route in April 1979. For too many reasons the service was unsuccessful, proving such a "no-brainer" that the ship was arrested in Hong Kong on April 27, 1980 and sold at auction some months later. New buyers announced that a new company, American Global Cruises would run her on China cruises as MARCO POLO but nothing came of those plans....Meanwhile the former PRINCESA ISABEL lay idle at Hong Kong awaiting her future...Enter Epirotiki Lines! They bought her in 1987 and named her ODYSSEUS, lavishing quite a bit of money on her in a largely successful effort to bring her into the market as a "premium product".

When Epirotiki and Sun Line merged two years ago to become Royal Olympic Cruises, her hull was painted blue and her food and serviced upgraded to meet Sun Line's demanding standards...For the most part the transition has been a flawless process...though admittedly it took more than a new dress to bring this ship up to the caliber of the classy "Blue World of Sun Line"...

Here, in the ship's public rooms congeniality reigns...She has no atrium, only a very small casino, an unassuming cocktail lounge called the NAIADES and a combination main lounge, ballroom, show lounge and concert hall, the 290 seat Sirenes Lounge, forward on Jupiter Deck. With the big windows on an ocean world that so draws me to a ship, I am always comfortable in here...and if any entertainment offered in here during day light hours does not capture my interest, the ceaselessly changing palette of sea and sky always does so I just sit politely and look out the window...And since I know this trick, don't let me catch you doing it when I lecture about ships in here. The sofas are comfortable and designed for you to linger a little longer, and there's enough room to accommodate everyone for a port lecture, cocktail party folklore presentation, cabaret, concert or show.

Add to these rooms a small card room and library, the 38 seat Trojan Horse bar which doubles as cocktail lounge and disco, the multi-purpose Ulysses Marine Club and the 226 seat Aeolian Dining Room...we've pretty much covered the ship's public rooms..of her deck spaces I could go on forever...Did you see the Hale-Bopp comet? I did...I was above the wheelhouse...it's one of my favorite open deck spaces on this or on any other ship... as we sailed from Dakar after dark one spring evening...I looked up and there it was...just to starboard of the ship's funnel...Oh yes, there's a boutique and a "spa" complete with small gym and extensive beauty salon...

I was amazed by the work of the ODYSSEUS' kitchens...I ate as well here as I did on the VISTAFJORD, that ship which I rate tops for consistently excellent food... Let me make it plain and put it simply - the food on the ODYSSEUS is better than the food on most other ships. The high quality of the food was something of a surprise (OK I expected a ship that provisioned in Argentina to have great beef, and she did but I don't eat much beef, but expected little else to be top notch...and I was wrong..the food was superb! The cuisine is Continental....much Greek, Italian and French cooking with some decidedly American dishes added for those that want them and it was delicious...There IS a caveat though....careful with those breakfast buffets....it's too easy to overdo it....with those tasty small pancakes and unlimited supplies of breakfast meats...Another caveat...when she is cruising from Piraeus on short cruises she is provisioned locally, so to ensure the tastiest food available, try to eat what Greeks would eat...you won't be disappointed....I wasn't. A final thought about her food....Don't try to special order...they will likely try to accommodate your request but I promise you, the menu will offer some wonderful food that you'll be sorry to miss.

As plain as the decor elsewhere in the ODYSSEUS are her 226 cabins - Call many of em cozy, call the bathrooms small and the showers designed for Twiggy....they are just cabins where you can store your clothes and other possessions, sleep, and do those things you like to do in privacy...but you will likely not linger long in your bedroom here... The scene out on deck is too compelling and there are too many other places to be...so don't sweat it that the cabins are more motel modern than hotel de-luxe...Some cabins like the 12 "SC" grade deluxe suites come in at over 204 square feet as do the 52 "TA" grade rooms and these are certainly big enough for a private cocktail party...but you would be better advised to hold it in a lounge....these cabins aren't designed for entertaining. The difference between these two grades? Except for a pair of recently arranged SC grade suites on Apollo Deck (each one used to be a pair of TC grade cabins but because one on either side gave out onto foyers, Solas regulations made it impossible for them to be sold as individual cabins...so Royal Olympic eliminate one bathroom on each side and presto...suites...nice modern ones at that...) not much...the Venus Deck "SC" rooms have a third closet and sleep a third passenger in a full length bed that is usually disguised as a sofa.

Defying a recent cruise line trend which saw so many cabins unrealistically upped in grade...a recent Royal Olympic decision switch regraded forty Poseidon Deck cabins DOWNWARD from "TC" to "A" grades. The difference between these rooms on the lowest passenger deck and those topsides on Hera Deck? The "A" grades upstairs are quite compact while those on Poseidon deck are much larger, most of them bigger than the Apollo Deck "TC" rooms...The reason they are now graded "A"? Simple, they are three decks below the Apollo Deck and since neither for nor aft section of Poseidon Deck is reached by an elevator, and since in rough weather, steel porthole covers are usually shut out , blocking out natural light, as well as perhaps that impression that you are riding in a washing machine...the rooms have been downgraded. But don't be fooled, they are pretty good cabins, most of them, and if you aren't a good sailor and mobility is no problem (means that you can take the stairs)....consider one of these...it'll be a great value for a good cruise.

All cabins have showers in their private bathrooms, the two "SB" category suites unfortunately numbered ASS 1 and ASS 2 have tubs as well, most cabins have two lower beds but quite a few have double beds ideal for honeymooners and make-believe honeymooners alike. Some rooms have an upper pullman for the extra passenger. Averaging about 130 square feet are many of the deluxe "TC" grade rooms...That's kinda small but judiciously arranged furniture allows a lot more floor space than you might expect...and hey....did you come here to spend your time in your cabin? While there is sufficient drawer and closet space for the average traveler who arrives by air, don't overpack... The atmosphere here stresses comfort, not formality, so there are precious few formal nights so you can get by with one or two fewer items than you might pack for a cruise of similar length (Hey...I was invited to the Captain's Table on an informal night...and for the first time in my life sat in such company in my shirtsleeves...though I DID wear a tie). Though there is a laundry on board, there is no dry cleaning...don't overpack!

Who sails in the ODYSSEUS pretty much depends on where she is going. With her passenger capacity limited to only 400 passengers...she can be a full ship with about 380...you won't find much of a crowd here...Generally, there is no one here who is grand...no one really cares WHAT you wear as long as you remain decorous...this is not the ship where outrageous costumes and comportment win you many friends...rather...they tend to consign you to the "freak show" corner...and because after a while, especially on a cruise of 10 days or longer, there are no strangers here...if you insist on displaying "body jewelry", tattoos and piercing, wear costumes inappropriate to your age and surroundings, well you have no one else to blame for those wagging tongues clucking disapprovingly!

On her longer cruises like her transAtlantic sailings and her South American cruises, you will find a good selection of those people you expect...savvy travelers, a good number of them well heeled retirees who cannot and will not abide the posturing you so often find when new money gathers...People come from many countries to cruise with this delightful ship....but Americans and Canadians predominate when the ship is in South America as they do when the ship is on a European cruise longer than 4 days. On Aegean sailings where the ports are the focus of the journey there is sometimes a broader mix of nationalities - Germans, Italians, Spanish and French as well as a smattering of comers from smaller countries come aboard...

East and West, North and South...it seems like the ODYSSEUS has covered the world...or at least half of it....This summer and fall the ship covers the Aegean world... with 3 and 4 night Aegean cruises from Piraeus to...she's such a good choice of ship that a Britain-based charterer showed up recently and took her for the bulk of the summer season...that means that this year the ship won't be performing her planned season of five 14night Baltic cruises from Copenhagen nor the two 14 night positioning trips to and from Piraeus...Stay tuned...maybe next year will bring her back to South America in the northern hemisphere's winter and to the Baltic in summer...

With some 60 file drawers of ship photographs, plans, brochures, schedules...etc...I have a massive collection of things to look at...and I admit that I look at "ship things" every day...and some days almost all day...There aren't many ships that keep my attention like this one...I look at pictures and plans of the ODYSSEUS every day!!! She is what I like best in life....a real ship...The ODYSSEUS looks like a ship, feels like a ship...yes even moves like a ship...because she is one...no pretense at being a floating city... no attempt to fool you into thinking you are in a classy, ritzy resort that just happens to move, The ODYSSEUS was built as a ship....and remains a ship...honest, hardworking and charming vessel. I love this ship for all that, but maybe, more than anything else I like her size! For my taste the ODYSSEUS is the perfect size...and in a ship of her dimensions I feel like I am on the water instead of observing it from some 14th story glass enclosed aerie...I revel in the "shippiness" of the ODYSSEUS...I love her open (and covered decks), never cease to marvel at the oneness of ship and sea. OK...the ODYSSEUS and perhaps Royal Olympic itself are not in the same league as the "ultra-luxe" ships of lines like Seabourn, Silversea or Radisson Seven Seas, but Royal Olympic doesn't charge like those lines do either...and the Royal Olympic ships are classic ships...which is why I like them so much...