Semi Live Ovation 16th Nov b2b Our Trip to a Land Down Under

[kernow]

At the gate waiting to board, see you on the other side😁.

[scottygirl]

13 minutes ago, kernow said:

At the gate waiting to board, see you on the other side😁.

Safe Travels  TTFN

[Chiliburn]

I’m on the 16th cruise also.

It still looks like a self test and they have been asking to see a photo.

You should be able to drop your bags at the overseas passenger terminal from 8:00 in the morning .
Apparently boarding at the moment is from 1:00 but see what happens after the Princess ship being in the headlines.

Id suggest check out of your hotel,drop your bags and do some site seeing.

 

See you onboard.

[kernow]

Feeling very tired at Changi airport Singapore. We've had to get off and wait at the gate while they clean the plane. Very strange meal service on the plane, we had dinner just after take off from Heathrow and then another dinner 11 hours later just before landing. We were expecting breakfast but it's 8 pm here.

 

Only another 8 hours to go until Sydney😀

[kernow]

We landed in Sydney at 7am this morning, flight was nowhere near as bad as I was expecting. Very impressed with Sydney Airport, plane touched down at 7, we were in a taxi on our way to the hotel at 7.40. 

 

We are staying at the Grace Hotel which is in the centre of Sydney, just a short walk from both Darling Harbour and Circular Quay surrounded by shops and restaurants. After a few hours sleep when we arrived we've been out exploring this afternoon.

[kernow]

[Chiliburn]

Good to see you got into town .

The Grace Hotel is nice , one of those local secrets we love.
A old department store modernised into a hotel.

 

If you want any local tips ,just ask.

[kernow]

16 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

Good to see you got into town .

The Grace Hotel is nice , one of those local secrets we love.
A old department store modernised into a hotel.

 

If you want any local tips ,just ask.

Yes, we were just reading the plaque, didn't realise the site was where the original Opera house was built. It's nice to see so many of the old buildings have been kept in Sydney, feels a bit like home. Loving the feel of the city so far.

 

Do you know where is the best place to buy our bottles of wine to take on the ship? Don't want anything fancy, just something for a glass on the balcony.

[bretts173]

46 minutes ago, kernow said:

Yes, we were just reading the plaque, didn't realise the site was where the original Opera house was built. It's nice to see so many of the old buildings have been kept in Sydney, feels a bit like home. Loving the feel of the city so far.

 

Do you know where is the best place to buy our bottles of wine to take on the ship? Don't want anything fancy, just something for a glass on the balcony.

If you come out the front entrance of the grace on York Street and cross the road and head right about 100 meters you should find Vintage Cellars which is a nice store with reasonable prices.

[Chiliburn]

You shouldn’t find it hard to buy booze in Australia.

If you do forget ,at the last minute before boarding there’s a small place at circular quay called Mr liquor just under the train station or opposite the ferry wharf.
We call them a bottle shop.
 

We have kettles in the cabin on Australian sailings,if you see some nice tea you might want to grab some.

 

We have a local tea ,grown near cairns.

Edited November 14, 2022 by Chiliburn

[kernow]

Just been over to Vintage Cellars and purchased our wine, nice shop, thanks for the tip. Mark had a good chat with the man in there about English Cider😁

 

Now back at the hotel doing our covid tests, all looking clear so we're good to go.

[M-H-B]

I'll also be boarding on Jan 24th for the same 11 day NZ itinerary. I've been on Ovation once before and she is lovely.

Have a great trip, can't wait to hear what you do in each port.

[kernow]

We had a long walk today, nearly 20,000 steps. We started out going to the Royal Botanic Gardens which are beautiful then walked right around the waterfront to Darling Harbour. We then had some well deserved cocktails at a waterfront bar😄🍹.

 

Some random pics.

[kernow]

[kernow]

It's Wednesday, it's 6.30 am and it's cruise day🎉.

We're very excited to be boarding Ovation in a few hours. We have a very big FB group for this cruise (over 900) and lots of people are staying at hotels overlooking Circular Quay and have been posting photos and videos of the ship arriving.

We're planning to check out of the hotel at 11 and get a taxi, it's only about a 5 minute journey but a bit too far to walk with luggage. We have the earliest check in time of 12 but not sure if they may be delayed. They are starting to panic in Australia a bit as they have a new wave of covid and the ships have been reporting cases.

Not sure if there is Internet in the terminal but if not I won't have any until sometime tomorrow when I'll start my first 24 hours. I'll update with photos and ship info then. If anyone has anything they want me to find out let me know.

 

We have two and a half seadays until we arrive in Vanatu on Saturday so planning a nice relaxing time to get over the remaining jetlag😁

 

 

 

[kernow]

We're at the terminal.Doors not open yet and there is already a big queue. Hopefully they will stick to the allocated times once they start letting people in. It's a lovely sunny day but very windy, think the ship may be rocking tonight.

[Coralc]

What a pretty photo! ☺️

[M-H-B]

8 hours ago, kernow said:

 

Not sure if there is Internet in the terminal but if not I won't have any until sometime tomorrow when I'll start my first 24 hours. I'll update with photos and ship info then. If anyone has anything they want me to find out let me know.

 

We have two and a half seadays until we arrive in Vanatu on Saturday so planning a nice relaxing time to get over the remaining jetlag😁

 

 

 

 

 

Keen to know if there really is a charge now for things that used to be free on Ovation, like IFly, NorthStar etc.

 

Many thanks!

[kaseyoz]

Hi julie.

we are on the next cruise with you so will be following along.
please look after the ship for us.🍹🍹❤️

[kernow]

23 hours ago, M-H-B said:

 

 

Keen to know if there really is a charge now for things that used to be free on Ovation, like IFly, NorthStar etc.

 

Many thanks!

There are still free sessions and there are also extended sessions that are charged. In general I think the pay sessions are on sea days, I know today North Star has been out over the side of the ship and those trips are charged, 16 minutes are 19 dollars pp. On port days the straight up and down trips are free. 

I fly has free one minute trial rides on port days for free, just checked the app and today it's 29 dollars for an hour, presumably that's a lesson. The free slots were available on the app as soon as we boarded.

[kernow]

18 hours ago, kaseyoz said:

Hi julie.

we are on the next cruise with you so will be following along.
please look after the ship for us.🍹🍹❤️

See you next week, the ship is in great shape😁.

[kernow]

Embarkation was actually very smooth. We noticed the line was starting to move around 11.30 so we went and joined the back.
Someone checked our set sail passes and we followed everyone into the terminal. They were not checking times ( the people in front of were 2pm and asked and were waved through). We then just kept moving through, someone looked at photos of our negative tests, someone else checked our passports, they took the security photos and finally scanned our bags. At 11.55 we were walking onto the ship.

Once onoard we headed straight for Cafe Two70. Mark had a beef Kummelweck and I had a panini, of course I forgot photos🤣. I promise to do better!

Cabins were supposed to be ready at 2 but we wandered up at 1.30 and the doors were open so we headed to the cabin. There was a pile of cases in the corridor which includes ours so we went and unpacked.
Never had this happen before but unfortunately both of our cases had been damaged. Mine was smashed by the wheel on one corner and Mark's had a split in the hard casing along the bottom. We reported it and the front desk manager filled in a form. We've been told the cases will be collected and they will replace them so I'll keep you updated.

[kernow]

When we got onboard they gave us a paper saying Mystery Island has been cancelled due to problems with the tender pier. We will now just have an extra sea day with scenic cruising so just 2 ports on a 10 day cruise. Luckily we like sea days!

We checked out our dining table, we always request a large table at late seating. We have  a nice window table in the corner of The Grande but only a 4 top. We spent the rest of the afternoon just wandering around the ship and enjoying rhe feeling of being back onboard.


We called into the Diamond lounge about 6pm, the concierge is Haffnar who remembered us from a TA on Jewel in 2018. I'm always amazed how they see so many people and yet remember you years later. The lounge was packed and there must have been a bit of an issue with the service as the bar manager was in there giving an apology about wait times and lack of servers. More had been bought from elsewhere and we got our cocktails quickly. It seems like having to sign for the free drinks wastes a lot of time and paper😮.

We chatted with some Australians, there seems to be very few international guests on this cruise. Also lots of younger people onboard, many in groups of friends, it's a really nice mix of people.

Dinner was good, both food and service although it was just the 2 of us at our table, infact lots of empty seats in the dining room. Our waitress seemed to have lots of tables but still did a good job and was friendly. She said they still have staff shortages, like everywhere else I guess.

We went to Boleros after dinner and managed to stay up until 11.45, I think we've finally got over the time change.

 

All in all a great first day and it really does feel like we're on holiday now.

[kernow]

The ship was rocking a bit in the night and we woke up to my favourite kind of seas with white caps on the waves. There's a bit of movement but not enough to bother us (although the barf bags are out).

 

We had the top tier party this morning, 

300 and something D, 180 D+ and 13 Pins. Can't remember the other tiers but Haffnar did tell us around 4000 guests in total.

 

The weather has been getting sunnier throughout the day and we now have mostly blue skies. Currently sitting out on the Promenade deck with a Goombay Smash ( as the Internet signal was rubbish on the pool deck but not bad here!)

[M-H-B]

3 hours ago, kernow said:

There are still free sessions and there are also extended sessions that are charged. In general I think the pay sessions are on sea days, I know today North Star has been out over the side of the ship and those trips are charged, 16 minutes are 19 dollars pp. On port days the straight up and down trips are free. 

I fly has free one minute trial rides on port days for free, just checked the app and today it's 29 dollars for an hour, presumably that's a lesson. The free slots were available on the app as soon as we boarded.

 

Many thanks! We have the Key and my son (9) is keen to try the Flowrider for the first time and have another go on the Ifly so its good to know there are still some free sessions.