Mystery Island was the highlight of our cruise. Overall, Sydney was a great port, just a shame about the food in this ship.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Embarkation from Sydney was surprisingly smooth. Had to show evidence of Covid test prior to embarkation and just the usual checking of vaccination certificates.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
2 out of 5
The food in the main dining room in this ship was not up to standard when you compare it with other ships. Haven’t had so many issues in one sailing!
For breakfast, I usually get the Egg’s Benedict from the main dining room as it’s usually excellent from other ships. In this one, my muffin was hard, they use Canadian bacon, the egg wasn’t runny. I ordered it three times to ensure if it was a fluke but no, it was consistently bad.
Ordered lemon harissa chicken one night with snowy peas and there were no snowy peas in sight and got corn instead.
Ordered the New York strip steak and asked for medium and got well done. My partner usually gets medium and he tried ordering medium rare in the hope that it will come out medium and still came out well done!
Ordered the baba fosters as it’s also one of our favourites and it came out not caramelised and tasted very bland and looked like dishwater Food in windjammer was better though.
We went to Wonderland and it was excellent, just the main dining room that let it down.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
There was a lot to do in this ship and who knew Australians love bingo lol. Never seen it so animated and full in my cruise life!
Loads of trivias as well.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
I’m giving this a three because I really loved Live Love Legs. No dodgy wigs and the singers are in tune this time. I have seen Spectra from Anthem and I thought the anthem one was better in comparison to the Ovation. The one in Ovation, although good, missed a bit of pizzazz.
There wasn’t a lot of variety with the headliner shows - got 3 comedy acts. And then Tamara Guo, the singer. As lovely as she is, I don’t think it was the right market for her as a lot left during her show. It was that bad.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
In general, you get the lovely demeanour from your stateroom attendant and main dining room
waiters. Everywhere else, I don’t think they are as friendly as other ships. During breakfast there was a lot of grumpy faces, made you feel unwelcome at times. I’m not saying it’s every time but these little things kinda stand out as it’s not the usual service.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
The ship is showing a bit of age in the Solarium. Can see it rusting but in general it’s pretty clean. However, there was a lingering smell in the hallway behind the bar in the music hall and casino and it was really off putting!
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
We got an internal cabin and it was a decent size and was cleaned very well by our stateroom attendant. However, take note that they only clean it once a day now and it will be your choice whether it will be day or night. They ask you this on your first day.
Ship tip
Try the ripcord by iFly and North Star on port days as they are free. They’ll charge you for these during sea days.
There wasn’t much to do. We took the Hop on Hop off for AUD 15 and you can basically see everything within a few hours. We went to the aquarium, took about 45 minutes to 1 hour to go around. There are some lovely food places by Lemon Bay and also by the mall near the port if you’re looking for places to eat. However, because Vila, Vanuatu was cancelled, we had to dock twice here and I could do without the second day!
We did this cruise in November. It was great except shows were average. It would also be great if prices were in Australian dollars when in Australia for the cruise season. Don’t get caught out. You think a cocktail is $13 it’s closer to $20
I had a great time on Ovation of the Seas and thought the food was great in the MDR and Windjammer, but I guess some peoples perspective of great is different from others.
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