St. Regis Bal Harbour
Check-in at the Reception desk at St Regis Bal Harbour was cordial and quick but I surprised there was no guidance to the elevators or introduction to the room.
Through a mirrored hallway from the main lobby, where there is a circular bank of 5 elevators. Guests have room key-cards which you swipe on a card reader and then a small screen on the wall tells you which of the 5 elevators to go to. There are no buttons in any of the elevators, your room key tells the elevator which floor you are going to. If you have others staying with you at the hotel on a different floor you are not able to access their floor unless they are with you or you have one of their room keys. Although, the rooms are beautiful and huge. We were all assigned in deluxe ocean-view rooms.
All of the 216 rooms and suites are ocean-view or ocean-front facing to the east. The hotel is located on Collins Avenue in North Miami Beach and was designed so NO rooms look to the West, they all have ocean views AND large terraces with comfy cushioned chairs and ottomans, table and two chairs.
Bathrooms have a large deep soaking tub and huge walk-in shower with rain-shower head and hand held wand. Single vanity though in the guest rooms however in the water closet you have 
another single vanity. Suites offer double vanities in the bathrooms.
We had dinner Friday night at The W South Beach with Federica Oriente, Sales Manager, on the terrace of the Penthouse Ocean-view suite. Spectacular evening and great meal!
Saturday morning, breakfast at The Atlantikos (Greek) restaurant in St. Regis. The Atlantikos was sunny bright atmosphere with a great staff. Indoor and outdoor dining available. Open for all day dining, breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Seabourn Odyssey
We then transferred to the Port of Miami to board the ODYSSEY. Drive time was about 30 minutes from the hotel.
The ship first sailed in 2009 and is identical to the Seabourn QUEST and SOJOURN. All of them have guest capacity of 458 guests. 90% of the suites have large verandas. Category A and A1 on the lowest deck (4) have only picture windows that do not open.
Veranda Suites (categories V1-V6) measure about 300sqft. in size indoors with approximate 65sqft. veranda with two chairs and table. Bathroom amenities are L’Occitane in the larger suites and Molton Brown elsewhere. Generous walk-in closets in all suites and bathrooms with separate tub and walk-in showers.
Very nice Penthouse Suites on Deck 10 (similar to a Silver Suite on Silversea vessels)
The bedding area is separate by a glass etched panel from the living room area.
There is a double vanity in the bathroom, the water closet is next to this with another single sink.
The Wintergarden, Signature and Grand Signature (two-bedroom version of Signature) suites are fabulous. Large living room areas with plenty of sofa and chair seating, nice bedrooms and huge bathrooms. The two Wintergarden suites on Deck 7 may be either 1 or 2-bedroom configuration. These suites are located mid-ship and face out to each side of the ship. The Grand and Signature suites are fabulous forward suites with huge half-arc verandas.
There are 4 Spa suites on Deck 10 which are accessible only by a spiral staircase, no elevator access to these. Category V4 suites on Deck 5 have partially blocked views from the veranda (metal instead of glass).
Dining includes Thomas Keller restaurant, The Grill, which is the only restaurant that requires advanced reservations and serves dinner only. Guests can make ONE booking at time of final payment, any other reservations are made once on board. This to allow all guests the opportunity to dine here as seating capacity is 40. Other dining options are open seating. The Restaurant offers lunch and dinner, The Colonnade for breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets and The Patio outdoors on Pool deck for lunch and dinner.
We did not dine onboard the ship so I’ll have to take the word of clients who have sailed in the past as to quality.
All in all, it was a very informative trip and with Mary Gallo at the helm, so a fun time was had by all!