We had a wonderful and memorable time and met some lovely people that we will be in contact with again after the cruise. The Staff also made our holiday just so easy and relaxing.
RCL we will be cruising with you again in the future and thank you for a wonderful Christmas Cruise
Embarkation
5 out of 5
We were 1st time Cruisers and we were worried about how everything would go but considering there were 5000 people embarking and 5000 had just disembarked we were through dropping our luggage off, going through customs and security and sipping on a glass of wine in an hour, was really surprising that it only took that long, very smooth and very well organised embarkation.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
We enjoyed 3 out of the 4 main dining rooms, Chic and Silk were our favourites, we found the atmosphere in Grande was not as nice as the others but still very nice. We only ate at Windjammers once as we would rather eat in the restaurants. We got the deluxe drinks package which I am glad we did as it just made things easier, the only thing i didn't like was the pre-made cocktails like Pina Colada mix, much rather have it made from scratch but I can understand it is quicker for the staff with so many people on board, not a bit deal.
Silk
4 out of 5
We loved this restaurant, the atmosphere was great, the staff were wonderful and we had the staff sing and dance with us twice and we did not have that in the other restaurants. The food was excellent.
Jamie's Italian
5 out of 5
Loved this restaurant, the food was amazing and so was the service, the presentation of the food was fabulous and we could not of asked for a better evening out.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
My husband did the Ifly and he loved it, we both did North Star and it was good but a very long wait even if you had a reservation, the adults only Solarium was only favourite place as it was quiet and the hot tubs were wonderful. The bumper cars were a bit of fun as was the trivia days/nights.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
The entertainment was wonderful, from the silent disco to the seventies disco night, and all the shows were great, enjoyed going to the 270 bar for all the different things they had going on in there. Enjoyed both Inxs and The Beatles tribute bands.
The main thing that we absolutely loved was our wonderful Cruise Director Joff Eaton (I think that is his surname) he was so much fun, he just could get a party started and keep it going, RCL are very lucky to have him, the entertainment would not be the same without him and his staff.
Two70 Lounge
4 out of 5
Really enjoyed the 270 bar / lounge from it's shows to trivia and everything in between it was a fun place to hang out, have a great time and plenty of cocktails to drink.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
The Staff were all wonderful, we spoke to so many of them from staff working in the restaurants, staterooms, waiters etc and they all work at least 7 months on with 2 months off without many days off and how they keep smiling and treating you wonderfully is amazing, I could not do it.
A bit shout out to Christine and Ni in Silk and Romon in American Icon / Chic / Grande as these three people just made our cruise extra special. Also Gusti our room attendant was wonderful, I was not well one day due to an ongoing illness and he kept asking if there was anything he could do and was sincerely worried. So thankyou to all the hard working staff on board this amazing ship.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
We found that the Staff were constantly cleaning the ship, it was extremely clean and the design is excellent as well, we loved everything about Ovation of the Seas, it does take a few days to find where everything is as it is so huge.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
Cabin was midship and on deck 12 on the Starboard side and it was wonderful, the only complaint I had was the bed was hard for me, I asked our steward and he put a topper on the bed straight away, other than that the balcony could of been a little bigger but that is really nick picking. Overall we loved our cabin, excellent position on the ship and I usually get sea sick and I did not even feel the movement in this cabin except for one night when it was very rough weather and then it still was not bad. Would recommend this cabin.
Ship tip
There are no irons on board so bring clothes that don't need to be ironed as it is costly to get it done on the ship. You get lots of paperwork everyday so I took some magnets with so we could stick them on the wall of the cabin.
Bay of Island was absolutely beautiful, it was very busy the day we were there as there were 2 ships in so there was about 7500 descend on this small community but they coped well. The free shuttle buses were great. The only problem here is that we had to tender and we were number 23 so we did not get to shore until 12pm and had to leave to get back to the ship by 5pm but we still had plenty of time to have a look around. The tender took around 15 minutes to ferry people to shore and can only take 175 people at a time and they only used 6 tender boats I think so it took a long time.
Loved Auckland, we did the hop on hop off tour here and we got to see all the things we wanted to see and enjoyed our day. We had to tender here as well but no long lines and the tender was only 5 minutes so they got people off really quick.
We took a tour to Rotorua on this day and it was excellent, we docked here so it made things a lot easier for everyone. Enjoyed our time in this port very much, very pretty place.
We arrived in Dunedin on Christmas Day so we were lucky that places decided to open, there was also a Princess Cruise ship in with 3000 passengers so 8000 people descended on Dunedin on a public holiday so I thought the town coped well. We did the Gorge Train tour and I recommend everyone to do this tour if you can as it was amazing. My tip would be to book through the ship even though it was more expensive as our bus broke down on the way back from the train and we were running late to get back to the ship.
Disembarkation was excellent, it was so quick, we left our luggage out the night before, we left the ship about 7.30am, got our luggage, went through customs, got a taxi and were in our hotel in Parramatta in less than an hour. We were 1st time cruisers and we were highly impressed and certainly would cruise with RCL again.
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