All Ocean Victory Alaska 2022 Cruises

[donaldsc]

On 6/26/2022 at 2:08 PM, Indian57 said:

A question for those who have been on Ocean Victory.  What has been the attire on board??I doubt country club casual is the rule but have seen nothing from AQ re passenger attire.

 

Wear anything that you wish.  The ship did get a bit cool inside at times however.

 

DON

[Missouri travel girl]

Thank you Don, it shows a speciality restaurant ( I thought) in the deck plans that there is an extra charge.  I heard the food wasn’t great and that’s too bad but won’t spoil it for my group. Did you enjoy any excursions over another more? Thank you so much for answering our questions. How was your weather? All I see for this week is rain! 

[donaldsc]

35 minutes ago, Missouri travel girl said:

Thank you Don, it shows a speciality restaurant ( I thought) in the deck plans that there is an extra charge.  I heard the food wasn’t great and that’s too bad but won’t spoil it for my group. Did you enjoy any excursions over another more? Thank you so much for answering our questions. How was your weather? All I see for this week is rain! 

 

I don't know if you have taken any of the paddle wheel cruises that American Queen does but this trip was completely different.  We knew exactly what we were getting into as we have taken a number of expedition cruises but when the asked at the introductory meeting how many of the passengers had done a paddle wheel trip a large number of the passengers raised their hands.  Take this demographic into account if you read negative comments on the cruise on CC.  

 

There were several disconnects between details listed on the cruise brochure and what actually happened.  One of these was the non-existent specialty restaurant.  There was a main dining room on deck 5 that served breakfast, lunch and dinner.  There was a smaller restaurant on deck 8 that served breakfast and lunch only.  There was no difference in what food was served except that there were menu items served in the deck 5 restaurant that were not on the deck 8 restaurant.  We ate most of our breakfasts and lunches on deck 8 since the views were better and I could also quickly run from my meal to the good viewing areas really quickly if something exciting happened outside.  

 

I would rate the food as good.  There was plenty to eat and the menu choices always included a meat, a fish (usually Alaskan fish), a pasta and a vegetarian option.  Always available was steak, lobster and chicken.  I often ordered 1 or 2 lobsters as a side dish to my main menu choice.  Not Maine lobster but good.  There was also an open bar available at no cost as well as several multi-function coffee machines.  

 

In answer to your question on excursions the only one we took was the Dungeness crab excursion in Ketchikan which was good and you could have all the crab that you could eat.  I had 2 of them!  The reason we did not take more optional excursions was that we had been to several of the ports on previous cruises so we knew what we wanted to do.  We did take all the included excursions which were good.  The people who did take the optional excursions seemed to be happy with them.

 

They also modified several of the included excursions because of changing circumstances but this is to be expected on an expedition cruise.  For example the included excursion at Wrangell did not occur because we were there on July 4 and the whole town including us was experiencing their 4th of July celebration which was wonderful.

 

We did take all the zodiac cruises which were great and we got really close to the glaciers.  Kayaking was also included as part of the cruise but we did not do any kayaking.  One thing about the zodiac.  You dock at some ports but at others you get from the ship to the port via the zodiacs.  

 

One thing about an expedition cruise is that you have to be flexible.  If what is going on outside is better that what is listed on the itinerary for that day they will modify the itinerary to give you the best cruise experience possible.  This happened a couple of times on our cruise.

 

You asked about the weather.  We had the best weather of any of the AK cruises we have taken.  It was sunny and warm almost every day which it totally unheard of.  We did get clouds and a bit of morning rain at Misty Fjords but that is the atmospheric environment that you want there so that was OK.  I looked at the weather forecast for the cruise after ours and it appears as if they are going to get the normal rainy weather that you would expect in that part of AK.

 

We obviously enjoyed the trip.  We are AK nuts and have been to Alaska maybe 10 times in different variants including a 3 month driving trip and a winter trip to Fairbanks to do aurora photography.  This trip was really good.

 

DON

 

 

 

 

[Missouri travel girl]

Thank you!  We are familiar with the paddle boat cruises and are really looking forward to this one as well. Thank you for clarifying the speciality restaurant not being there. My group are always flexible with changes so no problem there. I wasn’t aware that the zodiacs were also tenders, but should be no problem. My husband and another fellow use a cane and as long as they have help loading will be fine. We sail on July 30! 
Were you Sitka to Vancouver or the other direction?

[rljan]

Thanks Don.  It sounds like the dining options are the same, or similar to the river cruise ships.  We are ok with that.  We look forward to our August trip.

[elegantlotus]

Just got back from our Sitka to Vancouver cruise.

Don't bother bringing your muck boots.. they have them available, and the only thing we used them for was to keep our feet warm (so pack warm socks) and for the occasional times when the water splashed into the zodiac, so if that is going to bother you, bring a pair of waterproof walking shoes. We bought our own rain jackets and waterproof pants which were light and came in handy.  The muck boot just took up too much room in the suitcase!

Don't bother bringing any dress up clothes. I never took mine out of the suitcase. 

Bring something to read or do. The internet is sketchy, and the TV stopped working after a few days.  There is a small library with a nice selection of books. The staff also had presentations during the day but that only took up a few hours.

The zodiacs did pose a problem for some, although the staff is very helpful... (once I saw 4 staff members helping someone get from the ship to the zodiac.. ) However, there were a few people who felt they could not maneuver getting from ship to zodiacs,  so they never were able to get off the ship during the cruise as even the ports required shuttling across via zodiac. 

Last little tidbit... I personally would have brought my own salad dressing.. as I thought the salad dressings had no taste. I was happy with most of the food selection and if nothing appealed to me, could always order a cheeseburger and fries.

All in all, this cruise was a good value.  The staff was fantastic and really went out of their way. Sure there were a lot of inconsistencies and misinformation starting from embarkation papers, where to meet the bus to get to the ship, .. it goes on and on... not informing us that we needed our government ID at the ports.. but I'm not going to get into the negatives, and I feel that the problems will get ironed out over time. 

Have a lot of fun future cruisers!! The weather was beautiful. We saw a lot of wildlife... although, isn't it funny that when we see deer in our backyard they are viewed as a nuisance, but when we see deer on the cruise.. all of a sudden it's so exciting! 

 

 

[adstz]

I have to ask the dreaded question. Are there guest use washing and drying machines on board?

I know, I know. If you're going to pay this much for a cruise then pay to have your wash done too.

Ok then - what are the prices to have laundry done? Does it come back quickly and done nicely?

I paid on the American Queen to have laundry done. They said it would be back the next day. Took 2 more days to get it back. They stuffed our clean laundry into bags so it was all wrinkled and crammed in. Needless to say I did NOT pay for it. I had to take the time to go to the dryer and toss it all before I folded it.

Overall we will be gone almost 2 weeks and will be flying so I can't bring my whole wardrobe (I am one of those who think "but what if I need this?")

Thanks for any info.

[Missouri travel girl]

Thank you elegantlotus, it sounds like most people didn’t change for dinner? I don’t plan on taking anything dressy just pants and light sweater or top for evening? What type of waterproof pants did you take and did they go over your clothes? If you don’t have water proof shoes or pants do you get soaking wet in the zodiacs or just a little? Are there any towns that you can just walk off the boat? I know Don mentioned yesterday that they used them to tender at some towns. 

[donaldsc]

2 hours ago, adstz said:

I have to ask the dreaded question. Are there guest use washing and drying machines on board?

I know, I know. If you're going to pay this much for a cruise then pay to have your wash done too.

Ok then - what are the prices to have laundry done? Does it come back quickly and done nicely?

I paid on the American Queen to have laundry done. They said it would be back the next day. Took 2 more days to get it back. They stuffed our clean laundry into bags so it was all wrinkled and crammed in. Needless to say I did NOT pay for it. I had to take the time to go to the dryer and toss it all before I folded it.

Overall we will be gone almost 2 weeks and will be flying so I can't bring my whole wardrobe (I am one of those who think "but what if I need this?")

Thanks for any info.

 

0. There are no washing machines on board.

 

1.  We got one bag for free.  They are large bags and it is amazing how much you can stuff into the bag.  Also you are on an expedition cruise so nobody will notice or care if your clothes are wrinkled.   There are no formal or even country club casual (whatever that means) on the cruise.

 

2. You will only be gone for 2 weeks.  How much stuff can you need for 2 weeks.

 

DON

[Missouri travel girl]

That’s great news! I didn’t know we could have anything washed👏 Color me happy!

[adstz]

New question (have so many!)

We booked the jet boat in Wrangell. It's also available in Petersburg.

Is there a reason to book one over the other? They both seem to go to the same place.

[Missouri travel girl]

We booked the one in Petersburg, it goes to the Le Conte glacier. 

[adstz]

19 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

0. There are no washing machines on board.

 

1.  We got one bag for free.  They are large bags and it is amazing how much you can stuff into the bag.  Also you are on an expedition cruise so nobody will notice or care if your clothes are wrinkled.   There are no formal or even country club casual (whatever that means) on the cruise.

 

2. You will only be gone for 2 weeks.  How much stuff can you need for 2 weeks.

 

DON

Thanks for the info.

And personally, I need one set of clean clothes every day. That's how much stuff I need.

[BJHeard549]

The ship is very nice.

The crew is great.  Olga at the bar on 5 forward (as well as lots of other places on the ship) is a hoot and a lot of fun.

We went on a Victory Cruise Lines cruise in August of 2019 and this cruise was no where near as nice.  
The company’s policies seem to have changed since then.

In 2019 we cruised part of the St. Lawrence Seaway and on 2 Great Lakes.   EVERYTHING was included, even all the land tours.   Not anymore.  The ‘included’ tours on this Alaska cruise were very basic.  We bought the $79/person spirit of Sitka tour and it was NOT worth it.  There were LOTS of ‘premium’ tours available, many of them costing hundreds of dollars per person.

The food was also no where near as good as the food was on our 2019 cruise.

Breakfast and lunch were both buffets.  You could not order off of a menu.  Only dinner offered a menu to choose from.  The variety of foods offered over the length of the cruise was pretty boring.   One of the usual great treats of a cruise is the great food.   It isn’t that way on this cruise.   The food was pretty disappointing.

 

[Missouri travel girl]

We booked the one in Petersburg, it goes to the Le Conte glacier. 

[Missouri travel girl]

I’m sorry to hear the food isn’t the best, are they still short staffed so they can’t prepare better quality out just the chefs? Look forward to meeting Olga. We will enjoy our trip and we are all looking forward to it. Thank you for your post. 

[elegantlotus]

There is also a retractable clothes line in the shower, and I hand washed small items. Then I would use the hair dryer if things didn't dry in time.

 

Honestly,  I did wore the same thing all day long... to the excursions, to the talks and briefing and to dinner.  I also wore my flip flops every where on the ship because it's most comfortable... some people dressed up for dinner... nice casual... but no one really cared. There is a dress code for the dining room.. I think it was no jeans, no slippers, no caps.... but no one said anything.. (hahah maybe they were just being polite)

 

I wore my rain jacket and my water proof pants ( I brought my  marmot full zip precip pants.. but that is because i have them.) In the zodiacs you might get splashed a bit.. not nothing unbearable... However, it did rain on day when we were kayaking and it was pretty wet and all my rain gear was appreciated! 

 

Again.. very important... the only time we were able to walk on and off the ship was for embarkation and disembarkation... if you are not able to get into a zodiac, then you will be stuck on the ship the whole time. 

 

The food... I thought it was pretty good for an expedition ship.  24/7 coffee and tea available, breakfast and lunch..  pretty much standard.. dinner... your choice of appetizers, soup, salad and entrees.. choice of  vegetarian,  seafood (never crab),  meat dish (good lamb dishes) and maybe a pasta dish. Then several choices of desserts, sorbet, ice cream, cheese and fruit platter. And there was always lobsters tail or steak and a couple of other choices. one night I wanted to eat a cheese burger, fries and a coke float which was not on the menu and they happily obliged!  Let me say that I never went hungry!! (although, i did take some of the butter oatmeal cookies to the room to munch on).. Oh they also had "afternoon tea" a couple times with scones and finger sandwiches and cakes and pies...

 

sorry, I am jumping from subject to subject... I am only trying to give helpful advice.. for the Anan Wildlife observatory bear tour... I booked with Alaska Vistas and saved a bunch of money.. $340 + tax .. we went to the same place and did the same thing as the ship's premium excursion. 

 

Also for disembarkation, we caught a taxi right outside Canada Place in Vancouver.. we shared the cost with another couple and it ended up costing us less than $20 for each couple.

 

Hope I answered all the questions and more.. !!

 

[elegantlotus]

Sorry, the taxi was from Canada Place to the airport... came to less than $40 CAD. Much cheaper and perhaps faster than taking the bus to the airport thru AQV. 

[JAT0303]

I'm interested in how the cruise line is handling positive Covid cases on the Alaska cruise.  I see from the CDC dashboard that there are active cases on board.  Does anyone have information that was shared with cruise passengers during the cruise?  Thanks.

[donaldsc]

5 hours ago, elegantlotus said:

There is also a retractable clothes line in the shower, and I hand washed small items. Then I would use the hair dryer if things didn't dry in time.

 

Honestly,  I did wore the same thing all day long... to the excursions, to the talks and briefing and to dinner.  I also wore my flip flops every where on the ship because it's most comfortable... some people dressed up for dinner... nice casual... but no one really cared. There is a dress code for the dining room.. I think it was no jeans, no slippers, no caps.... but no one said anything.. (hahah maybe they were just being polite)

 

I wore my rain jacket and my water proof pants ( I brought my  marmot full zip precip pants.. but that is because i have them.) In the zodiacs you might get splashed a bit.. not nothing unbearable... However, it did rain on day when we were kayaking and it was pretty wet and all my rain gear was appreciated! 

 

Again.. very important... the only time we were able to walk on and off the ship was for embarkation and disembarkation... if you are not able to get into a zodiac, then you will be stuck on the ship the whole time. 

I think that under normal circumstances we would have docked at Wrangell and at Ketchikan as planned.  We didn't dock at Wrangell because of the July 4 festivities which were a good tradeoff for docking.  If we had docked at Ketchikan we would have been at Ward Cove.  Parking the ship right in town was a better option in my opinion.  

5 hours ago, elegantlotus said:

 

The food... I thought it was pretty good for an expedition ship.  24/7 coffee and tea available, breakfast and lunch..  pretty much standard.. dinner... your choice of appetizers, soup, salad and entrees.. choice of  vegetarian,  seafood (never crab),  meat dish (good lamb dishes) and maybe a pasta dish. Then several choices of desserts, sorbet, ice cream, cheese and fruit platter. And there was always lobsters tail or steak and a couple of other choices. one night I wanted to eat a cheese burger, fries and a coke float which was not on the menu and they happily obliged!  Let me say that I never went hungry!! (although, i did take some of the butter oatmeal cookies to the room to munch on).. Oh they also had "afternoon tea" a couple times with scones and finger sandwiches and cakes and pies...

A minor point here.  Saying lobster tails sort of implies Maine lobster.  While the lobsters were good they were not Maine lobsters.  That said you could get them as often as you wanted and several times I had 1 or 2 lobsters as a side dish to my main course.

5 hours ago, elegantlotus said:

 

sorry, I am jumping from subject to subject... I am only trying to give helpful advice.. for the Anan Wildlife observatory bear tour... I booked with Alaska Vistas and saved a bunch of money.. $340 + tax .. we went to the same place and did the same thing as the ship's premium excursion. 

I agree w you about the Anan tour.  We did not do it as we have been to Anan 3 times on other AK trips.  When I talked to people who did the Anan tour they said that they had seen only 4 bears.  How many did you see.  It probably was because it was a bit early for the big salmon runs or maybe even the runs were down this year as we saw lots more than 4 bears on our visits.  On one visit we saw maybe 30 or 40 bears and a good number of eagles feasting on the leftovers.  

5 hours ago, elegantlotus said:

Also for disembarkation, we caught a taxi right outside Canada Place in Vancouver.. we shared the cost with another couple and it ended up costing us less than $20 for each couple.

 

Hope I answered all the questions and more.. !!

 

 

Excellent post.  I believe that you were on the same cruise as we were.  I do think that there are a couple of minor misstatements or things that need clarification.  I have put them inside of your review in red.  

 

On balance it was a wonderful cruise and one of the best adventure cruise I have been on.    We certainly had the best weather of any of the AK cruises that I have done.

 

To things should be mentioned.   The expedition staff and especially the Zodiac driers were superb.  They were enthusiastic and obviously loved what they were doing.  Also I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the optics (binoculars and spotting scopes) on board.  We brought our own binoculars but I would have been very happy to use theirs.  I have been on cruises where the supplied binoculars were $29.95 Walmart specials.  These were fairly good quality Nikons.

 

DON

[elegantlotus]

Don, 

 

Yes you were on the same cruise as we were.... thanks for the clarification. 

 

Our Anan tour was exactly the same as the premium excursion, except that the people who took the premium tour got picked up from the ship where as we had to zodiac to the dock where Alaska Vista met us. Our tour took us on the same trail and the same viewing area, and we saw all the people from the ship... I "compared notes" with another couple who went on the premium tour...  haha.. our tour had better snacks... the ship's tour had "lunchables", we had sandwiches, and cookies and chips and nuts and candy and water was passed out. We saw the same 5 bears.. but it was early in the season and not much salmon running. I loved the walk thru the rain forest and seeing all of the eagles..I thought it was fun, but glad that I didn't pay the price of the premium excursion.

Over all, yes, this was a good expedition cruise (good value for the money, as we have been on other expedition cruises with Crystal and Silverseas.. with more perks and better food selection but much more money) ... they just need to iron out the embarkation process and their process of getting people in and out of the mud room. 

 

[BJHeard549]

20 hours ago, JAT0303 said:

I'm interested in how the cruise line is handling positive Covid cases on the Alaska cruise.  I see from the CDC dashboard that there are active cases on board.  Does anyone have information that was shared with cruise passengers during the cruise?  Thanks.

We tested positive on day #6.  We were immediately confined to our cabin.  The doctor and nurse came to visit us once or twice a day.  Our cabin didn’t get cleaned once we were diagnosed.   That’s not a surprise, nor a criticism, just a statement.  We chose to stay on the cruise and not disembark in Ketchikan, as some others did.  

All non-ill passengers disembarked in Vancouver first, then about 11:30am they gathered us “sickies 😉” and sent us off in taxi cabs to our next stop.  In our case that was the Hyatt Regency just a couple of blocks from the port, where we stayed for 2 more days to meet the BC governmental quarantine requirement of 5 days.   Then we flew home on Monday, 7/11 after meeting their 5 days quarantine rules.

[BJHeard549]

Just now, BJHeard549 said:

We tested positive on day #6.  We were immediately confined to our cabin.  The doctor and nurse came to visit us once or twice a day.  Our cabin didn’t get cleaned once we were diagnosed.   That’s not a surprise, nor a criticism, just a statement.  We chose to stay on the cruise and not disembark in Ketchikan, as some others did.  

All non-ill passengers disembarked in Vancouver first, then about 11:30am they gathered us “sickies 😉” and sent us off in taxi cabs to our next stop.  In our case that was the Hyatt Regency just a couple of blocks from the port, where we stayed for 2 more days to meet the BC governmental quarantine requirement of 5 days.   Then we flew home on Monday, 7/11 after meeting their 5 days quarantine rules.

On about day 4 or 5, Peter, an Expedition leader reported during the evening presentation at there was a group of 10 people traveling together who were all infected and they were quarantined.  A couple of days later they reported another 3 cases.   Then another 3 cases.   Then we got sick and didn’t hear any more about it because we were in our cabin.  I wonder if there is any way to find out how many cases there ended up being?

[JAT0303]

2 hours ago, BJHeard549 said:

On about day 4 or 5, Peter, an Expedition leader reported during the evening presentation at there was a group of 10 people traveling together who were all infected and they were quarantined.  A couple of days later they reported another 3 cases.   Then another 3 cases.   Then we got sick and didn’t hear any more about it because we were in our cabin.  I wonder if there is any way to find out how many cases there ended up being?

Thank you!  I understand the cruise line doesn't offer any compensation for guests who get Covid on the cruise, is that correct?

[Missouri travel girl]

3 hours ago, BJHeard549 said:

On about day 4 or 5, Peter, an Expedition leader reported during the evening presentation at there was a group of 10 people traveling together who were all infected and they were quarantined.  A couple of days later they reported another 3 cases.   Then another 3 cases.   Then we got sick and didn’t hear any more about it because we were in our cabin.  I wonder if there is any way to find out how many cases there ended up being?

I’m so sorry to hear you had to quarantine after day 6! Were you very Ill? That’s a little concerning to me for the older people in my group. We have all been so very careful to not get Covid before our trip and it’s on the boat?  Did you have insurance and did it cover your stay at the Hyatt? And your airline wasn’t a problem to re schedule?  Thank you for your post.