drummerdavebmth

Have been waiting for someone to post an actual cruisers review, I know that Ovation has only just gone into service, so the wait has been looong.

 

Glad you guys had a lovely time.

 

What was the stability like?

 

We are booked for a forward cabin in January 2017.

 

Going to show your pictures to the family tonight.

 

Thank you again for taking the time to share, hope you get another cruise soon :)

 

TraceyG

Thanks for your kind words.....I've got lots of great photo's to come (including ports of call as well as of the ship).

The stability of the ship was good. Most of the time you couldn't feel any movement at all :)

Later that evening, we had a chat about Silk and decided to cancel the reservation we had booked for the following week. Not because we didn't enjoy our meal (far from it), but there was nothing else on that menu that really inspired us (and I have to be in the right mood for Indian food). Also, and this is just my opinion, I found the red decor quite inclosing - made me feel a little bit claustrophobic.......maybe it was where we were seated, I don't know, but generally, I didn't like the red decor (again, my opinion).

The next morning we awoke as we were making our way into Rotterdam. Here is a photo from the very first 'Morning Show' on the 'Ovation of the Seas'...

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After breakfast, we decided to make our way to 270 and watch the rest of our sail in, stood looking out of those massive windows.

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What dining type did you have? Any favorites?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

Ahhhaaa......all will be revealed!!!

Actually, we tried all four of the Dynamic Dinning (two of which were very good, one was excellent and one was average - you may be surprised to discover we were underwhelmed by The Grande.

We also ate in Jamie Olivers and Chops Grille........both excellent.

Thanks guys....glad you're enjoying it.

So....by now, we were getting excited for our first meal on Ovation and our first experience of Dynamic Dining. Tonight, we were in Silk. The food was delicious. We ordered the same starter each and then an extra starter of the pork ribs to share - we thought it would be one starter to share, but they bought us double the amount!!! The pork ribs were really tasty - but only slightly warm (bordering on cold), not hot.

These were soooooo good!!!

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I had the Beef & Brocolli stir-fry which was absolutely delicious!!!

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With no room for desert (damn those extra ribs!), we decided to walk off our meal and I took some photo's along the way.

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Glad you're enjoying the pic's.....

And so, we are underway!!! We chilled out on our balcony (in-between unpacking). "Bye, bye Southampton"

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Time for a little bit more exploring again before getting ready for dinner....

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The teenage hangout area looks cool.....

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1633/26576553825_30216f3c0f_b.jpg' alt='26576553825_30216f3c0f_b.jpg'>Untitled by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

Once we had got back down to ship level, we decided to carry on exploring. By now, a lot more people were being welcomed onboard with Champagne on deck 5 (notice all the balloons....)

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Untitled by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

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Yes, that works! Strange must be they way the photos are embedded, other photo reviews were fine thru the app [emoji848]

 

But thanks, now I can see yours and so far are well worth it!! [emoji38]

 

Cheers!

Hahaha....glad they're worth it! Strange they aren't showing through the app though :confused:

Awesome. Thanks Dave.

Glad you're enjoying :)

Those photo's bring back memories of our Anthem cruise out of Southampton last year.

 

:)

Cool... :)

Yes I'm on iPad too, and accessing via Tapatalk app. I closed and reopened the app but no Change. If just me I'll leave it a bit and try again later - you have me intrigued!

Jen is just using the Safari browser (rather than an app), maybe just try that? :cool:

Before we knew it, our time had come to try the 'North Star'. I had pre-booked it online for Southampton on embarkation day and also, on our 2nd sea day).

"....I am not a number, I am a free man"

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Great sounding review, sorry if just me but all the pictures are showing broken links??

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Hmmmm....that's strange. Anyone else having the same problem? :confused:

My wife has just checked on her iPad and she can see them ok....

Here is a nice photo I took of the Seaplex whilst some people were having fun on the bumper cars....

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Untitled by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

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One question were you able to pre book entertainment before getting on board?

Yes, we pre-booked 'Spectra's Caberet' and 'Dream' online prior to the cruise.

My mate is on her now and your pictures have made me jealous :D

Did you get served by the robotic bartender?

 

Looked at your Flickr, some nice shots

Thanks....I'm jealous of your mate - wish I was back on her now (feels surreal knowing I was on there only this morning).

Anyway, yes. We did get served by the robotic bartenders - for us it was one of those "to do once" things. A bit of a novelty, but no need to repeat the experience....

We had a little while before we were booked to go up in the 'North Star', so we went to the Windjammer (which was hectic as usual, but less so towards the back).

Here's a lovely photo I took of Jen, can you see her smiling? Well, you would if it wasn't so damn sunny outside!! Nice views over Southampton...Anyway, hopefully this gives you the idea of where we sat most of the times we visited the Windjammer - a lot of the entertainment staff also ate there.

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Untitled by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

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Thanks guys... :)

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Of course, no stateroom "tour" would be complete without a peek into the toilet/shower room.....

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My wife and I got off the 'Ovation of the Seas' this morning and I am now in the process of looking through my photo's......no better time, then, to start my review of our cruise on board the brand new Quantum class ship, the 'Ovation of the Seas'.

This cruise hit a few "firsts" for us. Our first cruise since reaching Platinum, our first on a Quantum class ship, our first back-to-back cruise experience which incorporated our first 3 night "cruise" (cough) experience....

The Itinerary was as follows...

Day 1. Southampton, UK (Embarkation)

Day 2. Rotterdam, Holland

Day 3. At Sea

Day 4. Southampton (Disembarkation for some, but not for us....yay!!)

Day 5. Cherbourg, France

Day 6. Le Harve (for Paris), France

Day 7. At Sea

Day 8. Zeebrugge (for Bruges or Brussels), Belgium

Day 9. Southampton (Disembarkation......Boooo!!!)

We had a fantastic time overall, there were a few negatives which I will point out along the way to give a true reflection of what Jen and I thought - but on the whole we enjoyed ourselves and we don't like dwelling on the negatives (life's too short). The positives out weighed the negatives anyway...

So, our journey started 9 days ago in Southampton. Luckily Jen and I only live about a 40 minute drive up the road (the coastal town of Bournemouth), so we asked my parents to drop us off...

Our holiday begins.......

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Getting onto the ship was an absolute breeze thanks to the new online check in procedure. We were on before we knew it!! We were welcomed onboard with Champagne and there were balloons up everywhere. Because we were the first ever paying guests, our rooms were ready straight away - so by 11:20am, we were already in our stateroom.

We were in stateroom 9262 - which I can highly recommend, by the way (nice, larger than average balcony).

Jen looking rather excited....

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Untitled by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

Has the baby Panda been put on yet? I've seen lots of photo's of the mother Panda, but none of the baby...

We've been sailing Celebrity Equinox annually x 5 years, and we booked on board again for next March. Although we always have a awesome time, DH and I felt Equinox was a little too quiet in the evenings. We aren't into the casino, but we do enjoy the evening shows, movies under the stars, ballroom dancing. Now we've seen a great itinerary on Serenade. I know it's an older, smaller ship. Will we be disappointed after sailing some larger, newer ships? We have sailed mostly Princess, Celebrity, a couple on Carnival and one so far on RCI, FOS (which we absolutely loved.) Any advice, cruise friends?

We loved Serenade.....enough stuff happening in the evenings for us, from shows in the theatre, ariel shows in the Centrum, live music in bars etc, etc....

I did a full photo review of our honeymoon cruise on Serenade (link in my signature). She's a beautiful ship :)

Absolutely fantastic review.. and I watched your video too! :) You both did a great job...so many wonderful pictures and film to look back on in the years to come.

 

We have visited a few of the places mentioned in your review so it did bring back memories but we are also scheduled for a 9 night Greek Isles cruise from Rome in May of 2017 so the pictures gave us a taste of what to expect. Hope you both have a fantastic time on Ovation . Thanks again for taking us along with you. Hopefully you'll be doing an Ovation review. ;)

What kind words, thank you! Jen is thrilled you watched her video too :)

You'll love the Greek Isles, for sure.

Maybe I will do an Ovation 'Inaugural Back 2 Back' cruise review.....I enjoyed doing this one and the Indy one I did previously....so watch this space! ;)

Beautiful photos. Thanks for sharing!

You're welcome....glad you enjoyed! :)

And so, alas, we have come to the end of our cruise. We stood on the balcony watching the sunset from our balcony before going to dinner in the MDR one last time. The sea was so calm...

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The next morning we woke up back in the Italian port of Civitavecchia, where our adventure had begun......And from our balcony we spotted P&O's Ventura and the Celebrity Equinox (which we last saw whilst in Venice).

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Soon enough, we were on a coach back to Rome airport. Whilst on the coach we reflected on all the amazing things we'd done and experienced. There were lots of memories of which we'll both cherish forever and doing this review has helped keep those memories fresh and vibrant.

This is the last photo I took of our holiday. I liked the way the mist looked, hugging the distant hills as our coach sped by....

As I have mentioned once or twice during my review, my wife was filming our holiday on her GoPro for YouTube. I think she did a fantastic job, but don't just take my word for it

(in the description there is the video timings for each port, so you can always skip to what you want to see, although I hope you find the time to watch it all).

This review has kept me occupied whilst waiting for our next cruise - The 'Ovation of the Seas' inaugural 3 nighter followed by the 5 nighter immediately afterwards (our first back-to-back), sailing from Southampton - We will be embarking this Thursday (14th April). Wooohooo!!!

What adventures shall we have on Ovation I wonder? I guess that could be a story for another time....

If you enjoyed this review, feel free to check out the review I did for our first ever cruise (where I proposed to Jen!). It was on 'Independence of the Seas' to Norway. It was a wonderful cruise to a beautiful country - the scenery was breath taking (photo's galore!). The review link is in my signature.

Cheers!

Ok...thanks!