“The stress just disappears,” Nathan Hartono replies, when we ask if it was hard to chill during his first cruise vacation. Last year, he boarded Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas, sailing out from Los Angeles, with theatre actress Liz Sergeant Tan. The couple married in January 2026. “We weren’t rushing anywhere, there’s nothing to catch or beat,” he adds.
Ovation of the Seas, which was launched in 2016, accommodates more than 4,180 passengers. It features signature attractions such as North Star, an all-glass observation capsule that rises more than 90 m above the ocean; RipCord by iFLY, the first skydiving simulator at sea; and SeaPlex, an indoor activity space housing activities such as bumper cars and roller skating.
For the homegrown singer-songwriter, 34, this “entirely new way to holiday” also marked his first collaboration with Royal Caribbean. He wrote “Come On Board With Me”, a catchy ditty to celebrate the ship’s return to Singapore for its current season. Until March 2026, there are 3- to 8-night getaways from Singapore to Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
Hartono tells us more.
What did you know about cruising?
Not much at all—no one in my immediate family had ever been on a cruise! With no point of reference, I was just curious. Everything I knew came from friends’ stories, which were mostly good.
For example, a close friend—he’s an actor—kept talking about the sea breeze. He gets hot very easily, and he told me, cruises are perfect because it’s windy all the time; you’re never sweating. That really stuck with me.
Beyond that, I also liked the idea of being among a completely new mix of people. I love watching and meeting strangers. So it felt like the perfect environment to do that.
Are you more of a planner or wanderer when you travel?
It depends on why I’m travelling. Sometimes I just want to switch my brain off and let everything be taken care of. For others, I’m more adventurous. I don’t really schedule much. I like having general points of interest, but mostly I enjoy wandering and discovering things as I go.
How did the cruise turn into an adventure for you?
Even the ship, named Ovation of the Seas, felt like a destination. Whenever we felt like having a little adventure, we’d just wander into a different corner of the ship. Our schedule ended up being completely packed! My partner and I had brought along a few crossword books to do, but it turns out this ship was big enough to have plenty of other little “side quests”.
One activity you tried for the first time?
The North Star observation deck. I’m scared of heights, so it took some convincing. But my partner said, “When else are you going to be on a ship with an observation deck in the middle of the ocean?” The view was insane! You could see the whole ship, miles of ocean, and this soft, Paddle Pop-coloured sky. Being that high up in the middle of the sea wasn’t exactly on my 2025 bingo card.
Your favourite spot on the ship?
The gym, which is on the top deck and surrounded by glass, so it almost feels like its own observation deck. You can be running or cycling while looking straight out at the ocean. I went there at least twice a day, not to work out but just to sit, ride the bike, listen to music, and watch the sea. My partner and I also spent hours on our balcony— reading, scrolling, lying next to each other, looking at the ocean and the sky. It was perfect.
Did you get to explore any ports of call?
Yes, we stopped in Ensenada, Mexico. It was amazing to disembark in a different country from a boat—really novel. My partner and I took a car about an hour out to a farm, had breakfast, then slowly made our way back, and walked around the city. It was such a beautiful, simple experience. It made me curious about cruises that stop all over the world.
Let’s talk about “Come On Board With Me”.
The writing came surprisingly easily; the melody and the lyrics arrived at the same time. It was one of those rare moments where everything just flowed—it took about two hours. The harder part was production. I wrote the song with just my voice and a guitar, so figuring out the orchestration and instrumentation took much longer. I had to listen to a lot of references and ask myself what actually captured the feeling of this holiday.
If your song were a cocktail, what would you name it?
I’d call it The Subtle Sway—yes, it’s a lyric in the song [laughs]. There’d be whiskey, coconut water, ginger ale, lemon juice, and ice. That’s one cocktail I can make properly.
Which hits harder: seasick or homesick?
Homesick, for sure. I’ve worked overseas since I was quite young, so I’m used to travelling. But after a few weeks, I’d start to miss the small comforts of home.
To overcome it, I cook. Not necessarily local food, but something familiar, like Indonesian oxtail soup, Japanese curry, kaya toast with soft-boiled eggs. I think it’s less about the dish and more about the act of cooking itself. It makes me feel grounded.
One of my other favourite moments on the Ovation was realising there were a lot of Indonesian crew members. Speaking Bahasa with them while technically being in California made me feel a lot less homesick.
Looking back, what does this whole experience mean to you now?
It feels like one of those moments I know I’ll remember for a very long time. It was new, surreal, and beautiful all at once. The kind of experience that reminds you how big the world is—and how special it is to step into a small, floating version of it for a while.
So when I had to return to the ship when it arrived in Singapore to shoot the MV, I experienced this strange sense of familiarity. I was in the exact same corridors, but in a completely different country—like running into a friend overseas. It felt like the place had moved, not me.
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