Bish

And finally.......That BODY PILLOW we ordered from the pillow menu......
 
the thing is hilariously massive.  Pumpkin and I felt like we had a third person in bed with us....(which might have been fun a couple decades ago haha!)
kidding!

Well our room service arrived and with it a bottle of champagne......I guess six glasses is a bottle, so he said it's basically a wash.
ordered some veggies and dip and fresh berries.....I thought it would be a break from the heavier fare we seem to be inhaling at every turn on this ship!
 

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
 
 
 

Omg, all we do are stairs and corridors!  The elevators are full full full and slow slow slow! Walking off all these meals......
we did the skydive simulator in the afternoon which Luciano had booked us in for.  It was fun......be prepared with running shoes......they provide the rest of the equipment.  Met a lovely trio of fellow star cruisers who are in the royal loft suite.  They invited us up for a cocktail and we got a tour of that beautiful suite......it's huge! We have invited them to our grand loft suite this afternoon after we all do another skydive.
did bumper cars in the late afternoon.......special line up spot for star class guests and we essentially jumped the queue about five times. My ten year old son did rock climbing after that.
dinner was at Wonderland. It was awful.  Slow service, really imaginative food, which was expected, but the kids didn't like much of it and frankly, neither did I.  Service took so long we politely left before the main courses ever arrived.  Will not be revisiting that place. Kids went to bed and we went to  the show.
Went to a comedy show at 8:15 and the guy was hilarious.  Can't remember his name, sorry!  Then to vintages for a drink,  to the casino for a look-see, then to bed.  
Luciano is only and always just a phone call away.  We were escorted to our seats for the show, to the skydiving simulator.  Laundry is free as is pressing. Tons of water and coke and juices in the room, as well as beer.  Fresh berries arrived in the afternoon.....perfect! If u want spirits, they bring them by the glass.  Very impressed with the service and perks!
Here are a few random shots...menu is from CK breakfast....Baja eggs were awesome!  Some shots of Sydney from the North Star (also a jump the queue situation!), goat cheese salad...seafood tower at sail away on the balcony.....
 

And finally.......That BODY PILLOW we ordered from the pillow menu......
 
the thing is hilariously massive.  Pumpkin and I felt like we had a third person in bed with us....(which might have been fun a couple decades ago haha!)
kidding!

The loft suite are completely and utterly aft.  The nearest staircase or elevator is about 150 steps away.  Be prepared, if you have this suite, to do a LOT of walking.  Conceirge Club Lounge is 300+ steps and two long corridors away.  Not complaining, lord knows I need the exercise.
the club is large, quiet and also completely aft, hence the beautiful view.
some photos of the long corridors you'll take to get here on deck 12 (or has my husband calls it "dick 12" in his best Aussie accent), some signage at the elevators, including an interactive sign.
apologies for the poor photo quality......my husbands phone takes better photos but I can't download them right now for some reason.  Will sort that out and post those later......

Some photos of 10324:
ill post more photos later of the room, bathroom, etc.
no bath tub in this suite which really bums me out.

Lunch at CK

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:

And finally.......That BODY PILLOW we ordered from the pillow menu......
 
the thing is hilariously massive.  Pumpkin and I felt like we had a third person in bed with us....(which might have been fun a couple decades ago haha!)
kidding!

The loft suite are completely and utterly aft.  The nearest staircase or elevator is about 150 steps away.  Be prepared, if you have this suite, to do a LOT of walking.  Conceirge Club Lounge is 300+ steps and two long corridors away.  Not complaining, lord knows I need the exercise.
the club is large, quiet and also completely aft, hence the beautiful view.
some photos of the long corridors you'll take to get here on deck 12 (or has my husband calls it "dick 12" in his best Aussie accent), some signage at the elevators, including an interactive sign.
apologies for the poor photo quality......my husbands phone takes better photos but I can't download them right now for some reason.  Will sort that out and post those later......

Some photos of 10324:
ill post more photos later of the room, bathroom, etc.
no bath tub in this suite which really bums me out.

Lunch at CK

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:

The loft suite are completely and utterly aft.  The nearest staircase or elevator is about 150 steps away.  Be prepared, if you have this suite, to do a LOT of walking.  Conceirge Club Lounge is 300+ steps and two long corridors away.  Not complaining, lord knows I need the exercise.
the club is large, quiet and also completely aft, hence the beautiful view.
some photos of the long corridors you'll take to get here on deck 12 (or has my husband calls it "dick 12" in his best Aussie accent), some signage at the elevators, including an interactive sign.
apologies for the poor photo quality......my husbands phone takes better photos but I can't download them right now for some reason.  Will sort that out and post those later......

Some photos of 10324:
ill post more photos later of the room, bathroom, etc.
no bath tub in this suite which really bums me out.

Lunch at CK

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:

The loft suite are completely and utterly aft.  The nearest staircase or elevator is about 150 steps away.  Be prepared, if you have this suite, to do a LOT of walking.  Conceirge Club Lounge is 300+ steps and two long corridors away.  Not complaining, lord knows I need the exercise.
the club is large, quiet and also completely aft, hence the beautiful view.
some photos of the long corridors you'll take to get here on deck 12 (or has my husband calls it "dick 12" in his best Aussie accent), some signage at the elevators, including an interactive sign.
apologies for the poor photo quality......my husbands phone takes better photos but I can't download them right now for some reason.  Will sort that out and post those later......

The loft suite are completely and utterly aft.  The nearest staircase or elevator is about 150 steps away.  Be prepared, if you have this suite, to do a LOT of walking.  Conceirge Club Lounge is 300+ steps and two long corridors away.  Not complaining, lord knows I need the exercise.
the club is large, quiet and also completely aft, hence the beautiful view.
some photos of the long corridors you'll take to get here on deck 12 (or has my husband calls it "dick 12" in his best Aussie accent), some signage at the elevators, including an interactive sign.
apologies for the poor photo quality......my husbands phone takes better photos but I can't download them right now for some reason.  Will sort that out and post those later......

Some photos of 10324:
ill post more photos later of the room, bathroom, etc.
no bath tub in this suite which really bums me out.

And finally.......That BODY PILLOW we ordered from the pillow menu......
 
the thing is hilariously massive.  Pumpkin and I felt like we had a third person in bed with us....(which might have been fun a couple decades ago haha!)
kidding!

The loft suite are completely and utterly aft.  The nearest staircase or elevator is about 150 steps away.  Be prepared, if you have this suite, to do a LOT of walking.  Conceirge Club Lounge is 300+ steps and two long corridors away.  Not complaining, lord knows I need the exercise.
the club is large, quiet and also completely aft, hence the beautiful view.
some photos of the long corridors you'll take to get here on deck 12 (or has my husband calls it "dick 12" in his best Aussie accent), some signage at the elevators, including an interactive sign.
apologies for the poor photo quality......my husbands phone takes better photos but I can't download them right now for some reason.  Will sort that out and post those later......

Some photos of 10324:
ill post more photos later of the room, bathroom, etc.
no bath tub in this suite which really bums me out.

Lunch at CK