Welcome to Your Favorites, where you have the opportunity to share your travel experiences with fellow Internet Travelers around the world.

Royal Olympic Cruises

MV Odysseus

Your Rating:
Reviewed by: Peter Coe
# previous cruises: 1
Date of Trip: May 31, 2002
Itinerary: Mediterranean

Taking the Royal Olympic Golden Fleece gives a great overview of the best Greek Islands as well as Athens, Istanbul and Ephessos. However don't expect great service, food or ship.

Comfortable, but very 60's in color and design. Dining room was too small for the number of tables. Stewards had great difficulty serving some seats at some tables.

Greek food was excellent. The rest of the food varied from OK to mediocre. Rarely served hot, and the buffet food was always cold. Cold scrambled eggs for Breakfast is not my first choice.

Outside cabin on Apollo deck was a reasonable size. All rooms on the boat have twin beds, with no option to move them together as everything is bolted to the floor. Closet space was adequate for a week. Sound proofing left much to be desired.

Entertainment was of a reasonable quality, but as the ceilings in the main entertainment room were less than 7ft, visibility was poor.

On board gym was barely bigger than a closet, and the machines inside need replacing. I didn't use them because I though my safety was at risk (no joke). The highlight of the cruise is the itinerary. Visited Athens, Istanbul, Ephessos, Patmos, Mykonos, Rhodes, Crete, Santorini and back to Athens. All wonderful stops, but sometimes the visits were way too short, especially when tenders were used. Special note, From Rhodes to Athens, three Royal Olympic ships were in convoy, with a 4th joining in Santorini. So imagine 1200 people all trying to get ashore at the same time and go on the same tour. In Crete I counted 16 Royal Olympic tour coaches at the first stop on the tour.

Met some great people and bumped into a couple my wife hadn't seen in 10 years. The people and the route made the cruise. The ship was a disaster, and the staff unhelpful.