Royal Downer

Item: Ovation of the Seas
Rating: 3.6
Author: czugie

Ovation of the Seas Cruise Review to Alaska - Inside Passage

czugie

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 2-3 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 28

Overall rating:

3.6 out of 5

Verified Review

7 Night Alaska Glacier (Seattle Roundtrip)

Sail date: June 30, 2023

Ship: Ovation of the Seas

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 6586

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 1 year ago

Review summary

This was my second cruise on Royal Caribbean. Not having the pre-ordered items (8 months in advance) was ridiculous and inexcusable. Seeing other cabins have towel animals on their bed and we never got one, seeing other people with decorations and blankets when I ordered the same but you ran out??? Poor excuses and made my wife’s 55th Birthday not so great. The ship was booked to capacity and your soda machines kept running out of coke, the bars and I mean several kept running out of pina colada mix, the pad tai with shrimp is not supposed to include the hard crunchy tails, the desserts were so small that you had to take 3-4 to make a normal piece. The bumper cars I was excited about were not in service, the birthday cake was in our room the first night when my wife’s birthday wasn’t until the 5th night and Royal stated they could not deliver the cake on the proper day. The lines at the windjammer were long and you couldn’t get iced tea or lemonade at any of the bars. Water and coke machines should be accessible on every floor since you sell a soda package… quit running out of soda! I am now looking for a new cruise company to spend my money with. Thank you for all the disappointments. This type of trip takes a lot of people several years to save up for. All I can say is Thank god Alaska was so beautiful!

Embarkation

3 out of 5

It was fast but once on board it was chaos

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Jamie’s Italian was great, Chops, windjammer and sorrentos was just okay

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Everything was overly crowded. Bumper cars were not working.

Entertainment

3 out of 5

The comedian was horrible… to joke about cancer or someone having a trachea is just disgusting

Children's Programs

No kids

Service and Staff

3 out of 5

Staff were very nice, no towel animals in our room, no pre-ordered birthday decorations or pre-ordered gift. Just a note on two separate days saying sorry and you’ve been credited. That is very disappointing seeing as I ordered all of the items 8 months in advance. You think they could have called to let me know so I could have brought my own decorations.

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Ship appeared clean. Soda, water machines need to be closer to the rooms or placed strategically on the ship

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5

Room size was good and plenty of storage. Not happy about the obstructed view. I called and placed several bid upgrades too but not a word until the night before the cruise

Ship tip

Wait until the kids go back to school and don’t book on a holiday. The ship was maximum capacity

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Seattle, Washington

3 out of 5

Tour of Seattle was ok. I thought we would go to the space needle but went to a higher building. Pikes Place is nothing more that a large overpriced flea market

Thumbs Up 0

Sitka, Alaska

5 out of 5

Wildlife and Fin Island- good food and the scenery was beautiful

Thumbs Up 0

Skagway, Alaska

5 out of 5

Whitepass Railway- train ride was nice

Thumbs Up 0

CRUISE ENDICOTT ARM & DAWES GLACIER

5 out of 5

Beautiful sights