Ovation of the Seas Review

4.5 / 5.0
757 reviews

Quantum class, Chinese Charter, Typhoon

Review for Asia Cruise on Ovation of the Seas
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Rose Parade
10+ Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Oct 2016

This was a challenging cruise to review as it was actually three cruises, let me explain. First, after 14 cruises this was our first on the Quantum class, so being on such a large ship was much different experience for us. Second, this was essentially a Chinese charter and third, our itinerary was greatly altered by a typhoon which eliminated two of the three ports and denied us some of the entertainment. Depending upon which cruise of the three above I am reviewing, it was a different experience.

The worst part of the cruise was boarding. The moment we dropped off our luggage to the time we got on the ship was 2 hours and 20 minutes. This was slightly faster because of our Diamond status and ability to receive priority service on two lines. It took one hour and 20 minutes just to enter the building and the x-ray scanners. The challenge to the pier crew is that there were two ships boarding and only six x-ray machines, three to our ship with 4,100 passengers and three machines to the other ship. Once inside it took another hour to receive our room keys, clear customs and board. The entire time was spent standing in line which left a sour taste in my mouth. In all of our other cruises, it has never taken more than 45 minutes to board.

The ship itself is large but tastefully decorated. They kept the blue color palette and natural wood colors to give the ship a nautical feel. The key difference we noticed with this classs ship is the dining. Rather than have a main dining room, there are four themed restaurants and you may choose which one you want to dine in every night. In theory this opens up the menu possibilities but the downside is that you have different servers every night. We chose to stay at our same table all week and our server brought us the various menus to select from. We like having the personalized service. It almost got to be a joke as the whole crew of that restaurant knew us and we were known as Table 300. Every night my glass of iced tea was waiting for me and we gave the waiter permission to select our wine each night which was also waiting for us.

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