Free activities on Ovation of the Seas Alaska cruise?

[wrldtrvllr]

As others have said you don’t need to spend extra money on board. You can bring a six pack of soda per person, wine as mentioned earlier, use self discipline to only drink flavored water, water, ice tea, coffee that are included. Ice is readily available, there is a small fridge in the cabin and bringing a  yeti type cup helps with sodas brought from home.  Definitely book ifly and North Star as soon as on board for port days when free (before or after you get off ship). We plan our meals around our port plans so we don’t have to buy food when off ship. One Ifly and North Star ride per person so if there is someone in party who won’t be doing ifly for instance, make a reservation for them on a different port day and then someone in party can use the slot to go a second time. 
 

someone mentioned the city bus in Juneau. We took a shuttle and then hiked around glacier area. Have also booked whale watching once we disembarked ship (vendors are set up outside port).   
 

for Skagway we hiked lower Dewey lake and YAKUTANIA POINT  
 

http://www.ajauntwithjoy.com/best-day-hikes-skagway-alaska/

 

in Ketchikan we walked around town and enjoyed seeing so many bald eagles everywhere…

[bhsolo]

For Victoria if you don't mind walking - get off the ship and make a left, walk to Fisherman's Wharf (cute area with house boats and boat food shacks - REALLY good and huge ice cream cone), then walk to Parliament House and the Royal BC Museum as I thought it was very pretty to look at and you are along the water. From there you could keep walking into Victoria itself - The Empress hotel, see the Fan Tan Alley which holds the record for narrowest street in Canada and is a central piece to Canada's oldest Chinatown, and then make your way and walk back. Could pick up an ice cream from the house boats on your way back.

 

Juneau was also a nice place to walk around the town and take it all in. If you want to splurge maybe the Crab Shack and split something.

 

Couple of tips - When I was on Ovation the Solarium Bistro had cereal boxes - take a couple of those for a snack off the ship. No fruit can be taken off but since the cereal boxes are sealed that's ok. Also, bring large refillable water bottles for every one and fill them up around the ship and before getting off at any port. 

If you are at a port in the morning, make it a relaxing morning on the ship, have lunch and then start walking around (or do a late breakfast/brunch). Just remember to be on ship time to give yourself enough time to get back.

[TravelGirlinDallas]

On my last Alaskan cruise, we often returned to the ship to eat "free" (already paid for) lunch, then disembarked again afterward to continue sightseeing. 

[SeekingKillerWhales!]

On 3/20/2022 at 2:57 PM, jlederma said:

1st time cruiser here. Long story short, parent is turning 70 and taking the family on a cruise to Alaska. I (child) am attending with my spouse and three kids. This "free" trip is turning into not so free and our budget doesn't have room for this.  My kids are 9, 14 & 16 and we will be on the cruise in August.  What activities are there on the ship for them and for the adults which come at no additional cost?

 

Also, I saw a recent review which indicated that RC isn't allowing passengers off the ship unless they are booked on an excursion.

Hi jlederma:

 

I think the not getting off without an excursion was at one port - Bahamas maybe? It is definitely not all or even a few ports.

 

If you are on the trip on August 26th - see ya on board! And if you haven't be sure to say hi in your roll call. Maybe you'll meet another family and you can tour the ports together/plan activities. The stops in Alaska are just great for hiking through town and up into the hills. (Ketchikan is my favorite, but the cruise on the 26th doesn't go there unfortunately.)

Also, since you are budgeting, either tell the kids to earn their own souvenir money, or give them a budget - i.e. $25 and when it's gone it's gone. When I took my niece and nephew to Disney World for a week they had that rule (but also that we would go back to any park on the last day), and of course, they wanted something in every park. They did buy the last things they saw (they were 8 and 11), but at least they had the power of knowing this money was their for whatever they wanted, and I didn't have to hear any whining for stuff. 🙂

 

Have fun!

 

Susan 

[reallyitsmema]

On 3/22/2022 at 8:49 AM, jlederma said:

Where did you get the self tours?  Are they available online?

 

We found did a couple days DIY before our cruisetour and cruise on our 2018 sailing on Radiance and found this website to be very helpful.  We had rented a car in Anchorage and drove down Turnagin Arm and this website was awesome!  It has lots of information for your ports.

 

https://www.alaska.org/