We choose this cruise to see some of Japan. Booked via travel agent so flights, pre-cruse stay and transfers included. Embarkation smooth, in fact as we carried our own bags we walked on board within 15 mins of arrival at terminal. Service on board excellent throughout staff from room stewards, dining room waiters & bar staff. Shame in my view that the changes made to ship to accommodate the Chinese guests made the on board experience disappointing. (We sailed on the inaugural Ovation cruise and so were able to appreciate all the changes made.)

Dinning : the Windjammer was always jammed - announcements made in Cantonese & English asking guests to leave when they had finished eating.... we gave up ordered room service breakfast on port days, and just got specialty coffee from Windjammer. The four main dinning rooms all had the same frankly bizarre menus, featuring that British classic “green apple soup”. We ignoring our assigned dining reservation because when we arrived at 8.30 it was chaos, so we went at 9.00 usually with friends and sat together.

Entertainment: the 270 shows were spectacular but seating assignments were ignored by some guests— I observed the staff trying their best to restore order. We didn’t go to the other show venues, as mainly had karaoke and marjon competitions. Read more