Ovation of the Seas Review

4.5 / 5.0
756 reviews

Lackluster of the Seas

Review for Australia & New Zealand Cruise on Ovation of the Seas
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Mattypoo
6-10 Cruises • Age 40s

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Sail Date: Jan 2017

I expected more from a brand new ship. While much of our experience has been just fine, as usual (i.e. room, attendant, ship layout), there are some glaring poor choices that have been made. And I do believe these are choices made on purpose, rather than "there are kinks to be worked out."

Probably the biggest mis-step is the food. While the portions have been fine, the overall quality of it has not been good. I almost get the impression that the food quality has gone down in order to encourage people to pay money to eat at the specialty dining restaurants. There is a distinct difference in quality between the complimentary dining, and the specialty restaurants. For example, the "tomato" soup in the dining room had the consistency of barbeque sauce, however, pay $5 for it at the pub, and all the sudden, there is cream and parsley and it tastes like tomato. Everything is very salty.

Sidenote, last night, we ate at Wonderland for a second time, and upon completion of our meal, we learned that there is a $10 surcharge for dining there a second time (using the already purchased dining plan package). I am still trying to find this policy in writing, and am also miffed that this was brought to our attention upon completion of the meal rather than at the beginning.

Cabin Review

Port Reviews

Tauranga

Lovely little town. Went and walked around for a few hours. Nice vibrant community right by the ship. Walked across over to the beach on the ocean side and hiked around a little forested island.

Wellington

Nice town. Took the cable car to the top of the hill. Walked through the gardens and then back through town a bit. Walked the waterfront. Windy.

Picton

Probably would've enjoyed it more if we did an excursion. Not much to do here aside from walk around for 15 minutes in the park. Nice people, picturesque, but not really a cruise stop.

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