jasper15

Congratulations! Wishing you all the best for your wedding day.

There is another board on cruise critic where you might find some information or ideas

https://boards.cruisecritic.com.au/forumdisplay.php?f=31

It's not specific to Royal Caribbean though, you may have already seen it but I thought it was worth a mention :)

how many nights is your cruise? $120 sounds a good deal if it's 7 nights. It's my understanding that kids pay $10 but that might not be correct. Someone else will let you know. It might depend on the age of the children......

Bump. I thought I was going mad or not being able to spell Ovation when I couldn't find it on the sidebar. It has been around long enough to have a link.

Yes me too! We are booked on Ovation and any reviews/information would be great. Lots of people that go on it don't seem to write reviews but they might be happy to answer a few questions now and again.

Thanks :)

We love Peter Doyles at The Quay. Spectacular views. Food is great. Been there a lot of times.

Have a look at the menu online, it isn't cheap but it's a fabulous place.

I haven't sailed with them out of Australia before but I was on Independence in June (out of Southampton). Cocktails were around $13 US, Beers all around $8-9 and glasses of wine varied greatly but the nicest ones were a minimum $12.

Don't forget the drink package includes unlimited bottled water which is $4 per bottle as well as softdrinks, OJ etc.

If you have the deluxe package, you can often get the premium spirits in your cocktails without paying any extra. That happened to us on both Independence and Anthem (last year).

Oh that's really expensive. Sorry I thought you meant $56 AUD. I saw you were in Australia and thought you were quoting the price in our $$$. I only paid $64 AUD per day to cruise on Voyager in January out of Sydney!

We sailed Mariner out of Singapore in 2013 and I estimate 98% of the people on the cruise were non-drinkers. I can't be certain but I am fairly sure that the prices of the drink package were cheaper on-board that time because no-one was drinking.

Prices are definitely more expensive on-board if you are sailing out of Australia but over there, I think you would have a good chance of getting a better deal when on the ship.

Great review. Thanks for taking the time :)

I would book now (you can cancel and rebook if you see it cheaper). Quite often the price will go up closer to the cruise and it is always more expensive if you buy onboard.

I have never had a problem with the laundry service. On both Anthem and Independence, we had just about everything laundered as the cruises were towards the end of month long trips. Everything came back in good condition and we always had our laundry back the day after giving it to our stateroom attendants. Of course, that may have had something to do with my DH tipping the attendants at the beginning of the cruises but I didn't give that a thought until after we arrived home.

I've used both the wash and fold bags and drycleaning.

Kings Wharf - It's a short walk into the main part of town. We did some shopping and had some lunch but if we went back there would be looking for some sort of excursion. I think the beach was a taxi ride away.

St Maarten, you can definitely walk to the beach. We didn't go on the beach but walked up the boardwalk and had lunch and drinks. We weren't keen on the shopping area as there were too many people in your face trying to sell you things. If we went back, I would go to the French side of the Island. Everyone told us how beautiful it was but we didn't go.

Puerto Rico - absolutely loved it. We just didn't have enough time in Port. We did the food and culture walking tour through RCL. We had a fantastic guide and everyone on the tour couldn't sing her praises highly enough. It was the best ship based tour that we have done to date.

We loved Jamie's when we were on Anthem. I think we ate there 4 times and it was excellent each time. We let our waiter choose our food and everything was delicious. I remember we had the lamb cutlets a second time because they were so good. I also remember being so full we couldn't even look at the dessert menu. Don't fill up on bread first!!

No timed packages for internet. You have to buy for everyday, although you can of course buy it on day 2 of the cruise and pay pro-rata prices.

Not sure about your cruise, but we are cruising on Voyager in January and prices are in our cruise planner for dining packages. You can buy First night done right package, combination drink/dining package and discounted

packages for 3,4 or 5 nights of speciality dining.

I would definitely recommend both Chops and Giovannis. I have also done both the Mystery Dinner and Chefs Table. Both are excellent (and both include unlimited wine if you are drinkers).

From memory, I think the speciality coffees were around $4.50 - $5

Hi, we are doing 3 of the same ports on a cruise in January. If you search the boards with "South Pacific Port Summaries" there is a thread with quite a bit of information. Even though it is an old thread it is definitely worth reading, there are some handy tips there.

Also bumping your thread so someone with information might chime in.

I have booked a Grand Loft Suite on Ovation in January. Yes it includs all speciality dining as well as the ultimate beveragae package.

Other people have reported getting starbucks for free and some have said that as soon as they flash their black card they haven't had to pay for anything on board.

Thank you for the recommendations for private tours. Less than 100 days until our cruise so Ineed to start doing some research :)

Update...I have gone ahead and booked to go on Ovation through RCL direct.

I didn't ask my travel agent for her opinion. I asked her to book me on a cruise and she practically refused. I have since come to realise that she wasn't the right TA for me.

I can't wait to go on Ovation but in the meantime, I am counting down to my next cruise which is on Voyager 100 days from now :)

Thank you for all the effort you have put into your review. There is some good information there!

I have booked to go on Ovation in January.

It is always more expensive on-board.

Book it early. If the price drops, cancel it and re-book.

Do not wait until you get on the boat.

You pay the cover charge for the restaurant, then you can eat whatever you like from the menu - no extra charge. From memory there were a couple of special dishes that you could order at Chops that were a small additional fee but they were clearly marked on the menu.

If you would like to book specialty restaurants, there is often a deal where you can book 3 or 5 nights for a discounted rate.

What ship are you going on?

I think I've read something about a new Indian menu but may have been a test? Not sure what ship but wondered if any updates?

 

Also, might vary by ship but Chops was getting disappointing reviews a while back. Any recent cruisers try it or Gio on IOTS?

 

Thanks

 

 

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DH and I were on Indy in June. Both Chops and Giovannis were very good. Chops was our favourite but the food was great in both, as were the servers. We had the dining package and ate in those restaurants multiple times as well as Chef's Table (outstanding) on one night.

Don't know about the Indian menu as we didn't go to the MDR at all.

Fly to NZ rent a car, other than it is on the wrong side, it is all good. You will have to fly to see both islands, but should not be a problem. They might even have car ferries. Hotels in NZ are no more expensive than in the states.

 

Have fun.

 

JC

There are definitely car ferries between the South and North Islands. From memory, they go every couple of hours and were quite comfortable.

Maybe this is a dumb question but, I have never been to Europe before and this confuses me. We will be arriving at Heathrow at 19:45 which is 7:45 pm US time. I went to the, Just Airports website and it is asking for pick up time. With baggage pickup and immigration we are thinking 9:30 pm. Do I put that in or 21:30? It says, 24 hour time.

We were at Heathrow in June. Flight landed at 1.00pm and we had our bags and were through immigration in less than 30 minutes. It might not be that quick all the time but there were no queues. I doubt it would take you that long to get through.

Apparently there are more tours offered by locals in Mystery Island these days....has anyone been there recently?

There is always some sort of sale but chances are the longer you wait, the more the price will climb. The best prices for the cruises I have recently booked, have been when the cruise was first released.

I used a preloaded currency card on Independence in June sailing out of Southampton. there were no questions asked and never any issue.