Ovation of the Seas Review
4.5 / 5.0
025930
10+ Cruises • Age 40s
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Sail Date: May 2022
Cabin: Ocean View Balcony
We had an amazing time on the ship and in Alaska, but Royal was more in the way of making that happen then helping make it happen.
This is an amazing ship with great potential, but Royal vastly understaffed it. I understand it’s hard to find employees right now, but they should have scaled back the passengers if that was the case. There were incredible long waits for food everywhere because on half the venues were open. For breakfast they only had 1 of 4 MDR open which led to hour+ waits. We tried to get breakfast delivered to the room 3 times, and it never showed any of the times. There once was a 2 hour wait for hotdogs because it was the only place for food open on the ship. We stopped going to the MDR for dinner after the 2nd night because it took 2+ hours to get food. It was crazy. This was our 5th sailing since the restart and we had never seen anything like this. The ship was at about 75% capacity for passengers, and I would guess 40% for crew.
There was pretty much no entertainment. There was one comedian, and 2 showings of Showgirls. That’s it. I love Royal for their entertainment, and it was just abandoned on this cruise.
Cabin Review
Ocean View Balcony
We upgraded using the Royal-Up program from an inside room to the Balcony and it was worth every penny on the Alaskan cruise. Alaska is just stunning. The room was very well laid out with tons of storage. My wife and I loved that there was a his and her's closets. The shower was very roomy.
Port Reviews
Juneau
FYI, if you go in May and take the tram up Mount Roberts there will be so much snow all of the trails will be closed. I don't recommend doing the tram until June. Of course they don't tell you at when they sell you the tickets.
Ketchikan
The crab place right off the pier was a surprise hit, and the beer was pretty cheap!
Seattle
The only thing we did in Seattle was go from the ship to the airport, but OMG this is the worst port to disembark from. This port was not designed for hundreds of people let alone thousands. I'm only going to go in and out of Vancouver from now on.
Sitka
This was our favorite stop. It took awhile to get on the shuttle to the town, but the town has so much to see and do and is very walkable.
Vancouver
Vancouver is such a great city. So much to do and see. You need to spend a couple days here before the cruise. It's also so easy to get around on the trains.
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