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

[ninjacat123]

I'm glad your interview people recognized your wonderfulness! Thanks for a lovely ride through Alaska!😻

[JaneRetired]

3 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

Now that the cruise is a full day in the rear view mirror, but while it is all still fresh, a few thoughts on the overall experience. 

 

First up: The Itinerary - because that was the foundation choice for this voyage, the first decision made.

 

The Alaska scenery really is, most definitely, worth seeing yourself. I am extremely fortunate to have travelled a lot and seen a lot of the USA and a good sample of the rest of the planet.  The Alaska coastal region that I viewed on this trip, is easily among the most beautiful terrain I have ever seen anywhere. For me its only rivals have been the Big Island of Hawaii and Machu Picchu in Peru. 

 

For me, the shorter voyage just partway up Southeast Alaska was "enough."  Fully understanding that there is A LOT more Alaska up there. I think for sure a younger Kmom at a much different point in life would have preferred a one way voyage with additional land days before or after closer to Anchorage. 

 

This sailing was probably the last one, or at most, second to last, before the K-12 crowd takes over for summer high season, and a massive proportion of the fellow cruisers were couple in the middle-age to retired bracket. I would assume that for many of them, this easy look at Alaska is enough to satisfy the urge

Thank you for your live take on your cruise. Your writing is beautiful, your joy on the White Pass railroad excursion was lovely to read, and your cruise was an important personal milestone which I am thankful you shared with us. It brought back nice family memories for me! Good luck with the non-cruise parts of your life -- the job, the other things. And congrats and good luck to the grad and the teen you are helping in so many wonderful ways. There is no special keychain for being a great mom, but you earned it. Thank you!

[DeanDeeDee]

Thanks for sharing your Alaska tour with us.  I really enjoyed.

[TravelGirlinDallas]

I really enjoyed virtually cruising with you! I’m sorry you won’t be cruising anytime soon, but I do hope you’ll stick around on CC. 

[KmomChicago]

On 5/18/2024 at 1:31 PM, sdear said:

Thanks for the info.  Kind of looking forward to it......we do have a balcony  room too that i can use as well..so best of both worlds.  

@sdear I hope you will post here so I can watch your journey as well.  I agree the strategy of a "front porch room" coupled with a "quiet bedroom" is a potentially great way to manage.  In fact, I am a little surprised there are not more long suites in the cruise industry laid out this way. I have seen a few family suites with bunk bed cubicles back near the hallway door, but it's an exception rather than a rule. Of course to me, one of the biggest drawbacks of almost any suite as compared to 2 rooms, is the lack of the second bathroom.

On 5/18/2024 at 2:29 PM, BecciBoo said:

Correct.  We helped Beta test Navigator when they tested these screens out back in 2014, we met the implementation team too.  Since we've had this type cabin 3 times, recently on Voyager last month.  We really liked them.  Interesting to note the cameras they use are in real time from both sides of the ship and I think I remember a wake shot sometimes too and it also records sounds.  On Navi the view was of the pier and you could see the steves loading luggage and hear it just like you were standing on a balcony.  It was so cool and it put me right to sleep on my bed in the cabin for a few.😴

@BecciBoo you know, I never thought to mess around with the volume and figure out whether I could listen to the longshoremen.  We only had side views from the ship, not aft views but I assume that is based on where our rooms were located.

On 5/18/2024 at 4:09 PM, link99 said:

Thank you for this live report. Will be on Ovation 2 weeks from yesterday. If I may ask what is the inside ship temperature like. Is it stuffy like too much heat or does it run on the cooler side. I seen the outside temp is cold so hopefully they don’t over compensate with the heat. Also looking foreword to see what happens in Skagway with the pier issues and if you make it into the glacier. Keep up the great reporting. Well done.

@link99  I should note that on the morning of our 3rd port day, when we were in Endicott Arm, it was still cool, but in Juneau that afternoon we were up around 70 with bright sunshine. The ship was notably warmer from that day forward, though my in room AC kept the temp just fine. 

On 5/18/2024 at 7:18 PM, ski_mom said:

Makes sense.  My mom is kind of in between - in that she's not really feeble, but definitely not spry either lol.  i look at her and my MIL (who is now 84) and my mom gets around much better, but definitely tires out easily even though she still wants to go and just go slowly.  

 

@ski_mom  I know I have gone on and on about our vestibule, but one thing I didn't mention, and that would have been very relevant had my mom taken the opening in my room = the vestibule door is plenty wide, and that corridor is also quite wide and essentially just wasted space.  It would have been very easy to park the scooter there and easily get around it. Would not have had to worry about it being in violation of guest hallway space or dealing with getting it into the cabin door.  If you didn't have both rooms as we did, you could still do this by booking the further room (9633) and parking back there so you are not in the way at all of the guests in 9233. 

 

I would go so far as to say, this would be a near perfect setup for someone who needs that scooter but can move around their stateroom, particularly if there are no actual accessible rooms left on the ship.  There is a grab bar in the shower and the thresholds are low in the room.  In addition, these rooms are very close to the large aft elevator bank with 10 elevators.  I am often amazed at how many handicap rooms are a real mountain hike away from the lifts. 

[A&L_Ont]

@KmomChicago thanks for bringing us along.  I have enjoyed the journey. 

[ski_mom]

@KmomChicago thanks so much for the great live review.  Thanks for all of the personal responses and recommendations!  This is the first live review that I've followed along with as it was happening and it was so fun!

 

 

[LatinaInTexas]

Just started reading a few pages before bedtime. I have thought about you on your Alaska cruise while I was on my Alaska cruise and can't wait to read all about it!

[KmomChicago]

14 hours ago, LatinaInTexas said:

Just started reading a few pages before bedtime. I have thought about you on your Alaska cruise while I was on my Alaska cruise and can't wait to read all about it!

I think we did cross paths briefly in Juneau. 

[LatinaInTexas]

1 hour ago, KmomChicago said:

I think we did cross paths briefly in Juneau. 

Indeed we did lol. We rushed off the ship, waited in a line to catch a shuttle to town. Dashed into the first big store I saw, grabbed some souvenirs in record time. Hopped back on the shuttle, raced to our excursion bus and made it just at meeting time and the bus was already full. We got back right before boarding time ended. I knew I wasn't going to get to shop after the excursion. Ended up doing this same scenario in Skagway also😕

[harryfat1]

On 5/23/2024 at 10:23 AM, KmomChicago said:

So one thing really bizarre about this ship: stateroom numbering scheme. 
 

Some designer decided to make interior cabins odd and exterior/balcony even.

 

That may not be exactly right either as it looks like a handful of interior rooms might be accessed on the exterior side of corridors. Can’t verify without a major survey of the deck plans. 
 

Anyhoo this means it’s there’s no easy way to learn if your room is accessible from the port or starboard corridor. Obviously you either figure it out or sleep in the Solarium, but it definitely feels like the Mad Hatter came up with the strategy. 

As I’m late to the second half of the report (virtual party), I guess I am here to help clean the tables.

 

One advantage of responding later in the report is we can chat about stuff that most cruisers don’t care to read and it doesn’t take up your valuable time during the cruise to respond while you are on the ship.

 

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the RCI ship numbering convention either.  They use X1XX to X3XX on the port side and then X5XX to X7XX on the starboard side.  It becomes really confusing when you have interior cabins where if it's on the port side, it's X3XX, and X7XX if on the starboard side.

 

For example, here you have the interior cabins 8305 and 8303 on the port side, and "logically" you would think the next one after that would be 8301?  Of course not.  The next one is 8703 and then 8705 as RCI now considers these cabins to the on the starboard half of the ship so the numbers need to be in the X7XX sequence. 

 

Good luck finding your cabin on the first night after you have had your 15th drink on the drinks package...

 

 

 

 

 

I much prefer the Princess numbering system where the starboard side is an odd number and the port side is an even number. 

 

Here's the Majestic Princess deck plan that we sailed on to Alaska.  Much simpler numbering system:

 

 

 

In addition, Princess ships have a different color scheme for the carpet where one side is red and the other side is blue so as soon as I walk out of the elevator, I just look for the color of the carpet and can easily tell if I am on the correct side of the ship.   Unless someone was totally plastered from the 15 drinks/day drinks package, in theory, most people could tell the difference between red and blue…

 

 

As I said, most people don't care about this stuff unless they are 9.2 on the anal scale like yours truly...🤪

 

[harryfat1]

On 5/25/2024 at 1:03 PM, KmomChicago said:

Now that the cruise is a full day in the rear view mirror, but while it is all still fresh, a few thoughts on the overall experience. 

 

First up: The Itinerary - because that was the foundation choice for this voyage, the first decision made.

 

The Alaska scenery really is, most definitely, worth seeing yourself. I am extremely fortunate to have travelled a lot and seen a lot of the USA and a good sample of the rest of the planet.  The Alaska coastal region that I viewed on this trip, is easily among the most beautiful terrain I have ever seen anywhere. For me its only rivals have been the Big Island of Hawaii and Machu Picchu in Peru. 

 

For me, the shorter voyage just partway up Southeast Alaska was "enough."  Fully understanding that there is A LOT more Alaska up there. I think for sure a younger Kmom at a much different point in life would have preferred a one way voyage with additional land days before or after closer to Anchorage. 

 

This sailing was probably the last one, or at most, second to last, before the K-12 crowd takes over for summer high season, and a massive proportion of the fellow cruisers were couple in the middle-age to retired bracket. I would assume that for many of them, this easy look at Alaska is enough to satisfy the urge.

Thanks for doing a live cruise report.  I tip my hat to you and anyone else able to do one.  Not everyone appreciates the time and effort it takes to put together a trip report.

 

I know you said you have no immediate plans to go back to Alaska.  I understand that as we only go back once every 10 years or so.  But if you ever want to go back again, I highly recommend the one way route with either Princess or HAL or NCL as they go to Glacier Bay National Park where you spend an entire day there with the Park Ranger coming on board to guide you throughout the day.

 

If you prefer just RCI/Carnival ships, then at least do the Radiance of the Seas as they go to Hubbard Glacier.  Princess/HAL sails to both the Glacier Bay and the Hubbard Glacier on their one-way sailings and if you like glaciers, you need to check out those one-way sailings starting/ending in Vancouver.

 

Hubbard Glacier:

 

 

 

 

Glacier Bay:

 

 

 

 

US National Park Rangers come onto the ship for 9 hours to guide people through the park and set up shop on the ship to answer questions/sell merchandise

 

 

[niksmom630]

Thanks for the LIVE report!  we are boarding Ovation on Friday, so your timing was impeccable!☺️

 

 

 

 

[KmomChicago]

1 hour ago, harryfat1 said:

As I’m late to the second half of the report (virtual party), I guess I am here to help clean the tables.

 

One advantage of responding later in the report is we can chat about stuff that most cruisers don’t care to read and it doesn’t take up your valuable time during the cruise to respond while you are on the ship.

 

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the RCI ship numbering convention either.  They use X1XX to X3XX on the port side and then X5XX to X7XX on the starboard side.  It becomes really confusing when you have interior cabins where if it's on the port side, it's X3XX, and X7XX if on the starboard side.

 

For example, here you have the interior cabins 8305 and 8303 on the port side, and "logically" you would think the next one after that would be 8301?  Of course not.  The next one is 8703 and then 8705 as RCI now considers these cabins to the on the starboard half of the ship so the numbers need to be in the X7XX sequence. 

 

Good luck finding your cabin on the first night after you have had your 15th drink on the drinks package...

 

 

 

 

 

I much prefer the Princess numbering system where the starboard side is an odd number and the port side is an even number. 

 

Here's the Majestic Princess deck plan that we sailed on to Alaska.  Much simpler numbering system:

 

 

 

In addition, Princess ships have a different color scheme for the carpet where one side is red and the other side is blue so as soon as I walk out of the elevator, I just look for the color of the carpet and can easily tell if I am on the correct side of the ship.   Unless someone was totally plastered from the 15 drinks/day drinks package, in theory, most people could tell the difference between red and blue…

 

 

As I said, most people don't care about this stuff unless they are 9.2 on the anal scale like yours truly...🤪

 

Thanks @harryfat1. I do find this as interesting as you do. I agree it is extremely confusing and just WHY? 
 

If I am not mistaken, Carnival numbering is the same as Princess though I have never noticed a carpet correlation. 
 

When I sailed Oasis our interior was in a central corridor off the forward elevators so we never needed to even go into the port or starboard cabin hallways.

 

Our Jr. suites on Adventure were likewise just off the aft elevators and somehow I was easily oriented on that ship from the start and the rooms were right where we expected so if we had this crazy number system I never noticed it.

Our insides on this Ovation sailing were 9233 and 9633. Maybe that is because we were midship rather than aft? I wonder if forward insides are X1XX and X5XX?

 

Eventually you can learn the logic but I still don’t see how it’s better than the Princess system.

[KmomChicago]

1 hour ago, harryfat1 said:

Thanks for doing a live cruise report.  I tip my hat to you and anyone else able to do one.  Not everyone appreciates the time and effort it takes to put together a trip report.

 

I know you said you have no immediate plans to go back to Alaska.  I understand that as we only go back once every 10 years or so.  But if you ever want to go back again, I highly recommend the one way route with either Princess or HAL or NCL as they go to Glacier Bay National Park where you spend an entire day there with the Park Ranger coming on board to guide you throughout the day.

 

If you prefer just RCI/Carnival ships, then at least do the Radiance of the Seas as they go to Hubbard Glacier.  Princess/HAL sails to both the Glacier Bay and the Hubbard Glacier on their one-way sailings and if you like glaciers, you need to check out those one-way sailings starting/ending in Vancouver.

 

Hubbard Glacier:

 

 

 

 

Glacier Bay:

 

 

 

 

US National Park Rangers come onto the ship for 9 hours to guide people through the park and set up shop on the ship to answer questions/sell merchandise

 

 

 

Thanks for this. You never know. If someday I move to Portland (maybe it’s weird enough for me) or find myself in the Seattle / Vancouver area again, then I could see doing this. Alaska was gorgeous, no denying it. 
 

I would enjoy the additional park ranger programming. 
 

 

[KmomChicago]

On 5/27/2024 at 3:16 PM, A&L_Ont said:

@KmomChicago thanks for bringing us along.  I have enjoyed the journey. 

It was good to have you along; thanks for the kind words!

[KmomChicago]

21 hours ago, ski_mom said:

@KmomChicago thanks so much for the great live review.  Thanks for all of the personal responses and recommendations!  This is the first live review that I've followed along with as it was happening and it was so fun!

 

 

Thank you @ski_mom. I agree there is something fun about being able to chat with the reviewer as it happens and follow them around the ship and ports in almost real time! 
 

In some cases your stock sure drops fast once you (the live reviewer) get off the ship, though! Everyone runs off to some other virtual dock to stowaway all over again!

[harryfat1]

4 minutes ago, KmomChicago said:

Thanks @harryfat1. I do find this as interesting as you do. I agree it is extremely confusing and just WHY? 
 

If I am not mistaken, Carnival numbering is the same as Princess though I have never noticed a carpet correlation. 
 

When I sailed Oasis our interior was in a central corridor off the forward elevators so we never needed to even go into the port or starboard cabin hallways.

 

Our Jr. suites on Adventure were likewise just off the aft elevators and somehow I was easily oriented on that ship from the start and the rooms were right where we expected so if we had this crazy number system I never noticed it.

Our insides on this Ovation sailing were 9233 and 9633. Maybe that is because we were midship rather than aft? I wonder if forward insides are X1XX and X5XX?

 

Eventually you can learn the logic but I still don’t see how it’s better than the Princess system.

Yes, as you go from the front of the ship to the Aft, the numbers get bigger.  So 9190 is toward the front of the ship and 9286 is toward the back.  That's easy as it's similar to the planes where row 35 on the plane is toward the back compared to row 15.

 

Your cabins of 9233 and 9633 are in the interesting location of a horizontal hallway.

 

9233 is being classified as being on the port side so hence the 2 number.  9633 is on the right side (starboard side) of the ship so it has the 6 number.  

 

The number convention is X1XX and X2XX and X3XX is on the port side and X5XX and X6XX and X7XX are on the starboard side.

 

It's been over 10 years since I sailed on Carnival so I don't know their carpeting system.  I will keep an eye out in December for the Carnival Jubilee.

 

I only know about the Princess carpet color from one of the trip reports before my sailing (interesting info you learn in reading other people's reports)

 

 

 

[link99]

6 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

As I’m late to the second half of the report (virtual party), I guess I am here to help clean the tables.

 

One advantage of responding later in the report is we can chat about stuff that most cruisers don’t care to read and it doesn’t take up your valuable time during the cruise to respond while you are on the ship.

 

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the RCI ship numbering convention either.  They use X1XX to X3XX on the port side and then X5XX to X7XX on the starboard side.  It becomes really confusing when you have interior cabins where if it's on the port side, it's X3XX, and X7XX if on the starboard side.

 

For example, here you have the interior cabins 8305 and 8303 on the port side, and "logically" you would think the next one after that would be 8301?  Of course not.  The next one is 8703 and then 8705 as RCI now considers these cabins to the on the starboard half of the ship so the numbers need to be in the X7XX sequence. 

 

Good luck finding your cabin on the first night after you have had your 15th drink on the drinks package...

 

 

 

 

 

I much prefer the Princess numbering system where the starboard side is an odd number and the port side is an even number. 

 

Here's the Majestic Princess deck plan that we sailed on to Alaska.  Much simpler numbering system:

 

 

 

In addition, Princess ships have a different color scheme for the carpet where one side is red and the other side is blue so as soon as I walk out of the elevator, I just look for the color of the carpet and can easily tell if I am on the correct side of the ship.   Unless someone was totally plastered from the 15 drinks/day drinks package, in theory, most people could tell the difference between red and blue…

 

 

As I said, most people don't care about this stuff unless they are 9.2 on the anal scale like yours truly...🤪

 

When I have one too many beverages. I look for the art work into my hallway to help guide me.

[KmomChicago]

7 hours ago, link99 said:

When I have one too many beverages. I look for the art work into my hallway to help guide me.

[KmomChicago]

I know it seems crazy but I think they changed out the stairwell art closest to our room on the 2nd or 3rd night. I noticed and my teen said, you’re right, that’s not what was here yesterday. 
 

We couldn’t specifically remember what had been there, though. 

 

Still not sure whether we were imagining things or if maybe some ill fate met a painting necessitating a maintenance intervention. 

[KmomChicago]

[KmomChicago]

This is the Music Hall where a lot of trivia and other parlor game type activities take place. 

[LatinaInTexas]

Found some time to finish your review. Ughhhh going back to work was soooo hard. I love the way you write, it's very unique and interesting just like I imagine you are in real life. 

I'm glad I got to experience Alaska but wow did it wear me out both mentally and physically. I booked last November and it seemed I was always planning, researching, changing my mind, booking things, cancelling things right up the day before sailing.

Then all the physical activity from being on a big ship, getting up so early for excursions, the excursions themselves. We took 2-3 hour naps every day bundled up under the covers in our cold, dark dungeon, I love interiors.

I'm so glad my August cruise is on a smaller ship. I think it's time to start downsizing to ships more manageable to our old age and old age bodies lol.

Glad you decided to go on your cruise and take some time for yourself. Good to hear you still have a job! I know you have a lot going on and hoping for the very best possible outcomes for you.

[KmomChicago]

9 hours ago, LatinaInTexas said:

Found some time to finish your review. Ughhhh going back to work was soooo hard. I love the way you write, it's very unique and interesting just like I imagine you are in real life. 

I'm glad I got to experience Alaska but wow did it wear me out both mentally and physically. I booked last November and it seemed I was always planning, researching, changing my mind, booking things, cancelling things right up the day before sailing.

Then all the physical activity from being on a big ship, getting up so early for excursions, the excursions themselves. We took 2-3 hour naps every day bundled up under the covers in our cold, dark dungeon, I love interiors.

I'm so glad my August cruise is on a smaller ship. I think it's time to start downsizing to ships more manageable to our old age and old age bodies lol.

Glad you decided to go on your cruise and take some time for yourself. Good to hear you still have a job! I know you have a lot going on and hoping for the very best possible outcomes for you.

Thank you so much. I agree on all counts. I’m older now too. 57 is not really old nowadays but it’s not 30 either. 
 

I’m not very food motivated anymore so the wide dining options of a bigger ship are not that big a deal. Just 5 years ago I would have had some Fish and Ships even though I don’t love fried fish, just because it was there and a free walk up venue. This time I couldn’t be bothered. 
 

Same with other amenities. We didn’t mess with iFly, rock climbing wall, flow rider, the pub, all the little nightclubs. I guess I am asking why I thought we prefer the huge new ships since we don’t use most of the offerings anyway. 
 

Likewise I agree with early excursions. White Pass was the only one we did early and having to be on a schedule made it feel like work. It was worth it but we could have booked a later time.