Post-Trip Recollections - From the Lion City to the Land of the Blue Dragons to Asia's World City
This was my fifth cruise overall on Royal Caribbean's (RCL) ships and my first time cruising onboard Ovation of the Seas. The ship was on its re-positioning cruise from Brisbane and I boarded it in Singapore as it continued on its way to Vietnam, Hong Kong and Okinawa.
My cruise was only from Singapore to Hong Kong in April 2025. It was a 5-night cruise with a single stopover in Vietnam's Chân Mây Port.
On boarding day in Singapore, we boarded the ship on time at 11am as scheduled. This being my fifth time onboard a RCL ship, I was rather familiar with the embarkation day procedures, including heading straight for the safety briefing before taking the elevator to Deck 14 for my lunch at Windjammer.
Since it was only 11am, Windjammer was still not really crowded. It usually got really crowded around 12pm onwards when one could start to see folks walking around looking for tables. Rooms were usually not ready until around 1pm to 2pm, depending on individual ships. Thus, most passengers who had already boarded the ship, will spend time at Windjammer, while waiting for their cabins to be ready.
At around 12pm when it started to get really crowded, I left Windjammer to go to Coastal Kitchen. For this cruise, I was a Sky Class passenger and thus got to dine at Coastal Kitchen as well.
At around 1pm, the cabins were ready and we proceeded to our designated cabin on Deck 12. Retrieving our keycards from the little envelope on the door, I realised that these were keycards of another cabin! Well, mistakes happened. I proceeded to Guest Services and returned these keycards that did not belong to us and to get our actual keycards.
Checking into our cabin, I proceeded to unpack, transferred some clothings from my luggage to the wardrobe, showered and took a short rest. The one-bedroom Grand Suite was spacious, especially when there were only two of us. It comes with a lounge area with sofa while the "bedroom" was in an adjourning area, separated from the lounge area with a curtain. The balcony is relatively large when compared to a normal balcony cabin onboard the same ship.
At around 4.30pm, Ovation departed Singapore's Marina Bay Crusie Terminal and headed towards the Singapore Strait before entering the South China Sea, northwards-bound for Vietnam.
The next two days were seas days as the ship continued on its way to its port stop in Chân Mây. I spent my time onboard enjoying my cruise vacation. Woke up around 9am each morning, showered, had breakfast at Coastal Kitchen, then it was off to explore the ship and its facilities, lunch at Coastal Kitchen but sometimes also at the Main Dining Room on Deck 3, swam in the pools at Deck 15, evening Happy Hour at the Concierge Lounge, dinner at Coastal Kitchen, shows at 8pm at the Royal Theatre, Music Hall at 11pm, supper at Sorrento's on Deck 4, walked around the ship on Deck 15 to enjoy the night sea breeze before going back to my cabin to enjoy some quiet time in the balcony, showered, journaled then sleep.
The third day was a port day. Vietnam, the Land of the Blue Dragons!
Woke up early at 6.30am, had a quick breakfast before proceeding to the Royal Theatre to get my tickets for my booked excursion to Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Besides visiting Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary, the excursion also brought us to Da Nang (lunch included) as well as Lăng Cô on our coach ride to and from Chân Mây port where Ovation was berthed.
Write-ups of my visits to the Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary, Da Nang and Lăng Cô will be posted on this blog separately.
The excursion was well organised and the tour guide was awesome. We returned to Chân May port at about 5pm and boarded Ovation at around 5.30pm after spending some time browsing the shops around the port area.
Back onboard, it was a quick return to the cabin for that much needed shower. The day was hot and I was barely "surviving" in the warm and humid weather of Vietnam! Then, it was a walk down the hallway to the back of the ship for Happy Hour refreshments at the Concierge Lounge, also on Deck 12. With my cabin also on Deck 12, getting to the Concierge Lounge was so convenient. After a long day on shore excursion, it was back to my comfortable daily routine onboard the ship.
The next day, Easter Sunday, was another sea day. Another day of lazily enjoying my cruise vacation. I also visited the shop at Deck 4 to buy some merchandise in order to use up my onboard cruise credits.
Last night onboard and its was back to the cabin earlier than usual tonight to pack my luggage. I traveled light, so nothing much to pack. It was done within an hour and I was again on Deck 15, walking on the jogging track to enjoy the cool South-China Sea breeze for the last night of this cruise vacation.
The next day, Easter Monday on 21st April 2025, we woke to sights of Hong Kong's skyline outside our balcony. The ship had berthed at the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal while we were still in dreamland in our cosy cabin.
We had arrived in Asia's World City, Hong Kong! This was my first visit to Hong Kong in 2025 and also my first visit since August 2023. Many more short weekend trips to this beautiful Chinese city were to follow for the year but those were stories to be written and shared on another day!
The next part of my trip was a 3-night stay at the Tsim Sha Tsui area of Hong Kong. Lots of shopping and food adventures await me.
Disembarking at about 9am after a quick breakfast at Coastal Kitchen, my cruise vacation thus concluded. 🛳
But another vacation and another adventure had just began. 🌏
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