From the time ROyal Caribbean changed the itinerary conveniently 59 days before sailing, to the chaos created in baggage claim at disembarking, the most common words from ships staff was “We apologize”. The ship board staff constantly had to make excuses and apologize for numerous situations they had difficulty dealing with. AVOID this ship......while the ship itself is marvelous and a great asset, poor management both in Miami and on board make this ship one to avoid. Guest after guest had unfavorable comments......we just had difficulty grasping why all the problems occurred. The ship board officer crew were a lot of talk but offered few solutions to correct and overcome problems. The entertainment staff couldn’t start many of their activities on time because they didn’t have watches. The buffet management staff daily made “sales pitches” how wonderful everything is in the Windjammer market......while at the same time telling you to hurry and get out. Disembarking for tenders required Hour plus long waits. The evening dinners in the main dining room were interrupted nightly with a wait staff member singing. The disembarking procedure was a most painful experience.....utter chaos. Read Less

We have cruised on RCI before and have had very few problems. This one however was a nightmare. Booked day 1 Honolulu depart at 11:00pm 2 Kailua Kona 9am to 6pm 3 Kilaeua Volcano 12:01 to 1:00am 3Napoli coast 12:00pm to 4:00pm day 4&5 Maui 9am to 5pm next days 6-10 cruising day 11 Victoria BC 9:00am to 8:00pm 12 Vancouver 6:00am. What we got Days 1&2 Honolulu (left Honolulu at 5:00pm on 2nd day day 3 Napali coast 4&5 Maui 6-10 cruising Day 11 Victoria BC 7:00am to 2:00pm (Left 6 hours early arrived in Vancouver at 8pm on day 11 Day 12 Vancouver disembark. Did not see the volcano and did do see the big island. We feel we were ripped off by RCI. You plan for a once in lifetime trip to Hawaii and get cheated out of half the stops. RCI did refund one day, Big deal. Embarkation, late but went smooth. Ports of Call, In Maui the water was too rough for the tenders for most of the first day, on the second day we went ashore, be back time was at 7:00pm we got in line to board the tenders at 4:00pm and it took us over an hour to get back, those that stayed later took from 2-2 1/2 hours to get back on the boat. Dining- Windjammer food was basically good but always very crowded, no place to sit, long lines to get food, lines for the omelets and pasta were always in the way of others. Hamburger line was messed up people were always coming from two directions. Drinks were often empty. Dining- Main dining, food was often cold, stale or misstated. Seafood often smelled, steak was tough or dry, bread was sometimes hard or stale, coffee was occasionally cold, Etc. Dining-Service was excellent Entertainment-shows were good for the most part. There were a number of things to do on the boat and the staff was good at helping you find where things were. Public areas-CROWDED. Hard to get an elevator, other public areas crowded when something was going on. Disembarkation- NIGHTMARE. We arrived in Vancouver the night before the cruise ended so the Ovation of the seas was basically a hotel parked on the water. Some people got off every but most elected to disembark the regular way, ie tag luggage and put outside cabin before 10:00pm the night before disembarking, pick up luggage after it is removed from the ship. BIG MISTAKE. We had luggage tag number 14 with an estimated departure time of 8:20am. At 9:00am, almost nobody had been allowed to leave the boat(at this time we had been docked for 13 hours). A little after 9 they started to allow the Express Departures to leave, we weren't Express but we jumped in line anyway. When we got off of the boat and went to pick up our luggage it was not lined up by number as it usually was but all the numbers were thrown together. RCI was just bringing it out and dumping it on the floor. What RCI didn't tell us was that there was another luggage drop area about 100 yards away and around the corner where they were doing the same thing, just dumping the luggage. I heard someone say something and followed them over. There was approximately 10 people here looking for luggage and at the first area there were hundreds and more getting off the boat all the time. We were lucky to find ours and make our 12:20pm departure time to DEN. While waiting we were talking to other couples who had been on the Ovation and they said that when we got on the plane to Denver, there were people still on the Ovation who had not been able to get off. We have cruised about a dozen times and I have never seen such a mess. Read Less

We wanted to go back to Hawaii to visit the Arizona Memorial and visit the islands again. However, before this cruise even started there were problems. The Arizona Memorial is closed and will be for some an undisclosed amount of time. They are doing construction around the memorial that will keep it closed for awhile. But that wasn't the main reason for this review. This was our 35th cruise and the most disappointing one. We started getting e-mails from RCCL that because of "Coast Guard inspections that had to be done", there was a change in the itinerary that will cause the ship to remain in Honolulu for two days. Then one of the island would be bypassed and we would spend two days in Maui. So that meant we would only visit two islands. We tried to cancel the cruise but e-mails started to come AFTER the 90 day period for getting a full refund. This is unacceptable. You can't tell us that they didn't know about these inspections before hand. I guess RCCL feared people would cancel the cruise. They did refund the passengers one full day to make up for the island that was missed. Then we received another e-mail stating that because the ship had to pass under the "Lions Gate Bridge" as a certain time we had to arrive and leave Victoria BC because the ship was the largest to sail under the bridge and had to pass under it at a certain time. Again, you mean to tell the passengers you didn't know about that ahead of time ? We arrived in Vancouver a day earlier. There were a lot of passengers who got off the ship either because they lived there or made travel plan changes. Most felt they rather be home then to spend another night on the ship. EMBARKATION: The problem started before we even got to the ship. The person who greeted us in the airport terminal had no clue what was going on. She said to wait outside for our bus to arrive but what she didn't know was that there was confusion because there were other passengers waiting for buses and there didn't seem to be any logical order. We waited for over an hour for the bus to arrive. In addition, because certain areas needed to be shut down, we couldn't board the ship until after 2:00 PM. There was no food service available until dinner time. RCCL refunded you $30 per person for a food allowance. This was not comforting especially traveling for over 12 hours and the airlines don't provide food service. Once we arrived, picture thousands of passengers trying to get thru security. I must say that if you checked in on-line the process went very smooth. After you passed thru security a RCCL person took your picture on a tablet and as long as you printed your boarding pass ahead of time you boarded the ship. Your Seapass card was waiting at your cabin. Disembarkation: As for disembarking, what a nightmare that was. The baggage was scattered all over the terminal. The areas were completely screwed up as far as numbering. None of the areas were next to each other, # 7 baggage was completely on the opposite end of the terminal then #8, and the other numbers were just as bad. A lot of tempers were flaring. We had a late tour of Vancouver but we were over an hour late boarding the buses because of the luggage situation. Entertainment: As for the North Star, Ripcord, SeaPlex, Waverider and especially "Pixlas" they provided the most interesting entertainment. Pixals was very innovative. As for the shows, they were boring at best. A very interesting one was they had a professional pickpocket that was funny but very informative on how easy it was for him and the professionals to lift your valuables. It was funny how people started to watch their wallets after the show. There was an indoor pool area that came in handy when the weather started to cool down. For four days you could sit outside. In addition, it got quite noisy with all the children running around. Food: At best, average. We ate at Chops Grille and had to send back the Rib Eye steak because it had more fat than meat. We never had this problem before with Chops Grille. This also happened in the Silk dining room when we order a beef related meal. I ordered roast beef dish in the dining room and it only came with ONE slice of meat. I said to the waiter "are you kidding me ?". If you order coffee with your dessert, they gave you a half a cup of coffee. You would think they were rationing the food and drinks. The Windjammer was very crowed as usual and at times you couldn't find a table. There was an outdoor section behind the Windjammer but after we left Hawaii, the temperatures starting dropping into the 50's and it was very windy and cold to sit outside. If you drink an non-diary creamer with your coffee, you waited three days for them to make it available. This was after people were complaining that there were none available. They had three omelette stations and one in the back of the Windjammer which they only opened once. For Mother's Day they had a very nice variety of cakes to choose from. Cabins: We had a balcony cabin that had plenty of storage space so you should run out of space to store your clothing. The cabin was very clean and pleasant. Service: Spotty at times depending on the waiter you had. We had My Time dining so we were seated at different tables. One waiter even forgot to bring our salads. We requested several times that we wanted a table by the window. Despite our requests, we were seated at a table next to a window table even thought the window table was unoccupied. One night the Head Waiter heard our complaints, apologized and said he would take care of the problem. The next night, we encountered the same problem with the person who assigns the seating. This time a manager came over to apologize. We noticed a pattern that they would seat people not next to the window but to the tables next to them. I don't know what the person assigning the tables had against people sitting at a table next to the window. Excursions: Because of rough seas in Maui, all excursions before 4:30pm had to be cancelled. We heard that it took over 1 1/2 hours for people to get with the tender service for those who decided to go ashore. If you have a late night flight, we would recommend the tour of Vancouver and a visit the water fall and Gondala ride. Overall remarks: We have noticed that over the past couple of years, parents don't seem to be using the Adventure Ocean program for their children. This became apparent in the indoor pool area, It seems the foreign passengers are the ones that either don't know about the program or don't use it. The Ovation is a very nice ship and kept clean but they could have improved on the design. One area in particular is getting in/out of the theater. They is only one passage way on deck four and when there are at least a thousand passengers getting out, it makes for a very slow process. The other side was blocked by a shop, the Music Hall and a bar. I would not recommend a Hawaii cruise if you have to sail back from Hawaii. This was our second Hawaiian cruise where we experienced less than desirable weather for four days which forced you inside the ship. Read Less

Chose this cruise because of the itinerary but that didn’t work out so well. Bad planning on behalf of RCI resulted in multiple itinerary changes and just too much confusion for passengers and crew alike. We haven’t cruised with RCI for probably ten years during which we have favoured Princess and after this cruise with RCI I believe we made the right decision. We are not fussy eaters nor do we base our cruise experience on the quality of the food but it must be said that the eating experience on this ship was extremely disappointing and the quality poor. Apart from our wait staff in the dining room (Chic), I found the staff attitude to be less than attentive and pleasurable. The headliner entertainment was, for the most part, good although Pixels and the production shows were just o.k. In general I felt that the ship lacked a feeling of warmth - hard to put into words but I just didn’t feel like I was being pampered and well taken care of the way I feel when cruising with Princess. Also disliked all the extra charges which showed up way too often. The nicest place to sit during the day (when weather drove us inside) was the 270 lounge but we were often driven out by the daily Bingo session. The smoking areas were too close to the non-smoking areas - they need to be isolated more or eliminated entirely! On the plus side, the cabin was excellent with tons of storage, well laid out and the kettle and tea supplies in the room were a very pleasant surprise. Finally, a big shout out to the Captain who was extremely informative. Read Less

I haven't been on a Royal Caribbean cruise for a while (5 years) and was disappointed with this service. I wanted to "fly" and was super excited to go on the iFLY attraction - which was why we chose this ship. This allowed me to float in a wind tunnel, which was a great experience. However be advised that you need to book this attraction ASAP or else risk not being able to try it at all. You also can only go once per trip. So if you want to take your own photo, have someone stand outside (don't book all family/friends at the same timeslot). The best part of the cruise was the activities and entertainment. The dancing excerise class was good (and packed), the music was good (they actually have hit music in Windjammer). The pool was fun when it was rocky (but can be crowded with people just standing around - so I like to do laps in the morning). The gym was decent sized, some classes (stretch, abs) were free but yoga and TRX would cost money. This ship doesn't have shower facilities by the gym so prepare to walk around in your swim suit if you want to go swimming/hot tub. This was kinda annoying because I had no where to put my room card. I also liked the washrooms. This ship had good flushing toilets. I've been to other cruises which... had weaker toilets and things don't quite flush properly. HVAC system in the showers were good. Doesn't take long for the humidity to go down (or smell to go away). The bad parts: food. The (formal) main dining room was slow so food was constantly cold. The bread was soggy. The menu didn't have a lot of variety either. Typically this venue is supposed to have the best tasting cuisine, but I found it lacking. However mid cruise it got better. The food was hotter (could be as a result of the mid cruise survey). So we mostly ate buffet (Windjammer). The food was warmer, had more variety and the servers were faster (cleaning and giving drinks). I stayed away from the meat (which were often over cooked/dry). Steamed fish was good. Salads were good. Pastries were so dry - I'd rather eat from a grocery store. The best food on the cruise was the pizza. Food quality increased mid cruise but I still find it disappointing. Also if you have a wheel chair be prepared to wait. We met people that had to wait for 2 hours to get on board because they didn't have enough wheelchair or staff. This was on a day when we were docked the whole day and had a large window to check in - so it was poorly organized. Tendering in Maui was a nightmare. The rough seas, limited ports (with competing and sheer quantities of passengers made the waits very long. We docked in Maui overnight and the 2nd day lined up to leave the boat at 8:30 am. They didn't begin to issue tender tickets until after 9am so the waiting area was over crowded... we stood in line for 1.5 hours. The day before we barely waited because they warned us about the shore excursions (who have tendering priorty) and the rough ocean... and we waited 2 hours before lining up. Returning to the ship 5 hours prior to departure was a good idea. People had to wait for 2 hours outside in the heat, waiting for the tender. I think I'd have to find a really good deal or itinerary to go on another Royal Caribbean Cruise. Read Less

Ovation is a spectacular ship with friendly accommodating crew who work extremely hard and diligently, except for one crew member who managed to spoil our cruise experience for us to the extent that we are now canceling 3 more booked cruises aboard the same ship even though it means we will lose a $1200 non refundable deposit. We are so upset by our experience that we have chosen to lose our money rather than cruise with Royal Caribbean again! The specialty dining at Wonderland and Jamies is a true delight but Chops Grille is now trading on their reputation from years ago, as for the dining room....I've had better food in a hospital. Entertainment was creative and visually pleasing on all levels, but did find queuing for shows hours ahead of time a tiring experience. Our cabin was well appointed and spacious, more storage than you could dream of, tea was provided but no coffee. Getting on and off was easy and efficient. Read Less

There were 5 of us and the cruise was to celebrate a 70 birthday .We are all experienced cruisers whilst every thing was very clean and the food was ok ,the ship has no soul we could have been in a large department store with a pool on the roof ,cruise ships have lots of areas to sit listen to soft music catch up with friends for a coffee sit quietly to read the Atrium is the hart of the ship where you gather ,catch up ,listen to the piano whilst have a coffee on this ship there was virtually no where to sit. on level 4 from one end to the other virtually no seating any where ,this ship had no tables ,every cruise i have been on you could go to the pool deck "14 on ovation," and sit at tables with chairs play cards eat your meals whatever , what do you find on ovation hundreds of lounges every where go up more lounges ,50% unused ,want a table don't have any ,every thing on this ship was geared to seperate you from your money you felt like it was a definite strategy to gently keep moving you in to some where to spend .this was our 3rd RCI cruise . Read Less

Travelled to Singapore from the UK stopped in there for four days very humid pool at hotel came in handy went on a few excursions bay of trees at night, trip to Clarke quay and up to the top of the Marnia bay sands what a view, then onto Australia to visit family five days had breakfast with the Koalas at the Wild life Centre in Darling Harbour which was brilliant, trip around the bay at Sydney, then full day at the Blue Mountains, Wow well worth the day of walking, outstanding views. Days flew by then it was hopping onto the Ovation of the Seas, weather good when leaving Sydney, very windy and overcast later and rained two of the port days, but Bora Bora did not disappoint, beautiful. Very overcast but warm the remaining days. The ship was outstanding the Two Seventy lounge at the back of the ship on deck 5 was our favourite spot also Quinttin Holis talk about the Hawian Islands and it history was enjoyed by all, the shows.in the Theatre were stunning, we were entertained every night The staff were very pleasant the Cruise director and the Entertainment Director was funny we nicknamed Chris and Chris the double act. We ate up at the windjammer more as you could pick better, we also eat in two seventy, pick your own salads great. All this said, I felt that there could of been more Entertainment in the daytime especially when sea days were wet and windy. Arrived at Honolulu for a two day stay, got off on the second day, stayed at the Imperial Hotel on Waikiki beach for 4 nights, after this our stay was over, we then flew to NYC for 3 days, arrived back home in England to cold weather, arrr well. Planning our next Adventure. Read Less

I choose this cruise for Sydney and Polynesians Island. First I must tell you I am Celebrity guy. This is my second RC experience after the Harmony last January, I will maybe go back with RC but only on a very good deal. The quality of food is not at the level I expected. We got my time dining as usual, and after 2 diners , we asked to be changed for fix time dining at 8 hrs, the 2 my time dining rooms are not nice and jam packed, service and food are bad, although the food selection is the same at the 2 fix time dining rooms. the dining rooms are much nicer, almost empty, service and food are much better, even that the latest are not at the level of beauty of other ships, try not to skip the formal night because we got lobster at the second formal night, same as the Harmony, and it was the best lobster we got for long time. We got the 5 specialty restaurants package, went twice at the Gril and Uzimi and one time at the Wonderland, we skipped the italien Jamies because of the comments and mostly of poor menu selection. The Grill and Uzimi are very good. Got the package the first day at the embarkation, they give 15% discount on top of the already discounted price. all in all it is about 40% cheaper than the equivalent on Celebrity but less impressive in quality then Celebrity. The smoking area is around the main pool left side in a kind of not vented area,,, very bad. The buffet is the same as the Harmony, but a bit better quality but below Celebrity, Holland or Princess. The pizza is good, the tacos are not and same for the hamburger and shame... no grill to have fresh grilled hamburger, they are made 30 pieces or so in advance and stacked them somewhere at the buffet,, very bad. The french fried are good but a way less than HAL Koningsdam witch they have the best of the best. The regular coffee is good but all juices are awful, way to sweet. The buffet area is to small, we have been asked few times to hurry up and leave, not as much as on the Harmony though, there it was every day on Harmony they called up to move and vacate the place. Another thing that I dont like about the buffet, it is open only for some period of time, out of those time the doors are close, total area is inaccessible including the open area at the back of the boat attached to the buffet, instead of closing the food area only and leave all the tables, chairs and the open back of the boat available for a coffee pastry etc, they decide that every thing should be close, very bad. The gym area is good, in location and quality of equipment, I do treadmill twice a day and 5-6 times in my morning session I had to wait up to 15 minutes to get a machine, not enough treadmill that is for sure. On 16 days transpacific we had only 4 stops, 3 in french Polynesia and 1 at Maui. Because of the RCL company lack of planing, and because the Ovation havent sailed yet in USA water, They had to skip Maui and go directly to Honolulu for the last 2 days of the cruise in order to have the boat inspected by the coast guard, inadmissible, they should have known that before the planing of the port of call, they company did compensation us by giving us back 1/16 of the cruise price in OBC, good for them. The solarium no kid area is very nice with nice pools and nice double bed lounge chairs, but you need to wake up no later than 0630hrs to get one. This transpacific was against 30knd wind the first 8 days until Papetee, that mean in addition of the 20 knds boat speed, we got 50knd (60 mph) of wind the whole time, I couldnt enjoy my balcony very much, and the balcony separator were making a lot of noise by vibrating I return in November on the Celebrity Reflection for another trans Atlantic from Barcelona but this time with the wind in our back, that makes a great great difference on the comfort, boat noise and no boat big vibration like we were experiencing non stop the first 8 days on this transPacific. Read Less

We chose this repositioning cruise from Sydney to Honolulu primarily because we got a good deal and the fact that the itinerary included three stops in Tahiti and a stop at Lahaina, Maui. Unfortunately, after booking, we were advised by Royal Caribbean that they would have to cancel the Maui stop. Since this was to be Ovation of the Seas' first visit to the US, the US authorities apparently needed to carry out thorough inspections of the ship and it would, therefore, have to remain in port for an extra couple of days. So we would have to skip Maui and arrive in Honolulu one day early, although we could remain on the ship an extra day in the port. Consequently Royal Caribbean promised to refund passengers the equivalent of one day's fare to their onboard accounts, which we thought was fair and reasonable. So while we were a bit disappointed to miss out on Maui, we appreciated the credit in our onboard account and the extra day in Honolulu. Anyway, after that long-winded introduction, I have to say that this was a pretty good cruise! Leaving Sydney Harbour after dark was quite memorable. We also enjoyed the three stops in Tahiti, particularly Bora Bora. The weather was kind of damp in Papeete and Morea, but we were especially lucky with the weather in Bora Bora, which is a stunning place. It's definitely somewhere I would like to return to. My wife particularly enjoyed shopping for Tahitian pearls in Vaitape, the main town in Bora Bora! The ship itself is huge, modern and well appointed, and being less than three years old is still in very good condition. I had thought that having more than 4,000 fellow passengers might result in the ship being too crowded, but we didn't find it to be a real problem. For example, while the Windjammer Marketplace (the main buffet on Deck 14) got very busy at times, we never had a problem finding a table. Also, due to the size of the ship, there was not too much motion most of the time. We did find the food in the main restaurant to be a bit disappointing the first few nights. However, we then started asking our waiters for recommendations on which dishes to choose and after that enjoyed almost every meal. We ate in the main restaurant most evenings and had breakfast and lunch in the Windjammer Marketplace where we found the food quite acceptable. Overall, the food on the cruise was, in our view, fairly good but not as good as we have experienced on some prior cruises. Our balcony cabin was great. No problems there at all. Also, the level of service provided by the crew and their friendliness throughout the ship was almost always exceptional. We went to a few of the evening shows in the Royal Theatre and were not disappointed although the sightlines from the upper audience levels were a bit restricted. Embarkation in Sydney and disembarkation in Honolulu both went smoothly. We found the wifi to be very good. We pre-purchased a "surf and stream" package for one device, which worked out quite well as we were able to switch between our three devices (two smartphones and a laptop) as required. The cost of pre-purchasing the package, while not cheap, turned out to be considerably less than if we had bought it on the ship. So, overall a memorable cruise on a nice, modern ship, with the highlight for being the one-day stop at Bora Bora! Read Less