Ovation of the Seas Reviews

We really enjoyed our cruise. All staff really friendly and helpful. The only disappointment was that they didn’t unforced the dress code. Too many people turning up on the restaurant in shorts and tracksuit bottoms.

Enjoyed our cruise sailing from Sydney around New Zealand. Staff looked after us very well & we enjoyed the beautiful ship. Two seventy was our favourite space both day & night. North Star was a treat in Sydney & Auckland harbour then out at sea Dolphin spotting. Food & entertainment both excellent will definitely be trying for another cruise next year.

Ship is lovely, but I prefer the oasis of the seas. Our crossing was choppy at times and our room was very noisy with with the movement..( level 3-backwards). Silly queues for tendering disembarking tickets. Fantastic staff and service. Food became very samey.

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.

I boarded the cruise Ovation of the Seas on 7 October from Beijing Firstly, I chose this cruise as it was cruising through the Philippines, but after paying the initial deposit the cruise changed its itinerary and I couldn’t opt out so that was my first disappointment. Having been on an earlier RCL cruise, the Legend of the Seas, I was looking forward to the same level of service and care that I had come to expect – but it was a real let-down. EMBARKATION – We boarded the ship at Tianjin, and the process was a nightmare. Considering that RCL has conducted this same trip several times I am shocked at the disorganization. The online check-in is a joke?. Why have a process which is not followed? We just had to line up like others of hundreds with hours of waiting in line and we finally managed to board the ship after almost 3 1/2 hours – a welcome drink would be appreciated NAH…..Sadly, none of that happened. CABIN Our cabin of course was great and spacious, had a few necessary amenities RESTAURANTS - Dining experience was the biggest disappointment! Never got our table on time, was pushed into restaurants we did not book and the waitresses at the reception counter were not very helpful. Dining rooms were understaffed. Limited food choices no menu change and poor quality – when we ordered tea it was served in a mug!!! Is this 5-star dining? RCL just out to take more money – really only paid dining was good and fit to eat! So obvious that the Standards of RCL has fallen greatly. The Windjammer restaurant was constantly crowded, and you couldn’t get a seat be it breakfast, lunch or dinner. The Seaplex hotdog cart, was supposed to be open until 5pm, but didn't open once for the entire duration of the cruise. CUSTOMER SERVICE – minus zero Service from room attendant was excellent though the same could not be said of the entertainment or customer service staff. ENTERTAINMENT – -you advertise outstanding Broadway shows Pixels, LIVE,LOVE,LEGS were the only 2 decent shows – not enough to impress The North Star was a great experience though. You appointed staff – to conduct quizzes and games who did not have knowledge of the game they were conducting nor could they speak English. DISEMBARKATION – Total disaster won’t even begin to describe the nightmare. And the final straw was when we finally disembarked and complained to one of the crew members saying what a disorganized process - instead of apologizing he nonchalantly quips yeah yeah I heard it all before. ALL IN ALL AN ATTITUDE OF COULDN’T CARE LESS

First of all, thank you for organising a brilliant package. The actual cruise was very good, the staterooms clean, modern and spacious. The food was also very good, but a bit repetative. We often had to queue for restaurants. There were also large queues at guest services most of the week The staff were friendly and very attentive. However, the embarkation and disembarkation was chaotic. Tiajin was a nightmare, packed terminal and even dangerous with passengers going up and down escalators with very long queues. Singapore was just as bad with 4000 passengers packed in the terminal waiting for transfers. A lot of pushing and shoving. We had to wait 1.5 hours for our transfer at Singapore. I would suggest you do not use this company in the future. All the other transfers were excellent and punctual. Apart from the problems mentioned, a very well organised package and overhaul a great holiday experience.

Lovely ship, but as my partner say a lazy ship. That’s to say shows are very sparse and the pixel Show is the same for the whole 12 days 40 mins Very small casino ten dollars a chip? Organisation a bit frantic @ ports Customer services tell you one thing then next Day tell you something else. Not well informed. Language problems sometimes? Restaurant a little hit and miss. Some eves very Slow. A part from the obvious we met some lovely People who made our holiday very enjoyable. Also visited some amazing places

The ship is fantastic and the crew were excellent and it was a lovely holiday. We were told a little beforehand that a large proportion of the guests would be Chinese. I have always welcomed cultural diversity and get quite upset by racist behaviour so I looked on this as a positive and didn't really appreciate why we were even being told this. However I was very surprised at the way many of these guests behaved, obviously it is just a different culture and not deliberately rude but it was still a surprise: I was barged out of the way at times, even on stairs; when trying to get in or out of lifts people would not wait for passengers to come out before trying to get into the lift; in the theatre fellow passengers stood up, climbed over seats at times and were quite noisy; while sitting on deck watching the sun set I had one woman sit on the arm of the chair that I was sitting in so that her bottom was pressed against me while she took pictures of her child and just shoved out of the way in queues. In the Windjammer people would queue for their food and then walk around eating it while looking for a table (noodles hanging out of their mouth) and, it when we did use it, it was packed and very difficult to get a seat. The staff told us that the restaurants were open for lunch and, when not on excursions, we used these or Two70 where it didn't seem quite so loud or hectic. The staff were excellent and whenever we joined a queue we were escorted to our table very quickly, once even being sent through a staff door to be picked up by a member of the staff the other side. While in the restaurants the staff were excellent and nothing was too much trouble The food was always lovely and they even prepared a curry for us after we mentioned that we liked a curry. The specialist restaurants were very good especially Chops.The girl who looked after our room was lovely and our room was always spotless as was the rest of the ship. My only criticism of the staff was when we all had to attend the safety talk at the start of the cruise. Obviously this is important and everyone attended. The staff even made sure that the noisier passengers were quiet and that they took their children off (literally) the pool tables. We then listened to a little song about washing your hands. Then the talk was in Chinese - we assumed repeating what we had just heard but it went on for some time and nothing else was said in English. Staff then came around to the passengers who were not Chinese and told us that we could listen in English in our rooms. If it is a legal requirement that we attend this talk surely it should be in Chinese and English! The Schooner Bar was lovely, nice and relaxed and most of the bars were quite quiet so good places to go in the evenings. We met some lovely people and had some really nice evenings, it was good that staff remembered us and what we liked to drink. The shopping areas were nice but quite busy and hectic on some occasions so we had to pick our moments. It was a lovely holiday, the ship was super and the staff excellent. Sadly you need to pick your moments for shopping, try to get near the front in the theatre, be careful on stairs and getting into lifts and avoid the Windjammer. Thank you to all the staff who really looked after us.

Nice cabin, but food was luke warm and menus the same thing over and over. Felt like a shopping arcade and such a shame the gym was in a prime location and empty. Also nowhere nice to sit ans watch the world go by. Staff were v good