We decided to try a larger ship and seeing this was Ovations inaugural cruise to Australia it was a good chance to experience this brand new ship. As we have travel with Royal Caribbean before we looked forward to the experience. We embarked from Fremantle but although we were assigned a boarding time it appeared that it was a a first come first served fiasco (we have had a similar problem there before so I cannot totally blame Royal Caribbean as other ports things have moved reasonably smoothly before ) 1 Hour sitting waiting for your number to be called then another 90 minutes in a zig zag waiting to reach the desk. That behind us we again looked forward to the days ahead. The ship is magnificent and a technological marvel , very impressed. The dining experience did not do Royal Caribbean justice. staff did not know where tables were located having to ask directions from other staff every night. We were unable to dine in the main dining room as were unable to access "my time dining" and were directed to Silk and American Icon rooms as our designated options. Food was nothing to write home about (cafeteria style) Menu was a standard fare with a couple of options each night. Table setting was second rate staff slow and uninterested.

The evening shows were very good thoroughly enjoyable when you could get into see the most requiring reservations. We later were told that quite a number of people were booking every show on a particular night and doing the same for every night and then picking and choosing what time they decided to turn up. The ipads around the ship did not all complete booking sequences requiring to find staff to do a face to face booking.

The cruise director Joff Eaton was one of the best we have encountered and thoroughly enjoyed his quizzes unfortunately the same could not be said for most of the other crew members very second or third rate Guest Services were a chore for them unlike most other ships. Read more