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Sunday proved to be a wet day with rain showers most of the afternoon. The usually bustling deck was quiet as everyone stayed in to read their books or watch movies. While taking photos during the morning I had dropped the sun shield from my lens into a staff only stairwell. I called guest services but they couldn't help until we sailed. I talked on a waiter roaming on deck 10 and he said he would sort it out. On the way to breakfast I mentioned it to Marat the main guest services man. I could see the part I just couldn't get to it. He went there and looked but could not find it. The cute waiter Beven had actually snagged it and returned it to me in the afternoon.

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At 6 pm we were graced with a double rainbow with the main rainbow spanning from horizon to horizon. Unfortunately it was impossible to photograph all of it. But that rainbow announce an evening of eating.

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Because of the rain the Officers on deck and epicurean event was moved indoors to the grand salon. There were four food stations and two drink stations manned by the Officers. They served a variety of stuff from baked brie and parma ham to shrimp and pizza. They were offering Martinique Rum which was a powerful sipping rum.

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We dined in the Colonnade with Ron enjoying Indian Food while I had the Salmon from the classic menu. We did have desert there because there was to be another food event later that evening. It had undergone a slight name change. It was originally “Desert under the Stars” but became “Desert under the Ceiling” because of the rain and was held in The Club on Deck 5.

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Friday we docked in Auckland. The ship used the Queens Wharf that is downtown. Queen street run from the wharf through the central business district. We had to be out of our cabins by 8am. We got everything packed and headed up to the Colonade around 7:30 for our last breakfast on the ship. We sat on the aft deck and enjoyed a view of the bay. After lunch we went to the observation lounge to await the announcement that our group could go ashore. After clearing customs we waited for a taxi.
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Our hotel was the Sky City Hotel, the Ungrand one. There is also a Sky City Grand Hotel. It lies at the base of the Sky Tower with its rotating restaurant. Sky Tower is 328 metres (1,076 ft) tall. There are two hotels, a casino, some theaters and restaurants in that complex. The tower is the tallest “Free Standing Structure” in the Southern Hemisphere. There are other towers that may be taller but perhaps they are attached to something. It opened in August of 1997.
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Not that we really needed to we found lunch across the street at the Midnight Express cafe. Ron had Turkish food while I enjoy the special of the day which was fish and chips. We had a nap then headed out to see the second Hobbit movie, Desolation of Smaug. We had been trying to see that film for nearly a month but it had been alluding us. It opened in the US on December 13 but we flew to Sydney on December 12. It opened in Sydney on Boxing Day, December 26, but we sailed out of Auckland on December 24. We tried to see it in Wellington but the projector was broken. So on Friday afternoon we finally saw the film in HFR 3D Imax in Auckland. Tickets were NZD$23 per person. That is about $9 more than we pay at home. I went out for the evening to the Urge Bar. It's a very small bear bar on a very unpronounceable street,Karangahape Road. It was so small that the DJ had to set up on the corner of the bar. I wandered out the back to see if they had a patio. They did. It doubled as the car park.. Drinks are expensive. It was NZD$9 for a bottle of cider. And the cab ride round trip was over NZD$20.
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The Odyssey is a small ship. She carries 450 passengers and 335 crew. She has two sister ships, the Sojourn and the Quest. We have been on the Sojourn two times before, once on cruise from Buenos Aries to Valpraiso and once on the Baltic Sea from Copenhagen to Stockholm. This time we already had 4 of the crew recognize us from past trips and we have never traveled on the Odyssey.

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The ships are identical for the most part. The color scheme is brown tones. The cabins are quite large with a sitting room separate from the bedroom. There is a walk in closet with plenty of room to hang clothes. The bathroom has double sinks, a tub and a shower. The cabin was prepared for our arrival. There was a bottle of Champagne on ice and a couple of bits of smoked salmon on toast for our enjoyment. The queen sized bed was covered with a vinyl mat for the suitcases.

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Our cabin was 655 which was on the Starboard side. When we booked our room we took advantage of the discounted fare for the guarantee of a Verandah Suite. So until a week before the sailing we had no idea where our room would be in the ship. This saved us about 1/3 of the price. We could have been placed anywhere on decks 5, 6 or 7. Cabin 655 is a Verandah 5 cabin. The most expensive of the Verandah Suites are V6. The only better cabins are the owners suites and the Penthouses.


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Each room has two cabinets that separate the seating from the sleeping area, one contains the television while they other is the bar. The Television is actually a computer providing data about the cruise, billing information, announcements and views from the camera on the bridge as well as movies on demand and satellite television. The verandahs have two chairs and a small table.


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The Ship is registered in Nassau in the Bahamas. Seabourn and the Seabourn Odyssey are actually owned by Carnival Cruise Lines who own a half dozen other cruise lines. Besides the obvious ownership of Carnival they also own Holland America, P & O, Norwegian Cruise Line, Cunard, Costa, and Princess.

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