I like the Ovation, but seems the team needs to gel better. Not their best showing.

We had a 10:30 boarding time for the 5th. We cabbed to Canada Place, and dropped off the bags with no issue. The queue for check in was not bad at all. I don’t think we took 20 minutes from bag drop off to check in, to clearing US Customs (Yes) and getting on the boat. We did not do the electronic records of our documents, we had paper print out of the covid results and boarding pass, along with our passports and vax card. Paper is your friend for now. As this was the first Alaska cruise of the season for the Ovation, and as she was bobbing up and down the Pacific Coast for many months, our rooms were available as we got on board. In our room by about 11:45.

Over all it seemed the portion sizes have been reduced (not a bad thing, only gained 1.5 pounds). And there seemed to be a food shortage on this sailing. Seems like this cruise was under provisioned (or oversold) for the number of people on board (~4,000) Café @ two70 and Café’ Promenade: These grab and go places were very short of sandwich offerings. Café @ two70 ran out (???) of potato chips be day 3 (note this is a food theme we found for this cruise). The food was not bad, but no variety. Did have the requisite Roast Beef Sandwich. Yes, it was good. Main Dining room. The food here is OK. But again, I refer to the overall statement. The service staff did a good job with what they had to work with. I think the management needs to polish up this crew, as service times were long (don’t serve dessert if the coffee is not also ready). Can’t fault the service staff for not having the tools (adequate provisions and training) to provide 5-star service. After some coaching from our table, our Dining Room team (Sarder, Elmer) did step the service speed up. Breakfast and Dinner mainly here. Solarium Bistro. Seems like this was not staffed properly also. We like the solarium, and spend a good amount of time here. The Bistro was closed on port days (???). And had very short and odd hours (open for 1.5 hours at lunch???) Wind Jammer. Food was not so good and NOT plentiful. In fact, they ran out of French Fries on the burger line about day 6 (this can’t happen. Not with a US based set of customers). After day 2 we avoided this place and opted for the main dining room. Again, seems the sailing was oversold and under provisioned. Sorrento’s. Make sure you order the pizza the way you like it. Yes, the whole pie. The left overs are great for the morning (But keep in your fridge overnight). Room Service. One of our to-do things is to get the Room Service wake up call with Coffee, pastries and fruit. Easy, right? We always opt for the first delivery time (6:00 – 6:30). First morning – 6:20. OK. Next morning, 7:30. Next morning, 5:30. More than once, had to call down to find out where the delivery was. Again, seemed to be understaffed, and under prepared for a sailing of 4,000.

RipCord® by iFLY. This was a fun experience. And, as my wife told me, the closest to skydiving I would ever get. Did on a port day when there was not an upcharge. Short ride time. But could have done multiple times. NORTH STAR®. This was in maintenance mode the entire cruise due to mechanical problems. I would have thought that being in warm storage for the past year, this would have been up, as this is a draw to this class of ship. Sad about this, as we both wanted to take advantage of this on a port day. SeaPlex. Walked by during pickle ball, basketball, bumper cars and roller skating. Cool idea. Public Rooms Solarium. Great place. Especially early in the morning. Hot when not moving, breezy, when under way. Would like to see this changed to 18 plus. 16 year-olds are not adults. King of the world. Neat place off the solarium on both sides of the ship. Two70. A nice place at all times of the day. Morning and afternoon coffee, and evening entertainment. The library upstairs here is a nice quiet place with great views.

Entertainment No reservations on the ship, yeah!!! Comic was good. Live. Love Legs - A Las Vegas-type show with scantily clad ladies wearing a lot of feathers. Not too bad, but don’t sit close, as the music was loud. That was all we were able to see due to catching a cold and laying low for the most part of the cruise

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With the Ovation coming out of a warm storage season and passenger-less steaming up and down the Pacific Coast for many months, the ship was in good repair. Still did observe some maintenance being accomplished in port and during transit.

We were in room 10684. Nice typical, Royal balcony accommodations. What we are comfortable with. Ovation has two elevator bays, this room is midway aft, on the starboard side. As this we my first time on this class of ship, I think, if I sail this class again, I would opt for port side, on deck 6, and further aft. This hallway has access to the upper level of the two70 lounge. Which is a space we found ourselves at sea and in port. Our room steward, (Michael) was fantastic! He was there almost every time we opened the door, with a warm friendly “Hello Mr. and Mrs. XXX”. He had our routine down pat, s we did spend a good deal of time in the cabin, as we were under the weather. So, if we stepped out for a bite in the morning, the room was made up. He is one of the best stewards we have encountered across the 5 Royal cruses we have taken.

This one worked very well. We used the Port Valet service and sent our bags ahead on the last night. We picked them up at our home airport. We lounged in two70 for about 45 minutes after breakfast until out departure time was called (8:30) and was off the ship in 20 minutes or so (lines). Walked through the luggage circus and on to the airport transfer bus. This was by far the best disembarkation we have experienced, on any ship or cruise line. The only issue was the lack of information about the Port Valet luggage tagging on the prior evening. As part of the PV process, delivered to our stateroom was luggage tags and our airline boarding passes. My concern was the luggage tags did not “look” like any luggage tags I had seen before, (a seasoned traveler, but a first-time user of this service), no destination airport code on them. When we did get to our final destination, I did see a regular connecting-flight & destination luggage tag was applied to each bag during some point in the Port Valet process. This would have been good information to let the passengers know about in the bag tagging process. Would have relieved a lot of stress the evening before, and a few trips to Guest Services on the last evening (Long lines).