On Board Seabourn Ovation

Seabourn Ovation is a 'bigger sister' of Quest, on which we sailed the St. Lawrence River in September, 2022. The ship is laid out in a very similar way, but all the spaces are a bit larger, which we like. Here's a look at some of the public spaces.

The Pool Deck

This outside deck covers the pool area as well as The Patio, the breakfast and lunch buffet, and the Patio Grill. There are 2 bars, the main Pool Bar and the Sky Bar up on the next deck. We didn't have very much swimming weather, but I did manage to get into the pool once. A bit smaller than we're used to, but nice.

                                     

Earth & Ocean at The Patio

On most evenings when the weather is good (meaning not raining or really, really cold), the Patio turns into Earth & Ocean with a limited menu and table service outside. We only ate there once, but a couple of guys from Toronto who we met were there quite frequently, even when they needed to use blankets and sit under the heaters.

The bread presentation included tapenade
and sun-dried tomato spread

Somewhat deconstructed Caesar Salad - lots
of anchovies on top

I went vegetarian and had the Grilled Cauliflower.
It came with a selection of vegetables, and even
pomegranate and capers as garnish. Delicious!

Larry tried the Sea Bass and really liked it.

The Club

This is the late night party room on the ship. For some reason, we never spent much time there in the evenings. Maybe because we would rather be looking outside from the Observation Bar since the sunsets were so late.

Seabourn Square

On all their ships, Seabourn Square is the heart of the ship. It is on a lower deck, and this is where you can find comfortable seating inside and out, a coffee bar, snacks, gelato, and the onboard services such as the Future Cruise Consultant, Shore Excursion Desk, and Guest Services. In our case, there was also a communal jigsaw puzzle table where anyone could sit for a few minutes or a few hours and contribute to completing a 500 or 1000 piece puzzle. I did spend some time there on a couple of occasions.

The Grill by Thomas Keller

Unlike the very tiny version of this restaurant on Quest, The Grill has its own piano bar. We had dinner here twice, once on the first day, which was described in an earlier post, and again a couple of days ago.

                                     

On our second visit, we had
a Tuna Tartar appetizer...

                                                                                             

...and Lobster Thermidor. Not what we expected,
and a little disappointing.

For dessert, I had the Meyer Lemon Tart with
raspberry coulis

and Larry opted for an Ice Cream Sundae. Three
scoops as well a a marshmallow on the bottom.

The Observation Bar

Wherever it is you can see where the ship is going is always our favourite place. We met a lot of nice people up there, as well as Lauren, the bartender, who remembered us immediately from Crystal Esprit in 2017. She had been working there as a bartender too.

the lounge set up for afternoon tea

The Restaurant

The main dining room on board is The Restaurant. It is a nice size and laid out well so you don't feel crowded and there's not a lot of noise. The food was always excellent and all the service staff were very friendly. We went to the Sommelier's Lunch, and discovered that the head sommelier had been on Quest with us in September.

Gnocchi appetizer

Truffle risotto

Beef tenderloin

the Cheese Plate dessert

or the Chocolate Cake

Sushi

The larger ships have this very small alternative restaurant that serves Bento box lunches and sushi at dinner. We never managed to get there for lunch, but we had dinner once. There isn't the same varied selection as other restaurants, but this spot doesn't have a full kitchen, so everything is either salad or some form of sushi.

Lightly seared Salmon

New Style Tuna - different from Umi Uma on
Crystal, but tasting very similar

Our sashimi plate

And we finished off with a selection of rolls

Green tea custard for dessert

Entertainment

We were supposed to have at least one production show with the cast of singers and dancers on this cruise, but one of the singers was ill and in isolation for the first 6 days, so we are having the Latin Quarter show on the last night. But the others, along with Cruise Director Loula, gave us a great replacement concert style show.

Our Cruise Director, Loula

Jared from the cast

Justin from the cast

While in Iceland, we had two presentations from Icelandic violinist and singer Greta Salome, who was just fantastic. She's very accomplished, being concertmaster for one of the Icelandic orchestras as well as having written two songs that placed very high in the Eurovision Song Contests in 2012 and 2015.

We were also treated to magician/illusionist Jamie Raven. He came in second in Britain's Got Talent just a few years ago, managing to baffle even Simon Cowell, and is quite funny along with having us all enthralled by his tricks.

On the night after Gothenburg, the entertainment was a singing group called The Barricade Boys. They call themselves this because they had all been in some production of Les Miserables, either on stage or in the movie version of the musical. They were also very good, doing songs from the show as well as Motown and even a version of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.

So that's a brief overview of the ship. We will definitely keep this as one of our cruising options in the future.