| Ovation checks in to Sydney

OVATION of the Seas set out on her first cruise from Sydney on Fri afternoon, following a CruiseCo charter from Singapore.

The charter was populated exclusively by Australians, but the ship’s current cruise is about 25% international sourcing, from the US, UK, Germany and Canada, Adam Armstrong, md ANZ Royal Caribbean Cruises told CW.

“That’s consistent throughout the rest of the season, about 20-30% international sources.”

To help manage the check-in process for a ship which is 25% bigger than the Voyager class, when guests embarked on Thu RCI started its “next generation check-in”.

The new system, already in operation in New York, South Hampton and Beijing, sees the addition of “roaming” check-in staff with iPads.

“If you haven’t done your pre-cruise check-in and haven’t uploaded your photo already then they’ll just take it with the iPad, it all gets sent to the ship’s security system, and there’s nothing to sign, no paperwork, it’s all just done through roaming check-in site,” Armstrong said.

To celebrate the arrival of the behemoth vessel into Sydney, RCI held a cocktail party on Thu night for around 250 industry VIPs.

The event showed off the ship’s shiny new features and culminated in a performance from this year’s Australian Eurovision candidate, Dami Im, in the vessel’s theatre, Two70.

“Tonight we become the largest cruise line in Australia, which is quite a climax for a little office in North Sydney with 20 people in it eight years ago, so we’re pretty proud of that,” Armstrong said.

Pictured at the event are Gavin Smith, Royal Caribbean svp int’l and Adam Armstrong.