We drove our van to its storage space for the next 2 weeks and had an Uber drop us off at Sydney Harbour where a massive ship lay waiting for us. The Ovation of the Seas is the biggest ship I’ve been on, as this is my 6th cruise with Royal Caribbean. (Yup I guess you could call me a fan!) Check out some fun facts about the ship in the infographic on the right.
As always the check-in went super smooth, that was until Arno tried to board the ship with his drone. Apparently that wasn’t allowed and so for the entire cruise the security staff would have the drone ready for when we disembarked the ship and confiscated it again when we came back aboard. Arno quickly became known as the drone-man because of this. Anyway, by mid day we were having lunch in the Windjammer café, the buffet restaurant on board, high above Sydney Harbour terminal with a view on the Harbour Bridge.
What an awesome start of this 2-week cruise around New Zealand. I can not highlight enough how much I love cruising. Everything on the ship is so fancy, clean and you’re being pampered like crazy. I’m not entirely sure how royals are treated but in this case I think you can say, you’re being treated like a royal. The service is better than a 5-star hotel (I mean, 2 times a day clean towels!), the food is way better than your average restaurant, I’m not even comparing buffets in hotels. There are outdoor pools, indoor pools, a bunch of jacuzzis, countless bars, a Flowrider, bumper cars, a climbing wall, a gym, a theatre and above all this hotel takes you to a new gorgeous place every day! The Ovation of the Seas even has an IFly skydive simulator, a bionic bar (yup you read that right, robots making you cocktails) and a sushi restaurant! Can I please live here?
After lunch we did a bit of a discovery tour and explored where we’d be relaxing and hanging out on sea days.
Our itinerary is as follows:
Day 1: Departure Sydney
Day 2 & 3: At sea
Day 4: Bay of Islands, New Zealand
Day 5: Auckland, New Zealand
Day 6: Tauranga, New Zealand
Day 7: At sea
Day 8: Wellington, New Zealand
Day 9: Picton, New Zealand
Day 10: At sea
Day 11: Dunedin, New Zealand
Day 12: Doubtful sound, Dusky sound, Milford sound
Day 13: At sea
Day 14: At sea
Day 15: Arrival Sydney
Stay tuned for the next posts!