Ovation extends Australian season in 2016/217

[MicCanberra]

We have been advised that for those affected on the cancelled repositioning the cruises, these passengers will get first access to the new itineraries when they are finalised as well as first access to the adjusted repositioning cruise, before it's released to the general public.

 

Apart from the inconvenience of those that have been affected by the cancelled repositioning cruise, it's a good sign to see the demand is so high they have added extra sailings and she is coming back for the next season.

 

I think given the circumstances, RCI have done the right thing as long as the prices for the next cruises are not inflated and pricing anyone one out.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Yes, Travel insurance is a good idea if you want to cover yourself for mishaps and such..

 

Travel Insurance should be taken out as soon as you book and pay your deposit.

 

The story has been reported in the NZ Herald this morning. Ovation will anchor in Auckland Harbour and passengers will be ferried ashore to the Viaduct area.

Can you just imagine 5,000 lining up to be taken ashore...:eek:

 

 

Monster cruise ship staying here longer

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11617278

[Aussie_Kiwi_Family]

We are booked on the repo and so disappointed that it's been cancelled.

We haven't been contacted yet, hoping we can re book, but

We wanted 14 days + short cruises aren't for us

This worked ok for the school Holidays

We had a cool cabin booked -

My husband already has time booked off - he does shift work, and it's not always easy to get time off

This timing suited my business ok too.

Feels like it is not much notice for a cruise? I would have though changing an itinary less than 12 months out would be a massively frowned upon thing to do?

 

I'm concerned that they will jack the prices right up now, and offer a stingy obc as compensation.

Oh well, let's wait and see what happens.

[MMDown Under]

We are booked on the repo and so disappointed that it's been cancelled.

We haven't been contacted yet, hoping we can re book, but

We wanted 14 days + short cruises aren't for us

This worked ok for the school Holidays

We had a cool cabin booked -

My husband already has time booked off - he does shift work, and it's not always easy to get time off

This timing suited my business ok too.

Feels like it is not much notice for a cruise? I would have though changing an itinary less than 12 months out would be a massively frowned upon thing to do?

 

No, the MSC Poesia trans Atlantic cruise, in 2010, which I took from Kiel, Germany to NY, US was originally scheduled to cruise from the Mediterranean. Aussies who usually do land travel prior to overseas cruises were already in Europe when they were advised! This made me wary of ever booking overseas cruises in advance, as the discount flights I book are non-refundable.

 

I would be contacting the cruiseline or your TA, if you haven't been advised about the cancellation of your repositioning cruise.

Edited April 5, 2016 by MMDown Under

[MMDown Under]

Travel Insurance should be taken out as soon as you book and pay your deposit.

 

The story has been reported in the NZ Herald this morning. Ovation will anchor in Auckland Harbour and passengers will be ferried ashore to the Viaduct area.

Can you just imagine 5,000 lining up to be taken ashore...:eek:

 

 

Monster cruise ship staying here longer

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11617278

 

I hope it has a long day in port, so some passengers can get off later in the afternoon. But then, they all have to get back on!

[Maxit]

In the same position our repo cruise has been cancelled. Have not heard from RC yet. All leaves approved and husband taken long service it's now a wait too see what they offer.

[Cruise ship fan]

I am willing to bet there are a ton of people still thinking that the cruise is going ahead because Royal haven't notified people. Leaving them to buy flights and accommodations and make arrangements. They should of told everyone booked before they announced it was extending it's season.

[MicCanberra]

Chances are you will not receive notification unless you booked directly with RCI, so for all those who have not been contacted by RCI, contact your TAs as they would have been.

Edited April 5, 2016 by MicCanberra

[Cruise ship fan]

Chances are you will not receive notification unless you booked directly with RCI, so for all those who have not been contacted by RCI, contact your TAs as they would have been.

That's the thing. People are not being notified even if they booked through Royal. The travel agents are not being notified either. The ones who have been notified are in the minority. For this cruis3 we booked through a travel agent and they were not notified until they called royal asking what was going on after we asked them.

[MMDown Under]

5th April 2016

 

Dear Ovation of the Seas Guest,

As you may know Royal Caribbean International has today confirmed Australia’s very first new-build cruise ship, the ground-breaking US$1 billion Ovation of the Seas, will extend her maiden season down under with an extra four cruises, to meet the incredible demand from Australian travelers.

This unfortunately does mean that there will be changes to the 23rd January 2017 repositioning cruise from Sydney to Singapore that you currently have reserved. Whilst we can confirm the new departure date for this repositioning cruise will be 20th February 2017, we are currently in the final stages of confirming the new itinerary and therefore we are not yet ready to make any changes to your existing booking.

We would however, like to assure you that you will have the first opportunity to move to the new repositioning cruise – or an alternate cruise of your choice. Rest assured the new and amended voyage itineraries will not be made available for general sale until you have been accommodated.

We thank you for your patience whilst we finalise the details for the extended season and we will be in contact very soon to confirm the options available to you including the revised repositioning itinerary. We understand you will want to start making changes to your air and accommodation however we recommend no changes are made until we confirm the itineraries and are in contact with you to finalise your options.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this change to your cruise and we look forward to working with you to minimise the impact to your travel plans.

Sincerely yours,

Redeployments and Itinerary Changes Royal Caribbean International

This is what you will get if your on the cancelled cruise

Sounds like they are still finalising details from this letter. Why would they recommend that no changes be made to air and accommodation until they confirm the itineraries? Surely passengers would want to cancel their air and accommodation bookings for the cancelled cruise asap?

Edited April 6, 2016 by MMDown Under

[Kiwi Kruzer]

This is the problem when cruises are announced before everything is finalised. How often do we see people asking why haven't the cruise for xxxx year been announced.

A similar thing happened with Princess when they decided to take Pacific Princess away from us and replace her with Dawn princess. The outcry's from those in the States who had bookings on Dawn was horrendous, likewise from Australians who had booked Pacific Princess.

 

 

 

[MicCanberra]

Re scheduling cruises is always going to get some people very upset and a lot of others inconvenienced.

[MMDown Under]

Re scheduling cruises is always going to get some people very upset and a lot of others inconvenienced.

 

The way this has been handled has to be bad publicity for Royal Caribbean. Surely they have systems in place to advise all passengers booked through RC and TAs at the one time that their cruise has been cancelled.

[joandian]

We were booked on Ovation from Beijing (can't remember the port) to Singapore on Nov 18th. We were told the cruise was chartered this past Feb but it was actually split into smaller cruises. We were given about a week to choose another cruise or cancel

 

RCI offered the following....

 

Book one of 4 suggested cruises and get price protection

OBC related to the cabin chosen

Airline change fees covered up to $300 for International and $200 for domestic.

 

Cancel and receive nothing but your deposit back.

 

It will be curious to see what those booked on the repositioning are offered. We did end up booking one of the suggested cruises - Mariner from Shanghai to Singapore in October.

 

Edited to add... We didn't receive any notification from RCI even though our email address is registered with them. I read about it on the Roll Call and called the Miami office who I booked through, to get the info. Having said that, they may have tried to call but the Husband's phone had the Aussie sim card in it at that time.

Edited April 6, 2016 by joandian

[gbenjo]

Going by the Sydney Ports cruise schedule for January through to March there are not a lot of suitable dates for the Ovation to fit in four more cruises. If we take it that the 23rd Jan (original repo date) will now be the start date for the first "extra" cruise it means there will only be the 26th Jan, 10th Feb(possibly)and the 26th Feb available at the OPT . The 26th Jan means only a three night booze cruise but then there is only the 26th Feb after that which makes it a 31 night cruise unless she turns around in Fremantle or somewhere else (if she can???) The 10th Feb the Pacific Eden is at the OPT which could be moved to White Bay but I guess why would P&O move just to accommodate Royal

There looks to be a bit more flexibility in March and you would assume Royal would have taken this into consideration but it will be interesting to see what they have planned.

One "bonus" for me ... four more cruises.... four more days to work:D $$$$$

[The_Big_M]

Feels like it is not much notice for a cruise? I would have though changing an itinary less than 12 months out would be a massively frowned upon thing to do?

 

Frowned upon by passengers, but not so much by the cruiselines.

 

A couple of months back it was Ovation as well I think getting some November cruises cancelled, so about 9 months out again there.

[The_Big_M]

I am willing to bet there are a ton of people still thinking that the cruise is going ahead because Royal haven't notified people. Leaving them to buy flights and accommodations and make arrangements. They should of told everyone booked before they announced it was extending it's season.

 

That would have been worse. As the first people started getting informed, they would post on fb/elsewhere and you'd then get people a) questioning whether it was true as they hadn't been told, and b) why others had been told first.

 

Also, RCL don't have everyone's contact details (until they check in, which 9 months out not everyone has) hence they have to go through TAs for the TA bookings (which is the majority). Hence, it would have only been to their own customers so not a good look.

[GUT2407]

Glad I've never had a cruise cancelled, missed Ports plenty of times, but just having the line change their mind ....

Edited April 6, 2016 by GUT2407

[The_Big_M]

This is the problem when cruises are announced before everything is finalised. How often do we see people asking why haven't the cruise for xxxx year been announced.

 

 

Very true. Hence why there have been delays with Asian and Aust itineraries for the coming year.

[The_Big_M]

Glad I've neve HC a cruise cancelled, missed Ports plenty of times, but just having the line change their mind ....

 

I've had two so far, Pacific Sun and Golden Princess. Pacific Sun was about 9 months out and P&O got a better offer from a charter operator. Golden Princess was an itinerary change like this, I think about a year out.

[Cyrix400]

A bit strange really, the bay must be too shallow or poses too much risk due to wind and currents.

Yes, the problem with the entry of Philip Bay is that it is narrow - and if there is strong wind from the wrong direction, then there is a delay in entering or leaving the bay for the ship.

 

It happened to us twice on Diamond Princess - not the biggest ship, of course. The latest delay a few weeks ago - could not leave at 6 PM, left at 1.30 AM, missed Wineglass Bay scenic cruising during the day, but made it OK for 7 AM arrival to Hobart.

The other time, strong winds made the Diamond wait 4 hours last year, before she could enter.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Yes, the problem with the entry of Philip Bay is that it is narrow - and if there is strong wind from the wrong direction, then there is a delay in entering or leaving the bay for the ship.

 

It happened to us twice on Diamond Princess - not the biggest ship, of course. The latest delay a few weeks ago - could not leave at 6 PM, left at 1.30 AM, missed Wineglass Bay scenic cruising during the day, but made it OK for 7 AM arrival to Hobart.

The other time, strong winds made the Diamond wait 4 hours last year, before she could enter.

 

Yes Melbourne is a difficult port.The narrow entrance has a very strong rip and ships have to make a very sharp turn on leaving and as said above can be hit with the wind. They also have to navigate the channel up to the city which does not give much room for any error.

There are not many ports in Au or NZ that do not depend on dredging.

Brisbane also has a channel and can be be prone to high winds.

 

 

If a ship like Ovation lost power or got into difficulty do we have any tugs that are big enough and or powerful enough to offer help ?

 

 

[MMDown Under]

Going by the Sydney Ports cruise schedule for January through to March there are not a lot of suitable dates for the Ovation to fit in four more cruises. If we take it that the 23rd Jan (original repo date) will now be the start date for the first "extra" cruise it means there will only be the 26th Jan, 10th Feb(possibly)and the 26th Feb available at the OPT . The 26th Jan means only a three night booze cruise but then there is only the 26th Feb after that which makes it a 31 night cruise unless she turns around in Fremantle or somewhere else (if she can???) The 10th Feb the Pacific Eden is at the OPT which could be moved to White Bay but I guess why would P&O move just to accommodate Royal

There looks to be a bit more flexibility in March and you would assume Royal would have taken this into consideration but it will be interesting to see what they have planned.

One "bonus" for me ... four more cruises.... four more days to work:D $$$$$

 

26th January OPT says Terminal Unavailable. Is this for Australia Day?

[MMDown Under]

I've had two so far, Pacific Sun and Golden Princess. Pacific Sun was about 9 months out and P&O got a better offer from a charter operator. Golden Princess was an itinerary change like this, I think about a year out.

 

Wow - what would the odds be of that happening twice?

[Team Alpha]

From a Captains corner session last week on Radiance, my understanding is that Ovation cannot dock at Melbourne and also would have trouble entering Port Phillip.

 

Regarding Melbourne, the depth at the heads (the entrance to Port Phillip Bay) is listed as allowing ships with a draft of up to 12.1m. Ovation is showing that her draft will only be 8.5m. Whilst 3.6m might seem plenty to work with, it is a very dangerous and unpredictable narrow stretch of water (not called the rip for no reason). Even with an experienced pilot on board, perhaps they are simply erring on the side of caution.

 

This rather narrow entrance to Port Phillip Bay/Melbourne has stopped other large draft vessels over the years and is the reason why when US aircraft carriers have visited Australia's east coast they haven't called at Melbourne but rather docked at Sydney and Hobart.

 

Whilst a cruise on Ovation is a possibility for us in 2017/18, it would be even more likely for us and our travelling companions if the cruise began or finished (or both) in Melbourne.