Trevor & Jonathans Cruise & Trip to the Far East and Australia 2016

Day 45 - Thursday June 23rd 2016 - Ovation of the Seas - Cruising

So here it was, who thought that we would get this far? We certainly didn’t when we left for Barcelona. It was our last day with Royal Caribbean and the Ovation as as we woke up we could not even imagine what the day would throw at us. A totally new sea experience and a very sleepless night thinking about the events unfolding back in the UK as we turned off the cabin light…. read on to find out why.

So we did the usual, well actually not quite to be honest as we went up to the Solarium bistro for breakfast. It’s a little gem of a place to be

honest and I don’t really know why we didn’t use it all that often but there you go. It’s a small windjammer of sorts in that you can can get almost everything that they do (but only from the English and American breakfast tables, they don’t do all the congee or soups etc.) What’s more if you want a cooked breakfast they take your order and then bring it to you. As we said, I don’t know why we didn’t come here more often in the first place.

So after breakfast we decamped to the room briefly to pick up the tools of the trade to write up the blog, stopping off to pick up a coffee at Starbucks (or La Patisserie to give it it’s on board name) .

So with coffee, laptops and iPads in hand we settled down on the seats in front in Vintages to do the deed, get the blog done and get on with the day but all that was about to change. Out of the corner of my eye I saw crew members running up and down the deck outside and the next second over the whole ships tannoy system the announced the man overboard code Oscar, Oscar, Oscar……

OK so obviously this is all going on around us in a bit of a blur, equally your first thought is shit……. god, I hope whom ever has done this is ok. Of course the other thing to say is that it really would not be that easy to throw yourself off a cruise ship these days. The glass balustrading and rails are so high and there are cameras absolutely everywhere but back to the drama!

The captain came on the PA to report that a crew member had reported seeing a person go over the side hence the alarm was sounded and as of now we were in search mode. The ship came to a stop and a lifeboat was launched to search around the ship. Half an hour passed (well something like that) and we left the scene and returned to our room to look over the balcony and see if we could see anything. Half the ship were staring out to sea from their cabins, looking over the very low mists making it really difficult to see anything to be honest. We were now informed over the ships tannoy that as no one had been found as yet a full head count would take place and all passengers were asked to return to their cabins immediately so that this could take place. As we were there already it was no problem but it did mean we were in lockdown mode (again).

The tannoy went on and off with different announcements as the captain got all the various crew members to be counted as well. It took about an hour to finish that roll call until only one crew member from the casino was unaccounted for (see the tannoy was telling us everything) until suddenly the search was off, everyone had been found as was accounted for. There was no one overboard at all. The ship itself had been going around in circles and searching, those azipod motors working overtime sending us round and around in a complete 360-degree circle. Thank god they found no one and what an event to go through……

And the drama did not end then either but it was far from the overboard saga. With a couple of hours passed we then got the Alpha Alpha Alpha call sign over the ships tannoy which means serious medical emergency. No idea what or who was involved with that one but needless to say we’ve had it all the last two days, fire, overboard and now medical!!

So whilst we were holed up in the cabin spinning around on the ocean looking for something that was not there we used the time to pack and get ready for leaving tomorrow morning. Our washing bags weigh a tonne weight, something that we are really going to have to sort out as soon as we get to Beijing, were running out of pants!

We managed to chill for about an hour on our last day at sea, it was actually raining as well today on and off so it was no deck day so it was out with reading through all the China stuff again and watching a bit of stuff on the iPads.

We got dressed up a bit posh tonight as well, as we won’t really be using all that kind of stuff as the travel goes on it made sense to keep the casual stuff clean so with smart shirts and ties on we headed down to the Schooner Bar for the last time and ordered those drinks again, yes the espresso martini and the B52.

Tonight’s diner took us back to Chops Grill and after our last really poor experience there we really had our fingers crossed that it would not be the case tonight. I have to say after a really late start (it took them ages to bring the bread and water) things were actually great and we had a fantastic meal cooked to perfection……phew. Trev went for the super aged porterhouse steak (costs a little more but worth it) whilst I had the fillet mignon again but this time cooked just right, medium rare. We struggled through four courses, feeling absolutely stuffed by the end of if but it’s hard to resist those great flavours.

Dinner over and we retired back at Vintages for another glass of wine before bed. What a cruise eh? It’s taken us to countries that we never dreamed we would ever go to, we have met some lovely people whom hopefully we will stay in touch with and we booked another memory we are still yet to have (the new cruise).

I don’t think that we would rush back onto an quantum class ship, not unless the itinerary was amazing or because we had friends going on board or something. We miss the main dining room and the set dinner and the routine of the theatre etc. Sometimes having too much choice is not a good thing. We are left with amazing memories though and what a way to arrive in China tomorrow when we start a whole new adventure.

As we readied to turn out the lights in the cabin, the alarm set for the morning the polls on the UK vote to stay in Europe or to Leave the EU closed. This obviously has a huge impact on Trevor and I as we live in a country that is not the UK. Whilst Trev sat in bed and had his nightcap we waited as the first three results came in from Gibraltar and some of the smaller Scottish isles…. they were all for remain…..what would we wake up to in the morning…..It was going to be an anxious night.