Perfect Weather for an Alaska Cruise May 2023
Ovation of the Seas Cruise Review to Alaska - Inside Passage
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Reviews: 2
Helpful Votes: 46
7 Night Alaska Glacier Explorer (Seattle Roundtrip)
Sail date: May 19, 2023
Ship: Ovation of the Seas
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 7578
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 1 year ago
Review summary
My favorite cruise so far. It was nice to spend time with family in a serene setting. So many food options to choose from. I definitely never made a decision on an empty stomach. Loved relaxing in the Jacuzzi every night I could. Will never forget the great dining experience on this trip.Embarkation
I chose to fly out a day ahead of the cruise on May 18th because I live on the East Coast and the departing port was Seattle. So on Friday May 19th, I called an Uber for a 10AM pickup that said it would take 30-55 minutes tops from the Best Western Seattle Airpot Hotel to board the Ovation of the Seas ship between 11AM-1130AM assigned time slot. I'm glad I left early but still ended up arriving late to the pier, it was extra extra extra traffic that Friday morning. Uber driver said it normally takes 30 minutes from the hotel, but my experience that day it took 1 hour and 45 minutes to reach the dropoff point. When you get there, its like a little bus stop station, you look for the station that says your Cruise name. On my day there were two cruises, so I looked for a guy with a yellow vest jacket that said Ovation of the Seas. If you need luggage labels, you would approach the attendant and give him your info name, room number, and he will print out and attach the luggage labels for your large luggage so it arrives in your room later in the late afternoon/evening. You dont have to drop off your luggage, you can carry your luggage onto the ship. Room was ready by 2pm for me. My luggage arrived at different times from 4pm-7pm. I took onto to the ship a personal bag with my bathing suit and important stuff I wanted to have on hand. Getting through Security after dropping off the luggage was not that long, I say it took less than 30 minutes to actually board the ship from the time I entered the building for Security Check. They check your boarding pass and passport a couple of times before you get into the security check building, before you go through security, and then one more time before you board the ship. I say the only part I didnt like was the traffic congestion just getting to the pier. Not sure whose fault that was but it could have been better.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Main Dining Room was excellent, I tried everything I wanted on the menu, Yes you are allowed to do that. I tried 3 appetizers, 3 entrees, and 3 desserts almost every night. Buffet was also very good, I went there a couple of times for lunch and breakfast. Main Dining Room was great for dinner, I went every night I could. My only gripe with the Main Dining Hall was that wasn't good service for breakfast. The wait was terrible, I waited 1 hour one and then another 1 hour and 30 minutes, I just left and went to the windjammer buffet from that point on for breakfast. One night I tried Chops Grill specialty restaurant and ordered the Filet mignon medium rare, it was perfect. I also tried Jaimes Italian for lunch and ordered the fancy burger. It looked like an angus beef burger that was too big for my mouth, i took off the top bun and ate it like that. It was a good burger, but not a great burger where I would be like OMG, I gotta try this again. Now about those drinks at the bars, poolbars, and the Solarium. Those are just water down, I didnt get any type of buzz from having 1 drink and I am considered a light weight. I found that the virgin drinks were tastier and a better bargain at half the price. Almost all the alcoholic drinks I purchased were from the $30-$33 range per drink.
Onboard Activities
There was lots to do but I just wanted to mostly relax and do a couple of things.
I have tried the North Star on a previous cruise, and it was the same for this one. Its free the first day on the cruise, after that, you have to pay like 30 dollars per person for the other days for the experience. I wanted to do rock climbing but it interfered with my lunch and jacuzzi schedule. I loved the jacuzzi for the indoor pool, there was no cold air, There was also one on the outside pool but that was not for me. I also tried the Jacuzzi in the solarium on the last night, That was the best one, the flow jets seemed more powerful and it was nicely lit at night time with a view of the sunset because the sun set there around 9pm-9:30pm in Alaska. I did do dodgeball, hoping Id be going up against some older folk or some teenagers. Wrong! I was so wrong. When I got there, I saw a line full of jocks, meatheads, and some middle age guys like me. I thought about skipping it but my girls still wanted to still do it. It was fun while it lasted, my group got eliminated first round and im thankful, because that last crazy move i did to dodge a ball, it gave me a hamstring that burned for 5 minutes. It was fun overall. I think my favorite activity in the Seaplex where most of the activities took place was Bumper Cars. Yes I showed no mercy to kids, It was Cobra Kai rules. I noticed they gave the 1st couple of groups almost double time like 10 minutes, every one else got like 5 minutes tops on rink. Sad to see that the bumper cars might be eliminated by the next cruise due to only 5-6 of them working. The rest of the cars were on the side line and from what I gathered there was no plans to repair them.
Entertainment
I went to all the shows that the Ship offered, and I went there with low expectations so I wouldnt be disappointed. There was Spectra Caberet that had people singing and dancing along with digital music videos on these huge screens, that was okay. There was comedian juggler, SCOTTY CAVANAUGH, he was funny and most entertaining when he took volunteers onstage. I missed him the first night because I had a specialty dining reservation but caught him the second. Not all his juggling acts were homeruns but he was very entertaining with his comedy. I actually met him as he was boarding the ship in Juneau port of call, I didnt know who he was, just figured he missed embarkation day and boarded late. Nice guy all smiles and his show was funny. Then there was the Beautiful Dream show, that was nice to see. I got second from the front row seats and just gazed like a puppy at a storefront window at female dancers doing their aerial kicks and dance moves.
Children's Programs
Didn't bring any kids so I have no info intel on this.
Service and Staff
The waiters for the main dining hall in the evening were excellent. Louis from the Phillipines was charming and thoughtful. He didn't hesitate to please and my fave waiter. The waiters in the same dining hall for the breakfast experience needs to be worked on seriously waiting for breakfast more than 1 hour is terrible. Room steward Vijay was very nice, didnt get me my 1st day daily planner with a list of things to do that day but I could forgive that one mistake because he took care of me the other days with no issues. He even got a refund for me for the water package that I pre-purchased and hardly used. I really thought I was gonna drink 24 bottles of water but only drank less than 5. There was this Greeter at the Windjammer Vivianna, it was job to direct passengers to the wash room to wash her hands, and she just made me laugh with her cat headband ears. I would hear her say, Wash your hands, Wash Your Hands, Meow Meow. I dont know why, it just made me laugh. It kinda of reminded me of the skit from Super Troopers when the cop says Meow like 7 times while hes giving a speeder a ticket. Anyways, she made my day before lunch time and it put me in a good mood.
Ship Quality
Ship was very clean and maintained for the most part. There was only one instance where one of the elevators that led to the pool near the Solarium, where either a kid,teenager, or other careless passenger left some type of make up paint on the back beam of the elevator. The paint got on my daughters jeans as she backed up to let other passengers on. I called Guest Services and they said the would pay for the dry clean of the pants and the specialty blanket that i purchased that she sat on before realizing what happened to her.
Cabin / Stateroom
I loved my Cabin overall, the beds were the most important factor for me and both the queen size bed and the sofa bed was very comfortable. The last cruise I took, the pullout couch bed was like sleeping on the floor. This one was very soft and was positioned right in front of the balcony so you could watch the sunrise or sunset depending on whether we were traveling north or south. Some gripes, my room was missing some amenities on the first day. I had to call housekeeping 3 times to get this fixed. But they got it right by the 2nd day. They gave us lotion, conditioner which was what I needed traveling with two girls and they gave us more shampoo that was already in the shower dispenser. There was plenty of drawer space to unpack at least 2 large luggage. TV remote wasn't that good, you had to aim at the TV at a certain angle to get it to work.
Ship tip
Definetly do the Main Dining Hall for Dinner, you can try all the dishes you want,you are not restricted to one appetizer, entree, or dessert. The dress code is mostly make sure you are covered, they say there are some formal nights but this not enforced at all. I saw people go in with a tshirt and shorts. Most people dressed casual. Its your vavation
Thumbs up
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Ports of call
Seattle, Washington Did not visit port
This was very enjoyable. I'm glad it didnt get cancelled. I got to see a stream of icebergs in the morning between 8-9am. They gave us hot chocolate if you go to the top deck. Great Experience, beautiful scenery.
My snowdog camp helicopter ride got cancelled due to foggy weather but didnt stop me from having a great time. My back up plan was taking a shuttle to Mendenhall Glacier. It was nice little nature walk to Nugget falls. Very nice pictures to take there with lake, snowy white mountains, waterfalls, and mini icebergs. Highlight though was Tracys Crab Shack, where I ordered the 3lb speacil of King Crab Legs bucket. It was DELICIOUS! It came with a bowl of rice and 3 delicious bread biscuits and little tubs of butter to dip the crab leg meat in. Give yourself at least 2 hours. I waited 30 minutes just to order, then another 25-30 minutes listening for my name to be called out to receive the order. Best Seafood Crab Legs I ever had and will have.
For a no name town, I really enjoyed it, I took a Yukon Shuttle tour into Canada. The tour guide was very nice and full of info about the region, the gold rush, the indigenous people. I learned a lot from him and took great pictures en route to the Yukon suspension bridge that stretches over the Tutshi River Canyon. While in town, I noticed that the souvenirs cost less than in Juneau. So I did more souvenir shopping there. Ending up getting 4 Alaska baseball caps, Alaska metal magnet with mountains background. some snowglobes with a bear and wolves, and pairs of socks that said Somebody that loves me went to Alaska and got me these Socks! LOL! Yes it was all gifts for family and friends back home. Also I stopped by the Klondike doughboy and got the biggest doughboy in my life. I shared in a group of 3, it was the perfect snack while walking back to the cruise ship 15 minutes away.
Just beautiful. Took the food tour in town and had the most delicious foods. Best giant Meatball I had in my life, Delicous perogies, french pastries, Matcha tea in lemonade, bacon bicuits in gravy, and ended the tour in chocolate shop. Loved every minute of the tour. Also did Prince of Whales whale watching, which was a bust for whale watching, only saw them for a couple of seconds, but the ride was nice, tour guide was informative, and got to see Sea Lions were the highlight of the trip. The orcas were too far away and hardly saw them only for seconds at a time. But Victoria is beautiful, love all the different culture scenes and tasty foods.
Disembarkation
We took advantage of the Seattle Port Valet service that took our luggage for $30 each all the way to our final flight destination from the ship. It even covered overweight surcharges if the suitcase was over 50 lbs. And mine definitely was. So I loved this service that was offered. I only took my carryon off the ship that overall took less than 30 minutes to reach the taxi service area, and then another 30 minutes from port to Seattle Airport.