All and All...A Disappointment

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 2

Helpful Votes: 7

Review summary

Yesterday, we ended our Alaskan cruise on the Ovation of the Seas. Here is our review and opinion in detail about our trip. Again, this review is OUR opinion. We are placing this review on several FB pages and other websites. Background: My husband and I traveled with our two daughters, their husbands and four grandkids ranging in age from 13 to 5. Since we had small kids, we opted to buy The Key to make our trip a little easier. More on The Key later. We had unusually spectacular weather. Very minimal rain. Sunny for the most part and highs in the 60s. Unheard of for Alaska. The group the week before had rain with freezing temps. In Seattle, we arrived a day before the cruise left, thank goodness as the day the cruise left, there was an internet downage and airlines canceled 4900 flights. (We heard that many people did not make the cruise). We stayed at the Hyatt Regency downtown. The room was fine and the location was walking distance to Pikes Place. There is a Target downtown for items you may want (liquid hand soap, extra hangers, bar soap). The best part of the Hyatt was their shuttle ($10 and reservations are required with the concierge well in advance) to the ship. Shuttles take you right up to the terminal where a porter will take your luggage as soon as you get off the bus. If you take an Uber, you will have to walk with your luggage about a third of a mile to the terminal. With The Key, we arrived at the terminal at 10:15 am. I checked-in weeks ahead of time, and the only delay was in getting our pictures taken. Boarding started about 10:40 for frequent RC cruisers, suites and The Key. Boarded on deck 5 and immediately went to the dining room to change our dining time. We also went to our Munster station for their check-in and to guest services since we were not able to sign into the ship’s internet. At noon, there was The Key lunch at Chops. It was not in Chops, but in Silk with a Chops menu. The entrees consisted of a steak burger, a filet and a strip steak. As soon as we got our food, I knew this would be a difficult cruise when it came to food. The bun was rock hard, the filet was watery and tasteless, the Caesar salad boring. We are not foodies and do not expect much with 5,000 passengers, but this was awful and almost inedible. I’m going to continue with my review of the food on the ship. With a few exceptions, it was disgusting. We ended up going to the dining room for MTD only twice as that was the worst venue for food. The buffet had the best fruit, but the bakery items were stale. The omelets did not taste like anything and mozzarella cheese was the only cheese option. Like I said, we did not expect much with feeding 5000, but basic food service quality was expected by us. We have sailed about a dozen cruises and never felt the NEED to pay for specialty restaurants before. We gave the Japanese place a try even though it ‘s not our type of food. Our kids like sushi and gave it a C-. My husband and I had the steak teriyaki bowl which was average at best also. The next night we tried Wonderland. It was cute painting the menu, but that’s where the magic stopped. Our server picked out the apps for our table. Maybe if you are a foodie you can appreciate the Tomato Water and other oddities, but we found it strange. Three of us had short ribs, and two were all fat while my husband had an edible piece. The desserts were cute with the melting chocolate ball, but average taste. Our recommendation if you want to spend money here…study the menu and see if innovative cooking and multiple small portions are your thing. We got pizza afterwards. The best restaurant on the ship was Jamie's Italian. The tomato bruschetta was very good along with the spicy vodka penne and lasagne. Skip the item-filled Caesar salad. The banana split and Tiramisu were very good. We went here twice…$1000 we did not expect to spend with the ten of us. The Sorrento’s pizza was OK, nothing special but it got the job done. Do not bother with the hot dog place as it’s mush in a tube. The specialty coffee places on deck 4 and 14 claimed to be Starbucks, but certainly did not have the quality as a Starbucks on land. Our biggest hint to you: The Vintages wine bar outside of Jamies was always empty. We ordered whole pizzas from Sorrentos and brought them here to eat at the large table. We then were able to purchase apps from Jamies ($3 to $11) from this bar. Now back to other items. As Key members, we were able to get preferred times to the Bumper Cars, North Star, I fly, rock climbing, Flowrider, and rollerskating. On day 1, you must make reservations for the North Star and I Fly. The unfortunate part… the times available were at dinnertime or in port. We took advantage of the I Fly and our assigned time was at sail-away. The best activity was bumper cars. We were able to stay on them for 30 minutes, the whole of the Key allotted time. Our North Star time was in the Juneau port, which meant that we had to cut our time on land in Juneau short. Maybe North Star had merit at the glacier, but otherwise there was no value to it. The Seaplex was great for the kids when it was family time, which was limited as it’s a busy place with lots of things going on. Other activities that the grandkids enjoyed: Family karaoke participation, playing pool in the Music Lounge (despite all the pool sticks missing a tip) , the indoor pool on chilly sea days, and the cupcake making class for the 13 year old granddaughter. Our first port was Juneau. We decided on the Whale Watching, Wildlife and Mendenhall Glacier excursion via RC. The ride to the whale watching boat was about 40 minutes. We were on that oldish boat for 35 minutes going to a spot that had whales. When we arrived at that spot, there were several boats in the area. Yes, we saw a few whales, but on our way into Juneau we saw just as many from the ship. After about 30 minutes in this whale viewing spot, we started back to the landing. This was a total waste of money and time. It was a 30 minute drive back to the glacier and we had a total of 45 minutes here which was much too short to walk to the waterfall area. (a 2 mile round trip). We saw no other wildlife with the exception of a bald eagle. We walked around downtown for a while then headed back for our North Star time. The highlight was the next day in Skagway. We took the 9 am White Pass train and it did not disappoint. I made a scavenger hunt for the kids so they focused the whole time on the train looking for items. A big hint…and I mean big…sit on the left side of the train. While the train turns around for those on the right to see on the way down, it’s much more impressive going up and the narration is more extensive. There was not much narration on the way down. The history of the train and Gold Rush was amazing and we loved this excursion. We had plenty of time to walk around Skagway and a true highlight was the Skagway Brewery. I had the best fish and chips that I ever had. Made with halibut that was picked up that morning in Hanes. Lightly battered and delicious. Highly recommended. Great service too. Don't miss the Gold Rush museum and the short video. We all agreed that this was the best day of the trip. You may be tempted not to buy the excursion via the ship, but the next day, there was a rockslide blocking the train and people had to be “rescued”. Just a thought. The Endicott Arm and the Dawes glacier were next. We arrived at the arm at 5 am and woke up to sail into it. Since the grandkids were sleeping, we were able to go into the Solarium area which is 18 yr old and up. It was raining and the windows were blocking a clear view. This is another source of contention on this ship…if you are not 18, there is no place to see where we are sailing head-on. You only get a more 180 degree view by going to the Two70 at the back of the ship. It took 2 hours to get to the glacier area. We spent about an hour at the glacier, with the ship turning oh so slowly so everyone could see. After the fact, we heard that our great weather allowed us to go to the glacier…only the third time the Ovation was able to get there this season and we were the closest boat so far at 1.2 miles from the glacier wall. We would recommend that once you get to the glacier, go outside to appreciate the stillness of the area. Would I wake up again at 4:30 am to see it….no. I’d wait until six when the ship started to get into the narrows of the area especially if the windows had rain on them. After a day at sea, Victoria was our last stop. Beautiful and really clean city. We walked to the Fisherman’s wharf area and continued along the water to downtown. In total about a 30 minute walk. We went to the Parliamentary building and just glanced the inside. We booked high tea at the Empress Hotel outside of the ship. It was very nice in the historic building. The exchange rate made it about $70 per adult. Afterwards, we walked around town, stopped for a drink at the Local and the kids played in the playground that was on the way back to the ship. Now for the entertainment. We started watching the comedian, but ended up leaving as he was not funny. The Spectra Cabaret was bizarre. What the heck was the plot? While the room is nice, the production extensive, and the performers good, there was no plot to speak of. The production show was bizarre too. About a guy who had a dead wife and a dream he had to live his life. I wonder if both shows were written by the same nutjob. The bingo is expensive and the gal talks a ton to take up time. There are only 3 games for about $60 per person. Stop talking and give us another game. The venue is so crowded that we had to sit on the floor on the stage. There are limited tables so people were marking cards on their laps. The 70s dance party was the highlight of entertainment and pretty energetic. . The silent disco was fun also. The casino was busy and we like that they had a $6 minimum blackjack table. Note that it closes at 11:30 pm on the last night. Now the ship’s condition. The ship is beautiful. Very clean in both the public areas and the cabins. The indoor pool is a nice touch for the Alaskan weather. The Seaplex is amazing. It never felt really crowded unless you played Bingo or wanted an elevator at key times. As I noted above, it was unfortunate that there is nowhere to look out of the front of the ship if you are under 18. Now the service aspect. This is our first cruise since 2020 and we noticed a downhill trend on service. For the first time in our ten cruises, I have to say that the service left something to be desired. It took quite some time when you ordered cocktails to get one. The unhappy staff did not have the “disney juice” they usually had and for the first time, we noticed a language problem. The english was very accented and there were some comprehension problems. My husband twice ordered a Manhattan, not to get what he ordered. You could not understand the Captain’s announcements as his accent from wherever he was from was very thick. Ordering at the specialty restaurants was challenging, and if you deviated from the menu, look out. The explanation of menu items was impossible and we just gave up listening. This was such an unexpected disappointment. Would we sail on RC again? If it was only my husband and me traveling, the answer is no. If we had the grandkids, maybe. We priced this trip on Disney, whom we sailed twice before, and it’s by far a superior experience in every aspect. However, Alaska on Disney was almost 4 times the cost as RC. No thanks. But if it was double the cost, the answer would be Disney. RC just has more to do with kids then the other cruise lines such as Princess or Celebrity. All in all, a great week and spending time with family was the highlight. Thank you for reading and I’m open to answering questions.

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Seattle, Washington

Juneau, Alaska

Skagway, Alaska

CRUISE ENDICOTT ARM & DAWES GLACIER

Victoria, British Columbia

Disembarkation

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