The ship is Grand, but not a luxury cruise

Item: Ovation of the Seas
Rating: 4.5
Author: mara1980

Ovation of the Seas Cruise Review to South Pacific - Australia

mara1980

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 49

Overall rating:

4.5 out of 5

10 Night New Zealand (Sydney Roundtrip)

Sail date: January 03, 2019

Ship: Ovation of the Seas

Cabin type: Balcony

Traveled as: Singles/Friends

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

Thoroughly enjoyed the Ovation of the Seas, the ship is huge & absolutely stunning although i wouldn’t classify it as a “luxury” cruise like its portrayed! If they could improve the food and customer service I would rate it 5*

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Embarkment at Sydney was seamless & literally took 10 minutes. I dropped my bag off a couple of hours earlier and came back at my designated checkin time.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

The food was pretty average (I’ve had better on P&O Explorer!) Windjammer is very repetitive, the four main dinning rooms all serve the same food only difference is the decor! Towards the end of the cruise mainly ate at the Pizza joint Sorrentos! Fruit was not great. Most of it was either not ripe (honeydew and rockmelons) or too ripe.

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

I loved the adults only solarium, it was a very relaxing area with great views going in and out of ports as well as Two70 where we watched as we sailed through the breathtaking Sounds.

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Entertainment could not be faulted! Our Cruise Director Joff was such a dude, very entertaining and great sense of humour! I only wish some of the entertainment was repeated more as I missed some things due to them only being on one night if it conflicted with something else I wanted to do.

Children's Programs

No Children

Service and Staff

4 out of 5

Our room steward Dennis did a fabulous job of keeping our room clean! I celebrated my birthday whilst at sea and returned to my room in the afternoon all decorated with balloons and a birthday cake towel arrangement which was a lovely surprise! There was areas throughout the ship that were lacking a little in customer service & attentiveness possibly due to the number of people and language barriers?

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

The decor and styling throughout the ship is simply stunning and it’s super clean! Although the ship is HUGE, I found its bigger in size, by the addition of more staterooms/people. The main areas on the boat are no bigger than previous smaller ships I’ve been on! In fact the promenade can get quite congested when the sale stalls are out etc

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Cabin was stylish and well designed with plenty of room. Heaps of cupboard and wardrobe space! The shower had a glass screen instead of a curtain which was a nice change! We had an obstructed balcony room on level 6, no complaints you still get a nice view looking over the lifeboats. Take extra cloths, there is a laundry service for about $30 US for a small bag! No ironing room either so pack well! No coffee only tea in rooms need to bring one back from the Promanade or Widjammer!