Ovation - One Year Ago Today

[Hoopster95]

(not my video ... credit to "cruises adventures")

 

Sigh.... My guess is we'll never see a Quantum Class ship come into Vancouver again.

 

Below is (extremely) low tide, a photo from North Vancouver's Ambleside Park. Ovation sailed into Vancouver a night early at around 6pm'ish in order to get the lowest tide possible to get under the Lion's Gate Bridge. Note this bridge is almost the same span height as the Bridge of Americas on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal... funnels clearly retracted on the video, a rare site.

 

 

I haven't seen @twangster on the forums at all the last little while, really hope he's doing well! Many of you know he posted incredible photos and video on that live collaboration review last year, best photos I've ever seen of Ovation. Hey @twangster, I'm thinking of adding one or two photos a day to this thread of where Ovation was at on each given day, from today May 12 to May 24, as a kind-of 1 year anniversary memory so that I can at least pretend I was on a cruise.... Would you like to post a photo or two over the next week on this thread? 

Edited May 13, 2020 by Hoopster95

[atgood]

How much clearance was there?  I don’t think I ever saw it mentioned. 

 

It’ll have to go there if a cruise starts out from Honolulu. 
 

Thanks for the link to the video. 

Edited May 13, 2020 by atgood

[Oceansaway17]

I was on that ship when she sailed out and here is my photo LEAVING Vancouver  May 13th Monday evening.  The funnels were down as we went under.

One of the truly best cruises I ever did and for Ovation one of its best as well.  Very special.  

Today I was supposed to be on the Vision of the seas heading into Venice on 13th.  Oh well

 

 

[Hoopster95]

41 minutes ago, atgood said:

How much clearance was there?  I don’t think I ever saw it mentioned. 

It’ll have to go there if a cruise starts out from Honolulu. 

 

5-6 meters (16-20 feet) per the Captain. I had always thought it be around 6-10 feet. Radiance of the Seas regularly travels under in "normal" tide conditions at around 20 ft of clearance. The bridge span height is 198ft, Radiance is approx 178 tall at max height point. Ovation is much taller, so the tide must've been ultra low to make this sailing happen. Here's a frame of reference... me on Quantum deck 15 looking down onto Jewel ... imagine how much taller Ovation is at the funnels compared to Radiance Class!

 

 

And below is Radiance going under the Lion's Gate on any normal day.... doesn't look that much difference than when Ovation is going under... until maybe you look at where the Ovation photo in the first post was taken. Note the water to shoreline in comparison to the ultra low tide when Ovation went under.

 

 

 

 

Both Ovation and Quantum (pre-Covid) were scheduled to sail from Tokyo to Seattle... no Vancouver stop needed to satisfy the PVSA. May 19, 2020 and Sept 17,  2020 were to be the final times we'd see Ovation sail under the bridge into Vancouver.

Edited May 13, 2020 by Hoopster95

[Oceansaway17]

0h and the one and most likely time Ovation will go to Icy Point. 

Here is my photo of that day

Ovation mid day with Northstar up.  Later I went up as well.  Here is my photo of in port.  it looks over the small town

 

[Hoopster95]

Hey Oceansaway17... save your photos for each upcoming day. Icy Strait was May 16 🙂

 

Edited May 13, 2020 by Hoopster95

[Oceansaway17]

17 minutes ago, Hoopster95 said:

Hey Oceansaway17... save your photos for each upcoming day. Icy Strait was May 16 🙂

 

 

I don't plan on coming on each day and posting.  Besides you only invited the Lord of RCI himself so I will let you both have the fun going forward.

I am not that interesting but I do have a great up close photo of the Captain on the Bridge tour and another one with his own hand on the controls when we were on the port side wing.

[Hoopster95]

2 minutes ago, Oceansaway17 said:

I am not that interesting but I do have a great up close photo of the Captain on the Bridge tour and another one with his own hand on the controls when we were on the port side wing.

 

That's very cool! Post them 👍

[suzyluvs2cruise]

We were on Ovation as she sailed into Vancouver. A memorable and fun experience. 

 

 

 

Edited May 13, 2020 by suzyluvs2cruise

[sergeant655]

Unless Royal decides not to bring quantum of the Seas to Alaska in 2021 we will see Quantum of the Seas in Vancouver as the September 27 sailing from Seattle will end in Vancouver.  The Norwegian Bliss also has to go under at low tide and still looks like it barely clears the bridge.

[hallux]

@sergeant655 I was on the Bliss when she sailed under that bridge last May.  Yes, it was close.  I think I heard that there was a 20 minute window during which she could sail under the bridge and have a safe clearance buffer.

 

I have a video from on deck, I could upload it to YouTube if there's interest, unless someone finds another video that's already posted.

 

I didn't realize Quantum-class ships had retractable stacks.  I was on Anthem sailing out of Bayonne, I don't think the Verrazzano bridge has much more clearance than this one.

[sellwingri]

I’m scheduled to sail on Ovation to Alaska in September but I’m guessing it’ll be canceled.  I know that at the very least, I’ll sail on her from Japan on a transpacific Cruise next May.  Can’t wait to see her! 

[Oceansaway17]

12 hours ago, Hoopster95 said:

 

That's very cool! Post them 👍

 

 

For now I will just post the Captain's right hand as he was explaining how he turns the ship.  Since the other photo of him is a close up of his face and instruments on the bridge, I don't think I will post out of repsect.  But he was grinning at someone besides me and not looking at me directly.  

I am also posting the glass window in the floor they use to look down while docking. I took this tour on either the 15th or 16th can't remember.

 

Sad today I would have been in Venice Italy with the Vision of the Seas.   I am booked for new Odyssey next year out of FLA and also doing Greece (I hope) and in 2022 once again in FLA.  I think that ship will be wonderful with new stuff.

 

[Hoopster95]

15 hours ago, Hoopster95 said:

Sigh.... My guess is we'll never see a Quantum Class ship come into Vancouver again.

 

13 hours ago, sergeant655 said:

Unless Royal decides not to bring quantum of the Seas to Alaska in 2021 we will see Quantum of the Seas in Vancouver as the September 27 sailing from Seattle will end in Vancouver.  

 

Yikes... I missed this. Thank you sergeant. I also searched on the "Deployment" thread and found this:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2683833-deployment-2021-22-booking-season-begins/page/127/?tab=comments#comment-59894905

If Ovation also heads to Honolulu vs. Tokyo then she'll have to stop in Vancouver or more likely Victoria on her way out.

 

End of Sept/1st week of Oct has been glorious weather for us in the Pacific Northwest the last few years... hoping it is for you as well next year. Of course, this is all pre-Covid itineraries so who knows what will truly happen a year from now.

 

[Hoopster95]

7 hours ago, hallux said:

I didn't realize Quantum-class ships had retractable stacks.  I was on Anthem sailing out of Bayonne, I don't think the Verrazzano bridge has much more clearance than this one.

 

Verrazano is taller than the Lion's gate bridge by about 30 feet

http://nyfacts.com/verrazano-narrows-bridge/

 

However I have video of Quantum going under the Verrazano and it seemed much closer than Ovation going under the Lion's Gate... perhaps the tides were that much higher that night we left Bayonne? 

[Hoopster95]

One year ago today....

 

 

Edited May 13, 2020 by Hoopster95

[Missusdubbya]

Thanks Hoopster, this is great to relive!

[Hoopster95]

A rare sight indeed... Canada Place and the Fairmont from atop NorthStar

 

 

A view of Ovation's pool deck and downtown Vancouver from the suite deck

 

 

Sailaway was quite late, around 8pm PST we started to pull away from Canada Place in order to time the lowest tides possible under the bridge. We reached the bridge at approx. 8:30pm

 

 

 

[bobmacliberty]

10 hours ago, Hoopster95 said:

 

Like this picture.  Makes it seem like she's sailing in about 5 feet of water.

 

Thanks for doing this Hoopster.  I really enjoyed reading this trip live (first time I started seriously thinking about Alaska) and could definitely use more cruising here and less other stuff.  Hopefully @twangster is doing well and will also post some of his great shots.

[Hoopster95]

A year ago today ... a day at sea somewhere in the Pacific Ocean west of Vancouver Island.

 

Obstructed cat 1E 7606

 

I'll continue to try and pick a few photos that I did not use in my review last year.

So much to do on sea days... you can do nothing, or stay busy every minute. IFly, Florider, Bumper Cars, Trapeze School, Port of call seminars, Northstar, trivia, dance lessons, hot tubs, indoor/outdoor pools, Solarium ... Quantum Class is fantastic!

 

 

 

 

This evenings dinner was a super fun roll call pre-arranged group table at Wonderland. We had a blast at their large center table with the fancy chairs and big whimsical chandelier. Here's the deserts, including my fave RC desert "The World" (the chocolate ball bottom left, google "The World Wonderland dessert" for videos of what happens to this ball)

 

 

If you enjoy nightly events, Quantum Class is as varied as Oasis Class. I watched a presentation at Two70, went to the theatre show, and then finished the night in the Music Hall for a little while enjoying awesome live music.

 

[AlanF65]

Hoopster, this was a fun time, I remember meeting you the night before on the aft deck of the Windjammer, remember how we were delayed a few hours for the tide to go down before we could leave port?

I learned more about tides the few weeks before we left.

 

I had a lot of fun on this cruise and enjoyed the dinners we had.

I can use something fun to follow.

Thanks for the Memories, I just decided to poke my head into RCCL today. I was supposed to be packing for a Monday 14 day to Alaska on HAL Maasdam. Hope your are safe and well!

Alan

 

[twangster]

May 14 - Formal night.

 

 

May 14 was my Pixels reservation.

 

 

 

 

 

It wasn't a spectacular sunset but any sunset at sea will do.

 

 

 

Movie night by the pool, "Holmes & Watson".

 

 

Pretty quiet evening around the ship.

 

 

 

 

''

 

 

 

 

[Hoopster95]

12 minutes ago, AlanF65 said:

Alan

 

Hey Alan!!! How are you my friend? Great to hear from you. Hope you're doing well and staying safe in Cali.

Yes those tides were super low. I was very surprised by the clearance at the bridge... Radiance clears by that much in regular waters, so goes to show you.

 

This was one of my favorite cruises... Quantum Class is my favorite class, and I had a great time trying once-in-a-lifetime things at the ports on this unique itinerary. It's interesting (and super smart by RCL) that they do Juneau/Icy Strait one week, and then Skagway/Sitka the next... excellent opportunity to attract the many b2b customers.

 

I was supposed to just be home from sailing on Empress (Bermuda) last week, so I've been feeling the travel blues.

I was super lucky to have been cruising/traveling in mid-late February in South America, as they were one of the last to begin feeling the effects of the virus, and began shutting down long after we were home. The ship we were on (Oceania Marina) had to make a direct route back to Miami when ports began shutting down as well, but had no infections (that they know of). They returned from South America before the infamous Zaandam sailing when all hell broke loose.

 

Hopefully we'll cross paths again someday. Take care and say hi every once in a while during any thread we're both speaking on 😀

[Jimbo]

He's back.......

[Hoopster95]

YYYYYYYYYYYES!

Twangster is in the house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With a few (to me anyways) unseen photos.

 

Many thanks Twangster 😀👍