Boarded Ovations in Sydney for a 10 trip to New Zealand. Had read a lot of review before hand and was quite skeptical about the trip. Two days before we were due to board a e-mail was sent out by RCI to advise that boarding time had been changed due to an outbreak of gastro and extra time was needed to sanitize the ship. Arrived at Circular Quay for my boarding at 2.00 pm and had luggage checked, and straight onto ship and directed up to Windjammer to wait for notification that room were ready : all this in the space of 30 minutes. While at Windjammer we had lunch & waited till 3.00 pm so we proceeded down to deck 9 ( had a balcony ) the cabin was ideal. So much space, good size double bed and great shower. The ship does have that wow factor, everything new , very high tech and set out well, so it doesn't take long to find your way around.

i decided to purchase a 4 day dining package which meant that I could dine at any of the theme restaurants of my choosing over 4 nights. Really, I wasn't that impressed with the theme restaurants - the food might have been a little better quality than the normal restaurants but for what you pay for these upgrades it really not worth the extra. I found the food to be quite good... plenty of variety , so your could always find something that you liked. With My time dining and the buffet at Windjammers there was plenty of choose from .

Being such a large ship i was worried about the size ( 4,800 ) passenger but on our cruise I don't think the ship was full. If I had to count the number of passengers I would guess at around 1,000 ; just didn't see that many people on board. Some morning would hardy see anyone & when I asked the staff as to the number of board was told there was over 4,000 ??? Read more