Review Ovation 5/9-5/17~The Alaska Extravaganza~ or a Series of Slight Disappointments

[VernRDH]

I am going to be doing this review in many posts over many days, as there is a LOT to cover. I will try to add photos and answer questions as I go, but I will be back to work so it may be a bit before I can get to you. 

 

So for background- traveling are myself (53 D+), DH (54 D+), DD (24 Diamond) and FIL (81 Platinum).

In the fall of 2022, DD texted me that FIL’s brother (furthermore known as UL) is going to Alaska. On a cruise. With a lady. (his wife of 53 years died in 2021 of ALS). Now just so that you understand the dynamic here, FIL and UL are always in competition. At 81 and 83 respectively, it’s always about competition. So FIL, who we have asked numerous times if he wanted to go to Alaska, says now I want to go to Alaska. Let the games begin.

We talk to UL and his lady friend, and they are to go on Ovation in May of 2023. They are going to do the helicopter and dog sleds and all kinds of fun stuff. They bought matching backpacks. They are so cute. This was a side of UL we had not seen before, but we like it!

 

Fast forward to Feb 2023. DH and I are on Anthem. We book our Feb 2024 Anthem cruise and then do the open Next Cruise booking as we have not yet chosen which Alaska cruise we are going to take.

 

We discuss and decide on the 8 night Ovation starting in Vancouver and ending in Seattle with stops in Sitka, Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway, with the viewing of Dawes Glacier/Endicott Arm. Let the planning begin! Only 15 months to go!

 

Unfortunately, UL calls and says they had to cancel their cruise as his lady friend a)needed a hip replacement and b) is unable to get a passport (it is a long and complicated story, and as she has no raised seal birth certificate, there was no way for her to go 🙁). So +1 to FIL, as he gets to go to Alaska and UL does not.

 

Hours and hours of time are spent on planning. Hotels pre and post cruise, flights, excursions, etc etc. FIL and DD are just along for the ride, they really don’t seem to care what we are doing. So, ok, DH and I plan everything.

We live 20 minutes from an airport. It is “international”, only because it flies to Canada. But not the part of Canada we want to go to. So we opt to drive 3 hours to Newark so that we can fly direct in both directions. Flying direct is important for us. I hate my precious nap being interrupted by having to deplane and get on another plane. Also, making connections with 2 extra people in tow, one of whom lives in his own little world where the use of words such as “hang on I need to tie my shoe” do not exist. I lost FIL at Disneyland. I do not have time to be searching for him while trying to make a connection in Chicago, tyvm. 

So Air Canada to Vancouver, and Alaska Airlines home from Seattle.

(Aside-FIL plays tennis multiple times per week, is not infirm, and has his faculties about him. His world just revolves around him and he thinks we should just *know* that he needs something. Mind reading I do not do, sorry.)

 

Excursions are decided- Sitka we will tour all the Russian things- Baranoff Castle, St. Michaels. We book a private tour through Viator.

 

Juneau- we will go to Mendenhall Glacier on the Blue Bus. Possibly do Goldbelt Tram if time and weather permit, as we are there on Mothers Day and DH has booked Jamies Italian for dinner.

 

Skagway- we will take the White Pass Yukon Railroad.

 

Ketchikan- we book another tour through Viator, Husky Tales and the BIG SURPRISE for DD and FIL- Misty Fjords flightseeing tour through RCI. We normally don’t book excursions through the cruiseline, but felt that this one might be best to.

 

Planning complete, now we wait (Jeopardy music plays).

[VernRDH]

So about a month before we are to go, we call C&A to switch DD and DH’s cabins. Originally DH was booked with FIL, and DD with me. We wanted them to be switched. No can do, says C&A, as one of the original people has to remain in the cabin. But yes I explain, DH and I were both booked in both cabins (6258 and 6658 for reference). That makes no sense but ok, we will just fix it when we are onboard.

 

Then comes the day the guano hit the fan. Email comes from RC that due to “tidal window restrictions” we cannot leave Vancouver until 1 am, and therefore our itinerary is changed.  OMG. My perfect plans are out the window. We regroup and scramble.

Sitka is now canceled, we will go to Ketchikan that day. Juneau times will be pushed back. Skagway remains unchanged. But now we get Victoria, BC for 12 hours! Oh boy!

We contact tour operators and rebook/reschedule. DH calls RC and cancels the flightseeing. I book it through the operator themselves, totally awesome group (more on that later) While he has them on the phone, he asks about switching him and DDs cabins, But of course you can, says the cheery RC agent in Kansas! Done! (but oh so not done)

Ok we are regrouped again. We are packed. I have a parka and a bathing suit, and everything in between. Lets get this party started!

 

[VernRDH]

Wednesday May 8- I Believe its Time for me to Fly

Our flight to Vancouver leaves Newark at 6:10pm. I would have much preferred to fly earlier in the day, but this was the only direct flight. It allowed me to get a little work done and my house cleaned up for the petsitter before we left. 
At this point, we got the email from Royal that due to a medical emergency, Ovation would not make it to Vancouver until 2pm. So boarding was pushed back until 5:30pm. Ok we will figure out what to do once we are there. 
We left home at 10:30 for the 3 hour drive to Newark, I like to allow extra time for potty breaks and a stop for gas. I had prebooked my parking at Newark. I have done this a couple times, and it works out very well. Park and hop on the bus that takes us to the terminal. I will mention here that I am a bit of a nudge about luggage. I like to travel as lightly as possible. So each of us had one 27 inch suitcase and 1 backpack bag. So each of us had 1 bag to check. Check in, check luggage, go through security (Terminal A is newly remodeled and relatively easy to get through). We grab some linner (that would be the lunch/dinner combo) and wait for our flight. And wait. Seems that another flight arriving to our gate is late, and so is our plane. The Air Canada staff are unpleasant at best. We are supposed to be wheels up at 6:10. I took my Benadryl at 5:45. We don’t even begin boarding until almost 6:30. We are seated and situated, and I am ready for my nap. I actually fall asleep before we take off. DH tells me later that we spent an hour on  the tarmac waiting to take off. We chased the sunset all the way to Vancouver. 

We are wheels down at almost 10pm PST. The Vancouver airport is lovely, and the customs and immigration process was quick and easy. We took the train to the hotel, the River Rock Casino and resort. We have 2 rooms booked, one for me and DH and one for DD and FIL. Go to check in and SURPRISE! DH and I have been upgraded to a 1 BR suite! But nothing for the other two. And we are in two separate areas of the hotel, separated by a road. Not a problem for me, since we will be on opposite sides of the ship. Room was very nice and well appointed. I don’t know what the other room looked like, but DD and FIL said it was nice. 
 

[VernRDH]

Thursday May 9~Waiting for my ship to come in

 

We grab a light breakfast at the Starbucks and drop $20 into some slots at the casino. DH doubles his money! Also the exchange rate is favorable, as we got $26 something CAD for our $20 USD. 
We get back on the train to go to Waterfront Station, the closest to Canada Place. We still have hours to kill before we can board, though we can leave our luggage starting at 2pm. We try to use mass transit when we travel and the system in Vancouver was decent. Tap in tap out. Total cost for the trip from airport to hotel and then hotel to Waterfront was about $12 each (I don’t remember exactly) It was a beautiful day in Vancouver and we walked to the Lion Pub right by Canada Place. Authentic British pub, good food and service. Highly recommend.
We wander around looking in shops and enjoying the nice weather. We watch Ovation come into port. Also there were Silver Nova and Majestic Princess. I did not realize that Ovation docked SO CLOSE to where people walk by (I would discover this even more when we got to our cabin). We drop our luggage off and this is where the clusterf&%^%$^y would really begin. Luggage dropped off. No communication or signage for where to check in or when. We go do Flyover Canada (like Soarin’ on steroids, two thumbs up), and head back to the area by where we dropped off the luggage. A woman approaches me and asks if I got a “yellow ticket”. A what now? So apparently you had to go back in to where you dropped your luggage and basically do check in and they would give you a yellow ticket, which we were told would be needed later (it wasn’t). We decided to head down to where the security and customs were. Oh. My. God. Soooooo many people getting off and about 500 people lined up to get on. We get in the queue like good little sheep and wait. And wait. And wait some more. Finally we start moving. These folks took a page from Disneys book on how to queue people. We are almost to the security screening and everything screeches to a halt. Customs computers are down, waiting for them to get fixed. Almost an hour later, we move again. Thankfully they are using biometrics, which makes things go quicker. At last we are on board. No yellow tickets taken, no boarding times checked. Absolute insanity. This is of course not the fault of Royal, and I understand this is not unusual about Vancouver. 
We are assigned early dining, but since everyone is getting on so late, it is open seating in the dining rooms. We don’t really care, we just want to eat and sit, as we have been going all day.
Dinner was prime rib and I will honestly say it was one of the best we have ever had. All the food was flavorful and came out hot. 
Next was our first of 5 (yes FIVE) trips to Guest Services. So in the app, DH shows as Diamond and DD as D+. Because when they switched their rooms, they didn’t carry over their status and packages. Shoreside ASSURED me it was correct on their end, no problem. Uh, wrong, big problem. And would continue to be a problem. We try to explain to Hana at GS, but she is trying to pawn us off on Paulo the LA. Nope not his problem, you need to fix this. 30 minutes later, we have two new Seapasses, that at least look correct. However, what is still connected to them is not, as we will continue to find out. 
We hung out in the Solarium until rooms were ready. We had balcony cabins on deck 6, 6258 for me and DH, 6658 for DD and FIL. Why cabins on opposite sides? We figured that if there was something to see, no matter which side we would have a view. 
I opened our curtains and was surprised that there were people not 50 feet from my balcony at Canada Place! That was a first.
Announcements were made well into the night IN THE CABINS looking for passengers. I wanted to go to sleep, but the continuous announcements were a bit annoying. Finally got to sleep, no sailaway party, no casino, limited bars open. Tomorrow: a day at sea. 
 

[cynt]

Nice start. Looking forward to reading more of your review. 

[VernRDH]

Friday May 10- Somewhere upon the sea

 

Sea days are some of my favorite days on a cruise. Its an open book and you can do as much or as little as you wish. When it’s just me and DH, our days go like this: up around 7, grab breakfast at Solarium Bistro, I get a coffee at 270, get some loungers and hang out. Nap, read, watch movies, play games, whatever we want to do. Hit up the hot tub and pool. Frozen drinks. Watch the ocean go by. All the good things. 

But with our travel mates, we have to do things a little differently. We got up around 8 and went to Solarium for breakfast and then went outside to see if we could spot any whales. Saw a few, sadly they would be the only ones we would see the entire trip. We did some shopping/browsing and went to the lecture at 1pm in 270. The couple giving the lecture about Alaska was John and Diane, and they did offer up some good info on the ports and such. Afterwards we did get changed and hit the hot tub and pool for a little before our dinner in Wonderland. We also went to visit the loyalty ambassador, as we had not received our welcome aboard gifts. Paulo could have cared less that we were C&A members or that we didn’t get our amenity. He was rude and dismissive. I know I ain’t pinnacle, but jeez louise would it kill you to greet us with a smile (fake or real, whatever) and apologize that we didn’t receive our amenity? And while there was no one else waiting to speak to him, he was in a hurry to get rid of us. What a way to treat your loyal customers. 

This was our first time trying Wonderland, and we had booked it on the Black Friday sale. As we had done previously, we were planning to use our BOGO D+ benefit. In the past, they have just credited us back for the “free” one. This would become the bane of my existence for most of the week.

Our waiter was a pleasant guy, but VERY difficult to understand. And that made deciding on what to eat more complicated, because we weren’t getting his explanations. In the end we ordered the tomato water(DH and FIL) and the avocado cone thing(me and DD). We also got the chicken and egg and the deconstructed caprese. Interesting, nothing I was crazy over but it was ok. For entrees, DH got the short rib, I had the pork belly and DD and FIL got the chicken. We also ordered a branzino to share. Somehow, our waiter also thought my daughter wanted the halibut, which she did not. And I could see why. It was so not good. The presentation is really what this restaurant is about. And it was certainly interesting. For dessert DH and DD had the world, the chocolate sphere and FIL and I had the apple thing. Meh. But after dinner is where more of our disappointments would come. I asked politely to use my BOGO for the dinner, as I have done before. Sure they said. I was told they would refund the original amount paid (almost $250) and they would charge the BOGO for me and DD and then DH and FIL. Ok perfect. Except they did not refund the original. And this would be a problem until day 8.

After dinner we hit the casino for a little play on the slots, no big wins but we had fun. Tonight was our opportunity to see the Northern Lights and we stayed up as late as we could, but didn’t make it late enough to see them at their finest. It was disappointing that there was no announcements that they were visible, I guess letting passengers know about a natural phenomenon isn’t as important as paging the same three people over and over again. Time to turn in, as we had a busy and exciting day planned for Ketchikan the next day.

[VernRDH]

Saturday May 11-Float Planes and Furry Friends

DD wanted to have breakfast at Windjammer. We tried to tell her, but no, she wouldn’t listen. So when the only place to sit was outside, she decided that going forward she would listen to her mother and eat at Solarium for breakfast. I had panicked a bit when I saw in the daily planner that we would not be gangway down until 11:45. We were supposed to meet our tour operator at 11:45. I had emailed Leslie at SeaWind Aviation to let her know, and she said not to worry, just to meet us as soon as we got off. I apparently did not need to worry as we were in port and able to disembark by 10:30. We would find we were early to every port. Which makes it hard to determine what you can squeeze in before going on your excursion. We did walk around a little bit in the shops before we had to meet for our flight. This was a surprise for FIL, DD figured it out pretty quickly, but FIL had no idea. None. Getting into the van marked SeaWind Aviation, didn’t click. Get to their office, planes, etc. Still not getting it. We are to fly in a DeHavilland Beaver with another couple. We go out to the dock to get on the plane. Still not clicking. Finally the pilot Russ asks him if he is ready and FIL says “we’re going in that? Yes dad, we are going in the plane. You had asked to do it, so we are doing it”. He was totally surprised. He got to sit up front next to Russ and he truly enjoyed it. Russ was a great guide, tell us all kinds of interesting things. The day was clear and warm, and it was probably my first rated thing of the trip. It was an hour long flight, and truly spectacular. 
We got back on terra firma (well landed on the water but you get the idea) and headed off for more shops. We got some souvenirs and a snack and then headed to the eagle totem to meet our next tour guide, Raeanne, along with Scarlet and Quinn, her two husky dogs. This was a tour we booked through Viator that was a walking tour of Ketchikan and you got to walk the dogs! Since we were missing ours, it was fun to spend time with some other furry friends! The tour was interesting and Raeann was very informative and fun. We had a nice walk in the beautiful weather. We saw all the highlights of Ketchikan and were back on board by 5. 
Dinner tonight would be Solarium Bistro. We were not terribly impressed, but it was food and relatively quick. Again, something we tried but didn’t find spectacular. We were pretty tired from all the walking so we turned in early, ready for our next adventure: Juneau and a glacier.
 

[VernRDH]

Sunday May 12- Showered with love (and plenty of rain) on Mothers Day

I am not a big fan of “Hallmark holidays” but its nice to be treated by DH and DD on Mothers Day. Both gave me money to buy what I wanted, and I had a few ideas. Breakfast at Solarium, coffee from 270, waiting for us to dock in Juneau. It was cold and rainy and our plan for the day was the bus to Mendenhall Visitor center and then the hike out to Nugget Falls. Again we were in about an hour early, and since our tour wasn’t until 12:15, we had about 2.5 hours to wander and shop before going on the tour. Lots of nice things to see and purchase, but we tried not to buy too much as we would have to lug it around with us. 
We used Juneau tours and whale watch for our trip to the glacier. They take you on a trolley type bus. Our driver was Harmony, and she was FANTASTIC! Super energetic and informative. The closer we got to Mendenhall, the harder it was raining. And it was cold. Thankfully we had (with the exception of DD, who at 24, knows FAR better than her parents) brought our puffy jackets and wooly hats. Cause we sure needed them. Also umbrellas. Those came in clutch for sure. We skipped the visitor center on the way out, opting to hit it up on the way back. We walked (trudged) along the trail out to the falls. One a nice sunny day I bet it is a fabulous trek. We just kept our heads down and kept moving, cause the sooner we got there, the sooner we could head back. It was stunning, for sure, but the weather was just so miserable. Took some photos and headed back. The visitor center was very crowded, as everyone was trying to stay warm and dry. Perused the gift shop and exhibits there. Got back on the bus with Harmony for the trip back to downtown. We considered the Goldbelt Tram, but decided against it as the weather was really not great and it was a lot of money to not be able to really see anything. Bought a couple more souvenirs (DD bought a jacket, surprise, surprise) and we headed back on board. We were in port until 10:30 tonight. Once we were back on board, the sun came out! Rats!
But no time to go back out and explore as we had reservations for dinner at Jamie’s. It is not my favorite specialty (that would be Giovannis) but it works. I had the arrancini, the lasagne and the banana split. Love the arrancini at Jamies, it is one of my faves. Bellies full, we changed and headed up to the Solarium to relax and read. Nice thing about Alaska, its still daylight at 9 and 10pm. One more action packed day before we get a break, so off to bed.