Ovation Alaska Family Cruise

Item: Ovation of the Seas
Rating: 4
Author: AprilC73

Ovation of the Seas Cruise Review to Alaska - Inside Passage

AprilC73

Contributor Level: Second Mate

133 Days Till Next Cruise

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 4

Helpful Votes: 22

Overall rating:

4 out of 5

7 Night Alaska Experience (Seattle Roundtrip)

Sail date: June 14, 2024

Ship: Ovation of the Seas

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 8168

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 1 month ago

Review summary

If you're cruising as a family doing a roundtrip inside passage cruise to Alaska you can't go wrong with a Royal Caribbean Quantum Class ship. My husband and I were in a balcony cabin and our two adult girls were in a neighboring cabin. We had the balcony divider opened and loved having a longer balcony which made it easy access for us to go back and forth to each other's rooms. Our girls are 26 & 21 and they were pleased with all the activity and entertainment options the ship offered. We were never bored. There was always something to do, but we did find time to relax and enjoy the scenery from our balcony. Although we did a helicopter tour of the waterfalls in Hawaii we have never seen as many waterfalls as we saw in Alaska. We saw at least 50 waterfalls during our cruise and half were from our balcony. In Sitka our girls did a boat excursion to True Alaskan Tours and loved seeing otters. My husband and I walked to the Alaska Raptor Center which we found a worthwhile experience as we love eagles. We also did a shot hike and did some shopping. With the hopes of seeing wildlife we booked the 9 AM train in Skagway and were blessed with seeing 3 Alaskan brown bears -- a mother and her twin cubs. I booked our train tickets direct from the train station and saved money. It's was an easy walk of 2 blocks from the ship to the train station. After the train ride in Skagway we tried beer made from the tips of the pine trees. It was very treeish. Skagway offered decent shopping. My husband and I enjoyed relaxing sore muscles in the solarium hot tubs after visiting Skagway and Juneau. We even enjoyed wine in the hot tub. In Juneau we booked a tour through a private vendor and visited Mendenhall Glacier and hiked 2.4 miles roundtrip to Nugget Falls. Hiking to Nugget Falls was an easy paved path and well worth the hike as the falls did not disappoint. We had already visited Victoria, BC on a prior cruise and did an entire 14 hours worth of excursions so we just walked around and took a water taxi. I would have liked to revisit the Butchart Gardens but the ships didn't really allow us enough time in port to justify the price of the trip. I would do this cruise again to experience different things at the ports, but I would do the longer train ride in Skagway next time.

Embarkation

4 out of 5

Easy going and relaxing, not much of a sail away party

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

The Windjammer buffet was decent, but the food in the main dining room was unappealing and lacked in taste. Food quality stressed my kidneys causing my legs and ankles to swell despite not adding any salt to my food the entire cruise. I have food allergies and suffer from MCAS (a mast cell disease) and found the food quality poor compared to prior cruises. Service was great, no complaints about the service.

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Quantum Class ships offer the most onboard activity and entertainment options of all ships cruising Alaska. We enjoyed bumper cars a couple times with family and friends. The North Star observation capsule offered incredible 360° views while embarking from Seattle and in Juneau. Hot tubs in the adults only solarium were relaxing after adventurous days in port. I found that I need to work on my upper body strength for the rock climbing wall. Enjoyed watching a dodgeball tournament in the SeaPlex. RipCord indoor skydiving did not disappoint. It felt just like regular skydiving during the free fall but without the need to jump out of a plane and fall to the earth.

Entertainment

5 out of 5

We really enjoyed the comedian. Two70 has so much potential.

Children's Programs

No minor children

Service and Staff

3 out of 5

Service in the main dining room and buffet was excellent, but room attendant was the worst service we've ever had on a cruise.

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

No complaints about the design, but we never saw the ship being cleaned nor smelled any cleaner, etc. No toilet seat covers in any of the public restrooms and dirty toilet seats. Unless you wanted to clean the seat or sit on urine sprinkles you had to hover and add to the sprinkles.

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5

Space and size of our cabin was decent. Bed did not have fitted bottom sheet and was knotted to hold fit but knot came undone exposing the mattress and a very dirty stained and smelly mattress pad. Only the most basic room cleaning was done. We never saw our room attendant except on the first day.