ShazM

On the Ovation transpacific last month if one person in the room tested positive and the other/s were negative then the positive person was moved to deck 3 to a room with a window. The negative person was allowed to stay in the original room but had to be tested daily. That person was allowed to go and get dinner or any other meal but had to eat it in their room and had to have a mask on when moving around the ship. If both people tested positive they let them stay in their original room to isolate for 5 days but both had to have a negative test before either could leave isolation.

We did the transpacific on Ovation a month ago and they wouldn't punch holes in those cards. I had taken an old lanyard after being told on the Facebook group that holes would be in the card already. Ovation still had some leftovers from the Alaska trips with a plastic sleeve that had a ziplock across the top so the card wouldn't fall out and also had a metal anchor on it that had enough weight to stop it flapping around in the wind so I grabbed a couple of those. Didn't have to take it out of the sleeve at all. Some people had to replace their cards 3-4 times because the film kept peeling off. There was another lady we sat with at dinner who was so determined to have a hole in her card that she brought along her own hole punch. She had already been told no by guest services but did it anyway. Guess what? It stopped the card from opening her door so she had to go and get another one.

https://linksharing.samsungcloud.com/5zM3IlJjkMeJ https://linksharing.samsungcloud.com/dREEF13WSZkp https://linksharing.samsungcloud.com/9p726Qu679JM The first one is SuRi. The other two are Lonian

There was another one parked in front of it called SuRi that had tons of toys on it. It caters for 12 passengers with I think 17 crew and you can hire it for $100,000 US a week or something like that. Lonian caters for 12 passengers but has 27 crew on to look after them.

It was right below our balcony. Would have loved to have gone on for a look.

The crew took a dinghy and another boat off somewhere for the day packed with coolers and all sorts of things. Came back very late afternoon and then left for dinner and brought some people back with them before putting down the big shutter over the back of the living space on the main deck. It looked fantastic all lit up at night.

We were on this also and were in balcony 12250. Flew into Honolulu on 6 October and stayed at the Outrigger. The most stressful part for those of us from Australia was getting the negative test before boarding the ship, you couldn't really relax until it was done. Looking forward to the next part of your review. Hope you got some photos of the super yacht we were "parked" next to in Papeete.

I got off this morning and we were in 12250 which has the bed next to the bathroom, great balcony as well.

I am currently on Ovation doing the transpacific from Honolulu to Sydney. Ours was a supervised test that had to be done within 3 days of sailing. Also for fun around 3 to 4 weeks beforehand they brought in that everyone over 5 years had to be vaccinated, so there were some with 6 year old unvaccinated children who were scrambling to get it clarified because that wasn't enough time with the last dose having to be at least 14 days prior. Not sure of that outcome. As far as the B2B who did the cruise from Vancouver to Honolulu, they were all tested on the ship. The talk on here is that around 200 tested positive. Apparently there was an emergency meeting with Miami and those 200 were all taken off in Honolulu and not allowed to continue on.

We have to have supervised tests for the transpacific from Honolulu to Sydney that leaves on Sunday. Quite a few Aussies thought it would have been done away with so didn't book an appointment and are now scrambling to find one that is even at a reasonable price. I booked months ago in case and it is $60USD but some are charging as high as $295 which is nuts for a RAT. Then 3 weeks or so ago Royal advised of the protocols for this cruise. Aside from the supervised test they said that all passengers over the age of 5 have to be fully vaccinated which is in total contradiction to what they had said even the week before. There were a few families who were going to have to cancel. One had a daughter aged 6 who hadn't been vaccinated and the mother had 3 emails from Royal saying she didn't have to be, the last email was 3 days before this came out. We can only assume it is coming out of Polynesia/Tahiti because it isn't a requirement in either Australia or New Zealand. Only giving these new rules out 3 weeks before the cruise wasn't going to give them enough time to get it done given the 2nd shot has to be at least 14 days in advance of the cruise leaving. So sad for them.

It isn't lax for the transpacific we are getting on in 3 weeks. All tests must be supervised, no at home unsupervised tests or relying on honesty for this one. All of us travelling received an email 2 days ago and they decided to add something else. That is that everyone over 5 must be fully vaccinated. There are some families doing this trip with 6 and 7 year olds that aren't vaccinated and they decide to add this 3 weeks out when there is no chance of it being done now. Plenty of people are trying to get this clarified. One lady has 3 emails from Royal, even as late as last week, stating her 6 year old didn't require vaccination and now they have changed it. She called them yesterday and they told her it would be OK as long as the child had a negative supervised test and yet the official email for this cruise states it must be done. One side doesn't appear to know what the other is doing or saying.

We are getting on in Honolulu when you get off. I was lucky to get a booking at Dukes for the night before and after seeing so many people talking about Hula Pie I am looking forward to trying it.

We have stayed in a GS on Explorer (Deck 10 under the pool deck) and a JS on Voyager (also Deck 10) and never once had an issue. The chairs were stacked up at a reasonable hour before most were in bed and didn't start getting put out until around 6.30 or 7am. It was always nice and quiet on deck 10 because there were less cabins.

The ship docked here in Sydney this morning. Our state health department said that passengers could get off if they had a negative RAT but crew had to stay onboard. Currently there are 118 positive cases, 4 passengers and 114 crew who are already isolated. The passengers who got off said it was no big deal. The problem is the media trying to whip up hysteria with the constant reporting. Some are even calling the ship "Covid riddled" which is so far from the truth.

On cruises out of Australia there is no smoking inside anywhere and usually two outside areas to smoke, one on deck 4 or 5 and the other on one half of the pool deck. That's it. The casino is still busy. I guess we are used to it down here because there has been no smoking inside any building or club or pub, apart from your own home, for probably 30 years. Clubs/pubs usually have an area that is well ventilated for smokers to be and nobody seems to have an issue with it.

We had 1256 on Explorer, so the one next door. We never heard a sound from the elevators at all and very rarely heard anything from the pool deck above. It is actually nice and quiet on deck 10 with less rooms than the levels below.

How long is your cruise? We are on the transpacific and it is just over $100 AUD per person per day. Even Chops is almost $100, it is nice but worth that? And then you have the room prices that are going up and down every day. A junior suite is around $11,000 (for 2 people) more than a balcony on Ovation, crazy stuff for a room with very little perks. They aren't going to get too many takers at those prices.