twangster

Welcome to the message boards! Pixels is the only bookable show on Ovation. All main theater entertainment is first come, first seated.

Nice setup!

Finally the 2019 Alaska cruise season is beginning and so has the single digit dance! Looking back I always put off an Alaska cruise despite all the good things I heard over and again. Now I can't get enough. This will be my fourth cruise to Alaska and hopefully it will not be my last. Why did I wait so long to cruise to Alaska? Itinerary Day Port of Call Arrive Depart 1 Vancouver 5pm 2 At Sea 3 At Sea 4 Icy Strait Point (ISP) 9am 8pm 5 Sitka 7am 6pm 6 Hubbard Glacier 8am 11am 7 Juneau 7am 9pm 8 Skagway 7am 8:30pm 9 Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier 7am 12pm 10 At Sea 11 At Sea 12 Seattle 6am source: CruiseCharts.com The Ship This is a special cruise in many ways. This will be Ovation's first cruise to Alaska and the first time a Quantum class ship visits Alaska. It will be the largest cruise ship ever to visit Alaska edging out the NCL Bliss by a small margin. It's a repositioning itinerary unique for this season, starting in Vancouver and ending in Seattle. There are two glaciers on the itinerary, Hubbard and Dawes. The itinerary includes two ports not normally on Royal itineraries from the South - Sitka and Icy Straight Point. It's eleven nights compared to the normal 7 night Alaska cruise. This will be the earliest in the Alaska cruise season for me, beating out my previous early Alaska season cruise by several weeks. Hubbard Glacier is pretty far North and it's not normally on Seattle based itineraries. Sitka is infrequently on Royal itineraries. Icy Strait Point is a favorite port for me and usually only found on Royal's North or South one-way Alaska itineraries. When considering any Alaska cruise paying attention to the times in port is important and Royal has planned some awesome times in each port on this itinerary. Ovation is a "cold weather" ship which should pair very well with Alaska. The ample sized indoor pool will be great for families leaving the beautiful Solarium for adults to enjoy the sweeping views forward as we sail the Alaskan inside passages. Combined with the sweeping views aft from Two70° and this is shaping up to be a fantastic Alaska cruise experience. Pre-Cruise Plans I fly to Vancouver with a connection in Salt Lake City arriving noon the day before the cruise departs Vancouver. I found a nice but inexpensive hotel near the airport with a free airport shuttle. Vancouver features a train system that will allow me to reach downtown pretty easily while saving substantially by not staying downtown. Once settled I plan to visit downtown and may even head out to the Lion's Gate Bridge Sunday evening to watch Ovation arrive being the largest cruise ship ever to visit Vancouver harbor. Cabin I normally scale back my cabin to Alaska so I can splurge on excursions but Ovation changes the math. Quantum class ships have a much higher balcony cabin count relative to interior or ocean view cabins. Because of the balcony cabin ratio on Ovation the marginal price difference to book a balcony was small enough to motivate me to spend a few extra hundred dollars and book a balcony plus it's eleven nights. In years past an interior cabin was less than half the price of a balcony so the savings basically paid for the excursions. Consequently this year I am in a 2D ocean view balcony on deck 11 forward port side. On these ships I like being close to the pool deck so I can take the stairs and my cabin is a few steps to the elevator lobby. Specialty Dining None planned. My travel agent did throw in one specialty dinner so I'll probably visit Jamie's based on an Anthem cruise where I really enjoyed Jamie's over all the other options. Excursions To experience Alaska you need to get out of the ports and see Alaska. To this end I always plan a healthy Alaska excursion budget and this year's excursion budget approaches $900 per person. When I booked this cruise I grabbed a bunch of Royal excursions as place holders while I looked at all options. Several cruise planner sales occurred and I was able to save hundreds by cancelling and rebooking my excursions. With those price drops I couldn't find many cheaper options and all things being equal I always prefer booking excursion through Royal in case of itinerary changes. I did find one Viator excursion in Sitka that looked interesting so I booked it outside of Royal. Icy Strait Point (ISP) With Royal gaining access to Glacier Bay in future years I thought a fly over Glacier Bay National Park would be a great way to look forward to a future visit by ship. Going on a bear hunt to shoot pictures has always appealed to me in ISP so these are my two excursions for this day leaving lots of time to explore ISP on my own. Sitka The raptor center in Sitka sounded like a great way to see some birds including (hopefully) some Eagles. Throw in a nature walk and it sounded like a winner. Having hopefully seen bears by this point, I thought beers and bears sounded pretty good so I found this Viator option in Sitka. Juneau Visiting Juneau I have always watched the float planes coming and going but always found something else to do. So this year I am going to continue my small plane obsession and see some glaciers from the air in a SeaPlane. Skagway Glass blowing has always fascinated me and having done many of the other must do Skagway activities this year is going to blow. I figure what better way to find a keepsake memento from an Alaska cruise than on a glassblowing activity leaving me a lot of daylight to explore Skagway on my own. Internet I bought Voom Surf and Stream on sale for $11.99 per day. Given the 11 night duration this was more economical compared to buying it on board with my Crown and Anchor discount and waiting until day two. While Ovation uses the newest O3b satellite platform I'm not sure that is going to help North in Alaska where O3b has "limited services". source: www.ses.com/our-coverage A Royal O3b enabled ship has never ventured this far North into the limited services area so I'm not sure what to expect from Voom. If the ship switches to conventional satellite internet I know from past experiences that can be hit or miss at times while cruising Alaska. Consequently this may not be a live blog and I might have to finish and post pictures once home. With that the count down continues... more to come.

I've observed Next cruise seemingly adjust rates then making it up with OBC. Dealing with Next is like going to a car dealership. I walk away feeling icky and slimy.

Welcome to the message boards! So far Royal IQ is still the app for Anthem but that could change any time now.

Movies on Royal ships are typically the variety that have been available on a pay-per-view basis on home cable and satellite TV systems for a little while. If it's still in theaters it probably won't be on the ship.

Follow up with Royal by calling and challenging a charge on your account. It's not unusual for an incorrect towel charge to be applied to your account at the last minute since they wait until the cruise is over to see if a towel is returned. When that happens by mistake you can call after the cruise and challenge the charge. A incorrect spa charge is no different. If that doesn't work, call your credit card company and inquire with them if a challenge is appropriate. Tell them the truth - an unauthorized charge was applied and you would like to challenge a portion of the credit card charge.

Hibachi has not typically been a la carte so the $35 credit doesn't apply. It's a cover charge venue - pay the price and eat, just like Chops or Jamie's or Giovanni's or... If you are asking if Hibachi is included in the UDP, that will vary ship by ship, cruise by cruise based on bookings and availability. That is why Royal does not state it is included, it gives them flexibility to change and prioritize paid individual bookings for a particular cruise.

Since the Royal Up program was introduced it's logical that GTY assignments will take longer to post. As the ship books out they have the flexibility of upgrading some guests who placed bids which can free up cabins within the GTY category you booked. It's further complicated considering muster station capacity and ensuring they maximize muster capacity while accommodating all guests from solo cruisers to families. Keep in mind that just because they aren't advertising cabins on the website doesn't mean they don't have any unoccupied cabins in that category. Often accessible rooms are kept out of the general inventory in case someone who needs one requests it, but at a certain point they'll release them for any guest to occupy. There are other reasons to keep some cabins out of the sales inventory and then open them for GTY bookings closer to the cruise. This is expected when booking GTY cabins - you might not know right up to embarkation day.

Price changes are generally applied within a category of cabins based on availability. If there are surplus interior cabins while the suites are booking well, it's conceivable that interior cabins will drop in price while suites continue to increase in price. If the opposite was true, suites are not booking up while interior cabins are, it's conceivable that interior cabins will increase in price while suites decrease in price. This varies on a cruise by cruise basis so here is no single answer to your question - it depends. If you want to upgrade call the same organization who you booked with and ask them the cost to upgrade. If you booked direct, call Royal. If you booked through a travel agent call them.

Explorer is 1' wider than Ovation. The Suez Canal is more restrictive than the British Columbia portion of the inside passage. Ovation has "Inside passage" on the 7 night itineraries after us. It will be interesting to see what route we take. We may do the "inside passage" but in the dark so they aren't advertising it else people would complain.

The silver lining is that you are still here to ponder this "problem", the alternative is much worse. Take stock in being alive and don't let this stress you out. Here's to a speedy recovery.

There is a suite sun deck but no bar like Oasis. For sure check out the suite sun deck but move around at the glaciers and see them from different perspectives. iFly can be booked ahead of time in the cruise planner but unlike Anthem, North Star can only be booked on board. Bumper cars and rock climbing are not bookable, line up and wait like everyone else. The bridge and the inside passage are unrelated. The bridge height is a subject of debate in the community and there is talk of a future cruise terminal outside of the harbor to remove this obstacle as British Columbia and the greater Vancouver area seeks to gain further from the cruise industry. You have to be careful how you use the phrase "inside passage". It's a collective area covering several thousand miles of coastline. Sort of the "The Caribbean" is a reference to a region, not a specific route a ship would take. The inside passage is how we will reach places like Sitka, Juneau and Skagway. Virtually all of an Alaskan cruise involves traveling inside passages. http://www.alaskasinsidepassage.com/ In places only small ferries or boats can travel portions of certain waterways within the collective "inside passage". To that extent no modern cruise ship can sail in those smaller channels. In that respect even Empress can't sail all of the "inside passage".

CocoCay is not as likely to be impacted because Royal wants people there to spend money on their island and it's very close to Florida. Ports that are altered tend to be for logistical reasons such as it's impossible to reach all ports when a slower speed is forced upon them - the distance is too great.

That's fine when you and your spouse have always cruised together, always. You both have independently earned your status which is the same because your cruise history is identical. In your case there is no need to have Royal put you in a "relationship". That doesn't apply to some people who have cruised before marriage, such as when they cruised when they were kids and later as teens, and they may even be diamond or higher before getting married in their early twenties. They marry someone who hasn't cruised at all or as much. In this case, they can declare themselves in a relationship and Royal will grant the higher status to the spouse with the lower (or no) status. Going forward as they cruise together they can both enjoy the perks of the higher status even though only one has enough points to actually be there such as visiting the diamond lounge. Another circumstance is after a divorce/death and re-marriage.

You can browse Royal's website for excursion ideas, or try something like TripAdvisor. I plan on doing some hikes and summit type excursion, volcano plus a Molokini snorkel trip. No fly for diving should really be the last 24-36 hours which usually isn't too hard to accomodate when cruising. A hike to a waterfall, visiting the Volcanoes National Park on Hilo, sunset sailboat, helicopter ride over Kauai, etc. all depending on budget of course. Without knowing more about your activity level and areas of interest all I can suggest to review the lists of excursions and see if anything looks interesting. Oahu https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-to/honolulu-hawaii Maui https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-to/lahaina-maui Kauai https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-to/kauai-hawaii Kona https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-to/kailua-kona-hawaii Hilo https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-to/hilo-hawaii Cruising https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-to/mount-kilauea-hawaii https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-to/napali-coast-hawaii

It's listed for an August and September cruise...

Welcome to the message boards. All cruise contracts on all cruise lines have provisions that permit itinerary changes. Regardless who you cruise with, this is always a possibility. Keep that in mind when you book your next cruise on another cruise line.

Roughly 1.3 miles, slightly up hill going, downhill returning. Source: Google Maps Once there you'll likely see kids running around the field in front, flying kites, etc. On the left side of the map along the water's edge is a paved sidewalk that is a pleasant (but longer) walk VIA Paseo de la Princesa. This is my preferred route coming back. There is also San Cristóbal fort that is closer to the pier at roughly 1/2 mile. This is for ships visiting for the day. For ships that are home ported in San Juan they use another pier further away but that is only for ships that start the cruise in San Juan.

Welcome to the message boards! Drink package pricing is not a constant. It varies by a number of factors such as ship, cruise length, how many other guests have bought the package, sail date, region and other factors. When you buy it in advance you are able to cancel it for a full refund anytime up to ~3 days prior to sailing. Consequently the general wisdom is to buy it if you want it, then watch for sales. If it goes down in price, cancel for a refund and re-purchase at the lower price.

This post from Navigator contains menus: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/11143-navigator-mar-1-2019-9-nights-southern-caribbean/&do=findComment&comment=107857

San Juan was not 'wiped out' in the hurricanes. Make no mistake the impact was significant but it was far from being wiped out. I've been a number of times since it re-opened. It remains one of my favorite Caribbean ports. Fantastic history there that has survived countless hurricanes over several centuries. The forts there date back to the 1500's.

Bids are accepted in case a cabin opens up. In that event they know who they can upgrade and if they pick the right person, they can then sell that now empty cabin as an upgrade to the someone in a lower category. People cancel all the time, right up to the week of the cruise. With several thousand guests on board, life happens. If no one cancels, no upgrades.

If not the first, pretty close to being the first Oasis class.

I don't think Royal Up is a factor. Simple truth is they want more wallets and purses on board. A significant portion of revenue comes from onboard spending. Royal Up and people upgrading cabins introduces no new wallets and purses to spend money on board. Advertising cheap rates on the website for new bookings introduces new blood to spend more money on board.