Rare ReneeFLL Posted October 15, 2022 Author #26 Share Posted October 15, 2022 (edited) Love the open air lobby. Check-in is at the far end. Looking down from the lobby. Our room was over on the left side of this picture. We were in a garden view room. I think I called it a partial ocean view before. It overlook te courtyard which is lovely. Again looking down from the lobby. Edited October 15, 2022 by ReneeFLL 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare ReneeFLL Posted October 15, 2022 Author #27 Share Posted October 15, 2022 A few pictures taken from the Hale Kao website because theirs are better. 😁 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare ReneeFLL Posted October 15, 2022 Author #28 Share Posted October 15, 2022 (edited) 8 minutes ago, Coralc said: The military member hotel is beautiful! What a nice benefit for current and retired veterans. Yes it is. They have made some really nice changes in the last 10 or so years. I unfortunately didn't get very many pictures of the grounds which are beautiful. Edited October 15, 2022 by ReneeFLL 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BecAus Posted October 15, 2022 #29 Share Posted October 15, 2022 31 minutes ago, ReneeFLL said: This will be our first time doing the NZ Sounds. What ports are you stopping at in NZ? We are in a jr suite on both so we have only had dinner in CK so far. Remind me about the entertainment schedule for the NZ cruise and I'll post. Thanks Renee - I'd appreciate it! : ) We have two seas days each side going across and 6 straight port days. Auckland - * Bay of Islands - Tauranga - * Napier - Wellington - Picton (* not done before) They've made some time changes to the port stops and still haven't updated their own website / cruise planner excursion tour pages weeks and months later which is annoying. The biggest change was arriving in Napier at 1pm instead of 9am. I've actually booked excursions solely through RCI this time - when I booked a year ago it was suggested excursions might only be available via ship's tour, which hasn't turned out to be the case. So, I'm not worried about the changes. It's only a slight adjustment to most tours so I'm sure that will be done without a hitch. The Napier stop I have a winery tour booked at 10.15am (the other option at the time was 12.15pm). That's the one I've been waiting to see what they are planning to do. I booked the excursions last Black Friday sales and they have literally doubled in price - I can't believe what they've got them priced at now. I basically got 2 for 1 buying a year ago. Knowing RCI, I wouldn't put it past them to cancel the excursion and tell people they'll have to rebook, at current prices of course!, so I've been waiting impatiently to see what they do. If that's the case we'll just do our own thing on that one. You will love the sounds, it's really beautiful but then the whole of the NZ cruise is really - enjoy! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare kernow Posted October 15, 2022 #30 Share Posted October 15, 2022 Very excited to see this review as we are on Ovation from 16th Nov for a South Pacific cruise and then the next cruise to NZ, same one as @BecAus.First time for us to this part of the world. I've been tracking Ovation on Cruisemapper everyday so know exactly where you are😄. How is the internet onboard? I was thinking of doing a semi live myself when the time comes. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare ReneeFLL Posted October 15, 2022 Author #31 Share Posted October 15, 2022 42 minutes ago, kernow said: Very excited to see this review as we are on Ovation from 16th Nov for a South Pacific cruise and then the next cruise to NZ, same one as @BecAus.First time for us to this part of the world. I've been tracking Ovation on Cruisemapper everyday so know exactly where you are😄. How is the internet onboard? I was thinking of doing a semi live myself when the time comes. So far the internet has been fine except for this morning I had trouble loading pictures so I quit. This evening it's been fine with loading them. There might be a time when I don't respond for a day or so if the internet decides to give me grief. On one of our other TP I remember there was a time when it wasn't working for a day or two. It was very annoying. We were in the middle of nowhere. Oh wait, we are now. 😀 I'm kind of expecting to have issues, but hope I don't. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare ReneeFLL Posted October 15, 2022 Author #32 Share Posted October 15, 2022 1 hour ago, BecAus said: Thanks Renee - I'd appreciate it! : ) We have two seas days each side going across and 6 straight port days. Auckland - * Bay of Islands - Tauranga - * Napier - Wellington - Picton (* not done before) They've made some time changes to the port stops and still haven't updated their own website / cruise planner excursion tour pages weeks and months later which is annoying. The biggest change was arriving in Napier at 1pm instead of 9am. I've actually booked excursions solely through RCI this time - when I booked a year ago it was suggested excursions might only be available via ship's tour, which hasn't turned out to be the case. So, I'm not worried about the changes. It's only a slight adjustment to most tours so I'm sure that will be done without a hitch. The Napier stop I have a winery tour booked at 10.15am (the other option at the time was 12.15pm). That's the one I've been waiting to see what they are planning to do. I booked the excursions last Black Friday sales and they have literally doubled in price - I can't believe what they've got them priced at now. I basically got 2 for 1 buying a year ago. Knowing RCI, I wouldn't put it past them to cancel the excursion and tell people they'll have to rebook, at current prices of course!, so I've been waiting impatiently to see what they do. If that's the case we'll just do our own thing on that one. You will love the sounds, it's really beautiful but then the whole of the NZ cruise is really - enjoy! The tours I booked I booked them privately. The only thing I bought last year on Black Friday was the internet. I think I got it for about 50% off. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dani negreanu Posted October 15, 2022 #33 Share Posted October 15, 2022 Yay, Renee, what a feast we'll have with all the semi- and live reviews!! (along with Greg @Sea Dog, John @Ozark_Kid, and lastly with Crystal @singinalot, Bob @bobmacliberty, Andrew @A&L_Ont.... and Greg 😉 @Sea Dog) Hats off for taking time from your cruise to do this, a big thank you 😘 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare ReneeFLL Posted October 15, 2022 Author #34 Share Posted October 15, 2022 3 minutes ago, dani negreanu said: Yay, Renee, what a feast we'll have with all the semi- and live reviews!! (along with Greg @Sea Dog, John @Ozark_Kid, and lastly with Crystal @singinalot, Bob @bobmacliberty, Andrew @A&L_Ont.... and Greg 😉 @Sea Dog) Hats off for taking time from your cruise to do this, a big thank you 😘 Thanks, looking forward to doing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missusdubbya Posted October 15, 2022 #35 Share Posted October 15, 2022 So looking forward to this! Love a trans Pacific! enjoy Waikiki 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare ReneeFLL Posted October 15, 2022 Author #36 Share Posted October 15, 2022 13 minutes ago, Missusdubbya said: So looking forward to this! Love a trans Pacific! enjoy Waikiki Thanks, this is our third TP. Love coming over here, but the flights are a killer to get home. 14 hours from Sydney to LAX and then 5 hours to FLL. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare h20skibum Posted October 15, 2022 #37 Share Posted October 15, 2022 Will be following this with interest. I had been looking at doing either these two cruises, or just flying to Hawaii for a week, then on to Australia for a NZ cruise. Enjoy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovesthebeach2 Posted October 15, 2022 #38 Share Posted October 15, 2022 Thanks for this live review. We’ve done 2 cruises from Hawaii to Vancouver, but adding a TP for the first leg has always been on our bucket list and your review may move it to the top! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missusdubbya Posted October 15, 2022 #39 Share Posted October 15, 2022 1 hour ago, ReneeFLL said: Thanks, this is our third TP. Love coming over here, but the flights are a killer to get home. 14 hours from Sydney to LAX and then 5 hours to FLL. I hear you 😁 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grapau27 Posted October 15, 2022 #40 Share Posted October 15, 2022 9 hours ago, ReneeFLL said: This will be my first review so hopefully it won’t be to bad. We are sailing on the Ovation Of The Seas. This will be a b2b with the first cruise being a 19 day TP and then an 11 day New Zealand cruise. This is our first time on Ovation and our third time doing a TP since 2017. We originally wanted to do a Northern European cruise, but there wasn’t anything that interested us at the time so we booked this one. Here is our schedule for the 2 cruises. Any questions regarding the second - New Zealand cruise I will answer them when that cruise starts. Honolulu Oct 5 - 9 Wed - Sun Honolulu Oct 9 Sun board Ovation 🍹 💃🏼 🍹 Cruising Oct 10 Mon Cruising Oct 11 Tues Cruising Oct 12 Wed Cruising Oct 13 Thur Cruising Oct 14 Fri Moorea Oct 15 Sat 8:00am overnight Moorea Oct 16 Sun till 8:00pm Papeete Oct 17 Mon 7:00 - 11:59pm Cruising Oct 18 Tues Cruising Oct 19 Wed Cruising Oct 20 Thur International Date Line Oct 21 Fri Cruising Oct 22 Sat Cruising Oct 23 Sun Napier Oct 24 Mon 8:00 - 6:00 Wellington Oct 25 Tues 8:00 - 7:00 Picton Oct 26 Wed 7:00 - 4:00 Cruising Oct 27 Thur Cruising Oct 28 Fri Sydney Oct 29 Sat B2B Any questions regarding this cruise I’ll be happy to answer when this one starts. Sydney Oct 29 Sat Cruising Oct 30 Sun Cruising Oct 31 Mon Milford Sound Nov. 1 Tues 8 - 9 Doubtful Sound Nov. 1 Tues 1 - 2 Dusky Sound Nov. 1 Tues 4 - 5 Dunedin Nov 2 Wed 12:45 - 9 Christchurch Lyttelton Nov. 3 Thur 9:30 - 7 Wellington Nov 4 Fri 8 - 6 Napier Nov 5 Sat 8 - 5 Picton Nov 6 Sun 8 - 5 Cruising Nov 7 Mon Cruising Nov 8 Tues Sydney Nov 9 Wed end of cruise 😭😭😭 Sydney fly back on the 15th On Wednesday Oct 5th we flew to Hawaii. We were originally scheduled to fly from FLL to LAX then to HNL. American Airlines decided to change the flights to FLL to DFW to HNL which left us only 61 min to change aircraft in DFW. If you have ever passed through DFW, an hour is barely enough time to get from one aircraft to another, likely in different terminals. True to form, we arrived at C22 and were departing from A34. We made it just as our seating group was being called. Whew! After arriving in Honolulu we took an Uber to the hotel. We stayed at the Hale Koa on Waikiki Beach for 4 days. It’s next door to the Hilton Hawaiian Village. As usual the check in time took a while. It always seems to there and not sure why. Our room was a partial ocean view this time. As you can see in the pictures it’s a very small ocean view, but we were fine with it. It had a king size bed and a balcony which is nice to sit out there and enjoy coffee, food and drinks. Following along Renee. Sounds like awesome cruises you are doing. Hope you have a wonderful time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ocean Boy Posted October 15, 2022 #41 Share Posted October 15, 2022 6 hours ago, ReneeFLL said: You mean like this one? How could I not take it? 😁 Must not have been any picnic getting those tatoos. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare John&LaLa Posted October 15, 2022 #42 Share Posted October 15, 2022 2 hours ago, ReneeFLL said: Thanks, this is our third TP. Love coming over here, but the flights are a killer to get home. 14 hours from Sydney to LAX and then 5 hours to FLL. I think my trip home from Sydney will take about 2000 hours.🤣 1 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Momof3gurlz Posted October 15, 2022 #43 Share Posted October 15, 2022 Just found this and I’m following along. What an amazing trip, I can’t wait for the rest. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crzndeb Posted October 15, 2022 #44 Share Posted October 15, 2022 Have a great time. I love the Ovation, and will bring her back next March on a B5B. It will be my longest cruise yet. I have done Patrick’s twice, and he still remains one of my top excursions. It’s to bad about the rules now. Thank you for doing the review. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaniDanielle Posted October 15, 2022 #45 Share Posted October 15, 2022 Enjoy! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare A&L_Ont Posted October 15, 2022 #46 Share Posted October 15, 2022 I’m here for the slow ride to paradise. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunshine3601 Posted October 15, 2022 #47 Share Posted October 15, 2022 Me too! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare bobmacliberty Posted October 15, 2022 #48 Share Posted October 15, 2022 Me three! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Lionesss Posted October 15, 2022 #49 Share Posted October 15, 2022 Uno Dos Tres quatro---------------------- I am here too 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaniDanielle Posted October 15, 2022 #50 Share Posted October 15, 2022 (edited) Me five😁 Edited October 15, 2022 by DaniDanielle 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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