WaveSplasher

Those extra 10 degrees of viewing on the Ovation must be amazing, lol

 

The only difference I see on Ovation (due to the Asian market) is Johnny Rockets is replaced with Kung Fu Panda Noodle Bar, sounds nice, and the Casino is bigger taking away the music hall venue.

I think they will put back Johnny Rockets as it seems like Ovation is going to be doing Alaska-Australia from 2019-2020 and probably for the foreseeable future.

Regarding your concern about the Music Hall, only the back part of Deck 4 Music Hall behind the bar is occupied with slot machines in one whole line. but the rest of the Music Hall including Deck 5 remains intact. In fact when i was in the music hall on my last Ov cruise, I can hardly notice the Casino.

This is from a facebook post that I'm unable to mention..

Ovation Of The Seas Trans-Pacific Cruise to her new homeport in Alaska!!

It will be in 3 legs:

Sydney to Honolulu ( 17 April to 2 May 2019) ( Moorea, Papetee, Bora Bora, Lahina, Honolulu

Honolulu to Vancouver ( 2 May to 13 May) ( Honolulu( Overnight), Hilo, Lahaina, San Francisco, Vancouver)

Vancouver to Seattle ( 13 May to 24 May ) (Icy Strait Point, Stika, Hubbard Glacier, Juneau, Skaway, Tracy Arm Fjord, Victoria, Seattle)

Evacuation has been completed via Helicopter from the Bow and we are now leaving Albany, and resuming our course to Adelaide.

Currently onboard Ovation Of The Seas and the Captain announced 2 hours back that we have a serious medical emergency.

We have diverted to Albany, Australia for a helievacuation and are currently preparing for the evacuation to begin.

And the speculation about having a Quantum class ship in Alaska is also correct. Our April 2019 TP on Explorer was just cancelled and one of the options offered in the email is to book the TP on Ovation in 2019.

It has been replaced by a re-positioning cruise from Sydney to Singapore. Sounds like Explorer is going back to Asia.

Did they send you a itinerary for that Ovation Tp? Would love to see if the ports are similar.

https://www.royalcaribbeanpresscenter.com/media_photos/low_1510073174_RC-2019-2020Deployment-v5.jpg

 

 

Interesting: Quantum otS; Independence otS; Explorer otS or Voyager otS are not listed here at all.

Further, no evidence on sailings from Southampton, and Asia and Australia are fully excluded. Seems, the picture just refers to the summer season of Western waters.

I believe Asia itineraries will be released much later as with all other years as they are probably still trying to decide whether to deploy Explorer or additional ships. Quantum, I believe will remain in Asia.

Explorer Of The Seas will coming to Asia in end March/Early April 2019. Her Re positioning Cruise from Australia is currently on sale now. It could be for a drydock or a deployment to coincide with Voyager leaving Asia during that month.

My guess is that Ovation will rotate between Alaska and Australia. Spectrum will do China and Singapore as Voyager is leaving in March 2019. Quantum will remain in China as changing her to suit American market might just send her into drydock and Ovation isn't changed much due to her rotation between Asia and Australia.This leaves Explorer which I don't know where she will go. Maybe full time in Australia or back across the Panama canal for more Caribbean cruises

Going to be hard to decide which to do. Re-Positioning Cruise on the Spectrum or Quantum to Alaska. Give me a good price and great itinerary Royal!

A ship with the name 'Voyager of the Seas' is also booked on an intensive set of turn around sailings from Hong Kong Kai Tak Cruise Terminal with 17 sailings in July and August of 2019.

Kai Tak schedule do make mistakes too and usually won't switch till rather closer to the actual date. I'm guessing the July and August schedule is for Spectrum Of The Seas which makes sense as usually during these months, ships are deployed in China.

Regards to the TA(27 OCT) for the supposed Oasis of the Seas, could that be for Voyager instead? Could be she's going back to the Caribbean.

What about Aqaba to Laem Chabang/Langkawi Cruise

Thanks

Regarding the Airlines, there are no direct flights to Langkawi from Europe so a transit at Singapore or Kuala Lumpur is needed. Bangkok could be by British Airways..

Those who didn't know, most ports in Asia are about 2 hours away from their intended destinations.

Examples are

Ho Chi Minh = Phu My

Bangkok = Laem Chabang

Kuala Lumpur = Port Klang

Other than that, its interesting that it didn't call Singapore as a homeport because Langkawi if you ever been there on a cruise, does not depicts itself as a homeport. Homeporting in Bangkok will require paying for ship transfers, because not many taxis will do the 2 hour journey to the port and return empty handed.

Spectrum Of The Seas will be heading to Asia and if you didn't know they have released what seems to be the Re-position to China in the link below.

From the link below. RCL gave out Prizes. Direct Translate via google

1 prize for the "Ocean Spectrum" from the North Atlantic through Gibraltar, Mediterranean, Suez Canal, the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean, Andaman Sea, China South China Sea, the Pacific, Shanghai, China 12 countries 52 days Cruise travel; 2 prize for the "Ocean Spectrum" from Singapore to Shanghai 8 days trip,

https://www.royalcaribbeanpresscenter.com/press-release/1327/ldquordquo-/

Has anyone been on the Mariner recently the ship and can give an honest assessment of the ship. We are hearing reason the TA was cancelled is ship is in terrible condition, filthy, nothing has been done to it since it got to Asia and reeks of smoke. My husband has asthma and we are booked on all 3 legs so we are concerned about even continuing on the first 2 legs. Will appreciate any honest input

Hi, one of my friend will be going on the Mariner on September 10 and I will be going for the last cruise in Asia on April 6. He and I will be doing a so called assessment of the ship and we will report back here.

Her maiden voyage - call on HK on June 7, 2017 - no passengers onboard, looks strange - isn't it ... sort of like a ghost ship.

Well the reason being it was a Ghost ship was that because NCL Joy was meant for the Asia market, they didn't want to sell it to people who are not from Asia.That is also the reason why Joy bookings did not appear on the NCL website as it was only sold through travel agents in China for their targeted market. But recently, NCL has open Joy to the World, though not many choices and cabins category avalible

 

I have always wanted to visit Boracay island but was wondering whether it's safe from pirates.... what are chances of pirates boarding a large cruise ship like World Dream?

lol you are probably the first who is worried about pirates boarding World Dream in the Philippines, though i can understand that.

The chances are low to non-existant. Besides World Dream will be there in the day so not likely the pirates will attack as they usually attack in the cover of darkness, and everyone will have seen them coming and the possibility of facing with over 3500 people to deal with. Also, World Dream has very little space for the pirates to come onboard as well.

If World Dream is at sea, she will speed up to full speed which the pirates will then not be able to catch her, let alone board her.

Cast away your worries and book! I believe you will enjoy the cruise and the Philippines :D

World Dream is already open for reservation. check out their Dream Cruises Website. The Philippines cruise is a bit Ex though.

Yes the Phillipines cruise goes to Manila and Borocay Island. Vietnam is Ho Chi Minh and Na Thrang

I have boarded at Kai Tak though its with the Voyager Of The Seas. It was smooth and quick, systematic though there is a long walk to your ship from the beginning when you enter the terminal. Maybe it's because RCL ?

Dream departs Mcleod Island at 9.30pm and then probably sails at full speed all the way to Singapore with a sea day arriving back at Singapore at 1pm.

This is why one of the reason was due to the low loads in Hong Kong, they have moved the Ship to Singapore. The know Singapore is in a regional hub where it's easy to fly in. And because IT's The Ship chartered Dream Cruises, Genting Dream has no choice but to arrive in Singapore early in November.

Btw Dream Cruises will be doing Fireworks at Sea on Thursday night for all 5-night cruises leaving from Singapore

Dream is adding cruises in November in Singapore due to the charter for It's The Ship. Heading to Mcleod Island which is interesting and a very exotic destination for Asia cruises.

World Dream is due in Singapore on the 14 November.

Other than that I have seen the embarkation process for Genting Dream at Kai Tak.... It was Chaos and I cannot understand why Dream Cruises after close to 1 year in operation still cannot figure out how to smoothen the embarkation.

It is said that the Passion of the Seas (If her name is really this) will be designed for the Asian-Pacific Market, now if Australia is included in that market, then maybe there wouldn't be so many change, Or else the same thing will happen to Majestic Princess.

Passion of The Seas re-positioning cruise will most likely follow Quantum and Ovation route itineraries and timeframe so you can gauge when the ship will start its cruise to Asia.

Have the queues for the Genting Dream MDR been improved yet? Always heard long queues when someone goes for dinner. And is the food comparably better than RCL or about the same? Thanks

Yup! same itineraries as the Mariner Of The Seas, except the 5 Night Bangkok Cruise. It's a change from the usual 7 night Bangkok/ Ho Chi Minh Cruise, Mariner used to do. Probably in line with the shorter cruises demanded from Asian guest. So from now on, anyone who wants to go to Ho Chi Minh has to take a repositioning cruise or cruise with another line.

However the Singapore Winter Season is listed as sold out for all the cruises. I wonder if this is a glitch/website problem or that RCL has still not figured out the deployment for Voyager yet. I hope not.

On the Aus Cruises, I'm shocked at the prices for Ovation. It's definitely more expensive than the 2017-2018 deployment for Australia.

I have been watching Voyager's position via Marine traffic in Phuket every time she reaches there and apparently Royal Caribbean has changed her tender to the east part of the island near Regent Phuket, Cape Panwa, near the Phuket aquarium. I don't know why is RCL changing her tender port to there. It had never happened before

Sounds like a horrible place to tender. Nothing there.

Sorry, I meant 2019/2020 cruise deployment, and with the well documented berthing options in Sydney.

If its 2019/2020 you could be looking at Passion Of The Seas, a quantum plus ship so it's still a mystery as to whether she will alternate bewteen Asia and Australia. If Passion does comes to Australia, one of the ships (Explorer, Radiance or Ovation) will have to leave unless Sydney can get their new cruise terminal up and running.

RCL pulled Mariner out in order to replace her with Passion, their newest ship. Maybe that's the plan down the road that all new class of ships will be heading down to Asia. I'm guessing Melody of the Seas due in 2021 is when RCL will finally bring an Oasis class to Asia.

I'm thinking (and somewhat wishing) that Q4 would be homeported in Australia and Singapore. China doesn't seem like a tough competitor at this point with way more supply than demand. And both Singapore and Australia have had a major cut in capacity for 2018-2019 deployment. It doesn't seem logical for Royal to have removed these ships, unless they were already planning for another new build to at least maintain or increase capacity in the near future.

 

 

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From the looks of it, I don't think Singapore deployment has been Cut. Mariner has extended her season in Singapore by coming early in September. Voyager arrives in 2018 April to begin her Singapore season, to probably End May or Early June before leaving for China and returning in October to continue her season in Singapore (Taking over mariner sailings) . For the first time, Singapore will have a full season with a flowrider on the ship and new rooms such as Virtual balcony and the rooms on Deck 12. I must say it's an upgrade.

Probably why the Mariner left is to give way to Quantum Plus that is coming in 2019. In a news article a while back on the Quantum Deployment to China, Goldstein said that the Chinese market places a high value on new, top-quality products, and Royal Caribbean believes it has a chance to achieve a long-term competitive advantage by taking the "bold step" of dedicating its newest, most-advanced ship to the region. And also due to the success of RCL ships in China."

With so many news ships coming to Asia in 2018 and beyond, there was no way RCL will give up that market easily. There must be something working with RCL deploying Quantum year round in China and voila 2 years later, she is still sailing there and probably making lots of profits for RCL to be able to send a Quantum Plus there. Probably with the arrival of Quantum Plus, either Ovation or Quantum Plus will stay in Australia and Singapore year round, the other will stay in China year round. If things are doing good, Quantum remains in China, if not either to Alaska or back to America.

I'm guessing before the global Odyssey. Her sailing from Singapore to shanghai is now closed (for the obvious reason)

 

So possibly dry from from March 19 to Apr 9???

 

Another possibility is a few more Singapore sailing and then dry dock in Freeport

 

 

 

 

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The Shanghai sailing has already been sold out for quite a few months already.That sailing has disappeared from the RCL website.

I doubt they are going to add more Singapore sailings. Therefore March 19 to April 9 which is a 3 week drydock. Is a 3 week drydock enough to transform her to suit America? If they are going to add things like flowrider, water slides and maybe the additional cabins on Deck 12