Another Cruise???

We're at it again, not that we ever stop, looking for bargain cruises and we think we've found one! We are hoping to do a New Zealand cruise next so have been keeping an eye on these through OzCruising. I came across a Royal Caribbean cruise in January that goes to the South Pacific and New Zealand on the NEW Ovation of the Seas and it sounds pretty darn good!

I've put in a booking reservation so we can discuss without the worry that the price will increase or sell out! It's a 12 night cruise, 2 ports in the south pacific and 3 ports in NZ - looks and sounds amazing. This ship is huge, don't know if that's a good or bad thing. I guess we'll only know by cruising on her :-)

$1500pp twin for a Superior Balcony Cabin - they're actually cheaper than an Outside Cabin or an Inside with Virtual Balcony. Not sure why but I'm definitely not complaining. We do have to also take into account that there is compulsory tipping** of approx $17 per day per person and all prices on board are USD. Still it seems pretty good value!

I'll keep you posted on what we decide to do :-)

** I have since found out that the tipping isn't compulsory we just need to go to guest services once we board and have them remove it from our account. I have printed out the email I received from Oz Cruising to ensure they indeed do remove the tipping. Also, they have changed how they do the pricing for all RCI ships that have the tipping and now have it included into the fare. I'm glad we booked before this change came into affect! I've never like the whole 'compulsory' tipping, I believe it should be up to the individual whether they wish to tip or not - what if the service isn't up to par? Anyway, it does save us around $400. We will probably tip our cabin steward and depending how the dinner reservations are done we may tip the wait staff, this all depends on if we have the same staff each evening. This is what we have done on previous cruises.