Bish

Holy smokes......that is a long flight. Managed to sleep off and on for eight or so hours, so actually didn't hit the wall til about 9 last night. we arrived in Sydney at 10 am, and got a cab, which cost $100 Australian dollars. The train would have been the same amount. Limo is available but it was 150$ or so. We opted for the cab and it took about 45 min to get to the port. Traffic was apparently unusually heavy. pulling into the port drop off area was a circus with lots of cabs ahead of us and we couldn't see the star class flag til we were out of the cab with our bags. A porter tried to take our bags, but we told him we were star class and showed him the banner.....he sent us off towards that big purple flag, and we rolled all our bags in the drizzling rain over there unaided. At the flag, the star class benefits immediately became apparent....an agent with a star class sign called Luciano and stayed with us as we checked in with another agent who had an iPad to do that on. From there, the agent with the sign took us through to a customs agent, bypassing a snaking line of about a hundred people. After clearing customs, she took us through security (no dedicated security line for star class in this area and it wasn't very busy; not sure what they would have done for us if the security line ups were long). Then we were off to the ship, where Luciano met us at the door as we came in, told us our suite wasn't quite ready, so offered lunch at Coastal Kitchen. After eating, Luciano returned to escort us to our suite (10324), provided us with a brief tour and gave us our "schedule" for the week. (BUMMER ALERT: KIDS UNDER 11 CANNOT DO THE ESCAPE ROOM). Luciano said he would see what he could do but it didn't sound optimistic. The suite is gorgeous, silly amounts of appetizers were waiting, at least a dozen beers in ice, a bottle of premium champagne on ice, more pop and juice than we would ever drink.......the balcony is amazing, with plenty of chairs, chair towels, a small dining table and a small side table. We unpacked after popping the champagne and beer........two huge wardrobes upstairs, a good size small closet down, with tons of drawers up and down also. muster drill was painful, with the usual delays bc of people deciding not to show up. After this, we went exploring.....I put my name in for a draw at the spa and won a $50 gift cert! Of course you had to be present to win, and I wasn't there, but hubby was. They wouldn't give it to him (fair enough) but a swift call to Luciano resulted in a phone call from the spa manager at around 8 pm saying they would honor my win. That was a nice gesture, and I suspect only happened bc of SC. sail away was on time. We decided to do the Seafood Tower, and a couple of cocktails......it was fabulous! Then, kids were starting to fade, so we put them to bed at 8 and pumpkin and I headed for CK. Staff there are lovely, but service seems a titch slow. asleep by 9 in that wonderful bed! Kids ordered breakfast to the room which by my estimation arrived way tooooo early, but whatever..... the coffeemaker in our room doesn't seem to be working very well, so am presently up in Concierge Lounge drinking.....coffee. Bing is the Concierege for this cruise. pumpkin is at the pool with the kids (10 year old b/g twins) sipping a Pina colada. He looked very happy about his drink. It was 10 am. Getting the party started, I guess....... Some photos of check in:

We have been killing time at YVR for hours......but the good news is we received business class upgrades. So thankful for that.......doesn't shorten the length of the flight but sure makes it more comfortable. Will board soon, so see you all on the other side.....

Okay, with just a couple more days til we board that boat, we are packing and preparing for a hellishly long plane ride tomorrow night. We don't even board the flight in Vancouver until midnight......twin 10 year olds are going to love slumming it around the airport for five hours waiting for that fricking flight to board. 15+ hour flight.....god, I hope Luciano has a biiiiggg gin and tonic waiting for me when I board Ovation...... ive had a few back and forth emails with Luciano regarding small requests......can we get a cot for a child who refuses to sleep with his sibling (yes of course). Can the cot disappear during the day, cuz I don't want to see it (yes, of course). Tonight I sent an email asking if a clothes steamer can be borrowed from housekeeping because I'm envisioning our clothing as a rumpled mess by the time we get there. We have our "banner" printed out to give to the luggage porter, we ve told Luciano when to expect us...... we haven't had any kind of s schedule or planner presented to us via email, so I'm guessing he will review our "stuff" with us when we arrive. We are super excited about this cruise, just needing to get this flight over and done with!

Enjoying your live blog! Thank you for finding the time to post. Can't wait to see what you're up to tomorrow!

Sorry Bill, I don't have that information. I am happy to let you know once we are onboard tho. UPDATE: A disappointing turn....when we booked the Grand Loft Suite, we confirmed with our Travel Agent that there was a bath tub in this suite. She in fact contacted RCI, at least according to her email, and that they had confirmed a tub in one of the bathrooms. Alas.....no bath tub in the suite. This is not a deal breaker, of course, but a bit of a bummer......I like a nice hot bubble bath a few nights a week. First world problems..... At any rate, tonight we received Luciano's "boarding information".....including where to go once we arrive at the terminal (look for the STAR CLASS flag), what to expect (if Luciano isn't available at the moment we arrive, we should expect to wait for him and not board the ship on our own), and we were given luggage tags to print out and a fix to our bags. His letter said boarding will commence between 11 and 1130 and that our suite will be available by 1 pm at the latest. So much anticipation for this cruise!

UPDATE: Luciano and I have been emailing back and forth; I'm gradually adding to my list of wishes, and my list of questions (do they have kids-sized bathrobes? Do they have bubble bath for my ritual tub soak at the end of a busy day, etc). I have asked for champagne on arrival, as well as Hefeweisen for pumpkin, and some drinks for the kids. I've indicated we are wanting to eat our way around the ship in no particular order, that we want to try all the onboard activities, see all the shows.....Luciano indicated he will develop a planner, and we will tweak it once on board, and we will also book the shows once onboard. We are going into this particular cruise very open to just going with the flow. Bringing our own snorkeling equipment with us, so not booking any tours, we'll just walk or taxi around til we find a spot to swim. Not wanting to be overly structured, or over-planned. We received an email from RCI this week telling us our passports require at least 3 months of validity before expiration in order to disembark at New Caledonia. We have also received our Australian Visa's (tax grab, if you ask me).

Following! OMG, that SNL picture is sooo funny!! Giggling as I remember that character who was unable to keep a secret.......

Would you be open to sharing your word document of requests? I'm just trying to wrap my head around what to request (lots of folks say ask for "anything" but as a newbie, I don't know what that translates to in real life!). Thanks.

Replied to Luciano on February 22, asking for additional info about restaurants and shows. Here's a mind-bender for you....on the same day, but on Feb. 21st (two days difference in time zones betwn Canada and Australia), Luciano replied back! Anyways, he provided a list of restaurants on the ship, and indicated he would provide a planner for us, including dinner, activities and shows, which can be tweaked when we arrive. I've read that these pre-cruise details can include what you would like on arrival (drinks, food), what you would like in the mini-fridge, etc, but so far, the emails have been pretty general. Tiny, did you initiate the requests, or were your requests sought out by the Genie? I don't want to seem pushy or high maintenance..... I emailed him tonight, telling him we want to hit all the restaurants, in no particular order, at least once (9 night cruise), and asking if there's a sail-away party on the Heli Pad. We aren't sure where we want to be yet for sail-away, but are leaning towards sharing the excitement with others vrs being on our own balcony. Thanks, Mattymay. I think you're right....it's the going home that's going to be hellish! (Oops, did I say that in my loud voice?) 21 more days!!!!

UPDATE: Since receiving the Pre Cruise questionnaire we, as a family, have been talking about this cruise constantly. It's become a running joke between the kids and I, bc every third or fourth convo we have, I start with "Do you wanna talk about the cruise?" We leave Sydney March 21; we sent our surveys back to our Genie within a week of receipt (four separate surveys, which I've no doubt makes the Genie's hair curl). Can't you just send one???!! We checked in tfor our cruise on February 18th. On February 20th, we received our Introductory email from our Genie. Seems we have hit the jackpot, with Mr. Luciano Santos as our grand Poobah. I have read wonderful things about this gentleman, and am really looking forward to meeting him! Aside from self-booking spa and shore excursions, it seems he wants to hear from us about our dining and entertainment preferences. There are no menus or anything attached to this email. From what I've readi here and on Facebook, this can be an inclusion, so perhaps that's still coming....

Thanks for all the helpful tips and suggestions.....all duly noted!

Oh boy, this is so no longer a blog....it's become a question and answer kinda thing and for that I apologize! But thank you so much for embarkation info.....historically, we get on board a couple hours max before sailing....but yes, on this one, we wanna soak as much in as possible.

Thanks for all this info, PIma......Really appreciate the details! UPDATE: We've been curious about when we can board Ovation for the 1845H sailing. I called RCI today and they told me we can board from 11 am to 5:15 pm; they want everyone aboard 90 min prior to sailing. I provided my reservation number when I made the enquiry, so I don't know if that 11 am embarkation is for all guests, or Royal Class guests or Star Class guests. Kim

Time Zone: I agree....leaving on a Monday and arriving on a Wednesday sounds impossible, doesn't it?! Thanks for all the suggestions re: the jet lag.....our cruise leaves on the 21 of March, and today, we booked to leave Vancouver on the 17th. We have booked with the possibility of an upgrade to Business Class, so I'll have every finger and toe crossed that we get that. I cannot sleep bolt upright in a seat, the last time I tried was coming back on a red eye from Hawaii and I had such a splitting migraine from lack of sleep that I just wanted to get home and die. Please please please, let a nice lay-flat bed be available for me on March 17th. Of course, we leave Vancouver at midnight, arriving Sydney at like 0930, so if we do get business class and can get decent sleep, staying up til 6 or 7 pm isn't going to be so impossible. Based on overseas travel with the kids last year, I see a reeaaalllllyyy early wake up the next morning, and a reaaaallllyyyy long painful day because of that, but hopefully by the time we get on the ship, we'll be semi-ok. We don't sail til 6:45 pm, which will make the day of the 21st feel very long. Does anyone know how early passengers can embark? Gifts: Thanks for the heads up and the suggestions....will think of something on that front!

Oh boy....thanks for the nudge on the "gift" situation with the genie....there's something I'd never have thought of in a million years. Has anyone got suggestions as to what one might bring as a gift for a genie? I'm guessing practicality might rule the day, given the confined space on a ship.....but please....I'm so totally open to suggestions. I'd not heard of "the Key" but did a quick search to see what it entails.....good information to have, thank you. I had my kids write out their questionnaire answers in their very best handwriting and I will have to consolidate those and get them submitted by the end of the week. Has anyone got any suggestions about dealing with the time difference in Sydney? We are flying out of Vancouver, and the time difference is something like a kabillion hours. I'm thinking we should try to give ourselves at minimum two days in Sydney before we get on the ship. No sense arriving to the cruise half asleep and completely out of whack. Anyone btdt? Thanks!! Kim

Thanks all. Appreciate the help with navigating the scope of Star Class and what I do now and what they do then. We'll have to get on these excursions and get them booked this weekend. Waaaytooo, I have never heard of "the key" nor have I come across that term in all the research I've done.....what does this refer to? UPDATE: We booked this cruise on Monday January 28th. Today, (5 days after booking) 48 days out, we received our Pre Cruise survey in an email from Royal Genie Services. There is nothing personal about this email....it's essentially a SurveyMonkey.com questionnaire. It includes questions such as "how do you prefer to be addressed?", "are you a night owl or a morning person?", "are you celebrating anything", "what would a perfect day look like to you?", as well as food likes and dislikes, times you prefer to eat, as well as some interesting questions like "the hardest I ever laughed was......." And " if you could only bring 3 things with you to a deserted island, what would they be?" The questionnaire can also be forwarded to others in your travel party. I am going to figure out how to fwd this to each of my 10 year olds so they can maximize their experience on this cruise as well.

We haven't heard from RCI or that Genie yet.....and so of course, there's already been some handwringing and angsting about whether or not we should be making our dinner reservations and excursion bookings now, or do we wait.....?? This is in part why I decided I'd write about our experience and try to answer some of these questions for others that we ourselves are having right now! That's not to say that this information isn't written here somewhere, I'm just not all that adept at finding it! We are also from Canada.....we live on Vancouver Island.....where we are dodging the Arctic freeze that seems to have taken hold across the entire continent practically!! A good time to run away on a cruise! Are you sailing on Ovation also?

Long story long, we just sold our boat last week, which freed up some cash for a spring break vacation. We initially put a hold on a Grand Suite (last one left on the ship; deck 6) on this same cruise, but by happenchance I read somewhere that the balcony had a partially obstructed view, which probably explains why it was still in the inventory. We then revisited the previously discarded idea of booking an Owner's Suite, but by the time we did that, all the OS's were gone. Anyways, when I found out that RCI had changed up their Conceirge Class program over to this 3-tiered Royal Suites program, I started doing some reading about it, and then a Genie appeared and well, the rest, as they say, is history. We got the last Grand Loft Suite on the ship, (10324) which is completely aft - our balcony overlooks the ship's wake. <insert swoon here> I believe there are only four GL's on Ovation, so I consider myself lucky. Your upcoming cruise will no doubt be amazing.....looking forward to hearing about it as it unfolds!

Greetings fellow travelers! First time at blogging, first time on Ovation, first time in a Grand Loft, first time in a "star class", and I've never had a genie before, so this cruise brings lots of new and exciting adventures for me and my family! Our cruise is 9 nights, March 21-31, 2019, starting and ending in Sydney; 5 days at sea, 3 ports of call (Mystery Island, Vila, and Noumea). We are a family of four.....two exhausted middle age parents (pumpkin is 55, I'm 50) who apparently, at the age of 39, thought it would be a brilliant idea to start a family....so our twins are now 10. As a family we've done 3 previous cruises, all on RCI; we've enjoyed staying in the family suite, the owner's suite, and the grand suite. This spring break, we decided to drop the bomb on this cruise and stay in a Grand Loft Suite. We booked the cruise a few days ago. I am starting this blog early enough that I can share the details of when this "genie" reaches out to us, and how having this perk touches the pre-cruise stage. And then, of course, there will be the blow-by-blow stuff once we actually get to Sydney. I tried to do my due diligence before booking this suite, by reading all I could about Star Class, but I found there was a paucity of actual reviews and so by writing this blog, I hope to give fellow cruisers another source of information on the benefits of both the Suite, and the whole Star Class, genie thing. So I'll update this blog as things start to happen. Cheers!! Kim