Ovation of the Seas, Royal Caribbean

We had never booked with Iglu cruise & would certainly use them again. We had 3 days in Beijing, transfers booked, excursions, hotels & transfer to Tianjin cruise port. All ran like clockwork, thank you. The embarkation was horrendous & certainly RC need to get off the ship & help sort it out, i’d read it was awful before we went so RC must know. 3 hours of queuing with now where to sit, nothing to drink, makes for stressed holiday makers. We really enjoyed the ship, liked the food, thought the speciality restaurant Wonderland was style over substance & expensive. By the time the waiter had gone on about the food it was cold, don’t waste your hard earned cash. Drinks very expensive. I had a soda package & there wasn’t any diet drinks in any of them for the whole of the cruise. You could get them in the bars however. We enjoyed most stops apart from Okinawa, Japan, which is an island & really no reason to stop there. Staff wonderful as usual, & lovely cabin, as expected on new ship. Be warned though if looking at this cruise, lots of queuing, immigration paperwork etc need to be fit & active. We really enjoyed our cruise, but RC there was a lot of grumbles about queuing etc & need for more organisation, these really need to be ironed out, you have too much competition We heard a lot of people say never again with RC. We would however if the itinerary suited.

Our cruise with Royal Caribbean was from Beijing (Tianjin) to Singapore, stopping at Okinawa, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Danang, Phu My and Ho Chi Min City. The ship had good facilities, we enjoyed the restaurants, and the crew were friendly and helpful. We found that Ovation of the Seas was huge. So although there were something like 4,500 passengers it didn't feel crowded. Embarkation and disembarkation was chaotic. Took 3 hours to get on board at Tianjin, so be prepared to stand for long periods of time. As Ovation of the Seas is so big, it docks at container ports which means that you are miles away from your destination at each stop. Royal Caribbean provide little or no information about the ports. If you like to explore on your own, you need to do your own research before the trip. On some stops, such as Ho Chi Min city, you have to book onto a Royal Caribbean shuttle, if you want to see the city, which is 1 1/2 hours from the port. The cost of shuttles is not included in the price of the cruise. Internet connection is seriously expensive on board. So, we ended up searching for wifi at each port to find information for the next port. In conclusion, we enjoyed parts of this cruise, but found the experience hard work with additional unexpected expenses. We won't be cruising on such a large ship again.