Food Quality / Options & Entertainment on Ovation of the Seas - Post Pandemic?

[TwoWestAussies]

Is anyone on or have just been on Ovation of the Seas... seeing a lot of reviews on how bad the food and entertainment is and how it is not up to their normal standard.  We are first time cruisers and have been watching a lot of You Tube videos, but also know that many are from people who are paid to spruik the cruise line, images are pre-pandemic and or stock images  - so hoping to get some first hand information on what it is or was actually like on it's recent cruises? 

 

Things I have heard are food selections poor, running out of certain drinks (we have purchased the deluxe drink package), cabins not clean, limited entertainment available, food in buffet poor selections, long queues for certain dining areas as some are closed or not operating limiting dining options?

 

We have booked a 9 night cruise, which was definitely not on the cheap side, but I don't mind paying if I get what they advertise, if it is poor, I would rather cancel and book a later cruise when they get their act together. 

[Chiliburn]

11 minutes ago, TwoWestAussies said:

Is anyone on or have just been on Ovation of the Seas... seeing a lot of reviews on how bad the food and entertainment is and how it is not up to their normal standard.  We are first time cruisers and have been watching a lot of You Tube videos, but also know that many are from people who are paid to spruik the cruise line, images are pre-pandemic and or stock images  - so hoping to get some first hand information on what it is or was actually like on it's recent cruises? 

 

Things I have heard are food selections poor, running out of certain drinks (we have purchased the deluxe drink package), cabins not clean, limited entertainment available, food in buffet poor selections, long queues for certain dining areas as some are closed or not operating limiting dining options?

 

We have booked a 9 night cruise, which was definitely not on the cheap side, but I don't mind paying if I get what they advertise, if it is poor, I would rather cancel and book a later cruise when they get their act together. 

Food and entertainment does vary from ship to ship but I don’t think you will have any problem.

Royal Caribbean is renowned for maintaining there ships.

[Chiliburn]

1 hour ago, TwoWestAussies said:

Is anyone on or have just been on Ovation of the Seas... seeing a lot of reviews on how bad the food and entertainment is and how it is not up to their normal standard.  We are first time cruisers and have been watching a lot of You Tube videos, but also know that many are from people who are paid to spruik the cruise line, images are pre-pandemic and or stock images  - so hoping to get some first hand information on what it is or was actually like on it's recent cruises? 

 

Things I have heard are food selections poor, running out of certain drinks (we have purchased the deluxe drink package), cabins not clean, limited entertainment available, food in buffet poor selections, long queues for certain dining areas as some are closed or not operating limiting dining options?

 

We have booked a 9 night cruise, which was definitely not on the cheap side, but I don't mind paying if I get what they advertise, if it is poor, I would rather cancel and book a later cruise when they get their act together. 

Oh ,and welcome to cruise critic.

There’s a Australian forum if you’re interested.

It’s pretty well dominated by Princess cruises but just ignore them, I usually troll them.

But lots of local information and knowledge.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/564-australia-new-zealand-cruisers/

 

[Bleueyes44]

I was on the Ovation the first week of June and everything was fine.  Only problem was the weather wasn't  the best  Oh and I  came home with extra baggage a case of covid.

I just dt got off of the Quantam this past weekend now the food on there was sub par compared to Ovation.  The The main stage production  looked like a cheap copy of Ovation . Maybe things have changed in 2 months but it can't  be that bad.

[RnKCruisers]

Was on the Presidents cruise to Alaska from Seattle in late June.  Entertainment was ok,     The food was good, but dining room service was a little subpar.  I liked the entertainment in the small venues much better than the shows….too loud and a little weird.  But various lounges had great folks.  Buffet was ok but wish they had kept the “we serve you versus self serve.”  My stepson also caught Covid despite being vaxed and boosted.  The three rest of us did not.  

[blbott]

My husband and I just got off Ovation yesterday. This was our first time taking a cruise on Royal Caribbean. We have taken countless cruises on Norwegian and Carnival. For us we both agreed that the food and dinning times are better on Norwegian and Carnival. I don’t know if changing your cruise date would make that much of a difference. I’ll break down our dinning experience so you get a better idea of how it was for us. 
 

Breakfast

The Windjammer was usually packed. The staff would do their best to help people find an open table but it was difficult. It was a little frustrating walking around looking for a table but once seated it was fine.  If you go beyond the buffet towards the back of the ship there was a little more open seating but on port days it was just as crowded. The food variety was good. If you want a cooked to older Omelet you order it, then they give you a pager and you pick it up once it’s cooked. It was very convenient.  
We ate breakfast at the Solarium once. It’s a buffet as well but on a smaller scale. Finding a table there wasn’t as bad as the Windjammer but it was still really crowded. The line was very long to get your food. The food was the same as the windjammer only less variety and on a much smaller scale. 
We ended up eating at Two70 Cafe most of the time. It’s more cafeteria style with breakfast sandwiches, wraps, hot and cold cereal, pastries, and bagels. We could always get a table and it had short lines. Most of the food was pretty good. 
 

Lunch

We ate at Fish and Ships. We just had the complementary food.  I had the fish and chips and asked for one chicken strip. It was very good and wasn’t to crowded. The complementary food comes out faster than the food you buy because it’s already prepared. Try to find a table by the window. On the day we were heading to Victoria we saw more whales than on our whale excursion. 
We didn’t eat at the hot dog stand but the food looked good and people were finishing their food so I assumed it was pretty good. 
We also enjoyed Two70 Cafe for lunch. They have salads, sandwiches, and soup. It wasn’t crowded so finding a table was easy. Over all the food was pretty good. Something’s were a disappointment but we got full and enjoyed most of it.
 

Dinner

Dinner was probably the biggest disappointment for us. The food in the MDR just wasn’t good. There seemed to be a good variety on the menu but nothing had much flavor. The spaghetti sauce was like watered down tomato sauce. The only meal that I walked away from saying, that was a great meal, was the lobster and beef tenderloin night. It was very good. There was also a shrimp and potato salad on the appetizer section that was delicious. Those are the only things I can say I truly enjoyed. Dinner took forever. The first night we were there for over two hours. If the food was good it might have been worth it. All the other nights we would tell our waiter we were in a hurry and they would get us out in about 45 minutes. 
We tried the buffet a couple of times. The food always seemed the same. They always has some sort of meat, mashed potatoes, the same pasta every night, Indian food, and hamburgers and hot dogs. They did have an international night each night. The two times we went they had Italian and Indian. It was ok nothing stood out as really good, except for the chicken curry. The biggest problem with the buffet is they close so early. They close completely down around 8:30. If you had an excursion and got in late the only option for dinner was pizza or Cafe Promenade which had about 3 sandwiches to choose from and some fruit. On Norwegian and Carnival they would have a limited buffet late at night until around 11:00 pm. On Royal if you need to eat late the only option we could find was pizza and sandwiches and they were crowded. I’m assuming it’s because people were hungry and that’s all that was open.

 

To sum it up the food was ok. I’ve certainly had better. It didn't ruin our cruise though.  I wished it was a little better but we still had a good time and glad we went. We’re going on the Oasis in October. I’d like to give them one last chance. If it’s a let down I’ll probably return to Norwegian or Carnival. 
One last side note their ice cream machines are only open certain times of the day, which I found odd. I’m used to them being open all the time. We enjoy getting ice cream through out a cruise but we only got it once because it was never open when we wanted it. 
 

 

[Biker19]

On 9/3/2022 at 12:10 PM, blbott said:

One last side note their ice cream machines are only open certain times of the day, which I found odd.

Welcome to CC and RCI, where you can count on quantity but not quality, especially that stuff that you think is ice cream coming out of those machines.