The Good,The Bad,The Tips: In-depth review of Ovation cruise: S'pore-Penang Mar 15-19

[familycruisewith2teens]

Thank you for the review so informative I really enjoyed reading it as I will be sailing on Ovation in Dec to New Zealand

[Ronny Tan]

You're welcome :-) Hope you'll be better able to plan for your Dec trip with this info and enjoy yourself.

 

While I appreciate the role of CruiseCritic (reviews and discourse), what I really wished was for critical info (opening times, price lists, menus) to be published the Royal Caribbean website. That should be the one authoritative voice, instead of everyone trying to piece together the elephant puzzle like blind men.

[datolim]

Wow! That is what I or anybody else have to say.

You have broken the record for the longest review and posting and I don't see how it will ever be broken.

Anybody going on the Ovation can use this as a reference and I am sure many will.

I was on the Ovation on March 19 so it is just after you left.

I don't know where to start with my comments. But maybe I should itemize it.

 

1. Ovation is a brand new ship with all the latest gizmo and technology. They also require pax to be tech savvy. Did you book everything online including check-in before you board the ship.

Did you have your credit card details in your check-in. I know it is troubling for many to have your credit card open for all the RC charges especially for this part of the world. It is O.K. for me only because I have use Google advertising from 5 years ago and have open my CC to whatever charges come in. RC Ovation requires this as it is much easier for them and the pax.

 

2. Your arrival time is very very early. So in fairness to RC you did not wait too long to board the ship. I arrive at 11.45 am and thought I was too early. But I was pleasantly surprised that they check me in and boarding was a walk through for me except for the few minutes waiting in the holding area.

 

3. Did you encounter queuing and is this an issue as reported in so many other past reviews. I did not maybe because I was travelling out the school holidays. Did you have MDT on your SeaPass so that you get on the fast lane for the ala carte restaurants.

 

4. Ovation is not cheap. And 2 balcony for 5 may cost a lot of money. This is personal and you don't have to answer this if you don't want to.

 

5. Would you go on the ship again if it comes around again.

[Sydney32203]

Show Entertainment

=================

Royal Theatre

-------------------

The timing and number of sittings vary (for no apparent reason). This makes it hard for passengers to do evening calendar planning, especially dinner times:

• Day1: Headline act by Connor Bogart – 9pm
  
• Day2: The Beautiful Dream - 6:45pm or 8:15pm
  
• Day3: Headliner act by Sean Laughling – 8:45pm
  
• Day4: Live Love, Legs - 9pm or 10:45pm..

What an awesome review. So much information. Thank you! I'll be on the ovation in December for a 12 night cruise to New Zealand.

 

I have a question about the show times and dinner. We are a group of 11. When we booked the only available time for dinner was 8.30pm traditional dining. We actually preferred My Time Dining and wanted to go on the wait list but was told by Royal Caribbean that because we were a big group it would be easier to all sit together for traditional dining. Anyway, looking at the show times, it looks like half the shows will clash with the 8.30pm dining. We would like to be able to attend all the shows which we actually did when we were on Voyager of the Seas a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed them. Back then there were always two show sessions and if you go for early dining you could make the late show and vice versa.

 

What do you or anyone else who is reading this suggest in my situation? Would the show times change based on individual cruises? Should I change to early dining/My Time Dining and hoping we get it since it's fully booked out now? Looking forward to suggestions.

[datolim]

Since you said you have been advice by RC I am not sure what to say to you.

Just know that in this part of the world there is only MTD and on the I occasion I had to line up for the free ala carte restaurant I remember a guy coming up to the reception and said he had a 8.00 pm reservation for 12 people at about 8.00 pm. The recept told him we all had a reservation and they have to get to the back of the line up.

No show booking is taken except for the Pixel show.

[Ronny Tan]

Hi SG007,my replies in blue below:

 

1. Ovation is a brand new ship with allthe latest gizmo and technology. They also require pax to be tech savvy. Didyou book everything online including check-in before you board the ship.

[RT: I checked in immediately once the option was opento me. I also tried to book everything (activities, dining reservations) onlinebefore my trip. Unfortunately, I could only do so for:

1. 
   
2. free restaurant dining reservations
   
3. Pixels show at Two70
   
4. NorthStar
   
5. iFly.
   

1. 
   

RCCLremoved the choice of making bookings for:

1. 
   
2. the Royal Theatre shows,
   
3. FlowRider
   
4. All Seaplex activities (Bumper Car, Roller Skating, Trapeze)
   

1. 
   

Did you have your credit card details in yourcheck-in. I know it is troubling for many to have your credit card open for allthe rc charges especially for this part of the world. It is o.k. For me onlybecause i have use google advertising from 5 years ago and have open my cc towhatever charges come in. Rc ovation requires this as it is much easier forthem and the pax.

RT: I tied my credit card to my Onboard ExpenseAccount when I was doing pre-trip online check-in. I ALSO had to produce thesame credit card at the shore check-in counter on Embarkation Day.

I was not too concerned about “exposing” my credit card cos:

1. I can check My Statement on the 2nd last night (via the Royal IQ app, or at Guest Services) before they finalise the bill
   
2. I can tell my credit card company to withhold payment should I dispute any charges within thebilling month
   
   2. Your arrival time is very very early.So in fairness to rc you did not wait too long to board the ship. I arrive at11.45 am and thought i was too early. But i was pleasantly surprised that theycheck me in and boarding was a walk through for me except for the few minuteswaiting in the holding area.
    
   
   

RT: I wouldn’t say I arrived tooearly. I arrived at 11:15am, 45min before my assigned time of 12pm, cos I washoping that my young children can have their lunch onboard close to theirregular lunch hours. I was also hoping that by the time we finished our lunch,the cabins would be ready, which turned out to be at 1:30pm. As it turned out,everything fell in place nicely.

3. Did you encounter queuing and is thisan issue as reported in so many other past reviews. I did not maybe because iwas travelling out the school holidays. Did you have mdt on your seapass sothat you get on the fast lane for the ala carte restaurants.

RT: Queues were typical andeverywhere, as reported by so many passengers in earlier trips. But knowingthis, I set my expectations and patience accordingly.

Dining: For those who hadpre-booked, the “Passengers with booking” lane queue was about 10min to get atable. For those who hadn’t, the “Passengers without booking” lane queue was30min to 45min. At dinner on the first night, apparently due to the musterdrill briefing, even those prebookings had to queue 30min, leading to muchconfusion and raised tempers in the crowd.

 

Non-bookable Recreational Activities(FlowRider, Rock Wall, all Seaplex activities): Queues are 30minto 45min. Solution? Go 15min before the activity starts. You also need sometime to ascertain WHERE to queue. It’s not as apparent as you think due to lackof signage.

Bookable Recreational Activities(iFly, NorthStar): I will still advise going 15min prior because you (a) need to signwaivers and (b) get kitted up (for iFly).

Two70 shows (Pixels): Personally, I didnot queue encounter queues as I arrived 30min to ensure that I wanted to get mypreferred seat, as it’s still free-seating, even with prebooking.

Royal Theatre shows: Similarly, I didn’tencounter queues as I arrived 30min earlier to ensure that I have seats and couldget to choose them. It was also free-seating.

4. Ovation is not cheap. And 2 balcony for 5 maycost a lot of money. This is personal and you don't have to answer this if youdon't want to.

RT: We spent SGD$4700. For marginallymore, we could have added some more people. Given that the price covered allaccom, activities and food, it was actually reasonable compared to a landholiday (or even Club Med). To get the best deal, we booked in August 2016 (8months ahead) at NATAS Travel Fair.

5. Would you go on the ship again if itcomes around again.

 

RT: Probably not in the next fewyears. I would probably try other ships with different facilities (e.g. GentingCruises).

[Scyl]

5. Would you go on the ship again if itcomes around again.

RT: Probably not in the next fewyears. I would probably try other ships with different facilities (e.g. GentingCruises).

 

Is this because your experience was not satisfactory or do you just want to try others in general?

[Ronny Tan]

What an awesome review. So much information. Thank you! I'll be on the ovation in December for a 12 night cruise to New Zealand.

 

I have a question about the show times and dinner. We are a group of 11. When we booked the only available time for dinner was 8.30pm traditional dining. We actually preferred My Time Dining and wanted to go on the wait list but was told by Royal Caribbean that because we were a big group it would be easier to all sit together for traditional dining. Anyway, looking at the show times, it looks like half the shows will clash with the 8.30pm dining. We would like to be able to attend all the shows which we actually did when we were on Voyager of the Seas a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed them. Back then there were always two show sessions and if you go for early dining you could make the late show and vice versa.

 

What do you or anyone else who is reading this suggest in my situation? Would the show times change based on individual cruises? Should I change to early dining/My Time Dining and hoping we get it since it's fully booked out now? Looking forward to suggestions.

 

RT: I see 2 options:

(a) Ask RCCL for the show timings as early as possible, then plan your dining time accordingly, including change to My Time Dining if need be. I won't be surprised if show timings shift for different cruises by the same ship.

(b) Always go for the early dining slot (whether via Dynamic Dining Classic's 5:30pm or My Time Dining slots before 6pm). You should safely be able to catch the later show slot, if not the earlier one. This is the option I took (regardless of group size) cos I couldn't obtain any info on show timings from the RCCL websites.

For such a large group, I would advise exercising flexibility and split the group if need be.

[Ronny Tan]

Is this because your experience was not satisfactory or do you just want to try others in general?

 

RT: Because I want to try other ships in general. In particular, those with different activities/ facilities/ shows.

As a cruise experience, despite the many areas of improvement, I felt that Ovation (and RCCL) still did a fairly reasonable job (compared with Disney Wonder and Star Cruise).

[Scyl]

[-] while there was an electrical outlet in the bathroom (great for drying hair without disturbing other cabin-mates), it was black and so well-hidden above the top rack that i suspect many passengers didn’t know it’s there!(suggestionto rccl: Make the electrical outlet more prominent on future ships, possibly placing it against the far wall away from the wash-basin)

 

[-] frustratingly, the flushbutton on the wall is placed low such that it is blocked whenever the toilet bowl lid is raised. This means we had to lower the lid whenever we flush the toilet. It makes more sense for the design to be similar to those in the common area toilets (e.g. Near the lift lobbies) where the flush button is above the lid. (suggestion to rccl: Place the flush button above the lid for future ships)

 

 

I am under the impression that the electrical outlet in the bathroom is for shavers ONLY and shouldn't be used for other stuff like hair dryer.

 

As for the toilet flush button, pretty sure that was place there on purpose to ensure people close the lid before flushing, because these style of toilet uses vacuum flush, which wouldn't work if the lid was open.

[Ronny Tan]

I am under the impression that the electrical outlet in the bathroom is for shavers ONLY and shouldn't be used for other stuff like hair dryer.

 

As for the toilet flush button, pretty sure that was place there on purpose to ensure people close the lid before flushing, because these style of toilet uses vacuum flush, which wouldn't work if the lid was open.

 

RT: Outlet in bathroom - the voltages looked similar, though what you say could be true (due to current?).

 

The vacuum flash worked well even with the lid open, including for #2 type waste :-) Most of the time, passengers use the toilet bowl for #1 purpose, where the lid would have been open. Haha, I kinda picky about toilet stuff - I even have a preferred direction in which a toilet roll unfurls :-P

[datolim]

RT: Probably not in the next fewyears. I would probably try other ships with different facilities (e.g. GentingCruises).

Now don't you get me started on Genting Cruises.

I have been on GC Gemini at least once a month up to now.

It is a gambling ship and it cost me very little net net. That is gambling lost, calculated lost as I game the point system and pay for the cruises by points. Always 4D/3N to Penang and KL. But they have now increased the point earned to absurd level and no longer feasible for me. I still have a couple of free cruises left but it looks like I will stay with RC from here.

I have book 2 other cruises with RC but since it cost more I will cruise maybe once every 2 to 3 months.

 

The price you pay is cheap. You got a very good price, perhaps it is the NATAS special.

[Ronny Tan]

Attaching some other useful info:

 

Map layout of Marina Bay Cruise Centre, Singapore, indicating where are the:

1. luggage dropoff

2. Security screening

3. Check-in counter

4. Waiting area

5. Immigration and boarding

 

[datolim]

Ronny, this looks like a working/holiday (?) for you and your family.

Survey, report and advice (tips, you call it) For that mission accomplished. Hope your family had an enjoyable and more relaxing holiday.

 

Just some issues that come to mind and it is not meant to lower your contribution here.

The many thing that you said about what RC should or should not do I am not sure if it will go very far with RC.

Your tips for pax is not something I would fully subscribed to. Waiting 1/2 hour before hand for everything like shows, restaurants and activities do take the joy out of everything especially the children and old.

A case in point is your comment here,I wouldn’t say I arrived tooearly. I arrived at 11:15am, 45min before my assigned time of 12pm, ........... As it turned out,everything fell in place nicely.

You realize that seasoned pax like me have worked out when it is best to arrive and be able to walk through check in and boarding.

As we do not spend much if at all just like you in the paying restaurants the menus that you post would not really matter. As my feed back if any one wants to try the American steak or lobster they can get it in the ala carte restaurants. Without paying a $30 cover charge in Chops Grille. On my last night I had lobster dinner there and paid $25 as they have a special discount. This is a must try and it was heavenly.

Cruising is a great holiday for the family and not that expensive comparatively and I would recommend you do it again soon.

Edited April 15, 2017 by SG007

[zxc]

Thank you for your very detailed review! It brought back a lot of memories of my Ovation cruise this past January sailing out of Sydney. It seems like there are only minor differences between the Singapore and Sydney cruises, so your review will be a great resource for all future Ovation cruisers. I can't believe the freestyle coke machine in Windjammer is still not fixed since January!

[WaveSplasher]

Thank you for your very detailed review! It brought back a lot of memories of my Ovation cruise this past January sailing out of Sydney. It seems like there are only minor differences between the Singapore and Sydney cruises, so your review will be a great resource for all future Ovation cruisers. I can't believe the freestyle coke machine in Windjammer is still not fixed since January!

 

I was on the cruise after this. And I can confirm the Windjammer Freestyle machine is still not repaired. They had 2 officers looking at it on my cruise. Then they put up a sign saying that its under maintenance. If you are going on the Ovation once it return to Australia, you can check it out. who knows maybe its still not fixed yet.

[zxc]

I was on the cruise after this. And I can confirm the Windjammer Freestyle machine is still not repaired. They had 2 officers looking at it on my cruise. Then they put up a sign saying that its under maintenance. If you are going on the Ovation once it return to Australia, you can check it out. who knows maybe its still not fixed yet.

 

Coming back to read this review again (I just skimmed through the first time). Did I read correctly that both machines in Sorrento's are also out of service? So only one machine in Seaplex is working now?

[zxc]

The queue for the Bumper Cars was slow moving as there were only 10 - 11 cars active in play, despite the huge arena. The SeapleX could have easily squeezed in 5 more cars. Indeed, at least 3 – 5 were parked stationary INSIDE the arena, around its rim. Another 3 more were parked OUTSIDE the arena, possibly as spares. (SUGGESTION: Increase the number of bumper cars in play to 15 at least to process the queue more quickly.)

I noticed this too. When I asked the staff about it, they said the cars parked outside are being charged at the moment. The cars parked stationary inside the arena had already run out of power and needed to be charged again. The cars have very short battery life, and have to be charged between sessions. Therefore limiting the number of bumper car sessions offered.

[Ronny Tan]

Coming back to read this review again (I just skimmed through the first time). Did I read correctly that both machines in Sorrento's are also out of service? So only one machine in Seaplex is working now?

 

Yes, the Sorrento ones were done, at least when I happened to pass by.

 

Yes, this means the only working machine on the ship is at the Seaplex Doghouse :(

[Ronny Tan]

I noticed this too. When I asked the staff about it, they said the cars parked outside are being charged at the moment. The cars parked stationary inside the arena had already run out of power and needed to be charged again. The cars have very short battery life, and have to be charged between sessions. Therefore limiting the number of bumper car sessions offered.

 

I see. Thanx for checking with the staff :)

 

That said, if the batteries are removable, they could potentially stocked spare charged-up batteries, ready to be swapped in. I'm suggesting this cos the queue was really long and progress was slow with limited cars in action.

[debshomespun]

What did you do in Penang? We will be on RC Mariner in November, and we don't arrive until 4:00PM, until 10:00 PM. Not much time to do things.

 

Great job on all your information!!

[Ronny Tan]

What did you do in Penang? We will be on RC Mariner in November, and we don't arrive until 4:00PM, until 10:00 PM. Not much time to do things.

 

Great job on all your information!!

 

We had actually opted to stay onboard the ship to use its facilities while the ship was at Penang because:

1. the queue at the ship facilities (Flowrider, etc.) is half their usual length
   
2. The shore time available is too short (for Ovation of the Seas, the ship arrived at Penang 7am and last boarding time is 5pm)
   
3. We had another preplanned trip to Penang in June this year for a church camp, and didn't want to duplicate the experience so close in dates
   

With your limited time, you can probably have an authentic Penang dinner (e.g. Penang Assam Laksa) and do some shopping in the main town, but not much more. TripAdvisor can probably give you more useful local advice.

[WaveSplasher]

Coming back to read this review again (I just skimmed through the first time). Did I read correctly that both machines in Sorrento's are also out of service? So only one machine in Seaplex is working now?

 

Sorrentos machines are working at least they are on my cruise which is from the 24 to 29 only the Windjammer one was under maintenance.

 

If you play bumper cars during a port day which only happens from 5pm to 8.30pm then you will have lots of free runs with the cars because there was no queue.

[Ronny Tan]

With the recent change in Photobucket 3rd party hosting policy, which now requires a USD$399/yr subscription, many of our embedded photos are no longer appearing in our old/ recent posts.

 

 

I, and I'm sure quite a few other forumers, are prepared to rehost our old photos on other image hosting websites (e.g. ImgBox, Postimage, IMGUR), and re-embed our moved photos into our old/recent posts. But my understanding is that the CC Forum disables editing of old posts after a certain period. I've since written to CC Forum Community Support, and they've replied that they'll "pass it along to the appropriate team".

 

 

In the meantime, I've embarked on the non-trival effort to rehost the images on Postimage and will repost them as addendum posts below for future reference.

 

 

Hope you guys would find it useful :-)

[Ronny Tan]

The Good, The Bad and The Tips - An in-depth review of Ovation of the Seas cruise (Singapore-Penang-Singapore, 15 to 19 March, 2017)

 

My family, including 2 young children and a grandmother, went on an OOTS 4-night cruise over the March school holidays. This review focuses on (a) what went well, (b) what didn't and could have been improved by RCCL (hope they're reading), and © finally practical tips. It's to the point, so not much story-telling, unlike some of the more interesting and humorous trip reports byother passengers :-) It's not short, so beware.

 

Pre-embarkation Corporate Communications

=====================================

 

[-] Existence of comms - DISAPPOINTINGLY POOR. Although my wife had purchased the cruise package in Aug 2016 (7 months before D-day), there was virtually no corporate communication from either the Singapore-based travel agent, Royal Caribbean Singapore, nor RCCLApac to inform passengers what they are expected to do in the pre-embarkation period. For example, passengers should be informed (e.g. via email) that the schedule of timelines/deadlines are as follow:

1. 14 Dec 2016 (D – 91 days): Online check-in opens.
   
2. 21 Jan 2017 (D - 80 days): Onboard Activities/My Time Dining open for pre-booking.
   
3. 28 Feb 2017 (D – 14 days): Deadline for booking of activities using Cruise Planner
   
4. 9 Mar 2017 (D – 7 days): Deadline for online check-in
   
5. 15 April 2017 (D day): Date of departure
   

[-] While there were some miscellaneous emails from the travel agent in Dec 2016 (e.g. softcopy receipts of our bookings), there were none on what passengers need to do by when. I was particular interested to know when the onboard activities/My Time Dining are available for pre-booking,as I had understand that spaces were extremely limited. When I called them up,they unsatisfactorily informed that I need to log into the RCI portal EVERYDAY to manually check if the activity is open for booking or not. I literally had to do that EVERYDAY from November 2016 until Mar 2017, and it was a TERRIBLE INEFFICIENT USE OF GUESTS’ TIME.

 

[-] Speed of comms - I had sent an email to APACRES@rcclapac.com on 29 Dec 2016 seeking further clarification on the abovementioned deadlines. The reply only came only on 10 Jan 2017 (12 days later),even though this should have been a straightforward factual reply. In addition, although an email came from the travel agent eventually (3 Feb 2017 (D – 67day)) with the cruise documents and notification that online booking is open, it came way too late given that most of the booking slots have been taken bythen.

 

[-] Inconsistencyof comms - There was inconsistency in when the onboard activities become available for booking. For example, booking of the Dreamworks Character Breakfast (and some other spa treatments) became available on 21 Jan 2017 (D –80), but the iFly and North Star only became available a week later on 28 Jan2017 (D – 73 days). If passengers had logged in earlier and only saw the Dreamworks Character Breakfast, they might have thought that the otheractivities were not available for booking and hence never log in again. DRIP-FEEDING of information is not desirable.

 

[-] Lack of explanation in comms – It is helpful to explain why certain onboard activitieswere strangely NOT available for pre-booking, given that RCCL highly recommended passengers to do so in the past, e.g. Royal Theatre shows,FlowRider. This was why when I saw the unusual instructions in RCCLApac’s email1 Mar 2017 (D – 14 days), I immediately emailed them seeking confirmation andrationale. Unfortunately, they fudged and did not answer my queries properly.

 

[-] Website– 2 major areas of improvement:

• Questionable need for 2 websites (www.RoyalCaribbean.com.sg and www.RoyalCaribbean.com). One may have thought that the Singapore website is targeted at cruises departing from Singapore, and hence provide more info than the international website for such cruises. Butt his wasn’t the case. Oddly, the international website contained MORE useful practical info (e.g. on the OOTS webpage, the international website had a convenient “Learn More About” sidebar that contained hyperlinks to“Accessibility Features”). Furthermore, passengers who booked Singapore cruises were asked to counter-intuitively asked to log into the international website to prebook activities through the Cruise Planner (the Cruise Planner and“Already Booked” links are either non-existent on Singapore website, or deeplyhidden within).
  
• Lack of detailed useful content on the website(s). Both websites were woefully short of useful and easily clickable info that would sway a potential customer’s decision whether to book a cruise with RCCL or not, e.g.:
  1. Age/height restrictions/ opening hours of the various Onboard Activities - young children may not qualify. Make clear that age is computed based on birthdate,not just birth-year, e.g. my son was just 2 weeks short of his 6th birthday, but he was stopped from taking part in the Trapeze after queueing for an hour, only to be told at the last minute he wasn’t eligible.
     
  2. Synopsis of Royal Theatre shows. I was interested to see JC Sum’s magic performance, but there was no info on what shows were available except for Pixels in Two70.
     
  3. Clothing requirements for specific activities (e.g. need for socks and long pants for roller-skating). There are luggage packing implications, given that most passengers would come in their bermudas and sandals/flip-flops. Such key info should not just appear in the FAQ.
     

Ironically,the blogs and forums at CruiseCritic andCruiseline, and even local discussion board Hardwarezone contained much more useful info than RCCL’s own websites, and helped me to (a) decide to cruise with RCCL, and (b) plan my itinerary. This shouldn’t be the case. Indeed, given that company policy and product descriptions do change from time to time, the company website should the one offering the most authoritative, updated and comprehensive info. Be assured that I am not the only passenger who encountered confusion and frustration both pre-sale and post-sale due to the poor communication of information.