Ovation of the Seas

We were fortunate to go on a short eight day cruise last month on the Ovation of the Seas and it was quite the experience! Boarding was really fast as you deposit your heavier luggage early on which will just appear next to your cabin later, and the beds are cleverly tall enough to fit your luggage underneath so you don't have to squeeze around your bags - there's enough closet space so you don't live out of your bags all the time anyway.

There was no chance we'd be going hungry either with all the options on board but what we found was breakfast at the Solarium was the best, while lunch at Windjammer (provided you sit all the way past the food where it is quieter) offers more options, and the main dining for dinner is great. If you change those around it is less good in that Solarium dinner is repetitive, main dining breakfast is too little and Windjammer is very busy in general.

It's also interesting that the waiters (outside main dining) really get rotated around even from the pay-to-eat places (Chops Grille, yum) but there is alot of upselling especially when you first board and on shore days where they walk around to try get you to eat at wherever they are spruiking.

Of the snacks options, the Two70 cafe is a bit weak again in options (potato soup was good though), at the Doghouse hotdog thing you should just ask for two dogs per bun, and the Fish and Ships near the pool will require maybe three or four of their little servings to be satisfied. Sorrento's (nearly) infinite pizza is the highlight though. Just be aware that after the evening shows this place fills up really quickly!

There's always stuff happening for you to participate in too, and a handy schedule is available in the mandatory app as well as the daily ship news in your cabin TVs. Trivia, dance lessons (we danced on every dance floor we could find), competitions - and that's not even counting the sportsy / poolsy and gaming stuff near the top deck. I got my step count up (around 14-16K a day) doing the search for nations scavenger hunt where you collect signatures from staff from different countries, some of whom are really tough to find as the ship is massive.

While I only got third place I did feel that I got to see a LOT of the ship - including the beautiful gym, spacious spa, multi-roomed childcare, and pretty much every bar because bartenders are an excellent resource when finding people (apparently that's not just in the movies). Did spend a fair bit on shopping too though AND the casino - both of which are only open when the ship is out at sea. After attending an intro to gambling course (free ship activity) I finally tried my hand at a blackjack table. It went as well as you might expect (>_<), but by golly is it fun and super addictive!

For shore excursions (visiting ports) there was a bit of a line for both disembarking and re-embarking but neither took very long possibly because all the ones we visited we could walk off the ship / didn't have to be ferried off the ship. An interesting caveat here though, while you can buy food and bring it on board no food items are allowed to leave the ship! That nixed our idea of getting chocolate as a bday present for someone. We still bought and ate the chocolate though!

Disembarking was also pretty quick - we just chose to tag and leave our bags outside the cabin the night before, keeping basically just hand carry for whatever was left. There was no line for us and by the time we got back on solid ground our stuff was already there. All up a nice experience, with only one slightly rougher sea day where everyone was walking funny. That said as nice as being on that ship was, we were quite ready to get off it come disembarkation day.

Would I do it again? Maybe, but not anytime soon. It's also pretty expensive. :P