Ovation of the Seas Review

Ship's crew could not manage the large volume of people.

Review for Australia & New Zealand Cruise on Ovation of the Seas
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msummerill
2-5 Cruises • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Dec 2016
Cabin: Deluxe Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony

A new ship - and the largest ship to sail in Australia - our anticipation and excitement was high before boarding. But that's when the problems started. Boarding the ship took HOURS for most people. The process in Sydney was nothing other than complete chaos and the hot weather did not ease people's tempers. We were lucky - we completely ignored our slotted time to board and arrived 1.5 hours in advance, so our on-boarding process was not overly long - but - our friends/family who rocked up at their allotted time had to deal with horrendous ques in hot weather.

Once people got on board, most of the on-board activities that Royal Caribbean (RC) boasts about were completely booked out. Most specialty restaurants were booked out as well after Day 1. Most people were not able to book on the IFly or the North Star pod that overlooks the ship...only a few lucky early-birds got those coveted spots.

Every shore excursion was a huge fiasco getting on and off the ship. On the first excursion in Dunedin, they announced to the ship for passengers to line up on Deck 5. So, thousands of people did exactly that. The officer in charge (Keith Murphy) was completely overwhelmed and ended up screaming at the top of his lungs to the front of the que twice "EVERYONE MOVE BACK". Ummm, yeah, exactly how should we all do that, given the 2000 people behind us? It took about 3 hours to get people off the ship and bussed into ports - and that was every port! And, at every single port, 4000+ people had to be bussed in to the port because the ship docked at Commercial ports so passengers could not walk off the ship...and the management of all this queing and bussing was an absolute joke. The crew could not manage it at all. Passengers were angry all the time, there was so much chaos. RC crew consistently blamed "the port" for all this chaos, but it was evident that the ship crew was overwhelmed, understaffed, and just inexperienced, emotional, and disorganized.

Cabin Review

Deluxe Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony

Cabin was new, clean, spacious. Bed was large and comfortable. Lots of storage space. Lovely cabin crew staff.

Port Reviews

Sydney (Australia)

Sydney is gorgeous with lots to do. Don't need the cruise ship to organize an excursion.

Dunedin

We had an excursion on the Taieir Gorge booked at 9:30 am, but the ship arrived late into the port (due to tides - wouldn't they have known that in advance and listed the arrival time accordingly? Evidently not), so we missed the train and didn't do the excursion. Plus, the mayor of the town called a public holiday on our port day so many of the shops were closed. So we saw a lot of tourist shops and pretty buildings. Ho Hum.

Wellington

Sadly we arrived late to this port as well, and it rained cats and dogs. Long lines for the few attractions due to > 4000 people exiting a cruise ship, so missed out on a lot.

Napier

Gorgeous place. Rent a car and do your own wine tasting or adventure sport excursion.

Picton

We rented a car, got a wine map, and explored the Malborough Wine Region. Make a booking for lunch well in advance - we found most wineries were already booked for lunch and there are not a lot of options for quick bites.

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