Originally Posted by
jlammy
I found a way to grind a bit before the Odin fight but chose not to. On the ship, though, you can totally grind if you see the pattern. Yes, grinding is boring, but man, I don't want to sit through a massive boss fight and be underpowered.
I ground there as well. I would run inside, fight the soldiers then run outside and fight the dragoons and the deck somethings, back and forth. When I picked Vanille and Sazh back into the party, they had over 60,000 CP to build with.