From September 22 through 29 my wife Elaine and I went on an ocean cruise from Seattle to Alaska on the Royal Caribbean ship Ovation of the Seas, shown above in a pair of images. It was my first cruise, and one item on my bucket list. She had been on one cruise back in the 80s. Before choosing we read books from the public library and watched YouTube videos. We bought and took along the tenth (2022) edition of Anne Vipond’s book Alaska by Cruise Ship. We downloaded the Royal Caribbean App for our iPhones, and did the online check in. The Royal Caribbean Blog has an 18-minute YouTube video titled Boarding Day Cruise Ship Tips for 2023. There also is a detailed 51-minute YouTube video titled Ovation of the Seas 2023 Cruise Ship Tour.
On September 22 we flew from Boise to Seattle, arriving at 9:40 AM, and then took a shuttle bus from SeaTac to Pier 99. There we tagged our luggage, and boarded the ship which departed at 4:00 PM. On September 23 we were at sea, and changed time zones to Alaskan Time. Then we entered the Alaska Inside Passage on September 24. At 1:00 PM on September 24 we docked in Juneau, and departed at 11:00 PM heading to Skagway. On September 25 at 7:00 AM we arrived in Skagway, which we departed at 5:30 PM. We arrived in Sitka on September 26 at 8:00 AM and departed at 5:00 PM. We were cruising at sea on September 27. We arrived at Victoria, British Columbia on September 28 at 11:00 AM and departed for Seattle at 11:00 PM. On Friday September 29 we arrived in Seattle at 6:00 AM. We left the ship at 8:40 AM, collected our luggage at the pier, and then took a shuttle bus to SeaTac. We flew back to Boise departing at 12:20 PM.
Airplane flights begin with a safety briefing. On a cruise there is a muster drill. We watched the briefing on the phone app. After we boarded the ship, we proceeded to our muster station which completed the drill.
Ovation of the Seas is enormous. That ship is 1142 feet long, 135 ft wide, and has a draft of 28 feet. It has diesel-electric propulsion with two stern propellors and four bow thrusters for maneuvering in port. There are fifteen passenger decks, accessed by multiple elevators and stairs. At double occupancy per stateroom it has a capacity of 4180 passengers. A YouTube video titled The Truth About Cruises: Kathleen Madigan humorously compared a cruise ship with the Bellagio resort hotel in Las Vagas. The Bellagio actually has 36 stories and 3933 rooms, so it’s about twice the size of Ovation of the Seas.
Our modest stateroom on the starboard side of deck three was like a small hotel room with two closets (one with a safe) and one window. There was a bathroom with a shower, a bed, a couch, a desk, and a dresser (with a small refrigerator at the left). Our emptied rolling suitcases were stored under the bed.
Each passenger gets a SeaPass magnetic card. It is used to unlock the stateroom door. To save energy, one card has to be inserted in a slot next to the stateroom door in order for the lights to activate. The room number plaque outside had a schematic of the ship reminding us which directions on the corridor are fore and aft.
There was a large flat screen TV. During the day one channel shows the view looking forward from the bridge. (At night it shows an interior view with people visiting stores). Another channel alternated between the bridge view and map views showing ship speed, wind speed, position, distance traveled, temperature, pressure, and humidity. There were channels about the ship, three news channels (BBC, Fox, MSNBC), and several sports and entertainment channels. A nautical mile is 1.1508 statute miles – so the 19.4 knots shown on the screen is 22.3 mph.
Before entering a port, the ship picks up a harbor pilot. As we headed towards Victoria, I was looking out the window and got the two images shown above of the pilot boat coming alongside and then passing us.
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