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

[KmomChicago]

Hello! In four short days my crew and I will fly out of Chicago’s own illustrious O’Hare International Airport, point of departure for all sorts of fun adventures. 

 

We’ll be on Alaska Airlines for the first time and arriving in Seattle early evening Thursday where we’ll head straight to our hotel to hunker down and await our 11am check in at port Friday morning. 

 

Though mid-May is a shoulder season (halfway between the rock bottom pricing and occupancy of “low” or “off” season and the dreaded hoards of “high” or “millionaires’” season), the ship is looking quite quite full, room-wise. I am assuming most extra berths are full as well so we should blend inconspicuously amongst nearly 5,000 fellow passengers. 

 

 

As for me, Kmom, I am a relatively quirky sort of non-social, overthinking yet occasionally under planning, budget-oriented dork with a few live cruise reviews behind me. I once did a personality test based on Star Trek and it said I am Spock, so that’s about how much fun you can expect from one of my live reviews. On the other hand, USA Today apparently commented something about “entertaining and informative” so I guess you’ll just have to tag along and come to your own conclusion.

 

 

 

 

[KmomChicago]

This cruise was booked 13 months ago, partially as a high school graduation gift for my 18 year-old and partly because, obviously, cruise. 
 

This is either cruise number 15 or 16 for me, depending on one I have never been able to classify decisively.

 

1980’s:

 

Premier (Big Red Boat) x 2, Royale and Oceanic

 

Bay of Fundy Cruises, Scotia Prince (cruise or ferry, this is the “questionable” entry on this tally)

 

1990’s 

 

Disney Magic x 2

 

2000’s 

 

Celebrity Millennium when she was a wee young lass

 

2010’s

 

Carnival Triumph

Carnival Sensation

Oasis of the Seas

Adventure of the Seas

 

2020’s

 

Mardi Gras - second commercial sailing!

Carnival Legend 

Carnival Vista

Carnival Radiance

 

And now the current voyage. It will almost certainly be my last cruise for the immediate future. Possibly also the foreseeable future. Possibly also beyond that. For reasons that shall be revealed and have little to zero to do with any cruise dissatisfaction on my part and everything to do with life changes.

 

[KmomChicago]

A word on tone. As a child watching The Love Boat, it honestly seemed like an impossible dream to ever take even one cruise in my entire life. 
 

While my bucket list has since been filled and far exceeded, deep down I still marvel at my incredible good fortune to be able to travel like this at all. 
 

Twenty years ago almost to the day, I lost a college friend, Carol, after a battle with cancer, when we were both in our late 30’s. That loss changed me on a visceral level and informed my attitude on everything going forward. 
 

In being true to my personal values, I really try to avoid nastiness, pettiness, and disrespect. On every cruise some crew member or port employee or mix up or experience gets on my nerves. Sometimes multiple times. Travel is just like that. Stuff happens. Fish is overcooked. Purchases feel like a poor value (aka ripoff). 
 

I can’t handle reading reviews that are relentlessly negative (this whole cruise my group of 17 agreed that food onboard was consistently inedible).

 

Maybe I am a Pollyanna or just a total fool, but as long as the ship doesn’t sink, I typically have a broad sense of humor about the things that go wrong, like I have landed in a farce of a Broadway play. Because the world’s just a stage anyway and we merely players. So I embrace the performance and I know those moments are the ones I will remember and laugh hardest at later. 
 

Maybe not while they are actually occurring right in front of my face, but definitely later. 
 

So you may see both the grumbling in the moment and then me trying to turn it into a fun anecdote for that standup routine I’m working on. 

 

In other words, let’s be nice even if something goes off the rails. 
 

She types, hoping her White Pass Railroad excursion in Skagway does NOT literally go off the rails. 
 

[odie1024]

@KmomChicagolook forward to following along. Love your positive attitude, things can go wrong but its all in perception, like you I feel lucky enough to be cruising and don't let little things get in the way.

 

I also did Scotia Prince many moons ago and had completely forgotten about it till you mentioned it.

 

Enjoy your trip, you got this! 

[mamiamjo]

Along for the ride! 😎 Live long and prosper! 🖖

[Shaded Lady]

Following!

[edspec]

Yay, I've been looking forward to this.

[pbxtech]

Following

[KmomChicago]

31 minutes ago, odie1024 said:

@KmomChicagolook forward to following along. Love your positive attitude, things can go wrong but its all in perception, like you I feel lucky enough to be cruising and don't let little things get in the way.

 

I also did Scotia Prince many moons ago and had completely forgotten about it till you mentioned it.

 

Enjoy your trip, you got this! 

 

@odie1024 Scotia Prince was a really special memory for me - part of a larger road trip in NE, primarily Maine. Ma, my li'l brother and I were literally driving around Portland trynna figure out where we were staying that night and drove past the port. Ma said, should I check it out? Yeah yeah yeah!

 

Pulled in the lot and left us in the car with the message "don't get your hopes up," came back 20 minutes later hollering, "grab the bags, we got a room, she's boarding NOW!"

 

29 minutes ago, mamiamjo said:

Along for the ride! 😎 Live long and prosper! 🖖

 

@mamiamjo thanks but why do I feel like the proper response is: And also with you?

26 minutes ago, Shaded Lady said:

Following!

@Shaded Lady so glad to have you. 🙂

 

7 minutes ago, edspec said:

Yay, I've been looking forward to this.

@edspec as always you are too kind, thank you so much.

 

Just now, pbxtech said:

Following

@pbxtech welcome, thanks for sharing the voyage. 

Thanks all for the early encouragement.  I appreciate you and I will try to make this journey worth your time. 

 

** Note I already have a math error in one of the earlier posts - this is either cruise 14 or 15, not 15 or 16. I have an imaginary fantasy cruise that never happened apparently. I am going to split the difference and say it's definitely probably maybe number 15.

 

 

[A&L_Ont]

I’m here for the adventure.  Safe travels and that was a great gift for your son. 

Edited May 12 by A&L_Ont

[SenatorsFan]

I'll be following along, too! 😁 Have a blast.

[DeanDeeDee]

I'll be following along, too.  Hope you have a fabulous cruise!

[KmomChicago]

So why this ship? As I recall we first picked Alaska, because it was just about the last really new itinerary for us without flying far across the planet. 

 

I typically start any cruise search with a visit to my favorite online TA site.

 

First was the decision about a one way plus time in Alaska or a round trip from Vancouver or Seattle. Timing and cost played in and ultimately the price of a one way flight in or out of Anchorage, plus another in or out of Vancouver, made that option untenable.  Not to mention the additional cost of the extra land days in Alaska. And honestly it all sounded like a whole lot of work and logistics.

 

Once Seattle R/T was locked in as the cheaper and simpler choice, it was time to consider ships. Of all our cruises, Oasis of the Seas was the best because of the ship, with Mardi Gras a close second, and thus the relatively large and newish Quantum class had always been on the radar. 

 

I considered every other R/T option and nearly booked NCL Bliss or Encore, to try a new line. Also strongly considered Celebrity Edge because EDGE CLASS HECK YEAH as well as Holland America Westerdam or Eurodam.  

 

Okay I lie. I did not consider every other R/T option. I didn't consider Carnival. That has been our most frequent choice in the past 7 years.  Because in each of those cases, it was the best option.  I already knew that Carnival pretty much does the AK runs to keep VIFP's happy, not because they are a strong contender in this market.

 

It was a very tight race between NCL, RCI, and HA (Edge was a little too $$ and I was equally keen on all the other contenders) and really the North Star ended up being the deciding / differentiating factor.  

 

 

 

 

 

[KmomChicago]

Once I picked the cruise line and class there was still the matter of 2 sister ships and unfortunately you can't switch halfway through, but wouldn't that be great? 4 days on one, jump ship in Juneau, 3 days back on the other.

 

Hello RCI! Itty bitty S2S's anyone? I still don't understand why they don't have shore excursions in places like Cozumel and Nassau, where you have a very high chance of a cruise line having 2 or more ships in port same day, to visit the other ship. I would pay actual cash money for that. I know the port people probably wouldn't appreciate the cruise line selling shore excursions right back to itself instead of supporting, you know, local business and so forth.

 

I picked Ovation simply because it is slightly newer and for absolutely no other reason, not knowing Quantum's North Star was about to break and stay that way until its next dry dock. 

 

[blarko]

Following and hoping you have the best cruise ever. Thanks for taking us along.

[KmomChicago]

As today is my last weekend day before leaving, I am trying to finalize some lists and logistics while my head is not distracted with work.  Speaking of which, that is another whole story as my company is going through a reorg and I am in the process of applying for new roles.  There is a distinct possibility I will have an interview over Teams WHILE I AM ON THE SHIP! I am mostly okay with that, but I need to take a look at times that absolutely cannot work, i.e. while I am on my Skagway excursion, while I am disembarking back in Seattle on the morning of the 24th, etc. 

 

That is the kind of stuff I am adding to my planning lists to take care of this week. 

 

My 80 year old mom will be at home while we are gone with the 2 cats. I have a person coming in daily to take care of their food, water and litter, and mom will provide them with companionship. 

 

Our dog is going to a boarding facility. I feel bad about this as he has separation anxiety and this is the first time I am boarding him, but his prior owner tells me he has always been okay with it. 

[Biker19]

29 minutes ago, KmomChicago said:

I need to take a look at times that absolutely cannot work, i.e. while I am on my Skagway excursion, while I am disembarking back in Seattle on the morning of the 24th, etc. 

Even with a wifi package, sometimes/locations may have limited connectivity.

[KmomChicago]

13 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Even with a wifi package, sometimes/locations may have limited connectivity.

Thanks, I am definitely concerned about that. Hopefully I can either get an interview this week before I leave, or first day after I return to work. 

[BohJang]

@KmomChicagoim here for the ride. I like your style. 

[Cscomedygrl]

Here for the adventure! This is going to be a great trip.

[princess76021]

yay!!  i got here at page one!!!

have a great trip!

and thanks for doing this!

hugs from texas!!

[KmomChicago]

So the reason I started live reviews was simply because of a happy accident related to the pandemic of all things. 

 

We sailed Adventure of the Seas in August 2019, but had nothing booked in mid-March 2020 when everything came to a halt. 

 

In November, 2020, there was pretty good looking data that we were 2-3 months from a vaccine. 

 

That didn't mean necessarily that cruises would be able to resume right away.  But I assumed, EVENTUALLY cruises will resume.  I looked at the school calendar for 2021.  I took a shot in the dark and booked Mardi Gras for the 2nd week of August, the last week before kiddo's school would start. 

 

Ended up being the 2nd commercial sailing of a brand new ship, first in its class for Carnival and a real game changer. We also had the benefit of the ship being less than 2/3 full, roughly 4k passengers on a ship that can hold 6.5k. I knew there would be exceptional interest because of all that, so I figured people might be more willing than usual to tolerate my mindless babbling, and the rest is history.

 

ParoDeeJay, a pair of cruise bloggers who are not here on CC but well known on other platforms, were aboard with me and THEY BECAME SICK WITH COVID LATE IN THE CRUISE!! Luckily I had not fangirled them much other than saying hi to Jay when I passed him in a hall on embark day.

 

My family and I got every Covid booster as soon as possible and never did catch the original variants. We did finally come down with a mild case of omicron which had not at that time been covered by the original vaccine formulations.

[KmomChicago]

3 hours ago, A&L_Ont said:

I’m here for the adventure.  Safe travels and that was a great gift for your son. 

@A&L_OntThanks, the kiddo thought so too! Most importantly, high school graduation is now officially a fait accompli!

 

3 hours ago, SenatorsFan said:

I'll be following along, too! 😁 Have a blast.

@SenatorsFan good to have you along, friend. 🙂 

 

2 hours ago, DeanDeeDee said:

I'll be following along, too.  Hope you have a fabulous cruise!

@DeanDeeDee welcome and thanks for traveling along!

 

 

1 hour ago, blarko said:

Following and hoping you have the best cruise ever. Thanks for taking us along.

@blarko great to have you along, thanks. 🙂

 

8 minutes ago, BohJang said:

@KmomChicagoim here for the ride. I like your style. 

@BohJang thanks, I could say the same of YOUR style. 🙂

 

5 minutes ago, Cscomedygrl said:

Here for the adventure! This is going to be a great trip.

@Cscomedygrl hopefully controlled adventures, right? Dorks like me don't like things to get too crazy. 

 

3 minutes ago, princess76021 said:

yay!!  i got here at page one!!!

have a great trip!

and thanks for doing this!

hugs from texas!!

@princess76021 there she is! Let's do our best to make minimal use of the Oh Crap button, shall we? Fingers crossed!

[KmomChicago]

Fun fact or at least I think so. I wrote to my US Senator Dick Durbin in May of 2021 to tell him it’s time for congress to move along toward providing cruises the guidelines to resume safely. As you can see he replied about actions taken, all of which I already knew but I thought it was time we ‘splained what the people want. 
 

I like to believe every little bit helps and who knows if he was prompted by me and asked someone in that department or committee or whatever if they were progressing at all on the issue? In any case cruises did resume soon after.
 

You do have representation, talk to your politicians!
 

Edited May 12 by KmomChicago

[ninjacat123]

Alaska!! Looking forward to your review!!