F1guynz

I would just ignore him for 2 reasons 1) It is not his job to enforce the dress standards and 2) It would annoy him. When we were in the concierge lounge on the formal nights I wore shorts and so did a few other people. It was hot in there because of its position at the back of the ship (Ovation) and I did not want to be sitting in my tux all that time before dinner. We were also talking to another passenger who had been told by another guest in a lift that they were not allowed to take food back to their room. I find it is just best to ignore these kind of people. They are usually D or D+ who feel they have kind of special authority to tell other people what to do. The bumper cars queue jumping was a noticeable irritation for people on our cruise. I have no issue when other passengers redirect them to the back of the queue in this instance. Everyone should know how a queue works and how rude it is to butt in. I don't think they would do it in a supermarket.

I had a similar problem with the website trying to book for next cruise. I think it is something to do with exchange rate when they convert from US currency. The headline price for the ultimate dining package was $96 NZD pp so I cancelled our existing one as this was cheaper. Then when I tried to rebook the second screen came up at $105 NZD pp which was more expense that the previous booking. Annoying! it like they have to update the exchange rate in multiple places and if they don’t you get price inconsistency.

Hi Bazza, I agree, The ultimate dining package would be to much for this ship when there are lots of great included restaurants for lunch and dinner. We enjoyed Café Two70 for lunch because of the salads and light meals they served. (they also had meat pies were also great for something different). The Solarium had two menus for dinner. One for the 1st seven days then a new menu for the next seven. Now you are making me wish I was back on board.

One thing to note is that Ovation does not have 1 main dining room, it has 4 themed restaurants that were previously used for dynamic dining. After dynamic dining was discontinued the restaurants were all changed to serve the same menus. Now two restaurants are specifically for traditional dining and other two are for MTD. If you select MTD you cannot use the restaurants assigned to traditional dining and vice versa. The décor remains as it was when dynamic dining was in place.

Well the hand sanitizer has alcohol in it so I think that is proof enough that wine is the answer.

Hi, The Norovirus was brought on by a passenger in Singapore and appeared on the second day of the cruise. To combat the spread there was heightened cleaning and hand sanitising during the cruise. After about the 5th day there were restrictions on getting your own food and drink but otherwise it didn't impact the cruise too much. The captain kept everyone informed and encouraged people to wash their hands constantly. The other thing they did was remove all the next cruise pamphlets which would be touched by multiple guests. They also stopped running the All Access tour and Galley visits. We did not hear of anyone we met on the ship becoming infected. We carry around a small bottle of hand sanitizer which we use just before eating. This reduces the risk of picking something up from the salt and pepper shakers or other potential items that are cleaned less regularly. The media likes to pick up on this stuff and there is always a guest willing to comment on how bad things are, but it didn't really detract from our cruise experience. As twangster says it is often found in many other places including hospitals which is one of the most sterile places you could encounter. The crew did everything you would expect to reduce the chance of other guests contracting the virus and that is all you can ask. As a guest you also need to take responsibility in making sure you wash your hands in warm soapy water regularly and sanitising your hands often.

Hi Bazza, The boarding on your cruise should be much better. We have never had any trouble with the Australian system. The five night dining package was $115 USD PP but I think that now the Australian season has started you should be able to pre-book on the cruise planner. You can only visit Wonderland once as part of the dining package. If you want to go again there is an extra charge of $10 USD PP which is still pretty reasonable. I am sure you will enjoy your cruise as we did, Ovation is a great ship with plenty to keep you occupied for 27 days.

Hi Twangster, Once we got to Australia, there were the local Australian channels, 7,9,10 SBS and a mix of International channels CNN etc. I can't remember what channels were available for the crossing between Singapore and Australia. We had Voom as part of sky class package. We were provided with two access codes as there were two of us in the stateroom. I generally found it to be fast and reliable. I was able to watch Netflix shows with no issues. We also used it for Skype and Facetime and did not have any dropouts. I mainly used it in the cabin and the gym, Out on the balcony away from the door it didn't always work but everywhere else was fine. I only had one issue where it would not connect but that was late at night and it was all good by the next morning.

We are back from our cruise on Ovation of the Seas Singapore to Sydney cruise. Although we enjoyed our cruise I must confess to being slightly dissapointed with some aspects of it. We were in Grand Suite 12646 which was very near the centre of the ship. The cabin was very nice but felt smaller than the Grand Suites we usually have on Voyager and Radiance class although the balcony was the biggest we have had so far. The cabin possibly felt smaller due to the wall the traversed the cabin. The Voyager class cabins do not have this wall and feel much more open and spacious. On this cruise there was an outbreak of Norovirus which happened on the second day. Eventually around 200 people contracted the virus although we never knew anyone who did. Because of the number of cases the food and drinks area access was restricted and the crew served all drinks and food. With a few exceptions most people excepted it in good humour and it didn’t really make the news until we reached Hobart. The Itinerary Singapore, Perth (day 6), Adelaide (day 10), Hobart (day 12), Sydney (day 14) Embarkation This was one of the one of our disappointments. Prior to the cruise RCI had sent us numerous emails advising we would be using an expedited boarding process where queues would be a thing on the past and we would be onboard the ship in minutes if we showed up at our allotted time. The reality was someone different and the the embarkation time was the longest we have ever experienced. There were a few reason for this. There was a Suite queue so this got us to the initial checkin desk reasonably quickly but there were delays from this point on. My partner has an electronic visa for getting into Australia but the RCI team wanted a paper copy of this electronic visa. We had to spend 20 minutes trying to logon to their WiFi to log onto the Australian Immigration website to prove that she had an electronic visa. When they went to provide the seapass cards they had the wrong names printed on them so they spent some time sorting that out. This happened to quite a few people and slowed things a bit. Once this process was completed we then had to go through the customs processing which also took some time as there were no express lines for suites. Once customs processing was complete there was another area which was broken into colours but it wasn’t really clear what was meant to happen here so we asked for assistance and were told to sit in the pink area. After a little while nothing seemed to be happening so we got up and went over to another queue to see if we could board and they let us on. The whole process took about about 1 1/2 hours. We we scheduled to board at 11:30 but is was closer to 1pm. The length of time was irritating but what is actually annoying is the fact that RCI sent at least 3 emails saying how great their expedited boarding process was raising our expectations of an improved experience when the reality was way below the expectation RCI had set The Ship The ship was great, modern and clean with many great features. Once we were aboard we headed upstairs for our first Coastal Kitchen experience and we were not disappointed. Anita had the sirloin steak and I had the roast chicken and both were delicious. The CK was to become one of our go to locations for breakfast and dinner. It was one of our favourite aspects of the ship. After eating at CK we went to the Seaplex were the bumper cars were in action so we got in on that as there were not many people around at this stage. They were great fun and we would play in them a few times on the cruise as there were many sea days. Walking from one end of the ship to the other made for plenty of exercise as it is only about 20 metres shorter than an Oasis ship. There were two sets of elevators, one at the front, the other in the centre. The main hassle with this (not for us) was for people such as the elderly couple in the Royal Loft Suite at the aft on the 10th floor. It meant when they wanted to use the suite lounge they had to walk to the middle of the ship to catch the elevators to deck 12 then walk all the way back to the rear of the ship again. The main common areas on the ship were deck 3 (the casino) deck 4 (Cafe Promenade, Theatre, Pub, Sorentos) deck 5 (Restaurants, Two70 lounge, Bionic Bar) Deck 12 (Concierge Lounge) deck 14 (Windjammer, Coastal Kitchen, Pool deck, Solarium) deck 15 (Seaplex) deck 16 (iFly, Flow Rider) The Cabin As I said the cabin was a Grand Suite on deck 12. It was nice but quite noisy, not from the elevators, or the cabins on deck 13, but from whatever was happening on deck 14. The noise carried on through the night on most days so if you don’t like noise I would suggest taking a cabin on a lower deck. That is what we will do next time. Our room steward was fine and always did an excellent job keeping the cabin clean. The Passengers As this was a repositioning cruise the age of the passengers was older than we were used to seeing on a Royal Caribbean ship. They came mainly from Australia with 3200 out of the 4000 coming from there. There seemed to be a lot of repeat cruisers as there were 561 diamonds and 261 Diamond plus. RCI had to use the Music Hall as well as the Diamond Lounge for the nightly drinks. Because there were a lot of Diamond plus the concierge lounge was always full. One of them even complaining that Suite guests got the same privileges as a D+. In future on long cruises like this I think RCI needs to consider limiting access as Suite guests could not find seating due to the number of D+ in the lounge (maybe until after 6pm) There were a few kids on the cruise but not that many as the school year has not ended in this part of the world yet. We met a lovely old couple who had been upgraded twice by RCI first from a balcony cabin to a Grand Loft Suite, then from the Grand Loft Suite to the Royal Loft Suite. Some of the other D+ were not happy about this and thought they should have been upgraded twice. There were 15 pinnacles on this cruise but none were upgraded. I think the reason this couple were upgraded was because of their age, as the other Loft Suite guests were also of a similar age and when they were all having dinner together it just works better. Entertainment Three production shows consisted of Pixels, Live Love Legs and Beautiful Dream. The Pixels show was not too bad but the Two70 lounge had poor sight lines so quite often you could only see the tops of the heads of the dancers. There were some seating around the dance floor but the seating was quite uncomfortable on these seats. They only have really short backs and you can’t lean back meaning you have to sit bolt upright for the show or the seat digs into your lower back. Live Love Legs and Beautiful Dream were competent enough shows but not particularly memorable apart from the sets for Beautiful Dream which were quite impressive. I still find it annoying that even though we pay a high premium to travel on this ship it’s does not have Broadway shows for the Australian season. Sorry this is one of my pet peeves about this ship. The Cruise Director Mike Hannerup was okay but not that great either. The Hotel Director was very funny and would have made a great cruise director. This is very subjective and I am sure you could find passengers who love Mike as well. The other headline acts were also a bit hit or miss although we really enjoyed Phil Cass (comedic magician) and the U2 tribute band. They played at both the music hall and Two70. They were definitely better in the Music Hall as it is more intimate and people were really getting into it. Two70 the acoustics were not as good and this detracted from the vibe. Food Due to the Norovirus outbreak we did really go to the Windjammer to see what that was like. We purchased the 5 night dining package (another annoyance that you couldn’t purchase this on the cruise planner prior to the cruise) and went to Izumi, Wonderland, Jamie’s Italian and Chops Grill. We went to Izumi on the second night but I didn’t really enjoy it as I am not a big fan of Sushi. At least I have tried it and know now to avoid it in future. next up was Jamie’s Italian which we really enjoyed. We went there twice on this cruise and it was really popular every night. Some of the meals are quite large so I would recommend skipping lunch or having a very light lunch on the day you are booked. The same is true of Wonderland which we also really enjoyed. We followed the waiters recommendation and let them select the menu and we were not disappointed. If you go in with an open mind when it comes to the food I think you will come away happy (and full) Chops Grille was its usual reliable self and the selection of menu options was greater than we have seen on the smaller ships. No complaints from us. Johnny Rockets was replaced by Kung Fu Panda but this was not really popular and nobody really used it. i think all the dining options on this ship is one of the highlights (including Izumi if you like Japanese) and is the best variety we have had on a ship. Some people don’t like the upcharge but I don’t mind as it limits the number of people who will dine at these venues. Onboard Activities These were another plus for this ship. Anita didn’t enjoy the iFly but I went on it a few times and loved it. It was interesting to see the range of people who tried it. Most came away with wide smiles on their faces. The Flow Rider wasn’t very busy this cruise and 5-10 minutes seemed to be the average wait time although there were occasions when only 2-3 were using it during the open sessions. North Star was always popular but it only went up and down. It was meant to side to side as well but apparently the wind was too strong. Bumper cars were really popular and the queue went right around the whole Seaplex. This caused some issues as the wait time was around 1 hour and people just pushed into the queue. This queue needs to be managed better as one lady was pushed over and hit her head on the floor. Maybe it should be like the Ice Show on Explorer where you have some kind of ticketing system. It you turned up closer to the end of the session the queue was much shorter so I guess people just go when the session first starts. There is an Escape Room on the ship was not up and running for this cruise. Another annoyance as I really wanted to try this. We did the All Access tour and had a great time doing this. Luckily we did it early on in the cruise and they cancelled later bookings because of the Norovirus. i admit I did miss the mini golf and the Shows in the Ice Rink but there is on,y so much space on the ship. The Crew The crew were fantastic as always, especially the team at Coastal Kitchen and in the Concierge Lounge. Due to the Norovirus outbreak there was heightened cleaning and hand sanitising going on at all times. Some passengers were very rude to people just doing their job, I heard one passenger in the lounge telling the crew member “don’t come anywhere near me” when he was told he would have to sanitise his hands prior to getting any food. The captain was always around, in fact more than I seen on any other ship. He could be found in Two70 lounge, North Star, Concierge Lounge and other places just walking around. The only issue I had was with the tailor. The shirt I had ordered with my tux was to big so Bing (our awesome Concierge) rang to see when he would be able to come and measure for a replacement. He was busy at that time so he said he would be free at 10:00am and would come to our cabin then. By 10:30am he still hadn’t shown up so I went to see Bing again and she gave him another call. He told her he was busy and didn’t have time to come now. Bing gave him a telling off and he eventually showed up at 1pm and everything was sorted. The Ports - all docked Perth - We got off in Fremantle which is about a 40 minute train ride from the city centre. We did this ourselves as it is much cheaper than a ship tour. We walked around the city for a while before heading back to Fremantle for lunch. Fremantle is a great little town with some awesome views of the ocean while you are eating your fish and chips. Adelaide - we did a ship tour for this one out to Historic Handolf, a German settlement in the hills. It is quite a long coach trip (around hour and a half) each way so you only get to spend a couple of hours in Handolf itself. If you want to look in all the shops and have lunch then you will be pushed for time, otherwise it is a nice place to spend some time. It was busy as there were about 14 coaches from the ship in the village at the same time. Hobart - We didn’t do much in Hobart other than get off the ship and have a wander. We have been here before and done most things on offer. I recommend going to Port Arthur to see the original penal colony or doing one of the wild life parks if you are ever in Hobart. Disembarkation Not much to say about this other than it was smooth and quick. We had to vacate our rooms by 7:30am as the entire ship was being deep cleaned before the next cruise due to the norovirus. We had a final breakfast at Coastal Kitchen and said goodbye to everybody there. Medical There were ambulances waiting in each port we stopped at to take off a few people to sick to continue after contracting Norovirus There was one helicopter medical evacuation of a crew member who needed urgent medical attention. There is no helipad so he had to be winched to the helicopter. He made a full recovery. Final Thoughts We enjoyed our cruise but I still feel it was overpriced for the experience we received. We would still do it again but only if we got a better deal on the cabin pricing. I am better at doing that now that when we originally booked so I am confident we could get it for a better price. Next time we would also look at going from Sydney to Singapore as this goes up the other side of Australia and we would get so see some different ports and scenery. Thanks for reading

Northstar and Ripcord never came up as an option for our cruise on Ovation sailing from Singapore next week. RCCL does change their operating procedures for the Asian market which is why I think they are not available on our cruise planner. We also only have one dining package to choose from. You should be sailing out of Aus/NZ so it should show up soon.

On all the ships I have been on you can use the gym equipment anytime during the opening hours. They do have classes like boot camp that you can sign up for.

Hi, I use the Aus/NZ website and I can see them using the method you described.

We have done the mystery dinner twice and really enjoyed it both times. I am not sure how often they change the show though as it was the same one both times. We were lucky that when we did it the first time we won first prize and got a goody bag full of RCCL stuff.

@Bazza I think because Ovation is primary for the Chinese market is does not have any "proper" Broadway shows like Mama Mia or Cats. It only seems to have the standard 40 minute Broadway style shows that ships like Radiance and Explorer have. We are on Ovation next week for 14 days and the only shows for pre-booking are Pixels and Love, Life Legs (I think that is what it is called). Also there has been no option to book North Star or Rip Cord for our cruise either. The other differences I have noticed are you cant only book the ultimate dining package, 2,3 and 5 night packages are not available and I also think Johnny Rockets will remain as a Noodle Bar.

I always choose option B for a couple of reasons; 1.if it is done by our bank I can see a breakdown of the costs, e.g. commission and currency conversion rates. When you do it through a 3rd party in my experience they just charge you in you own currency and can’t see a breakdown of the how the amount charged. This also makes it difficult to see which is the better option. 2. They call it a convenience but they must only do it to make money. Therefore I would expect the costs to be around the same or higher than for our bank. I don’t think they would be lower (just my opinion and not based any real world knowledge) so no real advantage to having them do it other than knowing immediately how much you are being charged (as apposed to checking your credit card statement)

This is one of the days we had in Alaska in 2012 when there were 4 ships in. It was certainly busy then. I would hope they wouldn't allow two really large ships to dock on the same day.

HI, If we tip individual crew members (over and above the normal daily gratuities) we tip in Australian dollars when sailing from Australia so I think the local currency should be fine. From what I remember there was also an ATM on board the ship we were on which could dispense US dollars if your preferred. You would be liable for currency conversion costs if you used that though.

As a New Zealander the one I struggle with is the Royal Genie (I have never had a cabin with one). Royal Caribbean promotes it as one of the advantages of booking that class of cabin, therefore are they not already paid by RCI to provide a high level of service? Those cabins are already very expensive and in my mind I don’t see why I need to pay additional. Even if I did tip them would the expectation be hundreds of dollars at the end of the cruise because the cabin cost so much in the first place?

Don’t get me wrong, I think in most instances tipping definitely does produce a higher level of service so I am not opposed to it. The only real issue i see is when you operate a ship in market where tipping is not the norm and peoples attitude is “I don’t believe in tipping” then it is just best to build the cost into all additional spending so that everyone is happy. Maybe the staff are paid more when they are in the part of the world to compensate for smaller or no tips, It seems like RCI is fair employer who wouldn’t want to see their employees disadvantaged.

Tipping certainly raises passion in people. You have to remember that Australia and New Zealand don't really have a tipping culture as people are on higher wages (the minimum wage in New Zealand is $15.75) so here service is built into the cost. If we do tip people it is probably nothing like the tips that would get from the American market. For example on a 2 week cruise we are in a suite and I would normally tip the room steward an extra $20 at the end of the cruise. I do add a tip at the speciality restaurants and also give $20 to the bartender in the suite lounge. I don't normally tip the Concierge as he said he is well enough paid already and doesn't expect it. In fact I can't think to anyone else that I give extra cash to if it is not automatically charged to the sea pass card. I think the trouble with RCI coming into a market like Aus/New Zealand is people aren't used to it and expect an all inclusive price. Here gratuities for the dining room and room steward are included in the base fare but not for other services like spa, drinks etc. I think this adds to the confusion as they already think they have paid their gratuities. The best solution in my opinion for this market is not to separate it out and just have a set price that includes the gratuity (i.e. $14, not $12 + 18% . If you do that people just pay without issue. When you buy a cup of coffee you don't get an itemised account of how much the water, milk, and coffee cost. You just get an overall price and happily pay it. I know some people will not agree with me but we do not live in the United States are used to all inclusive pricing.

Could you not use the first night for a 5 night DP and the second night for a 2 or 3 night DP and the remaining nights at your choice? I found it annoying for Ovation cruise they are only offering the ultimate DP or nothing.

Hi, When you book a cruise on the Australia and New Zealand website they are now included as part of the base fare/price for the room steward and dining room so are not removable. For specialty dining it is optional to add a tip (we usually do) and I would guess it is the same for casual drinks (we never buy any so I am not sure on this). I think it is now part of the base fare as it is not normal to tip here and people are probably a little uncomfortable with it. Also remember all prices on the ship are American dollars so if you choose to tip you need to factor that in.

We are on Ovation cruising from Singapore to Sydney in 4 weeks and North Star and iFly are not on the planner for booking yet. Looks like it will be first in, first served for us. They also only have the ultimate dining package with no other options like the 5 night dining package.

Hi, Royal Caribbean has sent an email through today with some information detailing some of the new attactions and restaurants on Symphony. http://www.royalcaribbean.com/symphony-of-the-seas I guess they will update the web page as they announce new features. We would love to travel on her but our holidays are planned until 2020 so it looks like 2021 for us.

I received an email today advising of some of the new restaurants and other features on Symphony. looking forward to trying Hooked one day soon. http://www.royalcaribbean.com/symphony-of-the-seas