Outstanding scenery-has to be seen to be believed!
Ovation of the Seas Cruise Review to Alaska - Inside Passage
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 27
7 Night Alaska Glacier Explorer (Seattle Roundtrip)
Sail date: June 10, 2022
Ship: Ovation of the Seas
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 11594
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 2 years ago
Review summary
Ovation, Alaska (Juneau, Skagway and Victoria) and Seattle-My review. (10-17th June sailing) Seattle: Flew from UK 3 days before to enjoy Seattle. Had two full days in Seattle. Stayed Crown Plaza Downtown. Great hotel, 33/34 floor up so views were spectacular! Lovely restaurant. Other food available with 5 minute walk, lots more within 10 mins. Space Needle-a must. (Allow 1.5 hrs) Chilhuly Glass-an even bigger must. (Allow 2 hrs). Aquarium. Really good, but been to some equally as good. Allow 1.5 hrs. Pike Place Market-outstanding. 5/6 floors deep. Top floor (street entry level) is the local farmers section. See fish being thrown, get fresh flowers for your stateroom to take on ship, and lots of souvenirs. Hop on Hop off City Sighting seeing-Don’t bother. Awful service. Panoramic tour cancelled and we were not informed. Incurred Uber costs to get from hotel to stop no 1 for tour. Emailed to complain about cancellation and they’ve not even bothered to reply. 2nd day, we used the Hop on Hop Off service. Waited 50 mins for 1st bus of the day to reach a point in the loop where buses should have been at 25-35 minutes. Then found out only one bus operating all day on the loop so a 20-30 min service was over an hour at each stop. 😡 Ovation-Stunning ship. Been on Anthem (sister ship, so identical). Entertainment: really good variety. Evening shows are too early. Some at 6:45pm. Ridiculous when trying to organise dinner. We like to eat 6/6:30pm. Speciality restaurants say to allow 2 hours. Will be leaving this in review. Shows need to go back to 8pm as they are only 45 mins long. Activities: Did Ifly again (1st time on Anthem last year). This time he got me to do early tricks as apparently I was the best he’d seen in long while!! Turned my hands to get me to spin in a circular motion, and guy let go so I was free!!! Quizzes are good-only usually got 8-12/20 but felt we gave it a good shot! Didn’t do North Star this time as we had a balcony and felt this was enough. Extra charge for premium flight at glaciers was $69. Boarded at 11am-pack swimwear in hand luggage. Headed straight to Solaruim hot tubs. We were the only ones up there for almost an hour! Restaurants-we did My Time Dining. All booked on planner before we left. But only 2/7 showing on arrival. Then told MTD starts at 6:45pm! You can turn up anytime, join line for ‘no reservations’ and you’ll be seated within 10 mins. We also did Chops and Jamies. Both amazing. Jamies was rushed due to theatre booking at 6:45pm. And booking Jamie’s for 5pm really cut our day short. Ended up missing 6:45pm show and went to 9pm instead. Plenty of ‘free’ options for food. Didn’t try Fish and Ships, but wish we had. Solarium Bisto-great for breakfast and lunch buffets. Don’t bother with evening meal. We understood it was table service in the evening, although the waiter was encouraging us to go look at everything on offer on buffet. Then after he eventually served our dessert, he disappeared. Restaurant had closed at 9pm (this was one of the evenings we had to do a show at 6:45pm and dinner at 8pm). We waited. Nothing. Only 3 families in there for the duration we were there. Eventually (after feeling like we should just walk out) we called the head waiter (who was on computer at desk) and asked if he could find our waiter as we hadn’t seen him for nearly 30 mins!). Needless to say-no tip! Juneau-had our helicopter glacier flight and landing cancelled. Very low cloud right down in town all day. So flew downstairs and quickly booked the summer musher camp. Still got to cuddle the puppies and the dogs took us on a rainforest ride. It was fantastic but obviously would have preferred the helicopter. If cancellations happen like this, jump straight on the app and book quickly as the queue down at Shore Excursions was 40 mins long. There are booths on the pier (not for summer camp) but you run the risk of getting nothing by the time you are off the ship. Skagway-(again all helicopters cancelled today as weather same as yesterday). Beautiful port. The train is a must. Currently only option is a trip to summit and back. No exit from train. Each carriage has a restroom and free water bottles. Stunning scenary. Snow drifts still 6-10 ft deep on the top. Sit in first or last carriages for great views of whole train on bends. Left or right side-doesn’t matter-you see one side on way up, the other on way down. Wear warm layers if wanting to stand out inbetween carriages on platforms. Better photos than behind glass. I wore layers, windproof coat, then a Universal Orlando wet ride cape over the top. Stayed warm and dry. Take binoculars. Victoria: Butchart Gardens, high tea and city highlights. 9:30am start (didn’t leave until 9:45am) Stunning gardens but too rushed. City tour enroute very detailed but got us to gardens at 10:50am. Our high tea slot was 11:45am right in the middle. Mum has slow walking/mobility issues. We were at furthest point away from cafe at 11:45am (following their one way route) so chose to continue with gardens. Dived in for tea at 12:30pm. Gift shop huge but only got 10 mins. Had to be back to bus for 12:50pm. Far too rushed. Gardens alone need two uninterrupted hours. Do this excursion alone, not through RC. Endicott arm and Dawes Glacier-BEAWARE! Endicott arm is the cruising upto Dawes Glacier. Chris, cruise director said the night before we’’d be there from 7am-12pm. Many people missed this. I happened to look out at 6:20am and we were nearly at glacier. We got dressed and headed up top and captain turned ship once and sailed away down arm again. I commented to my mum how quiet the top deck was. Then came the complaints. And rightly so. By 10am, glacier no longer in view and way down the arm almost back out to sea!! Apparently the captain made an announcement at 6:30am but no one we spoke to heard it! Sea days: very slightly rocky going North. Saw people with sea bands/sickness patches on (but unless they were super sensitive) not needed. Stay mid ship height and length and you’ll be fine. Sea day going back south-wouldn’t have known we were moving!! Seattle airport: lots complained about busy, chaotic scences with cancelled flights. Guess we were lucky. Virgin airlines-highly recommended!! This was a 2020 trip moved to 2021 and then 2022. I travelled with my 72 year old Mum on her 2nd cruise (my 4th). I am now Platinum so got my robe. Great little extra for the balcony!! Overall one of the best holidays ever. This post might read negative in many ways. But overall everything was incredible. There is always going to be little hitches. Sadly now though-both mum and I have tested positive for Covid. We wore a mask EVERY TIME in public areas. And washed our hands everywhere. It’s likely to have been on the ship or an excursion on Thursday as first sign was just a cold sore. Which i put down to two very busy, exhausting weeks. Clothing: You’ll read lots about layers. We each had a long sleeved thermal vest. Then a long sleeved tshirt, shirt etc. And a hoodie. I took short sleeved t shirts for layering but only ever used them for walking around the warm ship. Trousers-do not take jeans. They will get wet! I had shower proof trousers for excursions and pulled my waterproofs over in Juneau where it was really wet. Took leggings as base layer but not needed at all. Shoes-trainers-fabulous, I took one pair of smarter brown boots for evening and a heavy pair of walking boots for all excursions. Just 3 pairs altogether. And I normally pack tons of shoes. Flip flops for pool might be good but I didn’t miss them. Wildlife: Again, take binoculars. Saw whales and bald eagles from the ship (balcony). Many others saw dolphins, seals and other wildlife. It’s all about being in the right place at the right time. Happy to answer questions!!! (May not get to them all but I’ll do my best!) ✈️🇺🇸🛳🐳🌎❄️🌫💙❤️Embarkation
Smooth until app crashed and locked me out. Resolved by switching phone and off again but scary!
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Variety huge. Some meals could have been warmer. Would like a printed drinks menu for all drinks available on refreshment package as not sure we found enough variety or what was included in some venues.
Onboard Activities
Ifly-excellent 2nd time around. Instructor encouraged me to do tricks.
Flowrider closed if under 10 degrees Celsius. Quizzes really good. As was
Entertainment
Live, Love, Legs was fantastic. Pixels-really good-although had seen on Anthem and was very similar. Beautiful dream-fantastic acting although couldn’t follow storyline. Generation Idol-outstanding! Missed some tributes as listed incorrectly on the app.
Children's Programs
No children
Service and Staff
Christopher-deck 11 Starboard-outstanding service. Best towel animals out of my 4 cruises so far.
Ship Quality
Cleaning happened everywhere. Corridors fogged 3-5am every morning. Layout really good. Long walk to Two70 with nothing much in Via other than Jamie’s or expensive shops!
Cabin / Stateroom
Excellent position height and length of ship for refucing motion sickness. None felf all week. Mid way between both sets of elevators. Totally unobstructed views. And not above smoking areas below. .
Ship tip
Book all excursions and extras before you sail.
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
3 days prior to cruise spent exploring city. Did Space Needle, Chilhuly Glass, Aquarium and Pike Place Market. Don’t bother with Hop on Hop Off buses-terrible service.
Very vet and disappointed our helicopter tour was cancelled. Last minute booking to summer musher camp was amazing though. Pulled through rainforest on a trolley instead of over a glacier. Shopping excellent. Ships docks outside shop frontages so very easy to hop off and shop if not planning an excursion.
Another outstanding port. Free shuttle to train depot would have an advantage but figured out town shuttle instead. 15 min walk into town otherwise. Shops-great variety. Slightly more pricey in some than in Juneau. Train-OUTSTANDING!!
CRUISE ENDICOTT ARM & DAWES GLACIER
Beware-we were told 7am-12pm but actual glacier is called Dawes. Yes, sailing Endicott is 7am-12pm but actually at glacier is only around an hour-for us 6:30-7:30am. Many woke and we were miles away down Endicott again.
Another beautiful port. Did Butchart Gardens (would go independently not with RC) as very rushed. Had less than 1.5 hrs to see gardens and needs 3 hrs min. Also booked private horse and carriage ride city tour-excellent ride and very informative.
Disembarkation
Very smooth and efficient. Luggage out by 11pm night before. Straight onto coach and off on a RC City tour including Starbucks factory, Pike Place and Sky View Observatory.
Traveler Photos
