Live Ovation of the Seas Alaska May 17-24, 2024 with Kmom

[TNVolnteerCruiser]

Yay! So happy everything went well and you are enjoying life onboard.

[KmomChicago]

Woo hoo! Windjammer. 

 

This is paneer butter masala, and a little dal, both tasty. Vegetable jambalaya which was too bland so I just mixed over the savory Indian dishes into the rice. The triangle is polenta which was fine, but not memorable. This was still more carbs than I had planned. But you know, lifetime overeater.

I also ate half of a small steak rejected by one of the kids (probably sirloin, it was very tasty with that okay but not fork tender sirloin texture), half a crab cake for the same reason (okay, slightly too much on the bready side rather than fishy side). I have ethical issues with wasting meat after some creature died to give us this high quality protein. It has to be charcoal or spoiled for me to let it go in the trash.

 

They had fancy little appetizer sized dishes of fried artichoke and it was cold which I didn’t expect. Didn’t work for me but I ate all 4 bites anyway.

 

Finished with a fruit cup (good but I was really getting full by that point) and a couple bites of a caramel bread pudding that the other teen rejected and it was definitely an off day for the bread pudding. Too wet, not the worst dessert of my life but not very good either. Let a biggish chunk of that go to compactor or wherever they send it.

 

Edited May 18 by KmomChicago

[KmomChicago]

Current “view” from the virtual balcony. I like the little fake virtual deck and handrail. ❤️🥳

[BecciBoo]

10 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

Yes I miss the 3 of them but they always forgive me pretty quickly. ❤️❤️

You wouldn't believe it but we set up a couple of cameras to check on our one cat at home during the cruise.  She is a feral cat and the love of our lives.  When we first adopted her and went on a cruise she was almost dead when we returned,  Vet said she was depressed and stopped eating and drinking .  So we make sure to observe her now, plus my brother sees her every day.  We love our fir babies!

[sdear]

10 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

Current “view” from the virtual balcony. I like the little fake virtual deck and handrail. ❤️🥳

How do you like this room?  We actually have two rooms booked on our July Alaskan cruise.  My hubby snores terribly...so we book a sleep room for one of us lol.  The other is a balcony.  The other room is one of these.  

 

[Mommapadraig]

20 minutes ago, BecciBoo said:

You wouldn't believe it but we set up a couple of cameras to check on our one cat at home during the cruise.  She is a feral cat and the love of our lives.  When we first adopted her and went on a cruise she was almost dead when we returned,  Vet said she was depressed and stopped eating and drinking .  So we make sure to observe her now, plus my brother sees her every day.  We love our fir babies!

My DIL and grandson stayed at our house last cruise. Mickey slept on my DIL’s back each night. He doesn’t do that with me. It’s like he was thinking you aren’t getting away while I’m asleep. He loves both of them.when we got home he is very vocal until the next morning.I wish I knew what he was telling me but he sounds bitchy so I assume he’s chewing me out.

[Jamman54]

Finally caught up! Great start to your review!! 😃

[KmomChicago]

1 hour ago, sdear said:

How do you like this room?  We actually have two rooms booked on our July Alaskan cruise.  My hubby snores terribly...so we book a sleep room for one of us lol.  The other is a balcony.  The other room is one of these.  

 

Thanks for the question. I love this room. Apparently you cannot ever turn off the balcony screen and it has blackout curtains which are needed as I like dark sleep space. 
 

The idea is very interesting. Because it’s not a real balcony it can be set on one of the longer walls and not on a short one opposite the entry door. It’s located where a sleeper sofa would be if this cabin held a third person. 
 

This leaves the back wall open for the bed. One thing I often dislike is the need to walk all the way around the bed to get to the window or balcony. It makes an already small space feel crowded and cluttered. This layout is great.
 

I have a decent amount of open floor space. Lighting is thoughtfully placed and the room, though an interior, feels luxurious. It’s as silent as a tomb, just the white noise of the HVAC, if not quite as dark. 

There’s a European style electric water kettle provided, with English Breakfast tea, instant coffee packets and sweetened condensed milk pouches. I am enjoying a cup this morning after the kind of deep sleep I seem to get only on cruises in inside cabins. 🛌💤😴

[KmomChicago]

My teen is not especially impressed with the virtual balcony because there is no sea breeze and apparently the view is not why people want a balcony. It’s for the air. 
 

Also because, teenager. 
 

Also because, spoiled. 
 

For reference teen has mostly stayed in Hyatt Place hotels or similar, or occasionally higher tier Hyatt brands.
 

On cruises since 2017 here were teen’s room types:

 

Carnival Triumph, Outside cabin, fairly large and comfortable down on deck 2 aft. (3 in the room)

 

Carnival Sensation, Inside cabin (this was our worst, noisiest and most crowded room as a family). (3)

 

Oasis of the Seas, inside cabin I really liked, similar in some ways to our rooms on Ovation now. (3)

 

Adventure of the Seas, junior suite on the hump. (2 in the room, teen with dad, Kmom next door with Grams). This was that one that many of us have either experienced or seen onboard, where the grandparent treated us all and she chose these awesome rooms for us.

 

Carnival Mardi Gras, premium interior (3). Great ship, great cruise but they figured out how to suck about 10-20 square feet from the floor plan of standard balcony rooms. This premium interior has an identical footprint but no balcony and the room felt just a hair too small for 3 people. 
 

Carnival Legend, standard balcony (2, Grams and I were down the hall in a Grand Suite that Grams wanted because it would be her final cruise.) Not that you care but my family of 3 paid our own fare this time.

 

Carnival Radiance, Cloud 9 spa balcony (2). Kiddo with friend in the room, parents next door in identical room. 

 

And now Ovation of the Seas, interior, (2).

 

 

[KmomChicago]

13 hours ago, TNVolnteerCruiser said:

Yay! So happy everything went well and you are enjoying life onboard.

@TNVolnteerCruiser thanks so much. Yes we are settled in and will spend today’s Sea Day getting fully oriented on the ship. On these newer big boats it seems everyone spends embark day making wrong turns and especially heading forward (all the way) when they needed to go aft (all the way). 😂🧭
 

 

2 hours ago, BecciBoo said:

You wouldn't believe it but we set up a couple of cameras to check on our one cat at home during the cruise.  She is a feral cat and the love of our lives.  When we first adopted her and went on a cruise she was almost dead when we returned,  Vet said she was depressed and stopped eating and drinking .  So we make sure to observe her now, plus my brother sees her every day.  We love our fir babies!

@BecciBoo I would absolutely believe it. We rarely get cats at the rescue (typically when the owner dies) who refuse to eat. This causes organ failure. We can gently force feed them a little with a syringe when that happens which will at least keep their systems functioning. We of course also try to give them love and assurance that they are still safe and wanted. 
 

We also advise adopters to watch for this and I have made house calls to teach adopters how to syringe feed. Usually this problem resolves in a few days and that syringe feeding can save their life getting them through the stressful transition to a new home.
 

 

2 hours ago, Mommapadraig said:

My DIL and grandson stayed at our house last cruise. Mickey slept on my DIL’s back each night. He doesn’t do that with me. It’s like he was thinking you aren’t getting away while I’m asleep. He loves both of them.when we got home he is very vocal until the next morning.I wish I knew what he was telling me but he sounds bitchy so I assume he’s chewing me out.

@Mommapadraig thankfully my mom, who no longer cruises, is home and gives the cats lots of affection.  They’re still gonna be annoyed with me but not too bad.
 

 

2 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

Finally caught up! Great start to your review!! 😃

@Jamman54 thanks sir!

Edited May 18 by KmomChicago

[KmomChicago]

About the finances of a no show.

 

Cruise base fare was only $650 per person when we booked more than a year ago. This was apparently the max amount I could have claimed from trip insurance. Because our reason for cancellation may have been excluded (I didn’t call to try to figure that out), in that case I would have possibly still gotten half that amount under cancel-for-any-reason. Did not do that either.

 

I know you can’t trust the internet. Still after a bit of research it seemed filing a claim might have caused unforeseen other issues. For one, I would have had to officially cancel the missing person and get a letter from RCI to submit to the insurance.

 

Doing that “could” apparently? Possibly? Maybe? Have started a sequence of events better avoided. I know, maybe internet horror stories but I didn’t like the odds. 
 

Possibly RCI could have required us 3 to relocate from 2 down to one cabin. Either because of trying to maximize revenue by getting one net room back to resell, or because of the over-21 adult in each cabin policy. 
 

Possibly RCI could have left us, but charged me a single supplement for my already-paid for room. This seems far fetched and borderline unethical as they already got their money but I couldn’t rule it out. I would sure hate to recover a whopping $650 or perhaps only half that, then have the cruise line turn around and re-charge me for being alone in a double room. 
 

I understand single supplements and realized that while I wouldn’t have booked this way originally, the forfeited cost was reasonable for what I was getting. 
 

I asked Guest Services about taxes, port fees, and gratuities and they said I need to call RCI or my online travel agent for a refund back to the original credit card.

[KmomChicago]

Anyone who knows anything about canceling after final payment, please weigh in.

 

 I am still not sure I handled everything the best way or whether my various worries about the benefits and consequences of cancellation were correct.

[KmomChicago]

The greatest sleep of my life was on Disney Magic, Nineteen ninety something. 
 

I was a WDW cast member and got the room at an insane rate, basically just the cruise line cost plus port fees and gratuities. Inside cabin, pitch dark and silent.
 

It was a three nighter. Got onboard, got mustered, got unpacked, got sailed away, got overwhelmingly sleepy around 5 pm. Decided to take a nap and not even worry about missing dinner. 

Woke up at 7 o’clock feeling a little disoriented. 
 

It was 7 o’clock THE NEXT MORNING!

[ninjacat123]

10 minutes ago, KmomChicago said:

The greatest sleep of my life was on Disney Magic, Nineteen ninety something. 
 

I was a WDW cast member and got the room at an insane rate, basically just the cruise line cost plus port fees and gratuities. Inside cabin, pitch dark and silent.
 

It was a three nighter. Got onboard, got mustered, got unpacked, got sailed away, got overwhelmingly sleepy around 5 pm. Decided to take a nap and not even worry about missing dinner. 

Woke up at 7 o’clock feeling a little disoriented. 
 

It was 7 o’clock THE NEXT MORNING!

What did you do at WDW? 

[KmomChicago]

5 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

What did you do at WDW? 

I worked my first year (1996-7) at the Central Reservations Office (407-WDISNEY phone line, booking rooms and restaurants). Moved to Disney Vacation Club inside telemarketing (calling back Guests who filled out contact cards at the kiosks). Had an awesome Y2K project for a year then finished in contract prep at the Boardwalk sales center. Left in early 2001. 
 

Shouldn’t have left when I did.

[ninjacat123]

17 minutes ago, KmomChicago said:

I worked my first year (1996-7) at the Central Reservations Office (407-WDISNEY phone line, booking rooms and restaurants). Moved to Disney Vacation Club inside telemarketing (calling back Guests who filled out contact cards at the kiosks). Had an awesome Y2K project for a year then finished in contract prep at the Boardwalk sales center. Left in early 2001. 
 

Shouldn’t have left when I did.

I was envisioning Snow White for some reason. 😉 your work environment sounds much cooler, less sweaty 👍😁

[KmomChicago]

2 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

I was envisioning Snow White for some reason. 😉 your work environment sounds much cooler, less sweaty 👍😁

Yeah I was told that when I first started (I had just turned 30) that I maybe could have done Alice. I’m short and was in fairly good shape at the time and I have always looked 10+ years younger than my age as an adult. 
 

The park jobs are brutal. We office people had to do mandatory half shifts in operations occasionally during spring break or Christmas break to help with the excessive hoards. 
 

I remember doing one in strollers at Magic Kingdom (best experience) and another at Tomorrowland Terrace (worst). Another at Epcot collecting data for transaction times at a gift shop (most awkward).  There were a few others but those files have been deleted apparently. 
 

The office jobs were 85% like office work anywhere else, plus 10% unbelievable stupidly and 5% pixie 🧚 dust.

[KmomChicago]

My room. 
 

[KmomChicago]

Attempted at a panoramic. It’s a huge file. 

[KmomChicago]

Breakfast in Windjammer a bit late for me. 9 am and it’s busy. Sunny and cool out on deck.

 

Dal with puri, a little veggie fried rice, grilled tomatoes, shatsuka. Coffee with milk. 

Edited May 18 by KmomChicago

[KmomChicago]

I don’t know what shatsuka is but it was egg with some spicy salsa like stuff with some slippery unidentified substance (tofu, more eggs, something else?) Worth a taste but probably won’t choose again.

 

Really like the dal, successfully avoided vast trays of smoked salmon.

Edited May 18 by KmomChicago

[KmomChicago]

Ship time changed to Alaska time overnight and my Apple devices are not having it!

[KmomChicago]

Just saw what I assume is some kind of whale. 🐋

[KmomChicago]

They can’t keep up with avocado toast demand. A chef is doing his best right there in the serving line. 
 

 

 

[KmomChicago]

Washy washy guy.