Ovation of the seas, restaurants and bars

 Windjammer the main buffet restaurant

 Solarium for spa pool and 

Solarium restaurant for breakfast buffet

and a la carte for dinner.

 Music Hall Bar for Rock & Roll music fans

 Japanese restaurant Izumi

Cafe 270

 Bionic bar for a cocktail by Robot bartenders

La Patisserie at Royal Esplanade

Vintage bar

 Wine vending machine at the Vintage bar

Main dinning room entrance

 with a line with reservation and a line without.

Actually, the line to get in the restaurant was not too bad as any time dinners.

Usually, it is not more than 5 minutes whether we had a reservation or not.

There are four different themed dinning room restaurants on board.

Chic, Grande, Silk and American Grill, all with same menu.

One of the specialty restaurants 'Wonderland'

We purchased 3 dinner package and this is our first choice.

We were served 16 course tasting menu.

Mainly small bite size!

Every course was so delicious!

Probably, it was the best on-board dinning experience we ever have!

Jamie's Italian restaurant was our second choice out of dinner package.

It was much better than the one in Sydney restaurant!

Our third choice, Chops Grille restaurant for 

good juicy beef steak and they didn't

disappoint us at all.

Service for specialty restaurants were outstanding, too!

 We love Chinese food but we did not try this Chinese food

as we read some bad reviews...

Bar Boleros on Royal Esplanade

29Feb Cairns, Australia

Cairns (pronounced similar as cans for those who are not familiar with Australia) is located in far north Queensland of Australia.
It is hub of Great Barrier Reef which is number one tourists’ attraction in the state of Queensland.
We had heavy rain fall every few hours as we arrived in the middle of monsoon season.
Our sail away time will be 3 am next morning for a high tide.
No sail away party this time, I guess? hhh

Town center, especially early in the morning, was very quiet compare to couple of years ago due to strong Australian dollar to US dollar.
According to a local business lady we have spoken to, their average business and regional in-bound tourism (noticeably from north America) has been decreased by more than 25%.

We decided to walk around the town to spend a day leisurely as we have been up here few times and have already been to most of tourists’ destinations.
Meanwhile, other fellow passengers were out and about to enjoy snorkeling in the reef, ride scenic railway or cable car to gorges and falls in Kuranda, experience aboriginal adventure, explore in tropical Daintree National Park, cruise to spot crocodiles in river…

Double rainbow surely is welcoming us.

Cruise terminal is currently undergoing construction for extension. White building behind the terminal is Cairns convention center.


Aussie way of having a break – drinking beer with mates!

Tropical trees know how to live together!

Spot the orange Teletuby! ^^

Trees and plants with exotic flowers make this place extra special.

The Esplanade with fox-tail palm trees lined up, the waterfront of Cairns

This tree has flowers resemble pineapple fruit

Helicopter tour must be the way to enjoy the bird-eye view of the Great Barrier Reef!!

Having a break

Exotic ginger trees

26Feb Sydney

Crab cake and grilled scallop at the Pinnacle restaurant on board with my parents, Greg, Steve and Louis

Prawn bruschetta

Most tender tenderloin steak



Cosy interior of the restaurant



Lime pudding. yum

Raspberry sorbet

Quite artistic!

High tea time at the Crow's Nest Bar

On the Sports Deck with the city view

Ship's spa

Dinner at La Fontaine restaurant right next to our usual table

LA based celebrity chef George Geary and Neil joined the ship in Sydney
For more information;
http://www.georgegeary.com/

Theme of the restaurant tonight is Exotic Fish!

Our dinner table mates with newly joined George and Neil while Diane and John flew to Cairns to maximise Aussie experience on inland