We're now less than a year away from the debut of a really great new cruise ship from Royal Caribbean.
It's called Odyssey Of The Seas, and if you live in North America...
This is a new ship you should book a cruise on.
It's a sister ship to Anthem Of The Seas, one of the best cruise ships I've ever been on...
But it's not an exact copy, because in the years since this class of ships was first introduced...
Royal Caribbean has come up with a few improvements, and a few completely new ideas.
I sailed on Anthem Of The Seas out of the New York City area two and a half years ago...
And I said then -- and I still believe today -- that it's one of the greatest cruise ships in the world.
So when I heard about the new version, based on Anthem and her sisters, but improved...
I started to pay attention to Odyssey Of The Seas, and you should, too.
The #1 thing I loved about her sister, Anthem Of The Seas...
Was the adults-only area at the front of the ship, known as the Solarium.
It's kind of a combination of an observation lounge, sun-deck, pool deck, and luxurious relaxation area all in one.
With no screaming kids, and no loud music playing.
It's kind of like if you took the core idea for Carnival's Serenity Deck...
But actually did it right, unlike the way Carnival does it.
That's the Solarium I experienced on Anthem Of The Seas...
And they've carried that over to the new one, Odyssey Of The Seas.
I also totally loved the unique entertainment venue at the back of the ship known as Two Seventy.
During the day, it's just a quiet observation lounge with great views behind the ship through a wall of big picture windows.
But at night, that wall becomes a giant video screen...
And the room becomes an amazing high-tech entertainment venue unlike anything I had ever seen before!
None of the other classes of Royal Caribbean ships have a venue like this...
Nor do any of the other cruise lines.
Royal Caribbean basically invented an entirely new form of cruise ship entertainment...
And it knocked my socks off when I first saw it.
But that's just one of many high-tech innovations that you'll find on the new Odyssey Of The Seas.
The ship has many other big WOW features, like...
North Star, a very cool observation pod on the end of a robotic arm...
That allows it to extend way up high above the ship...
To give you fantastic views of everything around...
And it can pivot out over both sides of the ship, too.
Odyssey Of The Seas will also have Royal Caribbean’s famous robotic bartenders.
Place your order on a video screen, and the robots will do the rest!
And there’s an indoor sports complex known as SeaPlex...
A multipurpose venue that can be a sports court...
A place to experience the acrobatics of a circus trapeze...
A big dance floor...
Or my personal favorite, a bumper car track!
Bumper cars on a cruise ship!
Nobody but Royal Caribbean's got that.
And there's no extra charge for it.
One way that Odyssey Of The Seas will be different than Anthem Of The Seas...
Pertains to the arrangement of the swimming pools.
Anthem cruised year ‘round out of New Jersey so it was necessary to enclose one of the pools to protect from bad weather.
But Odyssey will be sailing out of Florida, so the mid-ship pools are fully open to the sun.
Odyssey will also have a completely different kind of Italian Specialty restaurant.
The all-new Giovanni’s Italian Kitchen and Wine Bar.
Odyssey Of The Seas will also have Playmakers Sports Bar
And I think this is a brilliant move: They’re placing it on the second level of SeaPlex, directly above the bumper cars.
That is a smart design choice, and Royal Caribbean obviously has a great design team, because...
Inside the cabins, there's a whole slew of great design ideas on display that the other cruise lines should copy.
In our balcony cabin on Anthem Of The Seas... look how they split up the closets.
Instead of making one big closet that only one person can get in to at a time...
They made two closets, one on each side of the couch...
So there's a lot of separation between the two.
And that allows two people to easily get dressed at the same time without bumping in to each other.
There's a simple, brilliant design to the curtains, too.
There are two curtains, each on their own track, and they overlap by quite a bit...
So you get a perfect seal, blocking out all the light so you can sleep in past sunrise in the morning, if you want to.
In the bathroom of your cabin, there's a nightlight built in to the lighting fixture...
So that even when you turn out the bathroom lights...
The bathroom doesn't go completely dark.
And the bath towels all have loops on them, so it's easy to hang them up to let them dry out.
During my cruise on Anthem Of The Seas, I liked the cabin design of their basic balcony cabins so much...
That there was absolutely no need to book anything more expensive than a standard balcony cabin.
If you've watched a lot of my other cruise videos...
You know I often book some really expensive suites on other cruise lines...
But on this class of Royal Caribbean ship, I didn't see any need to do so.
The basic balcony cabins are great!
When I'm on a cruise vacation, I love seeing live music performances.
And they've got a great music venue on this class of Royal Caribbean ship called The Music Hall.
If you like listening to live music, you'll love Odyssey of The Seas.
And if you're bringing young kids with you on your Caribbean cruise...
They will love Royal Caribbean's Splashaway Bay.
Odyssey Of The Seas will be based in Ft Lauderdale, Florida...
And will be cruising to some great destinations...
8 night cruises to the Southern Caribbean...
7 night cruises to either the Western or the Eastern Caribbean...
And even some 5 and 6 night cruises, too.
Plus, many of the cruises will include a stop at Coco Cay...
Royal Caribbean's fantastic private island in the Bahamas.
Odyssey Of The Seas is currently under construction at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Germany.
This is an artist's concept of what the ship will look like when construction is complete, next year.
Her first cruise will be in November of 2020.
So, if you're looking to do a Caribbean cruise in 2021, or late 2020...
It's time to make reservations now.
If you found this video to be interesting, do me a favor and hit the thumbs-up button.
That will be a signal to YouTube's algorithm that this is a good video...
That they should recommend to other people interested in cruising.
Feel free to use the services of my travel agent, Caitlin Gallagher.
She can help you find just the right cruise on Odyssey Of The Seas...
Or any cruise ship you're interested in...
And she'll be happy to answer all your questions.
Her services cost you nothing at all... her fees are paid for by the cruise lines.
I'm also going to put some links up on the screen here...
To some of the videos I made about Anthem Of The Seas.
They will give you some good insights on what to expect from Odyssey Of The Seas...
Royal Caribbean's latest and greatest!
I'm Jim Zim. Thanks for watching!