avalon007

From what I can find it seems RCCI have abandoned Australia between May - Nov in 2017.

 

Oh well, I'll take my money elsewhere.

 

Steve O

Royal have never sailed here in our cooler season - it's nothing new.

But it is likely now that Carnival have placed a ship here full time that they will follow suit sooner or later.

Royal are in the big picture fairly new to the Australian cruise market so will take time to develop their Australian market compared to say P&O who have been here for literally decades.

The fact though they are sending one of their newest ships here though shows they value the Australian cruise market. Ovation's Australian based cruises are basically sold out a year ahead & they have had to extend the maiden season, which shows Australian cruisers are keen to try what they have to offer. :)

With all the talk on the Royal forum about Dynamic Dining about to be ditched on Anthem I'm keen to know if it's going to be continued on Ovation?

If anyone on board has a chance to find out more on that issue that would be good to know.

Dynamic Dining - or at least MTD with all the different menus in place is one of the reasons I booked Ovation - I would hate to see the menus advertised on Royal's restaurant web pages dumbed down or uniform menus in all the free restaurants as suggested may happen on Anthem.

The NZ cruise also goes to Noumea and Mystery Island.

That's interesting - maybe wanting to test out tendering at Mystery island where there is a small dock etc to see how it all goes? Could also be fairly crowded with the extra passengers on a little island like that.

I'm hoping they offer some variation in the cruises in the 2017/18 season as I would probably book her again if it isn't just NZ/Australia.

At Lifou that snorkel spot off the side road is called Jinek Bay, last time there it cost us A$15 each.

Don't miss it - it is one of the best snorkel spots in the South Pacific, I am a scuba diver & I would prefer to snorkel at Jinek than dive many places.

Church at the top of hill isn't too hard a walk if you are of average fitness.

In the opposite direction there is another larger church you can easily walk to & a small cave at the bottom of a grotto with a huge tree growing out the centre of it that the locals near the church will take you to for a few dollars.

You can often spot turtles swimming around the dock where the tender pulls in.

Not sure if this you tube video link has been posted before so sorry if it has.

It's in German but goes for about 20 minutes & shows a lot more of the ship than most videos I've seen

Can't say she is the prettiest ship I've ever seen - a bit too much like a floating block of flats.

But I'm still keen to be sailing on her regardless! :)

They are still advertising Ovation as having all the restaurant variety in their latest email link where they invite us to 'explore more about Ovation' 'after announcing the extra sailings being added to the Australian season & confirming she will come to Australia in the 2017/18 season.

I'm not overly concerned about DD being MTD because as long as they retain the varied menus & the different restaurant décor it's much the same thing.

If they do make the 4 main included restaurants all the same menu then that will be annoying & basically false advertising!

Maybe Anthem is the only ship in Quantum class changing since she is the US based ship? Ovation being Australia & Asia based may do things differently based on what our reaction is?

All those people that couldn't stand any change from their set ways on just a few ships in the fleet may have ruined the whole new experience for everyone else - & before we even had a chance to try it. :(

At least we still have the paid restaurants to try some variety in if they do dumb down the menus in the free ones.

As a scuba diver I see turtles now & again (Fiji is good for that) & consider it a bonus, watching them glide through the ocean like they are flying is a wonderful experience I never get tired of.

I do have some issues with manufactured experiences where the animals are forced to interact with humans & avoid those type of shore excursions.

If your turtle experience is natural & the animal chooses to be close enough to you so you can see it clearly then that is an experience that will stay with you, because it was the real deal. Seeing a turtle forced to swim in a pond with 50 tourists milling around trying to touch it will never compare.

Snorkelling you can also see turtles in the lagoon at Noumea sometimes, or even from the pier at Lifou as already suggested. :)

Also received the email this morning & feel sorry for those on the cancelled repo cruise.

Good news though she is returning for the 2017/18 season - hopefully with some varied itineraries.

If they are fitting 4 extra cruises though into 1 month as they say they must be shorter Australian based cruises like QLD or Tasmania??

It takes 4 days min to get to & from the first port in NZ or the South Pacific Islands so given they can only average 7 days per cruise if they are adding 4 in that timeframe seems likely be itineraries close to home?

Just wondering if as Diamond members we will get any discounts or extras on our Ovation cruise that are specific to features of Quantum class ships?

Like a discount on IFly or a special show in Two70 for loyalty members only etc?

On VOS recently we enjoyed a loyalty members only new ice show which was fun.

Also, make sure you have good security software on your computer.

I work in web design for a living & I have both my standard anti virus software as well as anti malware installed on my computers. They often detect different potential issues than each other because they specialise in different types of threats.

I don't mind most signatures, but do wish people would delete their old already sailed countdown clocks as they take up more space.

Also agree requotes with loads of pics is wasting space.

Personally I like to know what others have cruised, because when they offer an opinion on some aspect of cruising I can then see if it is based on some sort of experience with that cruise line or destination etc etc or if they are just posting based on reading CC. ;)

What I have done with my sig is to keep the font size very small so it takes up less room. I don't use the countdowns but do have what I consider to be a smallish Crown & Anchor status graphic. As time goes on I'll spread the past cruises more across the page than in a vertical list, may even consolidate them a little more now to shorten it further.

I also like to know if someone is in a loyalty program as I can then ask them specifically for an opinion on something related to that aspect of cruising.

I saw this members post the other day & was surprised at their sig - they give a whole run down of their family history & the whole thing is a bit rambling! What's also a tad annoying is they use bold text for their posts which they also do for the sig so the whole post gets even bigger.:rolleyes:

Too true. All the above. Cant understand why you would want a drink package once you reach Diamond or above. We average 3 to 4 spirits each evening in the lounge. Thats worth about $50 per day or at least $300 US per week. Add to that 2 glasses of wine for the dinner table (from the bar off the card:)). Current price (today) for standard spirit mixers on Radiance is $7US and cocktails are $10 with beer at $5.50 to $6.

 

I certainly dont mind buying any extra drinks as we go. BTW have not been charged for premium coffee at the coffee shop.

We have had a few instances were they say you can't use your vouchers for something, but they see your card & just don't charge you, even though we are expecting to pay.

Ways to Avoid a Huge Drinks Bill?

Here is a novel one for you if you intend to cruise fairly often.

Join the loyalty program & stick with the same cruise line until you get to a level like Diamond & above on Royal that gives you free drinks.

In the Diamond Lounge from about 5-8.30pm each evening you can drink as much as you want of beer, wine, spirits & simple cocktails from a set list, even if you are not big drinkers it can save you a lot.

You get the option to have 3 drinks at other bars around the ship in the same time each day, so even if you don't want to attend the Diamond Lounge it's still good value.

A couple drinking 4 drinks each with an average value of say $8 will save over $750 dollars on a 12 night cruise! :)

They also give you a few other discounts related to drinks like buy one get one free, 20% discount etc that are not time restricted.

With Royals program you also get reciprocal rewards on Celebrity - so an added bonus.

We just got off VOS last week & on the first day they offered a 30% discount on Chops Grille, later in the cruise it was 40%.

I think it's quite common, but depends if you happen upon the staff making the offer before they fill the restaurant I guess. :)

I have to agree with the posts that are saying if you don't like the DD concept then why not book one of the other ships in the fleet that all offer set dining, they are the majority of ships so you already have a really good choice.

Converting 4 restaurants to the same menu would be a real shame, the whole reason for having them themed differently is to offer variety! Also, how could Silk's menu match that of Grande for example - 2 totally different designed restaurants with foods from different cultures. They already offer the classic choices in each of those restaurants from what I've seen of the menus, so that should be enough to suit those who prefer less variety if the rest of their group wants to eat one night at a restaurant with a menu they don't like?

I understand the people that like set dining but for us it would be a disaster - it would structure our holiday in a way that forced us to constantly be checking our watch, rather than enjoying our time & eating when we felt the need to on most days.

What some people find easy & less hassle, to others is restrictive & a big hassle.

It seems also that large groups have more issue with DD than couples from what I've read here. I understand how that can be a problem.

But on the flip side we have found that in the MDR in the my time dining section if seated at a table for two & a larger group comes in our service drops off, as the waiter gets occupied with the different dynamic of a large group, especially if it contains children who sometimes take longer to order etc, thus slowing down the whole process for everyone else. On our recent VOS cruise this happened twice causing us to miss dessert to catch a show one time & another time dinner service taking almost 2 hours due to the arrival of a large group next to us.

For some reason the waiters seem to be better able to handle 4 couples on tables for 2 than 8 people on a single table at times.

I hope very much that Ovation when she arrives here later this year has retained the DD concept in some shape or form that allows us to actually try all the different menus, which is one of the reasons we booked her in the first place! I will feel quite let down if they change what they promoted as one of the features before I get to try it! :(

Very easy to book onboard you can do it from the Royal IQ app or just use your stateroom TV.

 

From what we saw on our Anthem cruise March 7-19 if you want to eat after 7:45 PM you should not have aproblem getting in. Most of the restaurants were only a 1/2 to a 3/4 full and our reservations were for 7:45 PM. Grande was the busiest, so you might want to make reservations for that one.

Great - good news! Should suit us fine as we dine mostly late & never very early. We often get caught up chatting to people in the Diamond Lounge at 5pm & before we know it it's 8pm!

We are also easy going & not concerned if we don't get our first preference dining option every night - we will be happy enough to dine in another venue & there is always the Windjammer if we miss out altogether - it's not like we will starve.:D

We are intending to try all the restaurants & booked the 14 night cruise so we would have more time to do that - although some may still need to be lunch time visits to fit them all in. :)

We are booked on Ovation in Jan & the DD is very much one of the aspects of the Quantum class we are looking forward to. I hope it stays that way or that MTD is still available at least??

We are fans of My Time Dining after having tried traditional Dining on our first 2 cruises.

We prefer MTD because:

1. We never eat the same time every night - our dinner schedule is based on how hungry we feel, we never book either - we just turn up & asked to be seated anywhere - never had to wait more than a few minutes to get a table.

2. We don't want to be with the same people for dinner every night - it's fine if they are your sort of folks, but if they are PITA types they can ruin your dinner time.

3. We don't need the same waiters remembering my drink preference etc as we don't always want the same thing - so a new waiter every night is fine with us. Also we don't like having to tell them we may not be present the next evening as we just don't know what we want to do for dinner a day in advance.

Set dining is too controlled for us.

The only thing about DD I'm not keen on is this pre booking - I may do this for the speciality paid for restaurants I really want to try - like Wonderland, but if for the free restaurants if we just turn up will we have to wait for a long time to be seated outside of peak hours - anyone tried that?

How easy is it to book once on board if you are flexible with seating times?

We really don't want to be tied down to set restaurants or dining times every night so would be very disappointed if MTD was unavailable. :confused:

Over here in Australia we are still hoping Royal will leave at least 1 ship here year round - yes folks we are still a 6 month Royal Summer season only destination! I would so love to cruise to tropical ports in our Winter!!

I don't think that is too much to ask - just 1 ship.

Any Royal ship will do - sure we would love an Ovation class here full time but Royal loves the Asian market too much it seems to give us Ovation for more than 4 cruises out of Sydney this Summer season.:rolleyes:

Ports are the issue over here for the larger ships, none of the Royal ships of any class can fit under the Sydney Harbour Bridge so that leaves only the Circular Quay terminal which has the ship nice & cosey with both the Bridge & the Opera House -a fantastic spot. They will probably build a larger terminal nearby at Garden island that is currently a navy dock, but that will take a few years.

The South Pacific islands have about half of them at least tender only - so the Oasis class especially would have major issues there.

Also probably the reason Ovation is only doing cruises to new Zealand out of Sydney when she gets here as 95% are docked ports.

Ho hum, we can only wish to dream so big as you guys in the states. :)

On Quantum there is a nice bar on the 2nd level of the Music Hall overlooking the stage. The Golden Room (originally the Diamond Lounge) is also on the 2nd level just forward of the bar. From our observations the only requirement to get into the Golden Room was the ability to wager very high stakes gambling. They do not want spectators (unless they are with a high roller) and access to the locked room is constantly monitored. So if you really enjoy wagering thousands of dollars a hand and love smoke filled rooms - the Golden Room is the place for you. The Music Hall is a wonderful venue and the conversion of the Diamond Lounge to the Golden Room has little or no impact on the enjoyment of the Music Hall.

On the PDF deck plans for Ovation it clearly states that the Golden Room is a VIP Gamblers invitation only room during Asian cruises only, but will be the Diamond Lounge on all other cruises globally & in Australia. Hope that is the case.

Also hope they have time to air the ship out from the smoke after the Asian cruises - glad I've booked one of the last Australian cruises in her short Australian first season so she has longer to freshen up! :)

I think it's just the DL without gambling - if they need gambling in there as well they should also seriously also install a gamblers anonymous booth! :D

Thanks, I did eventually read that re the golden room on the PDF for deck 4 - I wonder though what any Diamond members who happen to go on an Asian cruise get to use if the DL is converted to a big gamblers get together space?

Ah ha! It's the printable version on the Australian site that is like the ones you linked to - but the standard web view has not been updated on the Australian site.

Thanks!

Can you view this:

 

http://media.royalcaribbean.com/content/shared_assets/pdf/decks/OV/2016-mar/ov_deck04_v2016_mar.pdf

Yes - thanks! That's excellent & if I edit the deck number in the page URL I can see all the deck plans.

I wish they would keep the Australian site better updated.

How did you access the info - is it a link via the US website?

I see the Diamond Club/Golden Room right next to the Music Hall.

That's interesting as on the Australia Royal site I can't see that on the deck plans, no golden room (what's that?) or music hall, just the DL at right side with a large unmarked space below it.

Maybe the US site has more up to date deck plans?