I want to be as honest as possible, so I will detail the good and the bad. I went on the Odyssey Brunch Cruise on 8/1 at 11:30am
Pros - The boat and ambience was nice and the check-in was very easy. Everyone was extremely friendly, and the boat was clean. We got placed at a window seat which made me really excited.
Neutral - my original booking (Washington DC Scenic Lunch Cruise) was canceled about 2 weeks before the event, and I was automatically changed to a new booking (Premier Brunch cruise on the Odyssey). The messages were initially quite unclear and took about a week to get updated information about the new booking, but after that week, the plans made sense (with one week to spare before the actual cruise).
Cons - Overall it was good, but the details were lacking. I went for my boyfriend’s birthday but they never gave me silverware, and it took about 20 minutes for me to flag someone down to get another set while we sat and just looked at our full plates. We had asked for another set before getting food, but the first server gave us four napkins instead of a napkin with silverware, so it was a nice attempt but incorrect. Thus, my boyfriend and I took turns using his silverware to eat. That is a very minor thing that I really didn’t care much about; however, the big issue was that after we left, my boyfriend and I got a bad feeling in our stomachs that resulted in nausea and bad GI distress (neither of us get seasick or motion sickness). Five episodes of diarrhea later, I recounted what I may have eaten that could’ve caused this, and it’s still unclear to me. The food I ate from the buffet included: sausage, fish, eggs with cheese, a cheesy noodle dish, the red meat + horseradish sauce, chicken tenders, salad with dressing, pasta salad, salmon/capers/onions, water, brut, brownie, pineapple, orange juice, and carrot cake. I really don’t know what could’ve caused this because neither of us were feeling GI symptoms prior to the cruise, and we only developed the stomach ache starting about an hour or two after we finished eating which lasted for 24 hours. We both have pretty strong stomachs, so I presume that it is some kind of E. coli or food poisoning, which I really hate to say. Additionally, I told the server that it was my boyfriend’s birthday (because the DJ told everyone who was celebrating a birthday to let their server know), and the server said he’d bring cake. I thanked the server and told him that I’d be willing to help him with anything he needs to make it happen, but he never got the cake and never came back to the table after that. In hindsight, not getting the cake was probably a good thing because it probably saved me from a sixth episode of diarrhea, but it was another detail that stood out like a sore thumb (and a sore bum) for me. My food poisoning was definitely worse than my boyfriend’s as he only had three episodes of diarrhea.
Overall - I really don’t like being negative, especially during COVID times, so I wanted to give 2 stars but I really wouldn’t do this again. Please take from this review what you want because the “cruise” is definitely a cute ambiance for a birthday event or an anniversary or any nice family outing—just maybe clear your schedules for the rest of your day because you might be spending it having diarrhea and recovering from food poisoning.