Ovation Alaska - Who wants details?

[Sunny AZ Girl]

We had an excellent 11 night cruise on the Ovation to Alaska!  Great ship, good weather, and wonderful itinerary.  If it wasn't for the way our vacation ended I would say it was perfect!

 

We have enjoyed the post cruise excursions in the past though the ship as a convenient and enjoyable way to spend some time and see a little bit of our disembarkment city on a day we are flying out the same day and have a later flight.  We chose this option on our Ovation cruise yesterday with the Grand Seattle City Tour with Airport Drop Off.  We are experienced cruisers (D+ on RCI and also have cruised other lines).  We usually do private tours, many of which I have organized for groups.  But, when convenience and circumstances are right we will do an occasional ship tour.  This was our only ship tour on this cruise.   

 

Let me start out by saying that our tour was composed of two buses.  We got separated from some friends of our when getting on the bus and we ended up in two different buses.  Their experience was completely different than ours.  They had an excellent tour.

 

Our driver introduced himself as a "driver" and that is all he was. Not a tour guide, although his hat and jacket said Argosy Tours.     No commentary at all.  We had no idea of where we were going or what we were passing.   We were joking that he could be kidnapping us for all we knew   We were supposed to go to the iconic Space Needle.  We went to an Observation Tower that was higher up, but not the Space Needle.  We did not know where we were .  He just opened the door and said to be back in an hour.  I still could not tell you anything about the building.   Someone from the building gave us tickets and told us to take an elevator up.  That was the essence of that experience.  Great views of the city, though.  At Pike's Market we parked a couple of blocks away and  he pointed us in the direction of the market and told us to be back in an hour.  Not nearly long enough for that.  

 

After the Market we were driving to the Starbucks Place. Again no commentary, so I can't tell you anything about it.  I am not sure if it was the Original Starbucks or another large facility.   As we were driving we heard a large thump and knew we hit something.  We were afraid it was a pedestrian.  Others on the other side of the bus said we sideswiped a school bus.  I wouldn't know as he didn't even slow down.  His comment was, "Don't worry.  These things happen sometimes" and kept driving.  When we got off the bus at Starbucks we noticed the passenger side mirror was broken and just hanging to the side.  

 

Wen we arrived back at the bus he said we had to wait to change buses as that one was damaged and could not be driven to the airport.  We waited so long that several couples got off the bus and called Uber so that they could get to the airport on time.  

 

I am calling RCI today.  

 

 

Edited May 25, 2019 by Sunny AZ Girl

[Jimbo]

1 hour ago, Sunny AZ Girl said:

We had an excellent 11 night cruise on the Ovation to Alaska!  Great ship, good weather, and wonderful itinerary.  If it wasn't for the way our vacation ended I would say it was perfect!

 

We have enjoyed the post cruise excursions in the past though the ship as a convenient and enjoyable way to spend some time and see a little bit of our disembarkment city on a day we are flying out the same day and have a later flight.  We chose this option on our Ovation cruise yesterday with the Grand Seattle City Tour with Airport Drop Off.  We are experienced cruisers (D+ on RCI and also have cruised other lines).  We usually do private tours, many of which I have organized for groups.  But, when convenience and circumstances are right we will do an occasional ship tour.  This was our only ship tour on this cruise.   

 

Let me start out by saying that our tour was composed of two buses.  We got separated from some friends of our when getting on the bus and we ended up in two different buses.  Their experience was completely different than ours.  They had an excellent tour.

 

Our driver introduced himself as a "driver" and that is all he was. Not a tour guide, although his hat and jacket said Argosy Tours.     No commentary at all.  We had no idea of where we were going or what we were passing.   We were joking that he could be kidnapping us for all we knew   We were supposed to go to the iconic Space Needle.  We went to an Observation Tower that was higher up, but not the Space Needle.  We did not know where we were .  He just opened the door and said to be back in an hour.  I still could not tell you anything about the building.   Someone from the building gave us tickets and told us to take an elevator up.  That was the essence of that experience.  Great views of the city, though.  At Pike's Market we parked a couple of blocks away and  he pointed us in the direction of the market and told us to be back in an hour.  Not nearly long enough for that.  

 

After the Market we were driving to the Starbucks Place. Again no commentary, so I can't tell you anything about it.  I am not sure if it was the Original Starbucks or another large facility.   As we were driving we heard a large thump and knew we hit something.  We were afraid it was a pedestrian.  Others on the other side of the bus said we sideswiped a school bus.  I wouldn't know as he didn't even slow down.  His comment was, "Don't worry.  These things happen sometimes" and kept driving.  When we got off the bus at Starbucks we noticed the passenger side mirror was broken and just hanging to the side.  

 

Wen we arrived back at the bus he said we had to wait to change buses as that one was damaged and could not be driven to the airport.  We waited so long that several couples got off the bus and called Uber so that they could get to the airport on time.  

 

I am calling RCI today.  

 

 

Ginny,

The bus driver took you to the Columbia Center, its the tallest building west of the Mississippi. You had a much better view from 73 floors up. It's much higher then the Space Needle. Also it is less crowded then the Space Needle. On a Friday it would have been packed and you would have had to wait in line to go up it.

 

You were 900 ft up in the Columbia Center.

https://www.seattlesouthside.com/listing/columbia-center-sky-view-observatory/1604/ 

 

If he had taken you to the Space Needle you may have never even had time to stop at Pike's Market.

Edited May 25, 2019 by Jimbo

[Sunny AZ Girl]

15 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Ginny,

The bus driver took you to the Columbia Center, its the tallest building west of the Mississippi. You had a much better view from 73 floors up. It's much higher then the Space Needle. Also it is less crowded then the Space Needle. On a Friday it would have been packed and you would have had to wait in line to go up it.

 

You were 900 ft up in the Columbia Center.

https://www.seattlesouthside.com/listing/columbia-center-sky-view-observatory/1604/ 

 

If he had taken you to the Space Needle you may have never even had time to stop at Pike's Market.

Good to know.  An explanation at the time would have been nice.  You just told me in your short post a lot more than what the driver told us.  He just pulled, told us it was our stop, be back in an hour.  He would not wait.  We had no idea of where we were or what we were supposed to do there until the guy from the building came to the bus and gave us tickets.

Edited May 25, 2019 by Sunny AZ Girl

[Jimbo]

5 minutes ago, Sunny AZ Girl said:

Good to know.  An explanation at the time would have been nice.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Seattle

[Jimbo]

15 minutes ago, Sunny AZ Girl said:

Good to know.  An explanation at the time would have been nice.  You just told me in your short post a lot more than what the driver told us.  He just pulled, told us it was our stop, be back in an hour.  He would not wait.  We had no idea of where we were or what we were supposed to do there until the guy from the building came to the bus and gave us tickets.

It was back in 2017 when we were in that building, I believe there was also like a food court in there down stairs if I remember right besides the food you could purchase up on the 73rd floor...........An hour though isn't much time to explore.  Seattle was a port stop for us there(had a private tour guide that took my wife and I around Seattle), on the first of our B2B cruises.............Pacific Nortwest(San Diego to Vancouver), followed by an Alaska Cruise(Vancouver to Vancouver) 18 night's total.

 

Our tour guy dropped us off and Pikes Market aat the  end of the tour and from there we just walked back to the ship, it is very close where we docked at. They have beautiful flower's there that are very cheap, we even bought a vase of flowers and took them back to the ship that lasted through the second cruise. My wife still talk's about the place and all the flowers they had there. This was in May too, no idea where all the different kinds come from that time of year but they had lot's of kinds.

Edited May 25, 2019 by Jimbo

[Sunny AZ Girl]

1 minute ago, Jimbo said:

It was back in 2017 when we were in that building, I believe there was also like a food court in there down stairs if I remember right besides the food you could purchase up on the 73rd floor...........An hour though isn't much time to explore.  Seattle was a port stop for us there, on the first of our B2B cruises.............Pacific Nortwest(San Diego to Vancouver), followed by an Alaska Cruise(Vancouver to Vancouver) 18 night's total.

Yes, there was a food court.  Actually,a half hour or 45 minutes at that stop would have been plenty as we had time to have coffee and a snack before the bus returned.  You are right about the wait.  We had no wait to get to the top of the tower.  The views were great.  But, an explanation of what we were doing and what to expect would have been nice, along with a little history of the building.  We didn't get any of that.  The other bus did.  It was not the tour problem as much as it was a guide/driver problem.  For what we paid I am sure they could have afforded to have both a driver and a guide if it wasn't safe for the driver to act as both.  As it was, he couldn't drive safely even without talking, apparently.😫

[Sunny AZ Girl]

33 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

It was back in 2017 when we were in that building, I believe there was also like a food court in there down stairs if I remember right besides the food you could purchase up on the 73rd floor...........An hour though isn't much time to explore.  Seattle was a port stop for us there(had a private tour guide that took my wife and I around Seattle), on the first of our B2B cruises.............Pacific Nortwest(San Diego to Vancouver), followed by an Alaska Cruise(Vancouver to Vancouver) 18 night's total.

 

Our tour guy dropped us off and Pikes Market aat the  end of the tour and from there we just walked back to the ship, it is very close where we docked at. They have beautiful flower's there that are very cheap, we even bought a vase of flowers and took them back to the ship that lasted through the second cruise. My wife still talk's about the place and all the flowers they had there. This was in May too, no idea where all the different kinds come from that time of year but they had lot's of kinds.

Yes, a ton of beautiful flowers!  Since we were flying home we couldn't buy any.  I did get a few small gifts for family.  I had been there years ago and wanted to see the seafood area, s we made our way there quickly.   We snapped a few quick photos, bought some smoked salmon for my bother and then had to head back to meet the bus.  

[frank808]

On 5/24/2019 at 12:07 PM, AlanF65 said:

If you are going to the airport the taxi wait time was horrible today. I got my luggage about 955 and was at the airport about 1210

Either walk off with your luggage, use port valet, arrange a shuttle or hoof it or shuttle to uber area. Not sure how well that worked this morning.

 

If you need a wheel chair allow for plenty of time, RCI had 6 for over 120 passengers according to a family checking in at the airport at the same time as me.

A

 

A

 

 

Sailed on explorer and this is the worst port I have ever sailed out of.  I can only imagine what it will be like with more passengers on Ovation.  Will be boarding on July 5th so will see if the port authorities have gotten better with handling he crowds.  

Edited May 25, 2019 by frank808

[KimA75]

I am curious about where you can get milkshakes with the refreshment package if there isn't a Johnny Rockets.  I've only been on cruises that have that venue, so I haven't ever looked anywhere else for them.

[cft8]

Another thing that just occured to me because I am working on a newsletter for our group - are SeaPass cards distributed at check-in, or are they at the cabins? I wrote that they would be in the cabins, as they are on Anthem, but I realized it might be port-specific and not ship-class-specific.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

1 hour ago, cft8 said:

Another thing that just occured to me because I am working on a newsletter for our group - are SeaPass cards distributed at check-in, or are they at the cabins? I wrote that they would be in the cabins, as they are on Anthem, but I realized it might be port-specific and not ship-class-specific.

Yes. They are at your cabins.  The door was wide open when we arrived and our SeaPass cards in the message holder outside the cabin.  Once people arrived at the cabin the they would shut the door and it is officially "theirs"!

[Annicruise2014]

37 minutes ago, Sunny AZ Girl said:

Yes. They are at your cabins.  The door was wide open when we arrived and our SeaPass cards in the message holder outside the cabin.  Once people arrived at the cabin the they would shut the door and it is officially "theirs"!

Might be a silly question, I don't know...… If you get a drink package, are the cups in your room like other sailings? What about pre purchased items that are delivered to your room?

 

If the door is wide open, is the room steward there to welcome you and make sure it's your cabin so things aren't stolen?

🤷‍♀️

[Sunny AZ Girl]

3 minutes ago, Annicruise2014 said:

Might be a silly question, I don't know...… If you get a drink package, are the cups in your room like other sailings? What about pre purchased items that are delivered to your room?

 

If the door is wide open, is the room steward there to welcome you and make sure it's your cabin so things aren't stolen?

🤷‍♀️

We did not have a drink package, so I am not sure how that works.

 

I don't see the problem with the door open.  You haven't put anything in your cabin yet.  If something is missing from your pre-purchased items you report it and it will be replaced.  Our excursion tickets and Diamond letter/cookies were in there for us.  The cabin stewards are working in their assigned areas at that time. but not necessarily standing guard at your cabin.  Cabins are available at 1 PM, but I saw several in our area that were not  occupied until much later.  

[Toeknee498]

I would love to know more about the excursions in Juneau (more so than what is stated in the descriptions on RCCL).  I'm especially interested in the Brown Bear and Wildlife Search by Floatplane.

[buymeanapple]

I'd like to know how The Key works on the Ovation Alaska sailings if anyone has any additional info on that.

[AlanF65]

On 5/28/2019 at 10:59 AM, Annicruise2014 said:

Might be a silly question, I don't know...… If you get a drink package, are the cups in your room like other sailings? What about pre purchased items that are delivered to your room?

 

If the door is wide open, is the room steward there to welcome you and make sure it's your cabin so things aren't stolen?

🤷‍♀️

I had the refreshment package and the cup was in the room, both when I arrived and I left. I didn't find the freestanding machines in Sorentos until the last day and didn't want to drag a cup around the ship with me so just went to bars and go what I wanted.

 

[frank808]

On 5/9/2019 at 3:53 PM, KimA75 said:

How far ahead was iFly available?  We are August 30 also, and I check daily, but haven’t seen this yet.

For the July 5th cruise Ifly and Northstar opened up May 28 or 29 for bookings online.

[Annicruise2014]

22 hours ago, AlanF65 said:

I had the refreshment package and the cup was in the room, both when I arrived and I left. I didn't find the freestanding machines in Sorentos until the last day and didn't want to drag a cup around the ship with me so just went to bars and go what I wanted.

 

DH doesn't like to carry them around either so that is what he did.  Good to know they are by Sorentos, thanks.

[Annicruise2014]

 I want to try and plan a scavenger hunt for my group.  What are some things we can "LOOK" for that maybe are or are not this ship specific.   

 

A painting with a _________.

A    (color)   chair

A specific animal (I know the big panda, but what else)

A statue

 

Thanks,

[cottonballs99]

Briehon - are you back yet? Wondering how the cruise went and things you learned/would do differently, etc.

 

Do you have a cruise compass you could share? I have read the 11 day but am curious as to how it will change for the 7 day.

 

How was disembarkation in Seattle? Previous cruisers talked about the long taxi lines.  Did you see any improvement with this?

 

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

[Hoopster95]

On 5/31/2019 at 12:10 PM, Annicruise2014 said:

 I want to try and plan a scavenger hunt for my group.  What are some things we can "LOOK" for that maybe are or are not this ship specific.   

 

A painting with a _________.

A    (color)   chair

A specific animal (I know the big panda, but what else)

A statue

 

Thanks,

 

Just remembered this post from a few days ago as I wanted to come back to it....  thought I'd mention a few things that come to mind:

 

A big red chair

A big silver chair

An octopus

A red statue

A silver statue

a ship "steering wheel"

A Foosball table

a pool table

A large gold pointing hand

A gold map of the USA

A cigar

A big "acorn" chaise for two people

A flag pole

A wall clock

A start/finish line

Butterflies that float away when you touch them
fresh baked hot cookies

a library book

knee pads

 

That's it for now. Probably keep you all busy for a while! 😈 

 

[Annicruise2014]

11 hours ago, Hoopster95 said:

 

Just remembered this post from a few days ago as I wanted to come back to it....  thought I'd mention a few things that come to mind:

 

A big red chair

A big silver chair

An octopus

A red statue

A silver statue

a ship "steering wheel"

A Foosball table

a pool table

A large gold pointing hand

A gold map of the USA

A cigar

A big "acorn" chaise for two people

A flag pole

A wall clock

A start/finish line

Butterflies that float away when you touch them
fresh baked hot cookies

a library book

knee pads

 

That's it for now. Probably keep you all busy for a while! 😈 

 

Yes, exactly what I was looking for.  Not that I need an excuse to explore the ship but this will be fun I can already tell.  Thanks so much!!

[Annicruise2014]

Also thanks to everyone for there replies to my questions.  I really do appreciate it.

[Carlos A.]

On 6/2/2019 at 6:04 AM, cottonballs99 said:

Briehon - are you back yet? Wondering how the cruise went and things you learned/would do differently, etc.

 

Do you have a cruise compass you could share? I have read the 11 day but am curious as to how it will change for the 7 day.

 

How was disembarkation in Seattle? Previous cruisers talked about the long taxi lines.  Did you see any improvement with this?

 

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Same here!

Greetings!

[Mallow]

15 hours ago, Hoopster95 said:

 

Just remembered this post from a few days ago as I wanted to come back to it....  thought I'd mention a few things that come to mind:

 

A big red chair

A big silver chair

An octopus

A red statue

A silver statue

a ship "steering wheel"

A Foosball table

a pool table

A large gold pointing hand

A gold map of the USA

A cigar

A big "acorn" chaise for two people

A flag pole

A wall clock

A start/finish line

Butterflies that float away when you touch them
fresh baked hot cookies

a library book

knee pads

 

That's it for now. Probably keep you all busy for a while! 😈 

 

I really appreciate the list, We always try to find ways to keep my son and his friend (both 15) exploring the ship during sea days.