Bazza

Haha I wish! Literally 'pushing the boat out' with the balcony! 

I did wonder if I move up slightly with the number of days as cruise 1 is 10 days, cruise 2 is 3 and third is 14. 

I'm sure it will be amazing no matter what. Many more positive than negative reviews across many sites....

Thanks both. Much appreciated. Hopefully the start of a long relationship and a quick jump up the crown & anchor board! 

Good morning/afternoon/evening wherever you are reading this...

"Only" 151 days until we set of on the Ovation from Sydney for our very first cruise - a 3 cruise back-to-back combo ending up in Singapore 27 days later. Excited is an understatement!

I have so many questions and if I had not spent many hours looking through this wonderful site I would have many more! I hope somebody can help on the ones I still have and apologies if they are 'easy to find' elsewhere!

1 – How do we find where/when ‘formal’ dining nights will be? Wife starting to worry about what she needs to pack as we are limited to just 30kg each with Singapore Air!

2– Really struggling with decision on the drinks and wi-fi packages!! RC had a sale on last week BUT it stopped the day before our cruise!! They have some new bundles but still not sure if cost-effective for us.

I am teetotal so refreshment package is most likely for me (but 27 x $30 is still a lot!). Wife likes a drink but looks like we may be best taking on 6 bottles of wine (2 per cruise) so she can have a few drinks that way, have the same refreshment package as me then just 'pay as she goes' for the drinks each day/night? What would experts say?!

The new bundles are with dining or WiFi but they do not offer those add-ons to the refreshment package so no benefit for me!

3– Regarding the Voom Wi-fi packages, where they say ‘1 device’ or “2 devices” etc is it a case of just 1 or 2 devices at a time (e.g. login on cell but then log out and login on iPad etc) or is it restricted to a particular device? Basically if I pay for 1 device can i swap between gadgets?!

4– When we wake up in Sydney on the ‘change over’ days (23^rd March and 26^th March) do we HAVE to disembark or can we stay on board? I saw one post saying yes you have to but elsewhere saw different opinion.

5 - Balcony is 'obscured view' (top of a lifeboat) - anybody had that experience and did it spoil anything?

6 - Offshore excursions - not much choice on the RC lists - looking at some of theirs but also using Tripadvisor to find my own - anybody got advice/experience/tips for tours in Dunedin/Wellington/Napier/Picton in New Zealand, Brisbane/Darwin in Australia or Kuala Lumpur please?? 

Appreciate anybody taking the time to reply. Happy to have personal inbox chat with somebody if that is allowed on the blog!

Thanks all.

Barrie (Wales, UK)