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(An almost) Standing Ovation - Dubai to Singapore (review)

FirstCruise2331
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FirstCruise2331

FirstCruise2331

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Background

Myself (35) and DW (39) booked this cruise back in December. The motivation for us was the chance to sail on a brand new ship and to tick a few more countries off our bucket list. We had only previously done one short cruise on Enchantment last November. We booked an inside guarantee. When the cabin was assigned we had been upgraded to an ocean view! Our TA package included the Select Drinks package and pre-paid gratuities. The cruise was 14 nights with ports of call of Muscat (Oman), Cochin (India), Penang (Malaysia) and Singapore

 

It's funny that Ovation didn't seem to generate too much discussion on Cruise Critic in advsnce of its launch. I think I only saw one review, so I got my pre cruise info from reviews of Anthem and Quantum.

 

My review will be done by topic and as I remember things. If anyone has any questions please ask.

 

Pre-cruise

We flew to Dubai the day before and arrived late. Our hotel was Central Barsho, near Mall of Emirates. It was fine and breakfast was good.

 

Embarkation

We arrived at the port around 12:30. Its a very nice terminal. We joined the line for the Gold C&A members and it took about 15 minutes to get to the desk.

 

Let me digress slightly for a moment to tell you about the Indian visa. From our roll call I knew it was not straightforward. Months in advance I applied for our visas. To say the Indian Government make it akward would be the understatement of the year. E-visas are not available for cruise passengers, only those arriving by plane. This means paying €250 for two standard visas. Standard passport photos would not suffice, they required a non standard sized photograph. Applications could only be brought to embassy at a certain time and collected at another. 4 postal orders to pay were required (cash, cards or cheques not accepted). I thought about not bothering with a visa and staying on board but I received about 7 seperate emails from RC stating that if we didn't have an Indian Visa we wouldn't be allow board in Dubai. Paying big money for the trip meant* I couldnt take a chance so I got the visas. We'll come back to this later...

 

Anyway, back to boarding..checkin was quick at the desk. They held on to everyones passport. Boarding was on to Deck 2. The Sea Pass cards were in an envelope at your cabin so we went straight to our cabin 3214- midship. The cabin was a good size with plenty of storage space, although we didnt need storage until 7pm- bags were delayed for everyone due to Dubai authorities. Bed was beside the window, sofa and dresser with chair, two european sockets on dresser as well as a kettle. Bathroom had nice shower with glass door and plenty of shelf space.

 

Hopefully this picture can be seen- Im using a shared folder on Google photos -

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FirstCruise2331

FirstCruise2331

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I've given up on posting photos- have tried loads of ways. It should be as simple as using the image button and copying the url but no joy....

 

Anyway back to the review.

 

The Ship

The reviews of Quantum class ships have been mixed to say the least. Lots of people who have clocked up hundreds of nights with RC don't seem to like the class.

 

Let me try and give you an outline of what's on the ship. On Deck 3 you'll find the Music Hall and the Casino. The Music Hall is a great venue where lots of live music is performed. It's also the late night venue / nightclub. At the back of the bar in the Music Hall is the start of the casino. The casino is very big. For those who are interested there is smoking allowed in some areas of the casino. I dont gamble but when I was in there it was very busy. Also on Deck 3 is two of the four main complementary dining venues - Chic and the Grande.

 

Up to deck 4 and you'll find the Royal Theatre. Walking aft from here you'll find the Royal Esplanade. There are shops before the entrance to the upper level of the Music Hall. Next you'll find my favourite drinking venue - Michael's pub. It's here where the Esplanade opens out. Sorrentos, Cafe Promenade, La Patisserie, more shops, Boleros and Guest Services are all here. I like this part of the ship, nice for people watching. Some of our fellow cruisers were disappointed with the Esplanade when comparing it to Royal Promenade on other classes. Further aft you'll find American Icon and Silk.

 

The Esplanade is "open" up to deck 5. The balcony of the Royal Theatre is forward and as you walk back you come to Chops, The Schooner Bar (no windows to the sea), Izumi with Wonderland on one side and the Bionic Bar and Shore Excusions on the other. Walking further back is the "Via", a nice space where you'll find Jamie's, more shops and Vintages. Right aft is my favourite spot onboard - 270. I'll speak of this in more detail later in the review. Also here is cafe 270, a quieter venue for breakfast and lunch.

 

There is some beautiful art onboard, particularly if you take the stairs.

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FirstCruise2331

FirstCruise2331

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The Ship (cont'd)There's basically very little between Deck 5 and 14 apart from staterooms. Deck 14 is the pooldeck. Unlike other classes, there is only one outdoor pool. Theres a smoking area on one side. Theres also then an indoor pool as well as the solarium. The indoor pool area manages to be cool even in the baking heat. I spent my days in indoor pool or solarium in the shade reading and occasionally*sipping cocktails! There's three bars, one in each of the pool decks areas. The Solarium is a very nice space. Also in here you'll find the Solarium Bistro, which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. At the far end from the Solarium is the Windjammer. You will also find the pay venue noodle place (the new Johnny Rockets) and Coastal Kitchen (for suite guests).

 

Up to Deck 15 and you have the running track and lots of loungers for the real sun worshippers. There's a lot going on on deck 15. The Sea Plex is a great space with bumper cars, sporting activities, table tennis fooseball, air hockey etc. The Sea Plex doghouse is a favourite of mine here too. The rock climbing wall is on starboard side as is the Pandas! The North Star is also on Deck 15 along with the North Star Bar and the Spa / Salon.

 

Finally on Deck 16 you have the i-Fly, Flowrider and the gym.

 

That's the outline of some of the main areas by deck. As Ovation is such a new ship everything felt fresh. Having walked the ship on the first afternoon we were very impressed.

 

Next up - reviews of different things and insights from our experience.

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Food

Always a hot topic of debate on here, particualrly the dynamic dining concept, let me give you my perspective on my experience of the food on board. I will caveat this by saying food is subjective so what I like you may not, etc.

 

For those of you who don't know, there is no main dining room on Quantum class ships. Instead there are four main complementary restaurants - Chic, The Grande, American Icon and Silk. Each has it's own menu and cuisine style (with some 'classics' like steak, chicken and pie of the day available in all four). Also complementary for dinner is the Solarium Bistro.

 

There is also options for pay restaurants- Izumi, Micahel's Pub, Wonderland, Chops, Jamie's Italian and there's a Chef's table offering.

 

Breakfast

For breakfast there's the Windjammer, Solarium Bistro, American Icon and Cafe 270. We tend to avoid the Windjammer as we're not fans of big buffets. We never had breakfast in Solarium Bistro or American Icon. We tended to go to Cafe 270. It was never very busy. It is a small enough venue with various options including toasted bacon or sausage sandwiches, egg muffins and filled croissants, etc. as well as cereals and friuits. There's also a fresh bagel station where they'll make you a toasted bagel to order. I had quite a few smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels, which were very nice. For those of you who like their fancy coffess you could purchase lattes, etc. Once you get your food you just grab a seat in 270. I think it's worth taking a moment to tell you about my favourite space on the ship. Spanning three decks this area has a 270 degree view of the wake through glass. It has a bar and is transformed to a multi media entertainment venue as the glass becomes effectively a giant screen. More about this venue later, but for breakfast I loved sitting there watching the wake on our many many sea days.

 

Lunch

The main options are the same - Cafe 270, WJ, Solarium Bistro, American Icon. I only had lunch in WJ once. The offerings are varied and its a big space but like I said, we just don't like it as a concept. The Solarium Bistro offers a small number of hot buffet items and a selection of cold salads, etc. We never did the sit down lunch in American Icon.

 

Cafe 270 also does a nice lunch. Here you will find a large selection of paninnis, sandwiches and wraps. They also have the much debated roast beef 'kummelwerk' roll. Many rave about, some complain it's too fatty. From my viewpoint I liked it. The beef joint is cooked medium rare and they slice it fresh for you. You can get jus (gravy) and / or mustard or horseradish. I had quite a few, but I suppose it depends on your personal taste. There's a salad bar where they'll make you a salad to order. I really liked these as they were very fresh.

 

Snacks / all day eating

There are times between breakfast and lunch and between lunch and dinner where the main venues are closed. This can be frustrating, especially if you are hungry! However Cafe Promenade is open 24 hours where you can get sandwiches and scones. Although I had quite a few sandwiches from here (if missed breakfast or very late night snack after the Music Hall) I found them quite bland.

 

Beside Cafe Promenade is Sorrentos pizza. It opens around noon and stays open till 3am. I don't know why it doesn't stay open later until after Music Hall nightclub finishes, but I suppose there's only a few eijits like us who are still out at that time! The pizza here is ok. It's cetainly not good, but it's not ineadible either. They will give you slices from usually four offerings but you can also get them to make you a fresh pizza (and wait for it to be cooked). There's two freestyle coke machines in Sorrentos for those who have the cup on the soft drinks or alcohol packages. I get good use from this and like the variety of the full fat and 'zero' options.

 

The SeaPlex dog house was open I think at 12:30 everyday and stayed open until 10:30pm (maybe someone who has a compass can confirm). I am a big fan of here. They have about 4 diferent types of hot dogs. I tried the brattwurst and polish but my favourite was the Coney Island (beef). They have onions, peppers saurkraut and mustard /ketchup.

 

You can of course order room service 24/7. The menu however is very restrictive. A lot of the options you have to pay for. We had the tomato soup (decent) Italian wrap (not great) and chicken nuggets and chip from kids menu that were pretty good.

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FirstCruise2331

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Dinner - Complementary

On a 14 night cruise you get plenty of opportunity to try the various options for dinner. As per reviews of Anthem and Quantum I booked dinner for every night in advance. We like to generally eat early to allow us have the whole night for other things (drinking / socialising). What I can say is once on board some people found it hard to change their reservation when they phoned the dynamic dining reservations but as far as I could see, most people who walked up were accommodated fairly quickly (especially after the first few nights). We had dinner in all four of the dynamic dining venued as well as Solarium Bistro.

 

For those interested I can confirm each of the four DD venues used two menus. I think it was 4 nights before changing then 4 before changing back.

 

We eat in Silk twice. The first night was very good. I had the vietnamese tacos. Unlike the advertisements you only get two! They were very tasty. I had the fish with rice which was also good. The second night was poor. My RoyalIQ app showed me the alternative menu and I was looking forward to spring rolls and sweet and sour chicken. However when I got there it wad the first menu (had obviously changed back). Disappointed I ordered the Indian offerings on the menu. I asked could I have chicken in the vegetable madras but was told it wasnt possible. I wasnt too bothered and went ahead with vegetarian. It had no taste. Madras is supposed to be a bit hot but it tasted like curry sauce from a jar. DW had Chicken Tikka Massala and was also fairly tasteless.

 

As another aside, let me tell you about the RoyalIQ app. You can download in advance (but it only works on board) or download on board. It uses the onboard wifi but you dont have to have paid for the wifi. Its a useful app where you can view and change resrvations etc and it has the cruise compass on it each day.

 

We eat in the Grande once. Originally I had planned on bringing a suit. However I changed my mind as I wear a suit for work everyday. With that in mind I phoned Grande to cancel on day we were booked to tell them I wouldnt be coming as I didnt have formal wear. They said smart casual was fine so it appears the 'every night is formal night' has been abandoned. I cant remember what I eat there but I know it was good and no complaints. The service was a bit slow though.

 

I liked Chic. We eat there twice on the alternate menus. The crab cakes were good to start and the onion crusted chicken was good for main, as was the beef wellington.

 

We eat in American Icon once and it was very good. Our waitor was excellent and the supervisor came over to check everything was ok. The smoked salmon starter was good and I had the short rib of beef which was delicious.

 

My overall view of dynamic dining is that I prefer it as a concept to an MDR. The menus are sufficiently different in each venue to give you a good selection. However, the service was at times a bit slow but overall we enjoyed all meals (apart from the Indian food in Silk).

 

The other venue where you can have dinner without a charge is Solarium Bistro. Its a Medditeranian menu and you need a reservation. What I like about it is it's a small quiet venue. The DD venues (much like MDR) are large and lack that intimate feeling. The starters in SB are self service (mousaka, cous cous, salad etc). The main you order from waiter. There's a limited menu and it doesn't change but I really liked the chicken kebab (served with pittas, rice).

 

Next up (probably in a few days time) I'll review the three pay restaurants we eat in. Hope the review is helpful to people, I always got a lot from others here on CC so trying to give something back!

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Aussie lost in space

Aussie lost in space

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Thanks for the review so far Tom - I'm following. We board Ovation in December, so keen to read some reviews. Just a few questions if you are able to and don't mind answering. Did you book all your dynamic dining on line prior to boarding (once dining reservations opened of course)? Did you book any entertainment also? Curious if this will be similar to bookings on Oasis class ships. Did you have any problems booking Ifly or North star? Could you go more than once without having to pay? (Lots of rumours flying about this) You mentioned that Johnny rockets had been changed to a noodle bar (incorporating the changes for the Asian market) any idea if they plan to change it back for her cruises in Oz? Would love to see some of the compasses if you kept them and can scan them. TIA:)

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beachump

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Thanks for the review so far Tom - I'm following. We board Ovation in December, so keen to read some reviews. Just a few questions if you are able to and don't mind answering. Did you book all your dynamic dining on line prior to boarding (once dining reservations opened of course)? Did you book any entertainment also? Curious if this will be similar to bookings on Oasis class ships. Did you have any problems booking Ifly or North star? Could you go more than once without having to pay? (Lots of rumours flying about this) You mentioned that Johnny rockets had been changed to a noodle bar (incorporating the changes for the Asian market) any idea if they plan to change it back for her cruises in Oz? Would love to see some of the compasses if you kept them and can scan them. TIA:)

 

North Star: I rode it several times and never saw anyone being charged. Reservations were mandatory but you could just stand around and be on the "standby" list and usually ride within the hour.

 

Ifly: Their policy keeps changing from cruise to cruise. From Barcelona to Dubai, you could just hang around waiting for an opening. On this leg, they would not allow that, you could just try and book your next flight after completing your current one. The 1 minute flights were always free (it took about 45 min to watch the safety film, suite up and 6-8 min for everybody to fly). Halfway thru the cruise, all the timeslots had been filled. I tried to buy some time but it wasn't being offered.

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Beaniecrazed2

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Thanks for the review so far Tom - I'm following. We board Ovation in December, so keen to read some reviews. Just a few questions if you are able to and don't mind answering. Did you book all your dynamic dining on line prior to boarding (once dining reservations opened of course)? Did you book any entertainment also? Curious if this will be similar to bookings on Oasis class ships. Did you have any problems booking Ifly or North star? Could you go more than once without having to pay? (Lots of rumours flying about this) You mentioned that Johnny rockets had been changed to a noodle bar (incorporating the changes for the Asian market) any idea if they plan to change it back for her cruises in Oz? Would love to see some of the compasses if you kept them and can scan them. TIA:)

 

Dining - Do yourself a big favour and book all your dining online as soon as online reservations are available. First look at the major shows and note down which times will work with your dining options then book your dining and shows all online. Otherwise you will end up standing in long queues trying to sort out where you are eating each night. We found that we could change our reservations quite easily if we had one. If we couldn't change our American Icon Grill reservation and wanted to eat in Chic, then just go to American Icon Grill and ask for the Chic menu and order off that. That was never an issue. We could have our dessert from Silk, Mains from The Grande and appetiser from American Icon Grill.

 

Shows - All the shows were great. Spectra at two70 is phenomenal, Dream is a must watch and Live Love Legs is an awesome cabaret show. Book all your shows but we found that when we wanted to watch it again, then we just waited till everyone was seated and the show had just started.....then we could just walk in a find a few seats here and there. There are also lots of other concerts and performances so every night, there is a show/performance to watch - Queen tribute band, Beatles Tribute band, Jane Cho, a famous pianist Aehron(sp?), Aussie comedian etc

 

Ifly and North Star - Book them online and book them for the first few days of the cruise. Because then you might be able to do a second reservation once you have done your first ifly session. You can't go again on the same day but you can book to go again if they have reservation slots available. You can also hang around and if the group isn't full then you can ask to join. There wasn't a line for this standby system the both times that we went on. Please remember to bring socks for Ifly. They have closed toe surf shoes if you don't have shoes on but you have to bring socks. North Star, we had one booking but went on it 3 other times when the group wasn't full. Please note that when the ship is docked, sometimes the North Star won't be running and if it is running then it won't go out over the side of the ship.

 

Once you board the ship and get into your cabin, use the tv to do all your waivers for everyone, that process was great and meant that you didn't have to queue to do that. On the oasis cruise last year, we did our waivers online, but that option wasn't available for the Ovation so we were pleased to see that we could just do it through the cabin tv. Many other people weren't aware and had to queue up to sign waivers for each activity.

 

We kept all our cruise compasses. If OP doesn't scan n post, then I will.

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Aussie lost in space

Aussie lost in space

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Thank you for your quick replies beachump and Beaniecrazed2. Seems strange that you weren't able to sign your waivers online beforehand, hopefully this little 'glitch' will be fixed before she sails into Aussie waters, if not then thank you for the heads up. As most of us are on here (well I for one :rolleyes:) like to do lots of pre-planning and pre-reading so the trip is as good as it can be. So will definitely have my 'spread sheet ' ready for when dining and entertainment opens up so we can book things in according to our dining time lines. Of an interesting note - in my cruise planner it originally listed Dynamic dining (as we requested), I have noticed it changed to 'My time dining', so don't know if this is another glitch or problem. I am reading lots of dramas regarding dining reservations.

 

Would love to see those compasses Beaniecrazed2 so if the OP doesn't put them up (I guess given he had trouble uploading photo's, he may not be able to do this?) I would really appreciate if you can. TIA. :)

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FirstCruise2331

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Thanks for the review so far Tom - I'm following. We board Ovation in December, so keen to read some reviews. Just a few questions if you are able to and don't mind answering. Did you book all your dynamic dining on line prior to boarding (once dining reservations opened of course)? Did you book any entertainment also? Curious if this will be similar to bookings on Oasis class ships. Did you have any problems booking Ifly or North star? Could you go more than once without having to pay? (Lots of rumours flying about this) You mentioned that Johnny rockets had been changed to a noodle bar (incorporating the changes for the Asian market) any idea if they plan to change it back for her cruises in Oz? Would love to see some of the compasses if you kept them and can scan them. TIA:)

 

Sorry for the delay - I've been abroad for a few days. I think other people have answered most of your questions. Anyway heres my answers- yes we booked all dining online in advance. At first it was just pay restaurants open for reservation but later all dining opened up. I didnt book shows - did that on board using the RoyalIQ app. I booked north star in advance. In the end we missed our turn as we were doing something else. In terms of iFly I wasnt going to do it but on second last day my friends did it so I asked could I get in the "class" after them for the one minute flight. They accommodated me. There were three of the 8 in the group who had "flown" before on the cruise. Not sure if Noodle place will revert to JR. I didnt keep the compasses sorry.

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FirstCruise2331

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Apologies for the delay, I was busy cheering on Ireland in the European Championships.

 

Onto speciality dining (i.e. dining that costs you money). As mentioned above there are lots of options on Ovation. We had intended on only doing Chops, which I booked for the last night on board and paid in advance.

 

We had no intention of paying for any other food, but following strong recommendations from some or fellow cruisers we decided to try Wonderland. DW is not normally into fancy gourmet cuisine that pushes the boundaries of taste and presentation but following an examination of the menu we decided to give it a go. We also noticed that there was a dining package where you could have three speciality dining for $80 each. Since we'd already paid for Chops I asked if we could still avail of the offer. They confirmed I could so were charged $160 but received a refund for payment made in advance.

 

Anyway onto Wonderland. The space is on Deck 5 Royal Esplanade and has some very funky furniture. I dont want to give too much away as its a wonderful experience but there are a number of courses. Some come with a few things as standard, some there's a choice. Our waitor was friendly and knowledgable and offered to do the picking for us. We were happy to trust his choices and he didn't disappoint. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, ambience but more importantly the food from start to finish. I would highly recommend Wonderland for anyone who likes something different. Even my DW loved it and she wouldn't normally go for this type of offering. We left stuffed and happy and couldn't wait to tell our friends who recommended it to us how much we loved it.

 

As we had the package we needed another restaurant so chose Jamie's Italian. It's located on Deck 5 in the "Via" beside Vintages. The menu didnt scream to us and we wouldnt have paid for it if only doing one speciality venue. We ended up eating with friends we'd met onboard and had a lovely meal. The food isnt spectacular but its very good. I had bruschetta and the burger. DW had salad and chicken for mains. One of our fellow diners had the rack of lamb which looked amazing. All in all very nice but not sure Id go again.

 

Finally we did Chops. I think lots of people have experienced Chops. I had crab cake and filet mignon, DW had french onion soup and filet migno. The food is excellent in chops, as is the service. Crab cake miles better than Chic, steak cooked to perfection, lovely bernaise sauce and Im a big fan of the truffle fries.

 

Someone asked me why pay for speciality dining when so many free options. The answer is simple - the service is better, much more intimate venues and most of all the food is of a much higher quality. On a 14 night cruise, 3 nights was about right for us to splash out and eat better. On a shorter cruise we would probably do less.

 

Next up - the ports of call!

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