HISTORIC CRUISING
The bathroom is marble throughout, with a large
walk-in shower with Moulton Brown bath products. the toilets (quite impressively) are of the flushing variety, not the usual vacuum type. Someone has paid attention to detail here. A quick ship tour reveals two restaurants, the
Marco Polo and terrace Cafe & grill, and three bars. On Promenade Deck is the spacious Ambassador Theatre for lectures and concerts. There is an excellent library with wonderful ship models from antiquity; I soon discover the library will have nearly as many occupants as the bars combined during our days at sea. Though the Odyssey is an older ship, the current incarnation bears little resemblance to its former ferry self. She has been completely rebuilt and redeco- rated, not refurbished. On Deck five of the seven decks, where there formerly were three corridors with two sets of inside as well as outside cabins, there are now two corridors with only outside facing cabins, the inside space being used for storage. Capacity has been revised from 570 cabins to 380. And 46 new balcony cabins and 38 new concierge cabins have been created, as well as 16 dedicated single cabins. But Deck 4 has remained largely unchanged, which means these cabins are extremely small. The recent addition of a full cruise co-ordina-
tor has removed one minor snag, ensuring there is now a much smoother and more coherent delivery
32 WORLD OF CRUISING I Autumn 2010
of information and organisation onboard, while some passenger grumbles over the late delivery of the ship’s daily newspaper in the evening have also been addressed.
H
owever, the focus of Voyages to Antiquity is really all about the destination-rich itineraries and shoreside tours, and this they deliver
emphatically. We dock in Syracuse harbour and make our way
to Il Parco archeologico della Neapolis. at the far corner of the site is the Greek amphitheatre where our tour guide leads first. Noticeable immediately is the abundant flora and fauna. I am mesmerised by the violent purple bougainvillea, the delicate flowers of the caper plant and the abundant acantus flowers, the leaves of which are carved into the top of each and every Greek Corinthian column. Not far away are the remains of the Roman forum. Even the rock quarry next to the
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