F1guynz

The Australia / New Zealand website changed a couple of months ago. Every time I use it now it defaults to Australia.

when I try and make it default to NZL it goes back to Australia again.

i have manually changed the URL to NZL and saved as a favourite.

i preferred the old version as well as this allowed me to get some of my non refundable deposit back as the terms and conditions were different for NZ.

Now with this change they are all the same

Hi, I believe the Australia / Pacfic is [email protected]

@OzzyRookie if that doesn’t work try guestengagementau@rccl.com.

This is the escalations department.

Also I find private messaging them through Facebook gets quite a quick response and they can also point you in the right direction.

2 hours ago, OzzyRookie said:

Any hints for a frustrated Aussie would be appreciated.

Hi, try emailing [email protected].

They answer emails in the order received so will respond within 24-48 hours (business days)

Let me know how you get on.

Good news, she is now fixed and underway again.

Our newspapers are reporting that Ovation of the Seas has had a propulsion issue tonight and has stopped in Wellington harbour.

There is no danger to the ship but the captain has contacted the Harbour Master for assistance.

i have included the link to the article.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/travel-troubles/117517342/ovation-of-the-seas-cruise-ship-comes-to-a-stop-in-wellington-harbour

We were on Independence sailing from Southampton. There were more tuxedos than you would see in Australia and New Zealand but there were also still plenty of people dressed smart casual. I say just do what makes you feel comfortable. By the 3 formal night a lot less people were tuxed up.

Voyager of the Seas 6th September 2020 (Okinawa and Ishigaki)

Voyager of the Seas 11th September 2020 (Best of Japan)

We were in a suite on Ovation and Bing our concierge booked me multiple times on the ifly when we sailed from Singapore.. it was never available for booking on the cruise planner prior to our departure.

14 minutes ago, zillono said:

I'm wondering if anyone going to the Escape Room alone.

Hi, you book a date/time for the escape room and you will be paired with others who booked for the same time.

Normally the escape room runs with 12 people. We booked for 2 on Independence and were paired up with other families who we did not know.

The families lawyer has done a good job with the media as they keep referring to a "Wall of windows" and "childrens play area"

The accident location is near an area for children but is not actually a childrens play area, 

9 hours ago, twangster said:

The updates may have implemented changes to detect and thwart the use of travel routers on board

I found this on Indy recently. It didn’t matter too much as we just logged off/on as required.

i am not sure why they go the trouble of blocking it as you would think the percentage of guests using a travel router would be minute

The ships we have been on have always arrived on time but there is always the risk of inclement weather or ship issues delaying arrival. Our friend is on Ovation at the moment and the ship was late arriving by 90 minutes due to bad weather.

That said, we always book to fly home on a 11:10 am flight from Australia and have had no issues making it to the airport by 9 am and insurance covers us if we miss it.

Assuming the ship arrives on time you should be able to start disembarking as soon as 7 am.

I guess a lot of it comes down to how risk adverse you are, if your appointment is unmissable maybe schedule for the following day.

43 minutes ago, Shanenz84 said:

The other interesting thought is will it have a dock/pier built

I think they will built a pier as it would just make it that much easier. Apparently there is an Oasis 6 due in 2022 so maybe we will be lucky enough to get that.

I was recently on Independence of the Seas and now Freedom class is my favourite kind of ship. There is some talk to Quantum coming down our way once Asia get Wonder of the Seas. I am not a big fan of Quantum class so I hope we can get a Freedom class as well.

Looking forward to their announcements for the 2022 season in 2021. 

I am interested to see how the organise ship visits to the Island. With the money being invested you would expect they would want a ship there every one or two days which would mean you would need a much larger presence in the Australian market all year round.

In the past we have added the tip to the sea pass card, but now because we buy a dining package the gratuity is included we don't add extra.

2 hours ago, mattymay said:

I think its almost definite now that we will get Quantum

I hope not. Having both Ovation and Quantum would be too much. We were on Independence a couple of weeks ago and I much prefer this class of ship to Quantum class.

If Quantum comes to this part of the world hopefully Ovation will go somewhere else.

We made reservations for Sky Pad on Independence but we didn’t need to as there were no queues. You could just walk up and use it. It might be different if traveling during school holidays but I used it a few times on our cruise. The people running it were just sitting around waiting for people to turn up.

Laser tag is on for a couple of hours or more most days. It seems to operate in teams of 8 and you just wait for the previous game to end. There were no queues here either.

We did north bound a few years ago and enjoyed it. We spent a couple of weeks in Alaska after the cruise and headed up to Coldfoot for a bus tour as well as Denali National Park. The advantage I see going south bound is you would end up in Vancouver. We really loved Vancouver and would love to spend some more time there. 

Hi,

Our cruise finishes tomorrow and we have had a great time. I think overcrowding is more related to the time you cruise. If you are on board when school holidays are on then the wait times can be longer.

We have had no issues with overcrowding on this cruise, I was just able to walk up to the prefect storm and use it when I wanted. Same with the Sky pad. The gym was never busy so had plenty of treadmills to pick from. The pool deck did get busy on warm days but we don’t use them so it was not as issue for us. Not sure when they got busy.

we never had any problems finding a seat at Windjammers when we ate there.

If you want good seats for the ice show or Grease then go a bit earlier or if you are in a Suite the seats for both these venues are excellent. (If you don’t have a Suite and not all the seats in this area are not taken linger around the area about 10 minutes before the show starts and they will open the remaining seats to everyone. You should be able to nab one then)

I am sure you will have a great time on your first cruise and will immediately want to book another one, that’s what happened to us.

4 hours ago, markm said:

Are there lockers in the changing rooms, if so do you need to provide you own lock

There are a.limited number of lockers available, the steam rooms on Indy are on deck 11 but you ave to go to the Spa main reception on deck 12 and ask for padlock and key. They will swap the padlock for your sea pass card which you will get back when you return the padlock and key.

We are on Independence at the moment. On our credit card I see the pre authorisations applied. We have paid our on board bill with casino winnings so these charges will eventually just drop off our credit card.

As gratuities are built into the fare when booking from Australia / NZ we don’t have a daily gratuity charge, only charges for on board purchases.

We are currently on Independence and I can confirm they are definitely separate.

There are six showers in the men’s changing room / sauna / steam room. All but one are cold water only.

I suggest taking a large orange cone and placing it on it the table.

These are used to ward off people for just about anything nowadays.