Ovation of the Seas Review

**WORST ASIA CRUISE EVER!! -OVATION OF THE SEAS WITH RCCL !!!**

Review for Asia Cruise on Ovation of the Seas
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joeparkmd1
10+ Cruises • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Jun 2016
Cabin: Superior Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony
Traveled with children

By far this was the WORST ASIA CRUISE WITH ROYAL CARIBBEAN CRUISE LINE (RCCL) my family & I have gone on! If you're planning to go on this ship - OVATION OF THE SEAS, I would HIGHLY recommend you to reconsider or CANCEL your reservation! We felt like we were guinea pigs for this brand new ship! We've cruised over 15 cruises with RCCL(yes...this was NOT our first cruise with RCCL), Celebrity, Princess, Crystal & Norwegian Cruise Lines. We have NEVER had any issues/complaints with the other 15+ cruises we have gone on. The crew on this ship, OVATION OF THE SEAS - RCCL were the most rude, undertrained, least helpful, not knowledgeable and least experienced employees! It's obvious that RCCL rushed in sailing this brand new ship ASAP after spending several millions of dollars in building this beautiful cruise ship & filled it with the WORST crew & employees & worst customer service staff! We purchased our cruise, transportation, airfare, & RCCL Travel Protection Program all through our 3rd party travel agency, From day one, this cruise was a horrible experience for our family - group of 7 cruise passengers. The transportation crew that met us at the Singapore airport, made us miss our embarkation to the ship because they had to wait for over 1 hour for 2 other cruise passengers that were late (and never showed up) despite the fact we had TWO large vans & TWO drivers! Thank goodness we purchased the RCCL Travel Protection Program....RCCL had to place us at the Swissotel hotel in Singapore & rebook our 7 flights to Vietnam to catch the ship at the 2nd port to embark. Despite asking RCCL staff multiple times which foreign countries required visas (for USA citizens), & getting different answers each time, I was left to research everything on my own! By pure luck & chance, a fellow cruiser that had also missed the embarkation at Singapore with us found out we needed visas to enter Vietnam. RCCL Emergency Travel Team FAILED to relay this VERY important information to us & never assisted me in obtaining the Vietnam visas for my family! At this day & age of advanced computer systems, RCCL really need to improve on informing their passengers which countries require visas & other documents. We actually saw a few cruise passengers having to disembark this ship because they were not aware they needed visas for China!! Crazy!! The Swissotel staff were very knowledgeable & helpful in assisting me & my family to obtain our RUSH/URGENT Vietnam visas...not RCCL Emergency Travel Team! Every time I asked a question to a RCCL crew member, I kept getting 5 different answers to the SAME QUESTION I was asking!! What was also a HUGE disappointment was the food...it was AWFUL! The food was tasteless! They failed to season it with simple salt & pepper. Our previous experiences with most of the food in cruises have either been excellent or EXCEEDED our expectations! They had the same EXACT menu several nights in a row in several of the dining restaurants! The crew also CANCELLED ALL of my advanced online dinner reservations & despite being taken OFF the WAITLIST for the 8 PM dining time, we were actually then placed on a "CLASSIC 8 PM" dining time...only to find out on our first day on the ship we NEEDED reservations for ALL of the dinners! So what does the "CLASSIC 8 PM" dining category mean? From previous cruises, it meant our dinner will be ALWAYS at 8 PM at the main dining venue. Apparently, not so! RCCL never informed me in writing or on their website. By the time I discovered this was NOT the case, our preferred dining time were all booked & my 3 children missed several dinners because they were either falling asleep, or were actually sleeping at the dining table! To make things even worse, the crew also CANCELLED & RESCHEDULED WITHOUT OUR CONSENT OR KNOWLEDGE our advanced online North Star booking, which we ended up MISSING the experience as a family! I've NEVER been so disappointed with RCCL!! We have cruised with RCCL multiple times in the past...their quality to focus on customer service, quality on excellent food services, & hiring knowledgeable staff have REALLY gone down!! At this point, I would look into other major luxury cruise lines before considering RCCL again! I complained to both RCCL (which I have NEVER complained in writing about any of my past vacation travels, cruises, etc) & I have NOT received a resolution or compensation for my horrible cruise experience! I was stressed out a week prior & throughout the entire cruise because I was SOOOOO FRUSTRATED with the online RCCL/ system & crew not being knowledgeable in assisting me in giving accurate information! I would rate this cruise as a 0/10! This is NOT what a cruise should be like!

Cabin Review

Superior Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony

Cabin D1

Since the Ovation Of The Seas is a brand new ship built in April 2016, the décor & cleanliness of the cabins & floor plan of the ship is beautiful & very clean.

Port Reviews

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

Didn't go on an excursion

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