Ovation kind of LIVE, Best of Taiwan (8 Nov 2017 - 14 Nov 2017)

[opmet]

After walking along the Shakadang Trail, it was time to head back for our next stop - Lunch at Taroko national park visitor center.

 

on our way back to the car...

 

We had a wonderful lunch in the visitor center and chatted a little with our driver...

Next stop : Taroko Swallow Grotto Trail

 

We have never seen anything like this before, the fantastic view took our breathe away...

a famous suspension bridge nearby

( I had a lot of fun jumping on the bridge )

[opmet]

a fall nearby

Changchun Shrine

It was 14:26....time for some last minute shopping in the downtown area. Hualien is famous for its Mochi, our driver recommended "Yuen Fa" as our final stop.

At 15:46, we say goodbye to our lovely driver X tour guide and back on the ship.

 

At 17:00, Time for departure.

 

Sorry for the lack of information/introduction/background of each place we visited, our driver was informative but we were just lazy. We thought it does not matter where our driver takes us as long as we have a good time together. ( We don't usually do things together...That means no family time, it was the first time for the 3 of us traveling/hiking together)

 

Day 4 dinner at Jamie's Italian

 

 

 

 

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[Tin can]

Thank you for the review, it is very interesting to read about the Ovation.

 

 

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[opmet]

Thanks for all the kind words and support...

 

Our waitress Hanna, she was wonderful. We told her that we don't usually eat in such a fancy restaurant and there were a lot of food on the menu....we don't know where to begin....so she take care of our starter, we just had to choose the main course.

pictures below were taken from my mom's phone( warning: bad quality photo ahead)

The lamp chop was amazing, so tender( It was the first time for all of us eating a lamp chop and we loved it)

The shrimp linguine/carbonara were very fresh. We ate everything on the plate and it was time for desert.

I had the tiramisu, the taste of coffee was very strong and rich.

my mom had a (lemon cheese cake?)

my dad had some ice cream

 

We don't need to tip in Hong Kong and we are not used to tip but I understand that the income of some dining room server rely on patron's tip heavily. Hanna noticed that we were confused and asked if we need anything and I said we don't know if we should tip or not....I don't remember what she said lol

anyway we left some money inside (the signed receipt ?)

 

we walked around on the open deck, enjoyed some evening tunes and call it a night.

[opmet]

cruise compass of day 4

I cannot find a copy of the daily planner in English....sorry about that.

shuttle service in Hualien

 

I am very sleepy again....

Day 5 will be continue later

 

 

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[opmet]

Day 5 Taichung

 

 

We have no plan in our head on what to do on shore today so we decided to slow everything down, no rushing and have breakfast in the dining room.

First Egg Benedict in life, amazing...

container terminal = no way to down town on our own

At 10:00, we were off the ship

Welcoming Maiden call ceremony

 

 

 

 

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[opmet]

How do we get to down town area? $10 shuttle bus was provided in the previous port but not this time...

The Taichung government was very nice to provide us FREE shuttle bus service(with a local tour guide during the ride) to different part of Taichung.

Chaos begins as hundreds of people rushing to board the shuttle( like first come first serve and it was completely our(passenger) fault....It was a thing( mentality? tradition? mind set) to a lot of people living Hong Kong.

 

Anyway, staffs were giving out flyer to hundreds of passenger, we saw a shuttle bus but it was full. Another shuttle bus came and people start rushing/running to the bus.....

 

The adventure begins

[kobecat]

I am loving your review. Glad you liked the lamb chop, one of my favourites. We in Australia have trouble with the tipping thing too, you are not alone. [emoji3][emoji385][emoji383]

 

 

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[justluv2cruisewithhubby]

Love the review thanks for posting

[opmet]

Thanks everyone for following along!

I feel much better(less embarrassed/awkward? ) that I am not alone about the tipping thing...:)

 

Continuing Day 5.....

We were on route B to Caowu Square from the pier, our guide gave us intensive information of Taichung( what to do around Caowu Square, why is the street always clean, the way of life in Taichung.....and she feel sad about the growing trend of new generation don't speak/learn Taiwanese Hokkien......)

The ride to Caowu Square took about an hour, picture below was where the shuttle drop us.

 

no plan, just walking around...

First stop - National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art

The walk to the museum was relaxing, with a lot of greenery, art work and sculptures along the way...

There were exhibition about the history of camera, wars and other political controversy around the world etc.

 

 

 

 

 

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[opmet]

Then we stumbled upon a fried Chinese dumpling place for lunch....love the warming/fun service of people in Taiwan..

a walk to nowhere continues

Interesting places nearby

 

Xiangshang Market

An authentic place where the locals come here for their daily needs/necessities/foods, lot of local food selection to fill your tummy if you are hungry.

below is just a random food example

[opmet]

It was time to back to Caowu Square for some last minute exploring...

interesting vending machine:

ballon factory?

umbrella rental/sharing umbrella? wow

 

It was 15:20, about a hundred of passengers and crew members were waiting in line for the shuttle back to the pier. There should be a shuttle depart at 15:15 but no visual of the shuttle.

At 15:30?(not sure), There should be another shuttle come to pick up passenger but no visual of the shuttle, no staff, no sign.

Panic kicks in as the time ticking( traffic was bad, I heard that it was very hard to get a taxi in this area)

I started to walk around and spotted the shuttle that was supposed to depart at 15:15 was waiting for us on the other side....and the shuttle was 80% full..

anyway we boarded the shuttle and back to the ship on time( We stuck in traffic for about 15 mins. It was Sunday so everybody was out on the road so the traffic was really bad)

situation illustrated

 

At 17:00 - Home

Last minute shopping at the pier, I brought a soap made of silvery wormwood?(a plant)

 

 

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[opmet]

opps wrong photo...

picture below was the shopping area at the pier

 

I will continue the rest of the day later...

 

 

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[justluv2cruisewithhubby]

Can you post photos of your cabin?

[opmet]

Can you post photos of your cabin?

 

 

The view looking down from our balcony

(the balcony on deck 6 sticks out a little)

our cabin was located on deck 12 port side 156

 

 

I guess I will write a full review of the cabin after Day 7( before the end of the review)...

I am very sleepy again...

 

 

 

 

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[opmet]

Continuing Day 5....

some fireworks in distance

 

It was around 18:00, I saw some people were doing the rock climbing and I wanted to try it so bad....(never done this on land/sea before)

 

long story short

A lady(staff A) scanned my seapass card, had my signature on the ipad and I am good to go...

I reached the top, came down and sit on the bench for some rest (soar arm..felt good about that)( The fun part was coming down from the top)

 

I want to do it again but I was told by a gentleman(staff B) that the first time of rock climbing is free, the second time is $8 and three(third,X3) time is $16.

 

I thought about it for a few seconds and said OK

I did not get to the top this time but had a lot of fun though(really sore arm...good pain)

 

I was very happy that I finally did this until I realized something wrong.....

 

At first, I thought may be they had my seapass card scanned at the time I was signing up the the rock climbing so they don't need to do it again.( automatically charge to my account)

 

but then I thought:

-I never heard of a charge for the rock climbing.

-Staff A/B did not scan my seapass card for the second time played ( They should have scanned my seapass card if there was a charge)

-no receipt for the $8 charge

 

some hours later, (watched the sailaway, dinner at the buffet, it was uneventful)

I asked a lady(Staff C) from the guest service to see if there were any charges for the rock climbing.

She showed me a copy of the cruise planner and she thought there shouldn't be any charge for the rock climbing.

 

My mom lost her seapass card somehow and we went to guest service for help...I asked another lady(Staff D) the same question and she made a phone call and confirmed that the rock climbing is free of charge since the ship was in service.

 

I was in anger and very upset about it (conspiracies were coming in all direction from my head)...fell asleep in a few seconds though....

until the next day (11:00?) in seaplex( last day at sea) I found the lady that helped me with the rock climbing last night and I asked her about the charge of the rock climbing. She and other staff replied, it is just a joke that they always talk about( charging everything per min from roller skating to rock climbing etc.)

 

I was stupid enough to fall for that joke and it kind of ruined some part of the day....however, I am happy to know the truth and walked away with a smile and waved goodbye to the activity staff....

(It would be way better if they told me it was a joke last night)

( I hate someone lied to me and laughed it off was the only thing I can/want to do after knowing the truth.)

 

(the time line kind of messed up...(already in day 6....)

cruise compass of Day 5

failed to upload any pic at the moment, I will try again tomorrow.....

 

 

 

 

 

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[windjamming]

Hi opmet, thanks so much for this review! We were also on this cruise. I will be posting my thoughts as well but always nice to see another person’s perspective on the same itinerary!

 

If you still feel like you were wronged, suggest you put in the post-cruise survey, which I think has a deadline of Tuesday morning. Even if it was innocent, you can help prevent another passenger from getting angry.

 

 

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[Kayeless]

Awesome review. The rock climbing charges "joke" sucked big time.

[Kayeless]

Da Dong is a 5 Star Restaurant from Beijing China specialising in the famous Peking Duck. They have won many Michelin Stars for their innovative menu n China. I guess RCCL made a strategic branding alliance with Da Dong for their Far East cruises. I have personally tried Da Dong in Beijing and would not hesitate to return. Also from what i've seen in Instagram there's endless excellent reviews about Da Dong Wonderland onboard the Ovation and Quantum.

 

Great review. So no My time dining when in Asia.....and what is with the Da Dong Wonderland name change? Can you get a photo of the menu please? Does Da Dong mean something to make it more appealing to Asian guest!?

 

 

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[PCWalton1]

I did not find this review until today but I am happy I did. Thank you for taking the time to do this report. My wife and I will be on Ovation for 17 days in April and I was happy to see a report from the ship.

[opmet]

Hi opmet, thanks so much for this review! We were also on this cruise. I will be posting my thoughts as well but always nice to see another person’s perspective on the same itinerary!

 

If you still feel like you were wronged, suggest you put in the post-cruise survey, which I think has a deadline of Tuesday morning. Even if it was innocent, you can help prevent another passenger from getting angry.

 

 

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I would love to know how people from the other side of the world think about cruising out of an Asian port so I am already following your post:)

 

Awesome review. The rock climbing charges "joke" sucked big time.

 

 

I submitted the survey a few days ago....yes it sucked big time but I never thought of mentioning it in the survey...I believe in face-to-face conversation(which I did and laugh it off) rather than reporting it in the survey....

( I don't want to make a big deal out of it and I guess they learned their lesson)

 

 

 

 

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[opmet]

Cruise compass of Day 5

random pics of the day

 

Day 6 At sea

 

I cannot stop thinking about things happened yesterday, peace of mind is much needed so I start off the day in the jacuzzi

 

 

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[opmet]

After some relaxing time in the jacuzzi, we go back to our room get ready for breakfast...

The TV shows that we are going back to limbo.....

 

We saw a line of people waiting for breakfast in the solarium bistro so we headed to windjammer instead.

 

random fruit cup that I had

picture below was edited for privacy reason...

A special breakfast in Windjammer...

The gentleman with a microphone in hand should be our windjammer manager and he was inviting everybody out to play...( The manager was saying it is their pleasure to have us here...it was like a farewell breakfast....clapping hands, cheering for the hard working, friendly crew.....which usually happen during dinner time?)

 

The charge of rock climbing stuck in my head so I ended up talking to the staff in the seaplex and had a little conversation with the staff that helped me with the rock climbing....(details in previous reply) I choose to laugh it off, walked out with a silly face and get excited for lunch.......:D

random pics I took while I was contemplating about stupid things..

[opmet]

Lunch at Chops Grille

 

We have never been to a fancy steak house like this and It is a whole new experience to us....

 

Best bread so far....too late for pic, can't stop eating it. Crisps outside, soft inside, something so special about the aroma....

 

Mushroom soup

 

our server recommended the crab cake for my mom and dad...I had the bacon( we shared what we had on the table, my mom and dad only ate a few bites of the crab cake and I ate the rest of the crab cake... (feels bad about wasting food) anyway....The bacon was amazing! melt in your mouth right away( my mom had the most of it)

We thought the crab cake was over-seasoned

 

Fillet Mignon

I heard about how good fillet mignon was from a friend that I met on another cruise and I wanted to try it for a long long time....Every bite was a step closer to heaven.....the smell, the tenderness...I would have no regret if it was my last meal.

 

some side dish...

asparagus( half way gone), mushroom, fries

 

 

 

 

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[bobmacliberty]

Great review so far. Looking forward to the rest of your review.