Ovation North Star .... another question

[Annicruise2014]

How long are you up there for?  I'm guessing it depends maybe if you are in port vs out at sea. So, mabey on average what is the time frame?  Thanks,   

 

How many people does it fit? 

Edited March 14, 2019 by Annicruise2014

[Jasukkie]

It's a couple of minutes, definitely always feels like long enough. There's space enough to move around and take pictures all around if you like.

[reallyitsmema]

1 minute ago, Annicruise2014 said:

How long are you up there for?  I'm guessing it depends maybe if you are in port vs out at sea. So, mabey on average what is the time frame?  Thanks,

 

Not sure about Ovation, but on Anthem it is a 9 minute ride.  They go up and it makes a slight turn right and left and comes back down again.  On Anthem, they are no longer going completely over the side as that makes it 15 minutes long and have cut it back so more people have an opportunity to ride.

[Annicruise2014]

How many people can ride at one time?

[reallyitsmema]

Just now, Annicruise2014 said:

How many people can ride at one time?

 Usually they allow 14 max.

[CRUISEFAN0001]

2 hours ago, reallyitsmema said:

 Usually they allow 14 max.

Typically...they have 5-6 people go in a group from the "reservations" line, and match them up with last-minute waitlist folks in line...to put 12 people in Northstar. They can go to 14, but it does get a bit crowded with that many.

[reallyitsmema]

24 minutes ago, CRUISEFAN0001 said:

Typically...they have 5-6 people go in a group from the "reservations" line, and match them up with last-minute waitlist folks in line...to put 12 people in Northstar. They can go to 14, but it does get a bit crowded with that many.

 

 

We have been on Northstar multiple times where no one from the standby list has ridden.  They fill with reservations and only take standby if there is space.

[CRUISEFAN0001]

22 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

We have been on Northstar multiple times where no one from the standby list has ridden.  They fill with reservations and only take standby if there is space.

We've seen the opposite...where they try to move people in both lines...by mixing in some people for each of them.

[reallyitsmema]

9 minutes ago, CRUISEFAN0001 said:

We've seen the opposite...where they try to move people in both lines...by mixing in some people for each of them.

 

People with reservations for the current time should always take precedence over people in the standby line.  If people were early for their reservation, that is a completely different story.  There is no point of even taking reservations if they are going to pass you up for someone in a standby line.

[CRUISEFAN0001]

1 hour ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

People with reservations for the current time should always take precedence over people in the standby line.  If people were early for their reservation, that is a completely different story.  There is no point of even taking reservations if they are going to pass you up for someone in a standby line.

Yes and no. The only accept a certain number of reservations for each time slot...and they also have to move the wait list line along (longer). So they use a discretionary process to move both lines...although the reserved folks always get the first positions on each time slot, and a few wait list folks get added on...just the way they want it. The Northstar staff supervisor said that is their process...and having a limited number of reservations for each time slot lets them do it.

[reallyitsmema]

29 minutes ago, CRUISEFAN0001 said:

Yes and no. The only accept a certain number of reservations for each time slot...and they also have to move the wait list line along (longer). So they use a discretionary process to move both lines...although the reserved folks always get the first positions on each time slot, and a few wait list folks get added on...just the way they want it. The Northstar staff supervisor said that is their process...and having a limited number of reservations for each time slot lets them do it.

 

LOL

[CRUISEFAN0001]

6 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

LOL

Not sure where there's anything funny...

 

Taking a smart approach to keep both lines moving, albeit with reserved occupants using a majority of the spaces on Northstar demonstrates both a commitment to get the reserved passengers addressed, while not creating hour-long waits for stand-by passengers who are willing to wait.

 

This is the reason they have "x" number of reserved slots for each time throughout the cruise. I witnessed no complaints from reserved passengers nor those in the longer wait-list line. Everyone got the chance to enjoy Northstar - including some people who were on it more than once...and willing to wait in line for any extra boardings.

 

The on-hand staff all indicated this system was both fair and worked well. 

[reallyitsmema]

14 minutes ago, CRUISEFAN0001 said:

Not sure where there's anything funny...

 

Taking a smart approach to keep both lines moving, albeit with reserved occupants using a majority of the spaces on Northstar demonstrates both a commitment to get the reserved passengers addressed, while not creating hour-long waits for stand-by passengers who are willing to wait.

 

This is the reason they have "x" number of reserved slots for each time throughout the cruise. I witnessed no complaints from reserved passengers nor those in the longer wait-list line. Everyone got the chance to enjoy Northstar - including some people who were on it more than once...and willing to wait in line for any extra boardings.

 

The on-hand staff all indicated this system was both fair and worked well. 

 

So now the reserved spaces have gone to the majority of riders, not 5-6?  Keep on spinning, I am out.

[CRUISEFAN0001]

10 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

So now the reserved spaces have gone to the majority of riders, not 5-6?  Keep on spinning, I am out.

Bye.

 

The # varies based on how many people show up in the reserved line (first). That number varies...so folks have reserved but simply don't show up at all. It's not rocket science.

[tomatosauce]

On the Ovation in both Asian and Australia they have only been doing the straight up and down which takes somewhere in the 7-9 minute range instead of the full ride experience where they go fully out to both sides which takes about 15 minutes (from memory).

[CRUISEFAN0001]

7 hours ago, tomatosauce said:

On the Ovation in both Asian and Australia they have only been doing the straight up and down which takes somewhere in the 7-9 minute range instead of the full ride experience where they go fully out to both sides which takes about 15 minutes (from memory).

Weather conditions impact the duration.  We had a couple of port stops where winds were in play...and the duration was about 5 minutes tops. One day, they didn't even run Northstar because of the winds in New Zealand.

[tomatosauce]

I was lucky enough to go up in between it being shut down due to wind, rain and waves a little over 12 months ago. I was having a chat to one of the crew so waited around and the wind lightened off enough for the photo below. After we got down there was one more group then they shut it down again.

 

It is a pity you don't get the full experience any more. It was quite the experience.

[CRUISEFAN0001]

42 minutes ago, tomatosauce said:

I was lucky enough to go up in between it being shut down due to wind, rain and waves a little over 12 months ago. I was having a chat to one of the crew so waited around and the wind lightened off enough for the photo below. After we got down there was one more group then they shut it down again.

 

It is a pity you don't get the full experience any more. It was quite the experience.

 

That looks familiar.... 👍

 

[doyouscrap]

How early can you make reservations for this? It is not showing up in my Cruise Planner as an option to make reservations. We sail on the Ovation on 6/28.

[Clarea]

16 minutes ago, doyouscrap said:

How early can you make reservations for this? It is not showing up in my Cruise Planner as an option to make reservations. We sail on the Ovation on 6/28.

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

 

As with most everything in the Cruise Planner, there's no pattern to when the various items become available to reserve.  Keep checking.

[doyouscrap]

Thanks

[Biker19]

2 hours ago, doyouscrap said:

How early can you make reservations for this? It is not showing up in my Cruise Planner as an option to make reservations. We sail on the Ovation on 6/28.

Some things may never show up -  use the Royal IQ app to book once on board.

[doyouscrap]

Thanks