Home from Ovation in Asia

[xpcdoojk]

we are home after a great 22 day trip which included multiple flight cancelations and a 7 hour unplanned drive home. Will happily share more in the next few days!

 

jc

[Coralc]

We will be interested to hear your thoughts on the cruise jc. :)

[PCWalton1]

we are home after a great 22 day trip which included multiple flight cancelations and a 7 hour unplanned drive home. Will happily share more in the next few days!

 

jc

We will be doing the same cruise next year so love to hear anything about your experience.

Thanks in advance

[PhoenixCruiser]

So, it will be a cruise ship, plane and automobile review??

 

Cannot wait to read more JC!

[easyboy]

Looking forward to details of your experience.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Biker19]

Flowrider unicorn?

[alvin18]

Hello, we were on this same cruise with you, we spent 2 days in Tianjin before flying back to CA. I am curious to see how your experience with the cruise was. My wife and I, my parents went and we stayed in Superior oceanview balconies. The ship is very nice, rooms very nice. But we overall felt the cruise was underwhelming and it is our first time with Royal Caribbean. I have never complained about food on any cruise but this one we didn't have too many excellent meals, these shows were lacking considering the caliber of the ship, service was overall good but crew overall didn't give us the warm welcoming feeling, passengers were nice and we met a lot of different kind of people. We did hear a lot of people say they like their past Princess cruises were better than this one, so we don't feel like we were out of line. Hope you don't have too much jet lag, it was hard to go to work today lol!

[DevonianCruiser]

Interested to hear how this cruise was as we are considering Ovation from Sydney next year.

 

Also did anyone notice if there were many/any young children on board? Our daughter will be 1 1/2 years old if we go. I realise at that age they may not be noticeable as they won't be in the theatre, on tours etc but curious if anyone did see any? Many thanks.

[xpcdoojk]

Flowrider unicorn?

 

Nope! Not even close.

 

JC

[xpcdoojk]

Working on my review will post shortly, hopefully!

 

JC

[xpcdoojk]

Many of you have read my past trip reviews, and know what to expect, but for those new to them, expect verbal diarrhea and way too much detail. However, the detail is often for me just so I can remember what actually we did because if I don't do it this way I struggle 6 months from now remembering what actually happened! So, I apologize in advance.

 

 

 

So here goes first part.... you have been warned!!!:evilsmile:

 

JC

 

So, this was the longest vacation we have taken since I got a promotion 6 years ago. I have been cramped into a 2 week max window, and I finally felt comfortable enough to stretch the limits. ;-)

We planned this cruise a year to the day that the trip would end, as I deposited on the trip on April 29, 2016. We had never been to Asia, and I was wanting to amend that deficit. Another couple travelled with us, and we were both in Junior Suites, although I paid for a Sea Class JS with a bigger balcony. I was a bit concerned because of the lack of information about these particular Asian cruises because so many of them are Chinese based sailings and are not generally talked about on CC. I was dreading the flight to Singapore, as when I look at travelmathdot com I saw that the flight from Dallas was almost 20 hours, which would not include our flight to Dallas another hour and a half plus connection times it all was a bit terrifying. So, I started looking at the Great Circle path, and decided that we would stop for a layover in Tokyo which cut over 6 hours off that horrid long flight and would give us a chance to get a small sample of Japan as well.

So, once that was decided I started planning the details. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Shinjuku district of Tokyo, partially because I had points to use. We flew into Tokyo Narita and took the Tokyo Express train from the airport got a bit lost in the train station in Shinjuku which I believe is the largest train station in Japan in terms of travellers going thru it. Here was a reminder of the difference in first world countries and second or third world countries. For example, when we were in Romania a few years ago when I would speak to a young person in a shop or a restaurant in English they almost always could speak English. Tokyo is clearly first world, as I tried to ask directions to the Shinjuku West Entrance/Exit upper level and I got a lot of blank stares. It is exactly what would happen to me if a Japanese person walked into my office and started asking me a question in Japanese. Rich countries don’t feel the need to know other languages as a general rule IMO. Finally, we found a young professional man who understood what I was asking, and while his English wasn’t good enough to tell me what to do, he motioned us to follow us and we did up and down escalators for about a half a mile to the exit. What genuine kindness to a bunch of dumb American tourists. Of course, now I had to figure out on this large circular square where the Hyatt shuttle bus would stop and with the help of another shuttle driver found the spot, and were promptly picked up by the shuttle, which took us about 10 blocks to our hotel. The location of the hotel was next door to the impressive Metropolitan government building of Tokyo, and next to a large park, and a peace memorial. Our room was nice, and our friends had a view of Mount Fuji from their room for a few hours that day. Unfortunately, clouds obscured it for most of the trip. The first day in Tokyo, we didn’t accomplish much except a short walk in the park, and a nice dinner at the hotel. We were all in bed by 8PM local time after landing at 2PM. Sleeping through that night was a challenge for all of us, and for the next few nights.

[xpcdoojk]

Monday the weather was fairly nice in Tokyo and we decided to stroll to another park since it was apparent that we hit the Cherry Blossoms at their peak. So we visited the Shinjuku GyoenNational Gardens with 1300 cherry trees. This park was splendid on a nice sunny spring day, and it was filled with people taking pictures of cherry blossoms. It is a large garden with several different styles of gardens and buildings. We spent a few hours walking through a large portion of the gardens, but certainly not all of it. The ladies had their first introduction to public bathrooms in Asia, where they (their description I didn’t see it) had to squat over some sort of open basin. Which left them giggling, and them dreading future bathroom visits.

After the morning in the glorious park we decided to walk to an area nearby that supposedly has a lot of theatres and nightlife, I figured that we could find a place for lunch. We struggled with our Iphone map to find it, and finally settled on a popular Sushi (Tsukiji) restaurant where they seated us in the basement. The sushi was very good, but a few of the items we had no idea what they were. After lunch and a beer we wondered to the Don Quijote (aka Donki) store. Donki is a multi-story weird shopping store with everything from kitschy items to designer handbags that were slightly used, electronics, toys, perfumes and other weird things. We didn’t buy anything, but it was a fascinating experience, a cross between an Army Surplus store and a street market.

We started back to the hotel and stopped at the famous LOVE statue for a quick snap, and since we walked by the Metropolitan government building with its free observation deck at 200 plus meters we decided to get in the line for this attraction. Unfortunately, by this time the clouds obstructed views of Mt. Fuji, but still it was a great way to get a panoramic view of Tokyo. Afterwards we had dinner at the hotel, and finished the day.

[awestover89]

Really looking forward to the rest. We are doing a Shanghai to Japan cruise on Quantum this October and reviews and comments on the Asia cruises are few and far in between on CC.

[xpcdoojk]

Really looking forward to the rest. We are doing a Shanghai to Japan cruise on Quantum this October and reviews and comments on the Asia cruises are few and far in between on CC.

 

That is partially why I am doing the full review thing, because there was nothing much for me to learn from when I was planning this trip. So, I promise to get to all of the details from my point of view. The good the bad and the just plain weird. I am a I have never had a bad vacation kind of guy, but this trip is definitely not typical in any fashion.

 

JC

[xpcdoojk]

Our flight to Singapore was scheduled for Tuesday evening at 6:10PM, and we awoke to a cold drizzly morning. So we wandered in the rain to a nearby McDonalds for breakfast, and decided to head to the airport a little early to check out all of the things that Narita airport offers. So, we checked out of the hotel and took the shuttle back to Shinjuku station where we bought snacks, lunch and souvenirs. My wife had done an internet search while on the Narita Express train for a place to eat, and we chose Takoban which serves something called Takoyaki which is some sort of fried dumpling with octopus and other fillings. We ordered more than we could eat along with some Ichiban beer. Some of the dumplings had something on the outside the writhed and wiggled 15 minutes after they were served. They were freakish. The dumplings were hot, as the restaurant probably couldn’t seat 10 people and they were frying them next to the window where you placed the order. I wasn’t there when they ordered, as the restaurant seating was full and I was scouting the terminal for a place to seat and eat, and wasn’t finding too many options. Fortunately, a few people left while they were cooking our food and we were able to sit at the counter. I can’t say I am a fan of this kind of food, but it was an interesting experience. I would love to know what caused them to writhe on the plate as long as they were sitting in front of me. It was truly weird.

After eating we went searching for other things that are famous in Japan such as Tokyo Banana treats or Strawberry Cake from Ginza. This reminds me that I need to ask my friends to give me my share of these weird little packaged cakes and cookies before they eat them all! I, also, bought a Pokémon stuffed toy for the young boy who was letting our dog out to go to the bathroom while we were on vacation.

[xpcdoojk]

Then we settled in to wait for our 7 plus hour flight to Singapore with JAL. The flight itself was relatively painless, but Singapore Immigration process when you land after midnight is a nightmare. There is a disembarkation form which nobody tells you about that has to be filled out by everyone, fortunately I noticed people filling out forms and since we had an hour and a half in a massive line we had plenty of time to complete the form. It was very hot and it was almost 2AM local time before we finally cleared this hurdle and were able to try to find our hotel. Fortunately, I booked us into the Crowne Plaza at the Changi Airport which is located at the airport, and after we were directed to the train to take us to the other terminal where the hotel was located, we were able to check into the hotel and it was excellent. We had a very good breakfast the next morning and then we had them get a van to take us to the Marina Bay Sands about 11AM where we checked into that amazing hotel.

I had first been aware of this hotel from watching the annual Formula 1 night race on the streets of Singapore of which two things always stood out when watching the race. One was that the city looked amazing at night with cool buildings and the helicopter flying over this three tower hotel with a gigantic infinity pool linking the three towers 57 stories in the sky overlooking the city. The other was all of the commentary about how hot it is for the drivers and the cars in the race. In reality both of those things are undoubtedly true! The hotel is amazing. The pool is spectacular. It is a true engineering feat. It is, also, insanely hot in Singapore. Since Singapore is within one degree of the equator it is always hot. Our room was not ready when we checked in so we left our luggage, and took the subway to visit Orchard Road. Orchard Road is the Rodeo Drive of Singapore, but it may be even more over the top. We wandered the streets before we settled on a place to eat, which turned out to be in a gigantic shopping mall that was a maze. So, we went there because it sounded like a good place to get seafood. Turns out it was nothing special, but finding it was very hard.

After lunch we went back to the subway and returned to the Marina Bay Sands and checked into our rooms. We booked Club level rooms which included breakfast each morning and cocktails and heavy snacks each evening. Our room was overlooking the bay, which features sail boats, water taxis, skyscrapers lining the opposite side, fantastic looking buildings, a floating soccer field, and grandstands that are obviously there for the Formula 1 race. The opposite side of the hotel features an amazing garden called Gardens by the Bay. It features a cloud forest building, tree top walks, a gigantic conservatory, and acres of gardens. It really is quite nice. Visiting the gardens is free, but visiting the special sections does require an admission fee. They are probably worth it as we spent part of every day while we were there visiting different parts of this vast park. Then evening cocktail event was very nice, and the food there was good enough to serve as a light meal, which is what we did. The hotel is expensive by any standard, but probably worth it for a one time trip.

[PCWalton1]

Thank you for taking the time to post this report. Looking forward to the next installment. We are taking the same 12 day cruise next year. I think the only difference is you had an overnight in Vietnam and our's will be in Hong Kong.

[PhoenixCruiser]

Enjoying your review JC!!

[Sabi-chan]

[My wife had done an internet search while on the Narita Express train for a place to eat, and we chose Takoban which serves something called Takoyaki which is some sort of fried dumpling with octopus and other fillings. We ordered more than we could eat along with some Ichiban beer. Some of the dumplings had something on the outside the writhed and wiggled 15 minutes after they were served. They were freakish. The dumplings were hot, as the restaurant probably couldn’t seat 10 people and they were frying them next to the window where you placed the order. I wasn’t there when they ordered, as the restaurant seating was full and I was scouting the terminal for a place to seat and eat, and wasn’t finding too many options. Fortunately, a few people left while they were cooking our food and we were able to sit at the counter. I can’t say I am a fan of this kind of food, but it was an interesting experience. I would love to know what caused them to writhe on the plate as long as they were sitting in front of me. It was truly weird.[/font]

 

 

 

I think that your Takayuki were likely topped with bonito flakes, very finely shaved dried tuna. The heat from the takoyaki causes the shavings to curl and unfurl asthenosphere shavings curl and unfurl.

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[direptor]

After lunch we went back to the subway and returned to the Marina Bay Sands and checked into our rooms. We booked Club level rooms which included breakfast each morning and cocktails and heavy snacks each evening. Our room was overlooking the bay, which features sail boats, water taxis, skyscrapers lining the opposite side, fantastic looking buildings, a floating soccer field, and grandstands that are obviously there for the Formula 1 race.

 

Just like to clarify, the floating 'soccer field' or what we call the floating platform is also used for exhibitions, events and our National Day Parade. The rainbow coloured grandstands were build mainly for the parade and not the F1.

 

More info about the platform if anyone is interested.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Float_at_Marina_Bay

[SonicShip]

It sounds like a similar trip we did last June. We did a B2B as part of the Global Odyssey. It was very interesting to compare all the countries in a few weeks time.

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

[A&L_Ont]

JC, very interesting so far. DW would have avoided those dumplings from the word octopus, let alone the dancing coating. Looking forward to more.

[xpcdoojk]

[My wife had done an internet search while on the Narita Express train for a place to eat, and we chose Takoban which serves something called Takoyaki which is some sort of fried dumpling with octopus and other fillings. We ordered more than we could eat along with some Ichiban beer. Some of the dumplings had something on the outside the writhed and wiggled 15 minutes after they were served. They were freakish. The dumplings were hot, as the restaurant probably couldn’t seat 10 people and they were frying them next to the window where you placed the order. I wasn’t there when they ordered, as the restaurant seating was full and I was scouting the terminal for a place to seat and eat, and wasn’t finding too many options. Fortunately, a few people left while they were cooking our food and we were able to sit at the counter. I can’t say I am a fan of this kind of food, but it was an interesting experience. I would love to know what caused them to writhe on the plate as long as they were sitting in front of me. It was truly weird.[/font]

 

 

 

I think that your Takayuki were likely topped with bonito flakes, very finely shaved dried tuna. The heat from the takoyaki causes the shavings to curl and unfurl asthenosphere shavings curl and unfurl.

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Thanks for the explanation. They were weird as can be.

 

JC

[xpcdoojk]

Just like to clarify, the floating 'soccer field' or what we call the floating platform is also used for exhibitions, events and our National Day Parade. The rainbow coloured grandstands were build mainly for the parade and not the F1.

 

More info about the platform if anyone is interested.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Float_at_Marina_Bay

Got it. I assume though that they use them for the race too? It looked like they were integrated into that section of the circuit. At least it looked that way from the 37th floor.

 

JC

[xpcdoojk]

JC, very interesting so far. DW would have avoided those dumplings from the word octopus, let alone the dancing coating. Looking forward to more.

 

Andrew, your posting makes me jump ahead a bit. For some reason, the flowrider (and no it was not a unicorn cruise) staff, only had two boards, and they were both big and they were adamant that short boards are only for staff, and are too quick for guests. Do you think this is something that they are going to do fleet wide, or is it just because this ship has mostly Chinese itineraries? One of the flowrider staff was Allen from the UK (he was on the Navigator last year with us and he knew I could surf, and he just acted dumb like they always use big boards, btw he looks a bit like Leonardo DiCaprio). As the trip went on the few of us who had used short boards in the past were finally about day 9 on a limited basis allowed to use short boards. If this is a new policy, I will be buying my own board before my next flowrider cruise.

 

I am very curious about if this is a trend and not just a one off.

 

JC