Ovation of the Seas, and a few flights along the way.

[Atleastonce]

Preparations are well underway, and while I am sitting here in the VA lounge in MEL, on a business trip, waiting to return to MCY I thought I would paint the picture of what we embark on tomorrow. An overview: VA J MCY to SYD, then quite a long wait. We plan to try both the AMEX lounge and the EY lounge. Then EY J SYD to AUH. Ovation of the seas for 14 days, Dubai - Oman - Cochin - Penang - Singapore. SQ J SIN to MEL and VA J MEL to MCY. We have the new RCL unlimited high speed internet package, so I hope I can keep up with the report along the way.

 

[Pushka]

Nice. Enjoy that.

 

[love_the_life]

Looking forward to reading the TR though I think Ovation is a bit big for my liking from what I've read. It will be good to get some information from someone actually onboard.

 

[Welsh-Kiwi]

I think this is going to be an interesting TR.

 

[Buzzard]

Settling in for the TR.

 

[Atleastonce]

VA J flight MCY to SYD.

Check in was quick, but we were told that we could not check our bags through to AUH as the bookings were not linked. We are on two separate reward bookings. We were told to collect our bags in SYD and then proceed to the transfer gate. We were told the transfer gate was before security, and when I questioned that, because I knew it wasn't, I was told it was and to go there with our bags and transfer to the international terminal. We ended up having to catch the TBus from domestic to international and have been sitting in the international departure hall waiting for checkin to open.

Very light flight with only 45 passengers, and the two of us the only people in J. The cabin supervisor Brendan had already charged and placed the Samsung tablets in our seat pockets ready for use. Boarding was quick with the 45 passengers and we departed 6 minutes early at 1124. Flight time was scheduled for 1 hour 27 minutes. We arrived into SYD at 1247, 18 minutes ahead of scheduled arrival time. A few good photo opportunities flying over the city and the airport.
Whilst at MCY the JQ snoopy aircraft was at gate 4

 

[Atleastonce]

Lunch on board was a five spice chicken with beetroot, carrot and pine nuts. A cucumber with pickle and dill dressing and finally a strawberry lamington. I thought the chicken was bland but the cucumber was really good. Sliced thinly with dill as a garnish and the dressing was very refreshing. It really was like a sorbet palate cleanser. The small strawberry lamination had an intense strawberry flavour. I chose a Western Australian 2012 Element Cabernet Merlot and Mrs Atleastonce had the 2015 Tatachilla Sauvignon Blanc Semillon. The red was very dry was very easy to drink. The white was very crisp and refreshing. I cannot describe wine with tasting notes, because I don't know how to and I really think wine tasting is a personal thing and you either like it or you don't. I liked it!

 

[Atleastonce]

Amex lounge is very small, quiet, but small and there are about 8 people n the lounge. The wine was ordinary and the food was limited. At least I can say I have visited. Off to the EY lounge.

 

[Atleastonce]

 

[casanovawa]

Was just looking at a cruise site today...

Iterested to hear about it...

 

[Atleastonce]

Etihad lounge is much better. Food selection is great and service is amazing.

 

[Atleastonce]

 

[Atleastonce]

The raviolo was very nice

 

[24601]

trying to lose weight here, and people keep posting all these food pics in TRs. must. stay. strong.

 

[Atleastonce]

Boarding was quick with no delays and only a short walk from the lounge. We were flight EY455, aircraft A388. Fresh orange juice and champagne was served prior to departure. We were upper deck row 10 and the two middle forward facing seats. Scheduled departure was 8:45pm, and we took off at 9:05pm. The planned track was across Australia but because of prevailing winds we tracked more over Darwin and north of Indonesia. It was slightly bumpy for a while with meal service stopped once. For just after take off I selected the glenlivet followed by a main meal of grass fed fillet of beef. Wine with my beef was a Cabernet blend, chateau Malescasse, Haut Medoc Bordeaux, France, 2005. Desert was a fruit platter and a selection of ice cream. I must say the service was pretty ordinary and the J cabin was full. I was served a gin and tonic after take off, (I didn't order that) then the food and beverage manager apologized and offered me the wine he thought I wanted and I had to remind him of what was my preferred drink. The drinks with the main were not delivered correctly. The main fillet of beef was pretty good. (Sorry no pics). We got a good seven hours sleep and woke to breakfast of smoothie, frittata, and fresh fruit. This was not particularly hot and was fairly bland, all except the smoothie, that was pretty good. The bathrooms kept running out of hand towels and overall were not very clean at all. Overall the flight was OK, but service and attention to detail was lacking. We arrived at 5:07am, 33 minutes ahead of schedule. Immigration and customs were quick and we headed straight to the arrivals lounge. We were able to arrange our chauffeur to Dubai for 9:30am so we are relaxing in the arrivals hall for the next few hours then off to the Dubai cruise terminal.

 

[Atleastonce]

Etihad were happy for us to remain in the arrivals lounge for a few hours, so a shower and shave were in order to use up some of the time. The chauffeur was excellent and it took us two hours from Abu Dhabi airport to the Dubai cruise terminal. Check in was very swift, even though the gold member line we were in seemed to be the longest. I have taken heaps of photos so I will upload in separate posts. Our balcony stateroom is on deck 13. The balcony has a rather large overhang ceiling from the deck above which balconies on the lower levels do not have. Being a new ship, it just "feels good". It is huge and at the time of posting this (4:35pm local time) it doesn't really feel crowded. Checkin and boarding finishes at 5pm. The new dynamic dining choices has us automatically booked into three different restaurants over the next three nights. Enjoy the photos and please ask any questions and if I don't know I will find out for you. Every elevator has a tile that is replaced each day to show which day of week it is.

 

[Atleastonce]

 

[Atleastonce]

 

[love_the_life]

It looks enormous! Drron would not enjoy it I am thinking.

RCI have a thing where they show the day of the week in the lifts - seen it on all their ships. Useful if you lose track of time easily

looking forward to seeing more.

 

[Pushka]

It looks enormous! Drron would not enjoy it I am thinking.

RCI have a thing where they show the day of the week in the lifts - seen it on all their ships. Useful if you lose track of time easily

looking forward to seeing more.

Like this?

Very useful after taking full advantage of the drinks package