Ovation of the Seas Review

Overcrowded and untrained staff -Welcome to the new cost cutting RCI -No holiday

Review for Australia & New Zealand Cruise on Ovation of the Seas
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Travelover501011
10+ Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Nov 2018

We are RCI Captains Club members and have cruised many times around the world with RCI and Celebrity ( as well as other companies). We have been staunch advocates of RCI up until now. We were a group of 11 passengers in 5 balcony rooms, gathered together from around the world to celebrate a family milestone. This is not a discount booze cruise, but a mid to upper range luxury ship that can accommodate family groups of various ages. I tried to prebook and organise as much as I could prior to cruising, as we were a large group. Unfortunately, RCI allowed only one show to be booked ( Pixels) and our dining option which I did. I found this surprising as when I made our group cabin bookings, the RCI agent advised me to pre-book the I-Fly, North Star and various other activities. Ovation is a beautiful ship but a ship that is overloaded with too many passengers. RCI has forgotten that it's our holiday and not about their staff. Clearly RCI have failed to train staff in ALL AREAS about guests being made to feel happy and welcome - training now is just hard sell marketing. What a shame !!!

There are almost 5000 passengers with very little open space to move. We overheard one passenger comparing it to Mumbai. Everything (dining, entertainment, activities)are akin to standing in lines Disneyland style.Staff are rude, unhappy and untrained and seem to feel the paid passengers are inconveniencing them if they require some service. Most responses are to be as rude or unhelpful as possible - usually there is NOTHING they can do, laugh or jeer at you or make rude comments ( eg. this is a ship, not a boat.)The security staff ( alcohol police)are the worst of all. Food cleanliness is good but quality in the main dining room has definitely deteriorated. Service in the speciality restaurants is better but food quality and offer is no better than the dining rooms.

Our cruise documentation specifically allow 2 bottles of wine per stateroom for use in your cabin. We packed these in our luggage. At 7.30pm, after the ship had departed we still had no luggage, no notification where our luggage might be and staff very unhelpful. Eventually we worked out that our luggage had been DETAINED by security ( actually alcohol police - not really concerned with security). No apologies, just rude and arrogant jeering by staff at passengers and clearly 100's of other passengers also didn't have their bags as there were 100's of bags there. Seems RCI policy is to see how many passengers they can inconvenience by not giving clear instructions about how they wish this alcohol to be brought on board. Really seems, they will allow you to bring wine, but punish you if you do.

Cabin Review

Cabin Ocean View Balcony

Size was ok with lots of cupboard space. New and and clean but bed very hard. No amenities in bathroom and towels minute. Well serviced.

29 Helpful Votes
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