Ovation of the Seas is a Quantum-class cruise ship owned by Royal Caribbean International (RCI) and the third ship of her class. The Quantum class is the third largest class of cruise ships behind MSC Cruises's Meraviglia class and Royal Caribbean International's Oasis class by gross tonnage. The Ovation mainly sails from Tianjin during the northern summer season and repositions to Sydney during the southern summer season.

Concept and construction

On 11 February 2011, RCI announced that it had ordered a new class of ships from the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, the first of which was scheduled to be delivered by fall 2014. At the time, the project was code-named "Project Sunshine". On 29 February 2012, the company announced that a second "Project Sunshine" ship had been ordered and would be delivered by Spring 2015. Just under a year later, on 31 January 2013, RCI announced that the official name of the new class of ships was the Quantum class.

The first steel for the third vessel in the Quantum class was cut on 18 September 2014, the same day its name was announced to be Ovation of the Seas. The keel was laid down by Meyer Werft on 5 March 2015. Before the first piece of keel was lowered into place, Adam Goldstein, President and COO of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., the holding company of RCI, placed a lucky coin in the dock. The keel will eventually be formed of 74 blocks. The first section was launched on June 20, 2015.

Ovation of the Seas was delivered on 8 April 2016, and entered service on 14 April.

Service history

Ovation of the Seas arrived from Hamburg to the Port of Southampton, UK on 10 April 2016, to begin a series of inaugural events, including press previews and a limited number of "Shake-down" and mini cruises for VIPs, specially invited guests and members of the public. The ship berths at the City Cruise Terminal in the Western Docks, where its fleetmates also dock when visiting the city.

Following her entry into service, Ovation of the Seas departed on an inaugural 52-night Global Odyssey cruise from the Port of Southampton in the UK on 3 May 2016. The ship's ultimate destination on that cruise was Tianjin in China, where she homeported and operated a series of cruises to destinations in Asia. During the lower hemisphere summer of 2016–17, the vessel homeported in Sydney, Australia and the ship will return to the region again for both the 2017–18 and 2018–19 seasons.

Beginning in the spring of 2019, the ship began to reposition to Seattle during the summer season, where she sails 7-night cruises to Alaska.

The ship's christening ceremony was on June 24, 2016 in Tianjin; the ship's godmother is Chinese actress Fan Bingbing.